Greedfall

The Intel Core i9-14900K and AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT combination in Greedfall shows a clear and consistent shift in bottleneck behavior as resolution climbs. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system produces an average of 152.2 FPS. Moving to Medium drops that to 120.2 FPS, a 21% reduction, while High settings yield 108 FPS. The jump to Ultra is severe, collapsing to 67.9 FPS — a 55% loss compared to Low. This pattern indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is still feeding the GPU effectively at lower settings, but the Ultra preset introduces shading and post-processing loads that begin to saturate the Radeon RX 6600 XT.

At 2560x1440, the scaling becomes steeper. Low settings average 105.7 FPS, Medium falls to 84.5 FPS, and High drops further to 76.6 FPS. Ultra at 1440p produces 47.9 FPS, which is less than half of the Low result. The delta between 1080p Low and 1440p Low is 46.5 FPS, showing that pixel count alone cuts performance significantly. However, the more telling metric is the 4K results. At 3840x2160, Low settings average 63 FPS, Medium 50.1 FPS, High 43.7 FPS, and Ultra only 27.9 FPS. The gap between 1440p Ultra and 4K Ultra is 20 FPS, confirming that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at the highest resolution.

The data suggests a dual-phase bottleneck. At 1080p and Low settings, the frame rate exceeds 150 FPS, which is beyond what this GPU can sustain in more demanding scenes; the CPU's 24 cores and 6.00 GHz boost clock are not the constraint. As resolution increases, the frame rate drops proportionally to the pixel count, which is the signature of a GPU-bound workload. The RX 6600 XT's 8 GB GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth is adequate for 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K Ultra result of 27.9 FPS indicates that the memory subsystem and shading units are overwhelmed. The 2048 shading units and 64 ROPs are working hard, but the 10.60 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is simply not enough for 4K Ultra in this Action RPG.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is the decisive component in this pairing for Greedfall. Its base clock of 1968 MHz and boost clock of 2589 MHz are respectable, with a game clock of 2359 MHz. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory is the first limitation; at 4K Ultra, the game likely exceeds this capacity, causing the average frame rate to drop below 30 FPS. The memory bus width of 128 bit and bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s are modest by modern standards, and the data shows that the GPU's performance scales poorly with resolution increases. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1804 places this GPU in the 71st percentile of all GPUs, which explains why it cannot maintain high frame rates at 4K.

Comparing to its nearest rivals, the RX 6600 XT's average benchmark score of 27985 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, which scores 27956 with a deltaPct of 0.1%. The RTX 3070 scores 28238, a 0.9% advantage, while the AMD FirePro S7150 leads by 1.5% with a score of 28409. This tight grouping suggests that the RX 6600 XT is competitive with older high-end cards but lacks headroom. In Greedfall, the GPU's pixel rate of 165.7 GPixel/s and texture rate of 331.4 GTexel/s are insufficient for the 4K Ultra preset, which demands more than the 27.9 FPS average. The GPU's TDP of 160 W and dual-slot design are not relevant to the benchmark data, but the performance ceiling is clear.

The GPU's 32 RT cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate support are present, but Greedfall does not appear to leverage ray tracing heavily, as the frame rate drops are more consistent with traditional rasterization loads. The FP32 performance of 10.60 TFLOPS is the key number; at 4K, the GPU is rendering roughly 8.3 million pixels per frame, and the data shows that this workload exceeds the card's capabilities. At 1080p, the GPU is less stressed, and the 152.2 FPS Low result indicates that the CPU is not holding it back. The 7 nm process node and 11,060 million transistors on a 237 mm² die are architectural facts, but the measured FPS is the only truth that matters here.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor with a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz. In Greedfall, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic, and the data shows that it is not the bottleneck at any resolution. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 152.2 FPS, which is a high frame rate that many CPUs would struggle to sustain. The i9-14900K's 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample bandwidth for the game's data, and the 97th percentile ranking against all CPUs confirms its top-tier status.

The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 49872 and single-core score of 7040 are strong indicators of its capability. In a game like Greedfall, which is an Action RPG with moderate CPU demands, the i9-14900K is overkill. The nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7413, which scores 80041 on average (a 0.3% deficit), and the Intel Core i9-14900KF, which scores 79245 (a 0.7% advantage). The i9-14900K's own average benchmark score is 79824, placing it just above the i9-14900KF. This CPU has no trouble maintaining frame rates; the data shows that as resolution increases, the FPS drops are entirely attributable to the GPU.

The CPU's 125 W TDP and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory are irrelevant to the benchmark results, but the architecture's 10 nm process node and Raptor Lake refresh design are worth noting for context. The integrated UHD Graphics 770 is not used in this configuration, as the discrete RX 6600 XT handles all rendering. The PassMark multi-thread score of 58674 and single-thread score of 4697 further demonstrate that the CPU is not a limiting factor. At 4K Ultra, the system delivers 27.9 FPS, which is a GPU limitation, not a CPU one. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect similar frame rates across resolutions, but the data shows a 124.3 FPS difference between 1080p Low and 4K Ultra, proving the GPU is the sole constraint.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i9-14900K and AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT ranks 1231 out of 1705 tested combos in Greedfall. This places it in the lower half of all configurations, which is surprising given the CPU's strength. The rank reflects the GPU's limitations; the i9-14900K is a top-tier processor, but the RX 6600 XT is a mid-range card. The combo rank of 1231 out of 1705 means that 474 other combinations perform better in this game. This is not a reflection of the CPU, but rather the GPU's inability to keep up with the game's demands at higher resolutions.

The data shows that this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it achieves 108 FPS on High settings and 67.9 FPS on Ultra. At 1440p, the High preset yields 76.6 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. The 4K results are disappointing, with Ultra falling below 30 FPS. The combo rank of 1231 indicates that many other GPUs paired with weaker CPUs would outperform this setup at 4K. The GPU's 71st percentile ranking versus all GPUs is the primary driver of this low combo rank.

Comparing to other combos, the RX 6600 XT's nearest rivals include the GTX 980 Ti and RTX 3070, but the combo rank does not specify which CPUs were paired with those GPUs. However, the data is clear: this CPU-GPU pairing is unbalanced for Greedfall. The CPU is capable of pushing frame rates far beyond what the GPU can deliver, and the combo rank reflects that mismatch. For users targeting 1080p, this combo is adequate, but for higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the weak link. The rank of 1231 out of 1705 is a quantitative measure of this imbalance.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU combo in Greedfall?*

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 with High settings yields 108 FPS, which is the best balance between visual quality and performance. At 1080p Ultra, the frame rate drops to 67.9 FPS, which is still playable, but High is the sweet spot.

Q: How does the RX 6600 XT compare to its nearest rival, the GTX 980 Ti?

A: The RX 6600 XT has an average benchmark score of 27985, which is 0.1% higher than the GTX 980 Ti's score of 27956. In Greedfall, the RX 6600 XT's performance is comparable, but the exact FPS for the GTX 980 Ti is not provided.

Q: Is the i9-14900K the bottleneck in this system?

A: No. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 49872 and its 97th percentile ranking indicate it is not the limiting factor. The frame rate drops from 152.2 FPS at 1080p Low to 27.9 FPS at 4K Ultra, which is a GPU-bound pattern.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The measured data shows an average of 84.5 FPS at 2560x1440 with Medium settings. This is a smooth experience for most displays, though it is lower than the 105.7 FPS achieved at Low settings.

Q: How does this combo rank against all tested configurations?

A: This combo ranks 1231 out of 1705 tested combos in Greedfall, placing it in the lower 72% of all configurations. The rank is primarily due to the GPU's mid-range performance, not the CPU.

Q: Does the GPU's 8 GB VRAM cause issues at 4K?

A: Yes. The 4K Ultra result of 27.9 FPS suggests that the 8 GB GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus is insufficient for the game's highest settings at that resolution. The memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s is also a limiting factor.