Archeage

Archeage, a 2014 MMORPG, behaves in a revealing way when paired with an AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. The data shows a configuration that is overwhelmingly powerful for this title, yet the scaling patterns across resolutions and settings expose where the bottlenecks truly lie. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS to understand the game's engine limits and the hardware's response.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results for Archeage indicate that the Medium preset offers the most balanced and practical experience for this specific hardware combination. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers an average of 187 FPS, which is only slightly below the Low preset's 195 FPS but significantly higher than the High preset's 162 FPS. The Medium setting also provides the only complete data set in the pack, with a minimum FPS of 159 and a maximum of 215 at 1080p, suggesting a stable frame time envelope.

Moving to 1440p, the Medium preset maintains a robust 164 FPS average, with a minimum of 139 FPS and a maximum of 188 FPS. This is a mere 7 FPS drop from the Low preset's 171 FPS, yet it presumably offers substantially better visual fidelity. The High preset at 1440p drops to 121 FPS, which is still very playable but represents a larger performance cost for the visual upgrade.

At 4K, the situation becomes more critical. The Medium preset averages 102 FPS with a minimum of 87 FPS, which is well within the range of smooth gameplay for an MMORPG. The High preset at 4K drops to 69 FPS, which can be noticeable on high-refresh-rate displays. The Ultra preset is not recommended for this game and hardware combination, as it produces averages of 123 FPS at 1080p, 83 FPS at 1440p, and a borderline 47 FPS at 4K. This steep drop-off, especially at 4K, suggests the Ultra preset introduces settings that are disproportionately taxing on the engine, making Medium the sweet spot for a high-frame-rate experience with good visuals.

FAQ

Q: What is the single highest average FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 195 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: How does the Ultra preset at 4K compare to the Low preset at 1080p?

A: The difference is stark. The Low preset at 1080p achieves an average of 195 FPS, while the Ultra preset at 4K manages only 47 FPS. This represents a performance drop of over 75% when moving to the most demanding configuration.

Q: Is there a significant performance gap between the High and Ultra presets?

A: Yes, the data shows a considerable jump. At 1440p, the High preset averages 121 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 83 FPS, a reduction of 38 FPS. At 4K, the gap widens further, with High at 69 FPS and Ultra at 47 FPS.

Q: Which resolution and settings combination offers the most stable frame rates?

A: Based on the available data, the Medium preset at 1080p shows the most stable frame times, with a minimum of 159 FPS and a maximum of 215 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p also shows good stability, with a minimum of 139 FPS and a maximum of 188 FPS.

Q: Does the performance difference between Low and Medium settings justify the visual upgrade?

A: The performance cost is minimal. At 1080p, the difference is only 8 FPS (195 vs. 187). At 1440p, the difference is 7 FPS (171 vs. 164). At 4K, the difference is 13 FPS (115 vs. 102). Given the small performance penalty, the visual improvements from the Medium preset are likely worth the slight FPS reduction.

Q: What is the performance hit for enabling the High preset over Medium?

A: The cost is more significant. At 1080p, the average drops from 187 FPS to 162 FPS. At 1440p, it drops from 164 FPS to 121 FPS. At 4K, the drop is from 102 FPS to 69 FPS, which is a substantial 33 FPS loss.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a behemoth of a graphics card, with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. Its core clocks are listed at a base of 2235 MHz and a boost of 2520 MHz. In the context of Archeage, this hardware is far beyond what the game's engine can fully utilize, especially at lower resolutions.

The data reveals this clearly. At 1080p, the performance difference between the Low and Ultra presets is only 72 FPS (195 vs. 123). This is a relatively small range, suggesting that even at the highest settings, the GPU is not the primary limiting factor. The RTX 4090's immense shading power (82.58 TFLOPS FP32) and texture rate (1,290.2 GTexel/s) are more than enough to handle the game's geometry and effects.

However, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 4K, the frame rate drops are much more dramatic. The Ultra preset at 4K yields just 47 FPS, a massive drop from the 123 FPS at 1080p. This indicates that at 4K Ultra, the GPU's fillrate and memory bandwidth are finally being taxed, bringing the card closer to its limits. The 24 GB VRAM buffer is a non-issue for this title, as even the most demanding settings are unlikely to approach that capacity. The data implies that the RTX 4090 is effectively "waiting" for the CPU in most scenarios, but at 4K Ultra, it is finally given enough work to show a more traditional GPU-bound scaling curve.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 holds a comboRankInGame of 227 out of 2761 tested combinations. This places it in the top 8.2% of all tested systems for Archeage. This is a strong result, but the ranking is more evidence of the sheer brute force of the RTX 4090 than the efficiency of the CPU.

The ranking is notable because the CPU is a 6-core, 12-thread processor with a TDP of 105 W. While it's not a low-end part, it is certainly not the most powerful CPU on the market. The fact that this combination still ranks 227th suggests that the game is heavily dependent on single-core performance or specific cache characteristics, which the Ryzen 5 5500X3D's architecture provides. The CPU's percentile vs all CPUs is 85, and its average benchmark score is 37018, which puts it in a dead heat with its nearest rivals like the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (36945, +0.2%) and the Intel Core i9-12900T (37112, -0.3%). This shows that the CPU is performing exactly as expected for its class, and the high combo rank is primarily due to the GPU's dominance.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K provides critical insight into the system's bottleneck. When using the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 195 at 1080p to 171 at 1440p, and then to 115 at 4K. This is a 41% drop from 1080p to 4K. This relatively modest drop for an 8x increase in pixel count strongly suggests the game is heavily CPU-limited, even at 4K with low settings. The CPU is likely the primary constraint, preventing the GPU from stretching its legs.

With the Medium preset, the scaling is similar: 187 FPS at 1080p, 164 FPS at 1440p, and 102 FPS at 4K. This represents a 45% drop from 1080p to 4K. The consistency of the percentage drop between Low and Medium presets further reinforces the idea that the CPU is the limiting factor. The GPU has enough headroom to handle the increased pixel count, but it can't generate more frames because the CPU is not feeding it data fast enough.

The story changes slightly with the High preset. The FPS drops from 162 at 1080p to 121 at 1440p, and then to 69 at 4K. This is a 57% drop from 1080p to 4K. The larger drop here suggests that the High settings are starting to place more load on the GPU, making the graphics card a more significant part of the performance equation. The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling, dropping from 123 FPS at 1080p to 83 FPS at 1440p and a meager 47 FPS at 4K, a 62% drop. This indicates that at Ultra settings, the GPU is finally becoming the dominant bottleneck, and its performance is scaling more traditionally with resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Here is the complete breakdown of measured average FPS for the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 in Archeage:

1920x1080:

• Low: 195 FPS average.
• Medium: 187 FPS average (min 159, max 215).
• High: 162 FPS average.
• Ultra: 123 FPS average.

2560x1440:

• Low: 171 FPS average.
• Medium: 164 FPS average (min 139, max 188).
• High: 121 FPS average.
• Ultra: 83 FPS average.

3840x2160:

• Low: 115 FPS average.
• Medium: 102 FPS average (min 87, max 117).
• High: 69 FPS average.
• Ultra: 47 FPS average.

The data shows a clear pattern. At 1080p, the gap between Low and Ultra is 72 FPS. At 1440p, this gap grows to 88 FPS. At 4K, the gap expands to 68 FPS. The absolute numbers are all high, but the relative performance differences highlight how the game engine's efficiency drops at higher settings and resolutions. The Medium preset at 4K is the highest setting that maintains a comfortable average above 100 FPS.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, with a base clock of 3.00 GHz and a boost clock of 4.00 GHz. Its key feature is a large 96 MB of shared L3 cache. The benchmark results indicate this CPU is a very capable performer, with an average benchmark score of 37018, placing it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs.

In Archeage, the CPU's role appears to be the primary factor limiting frame rates at lower resolutions and settings. The evidence for this is the relatively small FPS delta between Low and Medium presets at 1080p (195 vs. 187). If the GPU were the bottleneck, we would expect a larger performance gap when increasing graphical load. The fact that the FPS stays high and relatively stable suggests the CPU is able to maintain a high frame rate, but the game's engine is not demanding enough to push the GPU to its limits.

The CPU's strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by its Passmark single-thread score of 2941, is likely crucial for an MMORPG like Archeage, which often has a single main game thread handling game logic and physics. The data shows that even at 1080p with Low settings, the CPU can achieve 195 FPS, which is a very high number. However, the lack of significant scaling when lowering resolution (e.g., from 1440p to 1080p) suggests that the CPU is hitting its ceiling around the 195 FPS mark in this game. This is not a criticism of the CPU, but rather a reflection of the game engine's design and the limitations of its threading model. The CPU is doing its job, but the game cannot ask for more.