Greedfall

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for Greedfall with the Intel Core i9-14900K and AMD Radeon RX 570 shows a clear hierarchy across the four tested presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the highest average at 73 FPS, followed by Medium at 57 FPS, High at 52 FPS, and Ultra at 33 FPS. The Medium preset provides a balanced experience with a minimum of 49 FPS and maximum of 66 FPS, which keeps gameplay smooth while maintaining better visual fidelity than Low. For users prioritizing frame rate, Low at 1080p is the only preset that exceeds the 70 FPS threshold, but the drop from Medium to Low is only 16 FPS, suggesting that Medium offers a better trade-off between visual quality and performance.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. Low averages 51 FPS, Medium 40 FPS, High 36 FPS, and Ultra 23 FPS. The Medium preset again shows the narrowest FPS range among the measured data, with a minimum of 34 and maximum of 46. However, none of these reach the 60 FPS mark, meaning users at this resolution must accept sub-60 performance. The Low preset is the only one that stays above 50 FPS, but the visual compromise is substantial. For 1440p, Medium is the recommended choice because it maintains a minimum above 30 FPS, which is the baseline for playable performance in an action RPG, and the average of 40 FPS is acceptable for slower-paced exploration and combat.

At 3840x2160, the results are uniformly poor. Low averages 30 FPS, Medium 24 FPS (with a minimum of 20 and maximum of 27), High 22 FPS, and Ultra 14 FPS. None of these presets reaches 30 FPS on average except Low, which exactly hits 30. The Medium preset's minimum of 20 FPS indicates it will stutter during intense scenes. Given that the data shows a 1080p Low average of 73 FPS, the best experience for this combo is clearly the 1080p Medium preset, which balances the 57 FPS average with a 49 FPS minimum. This is the only combination of resolution and settings that maintains playable performance while avoiding the harsh visual downgrade of Low. The Ultra preset at 1080p, at 33 FPS, is too slow for the action RPG genre, and 1440p or 4K should only be considered if the user accepts significant compromises in fluidity.

FAQ

Q: What is the fastest measured preset at 1080p for this combo?

A: The Low preset at 1920x1080 achieves the highest average FPS of 73, while Medium follows at 57, High at 52, and Ultra at 33.

Q: Does the combo maintain above 60 FPS at 1440p with any preset?

A: No. At 2560x1440, the best average is 51 FPS on Low, followed by Medium at 40, High at 36, and Ultra at 23. None of the measured presets reaches 60 FPS.

Q: How does the Medium preset perform at 4K in terms of minimum FPS?

A: At 3840x2160, the Medium preset records an average of 24 FPS, with a minimum of 20 FPS and maximum of 27 FPS, indicating frequent frame drops below the 30 FPS playability threshold.

Q: Is the Ultra preset ever playable on this combo?

A: The Ultra preset at 1080p averages 33 FPS, at 1440p it averages 23 FPS, and at 4K it averages 14 FPS. These values are all below 35 FPS, making the preset unsuitable for smooth gameplay in this action RPG.

Q: What is the best preset for visual fidelity without sacrificing minimum frame?

A: At 1080p, the Medium preset provides a minimum of 49 FPS and maximum of 66 FPS, which offers a stable frame range. At 1440p, the Medium preset has a minimum of 34 FPS, which is still above 30.

Q: How does the combo’s rank compare to other tested combos?

A: The combo ranks 3548 out of 3703 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom percentile, which is consistent with the low FPS results at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor from the Core 14th Gen series, with a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz. In Greedfall, the CPU’s role is secondary to the GPU, as the game is an action RPG with moderate single-thread demands. The benchmark results show that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 73 FPS, which is relatively high, indicating that the CPU is not a bottleneck at this resolution. However, as resolution increases, the FPS drops regardless of the CPU’s capabilities, suggesting that the limiting factor is the GPU.

The CPU’s multi-core performance, measured by the Cinebench R23 multi-core test at 39399.5, and single-core at 2262.5, indicates strong per-thread performance, which is relevant for game logic and physics. Yet, the measured FPS at 4K Low is only 30, which is a 59% drop from 1080p Low. This drop cannot be attributed to the CPU because the CPU load in games typically decreases with resolution as the GPU becomes the primary renderer. The i9-14900K has a TDP of 125 W and supports DDR4/DDR5 memory, but these specs do not directly impact the FPS at lower resolutions. The data suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU enough to reach 73 FPS on Low, but at higher resolutions, the GPU’s limits are the hard constraint.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in the benchmark database, such as the Intel Core i9-14900KF with a delta of -0.3%, show that the i9-14900K is near the top of the CPU hierarchy, ranking in the 95th percentile among all CPUs. This means the processor’s performance is far above the minimum needed for Greedfall. The CPU’s high core count and clock speed do not translate to higher FPS in this game because the GPU is the primary bottleneck. For instance, at 4K Ultra, the FPS drops to 14, which is a 6.2x reduction from the 1080p Low. This is indicative of a GPU-limited scenario, where the CPU’s multi-core strength is irrelevant because the game’s frame rate is constrained by the GPU’s rendering throughput.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank for this pairing is 3548 out of 3703 tested combos, which places it in the bottom 4.2% of all tested combinations. This is a very low rank, primarily driven by the GPU’s performance, as the CPU is in the 95th percentile among all CPUs. The rank reflects the overall FPS across all resolutions and settings, and the data shows that the combo only achieves acceptable frame rates at 1080p Low and Medium. The rank is not a measure of CPU capability but rather the combined system’s ability to run this game. The i9-14900K is a top-tier processor, but pairing it with an RX 570 inherently limits the system to lower resolutions and settings.

The GPU’s average benchmark score is 28766, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6800M with a delta of -0.4%, and the AMD Radeon RX 470 with a delta of -0.8%. These deltas indicate that the RX 570 is very close in performance to the RX 470, which is a similar generation card. The combo’s rank is not a reflection of the GPU’s absolute performance but rather the combination’s ability to handle Greedfall’s demands. With a GPU percentile of 74, the RX 570 is better than 74% of all GPUs, but the game’s requirements at 4K are too high for a 4 GB GDDR5 card. The rank suggests that many other combos, likely with stronger GPUs, can achieve higher frame rates, even if their CPUs are weaker.

The data shows that the CPU’s performance is not the issue; the i9-14900K is a high-end part. The bottleneck is clearly the GPU, which is why the combo ranks so low. If the GPU were replaced with a stronger model, the rank would improve significantly. However, given the current pairing, the rank is a fair representation of the system’s capabilities in this game. The combo rank of 3548 is a warning that users should not expect playable performance above 1080p, and even at 1080p, the Ultra preset is too demanding.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data across resolutions shows a steep decline as the number of pixels increases. At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 73 FPS, which is the highest measured value. Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset drops to 51 FPS, a 30% reduction. At 3840x2160, the Low preset further drops to 30 FPS, a 41% reduction from 1440p and a 59% reduction from 1080p. This trend is consistent across all presets: at High, the FPS goes from 52 at 1080p to 36 at 1440p (a 31% drop) to 22 at 4K (a 39% drop from 1440p). At Medium, the FPS drops from 57 to 40 to 24, showing a 30% and 40% reduction. The Ultra preset drops from 33 at 1080p to 23 at 1440p to 14 at 4K, a 30% and 39% reduction.

The pattern of percentage drops is very similar across presets, with the drop from 1080p to 1440p being around 30% and the drop from 1440p to 4K being around 40%. This indicates that the bottleneck is the GPU, because a CPU bottleneck would show less of a drop at higher resolutions, as the CPU load is resolution-independent. The fact that the FPS drops by a consistent percentage when resolution doubles suggests that the GPU’s pixel throughput is the limiting factor. The RX 570 has a pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s, which are modest figures for 4K rendering.

The 4K Low preset averages 30 FPS, which is exactly the same as the 1440p Low average of 30? No, the 1440p Low is 51, so the 4K Low is 30. The 4K Medium is 24 FPS, which is less than the 1440p Medium’s 40. The scaling is non-linear because the memory bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s becomes a larger constraint at higher resolutions, as the 4 GB VRAM may be insufficient for 4K textures, leading to paging and slower rendering. The measured numbers show that the FPS at 4K is roughly 50-60% of the 1440p FPS, which is typical for a GPU with limited memory bandwidth.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Low preset records an average FPS of 73, with no minimum or maximum provided. The Medium preset averages 57 FPS, with a minimum of 49 and maximum of 66. The High preset averages 52 FPS, with no min/max. The Ultra preset averages 33 FPS, with no min/max. This gives a spread from 33 to 73, a 40 FPS difference between lowest and highest presets.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 51 FPS, with no min/max. The Medium preset averages 40 FPS, with a minimum of 34 and maximum of 46. The High preset averages 36 FPS, with no min/max. The Ultra preset averages 23 FPS, with no min/max. The spread narrows to 23 to 51, a 28 FPS difference. The Medium preset’s min/max values show a range of 12 FPS, while the High and Ultra have no min/max data.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 30 FPS. The Medium preset averages 24 FPS, with a minimum of 20 and maximum of 27. The High preset averages 22 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 14 FPS. The spread is from 14 to 30, only 16 FPS. Note that the Medium preset’s min/max are provided, but the other presets lack these data points. The drop from 1080p Low (73) to 4K Low (30) is 43 FPS, or 59%. The drop from 1080p Ultra (33) to 4K Ultra (14) is 19 FPS, or 58%. The relative drop is similar, but the absolute numbers are too low for playable at 4K.

The data shows that the Medium preset is the only one that provides min/max values, suggesting that the test harness measured more detailed data for that setting. The lack of min/max for other presets means we cannot assess the frame time consistency, but the averages are clear. The 1080p Medium’s minimum of 49 FPS is the best minimum among all presets at any resolution, making it the safest choice for avoiding dips.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is a Polaris 20 chip with 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. It has a base clock of 1168 MHz and a boost clock of 1244 MHz, with a memory clock of 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective). The GPU has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. The FP32 performance is 5.095 TFLOPS, which is moderate for a 2017 GPU. The card’s pixel rate is 39.81 GPixel/s and texture rate is 159.2 GTexel/s.

In Greedfall, the GPU’s memory size and bandwidth are likely the main limiting factors at higher resolutions. The 4 GB of VRAM is inadequate for 4K textures, which is why the 4K Ultra preset drops to 14 FPS. The game’s assets at 4K likely exceed 4 GB, causing the GPU to swap data between system memory and VRAM, severely reducing frame rates. The memory bandwidth of 224 GB/s is also low for 4K, as the GPU must read and write more pixels per second. At 1080p, the 4 GB memory is sufficient, as evidenced by the 73 FPS Low and 57 FPS Medium, but at 1440p and 4K, the memory capacity starts to be a bottleneck.

The GPU’s nearest rivals include the RX 6800M with a delta of -0.4% and the RX 470 with a delta of -0.8%. This shows that the RX 570 is very similar in performance to the RX 470, which is expected since the 570 is a refresh of the 470. The GPU’s percentile rank of 74 indicates that it is above average, but the combination with a high-end CPU does not improve the frame rates in this game. The GPU’s clocks are not the issue; rather, the 4 GB memory and 256-bit bus are the constraints. At 1080p, the GPU can deliver playable frame rates, but at 1440p and beyond, the performance collapses.

The GPU’s power draw is 150 W, and it requires a 450 W PSU, but these are not related to FPS. The GPU’s FP32 performance of 5.095 TFLOPS is sufficient for 1080p gaming, but the measured FPS data shows that the GPU is the bottleneck at higher resolutions. The game’s engine likely relies heavily on memory bandwidth, and the RX 570’s 224 GB/s is too low for 4K. The data shows that even the High preset at 1440p averages 36 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target, indicating that the GPU is not powerful enough for that resolution.

In summary, the GPU is the limiting component in this combo. The CPU is a high-end part with a 95th percentile rank, but the GPU’s 4 GB memory and limited bandwidth restrict performance to 1080p at medium or low settings. The measured FPS data clearly shows that the GPU’s capabilities are the deciding factor, not the CPU.