Greedfall

Greedfall, a 2019 Action RPG, is a demanding title that scales heavily with graphical settings and resolution. For the tested configuration pairing the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, the data shows a system capable of high refresh rate gaming at 1080p and 1440p, but one that requires careful settings management to maintain smooth performance at 4K. The benchmark results firmly place this combination in the upper third of all tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The performance deltas across resolutions reveal how the RTX 3080's workload scales with pixel count. At 1080p with High settings, the combo delivers 170 FPS, which drops to 118 FPS at 1440p and further to 70 FPS at 4K. This represents a 31% performance hit when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and a 41% additional reduction when moving from 1440p to 4K. The scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the frame rate drops are consistent with the increased pixel throughput required.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens dramatically as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference between Low (238 FPS) and Ultra (108 FPS) is 130 FPS, a 55% reduction. At 1440p, Low delivers 165 FPS while Ultra drops to 75 FPS, a 55% reduction. At 4K, the spread becomes more pronounced: Low produces 98 FPS, Medium 77 FPS, High 70 FPS, and Ultra falls to 45 FPS. This means that at 4K, switching from Low to Ultra more than halves the frame rate, underscoring that Greedfall's higher presets impose a substantial shader and geometry load on the GPU.

The 4K Ultra result of 45 FPS is notable because it falls below the 60 FPS threshold that many consider the baseline for smooth action gameplay. The 4K Medium setting at 77 FPS provides a more playable experience, while 4K Low at 98 FPS approaches the performance of 1440p High. For a game like Greedfall with real-time combat, the data suggests that 4K Ultra is not viable for competitive or fast-paced play with this GPU, whereas Medium or High settings at 4K offer a reasonable compromise.

At 1080p, the frame rates are high enough that the CPU may begin to play a larger role, especially in scenes with many NPCs or complex AI. The 1080p Low result of 238 FPS indicates that the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is not bottlenecking the GPU at lower resolutions, as the RTX 3080 is still able to push well beyond typical display refresh rates. However, the scaling from 1080p to 1440p at the same settings (238 to 165 FPS for Low, 170 to 118 FPS for High) shows a predictable GPU-bound pattern rather than a sudden CPU limit.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, based on the Ampere architecture and the GA102 chip, serves as the performance backbone for this configuration. Its 10 GB of GDDR6X memory operates across a 320-bit bus, delivering 760.3 GB/s of memory bandwidth. This bandwidth is critical for Greedfall's texture streaming and high-resolution assets, as the game's open-world environments require rapid data access. The GPU's 8704 shading units and 272 texture mapping units provide the raw compute and texture filtering throughput needed to maintain the observed frame rates.

The clock speeds of the RTX 3080, with a base of 1440 MHz and a boost of 1710 MHz, are relatively modest compared to newer architectures, but the sheer number of cores compensates. The 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores are present for ray tracing and DLSS, though Greedfall's benchmark data does not specifically indicate whether these features are enabled. The GPU's 29.77 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is a strong indicator of its rasterization capability, which Greedfall primarily relies on.

The benchmark results show that the RTX 3080 achieves a percentile ranking of 68 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23172. Its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are the NVIDIA P106-100, AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16, AMD Radeon RX 6600M, and AMD Radeon R9 M290X, all within a 0.4% margin of the RTX 3080's average score. This clustering suggests that in raw compute terms, the RTX 3080 sits in a crowded performance band, but its real-world game performance, as seen in Greedfall, is influenced by driver optimization and game-specific engine behavior.

The GPU's memory configuration is a notable point. With 10 GB of GDDR6X, the RTX 3080 may face capacity constraints at 4K Ultra settings in Greedfall, where texture quality demands can exceed this amount. The observed 4K Ultra average of 45 FPS, while lower than other presets, could partially reflect memory pressure rather than pure compute limits. The 4K Medium and High results, which use less memory, show more favorable scaling, suggesting that the 10 GB frame buffer is adequate for these settings but may be tight at the highest preset.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the configuration achieves an average of 130 FPS, with a minimum of 110 FPS and a maximum of 149 FPS.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra performance compare to 1080p Ultra?

A: At 4K Ultra, the average frame rate is 45 FPS, while at 1080p Ultra it is 108 FPS. This represents a 58% reduction in frame rate when scaling from 1080p to 4K at the same settings.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K a bottleneck at any resolution in this game?

A: The data does not indicate a CPU bottleneck. At 1080p Low settings, the system reaches 238 FPS, which is high enough to suggest the GPU remains the limiting factor. The consistent scaling from 1080p to 1440p to 4K further supports a GPU-bound scenario.

Q: What is the best setting for 4K playability?

A: For 4K, the Medium preset offers an average of 77 FPS, which is the highest setting that maintains a frame rate above 60 FPS. The High preset at 70 FPS is also playable, while Ultra at 45 FPS falls below that threshold.

Q: How does the RTX 3080's synthetic benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 3080 has an average benchmark score of 23172. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA P106-100, scores 23249, which is 0.3% higher. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 scores 23250, also 0.3% higher, and the AMD Radeon RX 6600M scores 23273, 0.4% higher.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and High settings at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, Low settings produce 165 FPS on average, while High settings produce 118 FPS. The difference is 47 FPS, or a 28% reduction when moving from Low to High.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates for this configuration in Greedfall are as follows:

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 238 FPS. The Medium preset averages 187 FPS, with a minimum of 159 FPS and a maximum of 215 FPS. High settings average 170 FPS, and Ultra settings average 108 FPS. This shows a clear progression where each step up in quality costs roughly 20-40 FPS, with the largest single drop occurring between High and Ultra.

At 2560x1440, Low settings average 165 FPS. Medium settings average 130 FPS, with a minimum of 110 FPS and a maximum of 149 FPS. High settings average 118 FPS, and Ultra settings average 75 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at each preset is consistent, with approximately a 30-35% reduction in frame rate.

At 3840x2160, Low settings average 98 FPS. Medium settings average 77 FPS, with a minimum of 66 FPS and a maximum of 89 FPS. High settings average 70 FPS, and Ultra settings average 45 FPS. The 4K results show the most significant performance penalty, particularly for the Ultra preset, which drops below 60 FPS.

The Medium preset at each resolution has the most complete data, including minimum and maximum frame rates. At 1080p, the minimum of 159 FPS and maximum of 215 FPS indicate a frame time variance of 56 FPS, which is relatively tight. At 1440p, the range is 39 FPS (110 to 149), and at 4K, the range is 23 FPS (66 to 89). This suggests that frame pacing becomes more stable at higher resolutions, likely due to the GPU being more consistently loaded.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 ranks 1064 out of 3703 tested combinations in Greedfall. This places the configuration in the 71st percentile of all tested systems, meaning it outperforms roughly 71% of the combinations in this game. The rank reflects a balance between the CPU's strong multi-threaded capabilities and the GPU's solid rasterization performance.

The ranking indicates that while this setup is not at the top tier for Greedfall, it is well above average. The top-performing combos in the database likely feature newer GPUs with higher memory bandwidth and more shading units, such as the RTX 40-series or AMD Radeon RX 7000-series, which would provide a significant advantage in this GPU-intensive title. The RTX 3080's mid-pack synthetic benchmark position, with rivals within a 0.4% margin, suggests that the combo's rank is driven more by GPU performance than CPU capabilities.

The CPU's own benchmark profile supports this interpretation. The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K ranks in the 94th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 70879. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Xeon 6511P, which scores 71051 (0.2% higher), and the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270, which scores 71370 (0.7% higher). The Core i7-14700KF scores 70163 (1% lower), and the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F scores 69996 (1.3% lower). This CPU is clearly not the limiting factor in Greedfall, as its performance is near the top of the database.

The gap between the CPU's high percentile (94) and the combo's overall rank (71st percentile) highlights the GPU's role as the performance ceiling. In Greedfall, the RTX 3080's capabilities determine the frame rates more than the CPU, which has ample headroom. The combo rank of 1064 out of 3703 suggests that users with this configuration should focus on GPU settings rather than CPU-related tweaks to improve performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K, part of the Core Ultra Series 2, is built on the Arrow Lake architecture using TSMC's 3 nm process node. It features 20 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. The CPU includes 30 MB of shared L3 cache, with 192 KB of L1 cache per core and 3 MB of L2 cache per core. This configuration provides strong multi-threaded performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35850 and Geekbench multi-core score of 23085.

The CPU's single-thread performance is also robust, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2020 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2713. These scores indicate that the Ultra 7 265K can handle the per-thread demands of game logic and AI processing without becoming a bottleneck. In Greedfall, which is a single-player RPG with complex NPC behaviors and quest scripting, the CPU's ability to manage multiple threads is beneficial, though the game is not known to be particularly CPU-intensive.

The CPU's memory support includes DDR5 with a dual-channel bus, providing 102.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth. This bandwidth is sufficient to feed the RTX 3080's data demands, especially at lower resolutions where the GPU can generate frames faster. The CPU also supports ECC memory, which is a feature more common in workstation environments, but it does not negatively impact gaming performance.

The launch MSRP for the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is $394. It was released on 2024-10-23 and has a TDP of 125 W. The CPU's PassMark multi-thread score of 58594 and single-thread score of 4928 place it in the top tier of desktop processors. In the context of Greedfall, the data shows that the CPU is more than adequate, with the 1080p Low result of 238 FPS demonstrating that the GPU is the primary determinant of frame rate in this title. Users with this CPU should not experience CPU-related stuttering or frame drops at any of the tested settings.