Greedfall

# Greedfall: Intel Core i7-12700K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D

The Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D delivers exceptional performance in Greedfall, securing the top spot among 2,938 tested combinations. The measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings presets demonstrate that this pairing consistently exceeds the thresholds required for smooth gameplay, with the lowest recorded average being 72 FPS at 4K Ultra settings. The data reveals a system that prioritizes raw throughput, leveraging the 12-core processor and 32 GB graphics memory to maintain high performance even under demanding configurations.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data indicates that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all three resolutions, providing high frame rates while maintaining visual fidelity. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 301 FPS average, which is 28 FPS higher than High settings and 126 FPS higher than Ultra. The Medium preset also shows a minimum frame rate of 256 FPS, ensuring consistent performance without significant dips. At 2560x1440, Medium achieves 209 FPS average with a minimum of 178 FPS, representing a 19 FPS advantage over High and an 88 FPS advantage over Ultra. The 3840x2160 Medium preset produces 125 FPS average with a minimum of 106 FPS, which remains well above the 60 FPS threshold for comfortable play.

For users prioritizing maximum visual quality, the Ultra preset remains viable at every resolution, though the performance cost is substantial. At 1080p, Ultra delivers 175 FPS average, which drops to 121 FPS at 1440p and 72 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra figure, while the lowest in the dataset, still provides a playable experience, but the 53 FPS gap between Ultra and Medium at 4K suggests that Medium offers superior value in terms of smoothness. The High preset represents a middle ground, with 273 FPS at 1080p, 190 FPS at 1440p, and 113 FPS at 4K, but it consistently trails Medium by 28-65 FPS depending on resolution.

The Low preset produces the highest frame rates, reaching 383 FPS at 1080p, 266 FPS at 1440p, and 159 FPS at 4K. However, the visual compromise is significant, and the data shows that Medium provides nearly the same performance headroom while offering better graphical quality. The benchmark results indicate that Medium is the optimal preset for this combination, as it maintains frame rates above 100 FPS even at 4K while providing a substantial improvement over Low settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering a memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. This substantial memory capacity ensures that Greedfall's texture data and geometry remain entirely resident in VRAM, eliminating any potential stuttering from memory swapping. The 92,200 million transistors on the GB202 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm process from TSMC, provide the computational foundation for the measured performance. The boost clock of 2407 MHz, combined with the 21,760 shading units, drives the pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s.

The GPU's FP32 throughput of 104.8 TFLOPS directly contributes to the high frame rates observed across all settings. The benchmark results show that the GPU is not the limiting factor in this configuration, as even at 4K Ultra settings, the system maintains 72 FPS average. The 32 GB memory capacity is particularly relevant for Greedfall, an Action RPG that renders expansive environments with dense foliage and complex character models. The GDDR7 memory operating at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) provides the bandwidth necessary to feed the 680 texture mapping units and 176 render output units without bottlenecks.

The RTX 5090 D's DirectX 12 Ultimate support and Vulkan 1.4 compatibility ensure that Greedfall's rendering pipeline is fully utilized. The GPU's OpenCL score of 310,674 and Vulkan score of 376,915 in Geekbench indicate strong compute performance, which translates to efficient handling of the game's physics and particle effects. The measured performance in Greedfall aligns with the GPU's percentile ranking of 92 among all GPUs, confirming that this is a top-tier graphics solution for this title.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression across resolutions reveals how the system scales from 1080p to 4K. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 301 at 1920x1080 to 209 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 30.6%, and further to 125 at 3840x2160, representing a cumulative 58.5% decrease from 1080p. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is becoming progressively more stressed as pixel count increases, but the RTX 5090 D's immense computational resources keep the frame rates at playable levels even at 4K.

The Low settings preset shows a similar scaling trend, with 383 FPS at 1080p dropping to 266 FPS at 1440p (30.5% reduction) and 159 FPS at 4K (58.5% reduction from 1080p). The High settings exhibit slightly steeper scaling, with 273 FPS at 1080p declining to 190 FPS at 1440p (30.4% reduction) and 113 FPS at 4K (58.6% reduction). The Ultra settings demonstrate the most pronounced drop, moving from 175 FPS at 1080p to 121 FPS at 1440p (30.9% reduction) and 72 FPS at 4K (58.9% reduction from 1080p).

The consistency of these percentage reductions across settings presets indicates that resolution scaling is primarily GPU-bound. The fact that the 1080p to 1440p transition costs roughly 30% performance and the 1440p to 4K transition costs another 40% suggests that the pixel throughput requirements are scaling as expected with resolution. At 1080p, the frame rates exceeding 300 FPS on Medium settings indicate that the CPU, with its 12 cores and 20 threads, is capable of feeding the GPU adequately, but the system is likely GPU-limited even at this resolution given the extreme frame rates achieved.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 4K gameplay?

A: The Medium preset at 3840x2160 produces 125 FPS average with a minimum of 106 FPS, making it the recommended choice. Ultra settings at 4K drop to 72 FPS average, which is still playable but offers less headroom for demanding scenes.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D's 32 GB memory affect Greedfall performance?

A: The 32 GB GDDR7 memory with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth ensures that all game assets fit in VRAM, preventing stutter from memory swapping. This is evident in the consistently high minimum frame rates, such as 256 FPS at 1080p Medium.

Q: Is the Core i7-12700K a bottleneck for the RTX 5090 D in this game?

A: The data shows no evidence of CPU bottlenecking. At 1080p Medium, the system achieves 301 FPS average, indicating the processor with 12 cores and 20 threads can keep pace with the GPU's output. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 19,784 supports this capability.

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

A: The measured average FPS for 2560x1440 High settings is 190 FPS. This provides a smooth experience on high refresh rate monitors, with a 69 FPS margin over Medium settings at the same resolution.

Q: How does the combo rank compared to other tested configurations?

A: The Intel Core i7-12700K and RTX 5090 D combination ranks first out of 2,938 tested combos in Greedfall. This top ranking is consistent with the GPU's 92nd percentile performance ranking and the CPU's 84th percentile ranking.

Q: Does the Ultra preset provide a playable experience at 4K?

A: Yes, the 4K Ultra preset achieves 72 FPS average, which is above the standard 60 FPS threshold. However, the Medium preset provides 53 FPS more at the same resolution, making it a more comfortable choice for maintaining high frame rates.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K, part of the Alder Lake architecture, provides the processing foundation for this combination. With 12 cores and 20 threads, the processor leverages its hybrid architecture to handle both gaming workloads and background tasks efficiently. The base clock of 3.60 GHz boosts to 5.00 GHz, enabling responsive single-threaded performance crucial for game logic. The 25 MB of shared L3 cache, along with 1.25 MB L2 per core and 80 KB L1 per core, ensures that frequently accessed data remains close to the execution units.

The benchmark data for the processor shows strong multi-threaded capabilities, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 19,784 and a Geekbench multicore score of 15,790. These results indicate that the CPU can handle the complex AI routines and physics calculations present in Greedfall's Action RPG gameplay. The single-thread performance, measured at 1,850.5 in Cinebench R23 and 2,308 in Geekbench, ensures that the main game thread is not a bottleneck. The 3DMark scores provide additional context, with 9,276 for 16 threads and 9,979 for max threads, showing that the processor scales effectively across its core count.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 84 among all processors places it in the upper tier, though nearest rivals such as the Intel Core i5-13600T and Core i7-12700KF show negligible differences in average benchmark scores (-0.1% and -0.2% delta respectively). In Greedfall specifically, the CPU's contribution is evident in the high frame rates achieved at 1080p, where the system reaches 383 FPS on Low settings. This suggests that the processor's 5.00 GHz boost clock and 20 threads provide sufficient headroom for the GPU to operate at full capacity. The 125 W TDP of the i7-12700K, while not a performance metric, indicates the power envelope within which this processing capability is delivered.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. The Low preset achieves 383 FPS average, followed by Medium at 301 FPS (with a minimum of 256 FPS and maximum of 346 FPS), High at 273 FPS, and Ultra at 175 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra represents a 54.3% performance reduction, with each settings tier costing approximately 30-80 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum frame rate of 256 FPS ensures that even during intense combat sequences, the frame rate remains well above display refresh rates.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain exceptionally high. Low settings produce 266 FPS average, Medium delivers 209 FPS (with a minimum of 178 FPS and maximum of 240 FPS), High achieves 190 FPS, and Ultra produces 121 FPS. The 1440p results show a consistent reduction of approximately 30% compared to 1080p across all settings, reflecting the increased pixel workload. The Ultra preset at 1440p, at 121 FPS, still exceeds the requirements of most high refresh rate displays.

At 3840x2160, the system demonstrates its capability at 4K resolution. Low settings achieve 159 FPS average, Medium produces 125 FPS (with a minimum of 106 FPS and maximum of 143 FPS), High delivers 113 FPS, and Ultra drops to 72 FPS. The 4K Medium preset's minimum frame rate of 106 FPS is particularly noteworthy, as it ensures consistent performance even in demanding scenes. The scaling from 1440p to 4K results in a 40-41% reduction in frame rates, which is consistent with the 2.25x increase in pixel count when moving from 1440p to 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of Intel Core i7-12700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks first among 2,938 tested combos in Greedfall, establishing it as the top-performing configuration in the benchmark database. This top ranking is supported by the measured frame rates, which exceed 300 FPS at 1080p Medium settings and maintain over 100 FPS at 4K Medium settings. The GPU's performance percentile of 92 places it in the top 8% of all graphics cards, while the CPU's percentile of 84 places it in the top 16% of all processors.

The combination's dominance is particularly evident when considering the lowest measured performance point: 72 FPS at 4K Ultra settings. This figure remains above the standard 60 FPS threshold, meaning no settings combination in the dataset produces an unplayable experience. The rank of 1 out of 2,938 indicates that this pairing outperforms all other tested combinations, including those with potentially newer or more expensive components. The nearest GPU rivals, such as the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT and RX 6850M XT, show average score deltas of 1.1% and -1.6% respectively, though these comparisons are based on synthetic benchmarks rather than direct Greedfall measurements.

The CPU's nearest rivals, including the Intel Core i5-13600T and Core i7-12700KF, exhibit minimal average score differences (-0.1% and -0.2%), suggesting that the processor selection has less impact on the overall ranking than the GPU. This is consistent with the frame rate data, which shows the GPU becoming the primary constraint as resolution increases. The top ranking in Greedfall, combined with the component-level percentile scores, positions this combo as the reference point for high-end performance in this title.