Archeage

Archeage, a 2014 MMORPG, proves to be notably demanding on modern hardware when pushed to its highest visual settings. The data for the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER shows a wide performance envelope, ranging from a very playable 268 FPS at 1080p Low to a borderline 43 FPS at 4K Ultra. This combination of a strong 8-core CPU and a high-end GPU delivers excellent performance for most scenarios, but the game's Ultra preset appears to be exceptionally punishing, creating a significant gap in the frame rate curve that warrants careful analysis.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and consistent pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At the High settings preset, the average frame rate drops from 162 FPS at 1080p to 109 FPS at 1440p, and further down to 62 FPS at 4K. This represents a decline of roughly 33% when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and an additional 43% drop when stepping up to 4K. Such a steep decline indicates that the rendering load is scaling heavily with pixel count, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario at these settings.

The Low preset shows an even more dramatic scaling curve. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 268 FPS, which is an exceptionally high frame rate. At 1440p Low, this drops to 180 FPS, and at 4K Low, it falls to 103 FPS. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is about 33%, and from 1440p to 4K is another 43%. This consistent proportional decline across presets suggests that the limiting factor is primarily the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth, which are taxed more heavily as the resolution increases.

The Medium preset data includes minimum and maximum frame rates, providing additional insight. At 1080p Medium, the average is 238 FPS with a minimum of 203 FPS and a maximum of 274 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 161 FPS, with a minimum of 136 FPS and a maximum of 185 FPS. The 4K Medium average is 92 FPS, with a minimum of 78 FPS and a maximum of 106 FPS. The spread between minimum and maximum frames is relatively narrow at each resolution, indicating that the frame pacing is stable and there are no severe hitches, even as the average frame rate declines.

The Ultra preset, however, presents a different story. At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 111, which is already significantly lower than the High preset's 162 FPS. Moving to 1440p Ultra drops the average to 74 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, the system only manages 43 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra at the same resolution is substantial: at 1080p, the difference is 51 FPS; at 1440p, it is 35 FPS; and at 4K, it is 19 FPS. This suggests that the Ultra preset introduces rendering features that are disproportionately expensive, likely related to shadow quality, draw distance, or post-processing effects that scale poorly with resolution.

The data strongly indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component in this configuration. The consistent percentage-based drops in frame rate as resolution increases are a hallmark of GPU-bound performance. The CPU, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, is less likely to be the bottleneck at 4K, as the frame rate at that resolution is heavily dependent on the GPU's ability to process the increased pixel workload. The fact that the frame rate scales almost linearly with pixel count suggests that the RTX 4080 SUPER is being fully utilized across all tested resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 238 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any display, even high-refresh-rate panels. At 1440p, the Medium preset's 161 FPS average is excellent for smooth gameplay, and the minimum of 136 FPS ensures that frame drops remain within a comfortable range. Even at 4K, the Medium preset's 92 FPS average is highly playable, with a minimum of 78 FPS that stays above the critical 60 FPS threshold.

The High preset is also a viable option, particularly for users who prioritize visual fidelity over raw frame rate. At 1440p, High delivers 109 FPS, which is still very smooth, and at 1080p it reaches 162 FPS. However, at 4K, the High preset drops to 62 FPS, which is playable but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes or future game updates. The data suggests that High is best suited for 1440p gaming, where it provides a strong balance of image quality and performance.

The Low preset, while achieving the highest frame rates, is likely too visually compromised for most players. At 4K Low, the system still produces 103 FPS, which is impressive, but the reduction in visual quality may not be worth the performance gain for a game like Archeage, which has an older engine that may not benefit from lower settings in terms of visual clarity. The Low preset could be useful for competitive play or for users with high-refresh-rate monitors at 1080p, where 268 FPS is achievable.

The Ultra preset is not recommended for this configuration, especially at higher resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the average frame rate of 43 FPS falls below the standard 60 FPS target, and the experience would be noticeably stuttery. At 1440p Ultra, the 74 FPS average is workable but not ideal, and at 1080p Ultra, the 111 FPS average is acceptable but the visual difference from High may not justify the 31% performance penalty. The data clearly shows that the Ultra preset is a significant performance tax, and most users would be better served by using High or Medium settings.

For the best experience, the Medium preset at 1440p appears to be the sweet spot, delivering 161 FPS average with a tight frame time distribution. Users with 4K displays should consider Medium settings to maintain a smooth experience, while those with 1080p displays can comfortably use High settings for improved visuals without sacrificing frame rate.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the dominant component in this system's gaming performance. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s. This substantial memory bandwidth is critical for high-resolution gaming, as it allows the GPU to quickly access textures and geometry data. The benchmark results show that at 4K, the frame rates are consistently lower than at lower resolutions, which is expected given the increased memory pressure, but the 16 GB capacity ensures that the game does not run out of video memory even at the most demanding settings.

The GPU's clock speeds are also a factor. The base clock is 2295 MHz, with a boost clock of 2550 MHz. These high clocks contribute to the GPU's raw processing power, which is reflected in its FP32 performance of 52.22 TFLOPS. The data indicates that the RTX 4080 SUPER is capable of pushing very high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, but the Ultra preset at 4K proves to be a challenging workload, resulting in only 43 FPS. This suggests that the Ultra preset's effects are particularly demanding on the GPU's shading units and texture units.

The GPU's benchmark scores provide context for its performance. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 6600. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 219065, and in Geekbench Vulkan, it scores 260075. The Passmark G3D score is 34245, and the GPU compute score is 19822. These scores, combined with the GPU's 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs, indicate that the RTX 4080 SUPER is a high-end part. However, its nearest rivals include the RTX 4080, which has an average score of 54247 with a delta of -0.1%, and the Radeon Pro W5700X, which scores 54828 with a delta of -1.1%. These comparisons show that the 4080 SUPER is in the top tier of graphics cards, but the game's Ultra settings can still bring it to its knees.

The GPU's 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are not particularly relevant for Archeage, as the game does not heavily utilize ray tracing or DLSS. The performance is primarily driven by the traditional rasterization pipeline, which the GPU handles well until the Ultra preset is enabled. The data suggests that the RTX 4080 SUPER is a capable card for this game at High and Medium settings across all resolutions, but the Ultra preset requires a significant reduction in resolution to maintain playable frame rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved by this combination?

A: The highest average frame rate is 268 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low preset.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K resolution?

A: Yes, at 4K with the Medium preset, the average frame rate is 92 FPS, which is above 60 FPS. The High preset at 4K also achieves 62 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS threshold. However, the Ultra preset at 4K drops to 43 FPS, which is below 60 FPS.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, the High preset delivers an average of 109 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 74 FPS. This represents a 32% performance reduction when using Ultra settings.

Q: What is the minimum frame rate recorded in the data?

A: The lowest minimum frame rate recorded is 78 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with the Medium preset. The other presets at 4K do not have minimum frame rate data available.

Q: Is there a large difference between the Low and Medium presets at 1080p?

A: Yes, at 1080p, the Low preset achieves 268 FPS, while the Medium preset achieves 238 FPS. The difference is 30 FPS, which is about 11% lower performance for the Medium preset.

Q: What is the performance drop from 1080p to 4K at the High preset?

A: At 1080p High, the average frame rate is 162 FPS. At 4K High, it drops to 62 FPS. This is a reduction of 100 FPS, or approximately 62% lower performance.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 242nd out of 3708 tested combinations in Archeage. This places it in the top 6.5% of all tested configurations, indicating that this is a very high-performing setup for this game. The rank of 242 is strong, but it is not at the absolute top, which suggests that there are other combinations that can achieve even higher frame rates in this specific title.

The CPU's average benchmark score is 37943, which places it in the 86th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i9-14901E with an average score of 37911 and a delta of 0.1%, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 with a score of 37904 and a delta of 0.1%, and the Intel Core 5 211E with a score of 37829 and a delta of 0.3%. These deltas are extremely small, indicating that the Ryzen 7 9700X is essentially tied with several other high-end processors in terms of overall CPU performance.

The GPU's average benchmark score is 54209, also in the 86th percentile. Its nearest rival is the RTX 4080, which has an average score of 54247, a delta of -0.1%. This means the 4080 SUPER is essentially identical in performance to the standard 4080, which is expected given their close specifications. The next rival, the Radeon Pro W5700X, has a score of 54828, which is 1.1% higher, but this is a workstation card and not directly comparable for gaming.

The combo rank of 242 out of 3708 suggests that while this hardware is highly capable, there are a few other combinations that perform better in Archeage. This could be due to CPUs with higher single-thread performance or GPUs with slightly better rasterization efficiency. However, the data shows that this combo is firmly in the upper echelon of tested systems, and the measured frame rates at most settings and resolutions are excellent.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X is a desktop processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, based on the Zen 5 architecture. It has a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. The CPU has a 32 MB shared L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s. These specifications indicate that the CPU is well-suited for modern gaming, and the benchmark scores confirm its strength.

In Cinebench R23, the CPU achieves a multicore score of 20485 and a single-core score of 2211. In Geekbench, it scores 17906 multicore and 3023 single-core. The 3DMark tests show a 16-thread score of 9824 and a single-thread score of 1280. The Passmark multithread score is 37161, and the single-thread score is 4654. These scores place the CPU in the 86th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37943.

The CPU's role in Archeage is to handle the game's logic, physics, and AI. The data shows that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in most scenarios. At 1080p with the Low preset, the system achieves 268 FPS, which is a very high frame rate. If the CPU were limiting performance, we would expect to see frame rates plateau regardless of resolution. However, the frame rates do drop significantly as resolution increases, indicating that the GPU is the limiting factor.

At 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops to 43 FPS, which is a very low number. This is likely due to the GPU being overwhelmed by the Ultra preset's effects, rather than the CPU being unable to keep up. The CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads are sufficient for Archeage, which is an older MMORPG that may not be highly optimized for multi-threading. The high single-thread performance of the Ryzen 7 9700X, as evidenced by its 2211 score in Cinebench R23 single-core, helps ensure that the main game thread is processed quickly.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s is also adequate for feeding the GPU with data. The RTX 4080 SUPER has a much higher bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s, but the CPU's bandwidth is sufficient for the game's data transfer needs. The data suggests that the Ryzen 7 9700X provides a solid foundation for the RTX 4080 SUPER, allowing the GPU to perform at its full potential without being held back by CPU limitations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average frame rates are as follows: Low preset 268 FPS, Medium preset 238 FPS (minimum 203, maximum 274), High preset 162 FPS, and Ultra preset 111 FPS. The frame rate drops significantly from Low to Medium, and again from High to Ultra. The gap between Medium and High is 76 FPS, which is a substantial reduction, and the gap between High and Ultra is another 51 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the average frame rates are: Low preset 180 FPS, Medium preset 161 FPS (minimum 136, maximum 185), High preset 109 FPS, and Ultra preset 74 FPS. The pattern is similar to 1080p, with each preset step down in settings yielding a lower frame rate. The difference between Medium and High is 52 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 35 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the average frame rates are: Low preset 103 FPS, Medium preset 92 FPS (minimum 78, maximum 106), High preset 62 FPS, and Ultra preset 43 FPS. At this resolution, the frame rates are noticeably lower across all presets. The difference between Medium and High is 30 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 19 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only setting where the average frame rate falls below 60 FPS, making it the only configuration in the data that is not ideal for smooth gameplay.

The data shows a consistent pattern where the Low preset provides the highest frame rates, followed by Medium, High, and Ultra. The Medium preset is the only one that has minimum and maximum frame rate data, which shows a stable range of performance. The lack of minimum and maximum data for other presets means that we cannot assess frame time consistency for those settings, but the average frame rates provide a clear picture of overall performance. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p to 4K is consistent across all presets, confirming that the GPU is the primary factor driving performance in this game.