Greedfall

# How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 paired with the Intel Arc B390 lands at position 2595 out of 2938 tested combinations in Greedfall. That places this combo in the bottom 12th percentile of all tested systems, a ranking that reflects the GPU's modest standing in the broader benchmark hierarchy. The Arc B390 itself sits at the 9th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. Its nearest rivals are all legacy NVIDIA parts: the GeForce GT 520MX trails by just 1.3%, the GeForce 800M is 1.5% behind, the GT 625 OEM is 2.5% behind, and the GT 710 is 2.7% behind. These are extremely tight deltas, meaning the B390 is effectively trading blows with decade-old entry-level discrete GPUs rather than competing with anything modern.

The CPU, by contrast, is a far stronger component. The Core Ultra 5 235 ranks in the 89th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 46062. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (0.1% ahead), the Intel Core i9-13900HX (0.1% behind), the AMD EPYC 4364P (0.2% ahead), and the AMD EPYC 7303 (0.2% ahead). This is a tightly clustered group of processors spanning mobile HX chips and server EPYC parts, which tells you the Ultra 5 235 is a well-rounded performer that can hang with much more expensive silicon in general compute. The bottleneck in this combo is unambiguously the GPU, which constrains frame rates far below what the CPU could otherwise feed.

Given that the combo ranks near the bottom of the database for Greedfall specifically, the data suggests this pairing is not well suited to the game's demands. The game released in 2019 and is not a advanced title, yet the Arc B390 still struggles to maintain playable frame rates at higher resolutions and settings. The integrated graphics solution—the B390 is an IGP part with system-shared memory—simply lacks the dedicated memory bandwidth and raw throughput that Greedfall's rendering engine appears to require. The CPU's high percentile ranking does little to rescue the experience when the GPU is the limiting factor at every measured settings level.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for this combo shows a clear pattern across all three resolutions: the Low preset delivers the highest average frame rates, and the gap between Low and the next step up is substantial. At 1920x1080, Low produces 84 FPS average, which is 24 FPS higher than High and 18 FPS higher than Medium. At 2560x1440, Low yields 58 FPS average, compared to 46 FPS on Medium and 42 FPS on High. Even at 3840x2160, Low manages 35 FPS average, which is 8 FPS better than High and 8 FPS better than Medium at that resolution.

For players targeting smooth gameplay, Low is the only preset that consistently delivers frame rates at or above the 60 FPS threshold, and it only does so at 1920x1080. The Medium preset offers a compromise with 66 FPS average at 1080p, but it drops to 46 FPS at 1440p and 27 FPS at 4K. The High preset is playable at 1080p with 60 FPS average, but falls to 42 FPS at 1440p and 25 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset is essentially unusable across the board, with 38 FPS at 1080p, 27 FPS at 1440p, and just 16 FPS at 4K.

The data indicates that the best experience is achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset, where the 84 FPS average provides headroom above the 60 FPS target. If visual fidelity is a priority, the Medium preset at 1080p is the highest quality setting that maintains an average above 60 FPS. At 1440p, Low is the only preset that approaches playability, while at 4K, no setting reaches the 60 FPS threshold, and even Low falls short at 35 FPS. The measured min/max data for Medium settings shows a narrow frame time distribution—56-76 FPS at 1080p, 39-53 FPS at 1440p, and 23-32 FPS at 4K—which suggests consistent performance without severe stuttering, but the averages themselves are the limiting factor.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this hardware in Greedfall?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 with Low settings produces the highest average frame rate at 84 FPS. The Medium preset at 1080p is the highest quality setting that stays above 60 FPS average at 66 FPS. At 2560x1440, Low drops to 58 FPS, and at 3840x2160, even Low only reaches 35 FPS.

Q: How does the Arc B390 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B390's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 places it 1.3% ahead of the GeForce GT 520MX, 1.5% ahead of the GeForce 800M, 2.5% ahead of the GT 625 OEM, and 2.7% ahead of the GT 710. These are all legacy entry-level parts, and the B390 only marginally outperforms them.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this combo?

A: The GPU is clearly the bottleneck. The Core Ultra 5 235 ranks in the 89th percentile among all CPUs with an average score of 46062, while the Arc B390 ranks in the 9th percentile among GPUs. The CPU's nearest rivals are within 0.2% of its score, indicating strong performance, but the GPU's low ranking constrains frame rates in Greedfall.

Q: Can this combo run Greedfall at 4K?

A: The measured data shows no 4K preset reaches 60 FPS. The Low preset averages 35 FPS, Medium averages 27 FPS, High averages 25 FPS, and Ultra averages 16 FPS at 3840x2160. Even the best 4K result is well below playable thresholds for most users.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 58 FPS, Medium averages 46 FPS with a 39-53 FPS range, High averages 42 FPS, and Ultra averages 27 FPS. Only Low approaches the 60 FPS target, and none of the higher presets maintain consistent playability.

Q: How much headroom does the CPU have in this game?

A: The CPU's performance is not a limiting factor. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375, scores within 0.1% of the Ultra 5 235, and the Intel Core i9-13900HX is within 0.1% as well. The CPU's 89th percentile ranking indicates it has ample compute headroom, but the GPU cannot leverage it in this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured data shows a clear hierarchy across presets. The Low setting delivers an average of 84 FPS, the highest result for this combo at any resolution. Medium drops to 66 FPS average with a minimum of 56 FPS and a maximum of 76 FPS, providing a consistent frame time spread. High averages 60 FPS, exactly at the standard playability threshold, while Ultra falls to 38 FPS average, making it unsuitable for smooth gameplay. The 18 FPS gap between Low and Medium suggests the game's medium-tier effects impose a significant cost on the integrated GPU.

Moving to 2560x1440, the same pattern emerges but with lower absolute numbers. Low averages 58 FPS, which is just shy of the 60 FPS target. Medium averages 46 FPS with a 39-53 FPS range, indicating the frame pacing remains stable but the overall performance is marginal. High averages 42 FPS, and Ultra drops to 27 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 26 FPS on Low (from 84 to 58), 20 FPS on Medium, 18 FPS on High, and 11 FPS on Ultra. The diminishing absolute losses at higher presets suggest the GPU is already saturated at lower resolutions, so additional pixel count has less relative impact.

At 3840x2160, performance falls below playable thresholds across all settings. Low averages 35 FPS, which is the highest 4K result. Medium averages 27 FPS with a 23-32 FPS range, High averages 25 FPS, and Ultra averages 16 FPS. The drop from 1440p to 4K costs 23 FPS on Low, 19 FPS on Medium, 17 FPS on High, and 11 FPS on Ultra. The scaling pattern indicates the GPU becomes increasingly bandwidth-limited at higher resolutions, consistent with its system-shared memory configuration. The measured min/max data at Medium settings shows the frame time variance increases with resolution—a 20 FPS spread at 1080p, 14 FPS at 1440p, and 9 FPS at 4K—but the absolute frame rates are too low at 4K for this to matter.

The full dataset reveals that this combo's performance envelope is narrow. The best case is 84 FPS at 1080p Low, and the worst case is 16 FPS at 4K Ultra. There is no resolution and settings combination that achieves 60+ FPS at 1440p or higher, and only the 1080p Low and Medium presets exceed the 60 FPS threshold. The measured rows show no frame rate data for High or Ultra presets at any resolution beyond averages, which limits the analysis of frame pacing for those settings, but the averages alone are sufficient to characterize the experience as below standard playability for most higher-fidelity configurations.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics processor built on the Xe3-LPG architecture, fabricated on Intel's 3 nm process node. It operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz, with a thermal design power of 80 W. The GPU features 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, 24 raster operation units, and 12 ray tracing cores. Its pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s and texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s, yielding a peak FP32 performance of 7.680 TFLOPS and FP16 performance of 15.36 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio.

The most defining characteristic of this GPU is its memory configuration: all memory is system-shared, meaning the GPU has no dedicated VRAM. The memory type, bus width, and bandwidth are all listed as system-shared or system-dependent. This is likely the primary reason for the weak performance in Greedfall. The shared memory architecture means the GPU must compete with the CPU for memory bandwidth, and the effective bandwidth available to graphics workloads is dependent on the system's DDR5 memory configuration. The CPU's memory bandwidth is rated at 102.4 GB/s with dual-channel DDR5 support, but the GPU's access to this bandwidth is shared and not dedicated.

The GPU's benchmark results confirm its low standing. Its only measured benchmark, 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, yields a score of 1482, placing it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the GeForce GT 520MX, scores 1463, just 1.3% behind. The GeForce 800M scores 1460 (1.5% behind), the GT 625 OEM scores 1446 (2.5% behind), and the GT 710 scores 1443 (2.7% behind). These NVIDIA parts are all from the early 2010s era, indicating the B390's performance class is roughly equivalent to a low-end discrete GPU from over a decade ago. In Greedfall, this translates to the observed frame rates: the GPU can handle 1080p Low at 84 FPS, but it runs out of headroom quickly as resolution and settings increase.

The ray tracing cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate support are present in the spec sheet, but Greedfall's 2019 release date means it does not leverage these modern features. The game's rendering workload is more traditional, relying on raw pixel throughput and memory bandwidth—areas where the B390 is weakest. The 24 ROPs and 48 TMUs are modest counts, and the 7.680 TFLOPS FP32 figure is low by modern standards. The boost clock of 2500 MHz is respectable, but the low base clock of 300 MHz suggests significant power management throttling is possible, which could cause performance variability in sustained gaming workloads. The GPU's 9th percentile ranking is the single most informative metric for understanding this combo's gaming performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a desktop processor from the Core Ultra Series 2, based on the Arrow Lake architecture fabricated on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It features 14 cores and 14 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. The thermal design power is 65 W, and it uses the Intel Socket 1851. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus and a rated memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s, and it provides PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes from the CPU.

The CPU's benchmark results show strong all-around performance. In Cinebench R23, it scores 14769 in multicore and 2085 in single-core. Cinebench R20 yields 6202 multicore and 875 single-core, while Cinebench R15 produces 1488 multicore and 210 single-core. PassMark results include a multithread score of 37816, single-thread score of 4516, physics score of 2570, floating-point math of 117951, integer math of 87948, data compression of 390711, data encryption of 29293, extended instructions of 32752, find prime numbers of 371, and random string sorting of 48980. These figures place the CPU in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 46062.

The nearest rivals provide context for the CPU's performance tier. The AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 scores 46030, just 0.1% lower than the Ultra 5 235. The Intel Core i9-13900HX scores 46098, 0.1% higher. The AMD EPYC 4364P scores 45970 (0.2% lower), and the AMD EPYC 7303 scores 45960 (0.2% lower). The fact that this desktop Ultra 5 chip matches a mobile HX-series i9 and server EPYC parts within a fraction of a percent indicates the CPU is not a weak link in this combo. The 5.00 GHz boost clock and 14 cores provide ample compute capability for Greedfall's AI, physics, and game logic.

In the context of Greedfall, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls, handle game state updates, and process physics. The measured frame rates show the GPU is the limiting factor at all resolutions, as even at 1080p Low where the CPU has the least work to do relative to the GPU, the frame rate is 84 FPS—a number that suggests the CPU could handle significantly more if the GPU were faster. The CPU's high single-thread score of 4516 in PassMark and 2085 in Cinebench R23 indicate strong per-core performance, which is important for games that rely on a main thread for rendering commands. The 14 threads are sufficient for modern game engines, and the lack of hyperthreading (14 cores, 14 threads) is unlikely to be a bottleneck given the GPU's constraints.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s is relevant because the GPU shares system memory. When the GPU requests data from system RAM, it competes with CPU memory accesses. The CPU's strong cache hierarchy—24 MB of L3 and 3 MB of L2 per core—helps reduce memory traffic, but the GPU's needs are substantial at higher resolutions. The data suggests the CPU is well-matched to the GPU's performance class in terms of power and thermals, but the combined system is ultimately limited by the integrated graphics solution. For a desktop system with this CPU, a discrete GPU would be necessary to unlock the CPU's full gaming potential, but within this combo's measured data, the CPU consistently delivers far more compute headroom than the GPU can utilize.