Archeage

Archeage, released on January 14, 2014, is an MMORPG that remains sensitive to both CPU and GPU performance depending on the resolution and preset selected. This analysis examines the measured performance of the Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions. The data provides a clear picture of how this combination handles the game's engine, with significant variances in frame rates across the four tested quality presets.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data indicates that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all three resolutions for this specific hardware combination. At 1920x1080, Medium produces an average of 219 FPS, which is only 10 FPS lower than the Low preset's 229 FPS average, while delivering substantially better visual quality. The High preset at 1080p drops to 149 FPS average, which is still highly playable but represents a 32% reduction from Medium. The Ultra preset at 1080p yields 101 FPS average, which, while smooth, sacrifices nearly 54% of the performance available at Medium.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again emerges as the recommended choice, with an average of 147 FPS and a minimum of 125 FPS. This represents a 12% reduction from the Low preset's 165 FPS average but provides superior visual fidelity. High at 1440p averages 100 FPS, and Ultra drops to 68 FPS average. The 1440p Medium results show a minimum of 125 FPS, indicating that even in demanding scenes, the frame rate remains well above the threshold for smooth gameplay on high-refresh-rate monitors.

For 3840x2160, the Medium preset provides an average of 84 FPS with a minimum of 72 FPS and a maximum of 97 FPS. This is the only 4K preset where the minimum frame rate stays comfortably above 60 FPS. The High preset at 4K averages 57 FPS, which may be acceptable for some players but risks dropping below 60 FPS in busy areas typical of MMORPGs. Low at 4K averages 95 FPS but sacrifices visual quality significantly. Ultra at 4K is not recommended, as it averages only 39 FPS. The data strongly suggests that Medium is the optimal preset for this combo, providing the best trade-off between visual fidelity and performance at every resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i3-12100F and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX ranks 535th out of 3708 tested combos in Archeage, placing it in the top 14.4% of all configurations. This rank reflects the strong performance of the GPU paired with a capable, though not top-tier, CPU. The high rank is primarily driven by the GPU's substantial compute power, which dominates the higher resolution results.

The CPU itself, when compared to its nearest rivals, shows a mixed picture. The Intel Core i3-12100F has an average benchmark score of 13494, which is nearly identical to the Intel Core 3 N355 at 13492 (0% delta). It sits slightly above the Intel Core i5-9500 at 13452 (0.3% faster) and the Intel Core i7-1250U at 13351 (1.1% faster), but falls just behind the Intel Core 5 120UL at 13594 (-0.7% slower). These small deltas indicate that the CPU's performance is on par with several mid-range processors, suggesting that in CPU-bound scenarios, this combo may not distinguish itself from systems using those alternative processors.

The GPU's rank is more impressive. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX has an average benchmark score of 19410, placing it ahead of the NVIDIA TITAN Xp at 19177 (1.2% faster) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB at 19334 (0.4% faster). It trails the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 at 19602 (-1%) and the AMD FirePro D300 at 19637 (-1.2%). The GPU's 64th percentile ranking among all GPUs contrasts with the CPU's 68th percentile, indicating that the two components are relatively well-matched in their respective tiers. The combo's overall rank of 535 out of 3708 suggests that despite the GPU's age, it performs admirably in Archeage, likely due to the game's engine not fully utilizing the newest hardware features.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is the dominant component in this pairing for Archeage, particularly at higher resolutions. The GPU features 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s. This large memory pool is more than sufficient for Archeage, which is an older title and unlikely to exceed even 8 GB of VRAM usage at 4K. The clock speeds are substantial, with a base clock of 1929 MHz, a game clock of 2365 MHz, and a boost clock of 2498 MHz. The memory operates at 2500 MHz with 20 Gbps effective speed.

The GPU's compute capabilities are significant, with 6144 shading units, 384 texture mapping units, and 192 render output units. The pixel rate is 479.6 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 959.2 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is 61.39 TFLOPS, which provides ample raw compute for the game's rendering demands. The GPU also includes 96 ray tracing cores, though Archeage does not utilize ray tracing, so these remain idle in this title.

The data shows that the GPU's performance scales well with resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra presets is 128 FPS (229 vs 101), which indicates that the GPU is not the primary bottleneck at this resolution. At 4K, the difference between Low and Ultra is 56 FPS (95 vs 39), showing that the GPU becomes more relevant as resolution increases. The GPU's 64th percentile ranking among all GPUs suggests it is a capable performer, but the benchmark results in Archeage indicate that the game's engine may not fully leverage the GPU's modern architecture, as evidenced by the relatively small performance gap between this card and older competitors like the GTX 1060 3 GB in synthetic benchmarks.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average frame rates are as follows: Low preset achieves 229 FPS, Medium achieves 219 FPS with a minimum of 186 FPS and a maximum of 251 FPS, High achieves 149 FPS, and Ultra achieves 101 FPS. The progression from Low to Medium is minimal, with only a 10 FPS difference, suggesting that the Medium preset adds visual features that do not heavily tax the hardware at this resolution. The drop from Medium to High is substantial at 70 FPS, indicating that High introduces significant rendering costs. The Ultra preset further reduces performance by 48 FPS compared to High, making it the least efficient preset at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the average frame rates are: Low at 165 FPS, Medium at 147 FPS with a minimum of 125 FPS and a maximum of 169 FPS, High at 100 FPS, and Ultra at 68 FPS. The 1440p results show a similar pattern to 1080p, with Medium being only 18 FPS slower than Low. The transition from Medium to High results in a 47 FPS drop, and Ultra is 32 FPS slower than High. The minimum FPS of 125 at Medium suggests that even in the most demanding scenes, the frame rate remains high, providing a consistent experience.

At 3840x2160, the average frame rates are: Low at 95 FPS, Medium at 84 FPS with a minimum of 72 FPS and a maximum of 97 FPS, High at 57 FPS, and Ultra at 39 FPS. The 4K results show that the GPU begins to become a limiting factor, as the frame rates drop more significantly with each preset increase. The Medium preset's minimum of 72 FPS is noteworthy, as it shows that the combo can maintain playable frame rates even in heavy scenes at 4K. The Ultra preset's 39 FPS average is below the threshold for smooth gameplay, making it unsuitable for this resolution.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for this combo at 1440p?

A: The Medium preset is the best choice at 2560x1440, providing an average of 147 FPS with a minimum of 125 FPS. This represents a good balance between visual quality and performance, as the High preset drops to 100 FPS average and Ultra to 68 FPS average.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo averages only 39 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The minimum frame rate is not reported, but the average suggests that this preset is not recommended for 4K gaming.

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

A: At 1920x1080, the data shows a wide FPS range from 101 FPS at Ultra to 229 FPS at Low, with a 128 FPS difference between the two. This suggests that the GPU is not the primary bottleneck at this resolution, as the frame rates are high even at Ultra settings, and the CPU's single-thread performance becomes more relevant.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations in Archeage?

A: The combo ranks 535th out of 3708 tested combinations, placing it in the top 14.4% of all configurations. This rank is driven by the GPU's strong performance, particularly at higher resolutions.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX has an average benchmark score of 19410, which is 1.2% faster than the NVIDIA TITAN Xp and 0.4% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB. It is 1% slower than the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 and 1.2% slower than the AMD FirePro D300.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for the Medium preset at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the minimum FPS is 72, with an average of 84 FPS and a maximum of 97 FPS. This indicates that the combo can maintain frame rates above 60 FPS even in demanding scenes at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. It has a 12 MB shared L3 cache, with 80 KB of L1 cache per core and 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration and has a PCIe Gen 5 interface with 16 lanes. The TDP is 58 W, making it a low-power part that is well-suited for budget systems.

In Archeage, the CPU's role is most apparent at lower resolutions where the GPU is not fully utilized. At 1080p, the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings is 128 FPS, which suggests that the CPU's ability to feed the GPU is a factor. The CPU's single-thread performance, as measured by 3dmark_single_thread at 893 and cinebench_r23_singlecore at 1674, is strong for a 4-core part. The multi-threaded scores, such as cinebench_r23_multicore at 11860 and passmark_multithread at 14015, show that the 4-core/8-thread configuration provides adequate parallelism for the game's threading model.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the Intel Core 3 N355 with an average score of 13492 (0% delta) and the Intel Core i5-9500 at 13452 (0.3% faster). The CPU's 68th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates that it performs better than most processors, but it is not a top-tier part. In Archeage, the CPU's 4-core limit may become a bottleneck in large-scale battles with many players, but the measured data shows that at Medium settings, the frame rates remain high across all resolutions, suggesting that the CPU is sufficient for most scenarios.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows how the combo scales from 1080p to 4K across the presets. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 229 at 1080p to 165 at 1440p (a 28% reduction) and then to 95 at 4K (a 42% reduction from 1440p). The total drop from 1080p to 4K at Low is 134 FPS, representing a 58.5% decrease. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU becomes increasingly limiting as resolution increases, but the CPU still has headroom at 1080p.

At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 219 at 1080p to 147 at 1440p (a 33% reduction) and then to 84 at 4K (a 43% reduction from 1440p). The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 135 FPS, a 61.6% decrease. The minimum FPS at Medium drops from 186 at 1080p to 125 at 1440p (a 33% reduction) and then to 72 at 4K (a 42% reduction from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops suggests that the rendering load scales linearly with pixel count, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario at Medium settings.

At High settings, the average FPS drops from 149 at 1080p to 100 at 1440p (a 33% reduction) and then to 57 at 4K (a 43% reduction from 1440p). The total drop is 92 FPS, a 61.7% decrease. At Ultra settings, the average FPS drops from 101 at 1080p to 68 at 1440p (a 33% reduction) and then to 39 at 4K (a 43% reduction from 1440p). The total drop is 62 FPS, a 61.4% decrease. The near-identical percentage reductions across all presets indicate that the limiting component remains consistent as resolution changes, with the GPU being the primary factor at higher resolutions and the CPU contributing at lower resolutions.

The data reveals that the combo is well-balanced, with the CPU providing sufficient performance to drive high frame rates at 1080p, while the GPU's capabilities are fully exercised at 4K. The fact that the percentage drops from 1080p to 4K are nearly identical across presets suggests that neither component is excessively overloaded at any resolution, but rather that the system scales predictably with rendering demands.