Greedfall

Greedfall, a 2019 Action RPG, presents a demanding workload for integrated graphics. The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and AMD Radeon 880M produces a playable experience only at the lowest settings and resolution, with the data clearly showing the GPU as the primary constraint. This pairing ranks at 2870 out of 2938 tested combos in this game, placing it in the bottom 3% of configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, confirming that the AMD Radeon 880M is the limiting factor. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 51 FPS at 1920x1080 to 35 FPS at 2560x1440, a 31% reduction. Moving to 3840x2160, the average drops further to 21 FPS, which is 59% below the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU that is filling more pixels than its compute units can handle.

The Low settings row shows the same trend with slightly higher absolute numbers. At 1920x1080 Low, the combo achieves 71 FPS average; this falls to 49 FPS at 2560x1440, a 31% drop; and then to 29 FPS at 3840x2160, a 59% drop from the 1080p baseline. The consistent ~31% and ~59% reductions across settings indicate that the frame rate is purely pixel-bound, with no CPU bottleneck emerging even at lower resolutions.

The Medium settings row provides the only min/max data in the measured results. At 1920x1080 Medium, the average is 56 FPS with a minimum of 47 and maximum of 64. At 2560x1440 Medium, the average drops to 39 FPS with a range of 33 to 44. At 3840x2160 Medium, the average is 23 FPS with a range of 20 to 26. The delta between min and max FPS stays around 6-7 frames at each resolution, suggesting that frame pacing remains stable even as the GPU struggles to keep up with the pixel workload.

The Ultra settings row is the most punishing. The average frame rate at 1920x1080 Ultra is 32 FPS, which is already below the 30 FPS playability threshold. At 2560x1440 Ultra, the average falls to 22 FPS, and at 3840x2160 Ultra, it drops to 13 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Ultra represents a 59% reduction, mirroring the other settings and reinforcing that resolution is the dominant variable.

The data suggests that the Radeon 880M’s 768 shading units and 16 ROPs are simply overwhelmed when asked to render Greedfall’s environments at high pixel counts. The transition from 1440p to 4K is particularly brutal, costing roughly 40% of the already-low frame rates. For this combo, 1080p is the only viable resolution, and even then, only Low settings approach a smooth experience.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows show a clear hierarchy: Low settings are the only configuration that yields an average frame rate above 60 FPS, and that only happens at 1920x1080. The Low preset at 1080p produces 71 FPS average, which is the only result that comfortably clears the 60 FPS mark. This should be the default recommendation for any user prioritizing smoothness.

Medium settings at 1080p offer a compromise, delivering 56 FPS average with a minimum of 47 FPS. This is close to playable, and the min FPS of 47 suggests that most scenes will stay above 40 FPS. For users who want slightly better visual fidelity than Low, Medium at 1080p is the best balance between the 71 FPS Low result and the 51 FPS High result.

High settings at 1080p produce 51 FPS average, which is marginally playable but will dip below 50 FPS in demanding scenes. The step from Medium to High costs 5 FPS, a relatively small penalty for the visual upgrade. However, the step from High to Ultra at 1080p is punishing: the average drops from 51 FPS to 32 FPS, a 37% reduction. Ultra settings should be avoided entirely, as the 32 FPS average at 1080p is the only sub-30 result at that resolution and offers no playable margin.

At 2560x1440, no setting reaches 60 FPS. Low settings give 49 FPS average, Medium gives 39 FPS, and High gives 35 FPS. These are all technically playable but will feel sluggish in combat. The 3840x2160 results are uniformly below 30 FPS, with even Low settings only managing 29 FPS average. The data indicates that 4K gaming with this combo is not a realistic option for Greedfall.

The best experience per the measured rows is unequivocally 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only configuration that exceeds 60 FPS average. If visual quality is paramount, Medium at 1080p is the second-best choice, offering a 56 FPS average that remains fluid. High at 1080p is a marginal third option for users who can tolerate occasional dips below 50 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 2870 out of 2938 puts this configuration in the bottom 2.3% of all tested pairings for Greedfall. This is a very poor result that reflects the integrated GPU’s limitations rather than the CPU’s capabilities. The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H is a high-end mobile processor, but the AMD Radeon 880M is an IGP with only 768 shading units and a 15 W TDP.

The CPU’s standalone benchmarks show it is not the weak link. The Core Ultra 9 185H scores 17984.5 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1810.5 in single-core, placing it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 with a delta of -0.1% and the Intel Core 7 250H at -0.2%, indicating the CPU is competitive with mid-range desktop parts despite being a mobile chip.

The GPU, however, tells a different story. The Radeon 880M’s average benchmark score is 8436, placing it in the 43rd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX with a 0.1% delta and the NVIDIA GeForce MX330 with a -0.3% delta. These are old discrete laptop GPUs from a decade ago, and the fact that the 880M trades blows with them underscores its modest performance ceiling.

In the context of Greedfall, the low combo rank is almost entirely attributable to the GPU. The game’s rendering demands exceed what an IGP can provide, especially at higher resolutions. The 2870th place rank is consistent with other integrated graphics pairings, which typically occupy the bottom quartile of the database. Users should treat this combo as a low-end solution for this specific game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Breaking down the 12 measured data points provides a complete picture of performance. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 71 FPS average, which is the best result in the entire dataset. Medium at 1080p gives 56 FPS average with a minimum of 47 and maximum of 64. High at 1080p drops to 51 FPS average, and Ultra at 1080p falls to 32 FPS average. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 39 FPS, showing the significant cost of high-quality shadows and effects.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset produces 49 FPS average, which is 22 FPS less than the same setting at 1080p. Medium at 1440p gives 39 FPS average with a range of 33 to 44. High at 1440p yields 35 FPS average, and Ultra at 1440p drops to 22 FPS average. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 27 FPS, slightly smaller than at 1080p, indicating that pixel fill rate becomes a more dominant factor as resolution increases.

At 3840x2160, the results are uniformly poor. Low settings give 29 FPS average, Medium gives 23 FPS with a range of 20 to 26, High gives 21 FPS, and Ultra gives 13 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at 4K is only 16 FPS, the smallest of the three resolutions, because the GPU is so heavily pixel-bound that even reducing settings fails to restore meaningful frame rates.

The Medium preset is the only one with min/max data at all three resolutions. At 1080p, the 56 FPS average with a min of 47 and max of 64 shows a 17 FPS spread. At 1440p, the 39 FPS average with a min of 33 and max of 44 shows an 11 FPS spread. At 4K, the 23 FPS average with a min of 20 and max of 26 shows a 6 FPS spread. The narrowing spread at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU is consistently saturated, leaving less variance between frames.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 880M is an integrated graphics processor based on the RDNA 3.5 architecture, built on a 4 nm process by TSMC. It operates with a base clock of 400 MHz and a boost clock of 2900 MHz. The GPU has 768 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 16 raster output units. Its peak FP32 throughput is 4.454 TFLOPS, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

The memory configuration is entirely system-dependent, with the GPU using shared system memory. The bus width, memory size, and bandwidth are all listed as "System Shared" or "System Dependent," meaning performance varies based on the host platform’s RAM configuration. In this case, the CPU supports dual-channel DDR5 with a memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s, which is the theoretical ceiling for the IGP.

The GPU’s benchmark results are modest. It scores 7615 in Passmark G3D and 3719 in Passmark GPU Compute. Its Geekbench OpenCL score is 31285, and its Vulkan score is 40006. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 535. These numbers place it in the 43rd percentile of all GPUs, which is low for modern titles.

In Greedfall, the GPU’s 16 ROPs are a significant bottleneck. The game’s rendering requires high pixel throughput, and 16 ROPs at a pixel rate of 46.40 GPixel/s are insufficient for 1440p or 4K. The texture rate of 139.2 GTexel/s also limits the quality of surface detail at higher settings. The 12 RT cores are present but unused in this non-ray-traced game, meaning they contribute nothing to performance.

The GPU’s 15 W TDP is remarkably low, which is typical for an IGP. This power envelope dictates that the GPU cannot sustain high clocks under sustained load, and the boost clock of 2900 MHz is likely not maintained in demanding scenes. The result is that the 880M performs like a low-end discrete GPU from several generations ago, which is consistent with its nearest rival being the GTX 675MX.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H is a 16-core, 22-thread mobile processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel’s 7 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with a 45 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 112 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache.

The CPU’s benchmark scores are strong. It achieves 17984.5 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1810.5 in single-core, 11657 in Geekbench multi-core, and 29376 in Passmark multithread. Its single-thread Passmark score is 3697. These results place it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X with a -0.7% delta, indicating the 185H is comparable to a desktop-class part.

In Greedfall, the CPU’s role is secondary to the GPU. The game is not particularly CPU-intensive, and the measured frame rates are consistently GPU-limited. The fact that FPS scales almost linearly with resolution — a 31% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 59% drop to 4K — confirms that the CPU is not a bottleneck. If the CPU were limiting, the frame rates would remain flat across resolutions.

The CPU’s 22 threads are more than sufficient for Greedfall’s multi-threaded rendering tasks. The Passmark physics score of 1956 and data compression score of 339489 indicate strong computational throughput. The 24 MB L3 cache likely helps with game asset streaming, but the GPU’s shared memory access means that system memory bandwidth is shared between CPU and GPU, potentially introducing some contention.

The 5.10 GHz boost clock is high for a mobile part and helps ensure that single-threaded game logic does not stall. However, the benchmark data shows that the CPU is never the limiting factor in this combo. The 2870th combo rank is solely due to the GPU’s inability to render Greedfall at playable frame rates beyond 1080p Low. The CPU is effectively waiting for the GPU to finish each frame, as evidenced by the stable min/max FPS values at Medium settings.