Greedfall

Greedfall, a 2019 Action RPG, shows distinct performance scaling across resolutions for the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 combination. The data reveals a system that is heavily GPU-limited at higher resolutions, while the CPU provides ample headroom at lower settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable drop as resolution increases. At 1080p with High settings, the combo achieves an average of 137 FPS. Moving to 1440p High reduces the average to 95 FPS, a 30.7% decrease. At 4K High, the average falls further to 57 FPS, representing a 58.4% drop from the 1080p High result. This scaling pattern is typical for a GPU-bound scenario, indicating the RTX 5060 is the primary limiting factor as pixel count rises.

The scaling becomes more pronounced when comparing the Low preset across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 192 FPS on average. At 1440p Low, it drops to 133 FPS, and at 4K Low, it settles at 79 FPS. The 4K Low result is particularly telling: it shows that even at the lowest graphical settings, the GPU cannot maintain the high frame rates seen at lower resolutions. The difference between 1080p Low and 4K Low is 113 FPS, a 58.9% reduction, which suggests the GPU's rendering throughput is the bottleneck rather than any CPU limitation.

Interestingly, the gap between settings narrows at 4K. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 105 FPS (192 vs 87). At 4K, that difference compresses to 43 FPS (79 vs 36). This compression indicates that at 4K, the GPU is saturated even at Low settings, leaving less headroom for graphical enhancements to impact performance. The 4K Ultra result of 36 FPS is below the 60 FPS target, while 4K High at 57 FPS is just barely under it, making 4K Medium at 62 FPS the first playable option.

The Medium preset data provides the most complete picture, as it includes min and max FPS values. At 1080p Medium, the average is 151 FPS with a minimum of 128 and maximum of 173. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 105 FPS with a range of 89 to 120. At 4K Medium, the average is 62 FPS with a range of 53 to 72. The minimum FPS values show that even the dips remain playable at 1440p and 4K Medium, though the 4K minimum of 53 FPS is approaching the threshold where frame pacing issues become noticeable.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database, this specific combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 ranks 1258 out of 2938 tested combos for Greedfall. This places the combo in the 57.2nd percentile of all tested systems, meaning it outperforms just over half of all configurations in the database. The ranking reflects a mid-to-upper tier position, consistent with the hardware's specifications and measured performance.

The CPU itself holds a strong position relative to other processors. The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 has a percentile rank of 89 against all CPUs, meaning it outperforms 89% of tested processors. This high CPU percentile contrasts with the GPU's lower percentile of 72 against all GPUs. The discrepancy between these percentiles indicates that the CPU is capable of supporting more demanding GPUs, but the RTX 5060 in this combo is the limiting factor for overall game performance.

When examining the CPU's nearest rivals, the data shows a tightly clustered group. The AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 scores 46030, which is 0.1% lower than the Ultra 5 235's average benchmark score of 46062. The Intel Core i9-13900HX scores 46098, 0.1% higher. The AMD EPYC 4364P and EPYC 7303 score 45970 and 45960 respectively, both 0.2% lower. This grouping shows that the Ultra 5 235 sits in a performance tier where rival processors are essentially equivalent, with deltas of less than a quarter of a percent.

The GPU's nearest rivals paint a similar picture of tight competition. The AMD Radeon 860M scores 26401, 0.3% higher than the RTX 5060's average of 26331. The NVIDIA GeForce MX550 scores 26421, also 0.3% higher. The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary scores 26553, 0.8% higher, while the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT scores 26011, 1.2% lower. These small deltas suggest that the RTX 5060 is positioned in a dense competitive field where minor differences in synthetic benchmarks translate to similar real-world gaming performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture using a 5 nm process at TSMC. The GPU contains 21,900 million transistors on a 181 mm² die. Its memory configuration features 8 GB of GDDR7 on a 128-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The base clock runs at 2280 MHz with a boost clock of 2497 MHz, while memory operates at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). These specifications place the GPU in a position where it can handle 1080p and 1440p gaming comfortably, but the 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit bus become constraints at 4K.

The measured data for Greedfall reflects these specifications. At 1080p, the GPU delivers excellent performance across all settings, from 192 FPS at Low to 87 FPS at Ultra. The 1440p results remain strong, with 133 FPS at Low and 61 FPS at Ultra. At 4K, the GPU struggles to maintain playable frame rates at higher settings, with 79 FPS at Low but only 36 FPS at Ultra. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for this game at 1080p and 1440p, but 4K textures and effects can push memory usage toward the limit, contributing to the reduced performance.

The GPU's 19.18 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 299.6 GTexel/s texture rate provide ample raw power for Greedfall's rendering demands. The 48 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 119.9 GPixel/s, which becomes a bottleneck at 4K where the pixel count quadruples from 1080p. The 30 RT cores and 120 tensor cores are present but not heavily utilized in this game, as Greedfall does not feature demanding ray tracing effects.

The GPU's benchmark scores show a mixed profile. The PassMark G3D score of 20891 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3628 indicate solid DirectX 12 performance, which is relevant since Greedfall uses DirectX 11. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 112787 and Vulkan score of 113321 show balanced compute capabilities. The PassMark DirectX 11 score of 200 is notably higher than the DirectX 10 score of 127 and DirectX 12 score of 77, suggesting the GPU performs best in legacy APIs.

FAQ

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

A: The 1440p Medium preset offers the best balance, delivering an average of 105 FPS with a minimum of 89 FPS. This provides smooth gameplay well above the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining visual quality. At 4K, only Medium settings achieve above 60 FPS with an average of 62 FPS.

Q: How much performance drops from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: The average FPS drops from 137 at 1080p High to 95 at 1440p High, then to 57 at 4K High. This represents a 58.4% reduction from 1080p to 4K, confirming the GPU is the limiting component at higher resolutions.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more limiting in this game?

A: The CPU has a percentile rank of 89 against all CPUs, while the GPU has a percentile rank of 72 against all GPUs. The data indicates the CPU is capable of pushing higher frame rates, but the GPU becomes the bottleneck, especially at 1440p and 4K where frame rates drop significantly.

Q: Can this combo achieve 60 FPS at 4K?

A: Yes, but only at Medium settings, where the average is 62 FPS with a minimum of 53 FPS. At High settings, the average drops to 57 FPS, just below the 60 FPS target. At Ultra settings, the average falls to 36 FPS, which is not playable for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the RTX 5060 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 5060 has an average benchmark score of 26331. The AMD Radeon 860M scores 26401 (0.3% higher), the NVIDIA GeForce MX550 scores 26421 (0.3% higher), and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary scores 26553 (0.8% higher). The AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT scores 26011, which is 1.2% lower.

Q: What is the frame rate range at 1080p Medium?

A: The average is 151 FPS, with a minimum of 128 FPS and a maximum of 173 FPS. This wide range shows the system has significant headroom at 1080p, maintaining high minimum frame rates even during demanding scenes.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process at TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus, providing 102.4 GB/s of bandwidth. Its 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample data storage for game logic and physics calculations.

In the benchmark data, the Ultra 5 235 demonstrates strong multi-threaded performance with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14769 and a single-core score of 2085. The PassMark multithread score of 37816 and single-thread score of 4516 reinforce this profile. The CPU's 89th percentile ranking against all CPUs confirms it has substantial processing headroom for gaming workloads.

For Greedfall specifically, the CPU's performance is more than sufficient. The measured frame rates at 1080p Low (192 FPS average) show that the CPU can feed the GPU with data far beyond what the RTX 5060 can render. Even at 1080p Ultra, the 87 FPS average is likely CPU-limited in certain scenes, but the overall performance remains strong. The CPU's 14 cores and 14 threads handle Greedfall's single-threaded game logic and multi-threaded background tasks without becoming a bottleneck.

The CPU's nearest rivals show it sits in a competitive position. The AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 is 0.1% lower in average benchmark score, while the Intel Core i9-13900HX is 0.1% higher. The AMD EPYC 4364P and EPYC 7303 are both 0.2% lower. These tiny deltas indicate that in synthetic benchmarks, the Ultra 5 235 performs equivalently to its closest competitors, with no meaningful advantage or disadvantage.

The PassMark data reveals specific strengths. The data encryption score of 29293 and extended instructions score of 32752 show robust processing capabilities. The floating point math score of 117951 and integer math score of 87948 indicate strong arithmetic performance. The find prime numbers score of 371 is notably lower, but this is a specialized test that does not reflect typical gaming workloads. The physics score of 2570 is relevant for game physics calculations, though Greedfall's physics demands are moderate.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For 1080p displays, the Ultra preset provides an average of 87 FPS, which is smooth and visually impressive. The High preset at 137 FPS offers a significant frame rate boost with only a minor visual reduction, making it the best choice for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Medium preset at 151 FPS is also viable for competitive play, though the visual differences from High are noticeable.

At 1440p, the High preset delivers 95 FPS on average, which is excellent for most gamers. The Ultra preset drops to 61 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS threshold but may experience occasional dips in demanding scenes. The Medium preset at 105 FPS provides a smoother experience with the minimum FPS of 89 ensuring consistent performance. For the best balance of visual quality and smoothness, High is recommended at 1440p, with Medium as a fallback if frame rate consistency is prioritized.

At 4K, the options are more limited. The Medium preset is the only one that averages above 60 FPS, with 62 FPS and a minimum of 53 FPS. The High preset averages 57 FPS, which is playable but may show stutter in heavy combat. The Ultra preset at 36 FPS is not recommended for anything other than screenshots. For 4K gaming, Medium settings provide the best experience, though players seeking higher visual fidelity can use High and accept the slightly lower frame rate.

The Low preset offers the highest frame rates at every resolution, with 192 FPS at 1080p, 133 FPS at 1440p, and 79 FPS at 4K. However, the visual quality reduction is substantial, making it suitable only for competitive play or hardware benchmarking. The data shows that the RTX 5060 has enough headroom at 1080p and 1440p to use higher settings without sacrificing playability, while at 4K, Medium is the practical ceiling for this combo.