Greedfall

The Intel Core i5-14600K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 delivers a robust Greedfall experience across the board, but the data reveals a clear hierarchy between resolutions and settings. At 1080p, this combo is often CPU-limited at lower presets, while at 4K, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck. The measured frames per second (FPS) show a performance curve that scales predictably with resolution, but the relationship between settings presets and resolution is not linear—it shifts depending on which component is under the heaviest load.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial, but the magnitude depends heavily on the preset. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 166.8 at 1920x1080 to 115.9 at 2560x1440, then down to 67.7 at 3840x2160. That is a 59% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which indicates the RX 9070 is doing most of the heavy lifting at higher resolutions. The gap between 1440p and 4K is particularly steep—a 48.2 FPS drop—which suggests the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute resources are being saturated as pixel count climbs.

At Low settings, the scaling pattern changes. The combo hits 236.3 FPS at 1080p, 161.2 at 1440p, and 94.1 at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop of 75.1 FPS is larger than the 1440p-to-4K drop of 67.1 FPS, which hints that the CPU is starting to limit performance at the lower resolution. When the GPU is less stressed, the i5-14600K’s core configuration becomes the ceiling. This is classic behavior for a fast GPU paired with a strong mid-range CPU: at 1080p Low, the rendering pipeline is so light that the CPU cannot feed frames fast enough.

Medium settings show a similar trend to High, with 182.5 FPS at 1080p, 131.1 at 1440p, and 76.5 at 4K. The percentage losses are consistent—roughly 28% from 1080p to 1440p, then 42% from 1440p to 4K—indicating the GPU is the limiting factor even at Medium. Ultra settings, however, are the outlier. The combo manages 107.1 FPS at 1080p, 72.7 at 1440p, and 43.4 at 4K. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that dips below 60 FPS, making it the least playable option in the measured data. The scaling there is brutal: a 63.7 FPS loss from 1080p to 4K, which is the largest absolute drop across all presets.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with a Navi 48 chip, manufactured on a 4 nm process by TSMC. It packs 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The base clock is 1330 MHz, but the boost clock reaches 2520 MHz, with a game clock of 2070 MHz. These clocks are relevant because Greedfall’s Ultra preset at 4K seems to demand more than this GPU can consistently deliver, given the 43.4 FPS average.

The GPU’s raw compute is substantial: 3584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 128 render output units. Its FP32 performance is 36.13 TFLOPS, and the texture rate is 564.5 GTexel/s. In benchmark results, the RX 9070 scores 25381 in Passmark G3D and 14737 in Passmark GPU Compute, with a percentile ranking of 79 against all GPUs. The nearest rivals in the aggregate benchmark data are the NVIDIA A2 (deltaPct -0.2) and the NVIDIA Quadro GV100 (deltaPct 0.3), which places it in a competitive band despite the wide range of gaming workloads.

The 16 GB VRAM is a clear asset for Greedfall at 4K. The fact that High settings at 4K hold 67.7 FPS while Ultra drops to 43.4 suggests that the Ultra preset’s additional effects—likely shadow quality, draw distance, and post-processing—are pushing memory usage and shader complexity beyond what the GPU can handle at that resolution. The bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s appears sufficient for High and Medium, but the Ultra preset’s overhead is the tipping point. The pixel rate of 322.6 GPixel/s and the 128 ROPs are decent, but they are not enough to sustain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra in this title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process. Its base clock is 3.50 GHz, boosting up to 5.30 GHz. The cache layout includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 32881 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 4642 in single-core, with a Passmark multithread score of 38682 and a single-thread score of 4270. Its percentile ranking against all CPUs is 93, meaning it outperforms most processors in the database.

The CPU’s role in Greedfall becomes apparent at 1080p Low, where the combo reaches 236.3 FPS. That is a high frame rate, but the fact that it does not scale proportionally with the GPU’s capabilities suggests the i5-14600K is the limiting factor. The 14 cores and 20 threads are more than enough for this Action RPG, but the per-core performance—boost clock of 5.30 GHz—matters more in lightly threaded scenes. The nearest rival in aggregate CPU benchmarks is the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X with a deltaPct of 0.2, meaning the i5-14600K is slightly ahead or behind depending on the exact test, but the difference is negligible in real-world gaming.

At 1440p and 4K, the CPU is less of a bottleneck. The FPS drops from 1080p to 1440p are larger at Low settings (75.1 FPS) than at High settings (50.9 FPS), which confirms that the GPU takes over as the primary constraint as resolution increases. The i5-14600K’s 24 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support (DDR4 or DDR5) are adequate for feeding the RX 9070 without causing stutters, as evidenced by the consistent average FPS figures. The CPU’s ECC memory support and PCIe Gen 5 interface are not directly relevant to Greedfall’s performance, but they show this is a modern platform.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the best experience depends on your display and tolerance for frame rate dips. For 4K gaming, High settings at 67.7 FPS is the sweet spot. It clears the 60 FPS threshold with a small margin, and it is far ahead of Medium’s 76.5 FPS and Ultra’s 43.4 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra costs 24.3 FPS at 4K, which is not worth the visual gains in most cases. If you have a 1440p monitor, High settings at 115.9 FPS is excellent, but you can push to Ultra at 72.7 FPS if you prefer maximum visuals and can tolerate a lower frame rate.

At 1080p, the data shows that High settings at 166.8 FPS is the most balanced choice. Low settings hit 236.3 FPS, but that is overkill for most displays and likely CPU-bound, meaning you are not getting a proportional visual improvement. Medium at 182.5 FPS is also viable, but High offers better image quality for a modest 15.7 FPS loss. Ultra at 107.1 FPS is playable but represents a significant drop from High, so it is only recommended if you prioritize shadows and draw distance over raw smoothness.

The clear verdict is to avoid Ultra at 4K unless you accept sub-60 FPS performance. For 1440p and 1080p, High is the recommended preset because it offers the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate. Medium is a fallback if you need extra headroom for streaming or background tasks, but it does not provide a proportional FPS increase over High at any resolution.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 4K with High settings?

A: The combo achieves 67.7 FPS at 3840x2160 with High settings. This is above the 60 FPS target, making it the recommended 4K preset.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p Low?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo hits 236.3 FPS, but the scaling from 1440p Low (161.2 FPS) suggests the Intel Core i5-14600K becomes the limiting factor because the GPU has less work to do at lower resolutions.

Q: How much faster is High compared to Ultra at 1440p?

A: High settings average 115.9 FPS at 2560x1440, while Ultra averages 72.7 FPS. The difference is 43.2 FPS in favor of High, which is a substantial margin for a visual upgrade.

Q: Can this combo run Greedfall at 4K Ultra?

A: It runs at 43.4 FPS on Ultra at 3840x2160, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. It is technically playable but not smooth, so High is a better choice for 4K.

Q: What is the best preset for a 1440p monitor?

A: High settings at 115.9 FPS is the best balance. Ultra at 72.7 FPS is an option if you prefer maximum quality, but it sacrifices 43.2 FPS compared to High.

Q: How does the RX 9070 compare to its nearest rivals in benchmarks?

A: The RX 9070’s aggregate benchmark score places it 0.2% behind the NVIDIA A2 and 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro GV100. These deltas are small, indicating similar overall compute performance.

How This Combo Ranks

In Greedfall, this specific combination of the Intel Core i5-14600K and AMD Radeon RX 9070 ranks 575th out of 1705 tested combos. That places it in the upper third of all configurations in the database, which is a strong result for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU. The rank reflects the measured FPS data across all resolutions and settings, and it shows that while the combo is not at the very top, it delivers consistent performance that will satisfy most players.

The ranking is more impressive when you consider the CPU’s aggregate percentile of 93 and the GPU’s percentile of 79. The CPU is exceptional, but the GPU is merely above average, which pulls the combo down slightly. The 575th rank out of 1705 means there are 574 combos that perform better in Greedfall, likely those with faster GPUs like the RX 9070’s higher-tier siblings or NVIDIA’s top-end cards. However, the 16 GB VRAM and the RDNA 4.0 architecture ensure that this combo is well-positioned for this game’s demands, particularly at 1440p and 4K High settings.

The data also shows that this combo is not held back by the CPU, as evidenced by the high FPS at 1080p Low. The bottleneck is clearly the GPU at higher resolutions, which means upgrading the graphics card would yield better gains than swapping the processor. The 575th rank is a solid showing, and the combo’s measured FPS figures confirm that it is a practical choice for Greedfall without needing to push to the most expensive hardware.