Greedfall

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti delivers a mid-pack performance tier in Greedfall, ranking 1185th out of 1705 tested combinations. This places the combo in the lower third of the database, a position that reflects the CPU’s standing as a 50th-percentile processor rather than any deficiency in the graphics card, which sits at the 69th percentile among all GPUs. The data indicates a system where the older six-core processor, lacking hyper-threading, constrains the otherwise capable RTX 3060 Ti, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU has headroom to spare.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 1185 out of 1705 combos in Greedfall signals a configuration that is functional but far from optimal for this title. The ranking is heavily influenced by the CPU’s age; the i5-9400 was released in late 2018 and is now end-of-life, with an average benchmark score of 2305. Its nearest rivals in the synthetic benchmark suite—the Intel Core i3-10305 (2300, 0.2% slower), Intel Core i3-1125G4 (2299, 0.2% slower), and Intel Xeon E-2134 (2295, 0.4% slower)—are all within a fraction of a percent, confirming the i5-9400 sits at a performance plateau. Only the Intel Core i7-8809G (2319, -0.6%) edges it out, and even then by less than a single percentage point.

On the GPU side, the RTX 3060 Ti’s average benchmark score of 25120 places it in a tightly contested cluster. Its nearest rivals—AMD Radeon RX 6700M (25180, -0.2%), AMD Radeon RX 6600 (25235, -0.5%), AMD Radeon 890M (25246, -0.5%), and AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (25287, -0.7%)—are all within 0.7% of the NVIDIA card, indicating that in raw compute terms the RTX 3060 Ti is essentially tied with these alternatives. The ranking disparity between the CPU and GPU is the key story: a top-31% GPU paired with a median CPU produces a combo that falls to the 69.5% percentile mark in this specific game.

The practical implication for Greedfall is that the combo’s rank is not a measure of the GPU’s capability but of the pairing’s balance. At 1080p, the CPU becomes the limiting factor, preventing the RTX 3060 Ti from stretching its legs. At 4K, the GPU takes over as the bottleneck, and the rank improves relative to other combos that might be CPU-bound at that resolution. The measured data shows a spread of 67.1 to 153.1 FPS across settings at 1080p, which is a wide range indicative of a system that responds strongly to settings changes but cannot maintain a consistent high frame rate due to the processor’s six threads.

FAQ

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested configurations in Greedfall?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 with the RTX 3060 Ti ranks 1185th out of 1705 tested combos, placing it in the lower third of all configurations. This rank is driven more by the CPU’s median performance than the GPU’s above-average standing.

Q: What is the CPU’s core and thread configuration, and why does it matter?

A: The i5-9400 has 6 cores and 6 threads, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. The lack of hyper-threading means 6 threads handle all workloads, which can limit performance in games that scale beyond six threads, such as Greedfall’s open-world environments.

Q: What is the GPU’s memory configuration?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but at 4K Ultra settings, the 8 GB capacity can become a constraint, as evidenced by the 30.2 FPS average at that setting.

Q: How does the combo perform at 1080p High settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo achieves an average of 110.3 FPS. This is a playable frame rate, but the gap to Low settings (153.1 FPS) suggests the CPU is limiting the GPU at this resolution, as the settings change should yield a larger frame rate increase if the GPU were the bottleneck.

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

A: Based on the measured data, 2560x1440 at High settings offers the best balance, with an average of 75.9 FPS. This resolution reduces the CPU bottleneck compared to 1080p while keeping the frame rate well above the 4K High result of 47.6 FPS.

Q: Is the GPU’s performance consistent with its synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti’s passmark G3D score of 20349 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2626 align with its 69th-percentile ranking. In Greedfall, the GPU performs as expected at higher resolutions where it becomes the primary bottleneck, but at 1080p the CPU prevents it from reaching its full potential.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic bottleneck shift. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo averages 110.3 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 High drops that to 75.9 FPS, a 31.2% reduction. Stepping up to 3840x2160 High yields 47.6 FPS, a further 37.3% decline from 1440p. This scaling pattern—where each resolution step produces a roughly 30-37% frame rate loss—indicates that the GPU is becoming increasingly dominant as the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more pronounced. The 1080p Low result of 153.1 FPS falls to 104.4 FPS at 1440p (a 31.8% drop) and then to 61.9 FPS at 4K (a 40.7% drop). The larger percentage drop at 4K Low compared to 4K High suggests that the GPU’s raw throughput is the primary constraint when settings are minimized, as the CPU has less work to do and the GPU must render more pixels. Conversely, at 1080p Low, the 153.1 FPS figure is likely near the CPU’s maximum frame rate ceiling for this game, given that the i5-9400’s six threads are fully engaged.

The 4K Ultra result of 30.2 FPS is the clearest indicator of GPU limitation. This is an unplayable frame rate for most users, and the drop from 4K High (47.6 FPS) to 4K Ultra (30.2 FPS) represents a 36.6% performance hit from a single settings tier increase. The data shows that the RTX 3060 Ti’s 8 GB memory buffer and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are stretched thin at 4K, and the GPU’s 16.20 TFLOPS FP32 compute is insufficient to maintain smooth frame rates at the highest preset. The bottleneck at 4K is unequivocally the GPU, while at 1080p, the CPU’s 2.90 GHz base clock and 4.10 GHz boost clock are the primary limiter.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces a wide range of results across the four settings presets. Low settings yield an average of 153.1 FPS, which is the highest frame rate measured in this configuration. Medium settings drop to 119.4 FPS, a 22.0% reduction from Low. High settings come in at 110.3 FPS, only 7.6% below Medium, suggesting diminishing returns in this settings tier. Ultra settings produce 67.1 FPS, a substantial 39.2% drop from High, indicating that the Ultra preset introduces effects that heavily tax the system, likely due to the CPU’s inability to handle the additional draw calls and physics calculations.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. Low settings average 104.4 FPS, which is still highly playable. Medium settings drop to 82.8 FPS, a 20.7% reduction. High settings follow at 75.9 FPS, a modest 8.3% decline from Medium. Ultra settings fall to 51.0 FPS, a 32.8% drop from High. The 1440p results show a more linear scaling than 1080p, with the gap between Low and Ultra being 53.4 FPS, compared to 86.0 FPS at 1080p. This narrowing suggests that at 1440p, the GPU is starting to take over as the primary bottleneck, reducing the CPU’s influence on settings-based performance variation.

At 3840x2160, the results compress further. Low settings average 61.9 FPS, which is the only playable result at this resolution. Medium settings drop to 48.4 FPS, a 21.8% reduction. High settings follow at 47.6 FPS, nearly identical to Medium (a 1.7% difference). Ultra settings fall to 30.2 FPS, a 36.6% drop from High. The near-parity between Medium and High at 4K is notable—the data shows a difference of only 0.8 FPS—which indicates that the GPU is saturated and additional settings changes have minimal impact on frame rate. The 4K results confirm that the RTX 3060 Ti is the limiting component at this resolution, as the CPU has ample headroom to feed the GPU.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel’s 14 nm process. Its base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost clock of 4.10 GHz, combined with 9 MB of shared L3 cache, place it as a solid mid-range desktop part from 2018. The CPU’s synthetic benchmarks—Cinebench R23 multicore score of 7969 and single-core score of 1125—reflect its position at the 50th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i3-10305, is just 0.2% faster in average benchmark score, underscoring that the i5-9400 is at the tail end of its performance generation.

In Greedfall, the CPU’s role is most evident at 1080p, where the frame rates at Low settings (153.1 FPS) and High settings (110.3 FPS) show a 42.8 FPS difference. This gap is larger than the GPU-bound scaling at 4K, where Low and High differ by only 14.3 FPS. The six threads of the i5-9400 are likely saturated by Greedfall’s CPU-intensive scenes—the game’s Action RPG genre with dense NPC populations and dynamic world events—which prevents the RTX 3060 Ti from reaching higher frame rates at lower resolutions. The lack of hyper-threading means that any workload beyond six threads stalls, and the CPU’s 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth further limits how quickly data can be fed to the GPU.

The CPU’s 65 W TDP and dual-channel DDR4 memory support are typical for the era, but the processor’s end-of-life status means it lacks the architectural advantages of newer parts. The i5-9400’s boost clock of 4.10 GHz is respectable, yet its single-core Cinebench R23 score of 1125 is 50th-percentile performance, which is adequate for Greedfall’s main thread but not exceptional. The data suggests that at 1440p and above, the CPU’s limitations become less pronounced as the GPU takes over, but at 1080p, the i5-9400 is the primary constraint on the RTX 3060 Ti’s performance. This is reflected in the combo’s rank of 1185th, which would likely improve if paired with a higher-thread-count CPU, but the measured FPS values at 1440p High (75.9 FPS) and 1080p High (110.3 FPS) remain playable for most users.