Greedfall

# Greedfall CPU and GPU Performance Analysis

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti delivers a compelling 1080p and 1440p experience in Greedfall, though 4K Ultra settings push the combination to its limits. This analysis examines the measured frame rates across twelve resolution and settings configurations, interpreting what the data reveals about CPU and GPU scaling behavior in this 2019 Action RPG.

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 from TSMC. It operates with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, drawing 65 W TDP. The processor features a 24 MB shared L3 cache, with 192 KB of L1 and 3 MB of L2 per core. Memory support is DDR5 over a dual-channel bus, providing 102.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

In the context of Greedfall, the CPU's thread configuration is notable. The game, released in 2019, was designed during an era when quad-core and six-core processors were mainstream. The Core Ultra 5 235 offers 14 threads, which provides substantial headroom for the game's engine to distribute workloads. However, the measured FPS data suggests that Greedfall does not heavily tax the CPU at higher resolutions, where GPU limitations become the dominant factor.

The processor's single-core performance is strong, as indicated by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2085 and a Passmark single-thread score of 4516. These scores place the CPU in the 89th percentile versus all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 46062. In Greedfall, which often relies on single-threaded game logic, this strength translates into high frame rates at 1080p, where the CPU has more influence. At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 214 FPS average, a figure that suggests the CPU is not creating a bottleneck at that resolution.

Multi-core performance, measured at 14769 in Cinebench R23 and 6202 in Cinebench R20, provides additional context. Greedfall can utilize multiple cores for physics, AI, and streaming tasks, and the 14-core configuration ensures these background workloads do not interfere with frame pacing. The Passmark multithread score of 37816 reinforces this capability. Yet, the data indicates that even with this CPU headroom, the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases.

The Core Ultra 5 235's nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 with a delta of 0.1%, the Intel Core i9-13900HX at -0.1%, and the AMD EPYC 4364P at 0.2%. These margins are negligible, meaning the CPU's overall benchmark position is competitive with high-end mobile and server parts. In Greedfall, this level of CPU performance ensures that frame rates are rarely constrained by processor throughput, especially at 1440p and 4K where GPU load dominates.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and RTX 3070 Ti combination delivers exceptional performance across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 214 FPS, Medium achieves 168 FPS with a minimum of 143 and maximum of 194, High reaches 153 FPS, and Ultra drops to 98 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 116 FPS, indicating that graphical settings have a substantial impact at this resolution. The Medium preset's minimum of 143 FPS suggests consistent frame delivery without severe dips.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but with expected reductions. Low settings yield 149 FPS average, Medium produces 117 FPS with a range of 99 to 134, High achieves 106 FPS, and Ultra settles at 68 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 81 FPS, narrower than at 1080p, which indicates the GPU is beginning to exert more influence on performance. The Medium preset's minimum of 99 FPS is still comfortably above 60 FPS, providing a smooth experience.

At 3840x2160, the combination shows its limitations. Low settings produce 89 FPS average, Medium achieves 70 FPS with a minimum of 59 and maximum of 80, High delivers 63 FPS, and Ultra drops to 40 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 49 FPS, the smallest spread across all resolutions. This compression of performance scaling suggests that at 4K, the GPU is heavily utilized, and the CPU's role diminishes significantly. The Medium preset at 4K has a minimum of 59 FPS, which is borderline for smooth gameplay, while Ultra at 40 FPS average would present noticeable stutter.

The data reveals a consistent pattern: as resolution increases, the absolute FPS values drop, and the relative difference between settings narrows. This behavior is characteristic of a system transitioning from CPU-bound at 1080p Low to GPU-bound at 4K Ultra.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1440p High settings provide an average of 106 FPS, which offers a strong balance between visual quality and performance. At 1080p, all settings exceed 98 FPS, while 4K Ultra drops to 40 FPS, making 1440p the practical sweet spot.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at each resolution?

A: At 1080p, Ultra delivers 98 FPS versus High's 153 FPS, a 55 FPS difference. At 1440p, Ultra produces 68 FPS against High's 106 FPS, a 38 FPS gap. At 4K, Ultra achieves 40 FPS while High reaches 63 FPS, a 23 FPS difference. The Ultra preset consistently costs a significant number of frames.

Q: Is the RTX 3070 Ti the limiting factor at 4K?

A: Yes, the data indicates GPU limitation at 4K. The performance spread between Low (89 FPS) and Ultra (40 FPS) at 4K is 49 FPS, showing that the GPU's processing capability determines frame rates. The CPU's strong benchmark scores, including a 14769 Cinebench R23 multi-core result, suggest it is not the bottleneck at this resolution.

Q: Can this combination maintain 60 FPS at 4K?

A: At 4K Medium, the average is 70 FPS with a minimum of 59 FPS, and at High the average is 63 FPS. These settings can sustain near-60 FPS performance. However, 4K Ultra drops to 40 FPS average, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the CPU's performance percentile relate to Greedfall's demands?

A: The Core Ultra 5 235 sits in the 89th percentile versus all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 46062. Given that the combo ranks 1012 out of 2938 tested configurations in this game, the CPU's high percentile indicates it provides ample computational headroom for Greedfall's engine.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and High settings at 1080p?

A: Low settings average 214 FPS, while High averages 153 FPS, a difference of 61 FPS. This substantial gap suggests that High settings still deliver excellent performance while providing improved visual fidelity over Low.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti ranks 1012 out of 2938 tested configurations in Greedfall. This places the combo in the upper third of all tested systems, with approximately 65.6% of configurations ranking below it. The ranking reflects a balanced pairing where neither component dramatically overshadows the other.

The RTX 3070 Ti, with an average benchmark score of 29945, sits in the 75th percentile versus all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile with a 0.1% delta, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 at -0.5%, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti at 0.5%. These close margins indicate the GPU is positioned among capable mid-range to high-end parts. The CPU's 89th percentile ranking is notably higher than the GPU's 75th percentile, suggesting the processor is relatively stronger in the broader benchmark landscape.

In Greedfall specifically, the combo's rank of 1012 out of 2938 indicates that many configurations achieve higher frame rates, likely those with more powerful GPUs such as the RTX 3080 or RTX 3090 class parts. However, the measured FPS data shows this combo delivers 98 FPS at 1080p Ultra and 68 FPS at 1440p Ultra, which are respectable figures for a game of Greedfall's era. The ranking suggests that while the combo is not at the top tier, it provides a solid experience for most gaming scenarios.

The disparity between the CPU's 89th percentile and the GPU's 75th percentile suggests that upgrading the GPU would yield greater performance gains in Greedfall than upgrading the CPU. The measured FPS data supports this interpretation, as the performance drop from 1080p to 4K is more pronounced than the drop between settings presets, indicating GPU-bound behavior at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals distinct resolution scaling patterns across all four settings presets. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 214 at 1080p to 149 at 1440p (a 30.4% reduction) and further to 89 at 4K (a 58.4% reduction from 1080p). At Medium settings, the progression is 168 to 117 to 70, representing a 30.4% drop to 1440p and a 58.3% drop to 4K. High settings show 153 to 106 to 63, with 30.7% and 58.8% reductions respectively. Ultra settings demonstrate 98 to 68 to 40, with 30.6% and 59.2% reductions.

The consistency of these percentage drops across settings is striking. Regardless of whether the game runs at Low or Ultra, moving from 1080p to 1440p reduces frame rates by approximately 30%, and moving to 4K reduces them by roughly 58-59%. This uniform scaling pattern strongly indicates that the system is GPU-bound at all tested configurations, with the RTX 3070 Ti's rendering throughput determining the frame rates.

The GPU's memory bandwidth of 608.3 GB/s and 8 GB of GDDR6X memory play a significant role in this scaling behavior. At 4K, the GPU must process four times the pixels of 1080p, and the memory subsystem must deliver texture and geometry data at higher rates. The consistent scaling suggests that the RTX 3070 Ti's compute capability, rated at 21.75 TFLOPS FP32, is the primary limiter at higher resolutions.

The CPU's limited influence on resolution scaling is evident from its strong benchmark scores. With a Passmark single-thread score of 4516 and a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14769, the Core Ultra 5 235 can easily feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic at all tested resolutions. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K would be less pronounced, as the GPU would have spare capacity at lower resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the High preset offers the best balance between visual quality and performance across all three resolutions. At 1080p, High delivers 153 FPS, which is ample for high-refresh-rate monitors. At 1440p, High achieves 106 FPS, providing smooth gameplay on standard 144Hz displays. Even at 4K, High maintains a solid 63 FPS average, which is playable on most displays.

The Medium preset represents the safest choice for consistent frame delivery, particularly at higher resolutions. The Medium preset provides 168 FPS at 1080p, 117 FPS at 1440p, and 70 FPS at 4K, with minimum frame rates of 143, 99, and 59 respectively. The 4K Medium minimum of 59 FPS is just below the 60 FPS mark, but the average of 70 FPS suggests occasional dips that could be noticeable.

The Ultra preset is only recommended for 1080p gaming, where it achieves 98 FPS average. At 1440p, Ultra's 68 FPS is adequate but does not provide much headroom for demanding scenes. At 4K, Ultra's 40 FPS average falls below the threshold for smooth gameplay and should be avoided unless visual fidelity is prioritized over frame rate.

The Low preset, while delivering the highest frame rates (214 FPS at 1080p, 149 FPS at 1440p, and 89 FPS at 4K), sacrifices significant visual quality. Given that High settings at 4K still produce 63 FPS, the Low preset is unnecessary for most users, except those with very high refresh rate displays at 1080p.

For the best experience, the data suggests using High settings at any resolution. This preset provides the most balanced performance without the frame rate penalties of Ultra or the visual compromises of Medium and Low.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is built on the Ampere architecture using Samsung's 8 nm process node, with 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1575 MHz and a boost clock of 1770 MHz, with memory running at 1188 MHz effective 19 Gbps. It features 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 608.3 GB/s of bandwidth.

The GPU's memory configuration is particularly relevant to Greedfall's performance. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming at all settings, but at 4K Ultra, the game may approach this limit. The 4K Ultra average of 40 FPS suggests that both compute and memory bandwidth constraints are active, as the GPU's 21.75 TFLOPS FP32 performance is challenged by the game's rendering requirements at that resolution.

The RTX 3070 Ti's 6144 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 96 ROPs contribute to its pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s. These specifications directly influence how quickly the GPU can fill pixels at various resolutions. The consistent resolution scaling observed in the data aligns with these theoretical limits.

The GPU's 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores provide hardware acceleration for ray tracing and DLSS, though Greedfall does not heavily utilize these features. The game's traditional rasterization workload primarily relies on the shading units and memory subsystem, which the RTX 3070 Ti handles capably at 1080p and 1440p.

The GPU's benchmark results, including a Passmark G3D score of 23356 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 139541, place it in the 75th percentile versus all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile, has a 0.1% delta in average score, indicating the desktop RTX 3070 Ti remains competitive. The AMD Radeon RX 6800 trails by 0.5%, and the RTX 2080 Ti leads by 0.5%, showing the GPU's position among its peers.

At 1080p, the GPU's performance is sufficient to push frame rates above 150 FPS at High settings, indicating that the CPU can feed it adequately. At 4K, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck, with the 214 FPS at 1080p Low dropping to 89 FPS at 4K Low, demonstrating the GPU's pixel processing limits. The 8 GB VRAM, while adequate for most scenarios, may cause textures to stream at 4K Ultra, contributing to the 40 FPS result.