Greedfall

Greedfall on the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti produces a wide performance envelope, with the measured data showing a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and frame rate. The most balanced experience is found at Medium settings, which delivers a playable frame rate at 4K and exceptionally high performance at 1440p and 1080p, making it the recommended preset for this combination.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results indicate that the Medium preset offers the best balance of image quality and performance for this hardware pairing. At 1920x1080, Medium produces an average of 168 FPS, which is only a 21% reduction from the Low preset's 214 FPS but provides a substantial visual upgrade over the lowest settings. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 117 FPS, comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, and at 3840x2160 it still manages a respectable 70 FPS average.

The High preset is a viable alternative for those prioritizing visual quality, but the data shows it comes at a significant cost. At 4K, High drops to 63 FPS average, which is a 10% decrease from Medium, while at 1440p it falls to 106 FPS and at 1080p to 153 FPS. These numbers are still playable, but they represent a consistent 9-10% performance penalty across all resolutions compared to Medium.

The Ultra preset is not recommended for this configuration. The measured data shows a dramatic performance cliff: at 1080p, Ultra averages 98 FPS, which is 42% lower than Medium, and at 1440p it drops to 68 FPS. At 4K, Ultra becomes nearly unplayable with an average of just 40 FPS. The performance cost of Ultra settings is disproportionately high relative to the visual gains, and the frame rate at 4K falls below the threshold for a smooth experience.

For gamers with high refresh rate monitors at 1080p, the Low preset delivers the highest possible frame rate at 214 FPS average, which is 27% higher than Medium. However, this comes with the most significant reduction in graphical detail. The Medium preset remains the sweet spot, providing a 168 FPS average at 1080p that is still well above the refresh rate of most displays.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is the primary driver of performance in Greedfall, as evidenced by the measured frame rates scaling directly with resolution changes. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 608.3 GB/s. This memory configuration is sufficient for the game's requirements at the tested settings, with the 8 GB capacity proving adequate even at 4K resolution.

The GPU's clock speeds are listed with a base of 1575 MHz and a boost of 1770 MHz. The benchmark data shows that the GPU is capable of sustaining high frame rates across all settings, but the performance ceiling is clearly visible at the Ultra preset. The 40 FPS average at 4K Ultra suggests that the GPU's compute resources are saturated, particularly its 6144 shading units and 48 RT cores, which are tasked with the most demanding rendering workloads.

The RTX 3070 Ti's transistor count of 17,400 million on an 8 nm process from Samsung indicates a mature architecture that delivers consistent performance. Its PassMark G3D score of 23356 places it in the 75th percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile (0.1% faster), AMD Radeon RX 6800 (0.5% faster), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (0.5% slower). This positioning confirms that the GPU is a mid-to-high-end part that handles Greedfall well at medium and high settings, but it is not optimized for the game's most extreme visual configuration.

The GPU's pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s are the key specifications that determine its fill-rate capabilities. These numbers, combined with the 192 TMUs and 96 ROPs, explain why the frame rate drops so sharply at the Ultra preset: the game's Ultra settings likely require more texture fetches and pixel shading operations than the GPU can sustain at high resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, with the frame rate scaling in a predictable manner. At Medium settings, the average frame rate drops from 168 FPS at 1920x1080 to 117 FPS at 2560x1440, a 30% decrease, and then to 70 FPS at 3840x2160, a further 40% decrease from 1440p. This scaling indicates that the GPU is the limiting component, as the workload increases proportionally with the number of pixels rendered.

The Low preset shows the steepest relative drop between resolutions: 214 FPS at 1080p falls to 149 FPS at 1440p (a 30% reduction) and then to 89 FPS at 4K (a 40% reduction from 1440p). The High preset follows a similar pattern, with 153 FPS at 1080p dropping to 106 FPS at 1440p (31% lower) and then to 63 FPS at 4K (41% lower). This consistent scaling across settings confirms that the GPU is the bottleneck, as the CPU has sufficient headroom to feed the graphics card at all tested resolutions.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic resolution scaling: 98 FPS at 1080p falls to 68 FPS at 1440p (31% lower) and then to 40 FPS at 4K (41% lower). The fact that the percentage drop is nearly identical across all four settings suggests that the game's rendering pipeline is uniformly GPU-bound, with no evidence of a CPU limitation emerging at lower resolutions. The Intel Core Ultra 7 265, with its 20 cores and 20 threads, appears to provide ample processing power to keep up with the GPU's demands even at 1080p.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 4K gaming with this hardware?

A: The Medium preset is the recommended choice for 4K, as it produces an average of 70 FPS with a minimum of 59 FPS. The High preset drops to 63 FPS average, while the Ultra preset falls to 40 FPS, making Medium the only setting that maintains a playable frame rate above 60 FPS at 3840x2160.

Q: Can this system achieve 144 FPS at 1080p?

A: Yes, the Low preset averages 214 FPS and the Medium preset averages 168 FPS, both exceeding the 144 FPS target. The High preset averages 153 FPS, which also clears this threshold, but the Ultra preset drops to 98 FPS and misses the mark.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 Ti compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 3070 Ti has an average benchmark score of 29945, placing it 0.1% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile, 0.5% below the AMD Radeon RX 6800, and 0.5% above the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. It sits in the 75th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any resolution?

A: The data shows no evidence of CPU bottlenecking. The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is consistent across all settings, with roughly a 30% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 40% drop from 1440p to 4K. This uniform scaling indicates that the GPU is the limiting component at all tested resolutions.

Q: What minimum frame rate can be expected at 1440p Medium settings?

A: The measured data shows a minimum of 99 FPS at 2560x1440 with Medium settings, with an average of 117 FPS and a maximum of 134 FPS. This provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: Is the Ultra preset ever viable with this hardware?

A: The Ultra preset is only viable at 1080p, where it averages 98 FPS. At 1440p it drops to 68 FPS, which is playable but below the 70 FPS average of the Medium preset at 4K, and at 4K it falls to an unplayable 40 FPS average.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 provides the processing foundation for this gaming configuration, and its specifications indicate it is more than capable of supporting the RTX 3070 Ti in Greedfall. The CPU features 20 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 2.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. This high boost clock, combined with the 30 MB of shared L3 cache, ensures that the CPU can deliver instructions to the GPU without becoming a bottleneck.

The CPU's benchmark scores confirm its strong performance. In Cinebench R23, it scores 42216 in multicore and 5960 in singlecore tests, while in PassMark it achieves a multithread score of 49682 and a single-thread score of 4689. These scores place the CPU in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 64640. Its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 4464P (0.3% faster), Intel Core Ultra 7 265F (0.3% slower), and AMD EPYC 9124 (0.7% faster).

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s over a dual-channel DDR5 interface provides sufficient data throughput for the GPU. The 17,800 million transistors on a 3 nm process from TSMC, with a die size of 243 mm², represent a modern and efficient design. The L1 cache is 192 KB per core, and the L2 cache is 3 MB per core, which are typical values for this architecture.

Despite the CPU's strong benchmark performance, the measured frame rates in Greedfall show that it is not the limiting factor. The consistent performance scaling across resolutions, as detailed in the Resolution Scaling section, indicates that the GPU's workload is the primary constraint. The CPU's 20 threads are more than sufficient for the game's threading model, and the high single-core performance ensures that the game's main thread is not starved for processing power.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 214 FPS average
• Medium: 168 FPS average, 143 FPS minimum, 194 FPS maximum
• High: 153 FPS average
• Ultra: 98 FPS average

At 1080p, the system demonstrates its highest performance ceiling. The Low preset achieves 214 FPS, which is 27% higher than Medium and 40% higher than High. The Ultra preset at 98 FPS is the only setting below the 100 FPS mark, but it still provides a smooth experience for most users.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 149 FPS average
• Medium: 117 FPS average, 99 FPS minimum, 134 FPS maximum
• High: 106 FPS average
• Ultra: 68 FPS average

The 1440p results show a clear tiering of performance. The Low preset at 149 FPS is 27% faster than Medium, which in turn is 10% faster than High. The Ultra preset at 68 FPS is the only setting that approaches the 60 FPS threshold, but it does so with a 42% reduction from Medium.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 89 FPS average
• Medium: 70 FPS average, 59 FPS minimum, 80 FPS maximum
• High: 63 FPS average
• Ultra: 40 FPS average

At 4K, the performance drops become more pronounced. The Low preset at 89 FPS is the only setting that exceeds 60 FPS, while Medium at 70 FPS and High at 63 FPS are both playable but with less headroom. The Ultra preset at 40 FPS is the only setting that falls below the 60 FPS threshold, making it unsuitable for 4K gaming.

The measured data across all resolutions shows a consistent pattern: Medium settings provide the best balance of frame rate and visual quality, while Ultra settings exact a disproportionate performance penalty. The GPU's 8 GB of VRAM and 608.3 GB/s of bandwidth are sufficient for the game's demands at Medium and High settings, but the Ultra preset's additional rendering requirements push the GPU beyond its comfortable operating range.