Greedfall

# Greedfall Performance Analysis: Intel Core i5-14600KF + AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT

This combination of Intel's Core i5-14600KF and AMD's Radeon RX 5700 XT delivers a playable but constrained experience in Greedfall, with the data revealing a system that is firmly GPU-limited at higher resolutions yet surprisingly capable at 1080p. The measured frame rates across twelve resolution/settings combinations show a pattern where the RX 5700 XT's RDNA 1.0 architecture—with its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth—becomes the primary bottleneck as pixel count rises, while the 14-core, 20-thread i5-14600KF with its 5.30 GHz boost clock has ample headroom to feed the GPU at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and tells a clear story about where the performance limit lies. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 107.4 at 1920x1080 to 76.6 at 2560x1440, a reduction of roughly 29%, and then plummets to 44 at 3840x2160—a 59% drop from the 1080p figure. This steep decline indicates that the RX 5700 XT is being overwhelmed by the pixel throughput required at 4K, particularly given its 256-bit memory bus and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, which are simply insufficient for Greedfall's visual demands at that resolution.

The scaling pattern becomes even more telling when examining Low settings. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 148.6 FPS, but this falls to 103.8 at 1440p and 63.8 at 4K. The percentage drops are 30% and 57%, respectively, showing that even when the CPU is given minimal work to do, the GPU cannot maintain performance as resolution increases. This suggests that the RX 5700 XT's 9.754 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 304.8 GTexel/s texture rate are the limiting factors, not the processor's capabilities.

Interestingly, the delta between Medium and High settings remains relatively consistent across resolutions, with High being about 7-8% faster than Medium at every resolution. This consistency implies that the difference between these two presets is not primarily resolution-dependent, but rather tied to specific rendering features that tax the GPU uniformly regardless of pixel count.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF brings substantial processing power to this pairing, with 14 cores, 20 threads, and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32889 and single-core score of 4643 place it in the 93rd percentile among all CPUs, indicating strong headroom for gaming workloads. The architecture, Raptor Lake on Intel's 10 nm process, provides 24 MB of shared L3 cache, which helps maintain consistent frame delivery in Greedfall's open-world environments.

However, the benchmark data reveals that this CPU is rarely the limiting factor in this game. At 1080p Low, where the GPU has the least work to do, the system reaches 148.6 FPS—a solid result but not exceptionally high, suggesting that even at this resolution, the RX 5700 XT is beginning to bottleneck. The CPU's PassMark single-thread score of 4273 and multi-thread score of 38697 indicate it could push significantly higher frame rates if paired with a more powerful GPU.

The CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14600K, scores nearly identically with an average benchmark score of 49166 versus the 14600KF's 49367, a negligible 0.4% difference. This means the CPU is effectively interchangeable with its K-suffix sibling for Greedfall purposes. The 14600KF's 3.50 GHz base clock and 5.30 GHz boost clock provide the single-thread performance that action RPGs typically favor, and the data shows no evidence of CPU-induced frame drops even at Ultra settings where physics and AI calculations might increase.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the optimal balance between visual quality and performance occurs at 1080p with High settings, delivering 107.4 FPS. This exceeds the 60 FPS threshold comfortably while maintaining substantial visual fidelity. Moving to Ultra at 1080p drops performance to 66.4 FPS—still playable but with a 38% performance penalty for what is likely a marginal visual improvement.

At 1440p, the recommendation shifts to Medium settings, which produce 85 FPS. High at this resolution yields 76.6 FPS, which is acceptable for most players, but the extra headroom from Medium provides a buffer against demanding scenes. The 48.9 FPS at Ultra 1440p is below the smooth-playability threshold and should be avoided.

For 4K, the data strongly suggests using Low settings, which achieve 63.8 FPS. Medium at 4K drops to 51.4 FPS, and High falls to 44 FPS—both below ideal smoothness. The 29.3 FPS at Ultra 4K is essentially unplayable for an action RPG requiring responsive combat. The 8 GB VRAM capacity may also contribute to stuttering at higher settings, though the data does not capture minimum frame times to confirm this.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i5-14600KF and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT ranks 1271 out of 1705 tested combos in Greedfall, placing it in the bottom quarter of all configurations. This ranking reflects the GPU's age—the RX 5700 XT is from 2019 and sits in only the 68th percentile among all GPUs—rather than any deficiency in the CPU, which ranks in the 93rd percentile.

The GPU's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile (scoring 24763, just 0.1% higher), Intel Arc A350M (24647, 0.3% lower), and RTX 5060 Mobile (24592, 0.6% lower). These comparisons show that the RX 5700 XT is competitive with mid-range mobile offerings but lacks the raw power of modern desktop GPUs. The combination's rank suggests that while the CPU has significant headroom, the GPU drags the overall performance down in this GPU-intensive title.

The 1705 total combos include many with newer, more powerful graphics cards, explaining the relatively low rank. However, for a system with this GPU, the results are respectable—the i5-14600KF ensures that the GPU is always the bottleneck, meaning no CPU-induced performance penalties are artificially lowering the scores.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, based on the Navi 10 chip with RDNA 1.0 architecture, is the defining component in this system's Greedfall performance. Its 1605 MHz base clock and 1905 MHz boost clock, combined with 2560 shading units and 160 TMUs, provide adequate but not exceptional rasterization performance. The 64 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 121.9 GPixel/s, which becomes increasingly insufficient as resolution rises.

The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, a figure that was competitive in 2019 but is now modest by current standards. Greedfall's open-world environments with dense foliage and complex lighting likely place significant pressure on memory bandwidth, particularly at 4K where the 44 FPS at High settings suggests the GPU is starved for data.

The GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2134 and PassMark G3D score of 16277 place it in the 68th percentile of all GPUs. Its DirectX 12 PassMark score of 64 is notably low, though this synthetic benchmark may not directly translate to Greedfall's performance. The 7 nm process from TSMC, with 10,300 million transistors on a 251 mm² die, represents the first generation of RDNA architecture, which lacks the ray tracing and advanced geometry features found in later architectures.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers 148.6 FPS on Low, 115.6 FPS on Medium, 107.4 FPS on High, and 66.4 FPS on Ultra. The gap between Low and Medium is 33 FPS, while the High-to-Ultra drop is 41 FPS, showing that Ultra imposes a disproportionate performance cost.

Moving to 2560x1440, the figures become 103.8 FPS (Low), 85 FPS (Medium), 76.6 FPS (High), and 48.9 FPS (Ultra). The percentage drops from 1080p are 30% for Low, 26% for Medium, 29% for High, and 26% for Ultra—a consistent pattern indicating resolution scaling is uniform across settings.

At 3840x2160, the results are 63.8 FPS (Low), 51.4 FPS (Medium), 44 FPS (High), and 29.3 FPS (Ultra). The 4K Low result is the only playable option at this resolution, and even it sits only slightly above 60 FPS. The Ultra 4K result of 29.3 FPS is less than half the 1080p Ultra figure, demonstrating the GPU's inability to handle the pixel count increase.

FAQ

Q: Is this system capable of running Greedfall at 60 FPS?

A: Yes, at 1080p with Low through High settings, and at 1440p with Low or Medium settings. The system achieves 107.4 FPS at 1080p High and 85 FPS at 1440p Medium. At 4K, only Low settings reach 63.8 FPS, while all other 4K presets fall below 60 FPS.

Q: Why is the 4K performance so much worse than 1080p?

A: The RX 5700 XT's 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 121.9 GPixel/s pixel rate are insufficient for 4K rendering. The data shows consistent 26-30% drops from 1080p to 1440p, then additional 38-40% drops from 1440p to 4K, indicating the GPU becomes progressively more bottlenecked as pixel count increases.

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

A: The i5-14600KF has an average benchmark score of 49367, which is 0.4% higher than the i5-14600K's 49166 and 0.6% higher than the Ryzen 9 5950X's 49062. It trails the EPYC 4345P by 0.5% (49595).

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1440p gaming?

A: Medium at 1440p provides 85 FPS, which offers the best balance of visual quality and frame rate. High at 1440p drops to 76.6 FPS, while Ultra falls to 48.9 FPS, making Medium the recommended preset for smooth gameplay.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU is clearly the limiting factor. The i5-14600KF ranks in the 93rd percentile among CPUs, while the RX 5700 XT sits in the 68th percentile among GPUs. The consistent frame rate drops across all settings as resolution increases confirm GPU limitation, with no evidence of CPU bottlenecking even at 1080p Low.

Q: How does this combination rank among all tested systems?

A: This combo ranks 1271 out of 1705 tested combinations in Greedfall, placing it in the lower 25% of systems. The ranking reflects the GPU's age and performance level rather than CPU capability, given the i5-14600KF's strong synthetic benchmark scores.