Archeage

ArcheAge is an older MMORPG, but its performance with this specific CPU and GPU pairing reveals a fascinating bottleneck dynamic. The data shows that the AMD Ryzen 5 4600G, a six-core Zen 2 part, is the limiting factor in most scenarios, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 has more than enough headroom. The measured FPS numbers across resolutions and settings paint a clear picture of where this combo excels and where it falls short.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for ArcheAge shows a clear pattern: the jump from Low to Medium settings costs very little performance, while the jump to Ultra is disproportionately expensive. At 1920x1080, Low settings deliver an average of 178.3 FPS, and Medium settings drop only to 169 FPS — a loss of just 9.3 FPS. High settings come in at 149 FPS, which is still smooth. The real penalty appears at Ultra, which drops to 126.5 FPS. That is a 42.5 FPS loss from Medium to Ultra, despite Ultra offering diminishing visual returns in a game from 2014.

At 2560x1440, the pattern repeats. Low settings hit 152.3 FPS, Medium is nearly identical at 150.9 FPS, and High is 127.9 FPS. Ultra falls to 84.4 FPS, a massive 66.5 FPS drop from Medium. The data suggests Medium is the sweet spot for this resolution: it delivers almost the same frame rate as Low, and it is 23 FPS ahead of High. Choosing Medium over Low is essentially free performance, and choosing Medium over Ultra saves 66.5 FPS while only sacrificing the highest-quality shadows and effects.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes because the RTX 5090 starts to become more relevant. Low settings produce 121.4 FPS, Medium drops to 108 FPS, and High falls to 73.9 FPS. Ultra is nearly unplayable at 49.8 FPS. The recommendation here is Medium — it is 14 FPS behind Low but 34.1 FPS ahead of High. Given that the GPU is still not the primary constraint at 4K, Medium offers the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate. Across all resolutions, Ultra is never worth the cost; it always delivers a frame rate that is significantly lower than the next-lowest preset.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of AMD Ryzen 5 4600G and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 165th out of 1,727 tested combos in ArcheAge. That places it in the top 9.6% of all configurations tested, which is strong but not elite. The ranking is notable because the RTX 5090 is an extremely powerful GPU, yet the combo does not crack the top 100. The bottleneck is the CPU.

The Ryzen 5 4600G has an average benchmark score of 17,489, which places it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE (average score 17,482, deltaPct 0), the Intel Core i5-12450H (17,475, deltaPct 0.1), and the Intel Core i3-14100T (17,636, deltaPct -0.8). These are all mid-range or lower-tier processors. The 4600G sits right in that group, meaning its compute performance is comparable to a modest laptop chip or a low-power desktop part. In an MMO like ArcheAge, which relies heavily on single-threaded CPU performance for game logic and draw calls, this becomes the limiting factor.

The RTX 5090, by contrast, has an average benchmark score of 84,306 and sits in the 94th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the RTX 5090 D (84,241, deltaPct 0.1), the RTX 5050 Mobile (84,171, deltaPct 0.2), and the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 (83,209, deltaPct 1.3). This GPU is in the top 6% of all graphics cards tested. Pairing a top-6% GPU with a 75th-percentile CPU creates a significant imbalance. The measured FPS data confirms that the CPU limits the system, especially at lower resolutions where the GPU is not stressed.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a massive piece of hardware, with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. Its memory clocks run at 1750 MHz, with an effective data rate of 28 Gbps. The GPU itself has a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz. It contains 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output units. This is a card designed for 4K gaming and heavy ray tracing workloads.

In ArcheAge, however, the GPU's role is surprisingly limited. At 1920x1080, the frame rates are nearly identical between Low and Medium (178.3 vs 169 FPS), which indicates that the CPU is the bottleneck. The GPU is not being fully utilized because the CPU cannot feed it enough data. Even at 2560x1440, Low and Medium are close (152.3 vs 150.9 FPS). The RTX 5090's enormous memory bandwidth and 32 GB frame buffer are completely unnecessary for this game, which was released in 2014 and does not have demanding texture requirements.

The GPU only starts to matter at 3840x2160. At 4K, the pixel workload increases significantly, and the frame rates drop. Low settings produce 121.4 FPS, which is still very high, but the gap between resolutions shows that the GPU is finally becoming a factor. The RTX 5090's 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are more than enough to handle 4K, but the CPU limits the minimum frame rate. The data indicates that the GPU never becomes the primary bottleneck in this pairing; it is always the CPU that holds the system back.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions and four settings tiers. At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low averages 178.3 FPS, Medium averages 169 FPS, High averages 149 FPS, and Ultra averages 126.5 FPS. The delta from Low to Ultra is 51.8 FPS, but the step from Medium to High costs 20 FPS, and the step from High to Ultra costs 22.5 FPS. The frame rates are high enough that even Ultra is playable, but the drop from Medium is substantial.

At 2560x1440, the numbers shift downward. Low averages 152.3 FPS, Medium averages 150.9 FPS, High averages 127.9 FPS, and Ultra averages 84.4 FPS. The Medium setting is only 1.4 FPS behind Low, which is a negligible difference. The High setting loses 23 FPS compared to Medium, and Ultra loses another 43.5 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p is the first point where the frame rate dips below 100 FPS, indicating that the CPU is struggling with the increased draw distance and object counts.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates drop further. Low averages 121.4 FPS, Medium averages 108 FPS, High averages 73.9 FPS, and Ultra averages 49.8 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 13.4 FPS, which is larger than at lower resolutions. The gap between Medium and High is 34.1 FPS, and the gap between High and Ultra is 24.1 FPS. Ultra at 4K is the only configuration that falls below 50 FPS, making it the only truly unplayable setting in the measured data.

FAQ

Q: Is the RTX 5090 overkill for this game?

A: Yes. The data shows that at 1920x1080, the frame rate only drops from 178.3 FPS on Low to 149 FPS on High, indicating the CPU is the limiting factor. The GPU's 32 GB of VRAM and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are not utilized by ArcheAge's 2014-era graphics engine.

Q: What is the best setting for a 1440p monitor?

A: Medium settings at 2560x1440 produce 150.9 FPS, which is nearly identical to Low (152.3 FPS) and 23 FPS faster than High (127.9 FPS). This gives the best visual quality without sacrificing frame rate.

Q: Can this combo run ArcheAge at 4K smoothly?

A: Yes, but only on Medium or lower settings. At 3840x2160, Medium averages 108 FPS, which is smooth, while High drops to 73.9 FPS and Ultra falls to 49.8 FPS. Low settings hit 121.4 FPS.

Q: Why is the frame rate at 1080p Low so much higher than at 4K Low?

A: The difference is 56.9 FPS (178.3 vs 121.4). This is because the RTX 5090 has to render four times as many pixels at 4K, which increases GPU load. However, the CPU still limits the minimum frame rate, as evidenced by the relatively small gap at lower resolutions.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 4600G holding back the RTX 5090?

A: The benchmark data suggests yes. The CPU's average score of 17,489 places it in the 75th percentile, while the GPU's score of 84,306 places it in the 94th percentile. The measured FPS at 1080p shows only a 29.3 FPS difference between Low and Ultra, indicating the CPU is the bottleneck.

Q: What about the Ultra preset? Is it ever worth using?

A: The data shows Ultra is always the worst choice. At 1080p it drops to 126.5 FPS, at 1440p it drops to 84.4 FPS, and at 4K it drops to 49.8 FPS. The performance loss from Medium to Ultra is 42.5 FPS at 1080p, 66.5 FPS at 1440p, and 58.2 FPS at 4K.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G is a six-core, twelve-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, codenamed Renoir. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. The CPU features 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 8 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports DDR4 memory in dual-channel mode with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. The processor is built on TSMC's 7 nm process node and has a TDP of 65 W.

In ArcheAge, the CPU's performance is the primary determinant of frame rates. The game's single-threaded nature means that the 4600G's single-core performance, which scores 726 in 3DMark single-thread and 1,919 in Cinebench R23 single-core, is what matters most. These scores are mediocre by modern standards, which explains why the frame rates do not scale well with the RTX 5090's capabilities. The CPU's multi-threaded scores, such as 13,593 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 15,992 in PassMark multithread, are also modest, but they are less relevant for this game.

The bottleneck is evident in the measured FPS. At 1920x1080, the difference between Low and Medium is only 9.3 FPS, and between Medium and High it is 20 FPS. If the GPU were the limit, these gaps would be larger. Instead, the CPU is maxed out, and the GPU is waiting for data. The 4600G's PCIe Gen 3 interface, with 20 lanes, also limits the bandwidth available to the RTX 5090, which supports PCIe 5.0 x16. While this does not directly show in the FPS numbers, it is a contributing factor to the overall imbalance.

The CPU's 75th percentile ranking places it well below the GPU's 94th percentile ranking. In a game like ArcheAge, where frame rates are heavily dependent on CPU single-thread performance, this pairing will always be CPU-limited. The data confirms that upgrading the CPU would yield significantly higher frame rates, especially at lower resolutions, while the RTX 5090 would remain underutilized.