Archeage

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for ArcheAge with the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D show a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces 186 FPS average. Moving to 1440p at the same High preset drops this to 132 FPS, a reduction of 54 FPS or roughly 29%. Pushing to 4K at High settings yields 76 FPS average, which is another 56 FPS drop from 1440p. This step-wise decline indicates the game becomes progressively more GPU-bound at higher resolutions, with the 4K High result falling to less than half the 1080p High figure.

The scaling behavior is more pronounced at the Ultra preset. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 134 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 90 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, the average falls to 52 FPS. The gap between 1080p and 4K at Ultra is 82 FPS, showing that the most demanding settings amplify the resolution penalty. In contrast, the Low preset shows a much smaller relative drop: 224 FPS at 1080p, 196 FPS at 1440p, and 125 FPS at 4K. The spread from 1080p to 4K at Low is 99 FPS, but the percentage decline is smaller because the starting point is higher.

The Medium preset data provides the only min/max FPS measurements in the entire dataset, which offers additional insight. At 1080p Medium, the average is 215 FPS with a minimum of 183 and maximum of 247. At 1440p Medium, the average is 188 FPS with a minimum of 160 and maximum of 217. At 4K Medium, the average is 112 FPS with a minimum of 95 and maximum of 128. The minimum-to-average gap widens at higher resolutions, suggesting frame pacing becomes less consistent as resolution increases.

The limiting component analysis is straightforward. At 1080p, the game is heavily CPU-bound, evidenced by the relatively small FPS gap between Low (224) and High (186). The GPU is not the bottleneck at this resolution, as even the most demanding settings still produce triple-digit frame rates. At 4K, the game becomes more GPU-bound, with the gap between Low (125) and High (76) expanding to 49 FPS. The RTX 5090 D's massive memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s and 32 GB of GDDR7 VRAM should theoretically handle 4K textures without issue, yet the FPS drop suggests the game's engine and the CPU's single-thread performance are still limiting factors even at this resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data reveals a clear hierarchy of performance across the four presets. Low is always the fastest, followed by Medium, then High, with Ultra being the slowest at every resolution. However, the relative cost of each preset varies significantly depending on resolution.

At 1080p, the jump from Low (224 FPS) to Medium (215 FPS) costs only 9 FPS, which is a negligible 4% penalty. Moving from Medium to High (186 FPS) costs 29 FPS, a 13% reduction. The leap from High to Ultra (134 FPS) costs another 52 FPS, a 28% drop. Given that the game is an MMORPG where reaction time matters in PvP, the Medium preset at 1080p appears to offer the best balance, delivering 215 FPS while still being substantially above the 144Hz refresh rate that many monitors use.

At 1440p, the pattern shifts. Low (196 FPS) to Medium (188 FPS) costs only 8 FPS. Medium to High (132 FPS) costs 56 FPS, which is a substantial 30% reduction. High to Ultra (90 FPS) costs another 42 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p delivers 188 FPS, which remains well above 144Hz, making it the clear recommendation for this resolution. High at 1440p still produces 132 FPS, which is acceptable for 120Hz displays but may feel less smooth on 144Hz panels.

At 4K, the trade-offs become more pronounced. Low (125 FPS) to Medium (112 FPS) costs 13 FPS. Medium to High (76 FPS) costs 36 FPS, a 32% reduction. High to Ultra (52 FPS) costs 24 FPS, another 32% drop. At 4K, the Medium preset is the only one that stays above 100 FPS, making it the sensible choice for high-refresh 4K displays. High at 76 FPS is playable on 60Hz screens but will not satisfy users with 120Hz or 144Hz 4K monitors. Ultra at 52 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold that many consider the minimum for smooth gameplay.

The data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot across all three resolutions. It maintains a minimum of 95 FPS even at 4K, which is the lowest minimum recorded for any Medium preset in the dataset. The only measured min/max data confirms that Medium has a consistent frame delivery, with the 4K minimum of 95 FPS being only 15% below the average of 112 FPS.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, running on the AMD Socket AM4 platform. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. The CPU's single-thread performance is particularly relevant for ArcheAge, an MMORPG from 2014 that relies heavily on a single primary game thread for logic and world state updates.

Benchmark data shows the 5600X achieves a 3DMark single-thread score of 917, a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1541, and a Geekbench single-core score of 1989. These single-thread results place it firmly in the upper tier of desktop CPUs, but the game's age means it likely cannot fully utilize all 12 threads. The PassMark multithread score of 21858 and Cinebench R23 multicore score of 11838 indicate strong multi-threaded capability, but ArcheAge's engine may not scale well beyond 4-6 threads.

The CPU's L3 cache of 32 MB is substantial and helps with game world data that changes frequently in an MMORPG setting. The 7 nm process node and 65 W TDP suggest efficient power delivery, though the game's performance is more dependent on clock speed than power efficiency. The boost clock of 4.60 GHz is critical for maintaining high FPS at 1080p, where the data shows the CPU is the primary limiter.

Comparing to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks, the 5600X shows a deltaPct of 0.1% against the AMD Ryzen 7 4800H, meaning they are essentially tied in average benchmark score. It trails the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 6650U by 0.5% and the Intel Core i7-11700 by 0.5%, while leading the AMD EPYC 9554P by 0.6%. These differences are within noise for synthetic tests, but the 5600X's high boost clock likely gives it an edge in the lightly-threaded workload that ArcheAge represents.

The 1080p Low preset result of 224 FPS is the highest measured value in the entire dataset. This suggests that even at the lowest settings, the CPU is the limiting factor, as the RTX 5090 D is capable of far higher frame rates in less CPU-bound scenarios. The fact that 1080p Ultra still achieves 134 FPS, which is only 40% lower than Low, further confirms that the CPU's single-thread performance is the ceiling for this game at lower resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination ranks 86th out of 2761 tested combos in ArcheAge. This places it in the top 3.1% of all tested combinations, which is an impressive position given the game's age and CPU-bound nature.

The rank is notably lower than what the GPU alone might suggest. The RTX 5090 D sits in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77712. The CPU sits in the 75th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 21771. A combination of two top-10% components ranking 86th out of 2761 indicates that the game's performance is constrained by the CPU rather than the GPU. In a GPU-bound game, this combo would likely rank much higher, but ArcheAge's engine does not fully leverage the RTX 5090 D's raw compute power.

The 86th rank out of 2761 combos means there are 85 configurations that produce higher average FPS in this game. These are likely combinations with CPUs that have higher single-thread performance, since the data shows the game is CPU-limited at 1080p and 1440p. The RTX 5090 D's advantages in VRAM, bandwidth, and shader count are not fully utilized because the game cannot feed the GPU enough work.

For context, the GPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (1.1% faster), AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (1.6% slower), and NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants (2.1-2.4% slower). Similarly, the CPU's nearest rivals are within 0.6% of its average score. Yet the combo's rank of 86 indicates that small differences in CPU single-thread performance can have outsized effects on this game's frame rates, as the game is highly sensitive to the primary thread's speed.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in ArcheAge?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 224, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How much FPS does the Ultra preset cost compared to Low at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, Low produces 125 FPS while Ultra produces 52 FPS, a difference of 73 FPS or 58% lower performance.

Q: What is the lowest minimum FPS recorded in the dataset?

A: The lowest minimum FPS is 95, recorded at 3840x2160 with Medium settings. The other min FPS value is 183 at 1920x1080 Medium, and 160 at 2560x1440 Medium.

Q: How does this combo rank relative to all tested configurations?

A: It ranks 86th out of 2761 tested combos in ArcheAge, placing it in the top 3.1% of all configurations.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more limiting at 1080p?

A: The data shows the CPU is the primary limiter at 1080p, as the FPS difference between Low (224) and High (186) is only 38 FPS, indicating the GPU has headroom that the CPU cannot fill.

Q: What is the average FPS at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings is 132 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for ArcheAge with the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is as follows:

At 1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 224 FPS average
• Medium: 215 FPS average, 183 FPS minimum, 247 FPS maximum
• High: 186 FPS average
• Ultra: 134 FPS average

At 2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 196 FPS average
• Medium: 188 FPS average, 160 FPS minimum, 217 FPS maximum
• High: 132 FPS average
• Ultra: 90 FPS average

At 3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 125 FPS average
• Medium: 112 FPS average, 95 FPS minimum, 128 FPS maximum
• High: 76 FPS average
• Ultra: 52 FPS average

The dataset includes min and max FPS only for the Medium preset at each resolution. At 1080p Medium, the range is 183-247 FPS, giving a spread of 64 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the range is 160-217 FPS, a spread of 57 FPS. At 4K Medium, the range is 95-128 FPS, a spread of 33 FPS. The narrowing range at higher resolutions suggests frame delivery becomes more consistent as the GPU becomes more loaded, though the average FPS also drops substantially.

Across all resolutions and settings, the average FPS ranges from a low of 52 (4K Ultra) to a high of 224 (1080p Low). The total spread of 172 FPS demonstrates the wide performance envelope of this hardware combination, which is capable of both high-refresh gaming at lower resolutions and demanding 4K play at reduced settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is a Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU with 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 render output units. It has a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz. The GPU is built on a 5 nm process node with 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die.

Memory specifications are extensive: 32 GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock is 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective speed. This memory configuration is far beyond what ArcheAge requires, as the game released in 2014 and was designed for hardware with a fraction of this VRAM capacity. The 32 GB of VRAM will never be fully utilized by this game, even at 4K Ultra with all texture streaming options maxed out.

The GPU's compute capabilities are equally impressive: 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 and FP16 performance, a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s, and a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s. These figures are largely irrelevant for ArcheAge, which is not a graphically intensive game by modern standards. The game's visual style and effects are from 2014, and the RTX 5090 D's ray tracing and tensor cores are unused by this title.

The GPU's synthetic benchmark scores place it in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77712. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 14326. Geekbench results show 310674 in OpenCL and 376915 in Vulkan. PassMark G3D score is 44065, with G2D at 1487. These scores confirm the GPU is a top-tier performer, yet in ArcheAge, it is held back by the CPU and game engine.

The GPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (1.1% faster), AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (1.6% slower), and NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants (2.1-2.4% slower). These are all older or lower-tier GPUs, yet in ArcheAge, the differences in FPS would likely be minimal because the game is not GPU-bound at most settings.

The GPU's role in this combo is to provide headroom that the CPU cannot exploit. At 1080p Low, the 224 FPS average is likely close to the CPU's maximum frame rate capability. The GPU could render many more frames per second if the CPU could feed it faster. This is evident from the fact that 1080p Ultra (134 FPS) is only 40% lower than 1080p Low (224 FPS), despite the massive increase in graphical workload. The GPU is not the bottleneck until 4K Ultra, where the 52 FPS result suggests the graphics load finally exceeds what the CPU can feed, or the game engine's draw call efficiency becomes the limiting factor.