Greedfall

# Greedfall Performance Analysis: Intel Core i7-14700KF + Intel Arc B370

The combination of an Intel Core i7-14700KF with an Intel Arc B370 produces a deeply GPU-limited experience in Greedfall, with benchmark results showing that the integrated graphics solution struggles to maintain playable frame rates at most settings. The measured data indicates a system where the CPU's substantial computational headroom is largely irrelevant, as the Arc B370's performance profile caps the experience well below what the processor alone could theoretically support. Across all tested resolutions and settings, the average frame rates range from a low of 14 FPS at 4K Ultra to a high of 76 FPS at 1080p Low, revealing that this combo is best suited for lower-resolution, lower-fidelity gaming scenarios.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate degradation from 1080p to 4K in Greedfall is severe and consistent across all settings, pointing to a graphics pipeline that is almost entirely bound by the GPU's output capabilities. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 54 FPS at 1920x1080 to 38 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 16 FPS, and then further to 22 FPS at 3840x2160. This progression shows that moving from 1080p to 1440p costs approximately 30% of the performance, while the jump from 1440p to 4K costs another 42%, resulting in a total performance loss of roughly 59% from the baseline 1080p figure.

The Low settings preset exhibits a similar pattern, with averages of 76 FPS at 1080p, 53 FPS at 1440p, and 31 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p represents a 30% reduction, while the 1440p to 4K transition costs 42% more performance, meaning that even at the lowest fidelity options, the resolution scaling penalty remains steep. This uniformity across settings strongly suggests that the limiting component is the GPU's pixel throughput, not any CPU-side bottleneck.

Ultra settings provide the most dramatic illustration of this scaling behavior. At 1080p Ultra, the combo manages 35 FPS, which falls to 24 FPS at 1440p and bottoms out at 14 FPS at 4K. The relative losses are 31% and 42% for the two resolution steps, respectively, mirroring the percentages seen in other presets. The fact that these proportions hold constant regardless of the settings level indicates that Greedfall's rendering load scales predictably with pixel count, and the Arc B370's fixed hardware resources are the decisive factor.

The Medium preset, which includes min and max frame data, shows the same scaling trend. Average FPS goes from 60 at 1080p to 41 at 1440p and then to 25 at 4K, with the 1080p-to-1440p drop being 32% and the 1440p-to-4K drop being 39%. The measured range at 1080p Medium (51 to 69 FPS) versus 4K Medium (21 to 28 FPS) confirms that higher resolutions compress the frame delivery window, with the 4K range being less than half the width of the 1080p range.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is the dominant performance limiter in this configuration, and its specifications make this clear. With a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz, the GPU operates across a wide frequency range, yet its integrated nature as an IGP with 25 W TDP constrains its output substantially. The GPU is built on Intel's Xe3-LPG architecture using a 3 nm process, and it features 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 20 raster output units. These resources translate to a pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s, with FP32 compute rated at 6.144 TFLOPS.

The memory configuration is particularly noteworthy: the Arc B370 uses System Shared memory, meaning it relies on the host system's RAM rather than dedicated VRAM. The bus width is also listed as System Shared, and bandwidth is System Dependent, which means that the actual memory performance will vary based on the installed system memory and its configuration. This shared memory architecture is typical of integrated graphics and explains why the GPU's performance in Greedfall, a game that demands consistent memory bandwidth for texture streaming and scene data, degrades so sharply at higher resolutions where memory pressure increases.

In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark, the Arc B370 scores 1184 points, placing it at the 5th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in this benchmark are the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 with a score of 1186 (0.2% ahead), the ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1190 (0.5% ahead), the AMD Radeon HD 7650M with 1192 (0.7% ahead), and the AMD FirePro M2000 with 1168 (1.4% behind). This places the Arc B370 in the company of legacy discrete GPUs from over a decade ago, which contextualizes why Greedfall's frame rates are so modest. The GPU's rendering capabilities are sufficient for 1080p at low-to-medium settings, but they are fundamentally inadequate for 4K gaming, as the measured 14-31 FPS range at that resolution demonstrates.

The gap between the GPU's theoretical compute and its practical gaming performance is notable. With 6.144 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput, the Arc B370 is not a trivial compute device, but its 20 ROPs and shared memory subsystem create a pixel-fill and bandwidth bottleneck that Greedfall's engine hits quickly. The frame rate data at 1080p Low (76 FPS) shows that the GPU can deliver reasonable performance when the render load is minimized, but every incremental increase in settings or resolution pushes the hardware further past its efficient operating point.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF is a high-end desktop processor that provides far more computational capability than this GPU pairing can utilize in Greedfall. With 20 cores and 28 threads, a base clock of 3.40 GHz, and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, the CPU is built on Intel's Raptor Lake architecture using a 10 nm process. Its cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 33 MB of shared L3 cache, and it supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory across a dual-channel bus.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i7-14700KF demonstrates its strength. Cinebench R23 multi-core scores 44167 and single-core scores 6235, while Geekbench results show 21462 multi-core and 2578 single-core. The Passmark multi-thread score is 52425, and single-thread is 4480. These figures place the CPU at the 94th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 70163. Its nearest rivals in overall CPU benchmarks include the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F with an average score of 69996 (0.2% behind), the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX at 69875 (0.4% behind), the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X at 69515 (0.9% behind), and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K at 70879 (1% ahead). This puts the i7-14700KF in elite company, with margins of less than 1% separating it from its closest competitors.

However, in Greedfall, the CPU's role is minimal because the GPU is the bottleneck at every measured configuration. The game's frame rates are dictated by the Arc B370's ability to render frames, not by the CPU's ability to feed it draw calls or process game logic. The fact that frame rate drops consistently as resolution increases, without any settings combination showing a CPU-side plateau, confirms that the i7-14700KF's resources are largely idle in this pairing. The 20-core, 28-thread configuration is overkill for a title like Greedfall, which is an Action RPG from 2019 that does not demand the kind of multi-threaded throughput that modern simulation-heavy titles might.

The CPU's 125 W TDP and unlocked multiplier indicate a processor designed for high-end gaming and productivity workloads, but in this combo, its performance headroom goes untapped. The measured FPS data shows no scenario where the CPU's clock speed or core count becomes the limiting factor; instead, every frame rate is capped by the GPU's output. This is not a criticism of the CPU, which is objectively fast, but rather a reflection of the enormous imbalance between the two components in this particular configuration.

FAQ

Q: Why does the frame rate drop so much from 1080p to 4K in Greedfall?

A: The Arc B370's integrated graphics architecture with System Shared memory and 20 ROPs becomes the bottleneck as pixel count increases. The data shows consistent 30-42% performance losses for each resolution step up, regardless of settings, indicating the GPU's pixel throughput is the limiting factor.

Q: Is this CPU-GPU combo balanced for Greedfall?

A: No, the balance is heavily skewed toward the CPU. The i7-14700KF ranks at the 94th percentile among CPUs with an average benchmark score of 70163, while the Arc B370 sits at the 5th percentile among GPUs with a 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1184. The GPU constrains all performance in this game.

Q: What is the best resolution to play Greedfall with this combo?

A: 1080p is the only resolution where average frame rates exceed 60 FPS, and only at Low (76 FPS) and Medium (60 FPS) settings. At 1440p, the best average is 53 FPS at Low, and at 4K, all settings produce averages below 35 FPS.

Q: How does the Arc B370 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, the Arc B370 scores 1184, which is 0.2% behind the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186), 0.5% behind the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190), 0.7% behind the AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1192), and 1.4% ahead of the AMD FirePro M2000 (1168).

Q: Does the i7-14700KF's 20-core configuration help in Greedfall?

A: No measurable benefit appears. The frame rates are identical to what a much weaker CPU would produce because the GPU is the bottleneck at all resolutions and settings. The CPU's high multi-thread scores (44167 in Cinebench R23 multi-core) are irrelevant when the GPU caps performance.

Q: What does the 2699 rank out of 2938 combos mean for this pairing?

A: This combo ranks in the 8th percentile of all tested CPU-GPU combinations in Greedfall, meaning 2698 other combos deliver better performance. This ranking is consistent with the GPU's low percentile and the extreme imbalance between the two components.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-14700KF and Intel Arc B370 combination ranks 2699 out of 2938 tested combos in Greedfall, placing it in the bottom 8% of all configurations. This ranking is almost entirely attributable to the GPU's performance ceiling, as the Arc B370 sits at the 5th percentile among all GPUs. The CPU, by contrast, is at the 94th percentile, meaning that the pairing is severely mismatched from a performance standpoint.

The data shows that this combo delivers playable frame rates (above 60 FPS) only in one measured scenario: 1080p Low at 76 FPS. For every other configuration, the average frame rate falls below 60 FPS, with 4K Ultra being the worst at 14 FPS. This places the combo in the lower tier of the 2938 tested configurations, where most alternative pairings with even modest discrete GPUs would outperform it.

The rank of 2699 is particularly telling when considering the CPU's capabilities. The i7-14700KF is among the top 6% of all CPUs in benchmark performance, yet this combo's in-game ranking is in the bottom 8%. This discrepancy highlights that the GPU is the sole determinant of Greedfall performance in this configuration, and the CPU's strength cannot compensate for the GPU's limitations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo achieves its best results across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 76 FPS, Medium produces 60 FPS with a range of 51 to 69 FPS, High produces 54 FPS, and Ultra produces 35 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 41 FPS, which shows that settings have a substantial impact at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, performance drops across the board. Low averages 53 FPS, Medium averages 41 FPS with a range of 35 to 48 FPS, High averages 38 FPS, and Ultra averages 24 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 29 FPS, meaning that the resolution increase compresses the settings-based performance differences.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates are marginal at best. Low averages 31 FPS, Medium averages 25 FPS with a range of 21 to 28 FPS, High averages 22 FPS, and Ultra averages 14 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread is only 17 FPS, indicating that the GPU is so heavily loaded at 4K that even reducing settings provides limited relief.

The Medium preset is the only one with full min/max data across all resolutions. At 1080p, the range is 51 to 69 FPS, at 1440p it is 35 to 48 FPS, and at 4K it is 21 to 28 FPS. The narrowing of the frame range as resolution increases suggests that the GPU's consistent output limits frame time variance at higher pixel counts, though the averages themselves are too low for smooth gameplay.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the only configuration that delivers an average frame rate above the 60 FPS threshold is 1080p Low at 76 FPS. This is the recommended setting for players who prioritize smoothness over visual fidelity, as it provides the largest performance headroom and most consistent experience. The 1080p Medium preset also achieves exactly 60 FPS on average, with a measured range of 51 to 69 FPS, which makes it a viable alternative for those who want slightly better visuals while accepting occasional dips below 60 FPS.

For players who cannot tolerate frame rates below 60 FPS, 1440p is not viable at any settings, as the best average is 53 FPS at Low. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 41 FPS with a range of 35 to 48 FPS, which may be acceptable for slower-paced gameplay but will feel less responsive. 4K should be avoided entirely, as even Low settings produce only 31 FPS average, and Ultra produces 14 FPS, which is well below playable thresholds for an Action RPG.

The High settings preset offers no advantages over Medium at any resolution. At 1080p, High averages 54 FPS versus Medium's 60 FPS, at 1440p it averages 38 FPS versus 41 FPS, and at 4K it averages 22 FPS versus 25 FPS. Since Medium consistently outperforms High by approximately 10-14% while presumably offering similar visual quality, Medium is the better choice for maximizing frame rate without a significant fidelity loss.

The Ultra preset is the worst-ratio option, providing the lowest frame rates at every resolution. At 1080p Ultra, the 35 FPS average is nearly half of the Low preset's 76 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, the 14 FPS average is unplayable. Unless visual fidelity is paramount and frame rate is irrelevant, Ultra should be avoided. The recommended setup is 1080p Low for maximum performance, or 1080p Medium as a balanced alternative, with all higher resolutions and settings being suboptimal for this hardware combination.