Greedfall

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 combination delivers a remarkably consistent experience in Greedfall, with frame rates that scale predictably across resolutions and settings. The data reveals a system where the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, while the CPU's strong single-thread performance ensures it rarely becomes the limiting factor, even at 1080p. This pairing sits comfortably within the broader test pool, ranking 1,224th out of 2,938 tested combinations, placing it in the upper-middle tier of systems evaluated for this title.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K tells a clear story about which component is doing the heavy lifting. At 1080p High settings, the system averages 146 FPS, which falls to 101 FPS at 1440p and further to 60 FPS at 4K. That is a 41% reduction in frame rate when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and another 41% reduction when moving from 1440p to 4K. This steep, consistent decline is the classic signature of a GPU-bound workload, where the rendering resolution directly stresses the graphics card's fill rate and memory bandwidth.

The scaling pattern becomes even more telling when comparing Low settings across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system hits 204 FPS, which drops to 141 FPS at 1440p and 84 FPS at 4K. The relative drop from 1080p to 4K is 59%, which is slightly less severe than the 59% drop seen at High settings (146 to 60 FPS). This suggests that even when graphical effects are minimized, the RTX 3070's compute resources are still the primary constraint. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect the frame rate to stay relatively flat as resolution increases, since the CPU's work load per frame remains roughly constant while the GPU's work increases dramatically. That is not what the data shows.

The only exception to this GPU-bound pattern appears at Ultra settings, where the 4K average drops to 38 FPS. This is a 40% drop from the 64 FPS at 1440p Ultra, which is steeper than the 37% drop seen at High settings. The Ultra preset likely enables features that disproportionately tax the GPU, such as higher-quality shadows and ambient occlusion, which scale super-linearly with pixel count. The RTX 3070's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for most scenarios, but the data suggests that the most demanding settings at 4K push the card to its limits.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC. Its benchmark scores are telling: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14,769 and a single-core score of 2,085. The single-core performance is particularly relevant for Greedfall, which is an action RPG that often relies on a few primary threads for game logic and physics. The CPU's boost clock of 5.00 GHz, combined with its 24 MB of shared L3 cache, provides the responsiveness needed to feed the GPU at lower resolutions.

The CPU's overall benchmark profile places it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 46,062. Its nearest rival is the Intel Core i9-13900HX, which scores 46,098, a negligible 0.1% difference. Also closely matched are the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 at 46,030 (0.1% faster) and the AMD EPYC 4364P at 45,970 (0.2% faster). This tight clustering indicates that the Ultra 5 235 delivers performance that is effectively on par with these other high-end chips, making it a robust companion for the RTX 3070.

The fact that the system achieves 204 FPS at 1080p Low settings is a strong indicator that the CPU is not a bottleneck in most scenarios. At that resolution, the GPU is only rendering a fraction of the pixels compared to 4K, yet the frame rate still scales smoothly. If the CPU were weak, we would see a plateau where increasing the resolution does not decrease the frame rate because the CPU is already maxed out. The data shows no such plateau, even at the highest frame rates measured. The CPU's 14 cores and 14 threads are more than sufficient for this title, which was released in 2019 and does not heavily utilize multi-threading.

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 compare to its closest CPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ultra 5 235 scores an average of 46,062 across all benchmark tests. This places it within 0.2% of the AMD EPYC 4364P and 0.1% of the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375, while being 0.1% behind the Intel Core i9-13900HX. These results show that the CPU is competitively positioned against other high-end desktop and mobile processors.

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved at 1080p, and with which settings?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded at 1920x1080 is 204 FPS, achieved with Low settings. The Medium preset yields 160 FPS, High yields 146 FPS, and Ultra drops to 93 FPS. This shows a clear performance hierarchy based on the graphics preset selected.

Q: Is the RTX 3070's 8 GB VRAM sufficient for 4K gaming in this title?

A: The data shows that 4K gaming is possible, with an average of 60 FPS at High settings and 38 FPS at Ultra settings. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient to run the game at 4K, but the steep drop to 38 FPS at Ultra suggests that the card is nearing its limits with the most demanding visual features enabled.

Q: What is the performance difference between 1080p and 1440p at High settings?

A: At 1920x1080 High, the system averages 146 FPS. At 2560x1440 High, the average drops to 101 FPS. This represents a 31% reduction in frame rate when moving to the higher resolution, indicating a significant but manageable load increase on the GPU.

Q: How does the system's overall ranking in this game compare to other tested combinations?

A: The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 ranks 1,224th out of 2,938 tested combos for Greedfall. This places it in the 58th percentile, meaning it outperforms more than half of all tested systems while being outclassed by the top 40% of configurations.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded at Medium settings across all resolutions?

A: The only resolution with a recorded minimum FPS is Medium settings. At 1920x1080 Medium, the minimum is 136 FPS. At 2560x1440 Medium, the minimum is 94 FPS. At 3840x2160 Medium, the minimum is 56 FPS. These figures provide a floor for frame pacing at those settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 achieves a rank of 1,224 out of 2,938 tested combos for Greedfall. This places the system in the upper-middle segment of the performance distribution, ahead of 1,714 other configurations. The ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU's performance, as the RTX 3070 sits in the 61st percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17,208. This is a solid mid-to-high range position, though it is not at the very top tier of graphics hardware.

The GPU's closest rivals in terms of average benchmark score are the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT, which scores 17,083 (0.7% lower), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690, which scores 17,037 (1.0% lower). On the higher end, the NVIDIA Tesla K40c scores 17,468, which is 1.5% higher than the RTX 3070. This tight grouping indicates that the RTX 3070 is performance-adjacent to these other cards, and the ranking in Greedfall will depend heavily on how each card handles this specific game engine.

The system's overall ranking suggests that it is a capable setup for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K being achievable at moderate settings. The data shows that the system can exceed 100 FPS at 1440p High, which is a strong result for an action RPG that requires smooth gameplay for combat. The 4K performance at High settings (60 FPS) is exactly at the threshold for a playable experience, but the Ultra preset dips to 38 FPS, which would be less desirable for fast-paced action sequences.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is built on the Ampere architecture using an 8 nm process from Samsung, with a die size of 392 mm² housing 17,400 million transistors. It operates at a base clock of 1500 MHz and a boost clock of 1725 MHz, with 5,888 shading units and 184 texture mapping units. The card's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. These specifications yield a theoretical FP32 throughput of 20.31 TFLOPS, which is substantial for a card of this class.

In Greedfall, the GPU's role is clearly the dominant factor in determining frame rates. The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario, as discussed earlier. The card's 61st percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17,208, reflects its position as a solid performer that is not at the top of the stack. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT, is only 0.7% slower in synthetic benchmarks, yet the measured FPS in this game show that the RTX 3070 is more than capable of handling the title's demands.

The 4K Ultra performance of 38 FPS is the most telling data point for the GPU's limits. At this setting, the card's 8 GB of VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are likely being taxed heavily by high-resolution textures and effects. The RTX 3070's 96 ROPs and 184 tensor cores are not sufficient to maintain high frame rates at this extreme configuration. In contrast, the 4K Medium setting yields 66 FPS, which is a more balanced trade-off between visual fidelity and performance. The card's pixel rate of 165.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 317.4 GTexel/s are adequate for most settings but are clearly overwhelmed by the Ultra preset at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of the system's performance across all resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the system achieves its highest frame rates: 204 FPS at Low, 160 FPS at Medium, 146 FPS at High, and 93 FPS at Ultra. The Medium setting shows a minimum FPS of 136 and a maximum of 184, indicating some variance but generally smooth gameplay. The jump from High to Ultra at 1080p represents a 36% performance drop, from 146 to 93 FPS, which is a significant cost for the additional visual enhancements.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates scale down proportionally. Low settings yield 141 FPS, Medium averages 111 FPS with a range of 94 to 128 FPS, High averages 101 FPS, and Ultra drops to 64 FPS. The transition from High to Ultra at 1440p is a 37% drop, similar to the 1080p trend. At 1440p, all settings except Ultra remain above 100 FPS, which is excellent for a high-refresh-rate monitor.

At 3840x2160, the system's performance becomes more constrained. Low settings average 84 FPS, Medium averages 66 FPS with a range of 56 to 76 FPS, High averages 60 FPS, and Ultra drops to 38 FPS. The Medium setting is the only one with a recorded minimum FPS (56), which indicates that the system can experience dips below 60 FPS even at this moderate preset. The 4K Ultra performance of 38 FPS is the lowest recorded value across all test points, highlighting the GPU's limitations at the highest visual quality.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For 1080p gaming, the High preset at 146 FPS offers an excellent balance between visual quality and performance, easily exceeding the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset at 93 FPS is also viable, providing additional graphical fidelity while still maintaining a high frame rate. For players with a 144 Hz monitor, the High preset is the best choice, as it keeps the frame rate above refresh rate for most of the session.

At 1440p, the High preset at 101 FPS is the recommended choice for most users, as it provides a smooth experience above 100 FPS while maintaining good visual quality. The Medium preset at 111 FPS is also a solid option if the user prefers slightly higher frame rates, though the visual difference between Medium and High is noticeable. The Ultra preset at 64 FPS is playable but may not be ideal for fast-paced combat, as the frame rate can dip below the 60 FPS threshold in demanding scenes.

For 4K gaming, the Medium preset at 66 FPS is the best option to achieve a stable, playable experience. This setting provides a balance between visual quality and performance, with a minimum FPS of 56 that is close to the 60 FPS target. The High preset at 60 FPS is also viable, though it offers no headroom for frame rate dips. The Ultra preset at 38 FPS should be avoided unless the user prioritizes maximum visual fidelity over gameplay smoothness. The Low preset at 84 FPS is the highest performing option at 4K, but it sacrifices significant visual quality, making the Medium preset the superior choice for most players.