Greedfall

Greedfall, a 2019 Action RPG, presents an interesting scaling challenge for the Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 combination. The measured 4K Ultra result of 46.7 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold many users target, while the 1080p Low result of 236.1 FPS shows the combo’s raw ceiling. The data indicates a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, but the CPU’s strength becomes apparent at lower settings where frame rates push well past 200 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

For a balance of visual fidelity and performance, the High preset is the most consistent choice across all tested resolutions. At 4K, High yields 73.1 FPS, which is a 56.5% improvement over the Ultra preset’s 46.7 FPS while maintaining a substantial visual upgrade over Medium’s 79.6 FPS. The difference between High and Medium is only 6.5 FPS at 4K, suggesting that the Medium preset may not offer enough of a performance gain to justify the visual downgrade. At 1440p, High hits 115.8 FPS, providing a smooth experience on high-refresh-rate monitors, while at 1080p, High reaches 168.7 FPS, which is more than sufficient for competitive play.

The Ultra preset is only viable for users with 1080p displays or those who prioritize maximum image quality over frame rate. At 1080p, Ultra achieves 108.9 FPS, which is playable, but the drop to 76.4 FPS at 1440p and 46.7 FPS at 4K makes it a poor choice for higher resolutions. The Low preset offers the highest frame rates, with 236.1 FPS at 1080p and 164 FPS at 1440p, but the visual compromises are significant. Given the data, High is the recommended preset for most users, as it delivers the best combination of playable frame rates and graphical settings across all three resolutions.

FAQ

Q: Is the Intel Core i9-14900K + RTX 3080 combination capable of running Greedfall at 4K?

A: Yes, but only on lower presets. The data shows 73.1 FPS on High and 79.6 FPS on Medium at 3840x2160. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 46.7 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the performance difference between High and Ultra settings?

A: The gap is substantial. At 1080p, the difference is 59.8 FPS (168.7 vs 108.9). At 1440p, the gap narrows slightly to 39.4 FPS (115.8 vs 76.4). At 4K, the difference is 26.4 FPS (73.1 vs 46.7). The Ultra preset consistently costs roughly 35-40% of the High preset’s frame rate.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 3080’s average benchmark score of 35787 places it in the 80th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro Duo, scores 35860, a delta of -0.2%, meaning the RTX 3080 is effectively tied. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile scores 35435, a 1% delta, showing the desktop RTX 3080 still holds a slight edge.

Q: Is there a significant performance jump from Medium to High settings?

A: The data shows diminishing returns. At 1080p, Medium gives 189.2 FPS while High gives 168.7 FPS, a 20.5 FPS difference. At 1440p, the gap is 16.1 FPS (131.9 vs 115.8). At 4K, the gap shrinks to 6.5 FPS (79.6 vs 73.1). The visual improvement from High is often worth the modest frame rate cost, especially at lower resolutions.

Q: How does the Core i9-14900K rank against other CPUs?

A: The CPU sits in the 97th percentile among all tested processors. Its average benchmark score is 79824. The AMD EPYC 7413 scores 80041, a -0.3% delta, making it the closest competitor. The Intel Core i9-14900KF scores 79245, a 0.7% delta, showing the K and KF variants perform nearly identically.

Q: What happens to frame rates when resolution increases?

A: The frame rate drops are consistent across settings. Moving from 1080p to 1440p reduces frame rates by roughly 30-35% (e.g., High: 168.7 to 115.8). Moving from 1440p to 4K reduces frame rates by another 35-40% (e.g., High: 115.8 to 73.1). The scaling is more severe on the Ultra preset, where the total drop from 1080p to 4K is 62.2 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data reveals how Greedfall scales with resolution for this specific hardware combination. At 1080p High, the system produces 168.7 FPS. Moving to 1440p High reduces this to 115.8 FPS, a 31.3% decrease. Moving further to 4K High drops the frame rate to 73.1 FPS, another 36.9% decrease from 1440p. This scaling pattern suggests that the RTX 3080’s pixel throughput is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. The GPU has a pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s and a memory bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s, which are being saturated as resolution increases.

The Low preset shows the most dramatic scaling, with 236.1 FPS at 1080p dropping to 164 FPS at 1440p (-30.5%) and then to 97 FPS at 4K (-40.9%). This steeper decline at 4K Low indicates that even at minimal settings, the GPU’s raw compute power (29.77 TFLOPS FP32) is insufficient to maintain high frame rates at 4K. The Ultra preset shows a similar pattern, with 108.9 FPS at 1080p, 76.4 FPS at 1440p (-29.8%), and 46.7 FPS at 4K (-38.9%).

The consistency of the percentage drops across presets—typically 30-35% for each resolution step—points to a GPU-bound scenario. The Intel Core i9-14900K, with its 32 threads and 36 MB of L3 cache, is not the bottleneck here. The CPU’s single-threaded performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7040, is more than adequate to feed the GPU at 1080p, where frame rates exceed 200 FPS on Low settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. The Low preset achieves 236.1 FPS, which is the maximum measured result across all configurations. The Medium preset reaches 189.2 FPS, a 24.8% reduction from Low. High settings produce 168.7 FPS, which represents a 10.8% drop from Medium. The Ultra preset yields 108.9 FPS, a significant 35.4% reduction from High. This pattern shows that the Ultra preset imposes a heavy load on the GPU, even at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show increasing pressure. Low settings deliver 164 FPS, a 30.5% drop from the 1080p Low result. Medium settings produce 131.9 FPS, while High settings reach 115.8 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p produces 76.4 FPS, which is below the 100 FPS mark but still playable on standard 60 Hz monitors. The transition from 1440p to 4K shows the largest absolute drops: Low falls from 164 to 97 FPS (-67 FPS), Medium from 131.9 to 79.6 FPS (-52.3 FPS), High from 115.8 to 73.1 FPS (-42.7 FPS), and Ultra from 76.4 to 46.7 FPS (-29.7 FPS).

At 3840x2160, the data shows the RTX 3080 reaching its limits. Low settings produce 97 FPS, which is the only 4K preset that clears 90 FPS. Medium achieves 79.6 FPS, High reaches 73.1 FPS, and Ultra drops to 46.7 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra at 4K is 50.3 FPS, which is the largest absolute spread across all resolutions. This indicates that at 4K, the GPU’s memory bandwidth and pixel rate are the primary constraints, and the visual complexity of the Ultra preset overwhelms the 10 GB GDDR6X frame buffer.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 combination ranks 518th out of 1705 tested combos for Greedfall, placing it in the top 30.4% of all configurations. This ranking is driven by the RTX 3080’s position in the GPU hierarchy. The GPU scores in the 80th percentile among all graphics cards, with an average benchmark score of 35787. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon Pro Duo (35860, -0.2% delta) and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE (36101, -0.9% delta), showing that the RTX 3080 is competitive with newer cards despite being from the previous generation.

The CPU is a much stronger component in this pairing, ranking in the 97th percentile with an average benchmark score of 79824. This places it just ahead of the Intel Core i9-14900KF (79245, 0.7% delta) and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K (79102, 0.9% delta). The CPU’s dominance means that in CPU-limited scenarios—such as the 1080p Low preset where the frame rate hits 236.1 FPS—the system performs exceptionally well. However, the combo’s overall ranking of 518 is constrained by the GPU’s performance at higher resolutions, particularly at 4K Ultra where the 46.7 FPS result is below what many top-tier combos achieve.

The combination of a top-3 percentile CPU with an 80th percentile GPU creates an imbalance. The data shows that the RTX 3080 is the limiting factor in this pairing for Greedfall, as evidenced by the consistent frame rate drops across resolution increases. The CPU’s benchmark scores, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core result of 49872 and a Geekbench single-core score of 3064, suggest it has ample headroom for future GPU upgrades. For users with this combo, the measured results indicate that the system is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can deliver high frame rates on most presets, while 4K gaming requires compromising on settings to achieve playable performance.