Greedfall

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i7-12700KF is a 12-core, 20-thread Alder Lake-S part with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. It is built on Intel's 10 nm process with a 125 W TDP. Its cache layout includes 80 KB L1 per core, 1.25 MB L2 per core, and 25 MB of shared L3. The processor supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, and it connects to the platform via PCIe Gen 4 with 20 CPU lanes. This is an unlocked multiplier part, meaning overclocking is possible; the launch MSRP is $384.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i7-12700KF shows strong scaling as thread count increases. The 3DMark scores progress from 1,043 in single-thread, 2,065 in 2-thread, 4,011 in 4-thread, 7,211 in 8-thread, 9,282 in 16-thread, and peak at 9,983 with max threads. This pattern indicates that the CPU is not hitting a wall as more threads are utilized—the jump from 8 to 16 threads is substantial, and the max-thread score is only about 7% higher than the 16-thread result. Cinebench R23 numbers reinforce this: 4,071 single-core and 28,838 multi-core. The multi-core result is roughly 7 times the single-core figure, which is a strong showing for a 12-core part with 20 threads.

For Greedfall, an Action RPG from 2019, the relevance of these CPU metrics depends heavily on the resolution and settings. At 1080p Low, the average FPS reaches 167, and the CPU's single-thread performance (PassMark single-thread score of 3,984) is more than adequate to feed the GPU in such a light graphical load. At 1080p Ultra, the average drops to 76 FPS, but this is more likely a GPU constraint than a CPU limit—the gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is a massive 91 FPS, which suggests the GPU is the bottleneck as settings rise. The CPU's headroom is evident in the 3DMark 2-thread score of 2,065, which shows that even modest thread usage yields high performance; Greedfall, being an older title, likely doesn't stress all 20 threads heavily.

The i7-12700KF ranks in the 85th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35,365. Its nearest rivals are the Intel Core i7-13700T (avg score 35,403, delta -0.1%), the Intel Core i5-13600T (avg score 35,305, delta 0.2%), the Intel Core 5 213PE (avg score 35,428, delta -0.2%), and the Intel Core i7-12700K (avg score 35,287, delta 0.2%). The deltas are tiny—within 0.2%—so in a CPU-bound scenario, you would not notice a difference between these parts. In Greedfall, the data suggests that CPU-bound scenarios are rare; the measured FPS differences across settings are far larger than what a 0.2% CPU performance delta would produce.

The practical takeaway is that the i7-12700KF is unlikely to be the limiting factor in Greedfall at any resolution tested. Even at 4K Ultra, where the average FPS is 31, the CPU has plenty of headroom based on its synthetic single-thread and multi-thread scores. The 12 cores and 20 threads are overkill for a game of this era, but they ensure that background tasks or streaming won't cause frame drops. The L3 cache of 25 MB is also beneficial for maintaining consistent frame times, though the game itself is not likely to be cache-sensitive given its age.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for Greedfall with this combo covers four presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) at three resolutions (1080p, 1440p, 4K). The pattern is consistent: Low delivers the highest FPS, followed by Medium, then High, then Ultra. At 1080p, the averages are 167, 131, 119, and 76 FPS respectively. At 1440p, they are 116, 91, 83, and 53 FPS. At 4K, they are 69, 54, 49, and 31 FPS.

For a smooth experience, the High preset is the sweet spot. At 1080p High, the average is 119 FPS—well above the 60 FPS threshold and close to high-refresh territory. At 1440p High, the average is 83 FPS, which is still very playable for most users. Even at 4K High, the 49 FPS average is borderline but acceptable if you prefer visual fidelity over frame rate. The jump from High to Ultra is punishing: at 1080p, you lose 43 FPS (from 119 to 76); at 1440p, you lose 30 FPS (from 83 to 53); at 4K, you lose 18 FPS (from 49 to 31). The Ultra preset demands a heavy toll for what is likely a marginal visual improvement in an older game.

Medium is a viable option if you need higher frame rates, but the gains over High are modest. At 1080p, Medium gives 131 FPS versus High's 119—a 12 FPS improvement. At 1440p, the gap is 8 FPS (91 vs 83). At 4K, the gap is 5 FPS (54 vs 49). Low is only worth considering if you are chasing maximum FPS on a high-refresh monitor, as it delivers 167 FPS at 1080p and 116 FPS at 1440p, but the visual quality drop is substantial.

The data suggests that High is the best balance of image quality and performance for this combo. The fact that High at 1440p (83 FPS) is faster than Ultra at 1080p (76 FPS) is telling—you can drop from Ultra to High at 1080p and gain enough headroom to move up in resolution without sacrificing frame rate. A practical recommendation: use High at 1440p for a solid 83 FPS average, or High at 1080p for a 119 FPS average if you prefer higher refresh rates. If you must use Ultra, be prepared for sub-60 FPS at 1440p (53 FPS) and sub-30 FPS at 4K (31 FPS), which is not ideal for an action RPG.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals where the bottleneck lies. At High settings, the averages are 119 FPS at 1080p, 83 FPS at 1440p, and 49 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 36 FPS (about 30%), and the drop from 1440p to 4K is 34 FPS (about 41%). At Low settings, the averages are 167, 116, and 69 FPS—a similar percentage drop. At Medium, they are 131, 91, and 54 FPS. At Ultra, they are 76, 53, and 31 FPS.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all presets: each resolution step cuts the frame rate by roughly a third to a half. This is a classic sign of a GPU-bound scenario. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the FPS would be more similar across resolutions, especially at lower settings. The fact that Low at 1080p (167 FPS) drops to Low at 4K (69 FPS)—a 98 FPS difference—indicates that the AMD Radeon RX 9060 is the primary constraint as pixel count increases.

The RX 9060 has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth. At 4K, the pixel throughput demand is high, and the GPU's 64 ROPs and 21.43 TFLOPS FP32 performance are being taxed. The measured 4K results show that even Low settings only produce 69 FPS, which is below what a high-end GPU would achieve. This confirms that the GPU is the limiting component in this combo for Greedfall.

Interestingly, the scaling from 1080p to 1440p is less severe than from 1440p to 4K for all presets. For example, at High, the 1080p-to-1440p drop is 30%, while the 1440p-to-4K drop is 41%. This suggests that the GPU handles moderate resolution increases reasonably well, but the jump to 4K pushes it past its comfortable operating range. The VRAM capacity of 8 GB may also come into play at 4K, though the game is from 2019 and likely not VRAM-hungry by modern standards. The data, however, does not specify VRAM usage, so this remains an inference from the FPS scaling pattern.

For a 4K experience, the only playable preset is Low (69 FPS) or Medium (54 FPS), with High (49 FPS) being borderline and Ultra (31 FPS) being too slow. This combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where High presets deliver strong frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Intel Core i7-12700KF and AMD Radeon RX 9060 ranks 1,672 out of 2,938 tested combos in Greedfall. This places it in the 43rd percentile of all combos—meaning roughly 57% of tested pairings perform better in this specific game. The rank is a measure of the overall FPS across the measured settings and resolutions, so it reflects the GPU's mid-range positioning more than the CPU's high-end capability.

Given that the CPU ranks in the 85th percentile among all CPUs, the combo rank of 1,672 out of 2,938 is dragged down by the GPU. The RX 9060 ranks in the 59th percentile among all GPUs, which aligns with the combo's overall position. The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor—if it were, the combo rank would be closer to the GPU's percentile. Instead, the combo rank sits between the CPU and GPU percentiles, indicating a balanced but GPU-forward system.

The RX 9060's nearest GPU rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (avg score 16,129, delta -0.7%), the AMD Radeon R9 370X (avg score 15,862, delta 1%), the AMD Radeon RX 7700 (avg score 15,852, delta 1%), and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (avg score 15,679, delta 2.1%). The deltas are small, but the RX 9060 sits slightly below the RTX 3060 Ti and slightly above the RX 7700. In Greedfall, the measured FPS reflects this mid-range positioning: 119 FPS at 1080p High is respectable, but not exceptional for a modern GPU.

The combo rank of 1,672 suggests that many other combinations—likely those with higher-end GPUs—will deliver more FPS in Greedfall. However, for the price point of the CPU (launch MSRP $384) and the GPU's mid-range positioning, this combo performs adequately. The rank is not a judgment of quality, but rather a data point that helps contextualize the measured FPS. If you are building a system with this combo, expect it to handle Greedfall well at 1080p and 1440p, but not to top any leaderboards.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 is a RDNA 4.0 architecture GPU with the Navi 44 chip, built on TSMC's 4 nm process. It has 1,792 shading units, 112 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, along with 28 ray tracing cores. The base clock is 1700 MHz, the game clock is 2400 MHz, and the boost clock reaches 2990 MHz. The memory is 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, running at 2250 MHz with an effective speed of 18 Gbps, yielding 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's FP32 performance is 21.43 TFLOPS, with a pixel rate of 191.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 334.9 GTexel/s. The TDP is 132 W, requiring a 300 W PSU and a single 8-pin power connector. It uses a PCIe 5.0 x16 interface and has display outputs of 1x HDMI 2.1b and 2x DisplayPort 2.1a.

In synthetic benchmarks, the RX 9060 scores 3,322 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 88,183 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 39,476 in Geekbench Vulkan. The PassMark scores show 17,631 in G3D and 9,919 in GPU compute. The GPU's percentile among all GPUs is 59, with an average benchmark score of 16,014.

In Greedfall, the GPU's role is clearly the dominant factor in determining FPS. The measured results show that at 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 31—a low number that reflects the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus being pushed to their limits. The 288.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, the memory bandwidth becomes a potential bottleneck for texture-heavy scenes. The 64 ROPs are also a limiting factor at high resolutions, as pixel fill rate becomes more critical.

The GPU's ray tracing cores (28) are present, but Greedfall is a 2019 title that likely does not use ray tracing, so they are unused in this game. The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) ensures compatibility, but the game's engine is older and may not fully utilize modern features. The data shows that the GPU performs best at 1080p, where it delivers 167 FPS on Low and 119 FPS on High. At 1440p, it maintains playable frame rates on High (83 FPS) but struggles on Ultra (53 FPS). At 4K, only Low (69 FPS) and Medium (54 FPS) are acceptable for smooth gameplay.

The GPU's position relative to its rivals—slightly below the RTX 3060 Ti and slightly above the RX 7700—explains why the measured FPS in Greedfall is not exceptional. This is a mid-range GPU that excels at 1080p and handles 1440p well, but it is not designed for high-refresh 4K gaming. For Greedfall specifically, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM is adequate for the game's textures at 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K Ultra preset (31 FPS) indicates that the GPU is the primary constraint in this combo.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1080p and 1440p are the sweet spots. At 1080p High, the average FPS is 119, and at 1440p High, it is 83. At 4K, even High settings only produce 49 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The i7-12700KF has an average benchmark score of 35,365, while its nearest rivals are the i7-13700T (35,403, -0.1%), i5-13600T (35,305, 0.2%), Core 5 213PE (35,428, -0.2%), and i7-12700K (35,287, 0.2%). The performance differences are negligible, within 0.2%.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in Greedfall?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. The FPS drops significantly as resolution increases—for example, at High settings, the average FPS goes from 119 at 1080p to 49 at 4K. The CPU's high percentile (85th) and strong synthetic scores indicate it has ample headroom.

Q: What settings should I use for a 60 FPS target?

A: At 1080p, High (119 FPS) or Ultra (76 FPS) both exceed 60 FPS. At 1440p, High (83 FPS) is the best option; Ultra drops to 53 FPS. At 4K, Medium (54 FPS) is close but slightly below 60 FPS, so High (49 FPS) is not recommended if you need 60 FPS.

Q: How does the GPU rank against other GPUs?

A: The RX 9060 is in the 59th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the RTX 3060 Ti (avg score 16,129, -0.7%), R9 370X (15,862, 1%), RX 7700 (15,852, 1%), and Pro W5500 (15,679, 2.1%).

Q: Is the 8 GB VRAM enough for Greedfall?

A: Based on the measured FPS, the 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, where High settings produce 119 and 83 FPS respectively. At 4K, the performance drops significantly, but this is also due to the GPU's 128-bit memory bus and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth, not just VRAM capacity.