Greedfall

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for Greedfall with the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 show a clear progression as resolution increases. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo produces 242.1 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same preset drops the average to 167.6 FPS, a reduction of roughly 31%. At 3840x2160, the average falls further to 100.6 FPS, representing another 40% decline from the 1440p figure.

This scaling pattern indicates that the system is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions. The RTX 5080, with its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth, has ample resources for this 2019 Action RPG. The fact that 4K High still delivers triple-digit frame rates suggests the GPU is never the limiting factor in an absolute sense, but the relative drops from 1080p to 4K show the expected workload increase on the graphics processor.

Looking at the Low preset, the frame rates are 269.6 FPS at 1080p, 232.4 FPS at 1440p, and 138 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result is 48.8% lower than the 1080p Low figure. This steeper relative drop at lower settings further confirms that the GPU is doing the heavy lifting when visual quality is reduced, as the CPU has less geometry and shading work to feed.

The Medium preset shows 247.1 FPS at 1080p, 186.6 FPS at 1440p, and 106.5 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, yielding 156.2 FPS at 1080p, 105.9 FPS at 1440p, and 62.6 FPS at 4K. Across all presets, the 1080p-to-1440p drop is smaller than the 1440p-to-4K drop, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario where pixel count scales quadratically.

The data indicates that at 1080p and 1440p, the frame rates are high enough that the CPU's six cores and six threads may start to influence the upper ceiling. The i5-9400 has a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, which is reasonable, but the 1080p Low result of 269.6 FPS versus the 4K Low result of 138 FPS shows that the system has headroom to scale. The limiting component at 1080p is more likely the CPU's single-thread performance, given that the RTX 5080 is far beyond what this game requires for 1080p rendering.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Intel Core i5-9400 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 ranks 108th out of 1705 tested combinations in Greedfall. This places it in the top 6.3% of all tested combos, which is a strong showing for a pairing that includes a six-core CPU from 2018 and a flagship GPU from 2025.

The rank is primarily driven by the GPU's immense capability. The RTX 5080 sits at the 89th percentile among all GPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 59188. Its nearest rivals in the overall GPU rankings include the Intel Arc A570M at 58239 (1.6% behind), the Intel Arc Pro A60 at 60326 (1.9% ahead), the Intel Arc A580 at 57756 (2.5% behind), and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X at 57661 (2.6% behind). These deltas are small, indicating that the RTX 5080 is closely matched with several other GPUs in synthetic tests, but in Greedfall specifically, the measured frame rates are what matter.

The CPU's contribution to this rank is less significant. The i5-9400 sits at the 50th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2305. Its nearest rivals are the Intel Core i3-10305 at 2300 (0.2% behind), the Intel Core i3-1125G4 at 2299 (0.2% behind), the Intel Xeon E-2134 at 2295 (0.4% behind), and the Intel Core i7-8809G at 2319 (0.6% ahead). These tiny deltas suggest that the i5-9400 is positioned in a dense cluster of mid-range processors, and its performance is neither a standout nor a liability.

Given that the combo ranks 108th out of 1705, the data suggests that Greedfall benefits more from GPU throughput than from CPU core count or clock speed. The RTX 5080's 10752 shading units and 112 ROPs provide the raw pixel-pushing power needed for the game's environments, while the i5-9400's six cores are sufficient to avoid severe bottlenecks in most scenes.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is the dominant component in this pairing. Its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than enough for Greedfall's textures and geometry at any preset. The GPU's base clock is 2295 MHz, boosting to 2617 MHz, and it achieves a pixel rate of 293.1 GPixel/s with a texture rate of 879.3 GTexel/s.

In Greedfall, the GPU's role is clearest when comparing presets at the same resolution. At 4K, the Ultra preset yields 62.6 FPS, while High yields 100.6 FPS, Medium yields 106.5 FPS, and Low yields 138 FPS. The gap between Ultra and High is 38 FPS, which is substantial and indicates that the Ultra preset imposes a heavy load on the GPU's shading units and memory subsystem. The RTX 5080's 56.28 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is being taxed by the Ultra settings, likely due to increased draw distances, shadow quality, and post-processing effects.

The GPU's memory capacity is not a limiting factor here. At 16 GB, the RTX 5080 has far more VRAM than Greedfall requires, even at 4K Ultra. The bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s ensures that texture streaming and buffer updates do not cause stutters, which is reflected in the consistent average FPS figures across all measured rows.

The RTX 5080's benchmark scores further illustrate its capability. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 8637, and in Geekbench OpenCL it scores 264461. Its Passmark G3D score is 36565, with a GPU compute score of 21789. These synthetic results align with the measured Greedfall frame rates, confirming that the GPU is performing near its expected level in this game.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved by this combo in Greedfall?

A: The highest measured average is 269.6 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo delivers an average of 62.6 FPS, which is playable but noticeably lower than the 100.6 FPS at 4K High.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the GPU is not the bottleneck at 1080p, as frame rates exceed 240 FPS on most presets. The i5-9400's six cores and six threads, with a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, are more likely to limit the upper ceiling at this resolution.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested combinations in Greedfall?

A: The combo ranks 108th out of 1705 tested combinations, placing it in the top 6.3% of all pairings.

Q: How much VRAM does the RTX 5080 have, and is it sufficient for this game?

A: The RTX 5080 has 16 GB of GDDR7 memory with 960.0 GB/s bandwidth, which is far more than Greedfall requires at any preset or resolution.

Q: What is the difference in performance between High and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, High settings yield 167.6 FPS, while Ultra yields 105.9 FPS, a difference of 61.7 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the High preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. At 1080p, High delivers 242.1 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any display. At 1440p, High produces 167.6 FPS, still well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. At 4K, High maintains 100.6 FPS, which is excellent for a demanding resolution.

The Medium preset is nearly as fast as High at all resolutions, with 247.1 FPS at 1080p, 186.6 FPS at 1440p, and 106.5 FPS at 4K. The difference between Medium and High is small, suggesting that High's additional visual features do not impose a significant cost on the RTX 5080. However, the Ultra preset is a different story. At 4K, Ultra drops to 62.6 FPS, which is a 37.8% reduction from High. At 1440p, Ultra yields 105.9 FPS, and at 1080p it yields 156.2 FPS.

For players targeting 4K, High is the recommended preset, as it stays above 100 FPS while providing better visuals than Medium. For 1440p, Ultra is viable at 105.9 FPS, but High offers a 58% higher frame rate with likely minor visual differences. At 1080p, even Ultra exceeds 150 FPS, so players with high-refresh monitors can use any preset without concern.

The Low preset is not recommended for general play, as it sacrifices too much visual quality for marginal frame rate gains. At 1080p, Low is only 27.5 FPS faster than High, and at 4K, it is 37.4 FPS faster. These increases are not worth the reduction in graphical fidelity for most users.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a six-core, six-thread processor from the Coffee Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. It has 9 MB of shared L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. The CPU does not have a multiplier unlocked, and its TDP is 65 W.

In Greedfall, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU, but it still matters. The measured frame rates at 1080p Low (269.6 FPS) and 4K Low (138 FPS) show that the CPU can feed the GPU at high rates in lighter scenes. However, the gap between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings (269.6 vs. 232.4 FPS) suggests that the CPU's single-thread performance is sufficient for most situations, but not unlimited.

The i5-9400's benchmark scores provide context. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 7969, with a single-core score of 1125. In Cinebench R20, it scores 3346 multi-core and 472 single-core. These numbers place the CPU at the 50th percentile among all CPUs, meaning it is exactly average in the database. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i3-10305, scores 2300 on average, just 0.2% behind the i5-9400's 2305.

In Greedfall, the CPU's six cores are adequate for the game's AI, physics, and world streaming. The game is not known for being CPU-intensive, so the i5-9400 does not become a severe bottleneck at any preset. The fact that the combo ranks 108th out of 1705, despite the CPU being average, indicates that Greedfall's performance is overwhelmingly GPU-dependent.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s is modest by modern standards, but Greedfall does not require high-bandwidth memory access. The 9 MB L3 cache is shared across all cores, which helps with game data locality. Overall, the i5-9400 provides a stable foundation for the RTX 5080, allowing the GPU to reach its potential in this title without holding it back to a significant degree.