Greedfall

Greedfall, the 2019 Action RPG from Spiders, demonstrates a clear and predictable scaling pattern when paired with the Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT. The measured frames per second tell a story of a system where the graphics card is the primary driver of performance, but the CPU establishes a ceiling that becomes more apparent as resolutions drop.

Resolution Scaling

The performance gradient from 4K down to 1080p reveals the expected inverse relationship between resolution and frame rate. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the combination produces an average of 66.4 FPS. Dropping to 2560x1440 at the same High preset increases the average to 112.8 FPS, a substantial jump that indicates the GPU has significant headroom when pixel count is reduced. At 1920x1080 High, the average climbs further to 163.3 FPS.

The scaling factor between 4K and 1440p is roughly 1.7x, while moving from 1440p to 1080p yields about a 1.45x improvement. This diminishing return as resolution decreases is a classic sign that the processor is beginning to limit the frame rate. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 229.5 FPS, which is a remarkable figure but still well short of what the RX 6800 XT might achieve in a less CPU-constrained environment. The gap between 1440p Low at 161 FPS and 1080p Low at 229.5 FPS is 68.5 FPS, but the gap between 4K Low at 96.4 FPS and 1440p Low is 64.6 FPS. The trend suggests that while the GPU is still the bottleneck at 1080p, the CPU’s six cores and six threads are working harder to feed the frames.

Ultra settings present the most demanding scenario. At 4K Ultra, the average dips to 41 FPS, which is a playable but not ideal number for a fast-paced action title. The 1440p Ultra average of 73.4 FPS and 1080p Ultra average of 105.3 FPS show that even at the highest quality preset, the system scales reasonably well, but the absolute performance at 4K Ultra indicates that this combination is best suited for High or Medium presets at that resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a Coffee Lake Refresh part with six cores and six threads, running at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. It supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration and has a shared L3 cache of 9 MB. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU posts a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 7969 and a single-core score of 1125. Its average benchmark score of 2305 places it at the 50th percentile among all CPUs, meaning it sits exactly in the middle of the pack.

The nearest rivals in the database reinforce this mid-range positioning. The Intel Core i3-10305 scores 2300, a delta of just 0.2% slower, and the Intel Core i3-1125G4 also scores 2299, again 0.2% behind. The Intel Xeon E-2134 is 0.4% slower at 2295, while the Intel Core i7-8809G is 0.6% faster at 2319. These are all incredibly close margins, indicating that the i5-9400 is firmly entrenched in a performance tier where small architectural differences matter more than raw core counts.

In Greedfall, the CPU’s role becomes evident when comparing frame rates at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system produces 229.5 FPS, but the fact that this is not significantly higher than the 4K Low figure of 96.4 FPS suggests that the CPU is starting to constrain the GPU’s output. The six threads are sufficient for the game’s engine, but they lack the headroom to push frame rates into the 300 FPS territory that a more powerful processor might enable. The boost clock of 4.10 GHz is respectable for single-threaded tasks, which helps maintain playable frame rates even in CPU-heavy scenes.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is a substantial piece of hardware built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture using a 7 nm process from TSMC. It features 4608 shading units, 288 texture mapping units, and 128 ROPs, along with 72 ray accelerators. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1825 MHz and a boost clock of 2250 MHz, with a game clock of 2015 MHz. Memory is handled by 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 512.0 GB/s.

In synthetic benchmarks, the GPU achieves a Passmark G3D score of 24980 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 154506. Its average benchmark score of 49982 places it at the 87th percentile among all GPUs, which puts it in the upper echelon of graphics cards. The nearest rivals show how close the competition is: the Intel Arc A550M scores 49737, just 0.5% behind, while the NVIDIA RTX A1000 is 1.7% ahead at 50826. The NVIDIA CMP 50HX is 1.9% behind at 49071, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 2.6% slower at 48704.

The GPU’s performance in Greedfall is clearly the dominant factor in the system’s output. At 4K High, the 66.4 FPS average is strong for a demanding resolution, and the 1440p High figure of 112.8 FPS shows the card has plenty of compute power. The VRAM capacity of 16 GB is more than sufficient for this title, even at Ultra settings with higher resolution textures. The boost clock of 2250 MHz contributes to the card’s ability to maintain high frame rates across all presets, and the 512.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and data transfer are not bottlenecks.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on which preset offers the best experience. At 4K, the High preset delivers 66.4 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset at 4K yields 74.4 FPS, a 12% improvement over High, but the visual quality reduction may not be worth the extra frames for all users. The Low preset at 4K reaches 96.4 FPS, which is excellent for competitive play or for those who prioritize frame rate above all else. Ultra at 4K drops to 41 FPS, which is below the ideal range for an action RPG and should generally be avoided at this resolution.

At 1440p, the High preset produces 112.8 FPS, which is an excellent balance of visual fidelity and performance. Medium at 1440p reaches 126.4 FPS, and Low hits 161 FPS, while Ultra is still playable at 73.4 FPS. The sweet spot for most users will be High at 1440p, as it provides a significant visual upgrade over Medium while maintaining a frame rate that is well above display refresh rates for most monitors.

At 1080p, the system is capable of very high frame rates across all presets. High produces 163.3 FPS, Medium reaches 181.4 FPS, and Low hits 229.5 FPS. Ultra at 1080p still manages 105.3 FPS, making it a viable option for users with high-refresh-rate displays. Given the data, the recommended configuration is High at 1440p for the best overall experience, or High at 4K if the user has a 4K display and prefers visual quality over raw frame rate. Ultra settings are best reserved for 1080p, where the performance cost is less punishing.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT holds a rank of 611 out of 1705 tested combos in Greedfall, placing it in the top 36% of all configurations. This is a respectable position, but it reflects the imbalance between the mid-range CPU and the high-end GPU. The CPU’s 50th percentile standing among all processors is a limiting factor, as the GPU’s 87th percentile ranking suggests it could perform even better with a more powerful processor.

The ranking indicates that this combo is well-suited for 1440p gaming and capable at 4K, but it is not optimized for maximum frame rates at 1080p. The 611th position out of 1705 combos means there are 1094 configurations that perform better, many of which likely pair the RX 6800 XT with a stronger CPU. However, the measured frame rates show that the system is still very capable, delivering over 100 FPS at 1440p High and over 60 FPS at 4K High. The data suggests that users with this combo should focus on 1440p or 4K gaming, where the GPU can flex its muscle without being held back by the processor’s six threads.