Greedfall

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for Greedfall with the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 reveal a steep performance curve as resolution climbs. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces 72.1 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same preset drops that figure to 50.4 FPS, a reduction of roughly 30%. At 3840x2160 Low, the average falls to 31 FPS, which is less than half of the 1080p result. This pattern indicates that the GPU is the primary scaling bottleneck; each doubling of pixel count imposes a nearly proportional frame rate penalty.

The High preset tells a similar story but with lower absolute numbers. From 51.5 FPS at 1080p, the average drops to 34 FPS at 1440p and then to 19.4 FPS at 4K. The jump between 1440p and 4K is particularly punishing, with a 43% loss in average frame rate. Medium settings follow the same trajectory: 59.7 FPS at 1080p, 42.3 FPS at 1440p, and 23.2 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings are the most demanding, yielding 32.6 FPS at 1080p, 21.5 FPS at 1440p, and only 12.4 FPS at 4K. The consistent halving of performance between 1080p and 4K across all presets strongly suggests that the GTX 1650's 128-bit memory interface and 128.1 GB/s bandwidth are saturated long before the CPU becomes a limiting factor.

The data also shows that resolution scaling is not linear in a favorable way. The gap between Low and Ultra widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, the spread between Low and Ultra is 39.5 FPS. At 1440p, that spread narrows to 28.9 FPS. At 4K, it compresses further to 18.6 FPS. This compression indicates that at higher resolutions, the GPU is so heavily loaded that even reducing settings to Low cannot recover a playable frame rate. The GTX 1650 simply does not have enough raw throughput or memory bandwidth to feed the pixel pipeline at 4K, regardless of quality level.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 sits in the 43rd percentile of all GPUs by average benchmark score, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 305 and a Passmark G3D score of 7880. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 (0.5% higher average score) and the AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 (0.5% lower). The card's memory configuration is 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 128.1 GB/s of bandwidth. Clock speeds are 1485 MHz base and 1665 MHz boost. The 896 shading units and 32 ROPs are modest by modern standards, and the 2.984 TFLOPS FP32 throughput places it firmly in entry-level territory.

In Greedfall, the GPU's limitations are visible in the measured rows. At 1080p Medium, the card manages 59.7 FPS, which is close to the 60 FPS target but not consistently above it. Dropping to Low yields 72.1 FPS, indicating that the GPU has headroom when texture and shading workloads are reduced. However, the 4 GB VRAM capacity is a concern for higher presets. At Ultra settings, the frame rate collapses to 32.6 FPS at 1080p and 12.4 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is particularly telling: the card cannot sustain even a slideshow-level performance, likely due to memory capacity and bandwidth exhaustion simultaneously.

The GTX 1650's transistor count of 4,700 million on a 12 nm process gives it a texture rate of 93.24 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 53.28 GPixel/s. These figures explain why the card performs adequately at 1080p Low to Medium but fails at higher resolutions. The benchmark results indicate that the GPU is the dominant constraint in this combo. The CPU's role becomes secondary once the resolution exceeds 1440p, as the GPU cannot keep up with the pixel workload.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 provides six cores and six threads, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. It sits in the 50th percentile of all CPUs by average benchmark score, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 7969 and a single-core score of 1125. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i3-10305 (0.2% higher average score) and the Intel Core i7-8809G (0.6% lower). The 9 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support are adequate for a game like Greedfall, which is not heavily multithreaded.

In the measured FPS data, the CPU's influence is most apparent at 1080p with Low settings, where the frame rate reaches 72.1 FPS. This is high enough that the CPU is likely keeping pace with the GPU's output. However, the single-core Cinebench R23 score of 1125 suggests that the i5-9400 is not a strong performer by current standards. At 1080p Ultra, the frame rate drops to 32.6 FPS, which is below what the CPU could theoretically feed if the GPU were more capable. The bottleneck is clearly the GPU, not the processor.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and 14 nm Coffee Lake architecture are older but serviceable. The benchmark results show that the i5-9400 is roughly on par with the Intel Core i3-10305, differing by only 0.2% in average score. This means the CPU is not a differentiator in this combo; it provides enough processing power for the GTX 1650 to operate without being starved at lower resolutions. At 4K, the CPU's role diminishes further, as the GPU's inability to render above 31 FPS even at Low settings means the CPU has ample idle capacity.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 ranks 1665 out of 1705 tested combos in Greedfall. This places it in the bottom 2.3% of all configurations, which aligns with the measured frame rates. The combo's rank reflects that both components are entry-level by current standards, with the GPU in the 43rd percentile and the CPU in the 50th percentile. The data shows that this pairing is not competitive for demanding titles at high resolutions.

Compared to other tested combos, this setup is near the bottom of the distribution. The rank of 1665 out of 1705 means that only 40 combos perform worse, which is a stark indicator of the GTX 1650's limitations. The GPU's nearest rivals, such as the AMD Radeon 550X (0.4% higher average score) and the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 (0.5% higher), are similarly positioned, but the measured FPS in Greedfall shows that the GTX 1650 cannot maintain playable frame rates at 4K under any preset. The CPU's relative strength does not compensate for the GPU's weakness in this workload.

The combo's rank is influenced by the fact that Greedfall is a GPU-bound title at higher resolutions. A stronger CPU would not significantly improve the 4K results, as the GPU is the limiting factor. Conversely, a stronger GPU paired with the i5-9400 would likely move the combo much higher in the rankings. The data indicates that this specific pairing is best suited for 1080p gaming at Low to Medium settings, where it can achieve 59.7 to 72.1 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal experience for this combo is at 1920x1080 with Medium settings, which yields 59.7 FPS average. This is close to the 60 FPS target and provides a balance between visual quality and smoothness. Low settings at 1080p produce 72.1 FPS, which is smoother but visually downgraded. High settings at 1080p drop to 51.5 FPS, which is still playable but may be borderline for those sensitive to frame rate dips.

At 2560x1440, the best option is Low settings, delivering 50.4 FPS. Medium at 1440p yields 42.3 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action. High at 1440p drops to 34 FPS, which is marginal. Ultra is not recommended at any resolution, as it only achieves 32.6 FPS at 1080p and falls below 22 FPS at 1440p and 4K. The 4K resolution is effectively unplayable with this combo; even Low settings produce only 31 FPS, and Ultra drops to 12.4 FPS.

The data suggests that users should prioritize 1080p Medium for the best balance of visual fidelity and performance. If higher frame rates are required, Low at 1080p is the safest choice. For those who must play at 1440p, Low settings are the only viable option. The GTX 1650's 4 GB VRAM and 128.1 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for higher presets at resolutions above 1080p. The combo's rank of 1665 out of 1705 confirms that this hardware is designed for entry-level 1080p gaming, and the measured rows support that conclusion.