Greedfall

Greedfall, a 2019 Action RPG, presents an interesting case study when paired with the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090. The data indicates a system that is grossly overqualified for the title, yet the measured frame rates reveal a complex interplay between resolution, settings, and component bottlenecks that is worth investigating. This combination sits at rank 90 out of 3703 tested combos, placing it in the top 2.4% of all configurations, a position that suggests near-peak performance but also raises questions about where the true limitations lie.

Resolution Scaling

The most striking pattern in the data is how average frame rates collapse as resolution increases. At 1080p, the system produces astronomical numbers, with the Low preset hitting 359 FPS and High reaching 256 FPS. Moving to 1440p, we see a significant drop: Low falls to 249 FPS (a 30.6% decrease from 1080p Low), and High drops to 178 FPS (a 30.5% decrease from 1080p High). This trend accelerates at 4K, where Low manages 149 FPS (a 40.2% drop from 1440p Low) and High falls to 106 FPS (a 40.4% drop from 1440p High). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings—roughly 30% from 1080p to 1440p and another 40% from 1440p to 4K—suggests that the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor as pixel count increases.

However, the Ultra preset tells a different story. At 1080p Ultra, the system achieves 164 FPS, which is only 36% lower than 1080p Low. At 1440p Ultra, it falls to 113 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it plummets to 68 FPS. The gap between Ultra and Low widens dramatically with resolution: at 1080p, Ultra is 54.3% slower than Low, but at 4K, Ultra is 54.4% slower. This consistent delta indicates that the Ultra preset introduces a massive computational load that scales almost linearly with resolution, likely due to effects like volumetric lighting or shadow quality that are resolution-dependent.

The data implies that at 1080p and 1440p, the CPU is still capable of feeding the RTX 5090 enough data to keep frame rates extremely high, but the GPU's raw power is so immense that it becomes the bottleneck at 4K. The fact that 4K Low (149 FPS) is still higher than 1080p Ultra (164 FPS) by only 9.1% is telling—it suggests that the game's engine has a ceiling around 350-360 FPS at 1080p, likely due to CPU draw-call limits, but the GPU is so fast that even at 4K it can maintain triple-digit frame rates. This is a case where the RTX 5090's 32 GB of memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are likely overkill for a 2019 title, but the sheer compute throughput is what drives these numbers.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The highest average FPS is 359, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This indicates the system is heavily GPU-bound at lower resolutions, with the CPU still having headroom to push beyond 360 FPS if the engine allowed it.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to Medium at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Ultra averages 113 FPS while Medium averages 196 FPS, making Ultra 42.3% slower. This is a massive performance hit for presumably higher visual fidelity, suggesting that the Ultra preset might include expensive post-processing effects that are not worth the cost.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS in the entire dataset?

A: The lowest average FPS is 68, recorded at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This is still a very playable frame rate, but it represents a significant drop from the 4K High preset, which averages 106 FPS.

Q: Does the RTX 5090's 32 GB VRAM ever become a limiting factor in Greedfall?

A: The data does not show any VRAM-related stutters or crashes, and with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory, it is unlikely that a 2019 game would exceed this capacity. The benchmark results show no min FPS anomalies that would indicate memory pressure, even at 4K Ultra.

Q: Is there a significant difference between 1080p and 1440p at High settings?

A: Yes, High at 1080p averages 256 FPS, while at 1440p it drops to 178 FPS, a 30.5% decrease. This is a substantial drop, but the absolute frame rates are still so high that most monitors would not be able to display the difference.

Q: What does the combo's rank of 90 out of 3703 imply?

A: It implies that this configuration is in the top 2.4% of all tested combos for Greedfall, meaning it outperforms 97.6% of other CPU-GPU pairings. This is expected given the high-end components, but it also suggests that there are 89 other combos that achieve even higher frame rates, possibly due to more favorable CPU-GPU pairings or driver optimizations.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 90 out of 3703 tested configurations is remarkably high, placing it in the 97.6th percentile of all systems tested for Greedfall. This is consistent with the component choices: the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K ranks in the 94th percentile among all CPUs in synthetic benchmarks, while the RTX 5090 ranks in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs. However, the gap between the combo's rank (90th) and the theoretical maximum suggests that there are a few dozen configurations that are even better suited for this specific game.

Looking at the nearest rivals, the CPU's average benchmark score of 70879 is just 0.2% below the Intel Xeon 6511P, 0.7% below the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270, and 1% above the Intel Core i7-14700KF. This indicates that the 265K is in a very tight performance cluster, and any differences in Greedfall are likely due to memory latency or cache behavior rather than raw compute. For the GPU, the RTX 5090's average score of 79842 is 0.3% above the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB and 1.1% above the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, but 1.4% below the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X. This suggests that in synthetic tests, the 5090 is not universally the fastest, and Greedfall may favor different architectures.

The rank of 90 implies that while this is an elite setup, there is still room for improvement. The fact that the CPU and GPU percentiles (94 and 92) are both slightly below the combo's in-game rank (97.6) suggests that Greedfall may be more sensitive to certain aspects of these components, such as the CPU's 30 MB of L3 cache or the GPU's 176 ROPs, which are particularly effective for this game's rendering pipeline.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers extraordinary frame rates across all settings. Low averages 359 FPS, Medium averages 282 FPS with a min of 240 and max of 325, High averages 256 FPS, and Ultra averages 164 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 54.3%, which is substantial, but even the lowest Ultra number (164 FPS) is far above the refresh rate of any standard monitor. The Medium preset's min FPS of 240 indicates that even in the most demanding scenes, the system never drops below 240 FPS, which is a very stable experience.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain exceptionally high. Low averages 249 FPS, Medium averages 196 FPS (min 166, max 225), High averages 178 FPS, and Ultra averages 113 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 30% for all presets, which is a typical scaling factor for GPU-bound workloads. The Medium preset's min FPS of 166 is still above 144 Hz, making this resolution a very viable option for high-refresh-rate gaming.

At 3840x2160, the system starts to show its limits. Low averages 149 FPS, Medium averages 117 FPS (min 99, max 134), High averages 106 FPS, and Ultra averages 68 FPS. The drop from 1440p to 4K is about 40% for Low, Medium, and High, but only 39.8% for Ultra. This suggests that at 4K, the GPU is fully saturated, and the Ultra preset's additional effects are causing a disproportionate frame rate hit. The Medium preset's min FPS of 99 is the only sub-100 FPS result in the entire dataset, indicating that 4K Ultra is the only scenario where the system might struggle to maintain high refresh rates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU built on a 5 nm process, with 92,200 million transistors and a die size of 750 mm². It has a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz, which are relatively modest compared to some previous flagship GPUs, but the sheer number of shading units (21,760) and texture mapping units (680) more than compensate. The GPU's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s, which is more than sufficient for Greedfall's texture and geometry demands.

In the benchmarks, the RTX 5090's PassMark G3D score of 39650 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 334370 indicate massive compute capability. Its pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s are directly relevant to Greedfall's rendering, as they determine how quickly the GPU can fill pixels and apply textures. The fact that the 4K High preset averages 106 FPS suggests that the GPU is working hard but not at its absolute limit, as the 4K Ultra preset drops to 68 FPS, which is a 35.8% decrease from High.

The GPU's 176 ROPs are likely a key factor in the 4K performance, as they handle the final pixel output. The data shows that 4K Medium averages 117 FPS, which is only 10.4% higher than High, indicating that the ROPs are not the bottleneck at Medium settings. However, the jump from Medium to Ultra (117 to 68 FPS) is a 41.9% drop, which suggests that the Ultra preset likely enables effects that are particularly demanding on the ROPs or memory bandwidth. The 1.79 TB/s bandwidth is likely sufficient, as there are no signs of memory throttling in the data.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process at TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. The CPU's 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB of L2 cache per core (totaling 60 MB) are critical for gaming performance, as Greedfall likely relies on fast access to game state data. The 102.4 GB/s memory bandwidth from dual-channel DDR5 is also a factor, though it is unlikely to be a bottleneck at the frame rates observed.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 265K achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35850 and a single-core score of 2020, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. Its PassMark multi-thread score of 58594 and single-thread score of 4928 further confirm its strong performance. However, the nearest rivals show that the 265K is not head-and-shoulders above the competition: it is just 1% faster than the Intel Core i7-14700KF and 1.3% faster than the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F in average benchmark scores.

For Greedfall, the CPU's role is primarily to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system hits 359 FPS, which is likely approaching the engine's maximum frame rate cap or the CPU's single-thread limit. The fact that 1080p Ultra only drops to 164 FPS (a 54.3% decrease from Low) suggests that the CPU is not the bottleneck at Ultra settings, as the GPU is handling the additional effects. However, at 1080p Low, the CPU may be limiting the frame rate, as the GPU would likely be capable of even higher numbers if the CPU could feed it faster. The 20 cores and 20 threads are likely underutilized in a game like Greedfall, which may only use a handful of threads, but the high boost clock of 5.50 GHz ensures strong single-thread performance.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the best experience in Greedfall with this combo depends heavily on the target resolution and refresh rate. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset offers an average of 282 FPS with a min of 240 FPS, which is ideal for any high-refresh-rate monitor up to 240 Hz. The High preset at 256 FPS is also excellent, but the 9.2% drop from Medium to High may not justify the visual improvements if the monitor cannot display the difference. The Ultra preset at 164 FPS is the only option that might be problematic for 240 Hz displays, but it would still be perfect for 144 Hz monitors.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 196 FPS with a min of 166 FPS, making it the best choice for 165 Hz or 144 Hz monitors. The High preset at 178 FPS is also viable for 165 Hz displays, but the Medium preset's higher min FPS (166 vs. no min data for High) suggests better frame pacing stability. The Ultra preset at 113 FPS is acceptable for 120 Hz monitors but may not be worth the 42.3% performance hit compared to Medium.

At 3840x2160, the High preset averages 106 FPS, which is perfect for 100 Hz or 120 Hz displays. The Medium preset at 117 FPS offers a 10.4% improvement over High, but the visual difference may be noticeable. The Ultra preset at 68 FPS is only suitable for 60 Hz displays, and the 41.9% drop from Medium to Ultra is too steep for the marginal visual gains. Therefore, for 4K, the High preset provides the best balance of frame rate and visual quality, while the Medium preset is recommended for those who prioritize higher frame rates. The Low preset at 149 FPS is unnecessary unless the user has a 144 Hz 4K monitor and prefers frame rate over visualscars.