Archeage

# Archeage Performance Analysis: AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

The benchmark data for Archeage with the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 reveals a system that delivers playable frame rates across most settings, but with a dramatic performance cliff at Ultra settings that signals a clear GPU bottleneck at higher resolutions. The measured results show this combination ranks 588th out of 2,761 tested configurations, placing it in the top 21% of all system combos for this game. The data indicates that while the RTX 4090 is a dominant graphics card — sitting at the 88th percentile among all GPUs — the Ryzen 9 8945HX's 95th percentile CPU ranking does not translate into linear frame rate gains in this MMORPG, suggesting Archeage's engine places specific demands that neither component fully satisfies at the highest settings.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior in Archeage exposes a significant shift in system balance as pixel count increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 212 FPS average, which drops to 143 FPS at 1440p and 82 FPS at 4K. This progression represents a 32.5% performance loss from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 42.7% loss from 1440p to 4K — a cumulative 61.3% reduction from 1080p to 4K. The pattern is consistent across all settings presets, with the scaling curve steepening as resolution climbs.

The Medium settings row provides the most complete picture, as it is the only preset with min and max FPS data at all three resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the system averages 188 FPS with a range of 160 to 217 FPS. Moving to 1440p Medium drops the average to 127 FPS (a 32.4% decrease) with a range of 108 to 146 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 73 FPS (a 42.5% decrease from 1440p) with a range of 62 to 84 FPS. The widening percentage drop between each resolution step indicates that the GPU is becoming increasingly saturated as resolution rises.

The High settings preset shows a similar trend with slightly lower absolute numbers: 128 FPS at 1080p, 86 FPS at 1440p (a 32.8% drop), and 49 FPS at 4K (a 43.0% drop from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across presets — roughly 32% for the first resolution step and 42-43% for the second — suggests that Archeage's rendering workload scales predictably with pixel count, and the RTX 4090's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory with 1.01 TB/s bandwidth is not the limiting factor at any resolution.

Ultra settings present the most dramatic scaling behavior. At 1080p Ultra, the system manages 87 FPS average. This drops to 59 FPS at 1440p (a 32.2% reduction) and plummets to 34 FPS at 4K (a 42.4% reduction from 1440p). The Ultra preset's 4K result of 34 FPS is below the 49 FPS achieved at High 4K, indicating that the additional visual features enabled by Ultra impose a heavy cost that pushes the system below smooth playability thresholds. The data suggests that at 4K, even the RTX 4090 — which scores 38,194 in Passmark G3D and sits at the 88th GPU percentile — cannot maintain fluid frame rates when all settings are maxed.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 in this configuration is a mobile-class implementation of the AD102 chip, built on TSMC's 5 nm process with 76,300 million transistors across a 609 mm² die. Its clock behavior shows a base frequency of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz, with memory running at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) across a 384-bit bus. The 24 GB of GDDR6X memory provides 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for Archeage's texture and asset streaming demands given the game's 2014 release date.

The GPU's compute capabilities are substantial: 16,384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, 176 raster output pipelines, 128 ray tracing cores, and 512 tensor cores. This hardware configuration yields 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and a pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s. In benchmark tests, the RTX 4090 achieves 9,223 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 255,416 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 271,631 in Geekbench Vulkan. Its Passmark G3D score of 38,194 places it at the 88th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 60,347.

The measured frame rates in Archeage tell a story of GPU-bound performance at high resolutions. At 4K, the frame rate differences between settings presets are stark: 82 FPS at Low, 73 FPS at Medium, 49 FPS at High, and 34 FPS at Ultra. The 48 FPS gap between Low and Ultra at 4K — a 141% performance difference — demonstrates how much headroom the GPU has when shader complexity and post-processing effects are reduced. The RTX 4090's nearest rivals in the benchmark database (Intel Arc Pro A60 at 60,326 average score, AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 at 60,140, AMD Radeon Pro W6600M at 61,896, and AMD Radeon PRO V710 at 58,657) all trail by at least 2.5% or more, confirming the 4090's dominance in raw compute.

However, the data reveals that Archeage does not fully utilize the RTX 4090's capabilities. The 88th percentile GPU ranking combined with the 4K Ultra result of only 34 FPS suggests that the game's engine — despite its age — imposes rendering paths that are not well optimized for modern GPU architectures. The 24 GB VRAM capacity is never stressed by a 2014 MMORPG, and the 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth far exceeds what Archeage's texture streaming requires. The bottleneck at 4K Ultra is more likely related to draw call processing and shader complexity than memory capacity or bandwidth.

FAQ

Q: Why does the frame rate drop so dramatically from 1080p to 4K?

A: The data shows consistent percentage drops of approximately 32% from 1080p to 1440p and 42-43% from 1440p to 4K across all settings presets. This linear scaling with pixel count indicates the RTX 4090 becomes the limiting component at higher resolutions, as the GPU must process 2.25 times more pixels at 1440p and 4 times more at 4K compared to 1080p.

Q: Is the RTX 4090's 24 GB VRAM sufficient for Archeage at 4K?

A: Yes. The 24 GB of GDDR6X memory with 1.01 TB/s bandwidth is far more than required for a 2014 MMORPG. The frame rate differences between settings at 4K — from 82 FPS at Low to 34 FPS at Ultra — are driven by GPU compute load rather than memory capacity or bandwidth constraints.

Q: What is the best resolution for this system in Archeage?

A: The data indicates 1440p offers the best balance, with 86 FPS at High settings and 143 FPS at Low settings. This resolution maintains high frame rates while benefiting from more detail than 1080p. At 4K, the system only exceeds 60 FPS at Low settings (82 FPS) and Medium settings (73 FPS), while High and Ultra fall below 50 FPS.

Q: How does the Ryzen 9 8945HX compare to its nearest rivals in CPU benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 9 8945HX scores 76,212 in average benchmark performance, placing it at the 95th CPU percentile. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, scores 76,155 (0.1% slower), while the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D scores 75,779 (0.6% slower). The AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P and AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX score 76,492 and 76,513 respectively, both 0.4% faster.

Q: Why does Ultra settings produce such low frame rates at 4K?

A: The 4K Ultra result of 34 FPS represents a 58.5% drop from 4K High (49 FPS) and a 59.5% drop from 1440p Ultra (59 FPS). This indicates that Ultra settings enable additional rendering features that are disproportionately expensive at high resolutions, overwhelming even the RTX 4090's 82.58 TFLOPS compute capability.

Q: Is this system CPU-bound or GPU-bound in Archeage?

A: The scaling pattern suggests GPU-bound performance at higher resolutions. The consistent resolution scaling percentages and the fact that the RTX 4090 ranks at the 88th GPU percentile while the Ryzen 9 8945HX ranks at the 95th CPU percentile indicate the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K, while the CPU has sufficient headroom at lower resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimal settings based on target frame rate and resolution. At 1080p, the system delivers excellent performance across all presets, with even Ultra settings achieving 87 FPS average. For players seeking maximum smoothness, Low settings at 1080p produce 212 FPS, which is well above any display refresh rate commonly available. Medium settings at 1080p offer 188 FPS average with a 160-217 FPS range, providing a good balance between visual quality and headroom.

At 1440p, the recommendation shifts toward Medium or High settings. Medium delivers 127 FPS average with a 108-146 FPS range, while High achieves 86 FPS. Both presets maintain frame rates above 60 FPS, making them viable for smooth gameplay. Ultra at 1440p drops to 59 FPS, which is borderline for competitive play but acceptable for casual exploration. The data suggests Medium at 1440p is the sweet spot, offering 127 FPS with a minimum of 108 FPS that ensures consistent smoothness.

At 4K, the choices become more constrained. Low settings deliver 82 FPS, Medium delivers 73 FPS with a 62-84 FPS range, but High drops to 49 FPS and Ultra falls to 34 FPS. For a playable 4K experience, Medium settings are the highest preset that maintains an average above 60 FPS. The 62 FPS minimum at 4K Medium is just above the 60 FPS threshold, making it the recommended preset for 4K gaming on this system. High settings at 4K are only suitable for players who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate smoothness.

The overall recommendation is to prioritize 1440p with Medium or High settings for the best balance of visual quality and performance. The 1440p Medium result of 127 FPS average with a 108 FPS minimum provides a 79.4% higher frame rate than 4K Medium and maintains consistent smoothness. For players with 1080p displays, Ultra settings at 87 FPS provide the best visual experience without sacrificing playability.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured frame rate data for this system in Archeage is as follows. At 3840x2160 (4K), the system achieves 82 FPS average on Low settings, 73 FPS average on Medium settings (with a range of 62 to 84 FPS), 49 FPS average on High settings, and 34 FPS average on Ultra settings. The 4K Medium preset is the only configuration at this resolution that provides both an average and minimum frame rate above 60 FPS.

At 2560x1440 (1440p), the performance improves substantially. Low settings deliver 143 FPS average, Medium delivers 127 FPS average (with a range of 108 to 146 FPS), High delivers 86 FPS average, and Ultra delivers 59 FPS average. The 1440p results show a clear progression where Low and Medium settings provide frame rates well above 120 FPS, while High remains above 60 FPS and Ultra falls just below that threshold.

At 1920x1080 (1080p), the system shows its peak performance. Low settings achieve 212 FPS average, Medium achieves 188 FPS average (with a range of 160 to 217 FPS), High achieves 128 FPS average, and Ultra achieves 87 FPS average. The 1080p Medium preset has the highest maximum FPS recorded across all configurations at 217 FPS, while the 1080p Low preset has the highest average at 212 FPS.

Comparing across resolutions, the frame rate progression at each settings level shows consistent scaling. At Low settings, the system moves from 212 FPS at 1080p to 143 FPS at 1440p to 82 FPS at 4K. At Medium settings, the progression is 188 FPS to 127 FPS to 73 FPS. At High settings, it is 128 FPS to 86 FPS to 49 FPS. At Ultra settings, it is 87 FPS to 59 FPS to 34 FPS. The 4K results consistently represent approximately 38-39% of the 1080p performance at each settings level, confirming the resolution scaling behavior discussed earlier.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is a 16-core, 32-thread processor from the 8000 series, built on the Zen 4 architecture with the Dragon Range codename. It operates with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, drawing a 55 W TDP. The CPU features a 64 MB L3 cache, 1 MB L2 cache per core, and 64 KB L1 cache per core, with support for DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration providing 83.2 GB/s bandwidth. Its 5 nm process node from TSMC contains 13,140 million transistors across a 2x 71 mm² die size.

In CPU benchmark tests, the Ryzen 9 8945HX achieves notable scores: 42,713 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 6,030 in Cinebench R23 single-core, 17,939 in Cinebench R20 multi-core, and 2,532 in Cinebench R20 single-core. The Passmark suite shows 51,405 in multi-thread, 3,907 in single-thread, 195,180 in integer math, and 117,453 in floating point math. These results place the CPU at the 95th percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 76,212.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database demonstrate its competitive position. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX scores 76,155 (0.1% slower), the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D scores 75,779 (0.6% slower), while the AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P scores 76,492 (0.4% faster) and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX scores 76,513 (0.4% faster). These near-identical scores indicate that the Ryzen 9 8945HX is extremely well-balanced against the current mobile and desktop flagship processors.

In the context of Archeage, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions. The fact that frame rates scale consistently with resolution changes — rather than showing CPU-limited plateaus — suggests that the Ryzen 9 8945HX's 16 cores and 32 threads are more than sufficient for Archeage's workload. The game, being a 2014 MMORPG, likely does not utilize all 32 threads effectively, but the CPU's strong single-thread performance (6,030 in Cinebench R23 single-core) ensures that game logic and network processing do not become bottlenecks. The 95th percentile CPU ranking combined with the 88th percentile GPU ranking indicates a well-matched system where the GPU becomes the limiting factor at 4K, while the CPU maintains sufficient headroom at all tested resolutions.