Greedfall

Greedfall, an Action RPG from 2019, presents an interesting scaling profile when paired with the Intel Core i7-14700K and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT. The measured data shows a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, but one that also reveals the CPU's significant headroom at lower settings. This combination delivers playable frame rates across the board, with the most demanding Ultra preset at 4K being the only configuration that dips below the 60 FPS threshold.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is stark and clearly illustrates where the bottleneck lies. At Low settings, the system delivers 269.9 FPS at 1920x1080, but this falls to 109.7 FPS at 3840x2160—a reduction of roughly 59% as pixel count increases. This dramatic decline is classic GPU-bound behavior; the Radeon RX 7900 XT is working progressively harder to fill those extra pixels.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all quality presets. Moving from 1440p to 4K at High settings, the average frame rate drops from 132.5 FPS to 76.3 FPS, a 42% decrease. At Medium settings, the drop is from 148.6 FPS to 88.4 FPS, a similar 41% reduction. The fact that the percentage drop is so uniform across presets indicates that the limiting component is the GPU at these resolutions, not the CPU or memory subsystem.

However, the data also reveals that the CPU is far from a limiting factor in this title. At 1080p Low, the system hits 269.9 FPS, which is likely near the game's engine ceiling or the point where the CPU's single-thread performance becomes the constraint. The fact that the 1080p Low result is more than double the 1440p Low result (186.1 FPS) suggests that the GPU has significant headroom at lower resolutions, but the CPU is still able to feed it without issue. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings shows a 31% drop, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 41%, indicating that the GPU becomes increasingly dominant as resolution climbs.

The Ultra preset is where the GPU really struggles. At 4K Ultra, the average frame rate falls to 48.8 FPS, which is 36% lower than the 4K High result of 76.3 FPS. This suggests that the Ultra preset introduces effects that are particularly demanding on the GPU's shading units and memory bandwidth, pushing the RX 7900 XT to its limits.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, running on a 10 nm process. Its base clock is 3.40 GHz with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, and it features 33 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 44,534 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 6,287 in single-core, placing it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs.

For Greedfall, a game that does not heavily utilize multi-threaded performance, the CPU's single-core strength is the key attribute. The single-core Cinebench R23 score of 6,287 indicates excellent per-thread performance, which is crucial for game logic, physics, and draw call processing. The benchmark results show that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 269.9 FPS, suggesting that the CPU is capably feeding the GPU at this resolution. Compared to its nearest rivals, the i7-14700K is effectively tied with the Core i7-14700KF (deltaPct 0%) and the AMD EPYC 9115 (deltaPct 0.3%), while being slightly ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (deltaPct -0.5%). This indicates that the CPU has ample headroom for this game and is not the limiting component in most scenarios.

The CPU's 20 cores and 28 threads are overkill for a title like Greedfall, which likely scales well up to 8 threads but not much beyond. The 33 MB of L3 cache is beneficial for keeping frequently accessed data close to the cores, reducing memory latency. The 5.60 GHz boost clock is particularly valuable for maintaining high frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios, though the data suggests that the GPU becomes the bottleneck well before the CPU is stressed.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is a high-end graphics card based on the RDNA 3.0 architecture, built on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features 5,376 shading units, 336 texture mapping units, and 192 raster operation units, with 84 ray tracing cores. The GPU has 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus, providing 800.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its boost clock is 2394 MHz, with a game clock of 2025 MHz.

In Greedfall, the GPU is the primary determinant of performance at higher resolutions. The 20 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for this game, even at 4K Ultra, so memory capacity is not a limiting factor. The 800.0 GB/s memory bandwidth, however, is likely a key contributor to the frame rate drops seen at 4K, as the card must move large amounts of texture and geometry data.

The GPU's benchmark scores show it sits in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs, with a Passmark G3D score of 29,009. Its nearest rivals in synthetic tests are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile (deltaPct 0%), the NVIDIA CMP 70HX (deltaPct 0.3%), and the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 (deltaPct -0.4%). The RX 7900 XT's FP32 performance of 51.48 TFLOPS is substantial, but the data indicates that Greedfall's Ultra preset is exceptionally demanding, likely due to heavy use of post-processing effects and high-resolution textures.

The measured FPS data shows a clear correlation between GPU clock speed and performance. At 4K Ultra, the card delivers 48.8 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. This suggests that the GPU's compute resources are being fully utilized, and the card is unable to maintain its boost clock under sustained load. The fact that the 4K High preset achieves 76.3 FPS indicates that dropping from Ultra to High reduces the workload enough to allow the GPU to maintain higher clocks.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed look at how the system performs across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the system is capable of very high frame rates. Low settings produce 269.9 FPS, Medium produces 209.8 FPS, High produces 192.3 FPS, and Ultra produces 119.3 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 56% reduction in frame rate, indicating that the Ultra preset is significantly more demanding.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show more GPU involvement. Low settings deliver 186.1 FPS, Medium delivers 148.6 FPS, High delivers 132.5 FPS, and Ultra drops to 83.1 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p is still playable, but the drop from High to Ultra is 37%, which is larger than the drop from Medium to High (11%). This suggests that Ultra introduces effects that disproportionately impact performance.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor. Low settings deliver 109.7 FPS, Medium delivers 88.4 FPS, High delivers 76.3 FPS, and Ultra drops to 48.8 FPS. The Ultra result is the only configuration in the entire dataset that falls below 60 FPS, making it the only setting where users might need to compromise. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is 27.5 FPS, a 36% reduction, which is the largest single-setting drop in the dataset.

The overall combo rank for this CPU-GPU pair in Greedfall is 383 out of 1,705 tested combinations, placing it in the top 22% of systems. This is a strong result, indicating that the i7-14700K and RX 7900 XT are well-matched for this title, with the GPU being the primary differentiator at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Greedfall at 4K with high settings?

A: Yes. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the average frame rate is 76.3 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. This makes 4K High a comfortable configuration for this CPU-GPU combo.

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

A: At 2560x1440, High settings deliver 132.5 FPS, while Ultra settings deliver 83.1 FPS. This represents a 49.4 FPS drop, or a 37% reduction in performance, indicating that the Ultra preset has a significant performance cost.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p with Low settings?

A: The data suggests the CPU is the limiting factor. At 1920x1080 Low, the system achieves 269.9 FPS. The GPU has significant headroom at this resolution, but the CPU's single-thread performance is likely the constraint, as frame rates do not scale linearly with GPU workload.

Q: How does the RX 7900 XT compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 7900 XT has an average benchmark score of 38,358, which is effectively tied with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile (deltaPct 0%). It is 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA CMP 70HX and 0.6% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile, but 0.4% behind the NVIDIA GeForce MX570.

Q: What is the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings?

A: At Medium settings, the frame rate drops from 209.8 FPS at 1920x1080 to 88.4 FPS at 3840x2160. This is a 121.4 FPS reduction, or a 58% drop, which is consistent with the GPU being the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions.

Q: Is the Ultra preset at 4K playable?

A: The Ultra preset at 3840x2160 produces an average frame rate of 48.8 FPS. This is below the 60 FPS threshold typically considered necessary for smooth gameplay, so it is not ideal for competitive or fast-paced play, though it may be acceptable for slower, story-driven sections of the game.