Greedfall

# Greedfall Performance Analysis: Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080

The combination of Intel's Core Ultra 9 275HX and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4080 produces a highly capable Greedfall experience across all tested resolutions, with the data revealing a system that scales predictably from 1080p to 4K. The benchmark results indicate that this pairing ranks 1219th out of 3703 tested combos, placing it in the upper third of all configurations. The CPU, with its 24 cores and 24 threads, demonstrates strong synthetic performance with a 94th percentile ranking among all CPUs, while the GPU holds an 86th percentile position among all GPUs. This combination yields frame rates that range from a playable 43 FPS at 4K Ultra to an exceptionally smooth 228 FPS at 1080p Low, suggesting a balanced platform where both components contribute meaningfully depending on the resolution and settings selected.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and consistent pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, which is typical for a GPU-bound title at higher pixel counts. At 1080p with High settings, the system delivers 163 FPS average; moving to 1440p drops this to 113 FPS, a reduction of approximately 31%, and then to 4K at 67 FPS, which is another 41% reduction from the 1440p figure. This scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 4080 becomes the primary limiting factor as resolution climbs, with the CPU's substantial 24-core configuration providing ample headroom at lower resolutions.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic resolution sensitivity. At 1080p Ultra, the system achieves 104 FPS, which is still highly playable, but this falls to 72 FPS at 1440p and then to 43 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result represents a 59% drop from the 1080p Ultra figure, underscoring how demanding the highest settings are at 4K. Conversely, the Low preset demonstrates the least resolution-based degradation: 228 FPS at 1080p, 158 FPS at 1440p, and 94 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result being nearly as fast as the 1080p Ultra result (94 vs 104 FPS) suggests that at Low settings with lower resolution, the bottleneck shifts away from the GPU toward other system components, though the CPU's strong single-thread performance (2204 in Cinebench R23 single-core) keeps this from becoming problematic.

The Medium preset offers the only complete min/max frame data in the entire measurement set, providing insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p Medium, the system averages 179 FPS with a minimum of 152 and maximum of 206, showing a relatively tight 54 FPS spread. At 1440p Medium, the average is 124 FPS with min of 106 and max of 143, a 37 FPS spread. At 4K Medium, the average drops to 74 FPS with min of 63 and max of 85, a 22 FPS spread. The narrowing spread at higher resolutions indicates that as the GPU becomes more saturated, frame delivery becomes more consistent, which is a favorable characteristic for gameplay smoothness at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all three resolutions, delivering playable frame rates while maintaining visual quality improvements over Low. At 4K, Medium produces 74 FPS average with a 63 FPS minimum, keeping the experience comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay on standard refresh rate displays. The 1440p Medium result of 124 FPS average with a 106 FPS minimum makes this an excellent choice for high refresh rate monitors, as the minimum frame rate remains well above typical 100 Hz refresh rates. At 1080p, Medium achieves 179 FPS average with a 152 FPS minimum, which would satisfy even demanding 144 Hz displays.

The High preset represents a meaningful visual upgrade over Medium, but the performance cost is substantial. At 4K, High yields 67 FPS average, which is 7 FPS lower than Medium, a 9.4% reduction that might be acceptable for those prioritizing image quality. At 1440p, High delivers 113 FPS average, which is 11 FPS lower than Medium, and at 1080p it produces 163 FPS, 16 FPS lower than Medium. The High preset at 1440p and 1080p remains excellent, but the 4K High result falls below the 70 FPS mark, making Medium the safer recommendation for 4K displays without VRR support.

The Ultra preset is only viable at 1080p, where it achieves 104 FPS average, still a solid result. At 1440p, Ultra drops to 72 FPS, which is playable but noticeably below the Medium and High presets. At 4K, Ultra produces just 43 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold and would result in a compromised experience on standard displays. The Low preset, while achieving the highest frame rates (228 FPS at 1080p), sacrifices too much visual fidelity for most users, though it could be relevant for competitive play where maximum frame rates are prioritized over graphics.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, manufactured on TSMC's 3 nm process node. Its base clock of 2.70 GHz and boost clock of 5.40 GHz provide substantial single-thread performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2204 and Geekbench single-core score of 2458. The CPU's 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB L2 cache per core contribute to solid memory latency characteristics, which is relevant for a game like Greedfall that features dense environments and numerous NPC interactions.

In Greedfall, the CPU's role is most apparent at 1080p with lower settings, where the GPU has more headroom and the processor must keep up with the game's simulation and AI workloads. The jump from 1080p Low at 228 FPS to 1440p Low at 158 FPS (a 30.7% reduction) versus the jump from 1080p High at 163 FPS to 1440p High at 113 FPS (a 30.7% reduction) shows identical scaling, indicating that the CPU is not the limiting factor even at Low settings. The CPU's PassMark multithread score of 55759 and Cinebench R23 multicore score of 35589 demonstrate exceptional throughput, ensuring that even the most demanding scenes with many entities do not bottleneck the GPU.

The processor's synthetic benchmark results place it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 67469. Its nearest rivals in synthetic testing are the Intel Xeon w5-3525 (0.3% higher), AMD EPYC 4484PX (0.5% higher), and AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5955WX (0.6% higher), all of which are workstation-class processors. This positioning suggests that the Core Ultra 9 275HX offers desktop-class CPU performance in a mobile package, which is particularly valuable for maintaining high frame rates in CPU-sensitive scenarios at 1080p.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Core Ultra 9 275HX and RTX 4080 achieves a rank of 1219 out of 3703 tested combos in Greedfall, placing it in the 67th percentile of all configurations. This ranking indicates that while the system is strong, there are numerous other combinations that deliver higher frame rates in this title. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU's 94th percentile performance and the GPU's 86th percentile performance, with the final result being slightly below what the individual component percentiles might suggest, likely due to the game's optimization and the specific characteristics of the RTX 4080 in this title.

Within the context of the GPU's nearest rivals, the RTX 4080 sits very close to the RTX 4080 SUPER, which scores 0.1% higher on average. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 1.1% lower, the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB scores 2.6% lower, and the AMD Radeon 8060S scores 2.7% lower. This tight grouping means that the choice between these GPUs would yield very similar results in Greedfall, with the RTX 4080 providing performance nearly identical to its SUPER variant. The rank of 1219 out of 3703 suggests that the top-performing combos likely pair the RTX 4080 with higher-end desktop CPUs, as this mobile CPU configuration may not extract the absolute maximum from the GPU at lower resolutions.

The ranking data also implies that in a game like Greedfall, which was released in 2019, the combination of modern high-end components may be overkill for achieving smooth frame rates. The 4K Ultra result of 43 FPS is the only sub-60 FPS result in the entire measurement set, and even this is only 17 FPS below the 60 FPS threshold. This suggests that the combo's rank is more indicative of the sheer number of high-end configurations tested rather than any deficiency in this particular pairing.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, based on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD103 chip, is a 16 GB GDDR6X graphics card with a 256-bit memory bus and 716.8 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Its base clock of 2205 MHz and boost clock of 2505 MHz, combined with 9728 shading units, deliver substantial raw compute performance, as reflected in its FP32 throughput of 48.74 TFLOPS. The GPU's 76 ray tracing cores and 304 tensor cores provide advanced rendering capabilities, though Greedfall's 2019 release predates widespread ray tracing adoption in the title.

In Greedfall, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution and settings increase. The transition from Medium to High settings at 1440p shows a 8.9% performance drop (124 to 113 FPS), while the transition from High to Ultra at 1440p shows a 36.3% drop (113 to 72 FPS), indicating that the Ultra preset places particularly heavy demands on the GPU. The 4K results amplify this effect: Medium to High drops from 74 to 67 FPS (9.5%), while High to Ultra drops from 67 to 43 FPS (35.8%). These percentages suggest that the Ultra preset includes effects that are disproportionately expensive at high resolutions, likely related to shadows, reflections, and post-processing.

The GPU's 16 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for Greedfall at any resolution, as the game's 2019 release date means it was designed around much smaller memory pools. The 716.8 GB/s memory bandwidth provides ample throughput for the game's texture streaming and geometry processing. The GPU's benchmark scores show a PassMark G3D score of 34457 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6567, with the GPU holding an 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, is only 0.1% faster on average, indicating that the non-SUPER variant offers nearly identical performance for this game.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Greedfall?

A: Based on the measured data, 1440p with Medium settings provides the most balanced experience, delivering 124 FPS average with a 106 FPS minimum. This keeps the frame rate well above 100 FPS for smooth gameplay on high refresh rate displays while maintaining good visual quality.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this configuration?

A: Yes, but with limitations. At 4K Medium, the combo achieves 74 FPS average with a 63 FPS minimum, which is playable on 60 Hz displays. 4K High drops to 67 FPS average, while 4K Ultra falls to 43 FPS, which would not be ideal for standard displays.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its closest rival in this game?

A: The RTX 4080 scores 0.1% lower than the RTX 4080 SUPER in synthetic benchmarks, making the two effectively identical in performance. The RTX 4080 is 1.1% faster than the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X and 2.6% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB.

Q: Does this combo struggle with any settings in Greedfall?

A: The only sub-60 FPS result in the entire measurement set is at 4K Ultra, which produces 43 FPS average. All other settings and resolution combinations deliver at least 63 FPS minimum, meaning the system handles the game well overall.

Q: What is the CPU's performance ranking among all processors?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX holds a 94th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 67469. It is within 0.7% of its nearest rivals, the Intel Xeon w5-3525 and AMD EPYC 4484PX.

Q: Is the 1080p Low preset worth using for competitive play?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 228 FPS average, which is the highest frame rate in the entire measurement set. This would be suitable for very high refresh rate displays, though the visual quality trade-off is substantial compared to the Medium preset at 179 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured frame rate data for this configuration is presented below, organized by resolution and settings preset.

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 228 FPS average
• Medium: 179 FPS average, 152 FPS minimum, 206 FPS maximum
• High: 163 FPS average
• Ultra: 104 FPS average

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 158 FPS average
• Medium: 124 FPS average, 106 FPS minimum, 143 FPS maximum
• High: 113 FPS average
• Ultra: 72 FPS average

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 94 FPS average
• Medium: 74 FPS average, 63 FPS minimum, 85 FPS maximum
• High: 67 FPS average
• Ultra: 43 FPS average

The data shows a consistent pattern where the Medium preset provides the only complete min/max frame data, and these values demonstrate that frame time consistency improves as resolution increases. At 1080p Medium, the spread between minimum and maximum is 54 FPS, while at 4K Medium it narrows to 22 FPS. This indicates that at 4K, the GPU is working closer to its limits, resulting in more consistent frame delivery, whereas at 1080p, the system has more headroom, leading to larger frame time variations. The Ultra preset at 4K represents the only configuration that falls below 60 FPS, making it the sole result that would not be recommended for standard displays.