Archeage

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 pairing delivers playable frame rates in Archeage only at 1080p with reduced settings. Measured data shows 63.6 FPS at 1080p Low, but this falls to 26.4 FPS at Ultra, and 4K is uniformly below 23 FPS. The combo ranks 1641st out of 1727 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 5% of systems. The CPU is a solid mid-range part, but the GPU is the clear constraint.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS reveals a consistent drop as resolution increases, which points to the GPU as the limiting component. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 63.6 at 1080p to 41.6 at 1440p (a 35% reduction) and then to 22.5 at 4K (a 65% reduction from 1080p). Medium settings show a similar pattern: 54.8 at 1080p, 40 at 1440p, and 20.2 at 4K — a 63% loss from 1080p to 4K. High settings drop from 37.7 to 25.3 to 11.4 across the same resolutions, a 70% total decline. Ultra is the steepest absolute fall, going from 26.4 at 1080p to 17.7 at 1440p and 12.7 at 4K, a 52% reduction.

The proportionality of these drops — each setting loses roughly two-thirds of its 1080p performance when moving to 4K — is characteristic of a GPU-bound workload. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would remain relatively flat across resolutions because the CPU workload does not scale with pixel count. Instead, the steady decline with resolution confirms that the GTX 1650's rendering capacity is the primary limiter. At 1080p Low, the 63.6 FPS result is the only configuration that approaches 60 FPS, but even that is modest. The scaling pattern indicates that higher resolutions are simply beyond this GPU's capability, regardless of quality settings.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 5500 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. It features 16 MB of L3 cache and a 65 W TDP. Its benchmark scores are competitive: Cinebench R23 multicore reaches 16429, single-core 2319, and Passmark multithread scores 19330. The CPU sits at the 79th percentile among all tested CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20875. That places it within 0.1% of the Intel Core i5-12500 (delta -0.1%) and within 0.2% of the i5-12600T (delta -0.2%), and it is effectively tied with the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE and EPYC 7J13 (deltas of -0.1% and +0.1% respectively). In other words, the CPU is a mainstream part with no obvious weakness.

In Archeage, an MMORPG that relies heavily on single-threaded game logic and network handling, the Ryzen 5 5500's single-core performance (2319 in Cinebench R23) is more than adequate. The measured frame rates, however, show that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this pairing. At 1080p Low, the GPU still produces only 63.6 FPS, which is well below what the CPU could theoretically feed. The resolution scaling analysis above confirms this: if the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would not drop so sharply with resolution. The CPU's role here is to keep up with the game's simulation, and it does so without issue; the GPU is what holds the system back.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 5 5500 and GTX 1650 ranks 1641st out of 1727 tested combos in Archeage. That means only 86 combinations perform worse, placing this system in the bottom 5% of the database. This low rank is driven entirely by the GPU, which sits at the 43rd percentile among all GPUs. The CPU, by contrast, is at the 79th percentile. The mismatch is stark: the CPU is a mid-range part, while the GPU is a budget component from 2019.

The GTX 1650's nearest rivals in the GPU benchmark database are all within 0.5% of its average score of 8713. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile (8746, delta -0.4%), AMD Radeon 550X (8749, delta -0.4%), NVIDIA Quadro P2200 (8671, delta +0.5%), and AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 (8761, delta -0.5%) all occupy the same performance tier. This tells us that the GTX 1650 is not an unusually weak sample of its class; it is simply a low-end GPU that cannot handle Archeage at high resolutions or quality settings. The combo's low rank is a direct consequence of that GPU limitation, not a CPU problem.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo playable at 1080p?

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, where it averages 63.6 FPS. Medium drops to 54.8 FPS, High to 37.7 FPS, and Ultra to 26.4 FPS. For a smooth 60 FPS experience, Low is the only viable preset.

Q: Can it handle 1440p?

A: Barely. Low and Medium average 41.6 and 40 FPS respectively, which is playable but not smooth. High and Ultra fall to 25.3 and 17.7 FPS, which are not recommended for action.

Q: What about 4K?

A: No setting is playable. Even Low averages only 22.5 FPS, Medium 20.2 FPS, High 11.4 FPS, and Ultra 12.7 FPS. 4K is out of reach for this GPU.

Q: Which component is the bottleneck?

A: The GPU. The FPS drops sharply with resolution (e.g., 63.6 to 22.5 from 1080p to 4K at Low), and the GPU's 43rd percentile rank contrasts with the CPU's 79th percentile. The CPU is not the limiting factor.

Q: How does the CPU compare to similar processors?

A: The Ryzen 5 5500 is within 0.1% of the Intel Core i5-12500 and within 0.2% of the i5-12600T in average benchmark score. Its performance is effectively identical to those parts.

Q: What are the launch MSRPs?

A: The CPU has a launch MSRP of $159, and the GPU has a launch MSRP of 149 USD. (These are the only price references in this analysis.)

GPU Role

The GTX 1650 is built on the Turing architecture with 896 shading units, 56 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. It operates at a base clock of 1485 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz, with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus providing 128.1 GB/s of bandwidth. Its FP32 compute is 2.984 TFLOPS. These specifications are modest by modern standards, and the benchmark data reflects that: the GPU scores 7880 in Passmark G3D and 305 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, placing it at the 43rd percentile overall.

The GPU's nearest rivals are all within 0.5% of its average score of 8713, confirming that it is a typical low-end part. In Archeage, the GPU's limitations are most evident at higher resolutions and settings. The 4 GB VRAM may also be a factor at Ultra settings, though the measured data does not include VRAM usage. The key takeaway is that the GPU cannot maintain 60 FPS at 1080p Medium, and its performance collapses at 1440p and 4K. This is a classic case of a GPU that is sufficient for light e-sports titles but not for a demanding MMORPG with modern visual effects.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the best experience is achieved at 1080p with the Low preset. This yields an average of 63.6 FPS, which is the only configuration that reaches 60 FPS or higher. If the user can tolerate slightly lower frame rates, 1080p Medium offers 54.8 FPS, which is still playable and visually improved. High and Ultra are not recommended at any resolution because they fall below 40 FPS even at 1080p.

At 1440p, only Low and Medium produce averages above 40 FPS (41.6 and 40), but both are below the 60 FPS target. At 4K, no setting exceeds 23 FPS, so the resolution should be avoided entirely. The data suggests that the optimal compromise is 1080p Low for a smooth experience, or 1080p Medium for better visuals at the cost of some smoothness. There is no scenario where Ultra is playable, and 4K is not viable.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table lists all measured average FPS values from the FACT PACK, sorted by resolution and settings.

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS |

|------------|----------|---------|

| 3840x2160 | High | 11.4 |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 22.5 |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 20.2 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 12.7 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 25.3 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 41.6 |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 40.0 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 17.7 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 37.7 |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 63.6 |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 54.8 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 26.4 |

The data is unambiguous: the GTX 1650 cannot deliver a consistently smooth experience in Archeage beyond 1080p Low/Medium. The Ryzen 5 5500 is more than capable, but the GPU is the binding constraint. Users seeking higher frame rates or resolutions would need to upgrade the GPU, not the CPU.