Greedfall

Greedfall, the 2019 Action RPG from Spiders, presents a demanding workload that scales significantly across resolutions and quality presets. The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 yields a performance profile that is highly dependent on the user's display and graphical priorities. The measured data reveals a system capable of high refresh rate gaming at 1080p, smooth 60+ FPS at 1440p, and playable, though less consistent, performance at 4K. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS, component roles, and scaling behavior to provide a clear picture of this specific hardware pairing.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal experience for this combo is achieved at 2560x1440 with the High preset. This configuration delivers an average of 79 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. It offers a substantial visual upgrade over the Low preset (111 FPS) and Medium preset (87 FPS) while maintaining a higher frame rate than the Ultra preset (51 FPS). The 79 FPS average at High settings provides a balance between visual fidelity and fluid motion that is ideal for an action RPG where combat responsiveness is crucial.

For users with 1920x1080 displays, the High preset is again the recommended starting point, yielding an impressive 114 FPS average. This provides a significant headroom above 60 FPS, making it ideal for high refresh rate monitors. While the Low preset reaches 160 FPS and Medium reaches 126 FPS, the visual compromise at Low is often too severe for a game like Greedfall, which relies on atmosphere and environmental detail. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 73 FPS; while still playable, the performance cost for the additional settings is substantial compared to the High preset's 114 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain high frame rates. The High preset yields 47 FPS, and Medium yields 52 FPS, both of which are below the ideal 60 FPS target. The Low preset achieves 66 FPS, making it the only 4K option that clears 60 FPS. Consequently, for a 4K display, the Low preset is the only setting that provides consistent smoothness, but users must accept a significant reduction in visual quality. The Ultra preset at 4K is nearly unplayable at 30 FPS, making it unsuitable for active gameplay. Therefore, for the best balance of visual quality and performance, 1440p High is the clear winner, with 1080p High as a strong alternative for those prioritizing higher frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

In the context of all tested hardware combinations for Greedfall, this specific pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 holds a rank of 2262 out of 3703 tested combos. This places the system in the lower half of the performance spectrum, which is consistent with a mobile CPU paired with a mid-range dedicated GPU. The ranking indicates that while this combo is capable of delivering playable frame rates, there are many other configurations that provide significantly higher performance.

The combo's rank is a reflection of its position in the market. The RTX 4060, while a modern GPU, is positioned as an entry-level to mid-range option in the GeForce 40-series. The data shows its average benchmark score is 17639, which places it at the 61st percentile of all GPUs. In the measured Greedfall results, this translates to a system that is not designed for maximum settings at 4K but rather for a balanced experience at more common resolutions. The rank of 2262 out of 3703 suggests that users with this hardware should temper their expectations for extreme settings, but the measured FPS data shows it is more than capable for 1080p and 1440p gaming.

When compared to other combos, the performance is not near the top, but it is far from the bottom. The substantial gap between the 1080p and 4K results, which will be detailed later, shows a system that is heavily influenced by resolution. This ranking serves as a warning that the RTX 4060's 8 GB of VRAM and 128-bit memory bus are limiting factors at higher resolutions, preventing this combo from achieving higher standings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is the primary driver of graphical performance in this combo. Its specifications reveal a GPU designed for efficient 1080p and 1440p gaming. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is a key factor in its performance; while adequate for 1080p, it becomes a bottleneck at 4K, where the demand for memory bandwidth and capacity increases significantly. The measured FPS drop from 114 at 1080p High to 47 at 4K High illustrates this limitation.

The GPU's clock speeds are substantial, with a base clock of 1830 MHz and a boost clock of 2460 MHz. This high boost clock helps the GPU maintain strong performance in less demanding scenes. The RTX 4060 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture and features 3072 shading units, 24 RT cores, and 96 tensor cores. These specifications allow it to handle the DirectX 12 rendering of Greedfall effectively. The GPU's FP32 performance is rated at 15.11 TFLOPS, which provides the raw compute power needed for modern game engines.

The GPU's performance relative to its rivals is noteworthy. Its average benchmark score is 17639, placing it in the 61st percentile. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon HD 7790, has a score of 17666, a delta of -0.2%, meaning the RTX 4060 is essentially on par with that older card in synthetic benchmarks. However, the architectural differences are vast. More relevant is its performance relative to the AMD Radeon 780M integrated graphics, which scores 17588, a delta of 0.3%. This indicates that the RTX 4060 is only marginally faster than a high-end integrated GPU in aggregate benchmarks, though in real-world gaming with dedicated VRAM and drivers, the discrete card typically performs better. The data shows that in Greedfall, the 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for the presets tested, as none of the measured runs indicate a failure, but the bandwidth constraints are visible in the 4K results.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed look at how the combo handles different settings and resolutions. At 1920x1080, the system performs exceptionally well. The Low preset achieves an average of 160 FPS, showcasing the CPU and GPU's ability to handle high frame rates. The Medium preset averages 126 FPS with a minimum of 107 FPS and a maximum of 145 FPS, indicating very consistent performance. The High preset averages 114 FPS, a slight drop from Medium but still excellent for smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset, however, sees a significant drop to 73 FPS, showing the heavy cost of the highest quality settings.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but begins to show the GPU's limitations. The Low preset averages 111 FPS, a 31% drop from the 1080p Low result. The Medium preset averages 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 and a maximum of 100 FPS. The High preset averages 79 FPS, which is still above the 60 FPS target for most users. The Ultra preset drops to 51 FPS, which is below the ideal threshold and indicates that the GPU is struggling to maintain fluid motion at the highest settings.

At 3840x2160, the performance is the most constrained. The Low preset averages 66 FPS, which is the only 4K setting that breaks the 60 FPS barrier. The Medium preset averages 52 FPS with a minimum of 44 and a maximum of 60 FPS, showing significant frame pacing issues. The High preset averages 47 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages just 30 FPS. These numbers confirm that the RTX 4060 is not suited for high-quality 4K gaming in Greedfall.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling of performance from 1080p to 4K highlights the GPU-bound nature of this combo. At the High preset, the average FPS drops from 114 at 1080p to 79 at 1440p, a 30.7% reduction. Moving to 4K, the average FPS drops to 47, a further 40.5% reduction from the 1440p figure and a total reduction of 58.8% from 1080p. This steep curve indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component as resolution increases. The pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, and the RTX 4060's memory bandwidth and compute power cannot keep up with the demand.

A similar trend is visible at the Low preset. The average FPS drops from 160 at 1080p to 111 at 1440p (a 30.6% decrease) and then to 66 at 4K (a 40.5% decrease from 1440p). The consistent percentage drops across different presets reinforce that the bottleneck is the GPU's rendering capabilities rather than the CPU. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see the FPS plateau at lower resolutions as the CPU reaches its maximum capacity. Instead, the FPS continues to scale with resolution, confirming that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is the component that determines the frame rate ceiling.

The scaling analysis suggests that for this game, the sweet spot is 1440p. The FPS at this resolution is high enough for a smooth experience, and the visual detail is significantly better than 1080p. At 4K, the performance falls below acceptable levels for the Medium, High, and Ultra presets, making it a poor choice for this hardware unless the user is willing to play on Low settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H is a mobile processor with 16 cores and 22 threads, based on the Meteor Lake architecture. Its performance in synthetic benchmarks is solid, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14551 and a single-core score of 1759. The processor's boost clock of 5.00 GHz helps ensure that it can handle single-threaded tasks, which are often critical for game logic and physics. The CPU's average benchmark score is 34083, placing it at the 84th percentile of all CPUs, indicating it is a high-performing mobile processor.

In the context of Greedfall, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with data and handle the game's simulation. The measured FPS data shows that the CPU is more than capable of supporting the RTX 4060 at 1080p and 1440p. For instance, at 1080p Low, the system achieves 160 FPS, which is a high frame rate that requires a CPU that can process game logic quickly. The fact that the FPS scales down as resolution increases, rather than plateauing, confirms that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this system.

The CPU's performance relative to its rivals is also relevant. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 5 338H, has an average score of 33989, a delta of 0.3%, putting the Ultra 7 165H slightly ahead. The data shows that the Ultra 7 165H has sufficient processing power to avoid limiting the GPU in this specific game. The L3 cache of 24 MB (shared) is ample for the game's data, and the dual-channel memory support ensures that the CPU can access data quickly. Ultimately, the benchmark results indicate that the CPU provides a stable foundation, allowing the GPU's performance to be the deciding factor in the gaming experience. The 22 threads ensure that background tasks do not interfere with gameplay, providing a consistent experience across the measured runs.