Greedfall

# Greedfall Performance Analysis: Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti delivers a playable but uneven experience across Greedfall's resolution and settings spectrum. The data shows a system that excels at 1080p and 1440p, but struggles to maintain smooth frame rates at 4K with higher presets. This combination ranks 1413th out of 2938 tested combos in Greedfall, placing it in the middle of the database's measured configurations. The 24-core, 24-thread Arrow Lake Refresh processor with its 5.80 GHz boost clock provides substantial headroom, while the 8 GB Ampere GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution scales upward.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and predictable degradation as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 133 FPS at 1080p to 92 FPS at 1440p, then further to 55 FPS at 4K. This represents a 31% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a 59% reduction from 1080p to 4K. The pattern suggests that pixel throughput becomes the dominant constraint at higher resolutions, which is typical for a GPU with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and a 256-bit memory bus.

The Ultra preset tells a more dramatic story. At 1080p, the system manages 85 FPS on average, but this falls to 59 FPS at 1440p and plummets to 35 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is below the 60 FPS threshold commonly associated with smooth gameplay, indicating that this preset is not viable at the highest resolution. Interestingly, the gap between Low and Ultra settings widens significantly as resolution increases. At 1080p, Low produces 187 FPS versus 85 FPS on Ultra — a 102 FPS spread. At 4K, the same comparison yields 77 FPS versus 35 FPS — a 42 FPS spread. This narrowing gap suggests that at 4K, the GPU is so heavily loaded that even reducing settings cannot fully compensate for the pixel count.

The Medium preset offers the only complete FPS data with min and max values. At 1080p Medium, the system averages 147 FPS with a minimum of 125 and maximum of 169. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 102 FPS with a range of 87 to 117. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 61 FPS with a range of 52 to 70. The minimum FPS values at 1440p and 4K Medium indicate that the system can dip below 60 FPS even on this mid-tier preset, which may cause perceptible stuttering in demanding scenes.

The scaling behavior points to the GPU as the primary bottleneck at 1440p and above. The CPU's 24 cores and 24 threads, combined with its high boost clock, provide ample processing power to feed the GPU at lower resolutions. However, the RTX 3060 Ti's 16.20 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth become increasingly taxed as resolution rises. The 4K results, in particular, demonstrate that this GPU is not well-suited for ultra-high-resolution gaming in Greedfall, regardless of the CPU's capabilities.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor built on TSMC's 3 nm process node. Its base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 5.80 GHz provide substantial single-thread performance, which is critical for Greedfall's game logic and rendering commands. The processor's L3 cache totals 36 MB shared across all cores, with 3 MB of L2 cache per core and 192 KB of L1 cache per core. This cache hierarchy helps reduce memory latency, which can benefit frame pacing in CPU-bound scenarios.

Benchmark data shows the CPU achieving a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51,731 and a single-core score of 7,303. The PassMark multi-thread score reaches 60,860, with a single-thread score of 4,823. These results place the processor in the 96th percentile among all CPUs in the database, indicating top-tier performance. Its average benchmark score of 84,003 is closely matched by the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K at 83,807 (0.2% lower), while the AMD EPYC 4584PX scores 83,090 (1.1% lower) and the AMD EPYC 9135 scores 82,980 (1.2% lower). The AMD EPYC 7F72, meanwhile, posts a higher average score of 85,072, representing a 1.3% advantage over the 290K Plus.

In Greedfall specifically, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU at most settings and resolutions. The 1080p Low result of 187 FPS suggests that the CPU can drive extremely high frame rates when graphical load is light. This indicates that Greedfall is not particularly demanding on the CPU side, or that the 290K Plus has enough headroom that CPU limitations are rarely reached. The fact that FPS scales almost linearly with resolution — from 187 FPS at 1080p Low to 130 FPS at 1440p Low to 77 FPS at 4K Low — confirms that the GPU is the primary constraint in these scenarios.

The processor's 125 W TDP and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 115.2 GB/s bandwidth provide a solid platform for gaming. However, none of the measured FPS results appear to be limited by CPU throughput. Even at 1080p Ultra, where CPU load is typically highest relative to GPU load, the system achieves 85 FPS — a result that would be higher if the GPU were not bottlenecking. This suggests that the 290K Plus has significant performance headroom in Greedfall, and the system's overall performance is limited by the GPU rather than the processor.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is an Ampere-architecture GPU built on Samsung's 8 nm process node, featuring 4,864 shading units, 152 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units. It includes 38 ray tracing cores and 152 tensor cores, with a base clock of 1410 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz. The GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory runs at an effective 14 Gbps across a 256-bit bus, yielding 448.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Its FP32 performance is rated at 16.20 TFLOPS, with pixel and texture rates of 133.2 GPixel/s and 253.1 GTexel/s, respectively.

The GPU's benchmark results show a PassMark G3D score of 20,349 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2,626. Its average benchmark score of 16,129 places it in the 59th percentile among all GPUs. The nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 9060 at 16,014 (0.7% higher), the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M at 16,351 (1.4% lower), and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT at 16,361 (1.4% lower). The AMD Radeon R9 370X scores 15,862, which is 1.7% higher than the RTX 3060 Ti.

In Greedfall, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM capacity is likely a factor at 4K resolution, where texture and geometry data can exceed 8 GB on higher presets. The measured FPS data supports this: at 4K Ultra, the system manages only 35 FPS, while 4K High achieves 55 FPS and 4K Medium reaches 61 FPS. The relatively small FPS difference between Medium and High at 4K (6 FPS) compared to the larger drop from High to Ultra (20 FPS) suggests that the Ultra preset may be exceeding the GPU's memory or compute capabilities in a way that causes disproportionate performance loss.

The boost clock of 1665 MHz is modest compared to the CPU's 5.80 GHz boost, but the GPU's performance is more dependent on memory bandwidth and shading throughput. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming but becomes a constraint at 4K, where the pixel fill rate demands more memory access. The 80 ROPs and 133.2 GPixel/s pixel rate are adequate for 1080p and 1440p but struggle to keep up with 4K's 8.3 million pixels per frame.

The GPU's 200 W TDP and 550 W suggested PSU rating indicate that it is a mid-range power draw component. However, none of these power characteristics directly explain the measured FPS results. The data clearly shows that the RTX 3060 Ti is the performance limiter in this system at resolutions above 1080p, particularly when paired with the high-end 290K Plus CPU.

How This Combo Ranks

The combined system ranks 1413th out of 2938 tested combos in Greedfall, placing it just below the median of the database. This ranking reflects the balance between the top-tier CPU and the mid-range GPU. The CPU's 96th percentile standing among all processors is offset by the GPU's 59th percentile position, resulting in a system that performs well at lower resolutions but falls behind more balanced configurations at higher resolutions.

The ranking suggests that this combo is not optimized for 4K gaming in Greedfall. Many other tested combinations likely feature more powerful GPUs paired with less capable CPUs, which would yield better results at 4K despite weaker CPU performance. Conversely, at 1080p, the 290K Plus's high single-thread performance helps push frame rates to 187 FPS on Low settings, which would place the system in a higher percentile for that specific resolution and preset.

The gap between the CPU's and GPU's performance tiers is significant. The 290K Plus outperforms its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, by 0.2% in average benchmark score, while the RTX 3060 Ti underperforms its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 9060, by 0.7%. This imbalance means that the system is not well-balanced for GPU-intensive games like Greedfall at high resolutions. A user seeking better 4K performance would likely benefit more from a lower-tier CPU paired with a higher-tier GPU, though the data does not directly test such configurations.

The combo's mid-pack ranking also reflects the age of the GPU relative to the CPU. The RTX 3060 Ti was released in November 2020 and is now marked as end-of-life, while the 290K Plus is an active production processor. This generational mismatch contributes to the performance disparity between the two components.

FAQ

Q: Is this system capable of 60 FPS at 4K in Greedfall?

A: The data shows that at 4K Medium, the average FPS is 61 with a minimum of 52, which means it can average above 60 FPS but may dip below in demanding scenes. At 4K High, the average drops to 55 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 35 FPS.

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

A: At 1440p High, the system achieves 92 FPS on average, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold. At 1080p High, it reaches 133 FPS. Both are suitable, with 1440p offering a good balance of visual quality and performance.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in raw processing power?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has an average benchmark score of 84,003, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K at 83,807. The AMD EPYC 4584PX scores 1.1% lower, and the AMD EPYC 9135 scores 1.2% lower.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rival in benchmark performance?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti has an average benchmark score of 16,129. The AMD Radeon RX 9060 scores 0.7% higher, while the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT both score 1.4% lower.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the system averages 187 FPS, while at 1080p Ultra, it averages 85 FPS. This represents a 102 FPS difference between the lowest and highest presets.

Q: Does the GPU's 8 GB VRAM cause issues at any resolution?

A: The data does not directly measure VRAM usage, but the dramatic FPS drop at 4K Ultra (35 FPS) compared to 4K High (55 FPS) suggests that the Ultra preset may be exceeding the GPU's memory or compute capabilities.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset offers the best combination of visual quality and performance across all three tested resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the system averages 147 FPS with a minimum of 125 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay without any perceptible stuttering. At 1440p Medium, the average is 102 FPS with a minimum of 87 FPS, which remains comfortably above 60 FPS. Even at 4K Medium, the average of 61 FPS with a minimum of 52 FPS is playable, though users may notice occasional dips below 60 FPS.

For users prioritizing maximum visual fidelity, the High preset is viable at 1080p and 1440p, with averages of 133 FPS and 92 FPS respectively. However, at 4K High, the 55 FPS average falls below the 60 FPS threshold, making it less suitable for smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset is only recommended at 1080p, where it achieves 85 FPS, but even here, the 1440p Ultra result of 59 FPS and 4K Ultra result of 35 FPS make this preset impractical at higher resolutions.

The Low preset achieves exceptionally high frame rates — 187 FPS at 1080p, 130 FPS at 1440p, and 77 FPS at 4K — but sacrifices visual quality. This preset is best suited for competitive play or for users who prioritize frame rate over graphics. The data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot for this system, providing a balanced experience that maintains playable frame rates even at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its strongest performance. The Low preset averages 187 FPS, while Medium averages 147 FPS with a minimum of 125 FPS and maximum of 169 FPS. High averages 133 FPS, and Ultra averages 85 FPS. All 1080p presets exceed 60 FPS, making this resolution fully playable at any settings level.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong but shows signs of GPU limitation. The Low preset averages 130 FPS, Medium averages 102 FPS with a range of 87 to 117 FPS, and High averages 92 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 59 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS threshold. The minimum FPS of 87 at Medium suggests that even this preset can experience significant frame drops in demanding scenes.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck. The Low preset averages 77 FPS, which is the only 4K result above 60 FPS. Medium averages 61 FPS with a minimum of 52 FPS and maximum of 70 FPS, placing it right at the edge of playability. High averages 55 FPS, and Ultra drops to 35 FPS. The 4K results demonstrate that this combo is not well-suited for ultra-high-resolution gaming, with only the Low preset providing consistently smooth frame rates.