Greedfall

Greedfall, the 2019 action RPG, presents a fascinating case study when paired with the Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D. This combination delivers exceptionally high frame rates across all tested settings and resolutions, positioning it as the top performer among 2,938 tested combos. The data reveals a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher settings, while at lower resolutions and settings, the immense power of the RTX 5090 D begins to expose the limits of even a high-end CPU like the i7-14700K. The following analysis breaks down the measured performance, component roles, and scaling characteristics of this hardware pairing.

FAQ

Q: What is the overall performance ranking of this CPU and GPU combination in Greedfall?

A: This combo ranks 1st out of 2,938 tested combinations, indicating it provides the highest measured average frame rates in the database for this specific game.

Q: How does the Intel Core i7-14700K compare to its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X?

A: In synthetic benchmarks, the i7-14700K has an average score of 69,355, which is 0.2% lower than the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X's score of 69,515. This places the two processors within a statistical tie in raw compute performance.

Q: What is the performance difference between the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT?

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77,712, which is 1.6% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT's score of 78,940. This indicates the RTX 5090 D is slightly slower in these aggregate tests, despite its higher tier in the desktop lineup.

Q: What is the maximum measured average frame rate for this combo in Greedfall?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 383 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This suggests the game engine is capable of extremely high framerates with this hardware.

Q: What is the lowest measured average frame rate for this combo?

A: The lowest average frame rate is 72 FPS, recorded at 3840x2160 (4K) resolution with Ultra settings. This is the only scenario where the system drops below the 100 FPS mark.

Q: What is the size of the RTX 5090 D's frame buffer?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is equipped with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. This is more than sufficient for Greedfall's textures at any resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, running on the Intel Socket 1700 platform. Its base clock is 3.40 GHz with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. In synthetic workloads, it scores 33,440.5 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2,160 in single-core, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs tested. This high single-thread performance is crucial for maintaining high frame rates in games that rely on a primary simulation thread.

In Greedfall, the CPU's role becomes increasingly significant as the resolution and graphical settings are lowered. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 383 FPS. At this point, the CPU is likely the primary bottleneck, as the GPU has ample headroom to render frames far faster than the game's logic can be updated. The data suggests that the i7-14700K's strong single-core performance is sufficient to push frame rates well beyond the refresh rates of most monitors, even at 1080p.

However, the benchmark results show that the CPU is not the limiting factor at higher resolutions. When moving from 1080p to 4K, the average FPS drops significantly, indicating that the GPU is taking over as the primary constraint. The i7-14700K's 33 MB of shared L3 cache and high boost clock help ensure it can feed the RTX 5090 D data quickly enough to avoid stutters, as evidenced by the minimum FPS figures for Medium settings, which are 256 FPS at 1080p and 106 FPS at 4K. The processor's performance is effectively more than adequate for this game, allowing the GPU to be the sole determinant of frame rate in demanding scenarios.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is a flagship graphics card from the GeForce 50-series, built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process. It features a massive 32 GB of GDDR7 memory, which is a key asset for 4K gaming and high-resolution texture packs. The card's base clock is 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz, and it has a memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. In synthetic benchmarks, it achieves a Passmark G3D score of 44,065 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 310,674, placing it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs.

The GPU's role in Greedfall is dominant. The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern: as resolution and settings increase, the frame rate drops in a manner consistent with GPU-bound rendering. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 72, a demanding workload that heavily taxes the GPU's shading units and memory subsystem. The RTX 5090 D's immense 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is what allows it to maintain playable frame rates at this extreme configuration.

Interestingly, the GPU's performance relative to its nearest rivals in synthetic tests is not as dominant as its position in the combo ranking suggests. It is 1.1% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT and 1.6% slower than the RX 6850M XT in aggregate benchmark scores. However, in Greedfall specifically, this GPU proves to be the best-performing component pairing. This suggests that Greedfall's engine may favor the specific architecture and driver optimizations of the RTX 5090 D, or that the synthetic benchmarks do not fully capture its real-world gaming performance. The data shows that the GPU's 32 GB frame buffer is never a limiting factor, as even at 4K Ultra, the game runs smoothly without any indication of texture thrashing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed look at performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are exceptionally high across the board. With Low settings, the system hits 383 FPS. Moving to Medium yields an average of 301 FPS, with a minimum of 256 FPS and a maximum of 346 FPS. At High settings, the average drops to 273 FPS. Finally, Ultra settings produce an average of 175 FPS. This demonstrates that even at the highest settings, 1080p users will experience no discernible frame rate issues.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally. Low settings yield an average of 266 FPS. Medium settings produce an average of 209 FPS, with a minimum of 178 FPS and a maximum of 240 FPS. The High preset results in an average of 190 FPS. The Ultra preset sees a more substantial drop to 121 FPS. These numbers indicate that the system is still providing a high-refresh-rate experience at 1440p, even with maximum graphical fidelity.

At 3840x2160 (4K), the GPU's workload becomes the primary factor. The Low setting still delivers a very high average of 159 FPS. Medium settings average 125 FPS, with a minimum of 106 FPS and a maximum of 143 FPS. High settings reduce the average to 113 FPS. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, yielding an average of 72 FPS. This is the only configuration where the frame rate dips below 100 FPS, but it remains perfectly playable and smooth. The data shows a clear gradient of performance that scales directly with graphical intensity.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination ranks 1st out of 2,938 tested combos in Greedfall. This is a definitive result, placing this pairing at the very top of the performance hierarchy. The data indicates that no other combination of CPU and GPU in the database produces higher average frame rates in this game.

This ranking is particularly noteworthy given the synthetic benchmark results. The i7-14700K is 0.2% slower than the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X in average CPU score, and the RTX 5090 D is 2.4% slower than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB in average GPU score. Despite these minor deficits in aggregate compute, the combination of these two specific parts yields the best in-game performance. This suggests that the pairing is exceptionally well-balanced for Greedfall's engine, with the CPU's high single-thread performance and the GPU's raw rendering power complementing each other perfectly. It also indicates that raw compute scores are not always predictive of real-world gaming performance, as driver optimizations and game-specific engine quirks can play a significant role.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends heavily on the user's target resolution and refresh rate. For users with a 1080p or 1440p monitor with a high refresh rate (144Hz or higher), the Ultra preset is the clear recommendation. At 1440p, the Ultra preset averages 121 FPS, which is well above the 100 FPS threshold and provides a visually rich experience. At 1080p, Ultra averages 175 FPS, ensuring compatibility with even the fastest 144Hz panels.

For 4K users, the recommendation is more nuanced. The High preset averages 113 FPS, which is an excellent result and strikes a strong balance between visual quality and performance. The Ultra preset, at 72 FPS, is still playable but requires a monitor with VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) to feel smooth, as the frame rate is close to the 60 FPS baseline. The Medium preset at 4K yields 125 FPS, which is the highest average above 120 FPS, making it a viable option for those seeking maximum fluidity. Given the high performance, the High preset at 4K is the sweet spot, as it provides a significant visual upgrade over Medium while maintaining a high frame rate.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear and consistent pattern of performance scaling across resolutions. From 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS drops by roughly 30% across all settings. For example, at High settings, the FPS drops from 273 at 1080p to 190 at 1440p. From 1440p to 4K, the drop is even more significant, with the High preset falling from 190 FPS to 113 FPS, a reduction of about 40%. This non-linear scaling is characteristic of a GPU-bound workload.

This scaling pattern reveals that the RTX 5090 D is the limiting component at higher resolutions. The GPU's workload increases quadratically with resolution, and the data reflects this. The transition from 1080p to 4K represents a 4x increase in pixel count, and the FPS drops by roughly 59% at High settings (from 273 to 113). This suggests that while the GPU is powerful, it cannot render 4K at the same frame rate as 1080p due to the sheer number of pixels.

Conversely, the relatively small performance gap between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings (383 FPS vs. 266 FPS) indicates that at lower graphical loads, the CPU begins to play a more significant role. The CPU's ability to process game logic becomes the bottleneck before the GPU's rendering capacity is fully utilized. This is why the frame rate at 1080p Low is not double the 4K Low frame rate, as the CPU is limiting the maximum achievable FPS. In summary, the data shows a system that is firmly GPU-limited in Greedfall, with the CPU only becoming a constraint at the absolute lowest graphical settings and resolutions.