Greedfall

Greedfall, the 2019 Action RPG from Spiders, presents an interesting case study in hardware scaling. When paired with the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080, the benchmark data reveals a configuration that is heavily influenced by the graphics card, yet still shows clear signs of the mobile processor's capabilities. The measured FPS data across three resolutions and four quality presets provides a complete picture of where the bottlenecks lie, and how the system scales under varying loads. This analysis breaks down the performance metrics to understand the interplay between the CPU, GPU, and the game's engine.

Resolution Scaling

The most telling metric for any gaming system is how performance degrades as resolution increases. For this combo, the data shows a clear and expected trend, but the magnitude of the drop-off is critical for understanding the system's balance. The average FPS at 1080p High is 174. Moving to 1440p High, the frame rate drops to 121, a reduction of 53 FPS. The jump to 4K High yields an average of 72 FPS, which is a further 49 FPS loss.

This scaling pattern is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. If the CPU were the primary limiter, the frame rate would remain relatively flat across resolutions, as the processor would max out its workload at even the lowest resolution. Instead, we see a nearly linear drop in performance as pixel count increases. The RTX 5080 is doing the heavy lifting, and its workload is scaling directly with the number of pixels rendered. The data indicates that the RTX 5080 is the limiting component in this pairing, as the performance headroom decreases with each step up in resolution.

The delta between 4K Low and 4K Ultra is even more illustrative. At 4K Low, the system achieves 101 FPS. At 4K Ultra, it falls to 46 FPS. This 55 FPS difference demonstrates the massive impact of the Ultra preset's graphical demands. The GPU is being asked to process significantly more effects, textures, and geometry, which directly translates to a halving of the frame rate. This behavior confirms that the RTX 5080's compute and memory subsystems are the deciding factors in this game, rather than the CPU's ability to feed it draw calls.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database's tested configurations, this specific pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 holds a combo rank of 1023 out of 3703 tested combos for Greedfall. This places it in the top 27.6% of all tested systems. While this is a solid position, it is not at the very top, which is interesting given the high-end nature of the GPU. The rank suggests that while the RTX 5080 is a powerful card, the mobile CPU prevents the system from achieving the absolute highest frame rates seen by other, presumably desktop-based, flagship combinations.

The data suggests that the ranking is likely held back by the CPU’s overall performance. When looking at the GPU's individual standing, the RTX 5080 sits in the 87th percentile among all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 56083 places it slightly ahead of the AMD Radeon 8060S by 0.6% and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB by 0.7%. However, the CPU is only in the 83rd percentile, with an average score of 32697. This places it in a virtual tie with the Intel Core i5-14600T (0% delta) and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 (0.1% delta). This relative weakness in the processor, compared to the GPU, is what likely prevents the combo from climbing higher in the ranks.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H is a mobile processor with a 16-core, 22-thread configuration based on the Meteor Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz. In Greedfall, a game that is not particularly known for high CPU core utilization, the processor's single-threaded performance is likely more important than its multi-threaded capabilities. The benchmark data for the CPU shows a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1743, which is strong for a mobile part.

However, the game's frame rates suggest that even this powerful mobile CPU is not the primary driver of performance. For instance, at 1080p Low, the system hits 244 FPS. This is a very high frame rate, but it is not infinite, suggesting that even at this low graphical load, the CPU is providing some bottleneck. If the CPU were completely unencumbered, the frame rate might be higher. Yet, the more significant factor is that the Ultra 7 155H's multi-threaded score of 15028 in Cinebench R23 is not being fully utilized here. The game's engine likely relies on a few strong cores rather than all 22 threads, meaning the CPU's ability to boost to 4.80 GHz on those cores is what matters most. The data indicates that the CPU provides a performance ceiling, but it is a high one, and the GPU is the component that determines the actual playable experience in most scenarios.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the system's performance. At 1920x1080, the system is exceptionally fast. With Low settings, it averages 244 FPS. Moving to Medium, the average only drops to 192 FPS, with a minimum of 163 and a maximum of 221. The High preset yields an average of 174 FPS, while the Ultra preset, which is the most demanding, still manages an average of 111 FPS. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the system has ample headroom for high refresh rate monitors, even on the most demanding preset.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down but remains very strong. The Low preset averages 169 FPS. The Medium preset averages 133 FPS, with a minimum and maximum of 113 and 153 FPS, respectively. The High preset averages 121 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 77 FPS. The drop from High to Ultra at this resolution is substantial, indicating the Ultra preset's heavy reliance on GPU resources like VRAM and shading units.

At 3840x2160 (4K), the system becomes more constrained. The Low preset averages 101 FPS, which is still very playable. The Medium preset averages 79 FPS, with a minimum of 68 and a maximum of 91 FPS. The High preset averages 72 FPS. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, dropping the average to 46 FPS. This is the only configuration where the frame rate dips below the 60 FPS threshold, making it the only setting where a noticeable compromise in smoothness would be observed.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Greedfall with this hardware?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 on High settings offers an average of 121 FPS, providing a strong balance between visual fidelity and performance. At 1920x1080, the system can exceed 170 FPS on High, which is better for high-refresh-rate displays, but 1440p offers a more significant visual upgrade while still staying well above 60 FPS.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Greedfall?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K High, it averages 72 FPS, which is smooth. At 4K Medium, it averages 79 FPS. However, using the Ultra preset at 4K drops the average to 46 FPS, which is below the standard for smooth gameplay.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck in this configuration?

A: The benchmark results indicate the GPU is the primary limiting factor. This is evident from the significant frame rate drops when resolution increases, which is a classic sign of GPU scaling. The CPU's performance ceiling is high enough to sustain high frame rates, but the RTX 5080's workload is the deciding factor.

Q: How does the RTX 5080's performance compare to its closest competitors?

A: The RTX 5080 has an average benchmark score of 56083. It is 0.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon 8060S and 0.7% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB. It trails the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE by 2.2%.

Q: What kind of frame rates can I expect at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: The measured data shows an average of 111 FPS at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings. This indicates that the system can run the game at its highest visual quality at 1080p with a frame rate that is still comfortably above 60 FPS.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H holding back the RTX 5080?

A: The data suggests it might be in some low-resolution, high-FPS scenarios. At 1080p Low, the frame rate is 244 FPS, which is very high, but the CPU's performance percentile is lower than the GPU's. This implies that there is some CPU limitation preventing even higher frame rates, but it is not a significant issue in most practical gaming scenarios.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal experience depends on the user's display and preference for visual quality. For users with a 1920x1080 display, the Ultra preset is the best choice, as it averages 111 FPS, which is high enough for a smooth experience and offers the best visual fidelity. For those with a 2560x1440 monitor, the High preset is recommended, providing an average of 121 FPS. This strikes an excellent balance, as the Ultra preset at this resolution drops to 77 FPS, which is a significant cost for the visual gains.

For 4K displays, the situation requires more consideration. The High preset, averaging 72 FPS, is the recommended setting to achieve a smooth, console-beating experience. While the Medium preset offers a slightly higher average of 79 FPS, the visual downgrade is often more noticeable than the ~7 FPS gain. The Ultra preset at 4K, with its 46 FPS average, is not recommended for general play, as the frame rate instability will be more detrimental to the experience than the visual improvements. The data consistently shows that the High preset offers the most balanced performance to quality ratio across all resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is the dominant component in this configuration regarding gaming performance. It features 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s. This high bandwidth is crucial for feeding the 10752 shading units at high resolutions, especially with higher texture detail. The card's boost clock of 2617 MHz allows it to sustain high compute throughput, which is reflected in its benchmark scores.

The GPU's role in Greedfall is clearly defined by the resolution scaling data. At 1080p, the GPU has enough headroom to render frames quickly, resulting in very high average FPS that can exceed 240 on Low settings. As the resolution increases to 1440p and 4K, the pixel workload grows, and the GPU's fill rate and compute power become the primary determinants of performance. The drop from 111 FPS at 1080p Ultra to 46 FPS at 4K Ultra demonstrates the massive increase in processing demand. The GPU's 16 GB of VRAM is also a factor; while the data does not explicitly show VRAM utilization, the significant performance hit at the 4K Ultra preset suggests that the card is working at its limit to manage the high-resolution textures and effects, solidifying its role as the performance bottleneck in this pairing.