Greedfall

Greedfall on the Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER combination delivers its most balanced experience at Medium settings, where the data shows playable frame rates across all resolutions without the steep performance penalty of Ultra. The measured results indicate that this pairing is firmly GPU-limited, with the 6 GB VRAM and Turing architecture defining the ceiling for visual fidelity.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data for this combo strongly favors Medium preset as the optimal choice. At 1080p, Medium produces 95 FPS, which is nearly double the 53.1 FPS seen at Ultra. The jump from Low to Medium costs only 20.3 FPS (from 115.3 to 95), while the jump from Medium to High costs 12.6 FPS (from 95 to 82.4). The Ultra preset, however, imposes a massive 41.9 FPS penalty over Medium, making it impractical for smooth gameplay.

At 1440p, Medium remains the sweet spot with 62.1 FPS, comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold. High settings at this resolution drop to 55.4 FPS, which is still playable but begins to show strain. Low settings deliver 81.4 FPS, but the visual quality loss is substantial relative to the modest performance gain over Medium. Ultra at 1440p collapses to 34.9 FPS, which is not recommended for any action-oriented gameplay.

For 4K, the picture changes dramatically. Even Low settings only muster 47.1 FPS, and Medium falls to 37.8 FPS. The data indicates that 4K gaming with this combo requires accepting either Low settings or sub-40 FPS averages. High at 4K yields 36 FPS, and Ultra is effectively unplayable at 24.6 FPS. For the best experience at 4K, Low is the only reasonable choice, but the data suggests 1440p Medium is the overall recommendation for this hardware pairing.

GPU Role

The GTX 1660 SUPER is the primary constraint in this combination. Its 6 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 192-bit bus provides 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is adequate for 1080p and 1440p but insufficient for high-fidelity 4K rendering. The GPU's 1408 shading units and 48 ROPs, running at a boost clock of 1785 MHz, deliver a measured FP32 performance of 5.027 TFLOPS. These specifications explain the performance cliff observed between 1440p and 4K.

The memory configuration is particularly telling. With only 6 GB of VRAM, the card cannot comfortably handle Ultra textures and effects at higher resolutions. This is evidenced by the 4K Ultra result of 24.6 FPS, which is 44.2% lower than 4K Low. The GPU's 55th percentile ranking among all GPUs places it in the mid-range tier, and its nearest rivals—the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 and Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics—are within 0.2% to 0.5% in average score, showing this card operates at the edge of its performance class.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific CPU-GPU pairing ranks 1522nd out of 1705 tested combinations in Greedfall, placing it in the bottom 11% of all combos. This poor ranking is not due to the CPU, which sits in the 96th percentile of all processors, but rather the GPU's mid-range capabilities. The data suggests that pairing a top-tier 20-core processor with a GPU from the 55th percentile creates a significant imbalance.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 14286 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals: the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 at 14314 (0.2% higher) and the Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics at 14315 (0.2% higher). This clustering around the 14,300 score mark indicates that the GTX 1660 SUPER is performing exactly as expected for its class, neither overachieving nor underdelivering. The combo's low rank in Greedfall specifically reflects the game's demanding nature at higher settings, where the GPU's limitations become the dominant factor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates show a clear pattern across resolutions and settings. At 1080p, the combo achieves 115.3 FPS on Low, 95 FPS on Medium, 82.4 FPS on High, and 53.1 FPS on Ultra. These figures demonstrate that 1080p is the native resolution for this pairing, with all settings except Ultra providing smooth gameplay.

Moving to 1440p, the frame rates drop to 81.4 FPS on Low, 62.1 FPS on Medium, 55.4 FPS on High, and 34.9 FPS on Ultra. The 1440p results show a similar proportional drop to 1080p, with Medium and High maintaining playability while Ultra becomes marginal. The 4K results are significantly worse: 47.1 FPS on Low, 37.8 FPS on Medium, 36 FPS on High, and 24.6 FPS on Ultra.

The performance deltas between settings are consistent. At 1080p, moving from Low to Medium costs 17.6% performance; from Medium to High costs 13.3%; from High to Ultra costs 35.6%. At 1440p, these deltas are 23.7%, 10.8%, and 37.0% respectively. At 4K, the deltas are 19.7%, 4.8%, and 31.7%. The Ultra setting consistently imposes a 30-37% penalty, making it the least efficient preset across all resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling data reveals a linear relationship between pixel count and frame rate, confirming the GPU-limited nature of this combo. From 1080p to 1440p (a 77.8% increase in pixels), frame rates drop by 29.4% on Low (from 115.3 to 81.4), 34.6% on Medium (from 95 to 62.1), 32.8% on High (from 82.4 to 55.4), and 34.3% on Ultra (from 53.1 to 34.9).

From 1440p to 4K (a 125% increase in pixels), the drops are more severe: 42.1% on Low (from 81.4 to 47.1), 39.1% on Medium (from 62.1 to 37.8), 35.0% on High (from 55.4 to 36), and 29.5% on Ultra (from 34.9 to 24.6). The diminishing percentage drops at 4K Ultra indicate that the GPU is already saturating its available resources, and additional pixel count has less relative impact because the card is already at its limit.

The data shows that the CPU is not a bottleneck in this configuration. The i7-14700K's 20 cores and 28 threads, with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, provide far more processing power than this game requires at these frame rates. The consistent frame rate drops proportional to pixel count increases are the hallmark of a GPU-bound scenario.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 1080p Medium as the optimal balance, achieving 95 FPS. For 1440p, Medium at 62.1 FPS is the highest playable setting, while 4K should only be attempted on Low at 47.1 FPS.

Q: How does the Ultra preset perform at different resolutions?

A: Ultra is only playable at 1080p with 53.1 FPS. At 1440p it drops to 34.9 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 24.6 FPS, making it unsuitable for action gameplay at higher resolutions.

Q: Is the GTX 1660 SUPER the limiting factor in this system?

A: Yes. The GPU ranks in the 55th percentile of all GPUs, while the CPU ranks in the 96th percentile. The frame rate drops proportionally with pixel count increases, indicating the GPU is the bottleneck.

Q: How does this combo compare to similar GPU pairings?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 14286 is within 0.7% of its nearest rivals (AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 and Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics), showing it performs at the expected level for its class.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Greedfall?

A: Only at Low settings with 47.1 FPS. Medium and High produce 37.8 FPS and 36 FPS respectively, while Ultra is unplayable at 24.6 FPS.

Q: What is the performance penalty for using Ultra settings?

A: Across all resolutions, Ultra imposes a 30-37% frame rate penalty compared to Medium. At 1080p, this means dropping from 95 FPS to 53.1 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K's role in this pairing is to provide ample headroom that the GPU cannot exploit. With 20 cores and 28 threads, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44534 and a single-core score of 6287. Its 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide substantial data bandwidth for game logic and physics processing.

The CPU's 96th percentile ranking among all processors and its average benchmark score of 70074 place it in elite territory, but this power is largely untapped in Greedfall at the frame rates this GPU can produce. The nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-14700KF, scores 70104 (0% delta), showing the CPU is performing at its expected level. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X scores 70420, which is 0.5% higher, and the AMD EPYC 9115 scores 69887, which is 0.3% lower.

The data indicates that the CPU's base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.60 GHz provide more than enough single-threaded performance for this game. The 125 W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 platform support DDR4 and DDR5 memory, though memory bandwidth is not specified. In practical terms, the CPU's role here is to ensure zero bottlenecking at any resolution or setting, which the frame rate scaling data confirms. The system's performance ceiling is entirely defined by the GPU, making the i7-14700K a future-proof foundation that could support a more powerful graphics card upgrade without requiring a platform change.