Greedfall

The Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 combination delivers a playable but resolution-sensitive experience in Greedfall. The data shows a clear hierarchy where 1080p and 1440p are viable, while 4K requires significant settings compromises. This pairing sits in the lower-middle tier of tested configurations, ranking 3062nd out of 3703 combos, placing it in the 17th percentile of all tested systems for this title. The following analysis breaks down the measured frame rates to identify where the bottleneck shifts between CPU and GPU across different resolutions and quality presets.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep performance curve as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 89 FPS at 1080p to 62 FPS at 1440p—a 30% reduction—and then plummets to 37 FPS at 4K, which is a 58% decrease from the 1440p figure. This pattern indicates that the GTX 1070 becomes the primary limiting factor as pixel count rises, with the GPU's 8 GB GDDR5 memory and 256-bit bus struggling to maintain throughput at higher resolutions.

The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings shows a more moderate drop: from 125 FPS down to 86 FPS, representing a 31% loss. However, the jump from 1440p Low to 4K Low is steeper, falling to 52 FPS—a 40% reduction. This non-linear scaling suggests that at 4K, the GPU is hitting a hard resource ceiling, likely related to memory bandwidth (256.3 GB/s) and the 1920 shading units being saturated by the increased pixel workload. The 4K Ultra preset at 23 FPS confirms that the GTX 1070 simply lacks the raw compute headroom for this resolution at maximum quality.

At Medium settings, the resolution scaling is particularly telling. The 1080p result of 98 FPS drops to 68 FPS at 1440p (a 31% loss) and then to 40 FPS at 4K (a 41% loss from 1440p). This consistent ~30-40% penalty per resolution step indicates that the GPU's fill rate and texture units (120 TMUs) are the constraining factors, not the CPU. The 6-core i5-9400 with its 2.90 GHz base and 4.10 GHz boost clock appears sufficient to feed the GPU at all tested resolutions, as evidenced by the relatively smooth scaling curve.

The 4K Ultra result of 23 FPS versus the 4K High result of 37 FPS shows a 61% performance hit just from the Ultra preset, which is far larger than the 30% difference seen between 1080p High and 1080p Ultra (89 FPS vs 57 FPS). This widening gap at higher resolutions is a classic sign of GPU memory pressure—the 8 GB frame buffer is likely being exhausted at 4K Ultra, causing severe performance degradation.

GPU Role

The GTX 1070's specifications directly explain the measured results. With 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus delivering 256.3 GB/s of bandwidth, the card provides adequate headroom for 1080p and 1440p gaming but becomes the bottleneck at 4K. The base clock of 1506 MHz and boost clock of 1683 MHz, combined with 1920 shading units, deliver 6.463 TFLOPS of FP32 compute—enough for smooth 1080p performance but insufficient for the 8.3 million pixels of 4K.

The benchmark data shows the GPU's average score of 9780 places it in the 47th percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the AMD FirePro W5000 (9803, 0.2% faster) and NVIDIA Quadro M2000M (9832, 0.5% faster). This mid-pack positioning explains why the GTX 1070 handles 1080p High at 89 FPS but falls to 37 FPS at 4K High—it is working near its design limits at lower resolutions and beyond them at higher ones.

The memory configuration is the key differentiator in Greedfall's performance profile. At 1080p Medium, the card achieves 98 FPS with a minimum of 83 FPS, indicating stable frame pacing. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 68 FPS with a 58 FPS minimum—still playable but showing the memory bus beginning to saturate. The 4K Medium result of 40 FPS with a 34 FPS minimum reveals that the 8 GB buffer is being taxed heavily, as the minimum frame rate dips below the 30 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

The GTX 1070's 64 ROPs and 120 TMUs provide a balanced pixel and texture throughput that works well for Greedfall's Action RPG environments. The texture rate of 202.0 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 107.7 GPixel/s are sufficient for the game's asset streaming at 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K results show these rates being overwhelmed. The card's 150 W TDP and 267 mm length indicate a mid-range power envelope, consistent with its performance tier.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal experience for this combo is 1080p with Medium settings. This preset delivers 98 FPS average with a minimum of 83 FPS and maximum of 113 FPS, providing a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The High preset at 1080p (89 FPS) is also viable, but the Medium setting offers better frame pacing stability as shown by its narrower min-max spread.

At 1440p, the Medium preset is the recommended choice, yielding 68 FPS average with a 58 FPS minimum and 78 FPS maximum. While this falls short of 60 FPS minimums, it remains playable for most Action RPG titles. The High preset at 1440p (62 FPS) is borderline, and the Ultra preset at 39 FPS is not recommended due to the significant visual quality gain not justifying the frame rate loss.

For 4K gaming, the Low preset is the only playable option at 52 FPS, though this requires substantial visual compromises. The Medium preset at 40 FPS with a 34 FPS minimum is marginal and may cause stuttering during intense combat scenes. The High preset at 37 FPS and Ultra at 23 FPS are below acceptable playability thresholds and should be avoided.

The Ultra preset shows the largest performance penalty across all resolutions: 57 FPS at 1080p, 39 FPS at 1440p, and 23 FPS at 4K. The 1080p Ultra result is playable but offers diminishing returns over Medium, while 1440p Ultra dips below the 40 FPS comfort zone. The data suggests that Medium or High settings provide the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate for this GPU.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-9400 and GTX 1070 combination ranks 3062nd out of 3703 tested combos in Greedfall, placing it in the bottom 17% of systems. This ranking reflects the GPU's mid-tier position (47th percentile) and the CPU's similar standing (47th percentile). The i5-9400's average benchmark score of 2254 puts it just 0.2% behind the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (2259) and 0.3% ahead of the Intel Core i7-10710U (2248), indicating that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in this pairing.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 9780 places it 0.5% behind the NVIDIA Quadro M2000M (9832) and 0.7% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla C2070 (9716). This tight clustering around the 47th percentile means the GTX 1070 is operating in a crowded performance band, and Greedfall's results reflect this mid-pack positioning. The combo's rank suggests that most other tested systems with higher-tier GPUs or CPUs achieve better frame rates, particularly at higher resolutions.

The combination's low ranking is primarily attributed to the GPU's limits at 4K, where the 23 FPS Ultra result drags down the overall performance profile. At 1080p, the combo performs competitively with mid-range systems, but the 4K results place it well below the median. For users targeting 1080p or 1440p gaming, this combo ranks higher effectively, but the aggregate score pulls it down.

FAQ

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

A: The measured data shows 1920x1080 as the optimal resolution, with all presets except Ultra achieving above 89 FPS. At 1440p, only Low and Medium presets exceed 60 FPS average, while 4K is only playable at Low settings (52 FPS).

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

A: The GTX 1070's average score of 9780 is 0.2% slower than the AMD FirePro W5000 (9803) and 0.5% slower than the NVIDIA Quadro M2000M (9832), while being 0.6% faster than the NVIDIA Tesla M10 (9724) and 0.7% faster than the Tesla C2070 (9716).

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-9400 a bottleneck for the GTX 1070?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score of 2254 is nearly identical to its nearest rival, the i7-1068NG7 at 2259 (0.2% faster). The resolution scaling data shows consistent FPS drops between resolutions, indicating the GPU is the limiting factor rather than the 6-core processor with 4.10 GHz boost.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The measured data shows 68 FPS average with a minimum of 58 FPS and maximum of 78 FPS at 2560x1440 Medium settings. This is the recommended 1440p preset for maintaining playable performance.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra preset compare to 4K Low in terms of performance?

A: The 4K Ultra preset achieves only 23 FPS average, which is a 55% reduction from the 4K Low result of 52 FPS. This indicates the Ultra preset imposes excessive load on the GPU's 8 GB memory and 1920 shading units.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking in Greedfall's test database?

A: The i5-9400 + GTX 1070 combination ranks 3062nd out of 3703 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 17% of all configurations tested for this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average frame rates are 125 FPS for Low, 98 FPS for Medium (min 83, max 113), 89 FPS for High, and 57 FPS for Ultra. The 1080p results show a 47% drop from Low to Ultra, with the Medium preset providing the best balance of frame rate and stability.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 86 FPS for Low, 68 FPS for Medium (min 58, max 78), 62 FPS for High, and 39 FPS for Ultra. The 1440p results show a 55% drop from Low to Ultra, with the Medium preset maintaining a consistent 58-78 FPS range.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 52 FPS for Low, 40 FPS for Medium (min 34, max 47), 37 FPS for High, and 23 FPS for Ultra. The 4K results show a 56% drop from Low to Ultra, with only the Low preset achieving over 50 FPS.

The frame rate deltas between settings presets are consistent across resolutions: Medium is approximately 21-23% slower than Low, High is 9-10% slower than Medium, and Ultra is 36-43% slower than High. This consistent scaling suggests the GPU's performance characteristics are uniform across the resolution range, though the absolute frame rates at 4K fall below acceptable thresholds for all presets except Low.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 provides 6 cores and 6 threads based on the Coffee Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost clock of 4.10 GHz. The 9 MB of shared L3 cache and 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth are adequate for feeding the GTX 1070 in Greedfall. The CPU's synthetic benchmarks show a multicore score of 6629 in Cinebench R23 and 2784 in R20, with a single-core score of 935 in R23, indicating solid mid-range performance.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 2254 places it in the 47th percentile of all processors, with nearest rivals being the i7-1068NG7 (2259, 0.2% faster) and i7-10710U (2248, 0.3% slower). This tight grouping suggests the i5-9400's six physical cores without hyper-threading are competitive with higher-tier mobile and lower-tier desktop parts. The 47th percentile ranking aligns with the GPU's 47th percentile, creating a balanced pairing where neither component significantly outclasses the other.

In Greedfall's measured results, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU's limitations. The resolution scaling shows consistent FPS drops when moving from 1080p to 1440p and 4K, which would not occur if the CPU were the bottleneck—in CPU-limited scenarios, higher resolutions typically show smaller FPS penalties. The fact that 4K Low (52 FPS) is slower than 1080p Ultra (57 FPS) indicates the GPU is saturated at higher resolutions, while the CPU has headroom to spare.

The 65 W TDP and dual-channel DDR4 memory support provide sufficient bandwidth for the game's open-world environments. The CPU's 14 nm process node and Coffee Lake Refresh generation offer efficient power delivery, though the locked multiplier prevents overclocking. For this game, the i5-9400's performance is adequate, as evidenced by the 89 FPS result at 1080p High, which suggests the CPU can maintain frame pacing above 60 FPS even when the GPU is under moderate load.