Greedfall

Greedfall on the Intel Core i5-14600KF and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 presents a classic case of a modern CPU paired with an aging GPU. The benchmark data indicates that while the processor has ample headroom, the graphics card is the definitive constraint across all tested resolutions and settings. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS figures to show exactly where the bottleneck lies and how users can optimize their experience.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep performance gradient as resolution increases, a clear indicator of GPU-bound workloads. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the GTX 1070 delivers 89 FPS average. Stepping up to 2560x1440 at the same High preset drops the average to 62 FPS, a reduction of approximately 30%. Moving to 3840x2160 High yields just 37 FPS, which is roughly 58% lower than the 1080p result. This scaling pattern is typical for a GPU with 8 GB of VRAM and a 256-bit memory interface, where pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth become increasingly taxed at higher resolutions.

The 4K Ultra preset is particularly punishing, producing only 23 FPS average. The gap between Low and Ultra settings at 4K is substantial: Low achieves 52 FPS while Ultra falls to 23 FPS, a spread of 29 FPS. At 1440p, the same Low-to-Ultra range spans from 86 FPS down to 39 FPS, and at 1080p it goes from 125 FPS down to 57 FPS. These deltas suggest that Greedfall’s higher presets introduce significant GPU load, likely through increased draw distances, shadow quality, and post-processing effects.

The fact that even at 1080p Low, the system only reaches 125 FPS—not a triple-digit figure one might expect from a 14-core processor—reinforces that the GTX 1070 is the limiting component. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see smaller FPS differences between resolutions, as the graphics card would have spare capacity. Instead, the consistent ~30% drop from 1080p to 1440p and another ~40% drop from 1440p to 4K (at High settings) points squarely at the GPU being saturated.

Interestingly, the Medium preset at all three resolutions shows the only measured minimum and maximum FPS values. At 1080p Medium, the range is 83 to 113 FPS, while at 1440p Medium it is 58 to 78 FPS, and at 4K Medium it is 34 to 47 FPS. These narrower ranges suggest that Medium settings produce more stable frame pacing compared to other presets, likely because the GPU’s resources are allocated more evenly.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is built on the Pascal architecture with a 16 nm process node. Its specifications include a base clock of 1506 MHz and a boost clock of 1683 MHz, with 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The 8 GB of GDDR5 memory operates at an effective 8 Gbps across a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 256.3 GB/s. These figures are modest by today’s standards, and the benchmark scores reflect that: the GPU’s percentile vs all GPUs is 47, with an average benchmark score of 9780.

In the context of Greedfall, the GTX 1070’s 6.463 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is sufficient for 1080p gaming but struggles at higher resolutions. The 4K High result of 37 FPS and 4K Ultra of 23 FPS indicate that the GPU’s pixel rate of 107.7 GPixel/s and texture rate of 202.0 GTexel/s are being overwhelmed. The nearest rivals in benchmark scores include the AMD FirePro W5000 (delta -0.2%), NVIDIA Quadro M2000M (delta -0.5%), NVIDIA Tesla M10 (delta +0.6%), and NVIDIA Tesla C2070 (delta +0.7%)—all professional or datacenter cards that are not gaming-focused, underscoring how far the GTX 1070 has fallen from its 2016 launch era.

The VRAM capacity of 8 GB is notable for Greedfall, a 2019 Action RPG that may use high-resolution textures. At 1080p, the 125 FPS Low result shows the card can still push high frame rates when memory pressure is low. However, at 4K Ultra, the combination of high resolution and intensive settings likely exceeds the memory bus capabilities, resulting in the sub-30 FPS average. The measured data does not include VRAM usage, but the stark performance drop from Medium (40 FPS at 4K) to Ultra (23 FPS at 4K) suggests that the highest preset introduces effects that the 8 GB frame buffer cannot efficiently handle.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 1920x1080 is the only resolution where all presets exceed 57 FPS average. At 2560x1440, only Low and Medium presets stay above 60 FPS, while High and Ultra fall to 62 FPS and 39 FPS respectively. For 3840x2160, no preset reaches 60 FPS, with the best being Low at 52 FPS.

Q: How does the GTX 1070 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score is 9780, with the AMD FirePro W5000 scoring 9803 (0.2% higher), the NVIDIA Quadro M2000M scoring 9832 (0.5% higher), the NVIDIA Tesla M10 scoring 9724 (0.6% lower), and the NVIDIA Tesla C2070 scoring 9716 (0.7% lower). These deltas are minimal, indicating performance parity with those cards, though none are designed for gaming.

Q: Is the CPU holding back the GPU in this test?

A: No. The Intel Core i5-14600KF has a percentile vs all CPUs of 90 and an average benchmark score of 49394. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (delta +0.3%) and AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (delta +0.4%). The FPS scaling across resolutions shows the GPU is the limiting factor, as performance drops significantly when resolution increases, which is a GPU-bound characteristic.

Q: What is the measured FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings yield 125 FPS average, while Ultra settings yield 57 FPS average. This is a difference of 68 FPS, meaning Ultra delivers roughly 54% of the Low preset’s performance. The Medium preset falls in between at 98 FPS, and High at 89 FPS.

Q: Does the GTX 1070 support modern graphics APIs relevant to Greedfall?

A: The GPU supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. Greedfall, being a 2019 title, can leverage these APIs. Benchmark results show passmark DirectX 12 score of 48, DirectX 11 score of 100, and DirectX 10 score of 82, indicating the card’s DX12 performance is relatively weaker than older API versions.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations for this game?

A: The combo rank in game is 3062 out of 3703 combinations. This places it in the lower percentile of tested systems, consistent with the GTX 1070’s 47th percentile ranking among all GPUs and the CPU’s higher 90th percentile ranking.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal experience depends heavily on the target resolution. For 1920x1080, the High preset offers a strong balance at 89 FPS average, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset at 98 FPS is even smoother, but the marginal gain of 9 FPS over High may not justify the visual downgrade. Ultra at 57 FPS is playable but risks dips below 60, so it is only recommended for users who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate consistency.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset provides 68 FPS average with a measured range of 58 to 78 FPS, making it the safest choice for maintaining playable frame rates. High at 62 FPS is also acceptable, though the lower minimum FPS is not recorded. Low at 86 FPS is the smoothest option, but the visual compromise is significant. Ultra at 39 FPS is not recommended for action-oriented gameplay, as it approaches the lower bounds of playability.

For 3840x2160, the data suggests that even Low settings at 52 FPS average will struggle to maintain consistent 60 FPS. Medium at 40 FPS with a minimum of 34 FPS is the only preset with recorded frame time variance, and it falls below the 60 FPS target. Given these results, 4K gaming with this GPU is not advisable for a smooth experience; users should either lower resolution or accept sub-60 FPS performance. The High preset at 37 FPS and Ultra at 23 FPS are only suitable for static scenes or screenshots.

The Medium preset across all resolutions shows the most stable frame pacing, as evidenced by the recorded min/max values. For users who cannot maintain 60 FPS at their preferred resolution, dropping to Medium is a more reliable choice than High, which lacks min/max data but likely has larger frame time spikes.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the GTX 1070 delivers the following average FPS by preset: Low 125, Medium 98, High 89, and Ultra 57. The Medium preset has a recorded range of 83 to 113 FPS. This resolution shows the largest performance headroom, with Low being the only preset to exceed 120 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low 86, Medium 68, High 62, and Ultra 39. Medium ranges from 58 to 78 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across presets, ranging from a 31% reduction at Low (125 to 86) to a 32% reduction at High (89 to 62). Ultra sees a 32% drop from 57 to 39 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low 52, Medium 40, High 37, and Ultra 23. Medium has a range of 34 to 47 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is steeper: Low drops by 40% (86 to 52), Medium by 41% (68 to 40), High by 40% (62 to 37), and Ultra by 41% (39 to 23). This uniform ~40% reduction across all presets further confirms that the GPU is the sole bottleneck, as the CPU’s performance would not scale linearly with pixel count.

The highest measured FPS in the entire dataset is 125 at 1080p Low, while the lowest is 23 at 4K Ultra. The median average FPS across all 12 data points is 58.5, indicating that most configurations hover near the 60 FPS target. Only five of the twelve measured configurations exceed 60 FPS average: 1080p Low, Medium, High, and 1440p Low and Medium. The remaining seven configurations fall below 60 FPS, with 4K Ultra being the only one below 30 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. It has 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 2 MB of L2 cache per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU’s benchmark scores are strong: Cinebench R23 multi-core scores 32544 and single-core 4594, while Geekbench multi-core scores 17085 and single-core 2445. The Passmark multi-thread score is 38697, and single-thread is 4273.

Given that the CPU ranks in the 90th percentile vs all CPUs, it is far more capable than what Greedfall requires. The game’s measured FPS data shows no evidence of CPU limitation: at 1080p Low, the system achieves 125 FPS, but this is still constrained by the GPU’s ability to render frames. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see similar FPS across different resolutions, as the CPU work per frame would be constant regardless of pixel count. Instead, the FPS scales inversely with resolution, confirming that the GTX 1070 is the limiting factor.

The CPU’s nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (avg score 49228, delta +0.3%), AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (49196, +0.4%), Intel Core Ultra 5 245 (48995, +0.8%), and AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388 (49796, -0.8%). These deltas are all within 1%, indicating that the i5-14600KF is performance-competitive with these high-end chips. In Greedfall, however, this CPU power is largely underutilized, as the GPU cannot keep up with the processor’s frame generation capability.

For users considering this combo, the data suggests that upgrading the GPU would yield substantial FPS gains, while the CPU has headroom to support a more powerful graphics card. The 125 W TDP and PCIe Gen 5 support (16 lanes) indicate that the platform is ready for future GPU upgrades. The CPU’s 24 MB of L3 cache and 20 threads are more than sufficient for Greedfall’s single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads, making it a non-factor in this game’s performance profile.