Greedfall

Greedfall, the 2019 action RPG from Spiders, presents a clear scaling story for the Intel Core i7-13700K and AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT pairing. The measured data shows a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, with the CPU only becoming a meaningful factor at 1080p. The benchmark results indicate a smooth experience for most settings, but the transition from 1440p to 4K imposes a severe penalty that reshapes the playable settings envelope.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data shows a predictable, steep decline as resolution increases, but the magnitude of that decline is the key takeaway. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings drops the average frame rate from 160 FPS to 111 FPS, a 31% reduction. However, the jump from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 at High is far more punishing, with the average falling from 111 FPS to 66 FPS — a 41% cut. This disproportionate loss at 4K signals that the Radeon RX 7800 XT is hitting a raw pixel-throughput wall, not a bandwidth or cache limitation.

The pattern is consistent across all settings. At Low, the 1440p to 4K transition brings the average from 156 FPS down to 93 FPS (a 40% drop), and at Medium, it goes from 122 FPS to 73 FPS (a 40% drop). The only exception to this proportional decline is Ultra, where 1440p already dips to 71 FPS and 4K plummets to 42 FPS — a 41% reduction. This uniformity suggests the GPU's compute units are saturated in a linear fashion as pixel count rises, with no sudden thrashing or memory bottleneck.

What does this say about the limiting component? At 1080p, the average frame rates are high enough (102 FPS at Ultra, 160 FPS at High) that the Core i7-13700K's 16 cores and 5.40 GHz boost clock are likely keeping up, but the GPU is still the primary constraint. The real evidence comes from the gap between Low and Ultra at each resolution. At 1080p, the spread is 122 FPS (from 224 FPS at Low to 102 FPS at Ultra), while at 4K, the spread narrows to 51 FPS (from 93 FPS at Low to 42 FPS at Ultra). A wider spread at lower resolutions would indicate CPU headroom; here, the shrinking spread at 4K confirms that the GPU is fully maxed out and the CPU has spare capacity.

The data suggests that 1440p is the sweet spot for this combo. The 4K results are playable at Medium (73 FPS) and High (66 FPS), but they lack the headroom for demanding scenes. Conversely, 1080p results are exceptionally high, with even Ultra staying above 100 FPS, which implies the CPU is not leaving performance on the table.

FAQ

Q: Is the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT fast enough for 4K gaming in Greedfall?

A: The data shows 4K is playable but not ideal. Average frame rates at 3840x2160 range from 93 FPS at Low settings to 42 FPS at Ultra. High settings yield 66 FPS, which is smooth, but the 42 FPS at Ultra falls below the 60 FPS threshold many consider necessary for fluid action RPG combat.

Q: How does the Core i7-13700K hold up at 1080p in this game?

A: The CPU appears more than sufficient. At 1920x1080, the average frame rate reaches 224 FPS at Low and 160 FPS at High. The 16-core, 24-thread configuration with a 5.40 GHz boost clock provides ample headroom, as evidenced by the fact that 1080p Ultra still maintains 102 FPS.

Q: What is the best resolution to use with this hardware?

A: 2560x1440 offers the best balance. At High settings, the average frame rate is 111 FPS, and even Ultra stays at 71 FPS. This resolution avoids the CPU-bound scenarios at 1080p while keeping frame rates well above the 4K results.

Q: How much performance is lost when going from High to Ultra settings?

A: The penalty is substantial. At 1080p, High yields 160 FPS while Ultra drops to 102 FPS — a 36% reduction. At 1440p, the drop is from 111 FPS to 71 FPS (36%), and at 4K, it falls from 66 FPS to 42 FPS (36%). The consistent 36% penalty indicates a uniform increase in shading load.

Q: Does the RX 7800 XT's 16 GB of VRAM cause any issues in Greedfall?

A: The measured data shows no VRAM-related performance cliffs. The frame rate drops from 1440p to 4K are proportional across all settings, which would not be the case if the 16 GB buffer were being exceeded. The 624.1 GB/s bandwidth appears sufficient for this title.

Q: Is the Radeon RX 7800 XT comparable to other GPUs based on benchmark scores?

A: The average benchmark score for the RX 7800 XT is 11627, placing it in the 51st percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 (avg score 11680, 0.5% higher) and the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT (avg score 11842, 1.8% higher). These are older, less powerful cards, suggesting the score is skewed by the specific test suite.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is the clear bottleneck in this pairing for Greedfall. Its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than adequate for a 2019 title. The GPU's 3840 shading units and 96 ROPs are the primary drivers of the measured frame rates. The boost clock of 2430 MHz and game clock of 2124 MHz indicate the card is running at high frequencies under load, but the 4K results show it cannot sustain high frame rates when pixel count quadruples.

The GPU's benchmark profile reinforces this. Its PassMark G3D score of 24176 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 54228 are respectable, but its 51st percentile ranking among all GPUs is modest. The nearest rivals in the benchmark database — the GTX 1660 and RX 6500 XT — are far less powerful cards, which suggests the average benchmark score of 11627 is heavily weighted by compute tests rather than rasterization. In Greedfall, the 42 FPS average at 4K Ultra is the clearest indicator that the GPU's 37.32 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is simply not enough for 8.3 million pixels at max settings.

The 16 GB frame buffer does not appear to be a limiting factor. The proportional frame rate drops between 1440p and 4K (around 40% across all settings) indicate that the GPU is compute-bound, not memory-bound. If VRAM capacity or bandwidth were the issue, the 4K results would show a more severe collapse relative to 1440p, particularly at Ultra settings where texture memory usage is highest. The data shows no such collapse.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution. For 1920x1080, Ultra settings are viable with an average of 102 FPS, but High settings at 160 FPS provide a more comfortable margin for frame time spikes. The Medium preset offers 176 FPS, which is excessive for most displays and suggests the CPU is not the limiting factor at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, High settings (111 FPS) are the recommended choice. This provides a smooth experience on 144 Hz monitors, while Ultra (71 FPS) is still playable on 60 Hz displays. The Medium preset (122 FPS) offers diminishing returns over High, making High the best balance of visual quality and performance.

For 3840x2160, the choices are more constrained. High settings (66 FPS) are the highest preset that maintains a playable frame rate above 60 FPS. Medium (73 FPS) offers a slightly higher margin but with reduced visual fidelity. Low settings (93 FPS) are only recommended for competitive play, which is unlikely in an action RPG. Ultra at 4K (42 FPS) is not recommended for general play, as the frame rate dips below the threshold for smooth camera movement.

The data shows a consistent 36% performance penalty when moving from High to Ultra across all resolutions. Given that the visual difference between High and Ultra in most games is often subtle, High settings are the pragmatic choice for this hardware. The measured minimum frame rate at Medium (150 FPS at 1080p, 104 FPS at 1440p, 62 FPS at 4K) suggests that Medium is the safest preset for maintaining consistent frame times, but High's averages are high enough to absorb most scene complexity.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Core i7-13700K and RX 7800 XT combination delivers exceptional performance. The Low preset averages 224 FPS, Medium averages 176 FPS with a minimum of 150 FPS and maximum of 203 FPS, High averages 160 FPS, and Ultra averages 102 FPS. The 122 FPS spread between Low and Ultra demonstrates the GPU's scaling under increasing shading load.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages drop but remain strong. Low averages 156 FPS, Medium averages 122 FPS with a minimum of 104 FPS and maximum of 141 FPS, High averages 111 FPS, and Ultra drops to 71 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 104 FPS is notable, as it shows the GPU can maintain high frame rates even in demanding scenes.

At 3840x2160, the performance becomes more measured. Low averages 93 FPS, Medium averages 73 FPS with a minimum of 62 FPS and maximum of 84 FPS, High averages 66 FPS, and Ultra falls to 42 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 62 FPS is the only sub-60 FPS minimum in the entire dataset, but it stays above the playability threshold.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling curve. From 102 FPS at 1080p to 71 FPS at 1440p to 42 FPS at 4K, this preset's frame rate drops by 31% and then 41% respectively. This suggests that Ultra settings introduce a rendering feature that scales super-linearly with pixel count, likely related to the 96 ROPs' fill rate limits.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K is not the limiting component in Greedfall, based on the measured data. The 16 cores (8 performance and 8 efficiency) with 24 threads, running at a base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.40 GHz, provide more than enough computational power for this 2019 title. The 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache offer ample capacity for the game's asset streaming.

The CPU's benchmark results support this conclusion. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 30745 and single-core score of 2116 are strong, but more relevant is the 3DMark 16-thread score of 10717. This indicates that the CPU can handle the multi-threaded workloads common in action RPGs without becoming a bottleneck. The PassMark multithread score of 45887 and single-thread score of 4333 further confirm that neither single-core nor multi-core performance is lacking.

The evidence from the game data is the most conclusive. At 1080p, the frame rates range from 102 FPS (Ultra) to 224 FPS (Low). If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see a plateau at high frame rates, regardless of settings. Instead, the frame rates scale dramatically with settings, indicating the GPU is doing the heavy lifting. The fact that 1080p Low achieves 224 FPS while 4K Low achieves 93 FPS shows that the GPU's pixel throughput is the determining factor.

The CPU's 89th percentile ranking among all CPUs places it well above the RX 7800 XT's 51st percentile GPU ranking. This disparity confirms that the GPU is the weaker link in this pairing. The nearest CPU rivals — the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 (0.2% faster) and AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 (0.3% faster) — show that the i7-13700K is competitive with top-tier processors from the same era. In Greedfall, this CPU headroom means that players can enable higher settings without worrying about CPU-induced frame drops, particularly at 1440p where the GPU is already the primary constraint.