Greedfall

Greedfall, an Action RPG from 2019, exhibits a pronounced performance scaling curve when paired with the Intel Core i7-13700K and AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT. The measured frame rates across resolutions reveal a system that is decisively constrained by the graphics card at higher pixel counts, while the processor demonstrates ample headroom to feed frames at lower resolutions. The data indicates a configuration where the balance of power shifts dramatically depending on the target display resolution and quality preset.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 1440p and then to 4K shows a classic GPU-bound performance curve. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the system produces an average of 110.6 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same High preset, the average drops to 75.2 FPS, a reduction of 32%. This substantial decrease is a direct consequence of the increased pixel count, which demands more from the Radeon RX 6600 XT's 256.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth and 10.60 TFLOPS of compute power.

The scaling becomes more severe when pushing to 4K. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the average FPS falls to 46.6, representing another 38% drop from the 1440p result. This steep decline highlights that the GPU is the primary limiting component at this resolution. The frame rate at 4K High is less than half of what is achieved at 1080p High, underscoring the significant workload increase that 4K rendering places on the graphics pipeline.

The pattern is consistent across all settings presets. With Low settings, the system achieves 151.6 FPS at 1080p, 106.9 FPS at 1440p, and 61.9 FPS at 4K. The relative performance loss from 1080p to 4K is 59%, which is a larger proportional drop than the 58% seen at High settings, indicating that even at Low settings, the GPU's fill rate and shading capabilities are the bottleneck. The RX 6600 XT, with its 64 ROPs and 128 TMUs, simply cannot sustain high frame rates when the pixel workload quadruples from 1080p to 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a 16-core, 24-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. Its benchmark results place it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 39000 and a single-core score of 5505. This level of performance is more than sufficient to keep up with the demands of Greedfall, even at lower resolutions where the CPU's role is more prominent.

At 1080p with Low settings, the system averages 151.6 FPS. This high frame rate is partly attributable to the CPU's strong single-thread performance, evidenced by a PassMark single-thread score of 4333. The 3DMark single-thread score of 1136 further confirms that the processor can handle the game's logic and draw calls without becoming a limiting factor. The CPU's performance is virtually identical to its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i7-13700KF, which shows a deltaPct of -0.1%, and the AMD EPYC 4364P, which is 0.3% slower.

However, the CPU's headroom becomes apparent when examining the scaling from Medium to High settings. At 1440p, the difference between Low (106.9 FPS) and Medium (82.2 FPS) is significant, but the jump from High (75.2 FPS) to Ultra (46.2 FPS) shows a more dramatic drop. This indicates that while the CPU is capable of high throughput, the GPU's limitations become more pronounced as the graphical load increases, not the CPU's. The 3DMark max-thread score of 12412 suggests that even under heavy multi-threaded load, the CPU has ample performance reserves, making it unlikely to be the bottleneck in this configuration for Greedfall.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 4K with Ultra settings?

A: The average frame rate at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 27.6 FPS. This is the lowest measured result across all resolution and settings combinations, indicating that the Ultra preset at 4K is particularly demanding for this GPU.

Q: How much faster is 1080p Low compared to 4K Ultra?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system averages 151.6 FPS, while at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, it averages 27.6 FPS. This represents a performance difference of 124 FPS, meaning the 1080p Low result is roughly 5.5 times faster than the 4K Ultra result.

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-13700K a bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data suggests no. With a boost clock of 5.40 GHz and a PassMark single-thread score of 4333, the CPU provides sufficient performance to reach 151.6 FPS at 1080p Low. The frame rate scaling from Low to Medium at 1080p (151.6 to 119.6 FPS) suggests the GPU is the primary limiter even at this resolution.

Q: What is the difference in performance between the RX 6600 XT and its closest rival?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT has an average benchmark score of 27985. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, has a score of 27956, showing a deltaPct of 0.1%, meaning the RX 6600 XT is 0.1% faster. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is 0.9% faster, with a score of 28238.

Q: Does increasing the settings from Medium to High have a larger impact at 1440p than at 1080p?

A: Yes. At 1080p, the drop from Medium (119.6 FPS) to High (110.6 FPS) is 9 FPS. At 1440p, the drop from Medium (82.2 FPS) to High (75.2 FPS) is 7 FPS. While the absolute drop is smaller, the relative impact at 1440p is similar, but the frame rate at 1440p High is already below the 80 FPS threshold.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all graphics cards?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is in the 71st percentile of all GPUs. This places it above the majority of graphics cards, but its performance in Greedfall at 4K Ultra (27.6 FPS) shows that it is not suited for maximum settings at that resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for Greedfall with this configuration shows a clear hierarchy across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 151.6 FPS on Low, 119.6 FPS on Medium, 110.6 FPS on High, and 69.6 FPS on Ultra. This represents a steady decline as graphical fidelity increases, with the most significant single-step drop occurring between High and Ultra, a 41 FPS decrease.

At 2560x1440, the results are lower, with averages of 106.9 FPS on Low, 82.2 FPS on Medium, 75.2 FPS on High, and 46.2 FPS on Ultra. The gap between Low and Medium is 24.7 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 29 FPS. This indicates that Ultra settings at 1440p present a substantial challenge for the GPU, as it must render more pixels with more complex effects.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates are significantly reduced. The system averages 61.9 FPS on Low, 46.8 FPS on Medium, 46.6 FPS on High, and 27.6 FPS on Ultra. The results for Medium and High are nearly identical, with only a 0.2 FPS difference, suggesting that the GPU is saturated and additional settings changes have minimal impact on performance. The 4K Ultra result of 27.6 FPS is the only measured result below 30 FPS, making it the only setting where the game is likely to feel unresponsive.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, based on the RDNA 2.0 architecture and Navi 23 chip, plays the dominant role in determining Greedfall's performance at higher resolutions. With 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, the GPU delivers 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its boost clock of 2589 MHz and game clock of 2359 MHz provide the raw compute power, rated at 10.60 TFLOPS for FP32 operations.

The GPU's performance is directly reflected in the frame rate scaling. At 1080p, the GPU is capable of delivering high frame rates, with the Ultra preset reaching 69.6 FPS. However, as the resolution increases to 1440p and then 4K, the GPU's pixel throughput and memory bandwidth become limiting factors. The 4K Ultra result of 27.6 FPS is particularly telling, as it falls below the 30 FPS threshold often considered the minimum for smooth gameplay.

The RX 6600 XT's 32 RT cores are present, but Greedfall does not appear to leverage ray tracing in a way that affects these results. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 16461 and its 71st percentile ranking among all GPUs place it in the mid-to-upper tier of graphics cards. Its performance is closely matched by the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, which is only 0.1% slower, and the AMD Radeon R9 M395X, which is 0.4% slower. This places the RX 6600 XT in a competitive position, but its 8 GB of VRAM and 128-bit memory bus are clear constraints for 4K gaming, as evidenced by the significant frame rate drops at that resolution.