Greedfall

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured frames per second tell a clear story about where Greedfall's performance ceiling sits for this pairing. At 1080p with Low settings, the Intel Core i7-14700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 combination produces 335.7 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 232.8 FPS, a reduction of roughly 31%. At 4K Low, the average falls to 141.1 FPS — that's 58% below the 1080p figure. The scaling pattern across resolutions is steep, but not uniform; the drop from 1080p to 1440p (102.9 FPS) is nearly as large as the drop from 1440p to 4K (91.7 FPS).

Looking at Ultra settings, the pattern shifts. At 1080p Ultra, the combo hits 152.1 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it falls to 106.8 FPS, a 30% reduction. At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 63.3 FPS — a 58% decline from 1080p Ultra. The consistency of that percentage across settings suggests the scaling is resolution-driven rather than settings-driven.

The data implies the RTX 5080 is the dominant factor in these results. At 1080p Low, the frame rate exceeds 300 FPS; if the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the numbers to cluster more tightly across settings at that resolution. Instead, the spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 183.6 FPS (335.7 to 152.1), which indicates the GPU is doing most of the work. At 4K, the spread narrows to 77.8 FPS (141.1 to 63.3), reinforcing that the GPU's workload is increasing with resolution.

The 4K Ultra figure of 63.3 FPS is particularly telling. It sits just above the 60 FPS threshold, but the margin is thin. The scaling from Medium to Ultra at 4K (107.3 to 63.3) is a 41% drop, which suggests the Ultra preset introduces rendering features that disproportionately stress the GPU. The RTX 5080's 16 GB of GDDR7 memory and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth are likely sufficient for the data demands, but the compute load at 4K Ultra pushes the card to its limits.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured rows offer four presets at each resolution, and the optimal choice depends on the target display. At 1080p, even Ultra delivers 152.1 FPS, which is well above typical refresh rate requirements. The gap between Medium (264.2 FPS) and High (241.8 FPS) is only 22.4 FPS, so High is a sensible middle ground for visual fidelity without sacrificing smoothness. Low at 335.7 FPS is only useful for competitive play where every frame matters, but the visual trade-off is substantial.

At 1440p, High produces 169.1 FPS, which remains comfortably high. Medium sits at 187.1 FPS, and Ultra drops to 106.8 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra costs 62.3 FPS — a 37% reduction — which is a significant hit for what may be marginal visual gains. For most displays at this resolution, High appears to be the sweet spot: it retains a large performance buffer while offering the same preset tier as the 4K High result of 100.1 FPS.

At 4K, the recommendations change. High delivers 100.1 FPS, which is playable on high-refresh displays. Medium at 107.3 FPS offers a slight improvement, but the difference from High is only 7.2 FPS, so the visual quality of High is likely preferable. Ultra at 63.3 FPS is playable but borders on the edge of smoothness; for 60 Hz displays, it works, but for 120 Hz or higher, the frame time variance could be noticeable. Low at 141.1 FPS is the only preset that clears 120 FPS at 4K, but it sacrifices too much visual detail for a single-player Action RPG.

The data suggests High is the recommended preset across all three resolutions. It provides the best balance: at 1080p it hits 241.8 FPS, at 1440p 169.1 FPS, and at 4K 100.1 FPS. The consistency of the High preset's performance relative to Medium (which is only 6-11% higher across resolutions) makes it the clear choice for quality per frame.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 brings substantial hardware to Greedfall. Its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for a game released in 2019. The base clock runs at 2295 MHz with a boost up to 2617 MHz, and the card has 10752 shading units, 336 texture mapping units, and 112 ROPs. The pixel rate of 293.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 879.3 GTexel/s indicate the card's raw throughput capabilities.

The benchmark scores place this GPU in the 89th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 59188. Its nearest rivals in the database include the Intel Arc A570M (1.6% higher score) and Intel Arc Pro A60 (1.9% lower), which are not direct competitors in gaming performance — the delta percentages are small, but the underlying architectures differ significantly. The RTX 5080's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 8637 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 264461 reflect its compute potential.

In Greedfall's measured results, the GPU's role becomes evident when comparing settings at the same resolution. At 4K, the difference between Low (141.1 FPS) and Ultra (63.3 FPS) is 77.8 FPS, a 55% reduction. This is a GPU-bound scenario: the CPU has 20 cores and 28 threads, so it is unlikely to be the limiting factor at such high frame rates. The RTX 5080's FP32 throughput of 56.28 TFLOPS and its 84 ray tracing cores are engaged more heavily as settings increase, which explains the steep drop at Ultra.

The card's 45,600 million transistors on a 378 mm² die at 5 nm process node give it a transistor density of 120.6M per mm². This density enables the high texture rate and pixel rate that Greedfall's rendering demands. The 16 GB VRAM is particularly relevant: at 4K Ultra, the game may be loading larger textures, but the measured FPS of 63.3 suggests the bottleneck is compute rather than memory capacity — the bandwidth is sufficient, but the shading units are saturated.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS this combo achieves at 1080p?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 335.7 at 1080p with Low settings. At 1080p High, it drops to 241.8 FPS, and at Ultra it falls to 152.1 FPS.

Q: Does the combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra?

A: Yes, but narrowly. The measured average at 3840x2160 Ultra is 63.3 FPS, which clears the 60 FPS threshold by just 3.3 FPS. This leaves little headroom for demanding scenes.

Q: How much performance is lost between 1440p High and 4K High?

A: The drop is from 169.1 FPS at 2560x1440 High to 100.1 FPS at 3840x2160 High, a reduction of 69.0 FPS or approximately 41%.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game's results?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary limiter. At 1080p Low, the combo exceeds 300 FPS (335.7), and the performance scales consistently with resolution and settings, which is characteristic of GPU-bound workloads. The CPU has 20 cores and 28 threads, which is more than sufficient for this game.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations in Greedfall?

A: This combination ranks 80th out of 1705 tested combos in Greedfall, placing it in the top 4.7% of all tested systems.

Q: How does the RTX 5080 compare to its closest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5080's average benchmark score is 59188. Its nearest rival, the Intel Arc A570M, scores 58239 (1.6% higher), while the Intel Arc Pro A60 scores 60326 (1.9% lower). The AMD Radeon Pro W5500X is 2.6% lower at 57661.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-14700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 achieves a rank of 80 out of 1705 tested combos in Greedfall. This places the system in the top 4.7% of all configurations tested for this game. The rank reflects the measured FPS data across all resolutions and settings, and the high placement is consistent with the performance numbers: even at 4K Ultra, the combo maintains 63.3 FPS, which is playable for an Action RPG.

The ranking is notable because Greedfall is a 2019 title with a relatively modest rendering complexity compared to modern releases. The fact that this combo still ranks 80th suggests that the game's engine is capable of scaling well with high-end hardware. The 1705 tested combos include a wide range of CPUs and GPUs, and the top 80 positions are likely dominated by recent generation parts. The i7-14700KF's 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs and the RTX 5080's 89th percentile among all GPUs contribute to this strong showing.

The rank also implies that there are 79 combos that outperform this one in Greedfall. Given the CPU's near-top-tier standing, those higher-ranked systems likely pair even more powerful GPUs — possibly cards with higher memory bandwidth or more shading units. The data does not specify which combos rank higher, but the implication is that the GPU is the differentiator at the very top of the list.

For context, the CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the Intel Core i7-14700K (0% delta) and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (-0.4% delta), meaning the i7-14700KF is effectively at parity with those parts. The GPU's nearest rivals are lower-tier cards, which suggests that the RTX 5080's synthetic benchmark position does not fully capture its gaming performance in this title.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i7-14700KF is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake-R architecture. It runs at a base clock of 3.40 GHz and boosts up to 5.60 GHz. The L3 cache is 33 MB shared, with 2 MB L2 per core and 80 KB L1 per core. Its synthetic benchmarks are strong: Cinebench R23 multicore scores 44557, single-core 6290, and Geekbench multicore hits 19287. The PassMark multithread score is 52425, and single-thread is 4480. These scores place the CPU in the 96th percentile of all CPUs.

In Greedfall's measured FPS, the CPU's role is less visible than the GPU's because the frame rates are so high. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 335.7 FPS, which is beyond what most displays can show. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the frame rates to plateau at a lower ceiling regardless of resolution. Instead, the FPS continues to scale downward as resolution increases, indicating the GPU is the constraint.

The CPU's 20 cores and 28 threads handle the game's logic and physics without strain. Greedfall, as a 2019 title, is unlikely to exploit more than a few threads, but the i7-14700KF's single-core performance — Cinebench R20 single-core score of 2641 and Geekbench single-core of 2972 — ensures that even lightly-threaded workloads run efficiently. The 5.60 GHz boost clock is particularly relevant for frame pacing in CPU-bound sections, though the measured data does not show any CPU-specific artifacts.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the Intel Core i7-14700K (0% delta) and the AMD EPYC 9115 (0.3% higher score). These are effectively equal in average benchmark score, which means the choice between them would not meaningfully change Greedfall's performance. The Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 is 1.3% higher, but that is a server part with different characteristics.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

1920x1080:

• Low: 335.7 FPS
• Medium: 264.2 FPS
• High: 241.8 FPS
• Ultra: 152.1 FPS

At 1080p, the gap between Low and Medium is 71.5 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is only 22.4 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra costs 89.7 FPS, indicating a substantial increase in rendering load.

2560x1440:

• Low: 232.8 FPS
• Medium: 187.1 FPS
• High: 169.1 FPS
• Ultra: 106.8 FPS

At 1440p, the pattern is similar but compressed. Low to Medium is 45.7 FPS, Medium to High is 18.0 FPS, and High to Ultra is 62.3 FPS. The Ultra preset's cost is proportionally larger at this resolution.

3840x2160:

• Low: 141.1 FPS
• Medium: 107.3 FPS
• High: 100.1 FPS
• Ultra: 63.3 FPS

At 4K, the differences align differently. Low to Medium is 33.8 FPS, Medium to High is only 7.2 FPS — the smallest gap between any adjacent settings at any resolution. High to Ultra is 36.8 FPS, which is a larger drop than the Medium-to-High transition.

Comparing across resolutions at the same settings reveals the resolution scaling. Low goes from 335.7 (1080p) to 232.8 (1440p) to 141.1 (4K). Medium goes from 264.2 to 187.1 to 107.3. High goes from 241.8 to 169.1 to 100.1. Ultra goes from 152.1 to 106.8 to 63.3. The consistent pattern is that each doubling of pixel count (from 1080p to 4K is a 4x increase) reduces FPS by roughly 55-60%, which aligns with GPU-bound scaling.