Greedfall

# Greedfall Performance Analysis: Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 delivers playable performance across most settings in Greedfall, but the data reveals a clear pattern: this pairing is GPU-bound at higher resolutions while showing strong headroom at 1080p. The measured frames per second range from 38 FPS at 4K Ultra to 204 FPS at 1080p Low, indicating that the RTX 3070 becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases, while the 24-core processor has ample capacity to feed the GPU at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial and follows an expected trajectory for this GPU class. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 146 at 1920x1080 to 101 at 2560x1440, then to 60 at 3840x2160. This represents a 31% reduction moving from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 41% reduction moving from 1440p to 4K. The cumulative drop from 1080p High to 4K High is 59%, which is consistent with the pixel count increase of 4.5x — the GPU simply cannot maintain frame rates when rendering over four times the pixels.

The scaling pattern at Low settings is even more revealing. At 1080p Low, the system produces 204 FPS, which drops to 141 FPS at 1440p and 84 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result being 59% lower than 1080p Low suggests the RTX 3070's raw throughput is the bottleneck, not the CPU. If the processor were limiting performance, the gap between 1080p and 1440p would be much smaller since CPU load is largely resolution-independent. The data shows a consistent 31-41% drop per resolution step regardless of settings preset, which strongly indicates GPU-bound behavior across the board.

Comparing the Ultra preset scaling, the system delivers 93 FPS at 1080p, 64 FPS at 1440p, and 38 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result of 38 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold typically considered smooth, making it marginal for competitive play but potentially acceptable for slower-paced action RPG gameplay. The gap between Medium and Ultra at each resolution is significant: at 1440p, Medium produces 111 FPS versus 64 FPS on Ultra — a 73% improvement — while at 4K, Medium reaches 66 FPS versus 38 FPS on Ultra, an improvement of 74%. This suggests the Ultra preset includes effects that disproportionately tax the GPU without providing proportional visual benefits in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 ranks 1224 out of 2938 tested combinations in Greedfall. This places the combo in the 58th percentile of all tested systems, meaning roughly 42% of configurations deliver better performance in this specific game. Given that the GPU sits at the 61st percentile among all GPUs and the CPU at the 96th percentile among all CPUs, the ranking reflects the GPU's mid-tier position rather than any CPU limitation.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K with an average score of 83807 (0.2% delta), the AMD EPYC 4584PX at 83090 (1.1% delta), and the AMD EPYC 9135 at 82980 (1.2% delta). The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus scores 84003 on average, placing it marginally above the 285K and ahead of both EPYC parts. For the GPU, the RTX 3070's average benchmark score of 17208 sits close to the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (17083, 0.7% delta), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (17037, 1% delta), and the AMD Radeon HD 7970M (17019, 1.1% delta). The NVIDIA Tesla K40c trails by 1.5% with a score of 17468.

The combo's rank of 1224 out of 2938 indicates that while this system handles Greedfall adequately, it is not among the top performers. The 8 GB VRAM on the RTX 3070 likely constrains performance at 4K Ultra, where the game demands more memory than available, contributing to the 38 FPS result. In contrast, the CPU's 96th percentile ranking suggests that upgrading the GPU would yield substantially better results in this title without needing a processor change.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimal settings based on resolution. At 4K, Medium settings deliver 66 FPS average with a minimum of 56 and maximum of 76 — this is the only 4K preset that maintains playable frame rates above 60 FPS. High settings at 4K produce exactly 60 FPS average, which is borderline, while Ultra drops to 38 FPS, which is not recommended for smooth gameplay. Low settings at 4K reach 84 FPS, but the visual quality trade-off is substantial for a 27% improvement over Medium.

At 1440p, High settings provide 101 FPS average, which is the sweet spot for most players seeking visual quality with smooth performance. Medium at 1440p delivers 111 FPS (94 minimum, 128 maximum), offering a 10% improvement over High with likely minimal visual difference in this title. Ultra at 1440p produces 64 FPS, which is playable but falls short of the 101 FPS on High — the 37 FPS difference makes Ultra difficult to justify unless visual fidelity is paramount. Low at 1440p reaches 141 FPS, which benefits competitive play but sacrifices the atmospheric visuals that define the action RPG genre.

For 1080p, the system has ample headroom. High settings produce 146 FPS, Medium reaches 160 FPS (136 minimum, 184 maximum), and Ultra achieves 93 FPS. The 160 FPS on Medium represents the best balance for high-refresh-rate displays, while High at 146 FPS is nearly identical in performance. Ultra at 93 FPS remains smooth but leaves performance on the table for players with 144Hz or higher monitors. Low at 204 FPS is excessive for most displays and unnecessary given the strong results at higher presets.

The data suggests prioritizing Medium at 4K, High at 1440p, and either High or Medium at 1080p depending on refresh rate preferences. The 4K Ultra result of 38 FPS is the only configuration that falls below playable thresholds, and even 1440p Ultra at 64 FPS is marginal for fast-paced combat scenarios.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the system produces 84 FPS on Low, 66 FPS on Medium (56 minimum, 76 maximum), 60 FPS on High, and 38 FPS on Ultra. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 55% performance reduction, with the largest single drop occurring between High and Ultra (from 60 to 38 FPS, a 37% decrease). The Medium preset's minimum of 56 FPS indicates occasional dips below 60, but the average of 66 FPS remains acceptable.

At 2560x1440, results are significantly stronger: 141 FPS on Low, 111 FPS on Medium (94 minimum, 128 maximum), 101 FPS on High, and 64 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset's minimum of 94 FPS ensures smooth gameplay throughout, while High's 101 FPS average provides consistent performance without frame rate drops. The Ultra preset at 64 FPS is the weakest 1440p result but remains playable.

At 1920x1080, the system excels: 204 FPS on Low, 160 FPS on Medium (136 minimum, 184 maximum), 146 FPS on High, and 93 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset's 136 FPS minimum guarantees high-refresh-rate compatibility, while High at 146 FPS is equally robust. The Ultra preset at 93 FPS is the only 1080p configuration that drops below 100 FPS, indicating that the GPU's shading units and texture units become saturated with the Ultra preset's additional effects.

The data shows consistent scaling: Medium delivers approximately 10-15% higher frame rates than High across all resolutions, while Low provides 25-40% higher rates than Medium. Ultra extracts a significant penalty — 35-40% lower performance than High — suggesting that the Ultra preset includes features that are disproportionately expensive in Greedfall.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. The GA104 chip contains 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output units, with 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1500 MHz with a boost of 1725 MHz, delivering 20.31 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is the most critical specification for Greedfall, as the 4K Ultra preset's 38 FPS result likely reflects memory capacity limitations rather than raw compute constraints.

The GPU's 61st percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17208, places it in the mid-range tier. The nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT, scores 17083 (0.7% lower), while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 scores 17037 (1% lower). These margins are negligible, indicating that the RTX 3070 sits in a tightly contested performance bracket. The 8 GB VRAM is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming, as evidenced by the strong frame rates at those resolutions, but 4K Ultra exceeds what this memory configuration can comfortably handle.

The pixel rate of 165.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 317.4 GTexel/s provide context for the resolution scaling. At 4K (3840x2160, roughly 8.3 million pixels), the theoretical pixel throughput suggests capability for high frame rates, yet the measured 38 FPS on Ultra indicates that memory bandwidth and VRAM capacity are the limiting factors. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p but becomes strained at 4K with high-detail textures. The GPU's 8 nm process from Samsung and 17400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die represent the Ampere architecture's balance of compute and memory resources, which in this title favors lower resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus provides 24 cores and 24 threads with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 5.80 GHz. This Arrow Lake Refresh processor on a 3 nm TSMC process contains 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache, with dual-channel DDR5 memory support providing 115.2 GB/s bandwidth.

The CPU's 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84003, places it in the top 4% of processors. The nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, scores 83807 (0.2% lower), while the AMD EPYC 4584PX scores 83090 (1.1% lower). The margin over the 285K is negligible, suggesting that the 290K Plus's additional 0.2% performance is within measurement variance. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 51731 and singlecore score of 7303 demonstrate exceptional multithreaded and single-threaded capability, with the PassMark multithread score of 60860 confirming strong parallel performance.

In Greedfall, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU at all tested resolutions. The fact that frame rates scale consistently with resolution at every settings preset confirms that the 24-core processor is not the bottleneck. At 1080p Low, where CPU load is proportionally highest, the system reaches 204 FPS — far beyond typical display refresh rates — indicating that the CPU can deliver well over 200 FPS in this title when the GPU allows it. The 5.80 GHz boost clock provides ample single-thread performance for game logic and physics, while the 24 cores handle background tasks and streaming without impacting frame times.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s and 36 MB L3 cache provide sufficient data throughput for Greedfall's open-world environments. Since the game released in 2019, its CPU requirements are modest relative to this processor's capabilities, making the 290K Plus more than adequate for any settings combination. The measured data confirms that upgrading the GPU would provide greater performance gains than any CPU change, as the processor has significant headroom remaining even at the highest frame rates measured.