Greedfall

Greedfall, the 2019 action RPG from Spiders, presents an interesting test for the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile combination. The measured data reveals a component pairing that behaves very differently depending on the resolution and quality settings thrown at it. This analysis breaks down the 12 measured FPS data points to understand the performance characteristics, bottlenecks, and optimal usage scenarios for this specific mobile configuration.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K tells a clear story about where the performance ceiling lies for this combo. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 128 FPS at 1920x1080 to 89 FPS at 2560x1440, a 30.5% reduction. Moving further to 3840x2160, the average drops to 53 FPS, representing a 58.6% decrease from the 1080p baseline. This steep decline indicates that the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor as pixel count increases, which is expected for a mobile graphics solution.

The scaling pattern at Medium settings reinforces this interpretation. The average FPS at 1080p is 141, at 1440p it is 98, and at 4K it falls to 58. The percentage drops are 30.5% and 58.9% respectively, almost identical to the High settings scaling. This consistency suggests the GPU is consistently the bottleneck across these quality levels, with the CPU having sufficient headroom to keep feeding frames even at lower resolutions. The Ultra settings tell a similar but more extreme story, with averages of 82 FPS at 1080p, 57 FPS at 1440p, and just 34 FPS at 4K.

The Low settings data reveals the most interesting dynamic. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 180 FPS, which is the highest measured average across all configurations. At 1440p Low, it still manages 125 FPS, and at 4K Low, it produces 74 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low settings shows a 58.9% drop, similar to other settings, but the absolute numbers are high enough to suggest that at 1080p, the CPU might start to become more relevant. The fact that 180 FPS at 1080p Low is the peak measured value, with no higher result, hints that the Core Ultra 5 125H may be approaching its practical limit for this game at that resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy for choosing between presets. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 128 FPS average, which is a strong experience for a fast-paced action RPG. The Medium preset offers 141 FPS, a 10.2% improvement over High, while Low pushes to 180 FPS. The Ultra preset, however, drops to 82 FPS, which is a 35.9% reduction from High. For most players at 1080p, High appears to be the sweet spot, offering a substantial visual upgrade over Medium and Low while maintaining a frame rate well above 60 FPS. Ultra's cost in performance is steep, and the data does not show a corresponding benefit in the measured metrics.

At 2560x1440, the recommendation shifts. High settings produce 89 FPS, which is still smooth and playable. Medium yields 98 FPS, and Low reaches 125 FPS. Ultra falls to 57 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold that many players prefer. The data suggests that at 1440p, Medium provides the best balance, delivering 98 FPS while presumably offering better visual fidelity than Low. High at 89 FPS is also viable, but the 9.2% gain from dropping to Medium might be worth it for players who prioritize frame rate stability.

At 3840x2160, the options become more constrained. High settings produce 53 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. Medium produces 58 FPS, and Low reaches 74 FPS. Ultra is not viable at 34 FPS. The data indicates that Low is the recommended preset for 4K gaming on this combo, as it is the only setting that consistently stays above 60 FPS. Medium at 58 FPS is close, but the margin is thin and the min FPS data for Medium at 4K shows 50 FPS, suggesting potential dips that could be noticeable.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile is the dominant component in this pairing for Greedfall. With 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus providing 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth, the GPU has enough memory capacity for the game's textures at 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K performance suggests memory bandwidth could be a limiting factor. The GPU's boost clock of 1695 MHz and base clock of 1395 MHz are relatively modest for the Ada Lovelace architecture, but the 4608 shading units and 144 texture mapping units provide substantial compute throughput.

The GPU's FP32 performance of 15.62 TFLOPS is notable for a mobile part, and the 36 RT cores and 144 tensor cores indicate the hardware is prepared for future games that leverage ray tracing and DLSS, though Greedfall itself does not appear to use these features in the measured data. The GPU's passmark G3D score of 19587 and its percentile ranking of 73rd among all GPUs place it in a competent mid-to-high tier. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, has an almost identical average score with a deltaPct of 0, indicating that the RTX 4070 Mobile is performing exactly at the level expected for its class.

The 4K results are particularly telling about the GPU's role. The drop from 74 FPS at Low to 34 FPS at Ultra at 4K represents a 54.1% reduction, which is a massive swing driven entirely by GPU workload. The fact that the GPU cannot maintain 60 FPS at 4K High suggests that the 8 GB memory capacity and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for the game's highest quality textures at that resolution. At 1440p, the GPU is more comfortable, with High settings producing 89 FPS, but the Ultra preset still causes a significant drop to 57 FPS, indicating that the GPU is being pushed to its limits by the most demanding settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS this combo achieves in Greedfall?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 180, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Can this combo run Greedfall at 4K resolution smoothly?

A: At 4K, only Low settings produce an average FPS above 60, at 74 FPS. Medium settings yield 58 FPS, High settings yield 53 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 34 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 Mobile compare to its nearest GPU rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 27435, which is essentially identical to the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT's score of 27425, showing a deltaPct of 0.

Q: What is the performance difference between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: Medium settings produce an average of 98 FPS, while High settings produce 89 FPS, a difference of 9 FPS or approximately 10.1%.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the primary bottleneck at 1080p Low settings?

A: The 180 FPS result at 1080p Low is the peak measured value. The fact that it does not go higher suggests the CPU may be approaching its limit at this resolution and settings combination.

Q: What are the minimum FPS values recorded for Medium settings?

A: The min FPS values for Medium settings are 120 at 1080p, 83 at 1440p, and 50 at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H is a 14-core, 18-thread mobile processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture. With a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz, it provides solid single-thread and multi-thread performance for gaming. The CPU's L3 cache of 18 MB shared and L2 cache of 2 MB per core are adequate for feeding the GPU in most scenarios. The processor's passmark multithread score of 21100 and single-thread score of 3399 place it in the 79th percentile among all CPUs.

In Greedfall, the CPU's role is most apparent at lower resolutions and settings. The 180 FPS result at 1080p Low indicates that the CPU can drive the GPU to high frame rates, but the absence of any higher result suggests a potential ceiling. The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 and Intel Core i5-12600K, with deltaPct values of -0.1 and -0.3 respectively, meaning the Core Ultra 5 125H is nearly identical in performance to these desktop-class processors.

The Cinebench R23 scores are informative: a multicore score of 12804.5 and a single-core score of 1647.5. These numbers indicate that the CPU has strong multi-threaded capability, which is useful for games that utilize multiple cores, but Greedfall's engine may not be heavily threaded. The single-core score is more relevant for gaming, and it is sufficient to avoid becoming a bottleneck at most settings, as evidenced by the consistent FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K. The CPU's 28W TDP is modest, allowing it to fit into thin-and-light laptops, but this power envelope may limit sustained performance in demanding scenes.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results show a clear progression across settings. Low settings produce an average of 180 FPS. Medium settings reduce this to 141 FPS, with a minimum of 120 and a maximum of 163 FPS. High settings further reduce the average to 128 FPS. Ultra settings produce 82 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 98 FPS, indicating that the GPU workload varies significantly with quality settings at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 125 FPS for Low, 98 FPS for Medium (with a min of 83 and max of 113), 89 FPS for High, and 57 FPS for Ultra. The difference between Low and Ultra is 68 FPS. At 3840x2160, the averages drop to 74 FPS for Low, 58 FPS for Medium (with a min of 50 and max of 67), 53 FPS for High, and 34 FPS for Ultra. The difference between Low and Ultra is 40 FPS at 4K.

The data reveals that the proportional drop from Low to Ultra is largest at 4K, where Ultra is 54.1% slower than Lowhare, compared to 52.2% at 1440p and 54.4% at 1080p. The Medium settings provide the only complete min/max data across all resolutions, showing that the frame time variance increases with resolution. At 1080p, the min is 120 and max is 163, a spread of 43 FPS. At 1440p, the spread is 30 FPS (83 to 113). At 4K, the spread narrows to 17 FPS (50 to 67). This suggests that at higher resolutions, the GPU is more consistently saturated, reducing frame time spikes.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile combination ranks 2006th out of 3703 tested combos in Greedfall, placing it in the 54.2nd percentile of all configurations. This mid-pack ranking is somewhat surprising given the individual component performance. The CPU ranks in the 79th percentile among all CPUs, and the GPU ranks in the 73rd percentile among all GPUs, yet the combined gaming performance is lower than either component's individual standing.

This discrepancy suggests that the combo's performance in Greedfall is limited by factors beyond raw component power. The mobile nature of both parts, with the CPU's 28W TDP and the GPU's 115W TDP, may contribute to thermal and power constraints that prevent sustained peak performance. Additionally, the 8 GB GPU memory and 128-bit memory bus may not be optimally suited for this game's memory access patterns at higher resolutions.

The ranking indicates that there are 1,699 other combos that perform better in Greedfall, which likely include desktop configurations with higher-power GPUs and CPUs. However, the combo's performance is still respectable for a mobile setup, particularly at 1080p and 1440p where it achieves playable frame rates at High settings. The data suggests that this pairing is well-balanced for 1080p gaming, with the CPU and GPU complementing each other effectively, but it struggles to maintain high performance at 4K Ultra settings, where the GPU's limitations become apparent.