Greedfall

Greedfall, a 2019 Action RPG, proves to be a highly scalable title when paired with the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090. The measured FPS data shows a clear progression across resolutions, with the combination delivering high refresh rate performance at 1080p and maintaining playable frame rates even at 4K with maximum settings.

Resolution Scaling

The performance delta from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while the CPU demonstrates ample headroom at lower settings. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 359 FPS, which drops to 249 FPS at 1440p and further to 149 FPS at 4K. This represents a 58.5% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that the GPU is the primary limiting factor as resolution increases.

The scaling pattern shifts noticeably when moving to Ultra settings. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 164 FPS, dropping to 113 FPS at 1440p and 68 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is 58.5%, nearly identical to the Low settings scaling. This consistency suggests that the RTX 5090's rendering pipeline scales predictably with resolution, regardless of the graphics preset applied.

Medium settings provide the most complete dataset, including minimum and maximum frame rates. At 1080p Medium, the average is 282 FPS with a minimum of 240 FPS and maximum of 325 FPS. Moving to 1440p Medium yields 196 FPS average with a 166-225 FPS range, while 4K Medium produces 117 FPS average with a 99-134 FPS range. The minimum frame rate at 4K Medium of 99 FPS indicates that even in demanding scenes, the system maintains a floor above 60 FPS.

The High settings preset shows a similar trend: 256 FPS at 1080p, 178 FPS at 1440p, and 106 FPS at 4K. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at High settings shows a 40.4% performance reduction, which is slightly steeper than the 30.5% reduction seen from 1080p to 1440p. This non-linear scaling suggests that the 4K resolution places significantly more stress on the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth capabilities.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 serves as the dominant performance driver in this configuration, particularly at higher resolutions. The GPU features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. This substantial memory subsystem is crucial for 4K gaming, where texture data and frame buffers demand significant bandwidth. The 4K Ultra result of 68 FPS average demonstrates that even the flagship Blackwell architecture, built on a 5 nm process with 92,200 million transistors, encounters limits when pushing maximum settings at this resolution.

The GPU's clock speeds—2017 MHz base and 2407 MHz boost—contribute to its raw compute capabilities. With 21,760 shading units and 176 ROPs, the RTX 5090 delivers a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s. These specifications translate directly to the measured frame rates, with the GPU maintaining 149 FPS at 4K Low settings, indicating that even at reduced graphical fidelity, the resolution alone demands significant resources.

The benchmark scores for the RTX 5090 place it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79,842. Its nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB, which scores 79,605 (0.3% higher), and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT at 78,940 (1.1% higher). The RTX 5090 trails the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X by 1.4% in average score, though these synthetic benchmarks do not always translate directly to gaming performance.

The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test score of 18,355 and the Geekbench Vulkan score of 376,728 further characterize the GPU's capabilities. In the Passmark suite, the DirectX 11 score of 341 and DirectX 12 score of 185 indicate that the GPU's performance varies significantly depending on the API and workload characteristics. The G3D score of 39,650 and GPU compute score of 26,756 round out the synthetic picture, with the latter suggesting strong compute throughput that could benefit future titles with more complex physics or simulation workloads.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 provides the computational foundation for this gaming combination, though its role becomes less critical as resolution increases. The CPU features 20 cores and 20 threads, running at a base clock of 2.40 GHz with a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. This Arrow Lake-S architecture, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC, incorporates 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die. The 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache help maintain data locality for game logic and AI computations.

In multi-threaded workloads, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42,216 and a single-core score of 5,960. The Passmark multithread score of 49,682 and single-thread score of 4,689 indicate strong all-around performance. The nearest CPU rivals show closely matched scores: the AMD EPYC 4464P scores 64,823 (0.3% higher than the Ultra 7 265's 64,640 average), while the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F scores 64,438 (0.3% lower). This tight grouping suggests that the CPU is not a bottleneck in most gaming scenarios.

The CPU's memory support for DDR5 with dual-channel configuration provides 102.4 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory bandwidth becomes relevant when the GPU requires data to be fed through the system, though the RTX 5090's dedicated 1.79 TB/s GDDR7 bandwidth means the CPU memory subsystem is rarely the limiting factor in Greedfall. The PCIe Gen 5 interface with 20 lanes ensures sufficient bandwidth for the GPU to communicate with the rest of the system.

At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 359 FPS, which approaches the practical limits of most displays. This result indicates that the CPU can feed frames to the GPU at extremely high rates when the GPU has minimal work to do. However, the fact that frame rates do not exceed 359 FPS even at the lowest resolution suggests there is an upper bound to the CPU's frame generation capability in this title, likely related to game engine threading or draw call processing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete FPS dataset provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 359 FPS average, Medium produces 282 FPS (240 min, 325 max), High achieves 256 FPS, and Ultra yields 164 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 54.3% performance reduction, highlighting the significant cost of higher graphical fidelity settings.

Moving to 1440p, the frame rates scale down proportionally. Low settings produce 249 FPS, Medium averages 196 FPS (166 min, 225 max), High reaches 178 FPS, and Ultra drops to 113 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 54.6%, nearly identical to the 1080p scaling. This consistency suggests that the settings presets have a multiplicative effect on rendering cost, regardless of resolution.

At 4K, the performance envelope tightens considerably. Low settings achieve 149 FPS, Medium averages 117 FPS (99 min, 134 max), High produces 106 FPS, and Ultra drops to 68 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K represents the most demanding configuration, with the 68 FPS average indicating that the RTX 5090 is working near its limits. The minimum frame rate of 99 FPS at 4K Medium provides confidence that the system can maintain smooth gameplay in most scenarios, though the Ultra preset's lack of min/max data leaves some uncertainty about worst-case performance.

The High settings preset shows interesting behavior across resolutions. At 1080p, High (256 FPS) is closer to Medium (282 FPS) than to Ultra (164 FPS), suggesting that the jump from High to Ultra involves significantly more demanding effects. At 4K, High (106 FPS) sits much closer to Medium (117 FPS) than to Ultra (68 FPS), reinforcing that Ultra settings carry a substantial performance penalty at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Greedfall, this pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 83rd out of 2,938 total combinations. This places the system in the top 2.8% of all tested configurations, indicating exceptional performance relative to the broader hardware landscape. The rank reflects the combined capabilities of both components working together in this specific game.

The ranking position is notable because it places this combo ahead of the vast majority of alternatives, though it does not reach the absolute top tier. The 83rd position suggests that there are 82 configurations that achieve higher frame rates in Greedfall, likely involving even more extreme hardware combinations or specific overclocking configurations. However, for a stock configuration with these components, the performance is demonstrably excellent.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks—the AMD EPYC 4464P, Intel Core Ultra 7 265F, AMD EPYC 7343, and AMD EPYC 9124—all show average scores within 0.7% of each other. This clustering indicates that CPU choice among high-end options has minimal impact on overall gaming performance in this title. The GPU's nearest rivals, including the NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants and AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, also show close scores, but the RTX 5090's gaming-specific optimizations likely contribute to its strong showing in Greedfall.

The combination's rank of 83 out of 2,938 means it outperforms 96.8% of tested setups. This places it in the upper echelon of gaming configurations, suitable for high-refresh-rate monitors at 1440p and solid 4K gaming experiences. The data suggests that users seeking maximum frame rates at 1080p might consider configurations ranked higher, but for balanced performance across resolutions, this combo delivers consistently strong results.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS this combo achieves in Greedfall?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 359 FPS at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 68 FPS.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K with Medium settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the system averages 117 FPS, with a minimum of 99 FPS and maximum of 134 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay in most scenes.

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested configurations in Greedfall?

A: This combination ranks 83rd out of 2,938 tested combos, placing it in the top 2.8% of all configurations in the database.

Q: Which component becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions?

A: The GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K shows consistent percentage drops regardless of settings, indicating GPU-bound performance.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 has an average benchmark score of 64,640, which is 0.3% lower than the AMD EPYC 4464P (64,823) and 0.3% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F (64,438).

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings achieve 249 FPS while Ultra settings produce 113 FPS, representing a 54.6% reduction in performance when moving to maximum graphical fidelity.