Greedfall

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 produces a striking performance profile in Greedfall, one that shifts character dramatically depending on resolution and preset. The data shows a system capable of triple-digit frame rates at 4K, but the relationship between CPU and GPU loads becomes increasingly clear as pixel count rises. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across all twelve tested configurations, explains what the scaling curves reveal about the bottleneck, and places the combo within the broader benchmark database.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for this combo shows a predictable but steep decline as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, and the magnitude of that drop tells a clear story about where the system’s limits lie. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 256 FPS at 1080p to 178 FPS at 1440p, then to 106 FPS at 4K. That represents a 30.5% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, followed by a further 40.4% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The total drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings is 58.6%, which is substantial but not catastrophic for a game of Greedfall’s era.

Looking at Low settings, the scaling pattern is even more revealing. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 359 FPS, which drops to 249 FPS at 1440p and 149 FPS at 4K. The percentage reductions are 30.6% and 40.2% respectively, nearly identical to the High preset scaling. This consistency suggests that the rendering pipeline is scaling in a linear fashion with pixel count, which typically indicates that the GPU is the primary driver of performance across all resolutions. However, the absolute numbers at 1080p Low—359 FPS—are so high that the CPU must be keeping pace with an enormous frame generation rate.

Ultra settings exhibit the steepest resolution penalty. The average FPS at 1080p Ultra is 164, which falls to 113 at 1440p and 68 at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 31.1%, and from 1440p to 4K is 39.8%. Interestingly, the Ultra preset shows a slightly smaller percentage drop from 1440p to 4K than the other presets, but the absolute 4K Ultra score of 68 FPS is the lowest measured value in the entire dataset. This indicates that the Ultra preset introduces effects that are disproportionately expensive at high pixel counts, likely pushing the GPU to its limits.

The Medium preset provides the only complete min/max data in the pack, and that data offers additional insight. At 1080p Medium, the average is 282 FPS with a minimum of 240 and maximum of 325. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 196 with a minimum of 166 and maximum of 225. At 4K Medium, the average is 117 with a minimum of 99 and maximum of 134. The spread between minimum and maximum FPS is remarkably consistent across resolutions: roughly 85-90 FPS at each step. This suggests that the frame time variance is not increasing with resolution, which is a positive sign for gameplay smoothness.

What does this scaling say about the limiting component? At 1080p, the CPU is likely becoming more relevant, given that the RTX 5090 can generate over 350 FPS on Low settings. However, the fact that the percentage scaling from 1080p to 4K is nearly identical across all presets (around 58-59% total reduction) suggests that the GPU remains the dominant constraint even at 1080p. If the CPU were the bottleneck at lower resolutions, the scaling from 1080p to 4K would be more pronounced, because the GPU would have more headroom at 1080p while the CPU would still cap frame rates. The data shows otherwise. The RTX 5090’s 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are clearly sufficient to feed the rendering pipeline at all tested resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on which preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance for this combo. At 4K, the High preset delivers 106 FPS average, which is above the 100 FPS threshold that most players would consider smooth for an Action RPG. The Ultra preset at 4K falls to 68 FPS, which is playable but noticeably less fluid, and the minimum frame rate is not reported in the pack. Medium at 4K offers 117 FPS, but the visual downgrade from High is typically modest in Greedfall, making High the better choice for 4K gaming.

At 1440p, the High preset achieves 178 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Medium preset at 196 FPS offers a small performance gain but sacrifices visual fidelity. The Ultra preset at 113 FPS is still above 60 FPS and would be viable for players who prioritize image quality, but the gap between High and Ultra—65 FPS—is substantial. Given that High at 1440p already exceeds most 144Hz monitors’ refresh rates, there is little reason to drop below High. The Low preset at 249 FPS is only useful for competitive play, which is not a primary concern for a story-driven Action RPG.

At 1080p, the situation is reversed: the GPU has so much headroom that the Ultra preset at 164 FPS is the most sensible choice. The High preset at 256 FPS is overkill for most displays, and the Low preset at 359 FPS provides no tangible benefit. The Medium preset at 282 FPS sits between High and Low but is less appealing than High, which costs only 26 FPS for better visuals. For 1080p users with high-refresh-rate panels (240Hz or above), the Ultra preset at 164 FPS is the sweet spot, as it provides the best image quality while still maintaining frame rates that exceed most monitors’ capabilities.

The best experience per the measured rows is therefore: 4K High for the highest resolution, 1440p High for high-refresh displays, and 1080p Ultra for maximum fidelity at lower pixel counts. The Ultra preset is only recommended at 1080p, where the 164 FPS average remains well above the 60 FPS threshold. At 1440p and 4K, the performance cost of Ultra is too steep relative to the visual gains, and the High preset provides a superior balance.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average FPS is 359, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only configuration in the dataset that exceeds 350 FPS.

*Q: Is the RTX 5090 powerful enough to run Greedfall at 4K Ultra?*

A: At 3840x2160 Ultra, the combo achieves an average FPS of 68, which is above the 60 FPS minimum for smooth gameplay but below the 100 FPS threshold that High settings provide. The data indicates that 4K Ultra is playable but not ideal for high-refresh-rate displays.

Q: How does the Medium preset’s minimum FPS compare across resolutions?

A: The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data. At 1080p, the minimum FPS is 240 with an average of 282. At 1440p, the minimum is 166 with an average of 196. At 4K, the minimum is 99 with an average of 117. The minimum FPS stays above 60 at all resolutions.

Q: Which preset shows the largest performance drop from 1080p to 4K?

A: The Ultra preset shows the largest absolute drop, from 164 FPS at 1080p to 68 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 96 FPS. The Low preset drops by 210 FPS (from 359 to 149), which is the largest absolute decline, but the Ultra preset has the largest percentage decline per pixel.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested combos in this game?

A: The combo ranks 83rd out of 2938 tested combinations, placing it in the top 2.8% of all configurations in the database for Greedfall performance.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance at 1080p Low settings?

A: The 359 FPS at 1080p Low is extraordinarily high, and the scaling to 249 FPS at 1440p (a 30.6% drop) suggests the GPU is still the primary constraint. If the CPU were limiting, the 1080p-to-1440p drop would be smaller, but the data shows consistent scaling across all presets.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank in Greedfall is 83 out of 2938 tested combinations, which places it in the top 3% of all configurations. This is a strong result, but the ranking is not as high as the raw hardware specifications might suggest. The RTX 5090 is the most powerful consumer GPU in the GeForce 50-series, and the Core Ultra 5 225 is a capable mid-range processor, yet the combo does not crack the top 50. This indicates that Greedfall is not a game that scales perfectly with the extreme end of GPU hardware, or that the CPU component is holding back the overall score.

The 83rd rank out of 2938 means there are 82 other combos that achieve higher average FPS in this game. Given the RTX 5090’s percentile rank of 92 among all GPUs, one might expect a higher placement. The Core Ultra 5 225 has a percentile rank of 85 among all CPUs, which is solid but not elite. The combination of a 92nd-percentile GPU with an 85th-percentile CPU yields a combo rank that is roughly in the 97th percentile of all combos tested for this game. The data suggests that the GPU is doing the heavy lifting, and the CPU is adequate but not exceptional for Greedfall’s demands.

Looking at the CPU’s nearest rivals, the Core Ultra 5 225 (average benchmark score 36938) sits within 0.5% of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (36945), AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D (37018), AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (37093), and Intel Core i9-12900T (37112). All four rivals have nearly identical average scores, with deltas ranging from 0% to -0.5%. This means that swapping the Core Ultra 5 225 for any of these CPUs would likely produce near-identical frame rates in Greedfall, assuming the GPU remains constant. The ultra-high FPS numbers at 1080p Low (359 FPS) suggest that even a marginally faster CPU might not improve results, as the GPU is still the limiting factor.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in the benchmark database are the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (avg score 79605, delta 0.3%), Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79396, delta 0.6%), AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78940, delta 1.1%), and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X (80959, delta -1.4%). These deltas are all within 1.5%, indicating that the RTX 5090’s raw compute performance is closely matched by several other GPUs in synthetic benchmarks. However, in Greedfall specifically, the RTX 5090’s 32 GB memory and Blackwell architecture likely contribute to its strong measured FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is a 10-core, 10-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on TSMC’s 3 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The 10 cores are all performance-oriented, with no efficiency cores, which is a departure from Intel’s previous hybrid designs. The L3 cache is 20 MB shared, and the CPU supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth.

In Greedfall, the CPU’s role is most evident at 1080p Low, where the combo achieves 359 FPS. At that frame rate, the CPU must handle game logic, physics, and draw calls for every frame, which is a significant workload. The Core Ultra 5 225’s 10 threads are sufficient for this task, as evidenced by the high frame rates, but the fact that the 1080p-to-1440p scaling is nearly identical to other presets suggests that the CPU is not the bottleneck even at 1080p Low. The GPU’s massive 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 throughput can generate frames faster than the CPU can feed it, but the CPU keeps up well enough to avoid a significant frame rate cap.

The Cinebench R23 scores for the Core Ultra 5 225 are 25891 multi-core and 3655 single-core, which are respectable for a 10-core part. The single-core score of 3655 is particularly relevant for gaming, as Greedfall likely relies on a few threads for its main simulation loop. The PassMark single-thread score of 4412 corroborates this strength. The CPU’s 10 threads, rather than 20, mean that heavily threaded games that can use more than 10 threads might see a performance penalty, but Greedfall’s measured FPS data does not indicate such a penalty, as the combo still ranks in the top 3%.

The CPU’s 20 MB L3 cache is adequate for feeding the GPU data, but not as large as some rivals with 3D V-Cache (which the FACT PACK does not specify for this CPU). The nearest rival, AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D, has a similar average benchmark score (37018) but may differ in gaming performance due to cache hierarchy. However, the deltaPct of -0.2% suggests negligible difference in the aggregate benchmark. In Greedfall, the CPU’s 10 cores and 10 threads provide enough parallelism, but the lack of hyperthreading means that each core handles one thread, which can be a limitation in CPU-bound scenarios. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (359 FPS) is the closest the data comes to a CPU-bound scenario, and even then, the GPU remains the limiter.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for this combo in Greedfall is as follows, organized by resolution and settings:

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 359 FPS average
• Medium: 282 FPS average, 240 minimum, 325 maximum
• High: 256 FPS average
• Ultra: 164 FPS average

The 1080p results show a clear hierarchy, with Low being 27.3% faster than Medium, Medium being 10.2% faster than High, and High being 56.1% faster than Ultra. The gap between High and Ultra is the largest in the dataset, indicating that the Ultra preset includes effects that are disproportionately expensive at 1080p. The Medium preset’s min/max range (240-325) shows a variance of 85 FPS, which is consistent with other resolutions.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 249 FPS average
• Medium: 196 FPS average, 166 minimum, 225 maximum
• High: 178 FPS average
• Ultra: 113 FPS average

At 1440p, the Low preset drops by 30.6% compared to 1080p, while Medium drops by 30.5%, High by 30.5%, and Ultra by 31.1%. This near-uniform scaling confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor across all presets. The Medium preset’s min/max range (166-225) has a variance of 59 FPS, which is smaller than at 1080p, suggesting that frame time consistency improves at higher resolutions.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 149 FPS average
• Medium: 117 FPS average, 99 minimum, 134 maximum
• High: 106 FPS average
• Ultra: 68 FPS average

At 4K, the Low preset remains above 144 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate 4K monitors. The Medium preset drops to 117 FPS, and High to 106 FPS. The Ultra preset at 68 FPS is the only configuration below 100 FPS in the entire dataset. The percentage drop from 1440p to 4K is 40.2% for Low, 40.3% for Medium, 40.4% for High, and 39.8% for Ultra. The Ultra preset shows a slightly smaller drop, which may indicate that its heavier effects are already saturating the GPU at 1440p.

The Medium preset’s 4K min/max range (99-134) has a variance of 35 FPS, which is the lowest of all resolutions. This suggests that at 4K, the frame pacing is more consistent, likely because the GPU is working closer to its efficient range. The minimum FPS of 99 at 4K Medium is above the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that this combo can maintain smooth gameplay even in demanding scenes at 4K.

Across all twelve measured points, the data shows a system that is GPU-limited at every resolution and preset combination. The RTX 5090’s 32 GB GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth provide ample headroom, while the Core Ultra 5 225’s 10 cores and 4.90 GHz boost clock ensure that the CPU does not introduce a bottleneck. The combo’s 83rd rank out of 2938 confirms that it is among the fastest configurations for Greedfall, though the game’s engine appears to cap the benefits of the very fastest hardware, as evidenced by the 359 FPS ceiling at 1080p Low. For players seeking the best balance of visual quality and frame rate, the 4K High preset at 106 FPS and the 1440p High preset at 178 FPS stand out as the most compelling choices from the measured data.