Greedfall

Greedfall, the 2019 action RPG from Spiders, presents an interesting performance profile when paired with the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090. The measured data shows a configuration that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while the processor’s capabilities become more apparent at 1080p. This analysis breaks down the benchmark results to provide a clear picture of what settings and resolutions offer the best experience based strictly on the measured FPS rows.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data across the three resolutions and four settings presets reveals a clear hierarchy in Greedfall, with the "Ultra" preset imposing a significant performance penalty that may not be justifiable. At 4K, the gap between "Medium" and "Ultra" is substantial: the system delivers 85 FPS on Medium but drops to 49 FPS on Ultra, a difference of 36 frames per second. This indicates that the Ultra preset likely enables effects that are disproportionately taxing on the GPU without providing a commensurate visual uplift in this title. Benchmark results indicate that "High" settings at 4K, with an average of 77 FPS, provide a better balance than Ultra, sacrificing only a few frames compared to Medium while presumably offering improved visual fidelity.

For the smoothest experience, the "Medium" preset is the clear recommendation across all resolutions. At 4K, it holds an average of 85 FPS with a minimum of 72 FPS, keeping frame times well within a comfortable range for gameplay. Moving down to 1440p, "Medium" produces an average of 142 FPS with a minimum of 121 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate monitors and provides a significant buffer above the 60 FPS threshold. At 1080p, the "Medium" preset achieves a staggering 205 FPS average, with minimums at 174 FPS, making it the most sensible choice for competitive or high-refresh-rate play. The "Low" preset does offer higher frame rates—181 FPS at 1440p and 261 FPS at 1080p—but the jump from Low to Medium is far more valuable for the visual improvements, given that the minimum FPS at Medium remains exceptionally high.

The "Ultra" preset is difficult to recommend given the data. At 4K, it is the only preset that dips below 60 FPS, averaging just 49 FPS. While this is playable, it represents a 42% reduction in average FPS compared to Medium. At 1440p, "Ultra" averages 82 FPS, which is respectable, but the 1080p "Ultra" result of 119 FPS is still 86 frames lower than the "Low" preset at the same resolution. The performance cost of "Ultra" is consistent and steep, suggesting that its graphical enhancements are not efficiently implemented. The most balanced experience, considering both performance and expected visual quality, is unequivocally the "Medium" preset, with "High" serving as a strong alternative for those who prioritize image quality and have a G-Sync or FreeSync display to smooth out the lower frame rates at 4K.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the undisputed performance driver in this configuration for Greedfall, particularly at higher resolutions. The GPU’s massive memory pool and bandwidth are key factors here. With 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, the card offers 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. This is far beyond what a game like Greedfall, released in 2019, would require for assets, meaning the GPU's raw compute power is the limiting factor, not memory capacity. The data supports this: the performance scaling from 1080p to 4K is largely linear and consistent with a GPU-bound workload.

The RTX 5090's clock speeds are relevant to its performance. The boost clock is listed at 2407 MHz, and the base clock at 2017 MHz. The difference between the two allows the card to dynamically increase its performance headroom when thermals and power allow. The benchmark scores for the GPU are impressive, with a Passmark G3D score of 39650 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 376728. These synthetic benchmarks place it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals in the database are the NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants and AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, which it beats by a margin of 1.1% or more in average score.

However, the measured FPS in Greedfall shows that even this powerful GPU has limits. At 4K Ultra, it can only muster a 49 FPS average, indicating that the game's Ultra settings have effects that are extremely demanding on the GPU's shader and rasterization units. The FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS is substantial, yet the game still manages to bog down the card at this preset. This suggests that the bottleneck at 4K Ultra is the GPU's execution throughput, not its memory subsystem. The variance between the 4K Medium (85 FPS) and 4K High (77 FPS) is only 8 FPS, but the jump to Ultra (49 FPS) is a massive 28 FPS drop, showing that the Ultra preset likely enables a few key features that cause an exponential increase in shader complexity, rather than a linear one.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a textbook case of GPU-bound performance. At the "Medium" preset, the frame rates are 205 FPS at 1080p, 142 FPS at 1440p, and 85 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 63 FPS (a 30.7% decrease), and the drop from 1440p to 4K is 57 FPS (a 40.1% decrease). This scaling is consistent with the pixel count increases: 1440p has 1.78 times the pixels of 1080p, and 4K has 2.25 times the pixels of 1440p. The performance decreases in proportion to the rendering resolution, confirming that the CPU is not a bottleneck at these settings and the GPU is doing the heavy lifting.

This pattern holds for the "Low" preset as well, with 261 FPS at 1080p dropping to 181 FPS at 1440p and then 108 FPS at 4K. The scaling ratio is similar, indicating that even at low settings, the GPU is still the limiting component. However, the "Ultra" preset shows a slightly different dynamic. At 1080p, it achieves 119 FPS, at 1440p it drops to 82 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 49 FPS. The percentage drops are larger here (31.1% from 1080p to 1440p, and 40.2% from 1440p to 4K), reinforcing that Ultra settings increase the GPU's per-pixel workload, making it even more dominant as the bottleneck.

The data clearly shows that the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H is not limiting the GPU at any resolution tested. If it were, we would see a plateau in FPS at lower resolutions, where the CPU's limits would be hit. Instead, the FPS continues to scale dramatically with resolution, reaching a high of 261 FPS at 1080p Low and 186 FPS at 1080p High. This indicates that the CPU has ample headroom and can feed the RTX 5090 effectively, even at high frame rates. For users with high-refresh-rate 1080p monitors, the system is fully capable of pushing past 200 FPS on Medium settings, and even the High preset at 1080p (186 FPS) is well above the refresh rate of most standard monitors.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 4K display in Greedfall?

A: The data shows that the "Medium" preset is the optimal choice for 4K, delivering an average of 85 FPS with a minimum of 72 FPS. The "High" preset is also viable at 77 FPS, but "Ultra" drops to an average of 49 FPS, which is below the ideal smoothness threshold.

Q: Can this system handle 1440p gaming with high refresh rates?

A: Yes, benchmark results indicate that at 1440p, the "Medium" preset achieves an average of 142 FPS with a minimum of 121 FPS. Even the "High" preset produces an average of 129 FPS, making the system well-suited for 144Hz or 165Hz monitors.

Q: How does the RTX 5090's memory bandwidth affect Greedfall's performance?

A: The RTX 5090 has a memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s, which is far more than Greedfall requires. Since the game's performance scales directly with resolution, it suggests that raw GPU compute power, not memory bandwidth, is the limiting factor in this title.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H a bottleneck for the RTX 5090 in this game?

A: No, the FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a consistent, proportionate drop in performance. If the CPU were a bottleneck, the frame rates at 1080p would be much closer to those at 1440p. The fact that FPS reaches 261 at 1080p Low proves the CPU has sufficient headroom.

Q: What is the performance difference between "High" and "Ultra" settings?

A: The performance cost of "Ultra" is severe. At 4K, "High" averages 77 FPS, while "Ultra" averages 49 FPS, a 28 FPS drop. At 1440p, the difference is 47 FPS (129 vs 82), and at 1080p, it is 67 FPS (186 vs 119). The visual improvements of Ultra are not worth the massive frame rate penalty.

Q: Are the minimum FPS values locked, or do they vary?

A: The data only provides minimum FPS values for the "Medium" preset. At 4K, the minimum is 72 FPS, at 1440p it is 121 FPS, and at 1080p it is 174 FPS. This suggests that Medium provides a stable frame time delivery without significant stutters.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, while not the star of the show in Greedfall, provides a solid foundation that allows the RTX 5090 to perform at its full potential. The processor features 16 cores and 22 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz. This configuration is more than adequate for a game from 2019, which is typically not heavily multithreaded. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU scores 15,028 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 1,743 in single-core, placing it in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 32,697 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i5-14600T and AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360, with deltas of 0% and 0.1% respectively.

The CPU's role becomes clear when observing the FPS scaling at 1080p. At this resolution, the GPU is less stressed, and the CPU's ability to process game logic and draw calls becomes more important. The fact that the system can achieve 186 FPS on "High" settings at 1080p shows that the Ultra 7 155H is not holding the RTX 5090 back. Even at the "Low" preset, which maximizes potential frame rate, the CPU manages to feed the GPU enough data to reach 261 FPS. This indicates that the processor's single-thread performance, boosted up to 4.80 GHz, is sufficient for the game's engine.

The L3 cache of 24 MB (shared) is also a relevant factor. This cache size helps reduce latency when the CPU needs to fetch data for the game world, which can be important for maintaining consistent frame times. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s is less critical in this scenario, as the 32 GB of VRAM on the GPU handles the bulk of the graphical data. The data suggests that the CPU's performance is a non-issue; it provides a stable platform for the GPU to shine. The only scenario where the CPU might become a factor is if the user were to drastically reduce the resolution further, but the current data shows no signs of a CPU bottleneck at 1080p.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table outlines the exact measured FPS data for Greedfall with the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090.

3840x2160 (4K)

• Low: Average FPS 108. No minimum or maximum values are provided.
• Medium: Average FPS 85, with a minimum of 72 and a maximum of 98.
• High: Average FPS 77. No minimum or maximum values are provided.
• Ultra: Average FPS 49. No minimum or maximum values are provided.

2560x1440 (1440p)

• Low: Average FPS 181. No minimum or maximum values are provided.
• Medium: Average FPS 142, with a minimum of 121 and a maximum of 163.
• High: Average FPS 129. No minimum or maximum values are provided.
• Ultra: Average FPS 82. No minimum or maximum values are provided.

1920x1080 (1080p)

• Low: Average FPS 261. No minimum or maximum values are provided.
• Medium: Average FPS 205, with a minimum of 174 and a maximum of 236.
• High: Average FPS 186. No minimum or maximum values are provided.
• Ultra: Average FPS 119. No minimum or maximum values are provided.

This data reveals a consistent hierarchy. The "Low" preset is the fastest, followed by "Medium," "High," and finally "Ultra" as the slowest. The "Medium" preset stands out as the best balance, as it is the only one with recorded minimum FPS values, which are all robust (72 at 4K, 121 at 1440p, and 174 at 1080p). The "Ultra" preset, on the other hand, demonstrates a severe performance penalty at every resolution, making it the least desirable option for achieving high frame rates. The overall combo rank for this CPU/GPU pairing in Greedfall is 813 out of 3703 tested combinations, indicating that it is a very strong performer in this specific game.