Greedfall

Greedfall, a 2019 Action RPG, presents an interesting testbed for the Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER. The benchmark data shows a combination where the modern GPU is tasked with heavy lifting, but the older game's engine and the quad-core processor create distinct bottlenecks at lower resolutions. This analysis explores how these components interact across the measured settings, revealing a system that scales predictably from a CPU-limited 1080p to a GPU-bound 4K.

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

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its cache configuration includes 1.25 MB of L2 per core and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, this chip posts a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11860 and a single-core score of 1674, alongside a Geekbench multi-core score of 7252. While these numbers indicate a strong modern entry-level CPU, Greedfall’s engine appears to rely heavily on single-thread performance, where the i3-12100F’s 893-point 3DMark single-thread score suggests adequate but not overwhelming headroom.

The data implies that at 1080p, the CPU is the limiting factor. This is evidenced by the massive frame rate jumps when lowering settings; for instance, moving from High to Low at 1080p increases the average FPS from 225 to 316, a delta that suggests the GPU is waiting on the CPU to issue draw calls. The processor’s 58W TDP and 10nm process node are modest, but the performance ceiling is clear. When compared to its nearest rivals, the i3-12100F’s average benchmark score of 13494 is nearly identical to the Intel Core 3 N355 (13492, delta 0%) and only 0.3% ahead of the Intel Core i5-9500 (13452). This places it in a performance tier where its 4 physical cores are competitive for older titles but may struggle with the threading demands of newer games, though Greedfall’s data shows it can push high frame rates when the GPU is not saturated.

The core count is crucial here. With only 4 cores, the processor relies on its 8 threads to manage background tasks and game logic. The PassMark multi-thread score of 14015 and 3DMark 16-thread score of 4051 show that scaling beyond 8 threads yields almost no gain (the max-thread score is 4023), confirming the processor’s physical limits. In Greedfall, this means that while the CPU can generate high frame rates, it does so with less consistency than a higher-core-count part might offer, a factor that becomes more pronounced as resolution drops and the GPU’s workload lightens.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This specific configuration—the Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER—holds a combo rank of 325 out of 3703 tested combinations in Greedfall. This places it in the top 8.8% of all tested systems, which is a strong showing for a processor that sits at the budget end of the spectrum. The ranking reflects the GPU’s dominance in the pairing; the RTX 4080 SUPER’s raw power compensates for the CPU’s modest thread count in a game that is not heavily multi-threaded.

However, the rank also reveals an imbalance. A combo in the top 10% is expected, given the GPU’s performance class, but the CPU’s 68th percentile ranking among all CPUs suggests that the processor is the weaker link. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the combo drops to 59 FPS, a significant fall from the 93 FPS at High settings. This is not purely a GPU limitation; the CPU’s inability to feed the GPU efficiently at lower resolutions is masked at 4K, where the GPU becomes the bottleneck. The rank of 325 indicates that many combinations with more balanced CPUs achieve better overall consistency, even if their peak frame rates are similar. The i3-12100F’s nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-9500, has a nearly identical average score (13452 vs 13492), implying that swapping to a slightly older 6-core part would yield similar results in this game.

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

The measured FPS data shows a clear scaling pattern across resolutions. At 1080p High, the combo averages 225 FPS, which climbs to 156 FPS at 1440p High, and then drops to 93 FPS at 4K High. This represents a 31% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a 40% drop from 1440p to 4K. This steep decline is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions, where the RTX 4080 SUPER’s rendering workload increases faster than the CPU’s ability to maintain frame pacing.

The limiting component shifts as resolution changes. At 1080p, the CPU is the clear bottleneck, as evidenced by the 316 FPS average at Low settings versus 225 FPS at High—a 91 FPS increase that cannot be attributed to GPU load alone. The processor’s 4 cores max out, preventing the GPU from reaching its full potential. By 1440p, the balance tilts toward the GPU, though the CPU still holds sway; the gap between Low (219 FPS) and Ultra (100 FPS) is 119 FPS, showing that settings changes have a large impact. At 4K, the GPU becomes the dominant limiting factor. The drop from High (93 FPS) to Ultra (59 FPS) is a 34 FPS reduction, while Low (131 FPS) to Medium (103 FPS) shows a 28 FPS gap, indicating that the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints.

This scaling suggests that for this combo, 1440p is the sweet spot where the CPU and GPU are more balanced, though the CPU still introduces some overhead. The 4K results, particularly the 59 FPS at Ultra, show that the RTX 4080 SUPER is being fully utilized, but the game’s age and engine limitations prevent it from delivering the high refresh rates seen at lower resolutions.

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

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are 316 FPS on Low, 248 FPS on Medium, 225 FPS on High, and 144 FPS on Ultra. The Medium setting shows a minimum of 211 FPS and a maximum of 285 FPS, providing a narrow but consistent window. The jump from Low to Medium is 68 FPS, while the drop from High to Ultra is 81 FPS, indicating that Ultra settings impose a heavy load on the CPU’s single-thread performance.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 219 FPS on Low, 172 FPS on Medium, 156 FPS on High, and 100 FPS on Ultra. The Medium setting again includes min/max values of 146 and 198 FPS, respectively. The scaling here is more linear, with a 47 FPS difference between Low and Medium, a 16 FPS difference between Medium and High, and a 56 FPS drop from High to Ultra. This suggests that at 1440p, the GPU is beginning to take on more of the workload, but the CPU still influences the Ultra preset’s performance.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 131 FPS on Low, 103 FPS on Medium, 93 FPS on High, and 59 FPS on Ultra. The Medium setting has a minimum of 87 FPS and a maximum of 118 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 28 FPS, from Medium to High is 10 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 34 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 59 FPS is the only sub-60 FPS average in the entire dataset, highlighting a scenario where the GPU’s 16 GB of VRAM and 736.3 GB/s bandwidth are stretched by the game’s highest settings.

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

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is a 5nm Ada Lovelace GPU with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s. Its boost clock is 2550 MHz, and it features 10240 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. The GPU’s PassMark G3D score is 34245, and its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 6600, placing it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, has an average score of 54247, a delta of -0.1%, meaning the SUPER variant is virtually identical in raw performance.

In Greedfall, the GPU’s role is to provide the raw frame rate headroom that the CPU cannot. At 1080p Low, the 316 FPS average is far beyond what the GPU alone would produce, but the CPU limits it from going higher. The VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor in this game, as even at 4K Ultra, the 16 GB allocation is sufficient for a 2019 title. The GPU’s 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are largely unused, as Greedfall does not feature ray tracing or DLSS, meaning the data reflects pure rasterization performance.

The GPU’s bottleneck is most evident at 4K Ultra, where the 59 FPS average is a 37% drop from the High preset’s 93 FPS. This is likely due to the increased shading complexity and memory pressure, not a lack of VRAM. The RTX 4080 SUPER’s 52.22 TFLOPS FP32 compute capability is more than enough for this game, but the engine’s draw call overhead and the CPU’s limitations prevent full utilization at lower resolutions.

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

For this combo, the data suggests that the High preset at 1440p offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance. The 156 FPS average at 1440p High is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on gaming monitors, while the 93 FPS at 4K High is playable but not optimal for high refresh rates. At 1080p, the High preset’s 225 FPS is excessive for most displays, and the CPU bottleneck means that lowering settings to Medium (248 FPS) provides only a 10% gain, which is not worth the visual compromise.

The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution. At 1440p, it drops to 100 FPS, and at 4K, it falls to 59 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The 1080p Ultra average of 144 FPS is acceptable, but the 81 FPS drop from High to Ultra suggests that the settings are not scaling efficiently. The Medium preset at 4K (103 FPS) is a viable alternative for 4K users who want higher frame rates, but the High preset’s 93 FPS is only 10 FPS lower, making High the superior choice for image quality.

The data indicates that the Low preset is only useful for extreme frame rate chasing, offering 316 FPS at 1080p, but the visual degradation is severe. For most users, the High preset at 1440p is the recommended balance, as it provides a 60% higher frame rate than 4K High while maintaining a resolution that is still sharp on most displays.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 on High settings yields a 156 FPS average, which is the best balance of high frame rates and visual quality. At 4K, the average drops to 93 FPS on High, and at 1080p, the CPU limits performance to 225 FPS on High.

Q: Why does the frame rate drop so much from 1080p Low (316 FPS) to 1080p Ultra (144 FPS)?

A: The 172 FPS difference indicates a CPU bottleneck. The Intel Core i3-12100F’s 4 cores are saturated by the Ultra preset’s increased draw calls and physics calculations, preventing the RTX 4080 SUPER from reaching its full potential.

Q: Is the 4K Ultra setting playable with this combo?

A: The measured average is 59 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS standard for smooth gameplay. It is technically playable, but the data suggests that the High preset at 93 FPS provides a significantly better experience.

Q: How does this CPU compare to its nearest rivals in terms of overall performance?

A: The i3-12100F has an average benchmark score of 13494, which is 0% different from the Intel Core 3 N355 (13492) and 0.3% higher than the Intel Core i5-9500 (13452). This means it performs nearly identically to these parts in synthetic tests.

Q: Does the RTX 4080 SUPER’s 16 GB VRAM ever become a limiting factor in Greedfall?

A: The data shows no evidence of VRAM limitation. Even at 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 59, which is more likely due to the GPU’s shading workload and the CPU’s overhead than memory capacity, as the game is from 2019 and does not require high VRAM.

Q: What is the most consistent frame rate setting in the data?

A: The Medium preset at 1080p shows a minimum of 211 FPS and a maximum of 285 FPS, a 74 FPS variance. In contrast, the Medium preset at 1440p shows a 52 FPS variance (146-198), and at 4K, the variance is 31 FPS (87-118), indicating that higher resolutions offer more consistent frame pacing.