Greedfall

Greedfall, the 2019 Action RPG, presents a demanding workload for mobile hardware. This analysis examines the measured performance of the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile. The data indicates that this combination offers a versatile experience, but requires careful settings management to balance visual fidelity with frame rate stability across different resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for this combo reveals a clear hierarchy across four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers an average of 128 FPS, which is a significant jump from the 82 FPS observed at Ultra. This 46 FPS difference represents a 56% performance uplift, making High the most efficient choice for high-refresh-rate displays. While Low pushes to 180 FPS and Medium sits at 141 FPS, these settings often compromise visual quality for marginal gains over the High preset's already smooth experience.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. The High preset produces an average of 89 FPS, which remains well within the smooth range for most displays. The Medium preset is close behind at 98 FPS, but the Ultra preset drops sharply to 57 FPS. This suggests that at 1440p, the GPU is beginning to feel the load, but High still offers the best balance. The 89 FPS at High is 56% faster than the Ultra setting's 57 FPS, showing a steep cost for the highest quality options.

At 3840x2160 (4K), the situation becomes more constrained. The High preset averages 53 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action. The Medium preset is marginally slower at 58 FPS, but the Ultra preset falls to an average of just 34 FPS, which is below the threshold for a consistently fluid experience. The Low preset, at 74 FPS, becomes the most practical option for 4K gaming, providing a 40% improvement over High while enabling the full resolution.

The overall recommendation is to use the High preset for 1080p and 1440p gaming, as it consistently provides the best frame rate per visual quality investment. For 4K, users should consider the Low preset to maintain a higher average frame rate, or accept the 53 FPS of High if visual fidelity is the priority. The Medium preset offers a middle ground at 1080p and 1440p, but its value diminishes at 4K where it only provides a 5 FPS advantage over High.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H is a 16-core, 22-thread processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. It features a 24 MB shared L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel configuration. In the benchmark database, this CPU holds an 84th percentile ranking against all tested processors, indicating solid multi-threaded performance.

For Greedfall, the CPU's role is more critical at lower resolutions where the GPU can produce frames faster. At 1920x1080 with the Low preset, the system achieves 180 FPS, a number that is likely influenced by both CPU and GPU capabilities. The CPU's strong single-core performance, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1759, helps maintain high frame rates in scenes with complex game logic. The multi-core score of 14551 in Cinebench R23 suggests headroom for background tasks, but the game itself does not appear to be a heavy multi-threading user, as the frame rate scaling from Low to Ultra is more consistent with a GPU bottleneck.

The processor's power envelope of 28 W TDP is typical for a mobile chip, but its ability to boost to 5.00 GHz allows it to keep up with the RTX 4070 Mobile in less demanding scenarios. In the comparison against its nearest rivals, the Core Ultra 7 165H shows a negligible performance delta. It is 0.3% faster than the Intel Core Ultra 5 338H and 0.4% slower than both the AMD EPYC 4244P and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350. This indicates that the CPU is not a differentiating factor in this combo's performance; it is a competent, mid-range performer that does not bottleneck the GPU in most gaming scenarios.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile is the primary driver of frame rates in this combo. It is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process node and features 4608 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output units. The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s. Its base clock is 1395 MHz with a boost clock of 1695 MHz.

The GPU's performance percentile is 73rd against all tested GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 27435 places it in a tight competitive group. The data shows it is virtually identical to the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (deltaPct of 0%), and it is within 1.5% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20. This suggests the RTX 4070 Mobile provides desktop-class performance from a previous generation, which is impressive for a mobile part with a 115 W TDP.

In Greedfall, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. The measured FPS drop from 128 at 1080p High to 89 at 1440p High represents a 30% reduction, which is a typical scaling factor for a GPU-bound scenario. The further drop to 53 FPS at 4K High is another 40% reduction, confirming that the GPU is the limiting component at higher resolutions. The 8 GB VRAM buffer is sufficient for the game's textures at these settings, as no out-of-memory issues are indicated in the data. The GPU's memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s is also adequate, as the performance degradation from 1440p to 4K is consistent with compute-bound workloads rather than memory bandwidth saturation.

How This Combo Ranks

The combined performance of the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile places this combo at rank 2006 out of 3703 tested combinations in Greedfall. This places it in the 54th percentile of all combos, meaning it outperforms more than half of the systems tested while being beaten by a significant portion of the higher-end configurations.

This mid-pack ranking is a direct reflection of the component choices. The CPU, while competent, is not a top-tier performer, as its nearest rivals are all within 0.5% of its average score. The GPU, while strong for a mobile part, sits below the high-end desktop cards that often dominate the top ranks. The combo's ranking suggests that it is a balanced pairing, but it does not have the raw power to compete with setups featuring flagship desktop CPUs and GPUs.

For a user, this rank indicates that the system is capable of running Greedfall well at mainstream settings, but it will not excel at maximum quality presets. The data shows that the combo is more suited for 1440p gaming, where it can maintain high frame rates, rather than 4K gaming, where it struggles to reach 60 FPS on higher settings. The rank of 2006 out of 3703 is a useful metric for setting expectations: it is a solid mid-range performer, but not a top-tier contender.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear trend as resolution increases. At 1080p, the combo achieves 180 FPS on Low, 141 FPS on Medium, 128 FPS on High, and 82 FPS on Ultra. Moving to 1440p, these numbers drop to 125 FPS, 98 FPS, 89 FPS, and 57 FPS, respectively. At 4K, the frame rates fall further to 74 FPS, 58 FPS, 53 FPS, and 34 FPS.

The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is roughly a 30% frame rate reduction across all settings. This is a typical result when the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, as the number of pixels rendered increases by 78% (from 2.07 million to 3.69 million). The fact that the frame rate does not drop by the same proportion indicates that the GPU has some headroom and is not entirely pixel-bound at 1080p.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K is more severe, with frame rates dropping by an additional 40-45%. This is closer to the theoretical pixel count increase of 125% (from 3.69 million to 8.29 million). This steeper drop suggests that the GPU is now fully saturated, and the system is entirely limited by the RTX 4070 Mobile's processing power. The CPU's influence is minimal at this point, as the GPU cannot produce frames fast enough to be held back by the processor.

The data indicates that the limiting component is the GPU. The frame rate drops are consistent with GPU-bound scaling, and the CPU's performance is sufficient to feed the GPU at all resolutions. Users with a 1080p or 1440p display will find the combo to be well-balanced, but 4K gaming will require significant settings compromises to achieve playable frame rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset to use for a smooth 60 FPS experience at 1440p?

A: The High preset achieves an average of 89 FPS at 2560x1440, providing a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. The Medium preset offers a higher 98 FPS average, but the Ultra preset drops to 57 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming?

A: Yes, but with limitations. At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 74 FPS, and the High preset averages 53 FPS. The Ultra preset is not recommended, as it only manages 34 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H is 0.3% faster than the Intel Core Ultra 5 338H and 0.4% slower than both the AMD EPYC 4244P and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350. These deltas are negligible, indicating similar performance.

Q: Is the GPU a limiting factor in this game?

A: Yes. The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 1440p to 4K shows a consistent drop that is characteristic of a GPU bottleneck. The performance is not limited by the CPU at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the average FPS difference between High and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: The High preset averages 128 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 82 FPS. This is a difference of 46 FPS, or a 56% performance improvement for High.

Q: Does the GPU have enough VRAM for this game?

A: The RTX 4070 Mobile has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory. The measured data does not indicate any performance anomalies that would suggest VRAM limitations at the tested settings and resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table details the exact measured average frame rates for each resolution and settings preset tested.

| Resolution | Settings | Average FPS |

| :--------- | :------- | ----------: |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 180 |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 141 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 128 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 82 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 125 |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 98 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 89 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 57 |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 74 |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 58 |

| 3840x2160 | High | 53 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 34 |

The Medium preset at all three resolutions also recorded minimum and maximum frame rates. At 1080p, the range was 120 to 163 FPS. At 1440p, the range was 83 to 113 FPS. At 4K, the range was 50 to 67 FPS. These values show a consistent frame time distribution, with the variance increasing as the average frame rate decreases.