Greedfall

Resolution Scaling

Greedfall's performance scaling across resolutions tells a clear story about where this combination's bottleneck lives. At 1080p Low, the Intel Core i5-14600K + AMD Radeon RX 570 combo delivers 73.2 FPS average. Dropping to 1440p Low reduces that to 53.1 FPS, a 27.5% decline. Pushing further to 4K Low yields just 28.5 FPS, another 46.3% cut from the 1440p figure. The pattern is textbook GPU-bound behavior: each resolution step roughly halves the pixel count, and the frame rate follows proportionally.

The High preset scaling confirms this. At 1080p High, the combo manages 53.8 FPS. At 1440p High, that falls to 33.5 FPS—a 37.7% drop. At 4K High, it collapses to 19.5 FPS, a 41.8% further decline. The consistent, steep degradation as resolution climbs indicates the RX 570's pixel throughput—not the CPU's processing power—is the limiting factor. The i5-14600K's 14 cores and 20 threads are more than sufficient for Greedfall's workload, evidenced by how well the combo holds at 1080p.

What's notable is the gap between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution. At 1080p, Ultra produces 32.2 FPS versus Low's 73.2 FPS—a 56% penalty. At 1440p, the Ultra-to-Low gap is 24 versus 53.1 FPS, a 54.8% penalty. At 4K, it's 13.3 versus 28.5 FPS, a 53.3% penalty. This consistent ~55% performance cost for maxing settings suggests the RX 570's 4 GB GDDR5 frame buffer and 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth are being saturated by Ultra's higher texture and shadow workloads, independent of resolution.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo maintain 60 FPS at 1080p in Greedfall?

A: Yes, but only on Low settings. The measured 1080p Low average is 73.2 FPS, which provides comfortable headroom above 60. At Medium, the average drops to 60.5 FPS—technically above 60 but with no margin for demanding scenes. High settings average 53.8 FPS, so a consistent 60 FPS on High is not achievable with this hardware.

Q: How does the RX 570's VRAM capacity affect Greedfall performance?

A: The GPU has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. The data shows Ultra settings impose a severe penalty at every resolution—32.2 FPS at 1080p Ultra versus 60.5 at Medium. This 46.8% performance drop between Medium and Ultra at 1080p suggests the 4 GB frame buffer is a limiting factor for Ultra's higher-resolution textures and effects.

Q: Is Greedfall more CPU-bound or GPU-bound for this pairing?

A: The resolution scaling data indicates GPU-bound behavior. The i5-14600K's benchmark scores—32,881 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 4,642 in single-core—show strong processing capability. If the CPU were the bottleneck, frame rates would stay flat across resolutions. Instead, FPS drops consistently as resolution rises, which is characteristic of GPU limitation.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Greedfall?

A: 1080p is the only resolution where playable frame rates are consistently achievable. At 1440p, only Low settings (53.1 FPS) approach 60, while Medium (39.4) and High (33.5) fall into less comfortable territory. 4K is not viable—even Low averages only 28.5 FPS.

Q: How does the i5-14600K compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i5-14600K posts an average benchmark score of 49,166, which is 0.2% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (49,062) and 1% ahead of the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48,698). It sits 0.4% behind the i5-14600KF (49,367) and 0.9% behind the AMD EPYC 4345P (49,595). This places it in the 93rd percentile among all CPUs.

Q: Does the RX 570's benchmark position align with its Greedfall performance?

A: The RX 570's average benchmark score of 30,158 puts it in the 74th percentile of all GPUs, with its nearest rival being the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 at just 0.2% higher (30,109). This mid-range positioning matches Greedfall results: competent at 1080p, struggling at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

Among 1,705 tested combinations for Greedfall, the Intel Core i5-14600K + AMD Radeon RX 570 pairing ranks 1,647th. This places it in the bottom 3.4% of all combos tested for this game—a poor showing that reflects the GPU's age and limitations rather than any CPU deficiency.

The rank makes sense when you consider the hardware mismatch. The i5-14600K is a top-tier processor, sitting in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 49,166. It trades blows with the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (49,062, 0.2% behind) and the Intel Core i5-14600KF (49,367, 0.4% ahead). Meanwhile, the RX 570 sits in the 74th GPU percentile with an average score of 30,158, near the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (30,109, 0.2% behind) and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (30,097, 0.2% behind).

The 1,647th rank out of 1,705 is driven almost entirely by the GPU. Greedfall's measured frame rates at 4K—19.5 FPS on High, 13.3 on Ultra—are simply unplayable, and even 1440p fails to deliver consistently smooth performance. The combo's low rank reflects that most other tested pairings likely include more capable graphics cards. The CPU is doing its part; the RX 570 is the anchor dragging this combination down the leaderboard.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best results. Low settings produce 73.2 FPS average, Medium yields 60.5 FPS, High drops to 53.8 FPS, and Ultra falls to 32.2 FPS. The step from Medium to High costs 6.7 FPS, while High to Ultra costs 21.6 FPS—a dramatic cliff that points to VRAM or fill-rate saturation.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance degrades noticeably. Low averages 53.1 FPS, Medium 39.4 FPS, High 33.5 FPS, and Ultra 24 FPS. The Medium-to-High gap narrows to 5.9 FPS, but the Low-to-Medium penalty is 13.7 FPS. At this resolution, even Low cannot guarantee a locked 60.

At 3840x2160, the results are marginal at best. Low averages 28.5 FPS, Medium 25 FPS, High 19.5 FPS, and Ultra 13.3 FPS. The spread between settings compresses because the pixel throughput demand overwhelms the GPU regardless of quality level. The RX 570's 5.095 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 39.81 GPixel/s pixel rate simply cannot feed a 4K display with playable frame rates in Greedfall.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is built on the Polaris 20 chip using GCN 4.0 architecture at a 14 nm process node. Its 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs provide 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and a texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1168 MHz with a boost of 1244 MHz, and its 4 GB of GDDR5 memory runs at 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective) across a 256-bit bus for 224.0 GB/s bandwidth.

In Greedfall, these specifications produce a GPU that is clearly the limiting factor. The 4 GB VRAM capacity is the most likely culprit for the Ultra preset's poor performance. At 1080p Ultra, the combo manages only 32.2 FPS—a 46.8% drop from Medium's 60.5 FPS. This kind of cliff suggests the game is exceeding the available VRAM, forcing texture thrashing or reduced caching. The 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth also appears insufficient for Ultra's demands, particularly at higher resolutions where the bandwidth requirement scales with pixel count.

The RX 570's end-of-life production status and 2017 release date place it as a legacy part, but its 74th percentile ranking shows it still has relevance. Its benchmark scores—880 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 32,084 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 42,752 in Geekbench Vulkan—position it near modern mid-range cards like the RTX 5060 (0.2% higher average). For Greedfall specifically, the GPU's capabilities are adequate for 1080p gaming with settings compromises, but the data shows it cannot handle the game's higher presets or resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to a clear hierarchy for this combo. At 1080p, Medium settings (60.5 FPS) provide the best balance of visual quality and performance. Low (73.2 FPS) is smoother but sacrifices visual fidelity. High (53.8 FPS) is playable but lacks the headroom for demanding scenes. Ultra (32.2 FPS) should be avoided entirely.

For 1440p, the recommendation changes. Low (53.1 FPS) is the only setting that approaches a playable frame rate, though it still falls short of 60. Medium (39.4 FPS) and High (33.5 FPS) are marginal, and Ultra (24 FPS) is not viable. If 1440p is the target resolution, the user must accept Low settings and a frame rate that will dip below 60 in heavy combat.

At 4K, no setting is recommended. Even Low (28.5 FPS) fails to reach 30 FPS consistently, and Ultra (13.3 FPS) is a slideshow. Users targeting 4K should consider this hardware inadequate for Greedfall.

The practical advice: run Greedfall at 1080p with Medium settings for a smooth experience, or drop to Low if frame rate consistency matters more than visuals. The 60.5 FPS at Medium offers the best compromise, sitting comfortably above the 53.8 FPS of High while retaining enough visual detail to be enjoyable. Avoid Ultra at all resolutions—the 4 GB VRAM and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth cannot sustain it, as evidenced by the severe frame rate penalties across the board.