Greedfall

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

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a 14-core, 14-thread desktop processor built on the Arrow Lake architecture with a 3 nm process node. It operates with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU sits in the 89th percentile of all processors tested, with an average benchmark score of 46062. Its nearest rivals in aggregate CPU performance include the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (0.1% higher score), Intel Core i9-13900HX (0.1% lower), AMD EPYC 4364P (0.2% higher), and AMD EPYC 7303 (0.2% higher) — all within a razor-thin margin of essentially identical overall compute capability.

In Greedfall, the CPU's role can be inferred from the measured frame rates across resolutions. Since this is an Action RPG with a 2019 release date, the game's engine does not appear to scale dramatically with the processor's 14 threads — the data shows the GPU becomes the dominant constraint as resolution increases. The Core Ultra 5 235 has 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB L2 per core, which is ample for feeding the Radeon RX 580 in this title. The processor's single-thread performance is strong relative to its multi-thread showing: Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2085 versus multi-core of 14769, and PassMark single-thread of 4516 versus multithread of 37816. This balance matters for Greedfall because action RPGs typically rely heavily on a few primary threads for game logic and AI, while the GPU handles rendering.

Benchmark results indicate the CPU is not the limiting factor in this pairing. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 81 FPS average, which is the highest measured across all settings and resolutions. If the CPU were a bottleneck, lowering resolution would not yield such a substantial FPS increase — the jump from 1080p Ultra (37 FPS) to 1080p Low (81 FPS) is a 119% improvement, which reflects GPU-side scaling rather than CPU headroom being exhausted. The processor's 14 cores and 14 threads (no hyperthreading) are sufficient for the game's demands, as evidenced by the fact that even at 4K Ultra where the GPU is clearly overwhelmed at 15 FPS, the system still produces consistent frames without stutter indications (min FPS values are only provided for Medium settings, where they are close to averages).

# FAQ

Q: How does the Core Ultra 5 235 compare to its closest CPU rivals in overall benchmark performance?

A: The Core Ultra 5 235 has an average benchmark score of 46062. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375, scores 46030 (0.1% higher), while the Intel Core i9-13900HX scores 46098 (0.1% lower). The AMD EPYC 4364P and EPYC 7303 score 45970 and 45960 respectively, both 0.2% higher than the Core Ultra 5 235. In practical terms, all four processors deliver statistically identical aggregate performance.

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

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 81 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At Medium settings, the combo reaches 64 FPS average (with a 54 FPS minimum and 73 FPS maximum). The High preset at 1080p yields 58 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 37 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU's 14-core configuration help in Greedfall specifically?

A: The data suggests the game does not heavily utilize the multi-threaded capacity. The CPU's PassMark multithread score is 37816, but frame rates scale almost entirely with GPU settings. At 1440p, dropping from Ultra (26 FPS) to Low (56 FPS) more than doubles performance, which is characteristic of GPU-bound workloads. The 14 cores provide adequate headroom, but the game's engine benefits more from the CPU's single-thread strength (Cinebench R23 single-core 2085).

Q: How does the RX 580's benchmark position compare to its GPU rivals?

A: The RX 580 has an average benchmark score of 12928, placing it in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival is the NVIDIA RTX 3050 Ti Mobile at 12940 (0.1% higher), followed by the GTX 1660 SUPER at 12986 (0.4% higher), AMD Radeon 740M at 12870 (0.5% lower), and AMD FirePro W5100 at 12847 (0.6% lower). The RX 580 is effectively tied with these competitors in aggregate GPU compute.

Q: What frame rates can be expected at 4K with this combo?

A: At 3840x2160, the measured results are: 34 FPS average on Low, 26 FPS average on Medium (22 min, 30 max), 24 FPS average on High, and 15 FPS average on Ultra. None of these are playable for smooth action gameplay, indicating that 4K is beyond the RX 580's capability in Greedfall.

Q: Is the Core Ultra 5 235 a high-end or mid-range processor relative to all tested CPUs?

A: With a percentile rank of 89 among all CPUs, the Core Ultra 5 235 sits in the upper tier but not the absolute top. Its average benchmark score of 46062 places it in the same performance class as high-end mobile HX-series chips and server EPYC processors, though the nearest rivals are all within 0.2% — this is a tightly contested performance band.

# Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a predictable and steep resolution scaling curve for this combo, with the GPU emerging as the clear bottleneck at higher pixel counts. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 on Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 64 to 44 — a 31% reduction. Continuing to 3840x2160 on the same preset, the average falls to 26 FPS, which is another 41% drop. This pattern is consistent across all settings presets.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more pronounced: 81 FPS at 1080p, 56 FPS at 1440p, and 34 FPS at 4K. The 4K result is 58% lower than 1080p. This steep decline indicates that the RX 580's 256-bit memory bus and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are being saturated as pixel count increases. The GPU's 8 GB of GDDR5 memory is adequate for capacity, but the architecture (GCN 4.0 on 14 nm) does not have the raw throughput to maintain playable frame rates at 4K.

The data shows that 1440p is the practical ceiling for this combo in Greedfall. At High settings, 1440p yields 40 FPS average, which is borderline playable for an action RPG, while Medium at 1440p gives 44 FPS. The jump from 1440p to 4K at High settings (40 to 24 FPS) is a 40% loss, which is disproportionate to the pixel count increase (2.25x more pixels) — this nonlinear scaling suggests the GPU is hitting memory bandwidth and shading unit limits rather than a pure pixel-fill constraint.

At 1080p, the combo shows healthy performance across all settings except Ultra. The spread from Low (81 FPS) to Ultra (37 FPS) is 54%, which is a typical range for a GPU of this class. The RX 580's 2304 shading units and 144 TMUs provide enough compute for 1080p gaming, but the 32 ROPs become a limiting factor at higher resolutions where fill-rate demands increase.

# Settings Recommendations

For the best experience per the measured rows, the Medium preset at 1920x1080 represents the sweet spot. It delivers 64 FPS average with a 54 FPS minimum and 73 FPS maximum — the minimum stays above the 50 FPS threshold that action RPGs generally need for responsive combat. The High preset at 1080p yields 58 FPS average, which is also acceptable, but the Medium preset offers a more comfortable margin above the minimum playability threshold.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset is the recommended choice, producing 44 FPS average with a 38 FPS minimum and 51 FPS maximum. While not a locked 60, this is usable for a slower-paced RPG. The Low preset at 1440p (56 FPS average) is smoother but sacrifices visual quality significantly. High at 1440p (40 FPS) is playable but leaves no headroom for demanding scenes.

At 3840x2160, no preset achieves a playable frame rate. Low yields 34 FPS average, Medium 26 FPS, and High just 24 FPS. Ultra is effectively unplayable at 15 FPS. The data clearly indicates that 4K should be avoided for this combo in Greedfall.

The Ultra preset is consistently the worst performer across all resolutions, with a 37 FPS average at 1080p and 15 FPS at 4K. The gap between High and Ultra at 1080p (58 to 37 FPS, a 36% loss) suggests the Ultra preset enables settings that disproportionately tax the RX 580 without a commensurate visual benefit. For this reason, High at 1080p is a viable alternative to Medium if visual fidelity is prioritized, but Medium provides the best balance of smoothness and quality.

# How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and AMD Radeon RX 580 ranks 2672 out of 2938 tested combos in Greedfall. This places it in the 9th percentile of all combinations — meaning roughly 91% of tested CPU-GPU pairs perform better in this game. The low rank is primarily attributable to the RX 580, which was released in 2017 and carries a 53rd percentile standing among all GPUs.

The CPU's high percentile (89th) does little to boost the combo's ranking because Greedfall is GPU-bound at the resolutions tested. The data shows that even a top-tier processor cannot compensate for the GPU's limitations. The Core Ultra 5 235's nearest CPU rivals (Ryzen AI 9 HX 375, i9-13900HX, EPYC 4364P, EPYC 7303) would likely produce nearly identical frame rates when paired with the same RX 580, since the GPU is the constraining component in this pairing.

The rank of 2672 out of 2938 indicates that this combo is positioned for 1080p gaming at medium-to-high settings, which aligns with the measured results. Combos ranked higher would typically feature more modern GPUs with greater shading throughput and memory bandwidth. The RX 580's 6.175 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are modest by current standards, which explains why the combo sits in the lower quartile of all tested configurations.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces the following average frame rates: Low 81 FPS, Medium 64 FPS (54 min, 73 max), High 58 FPS, and Ultra 37 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 54% performance drop, with the largest single-step decline occurring between High and Ultra (58 to 37 FPS, a 36% loss). The Medium preset's minimum of 54 FPS is the most consistent frame time performance among all 1080p settings.

At 2560x1440, average FPS values are: Low 56 FPS, Medium 44 FPS (38 min, 51 max), High 40 FPS, and Ultra 26 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a 31% reduction on Medium (64 to 44 FPS), a 34% reduction on Low (81 to 56 FPS), a 31% reduction on High (58 to 40 FPS), and a 30% reduction on Ultra (37 to 26 FPS). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings indicates a uniform resolution scaling penalty.

At 3840x2160, average FPS values are: Low 34 FPS, Medium 26 FPS (22 min, 30 max), High 24 FPS, and Ultra 15 FPS. The transition from 1440p to 4K is severe: Low drops 39% (56 to 34 FPS), Medium drops 41% (44 to 26 FPS), High drops 40% (40 to 24 FPS), and Ultra drops 42% (26 to 15 FPS). These near-uniform 40% reductions at each setting strongly indicate that the GPU's memory bandwidth (256.0 GB/s) is the hard ceiling for this combo at 4K.

The minimum FPS data is only available for Medium settings: 54 at 1080p, 38 at 1440p, and 22 at 4K. These minimums are 84%, 86%, and 85% of their respective averages, showing that frame pacing remains consistent even as overall performance degrades. The lack of min/max data for other presets suggests either measurement limitations or that those settings were not sampled for variance.

# GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is the defining component in this combo's Greedfall performance. Built on the Polaris 20 chip using GCN 4.0 architecture at a 14 nm process node, this GPU has been end-of-life since its 2017 release. It carries 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth. The GPU's base clock is 1257 MHz with a boost of 1340 MHz, and memory runs at 2000 MHz (8 Gbps effective). Its 2304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 32 ROPs deliver 6.175 TFLOPS FP32 performance, with a pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s and texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s.

The RX 580's benchmark position confirms its mid-range standing. With an average benchmark score of 12928, it sits in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are all within 0.6%: the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (12940, 0.1% higher), GTX 1660 SUPER (12986, 0.4% higher), Radeon 740M (12870, 0.5% lower), and FirePro W5100 (12847, 0.6% lower). This tight clustering means the RX 580 performs within a few percent of several more modern GPUs in synthetic benchmarks.

In Greedfall specifically, the GPU's role is decisive. The measured FPS data shows that reducing resolution from 1080p to 4K at the same settings cuts performance by roughly 60%, which is a GPU-bound behavior pattern. The RX 580's 185 W TDP and dual-slot cooler with 1x 8-pin power connector indicate a power-hungry design for its performance class. The GPU supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3, which covers Greedfall's API requirements.

The GPU's memory configuration is worth noting: 8 GB GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus provides 256.0 GB/s bandwidth. This is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p textures in Greedfall, but at 4K, the bandwidth becomes the limiting factor — evidenced by the consistent 40% FPS drops when moving from 1440p to 4K across all settings. The RX 580's 32 ROPs also cap pixel throughput, which explains why the Ultra preset at 4K (15 FPS) is so severely impacted. The GPU's 53rd percentile rank, combined with its 2017 release date and end-of-life production status, means it is a legacy part that can handle 1080p gaming but struggles with higher resolutions in demanding titles like Greedfall.