Greedfall

Resolution Scaling

Greedfall presents a demanding workload for the Intel Arc B580 when paired with the Core i7-14700KF, and the resolution scaling data clearly illustrates where the performance ceiling sits. Moving from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 at High settings, the average frame rate drops from 103.9 FPS to 40.3 FPS — a reduction of roughly 61%. This substantial scaling factor indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component at higher resolutions, with the CPU's 20 cores and 28 threads proving more than sufficient to feed the graphics pipeline.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings presets. At Low settings, the 1080p result of 143.8 FPS falls to 60.6 FPS at 4K, a 58% decrease. Medium settings show a similar trajectory, dropping from 118 FPS at 1080p to 46.6 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings, which are the most demanding, see the frame rate collapse from 68.2 FPS at 1080p to just 27.6 FPS at 4K — a 60% reduction. This uniformity across presets reinforces that resolution is the dominant factor, not the complexity of the scene or the specific graphical features enabled.

What is particularly telling is the delta between 1080p and 1440p. At High settings, the drop from 103.9 FPS to 69.7 FPS represents a 33% loss. The subsequent jump from 1440p to 4K costs another 42% of the frame rate. This non-linear scaling suggests that the Arc B580's 12 GB of GDDR6 memory and 192-bit bus width, delivering 456.0 GB/s of bandwidth, begin to feel constrained as pixel count increases. The GPU's 2560 shading units and 80 ROPs are simply tasked with more work than the architecture can efficiently handle at 4K.

The data also indicates that the i7-14700KF is not a bottleneck at any resolution. With a boost clock of 5.60 GHz and a substantial 33 MB of shared L3 cache, the CPU delivers single-threaded performance that keeps pace with even the lowest resolution tested. The 143.8 FPS result at 1080p Low settings confirms that this processor can drive high frame rates without becoming the limiting factor. In this configuration, Greedfall is overwhelmingly GPU-bound, with the Arc B580's architectural limits emerging as resolution increases.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting a smooth experience, the measured data suggests that Medium settings at 1920x1080 provide the best balance, delivering 118 FPS. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold and leaves headroom for demanding scenes. High settings at the same resolution, at 103.9 FPS, are also viable if visual fidelity takes priority, offering a 14% frame rate reduction for the added graphical detail.

At 2560x1440, the recommendation shifts. Medium settings produce 78.6 FPS, which remains playable, but High settings at 69.7 FPS are close enough to the 60 FPS mark that they may be preferable for those with variable refresh rate displays. Low settings at 1440p reach 103.3 FPS, but the visual compromise is significant. Ultra settings at 1440p, at 44.2 FPS, should be avoided unless the player prioritizes image quality over responsiveness.

At 3840x2160, the options are limited. Medium settings yield 46.6 FPS, which is borderline for action RPG gameplay. Low settings at 60.6 FPS are the only preset that achieves a playable frame rate at 4K, but this requires sacrificing most visual features. High settings at 40.3 FPS and Ultra at 27.6 FPS are not recommended for a game that involves real-time combat, as the responsiveness will suffer noticeably.

The overall recommendation is to play at 1080p with High settings for the best experience, or drop to Medium if a higher frame rate is desired. For 1440p displays, Medium settings offer the most consistent performance. The Arc B580's 13.67 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, and the data shows that the GPU cannot sustain 60 FPS at 4K with High or Ultra settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-14700KF and Intel Arc B580 ranks 1335 out of 1705 tested combos in Greedfall. This places the pairing in the lower 22% of all configurations, which is a surprising result given the individual components' benchmark standings. The CPU ranks in the 96th percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 70104, while the GPU sits in the 66th percentile with an average score of 23021. Yet when combined for this specific game, the performance is underwhelming relative to other tested systems.

The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-14700K, which scores 70074 with a deltaPct of 0, and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X at 70420 with a deltaPct of -0.4. These negligible differences indicate that the processor choice is not the source of the combo's low ranking. Similarly, the GPU's nearest rivals — the AMD Radeon 760M at 22999, the NVIDIA P106-100 at 22950, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 at 23181 — all sit within 1.3% of the Arc B580's average score. This suggests that the GPU is the constraining factor, but its benchmark performance does not fully explain the poor showing in Greedfall.

The disparity between the component-level benchmarks and the in-game result points to a potential driver or optimization issue. The Arc B580's architecture, based on Xe2-HPG and built on a 5 nm process by TSMC, may not be fully optimized for this 2019 title. Greedfall's release date of 2019-09-09 predates the GPU's 2024-12-12 launch, and the game's engine may not efficiently utilize the Arc's feature set, including DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) support. The result is a combo that underperforms its theoretical potential, ranking well below what the individual component percentiles would suggest.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings shows the Arc B580's capabilities. Low settings produce 143.8 FPS, Medium reaches 118 FPS, and High delivers 103.9 FPS. Ultra settings drop to 68.2 FPS, representing a 53% reduction from Low. These figures demonstrate that the GPU can handle 1080p gaming with ease, with even Ultra remaining above 60 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down as expected. Low settings yield 103.3 FPS, which is still excellent. Medium settings produce 78.6 FPS, and High settings reach 69.7 FPS. Ultra settings fall to 44.2 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The transition from High to Ultra at 1440p costs 37% of the frame rate, indicating that the Ultra preset's additional effects are particularly taxing.

At 3840x2160, the GPU struggles. Low settings achieve 60.6 FPS, just clearing the playability bar. Medium settings drop to 46.6 FPS, High to 40.3 FPS, and Ultra to 27.6 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is a massive 55%, showing that the Ultra preset is not viable at this resolution. The data clearly indicates that 4K gaming with this combo requires Low settings for acceptable performance.

The scaling from 1080p to 4K at each setting is as follows: Low loses 58% of performance, Medium loses 61%, High loses 61%, and Ultra loses 60%. This consistency suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth of 456.0 GB/s and pixel rate of 213.6 GPixel/s are the limiting factors, as these specifications directly affect fill-rate-bound workloads at high resolutions.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 is the decisive component in this configuration, and its specifications explain the measured results. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 456.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The base and boost clocks are both 2670 MHz, with memory running at 2375 MHz effective 19 Gbps. This configuration provides 13.67 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and a texture rate of 427.2 GTexel/s.

The memory capacity of 12 GB is sufficient for Greedfall's requirements, even at 4K, but the bandwidth appears to be a bottleneck. The 192-bit bus width is narrower than what higher-tier GPUs use, and the data shows that performance drops more sharply between 1440p and 4K than between 1080p and 1440p. This is characteristic of a bandwidth-limited scenario, where the GPU cannot fetch textures and geometry fast enough to keep the shading units busy.

The GPU's 20 ray tracing cores and 2560 shading units are modern features, but Greedfall does not utilize ray tracing, so these resources are underutilized. Instead, the game relies on traditional rasterization, where the GPU's 80 ROPs and 160 TMUs are the relevant units. The pixel rate of 213.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 427.2 GTexel/s are moderate figures, and the benchmark results show that they are insufficient for 4K Ultra settings.

The Arc B580's production status is Active, and it was released on 2024-12-12 with a predecessor called Alchemist. The 5 nm process node and 19,600 million transistors indicate a modern design, but the in-game performance suggests that driver maturity for older titles like Greedfall may be lacking. The GPU's Vulkan 1.4 and DirectX 12 Ultimate support are present, but the game's engine may not leverage these APIs efficiently. The result is a GPU that performs admirably in synthetic benchmarks — its Passmark G3D score of 15748 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3068 are respectable — but cannot translate that raw compute into consistent frame rates in this specific title.