Archeage

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the graphics engine in this test combo, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC. Its silicon, the AD103 chip, packs 45,900 million transistors into a 379 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 121.1M per mm². The GPU operates with a base clock of 2295 MHz and a boost clock of 2550 MHz, while its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory runs at 1438 MHz with 23 Gbps effective speed across a 256-bit bus. This memory configuration produces a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s, which is substantial for feeding the 10240 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 112 render output units.

For ArcheAge, an MMORPG that launched in 2014, the GPU's role is heavily dependent on resolution and settings. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 43, which is below the 60 FPS threshold typically desired for smooth gameplay. Dropping to 4K High raises the average to 62 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset imposes a significant load on the graphics pipeline. The RTX 4080 SUPER's raw compute capabilities — 52.22 TFLOPS for FP32 and FP16 — are clearly being taxed by the game's highest settings at 4K, as the frame rate falls by 19 FPS when moving from High to Ultra at that resolution.

The 16 GB VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor in any measured scenario, as even at 4K Ultra the game runs without memory-related stutters (min FPS was not recorded for that preset, but the average of 43 FPS suggests a GPU-bound scenario rather than a VRAM overflow). The pixel rate of 285.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 816.0 GTexel/s provide plenty of throughput for a game from 2014, even at modern resolutions. The benchmark results show that the GPU's performance scales predictably: at 1080p Low, the card delivers 268 FPS, while at 4K Ultra it drops to 43 FPS, a spread that indicates the GPU is the primary scaling factor as resolution increases.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the best 4K preset for maintaining playable frame rates?

A: At 3840x2160, the High preset delivers an average of 62 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS target. Medium averages 92 FPS, while Low averages 103 FPS. Ultra drops to 43 FPS, which is below the playable threshold. High is the highest preset that stays above 60 FPS at 4K.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to its nearest rival in raw GPU benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 54209, placing it at the 86th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, scores 54247, which is a deltaPct of -0.1% (the SUPER is 0.1% slower). The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54828 (1.1% higher), the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB scores 55698 (2.7% higher), and the AMD Radeon 8060S scores 55757 (2.8% higher).

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low averages 180 FPS, while Ultra averages 74 FPS. This represents a 106 FPS drop, or roughly 59% lower performance when moving from the lowest to the highest preset. Medium (161 FPS) and High (109 FPS) sit between these extremes.

Q: Does the Ryzen 9 7900X bottleneck the GPU at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080 Low, the combo achieves 268 FPS, which is very high. The CPU's 12 cores and 24 threads, with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, provide enough headroom that the GPU remains the limiting factor even at low resolution. The 1080p Medium preset still hits 238 FPS, suggesting no significant CPU bottleneck in these measurements.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank among tested configurations?

A: The combo of AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 242nd out of 3708 tested combos in ArcheAge, placing it in the top 6.5% of all configurations tested for this game.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its rivals?

A: The Ryzen 9 7900X has an average benchmark score of 53288, at the 91st percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD EPYC 7313P, scores 53206 (0.2% lower), while the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 scores 53469 (0.3% higher). The Intel Core i7-14700F scores 53620 (0.6% higher), and the Intel Xeon 634 scores 52974 (0.6% lower).

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

In ArcheAge, the pairing of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER achieves a rank of 242 out of 3708 tested combinations. This places the combo in the upper tier of configurations, specifically within the top 6.5% of all results recorded. The rank reflects the combination's ability to deliver high frame rates across the tested resolution and settings matrix.

The ranking of 242 is notable because it puts this combo ahead of the vast majority of alternatives, but it does not represent the absolute top. The data shows that 241 other combos produced higher average scores, which suggests that while the RTX 4080 SUPER is an end-of-life product (its successor is the GeForce 50 series), it still performs strongly in this MMORPG. The CPU's 91st percentile ranking among all CPUs and the GPU's 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs together produce a system that sits comfortably in the top decile of ArcheAge performance.

Comparing the combo's rank to the individual component percentiles reveals a slight imbalance: the CPU ranks higher than the GPU on a percentile basis. This indicates that the Ryzen 9 7900X has more relative headroom than the RTX 4080 SUPER, meaning the GPU is more likely to be the limiting factor in demanding scenarios. The 3708 combos tested provide a broad comparison base, and the 242nd position suggests that users seeking higher performance would need to pair a stronger GPU with a similar or better CPU. The data does not indicate any specific combo that ranks higher, but the percentile positions imply that a GPU in the 90th percentile or above would be required to significantly improve this ranking.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are as follows: Low settings produce 268 FPS, Medium produces 238 FPS (with a min of 203 FPS and max of 274 FPS), High produces 162 FPS, and Ultra produces 111 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 157 FPS, which is the smallest absolute drop among the three resolutions tested. The Medium preset's min FPS of 203 indicates that even in demanding scenes, the frame rate stays well above 200 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 180 FPS, Medium at 161 FPS (min 136, max 185), High at 109 FPS, and Ultra at 74 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 106 FPS. The Medium preset's min FPS of 136 is still comfortably above 60 FPS, but the Ultra preset's average of 74 FPS suggests that 1440p Ultra is playable but leaves less headroom for frame time spikes.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 103 FPS, Medium at 92 FPS (min 78, max 106), High at 62 FPS, and Ultra at 43 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 60 FPS, which is the smallest absolute drop but the lowest absolute values. The Medium preset's min FPS of 78 is the only 4K measurement with a recorded minimum that stays above 60 FPS. The High preset's average of 62 FPS is borderline, while Ultra at 43 FPS is clearly below playable thresholds.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently shows the tightest min-max range relative to its average, suggesting that Medium is the most stable preset in terms of frame pacing. The Low preset at 1080p (268 FPS) is the highest average recorded, while 4K Ultra (43 FPS) is the lowest. The data shows a clear pattern: each step up in settings costs roughly 20-30% performance at a given resolution, and each step up in resolution costs roughly 40-50% performance at a given setting level.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

Examining the scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals how the system responds to increasing pixel counts. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 268 at 1080p to 180 at 1440p to 103 at 4K. This represents a 33% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 43% drop from 1440p to 4K. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 165 FPS, or 62% lower performance.

At Medium settings, the averages are 238 FPS at 1080p, 161 FPS at 1440p, and 92 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 32%, and from 1440p to 4K is 43%, for a total drop of 61%. At High settings, the averages are 162 FPS at 1080p, 109 FPS at 1440p, and 62 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 33%, and from 1440p to 4K is 43%, for a total drop of 62%. At Ultra settings, the averages are 111 FPS at 1080p, 74 FPS at 1440p, and 43 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 33%, and from 1440p to 4K is 42%, for a total drop of 61%.

The consistency of these percentage drops across all four settings presets is striking. Regardless of whether the game is running at Low or Ultra, moving from 1080p to 1440p reduces performance by approximately one-third, and moving from 1440p to 4K reduces performance by approximately 42%. This uniform scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the dominant limiting component across all resolutions and settings. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see smaller percentage drops at lower resolutions (where the CPU is more stressed) and larger drops at higher resolutions (where the GPU becomes more dominant). Instead, the consistent scaling suggests that the RTX 4080 SUPER's pixel throughput is the primary constraint.

The fact that the 4K Ultra preset (43 FPS) is the only configuration below 60 FPS, while 4K High (62 FPS) barely clears it, further confirms the GPU-bound nature of the system. The Ryzen 9 7900X's 12 cores and 24 threads at 5.60 GHz boost are more than sufficient to feed the GPU at all tested settings, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p and the uniform scaling behavior.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is the processor in this combo, featuring 12 cores and 24 threads from the Zen 4 architecture (codenamed Raphael) on a 5 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, with a TDP of 170 W. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 64 MB of shared L3 cache, providing ample fast storage for game data. Memory support is DDR5 with dual-channel configuration, offering 83.2 GB/s of bandwidth, and the CPU includes Radeon Graphics as integrated graphics, though the discrete RTX 4080 SUPER handles all rendering in these benchmarks.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Ryzen 9 7900X demonstrates strong multi-threaded performance. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 29300, while the single-core score is 2016.5. Geekbench reports a multicore score of 19267 and a single-core score of 2617. The 3DMark results show scaling from 2137 in the 2-thread test to 12536 in the max-thread test, indicating good thread scaling across the 24 threads. PassMark multithread score is 51406, with a single-thread score of 4238.

In ArcheAge, the CPU's role is to maintain frame rates that are not limited by physics, game logic, or draw call processing. The measured FPS values suggest that the Ryzen 9 7900X is not a bottleneck at any resolution or setting. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 268 FPS, which is high enough that even if the CPU were slightly limiting, the frame rate would still be well above monitor refresh rates. The CPU's 91st percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 53288, places it ahead of rivals like the AMD EPYC 7313P (53206, 0.2% lower) and the Intel Xeon 634 (52974, 0.6% lower), while being slightly behind the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 (53469, 0.3% higher) and the Intel Core i7-14700F (53620, 0.6% higher).

The 64 MB of L3 cache is particularly relevant for an MMORPG like ArcheAge, which may have large working sets of character data, world state, and entity physics. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s over DDR5 dual-channel is sufficient for feeding the GPU at all tested settings, as evidenced by the uniform resolution scaling discussed earlier. The CPU's boost clock of 5.60 GHz provides strong single-thread performance, which is important for the game's main thread, even though the 12 cores can handle background tasks and addon processing without contention.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the target resolution and the desired frame rate floor. At 1920x1080, all four presets deliver playable frame rates, with Ultra averaging 111 FPS. For users with a 144 Hz or 165 Hz monitor, the High preset at 162 FPS is the best choice, as it provides a comfortable margin above 144 FPS while offering higher visual quality than Medium (238 FPS) or Low (268 FPS). The Ultra preset at 111 FPS is still above 60 FPS but may not fully saturate higher refresh rate displays.

At 2560x1440, the High preset averages 109 FPS, which is ideal for a 120 Hz or 144 Hz display. The Medium preset at 161 FPS offers even more headroom, with a min FPS of 136, ensuring minimal frame drops in crowded areas. The Ultra preset at 74 FPS is playable but leaves little margin for demanding scenes, as the min FPS was not recorded for this preset. For 1440p, the Medium preset provides the best balance of visual quality and performance, with the High preset as a strong alternative for users prioritizing visual fidelity.

At 3840x2160, the High preset at 62 FPS is the only preset above 60 FPS, making it the recommended choice for 4K gaming. The Medium preset at 92 FPS offers significantly higher performance with a min FPS of 78, which is still well above 60 FPS. The Ultra preset at 43 FPS is not recommended for 4K, as it falls below the playable threshold. The Low preset at 103 FPS is an option for competitive play, but the visual quality sacrifice is substantial.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently provides the most stable frame times, as indicated by the min and max FPS values recorded for that preset. At 1080p Medium, the min FPS is 203 and max is 274; at 1440p Medium, min is 136 and max is 185; at 4K Medium, min is 78 and max is 106. These ranges show that Medium maintains frame rates within a narrow band, minimizing stutter. For the best overall experience, the Medium preset is the safest recommendation, with High serving as the highest-quality option that remains above 60 FPS at all resolutions except 4K Ultra. The data shows that the jump from High to Ultra imposes a 30-40% performance penalty across all resolutions, making Ultra the least efficient preset in terms of performance per visual gain.