Greedfall

# Greedfall Performance Analysis: Intel Core i5-9400 + AMD Radeon RX 570

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 570 delivers a distinctly mixed bag in Greedfall, a 2019 Action RPG. The benchmark data positions this combo at rank 1596 out of 1705 tested combinations, placing it in the lower quartile of all systems evaluated. The i5-9400 sits at the 50th percentile among all CPUs, while the RX 570 achieves a stronger 74th percentile among all GPUs, suggesting the graphics card is the more capable component in this pairing. The measured average FPS across all settings and resolutions reveals a system that can handle 1080p gaming reasonably well but struggles significantly as resolution increases, with the data indicating a GPU-bound scenario at higher settings.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-limited profile, where the AMD Radeon RX 570 becomes the primary bottleneck as pixel count rises. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 52.5 FPS at 1920x1080 to 38.2 FPS at 2560x1440, then falls sharply to 22 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 27% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, followed by a further 42% decline from 1440p to 4K, demonstrating the severe strain placed on the Polaris 20 chip at ultra-high resolutions.

The scaling behavior at Low settings shows a similar pattern but with higher absolute values: 74.2 FPS at 1080p, 52.6 FPS at 1440p, and 32.9 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are consistent with the High settings trend, confirming that the GPU's 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are the limiting factors rather than any CPU constraint. The Intel Core i5-9400, with its 6 cores and 6 threads boosting to 4.10 GHz, appears to keep pace adequately even at lower resolutions where CPU overhead becomes relatively more significant.

At Medium settings, the 1080p to 1440p transition yields 60.7 FPS down to 38.1 FPS, a 37% drop, while the 4K result of 26.2 FPS represents another 31% decline from 1440p. The Ultra preset tells a harsher story: 32 FPS at 1080p, 21.4 FPS at 1440p, and a nearly unplayable 16.6 FPS at 4K. The data indicates that this combo is fundamentally a 1080p solution, with 1440p playable only at lower settings, and 4K viable only for static scenes or screenshots.

How This Combo Ranks

With a combo rank of 1596 out of 1705 tested configurations, this i5-9400 + RX 570 pairing places in the bottom 6% of all combos benchmarked for Greedfall. This ranking reflects the cumulative performance across all measured resolutions and settings, heavily weighted by the poor 4K results. The CPU's 50th percentile standing among all processors suggests it is an average performer, while the GPU's 74th percentile indicates the RX 570 is relatively stronger within its own category.

The RX 570's nearest rivals in aggregate benchmark scores include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 with a delta of just 0.2%, the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT also at 0.2%, the NVIDIA Tesla M60 at 0.6%, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile at 0.8%. These extremely tight margins — all within 1% of the RX 570's average score of 30158 — suggest that the GPU's overall compute capability is competitive with much newer architectures, yet Greedfall's specific demands at 4K expose its 4 GB GDDR5 memory as insufficient. The i5-9400's nearest rivals tell a similar story of tight clustering: the Intel Core i3-10305 and i3-1125G4 both sit 0.2% ahead, while the Intel Xeon E-2134 is 0.4% ahead and the Intel Core i7-8809G trails by 0.6%.

The low combo rank is primarily attributable to the 4K Ultra result of 16.6 FPS, which drags down the aggregate. At 1080p, this combo would likely rank far higher, as the 74.2 FPS Low and 60.7 FPS Medium results indicate a playable experience. The data suggests that users targeting 1080p gaming with moderate settings will find this combo acceptable, but those expecting high-refresh or high-resolution performance will be disappointed.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo suitable for 1080p gaming in Greedfall?

A: Yes, for most settings. The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 ranges from 74.2 FPS at Low to 32 FPS at Ultra, with Medium at 60.7 FPS and High at 52.5 FPS. Medium or High settings provide a smooth experience above 50 FPS.

Q: Can this system handle 1440p resolution?

A: Marginally, at lower settings. At 2560x1440, Low settings yield 52.6 FPS and Medium produces 38.1 FPS, while High drops to 38.2 FPS and Ultra falls to 21.4 FPS. Only Low settings approach a consistently playable frame rate.

Q: What about 4K performance?

A: This combo is not viable for 4K gaming. All settings at 3840x2160 produce averages below 33 FPS, with Low at 32.9 FPS, Medium at 26.2 FPS, High at 22 FPS, and Ultra at just 16.6 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 570 compare to its closest rivals?

A: The RX 570's aggregate benchmark score of 30158 is within 0.8% of four nearest rivals, including the RTX 5060 and RX 7700 XT, indicating near-identical overall compute performance despite generational differences.

Q: What is the CPU's role in limiting performance?

A: The i5-9400's 6-core, 6-thread configuration with 4.10 GHz boost appears sufficient for Greedfall, as FPS scales consistently with resolution changes, indicating the GPU is the primary bottleneck rather than the processor.

Q: What is the best settings configuration for this combo?

A: Based on the measured data, 1920x1080 with Medium settings provides the best balance, delivering 60.7 FPS average while maintaining visual quality above the Low preset's 74.2 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its most playable results. Low settings produce an average of 74.2 FPS, which is the highest measured across any configuration. Medium settings yield 60.7 FPS, providing a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold. High settings drop to 52.5 FPS, still playable but with noticeable frame pacing concerns in demanding scenes. Ultra settings fall to 32 FPS, which is borderline for an Action RPG where combat responsiveness matters.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance curve steepens. Low settings remain playable at 52.6 FPS, but Medium drops to 38.1 FPS, nearly identical to High at 38.2 FPS — an unusual parity suggesting the GPU is saturated regardless of modest settings changes. Ultra plummets to 21.4 FPS, making it unsuitable for active gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the results are uniformly poor. Low settings average 32.9 FPS, Medium 26.2 FPS, High 22 FPS, and Ultra 16.6 FPS. The 4K results show a clear linear relationship with settings, indicating the GPU's compute resources are exhausted across the board. The 4 GB VRAM capacity, paired with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth, cannot feed the pixel throughput required at this resolution, as evidenced by the 39.81 GPixel/s pixel rate being overwhelmed.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570, based on the Polaris 20 chip with GCN 4.0 architecture, is unambiguously the limiting component in this pairing for Greedfall. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1168 MHz and boost of 1244 MHz, with 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. These specifications yield 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and a texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s, which are moderate figures by contemporary standards but insufficient for high-resolution gaming.

The 4 GB GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. In Greedfall, this memory configuration becomes a critical constraint at 4K, where the Ultra preset's 16.6 FPS average indicates the GPU is likely hitting memory capacity limits. The data shows a 50% FPS drop from High to Ultra at 4K (22 to 16.6 FPS), a much steeper decline than the 14% drop at 1080p (52.5 to 32 FPS), suggesting texture data exceeds the 4 GB frame buffer at higher resolutions.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 74 among all GPUs, combined with an average benchmark score of 30158, shows that the RX 570 is a solid mid-range performer in synthetic tests. However, Greedfall's real-world demands at 4K expose the limitations of its 5.095 TFLOPS compute and 39.81 GPixel/s fill rate. The GPU's nearest rivals — the RTX 5060, RX 7700 XT, Tesla M60, and RTX 5070 Mobile — all sit within 0.8% in aggregate scores, yet newer architectures likely handle memory compression more efficiently, a factor not captured in the raw benchmark averages but evident in the 4K scaling behavior. The RX 570's 150 W TDP and 450 W suggested PSU requirement indicate a power-efficient design, but this efficiency does not translate into high-resolution gaming capability. For this game, the GPU's role is clear: it enables smooth 1080p gameplay at medium-to-high settings but becomes the definitive bottleneck at any resolution above 1920x1080.