Greedfall

Greedfall is an Action RPG that responds predictably to hardware scaling, and the combination of the Intel Core i5-14600KF with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER produces a clear performance curve across resolutions and settings. The data shows a system that is more than capable at 1080p, solid at 1440p, and struggling to maintain playable frame rates at 4K Ultra. The 14-core, 20-thread processor provides ample headroom, while the 8 GB VRAM GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher loads.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 2560x1440 as the sweet spot. At High settings, the system delivers 86.1 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold. At 1920x1080 High, it hits 121.7 FPS, but the jump to 1440p only costs 35.6 FPS while providing significantly more detail. 4K is only viable if you drop to Low settings, where it reaches 69.7 FPS.

Q: How much performance does the Ultra preset cost compared to High?

A: The penalty is severe. At 1920x1080, Ultra drops the average FPS from 121.7 (High) to 76.4, a 45.3 FPS reduction. At 2560x1440, it falls from 86.1 to 55.4. At 3840x2160, Ultra produces only 32.5 FPS, which is less than half of the High preset’s 49.8 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the primary bottleneck in this game?

A: The evidence points to the GPU. The scaling from Low to Ultra at any resolution shows a massive FPS drop (from 169.8 to 76.4 at 1080p), which indicates the graphics card is the limiting factor. The CPU’s benchmark scores, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32889, suggest it has far more processing power than the GPU can feed at high settings.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Greedfall?

A: Only with reduced settings. The measured data shows 4K Ultra at 32.5 FPS, which is not smooth. 4K High is better at 49.8 FPS, but still below 60. You would need to use Medium (53.5 FPS) or Low (69.7 FPS) to get a comfortable experience at this resolution.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its nearest rival in terms of raw compute?

A: The average benchmark score for the RTX 2070 SUPER is 22206. Its closest competitor, the NVIDIA RTX A400, scores 22307, which is only 0.5% higher. The AMD Radeon RX 5700 scores 21670, putting it 2.5% behind. These are minor differences, so performance in Greedfall should be very similar among these cards.

Q: What is the expected frame rate at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The measured average FPS is 91.7. This is slightly higher than the High preset’s 86.1, making Medium a reasonable choice if you want to prioritize frame rate over visual fidelity at this resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is the decisive component in this pairing. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p but starts to show strain at 4K. The GPU’s base clock is 1605 MHz with a boost clock of 1770 MHz, and it features 2560 shading units. These specifications translate to a PassMark G3D score of 18169, placing it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs.

The VRAM capacity is the critical detail here. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS collapses to 32.5, suggesting the 8 GB frame buffer is being saturated by the game’s high-resolution textures and effects. The data shows a clear pattern: as settings increase, the FPS drops disproportionately. For example, at 1080p, going from Low to High reduces FPS by 48.1, but going from High to Ultra reduces it by another 45.3. This non-linear scaling indicates the GPU is running out of resources, not just raw compute power.

The GPU’s average benchmark score of 22206 puts it in a tight competitive group. It trails the RTX 4060 Mobile by 2.3% and leads the GTX TITAN Z by 0.9%. In practical terms, this means the RTX 2070 SUPER is a mid-range performer in modern terms, but for a 2019 game like Greedfall, it still delivers playable results at most settings. The 12 nm Turing architecture, with 13,600 million transistors, is aging but not obsolete for this title.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and frame rate, the High preset is the clear choice. At 1920x1080, it delivers 121.7 FPS, which is smooth on any display. At 2560x1440, it still achieves 86.1 FPS, making it the highest setting that maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. The Ultra preset is not worth the cost; at 1080p it drops to 76.4 FPS, and at 1440p it falls to 55.4, which is below the 60 FPS target.

If you have a 4K display, the recommendation changes. The High preset only reaches 49.8 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. Dropping to Medium gives 53.5 FPS, a marginal improvement. The Low preset at 4K produces 69.7 FPS, which is the only 4K option that hits a comfortable frame rate. For most users, sticking to 1440p High is the optimal experience.

The data suggests avoiding Medium at lower resolutions. At 1080p, Medium (132.4 FPS) offers only a 10.7 FPS improvement over High (121.7 FPS) while reducing visual fidelity. The performance difference is more pronounced at 4K, where Medium (53.5 FPS) is 15.7% faster than High (49.8 FPS), but still not enough to hit 60 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system shows its strongest performance. The Low preset achieves 169.8 FPS, Medium hits 132.4 FPS, High reaches 121.7 FPS, and Ultra drops to 76.4 FPS. This is a wide range, with a 93.4 FPS difference between the lowest and highest settings. The data indicates that even at Ultra, the game remains playable, though the drop from High is substantial.

At 2560x1440, the numbers scale down proportionally. Low delivers 117.8 FPS, Medium hits 91.7 FPS, High reaches 86.1 FPS, and Ultra falls to 55.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 62.4 FPS. Notably, the difference between Medium and High at this resolution is only 5.6 FPS, making High the better value in terms of visual quality per frame.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops significantly. Low is the only setting that clears 60 FPS, reaching 69.7 FPS. Medium hits 53.5 FPS, High drops to 49.8 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 32.5 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is 17.3 FPS, which is the largest single-setting drop across all resolutions, confirming that Ultra is too demanding for this GPU at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 121.7 at 1080p to 86.1 at 1440p, a 35.6 FPS loss, and then to 49.8 at 4K, another 36.3 FPS loss. This represents a 59% reduction from 1080p to 4K. At Low settings, the drop is from 169.8 to 117.8 to 69.7, a 59% reduction as well, showing that resolution scaling is uniform regardless of settings.

This pattern indicates that the GPU is the limiting component. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would remain more constant across resolutions because the processor’s workload does not change significantly with resolution. Instead, the consistent percentage drop shows that the RTX 2070 SUPER’s pixel throughput and memory bandwidth are being saturated. The pixel rate of 113.3 GPixel/s and texture rate of 283.2 GTexel/s are simply not enough to handle 4K at high settings.

The practical implication is that this system is best suited for 1440p gaming. The 1080p results are excellent, but the jump to 1440p is modest in cost and large in visual benefit. 4K is possible but requires Low settings, which defeats the purpose of high-resolution gaming.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is not the limiting factor in Greedfall. With 14 cores and 20 threads, it offers substantial multithreading capability, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32889. The single-core score of 4643 in the same test indicates strong per-thread performance, which is important for game logic and physics. The processor’s boost clock of 5.30 GHz ensures high frequency operation when needed.

The CPU’s average benchmark score is 49367, placing it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, scores 49062, just 0.6% behind. This level of performance is far beyond what Greedfall requires, as the game was released in 2019 and is not known for being CPU-intensive. The PassMark single-thread score of 4273 further confirms that the processor can handle any single-threaded tasks the game throws at it.

The data supports this analysis through the FPS scaling patterns. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 169.8 FPS, which is well above what most games can utilize. If the CPU were the bottleneck, this number would be lower and would not improve significantly as the resolution drops. Instead, the FPS scales directly with resolution, indicating the GPU is the constraint. The 24 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support provide ample bandwidth for the CPU to feed the GPU without stalling.