Archeage

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 580 presents a mixed picture in Archeage, a 2014 MMORPG. Across the measured settings, the combination shows a clear pattern: the system is heavily constrained by the graphics card at higher resolutions, but becomes increasingly CPU-bound at lower resolutions and settings. The data indicates a setup that can handle the game at 1080p with adjusted settings, but struggles significantly at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is drastic, revealing the RX 580 as the primary bottleneck at high resolutions. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 41.1 FPS at 1920x1080 to 29.5 FPS at 2560x1440, and then collapses to 13.9 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 66% reduction in performance from 1080p to 4K, a scaling curve that strongly indicates the GPU is overwhelmed by the pixel count at 4K.

The trend is consistent across all settings. At Low settings, the system manages 70.1 FPS at 1080p, drops to 44.5 FPS at 1440p, and falls to 24.3 FPS at 4K. The Medium preset shows a similar trajectory: 61 FPS at 1080p, 42.8 FPS at 1440p, and 26.7 FPS at 4K. Notably, the difference between 1440p and 4K is substantial in every case, with the 4K results all falling below 27 FPS, making the game effectively unplayable at that resolution regardless of quality settings.

The scaling behavior also highlights a CPU limitation at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the frame rate varies significantly between settings — from 70.1 FPS at Low down to 25.3 FPS at Ultra — which suggests the CPU can push higher frame rates when the GPU is less burdened. However, the fact that even at Low settings the 1080p result (70.1 FPS) is not dramatically higher than the 1440p Low result (44.5 FPS) indicates that the i5-10400F is still a limiting factor, preventing the system from achieving very high frame rates even when the GPU has less work to do.

How This Combo Ranks

In the broader context of all tested hardware combinations, this pairing sits near the bottom. The combo ranks 1602 out of 1727 tested combos in Archeage, placing it in the bottom 7% of all systems. This is a poor showing, but it is important to contextualize this ranking given the age of the hardware relative to the game's release.

The low rank is primarily attributable to the RX 580's age. The GPU's average benchmark score of 13559 places it in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs, which is middling overall. However, in a modern game like Archeage — which has received updates since its 2014 release — the GPU's GCN 4.0 architecture and 14 nm process node struggle to maintain competitive frame rates. The CPU, by contrast, performs relatively better; the i5-10400F's average benchmark score of 14168 puts it in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs, a much stronger relative position.

The rank of 1602 suggests that most other combinations tested deliver better performance in this specific title. The gap between the CPU's decent standing (73rd percentile) and the combo's poor ranking (1602 out of 1727) illustrates that the GPU is dragging down the overall experience. In an MMORPG like Archeage, where large-scale player interactions and complex scenes are common, this combination will likely struggle in the most demanding situations, even if it can manage acceptable frame rates in less crowded areas.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is the dominant factor in this combo's performance, and its specifications explain why. The card features 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is sufficient for the game's textures, but the GPU's raw compute power is limited.

The RX 580 has a base clock of 1257 MHz and a boost clock of 1340 MHz, with 2304 shading units. Its FP32 performance is rated at 6.175 TFLOPS, which was competitive at its 2017 release but is now dated. The card's 32 ROPs and 144 TMUs are modest by modern standards, and the pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s and texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s are not enough to handle 4K rendering in Archeage.

The benchmark data shows the GPU's synthetic scores are mediocre. Its Passmark G3D score of 8813 places it in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals in terms of average score are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (deltaPct 0), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 (deltaPct 0.1), and the AMD Radeon Pro 455 (deltaPct 1.1). This places the RX 580 in the same performance tier as graphics cards from several generations earlier, which directly explains the poor 4K results.

The GPU's DirectX performance scores are particularly telling: Passmark DirectX 11 scores 60, DirectX 12 scores 43, and DirectX 9 scores 124. These low scores, combined with the observed frame rates, confirm that the RX 580 is the limiting component at 1440p and 4K. The card's 8 GB VRAM is not the issue — the bottleneck is the GPU's compute throughput and memory bandwidth being insufficient for the higher resolution workloads.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings for this combo in Archeage?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 at Low settings yields the highest average frame rate at 70.1 FPS. At Medium settings, 1080p delivers 61 FPS, which is also playable. At 4K, all settings fall below 27 FPS, making that resolution impractical.

Q: How does the RX 580 compare to its closest rivals?

A: The RX 580's average benchmark score is 13559, which is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (13564, deltaPct 0) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 (13549, deltaPct 0.1). It is about 1.1% faster than the AMD Radeon Pro 455 (13416).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the frame rate varies from 70.1 FPS at Low to 25.3 FPS at Ultra, indicating that both components play a role. The CPU's 73rd percentile ranking suggests it is capable, but the significant drop at Ultra settings points to the GPU being the primary constraint at higher quality presets.

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

A: The combination ranks 1602 out of 1727 tested combos in Archeage, placing it in the bottom 7% of all systems tested for this game.

Q: Does the RX 580 have enough VRAM for Archeage?

A: The card has 8 GB of GDDR5 memory, which is ample for this title. The performance issues are not related to memory capacity but rather to the GPU's overall compute power and bandwidth, as evidenced by its 256.0 GB/s bandwidth and 6.175 TFLOPS FP32 performance.

Q: How does the i5-10400F's CPU performance compare to its rivals?

A: The i5-10400F has an average benchmark score of 14168, placing it in the 73rd percentile. It is 0.4% faster than the AMD EPYC 7552 (14115) and 0.8% faster than the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (14277, deltaPct -0.8). It trails the Intel Core i5-8500 (14332, deltaPct -1.1) and the AMD Ryzen Embedded V2546 (14336, deltaPct -1.2).

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F provides a solid foundation for this system, even if its performance is masked by the GPU's limitations. The CPU features 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Comet Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process. Its base clock is 2.90 GHz with a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, and it has 12 MB of shared L3 cache.

The CPU's benchmark results show it is a capable processor for gaming. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 10297, and its single-core score is 1453. The Geekbench multicore score of 5783 and single-core score of 1454 further confirm its strength. In the Passmark suite, it scores 12115 in multithread and 2541 in single-thread tests. These figures place the CPU in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs, which is a respectable position.

The CPU's 3DMark scores indicate good scaling with thread count: 1350 for 2 threads, 2560 for 4 threads, 3929 for 8 threads, and 4748 for 16 threads. The near-identical scores for 16 threads (4748) and max threads (4735) show that the 12-thread configuration is fully utilized without significant scaling losses.

In Archeage, an MMORPG that can be demanding on the CPU during large-scale battles, the i5-10400F's 6-core/12-thread configuration provides adequate headroom. The CPU's TDP of 65 W keeps thermals manageable, and its support for DDR4 memory with dual-channel bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s is sufficient for the game's needs. However, the benchmark data shows that at 1080p, the frame rates are still limited by the GPU at higher settings, so the CPU is not the primary constraint at those quality levels. The CPU only becomes a potential limiting factor at the lowest settings, where the 70.1 FPS result at 1080p Low suggests headroom remains but the system still cannot achieve very high frame rates due to the overall balance of the components.