Archeage

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT delivers a strong but inconsistent experience in Archeage, ranking in the 63rd percentile of all tested combinations. The data shows this combo is firmly capable of high-refresh-rate play at 1080p and 1440p with medium settings, but the game’s Ultra preset cripples performance, dropping below 60 FPS at both 4K and 1440p. For a 2014 MMORPG, this pairing proves that the CPU, which sits at the 73rd percentile overall, is not the primary constraint; instead, the GPU’s raw power is held back by the game’s demanding Ultra settings, which favor brute-force compute over efficiency.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Archeage?

A: The highest recorded average is 168.1 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This indicates the combo can easily push past standard 144Hz monitors when graphical load is minimized.

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

A: The Core i5-10400F’s average benchmark score of 14168 is nearly identical to its closest rival, the AMD EPYC 7552, which scores 14115, a delta of only 0.4%. It also trails the Intel Core i5-8500 by 1.1% and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C by 0.8%.

Q: Does the GPU outperform its closest competitors?

A: The RX 6800 XT, with an average score of 49982, is 0.5% ahead of the Intel Arc A550M but 1.7% behind the NVIDIA RTX A1000. It also leads the NVIDIA CMP 50HX by 1.9% and the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER by 2.6%.

Q: What is the biggest performance drop when moving from Low to Ultra settings?

A: At 4K, the average FPS plummets from 74.4 on Low to 29.6 on Ultra, a reduction of 44.8 FPS. This represents a performance loss of over 60% when enabling the highest preset.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU more likely to be the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo hits 168.1 FPS, which is close to the CPU’s practical limits for a 6-core, 12-thread part. The GPU is strong enough to render frames quickly, but the CPU’s single-thread score of 688 in 3DMark suggests it caps high-FPS scenarios.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested combinations in this game?

A: The combo ranks 631 out of 1727 tested combinations, placing it in the upper third of all systems. This rank reflects a solid balance, though not a top-tier contender for this specific title.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is the dominant component in this pairing for Archeage, and its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This capacity is more than sufficient for a 2014 MMORPG, even at 4K Ultra, where textures and draw distances might stress lesser cards. The GPU’s boost clock of 2250 MHz and game clock of 2015 MHz drive the high FPS numbers, but the data reveals a clear ceiling: at 4K Ultra, average FPS collapses to 29.6. This is not due to VRAM exhaustion but rather the GPU’s compute throughput, which is rated at 20.74 TFLOPS FP32, being saturated by the Ultra preset’s effects.

The GPU’s 87th percentile ranking among all GPUs suggests it is a high-end part, yet its performance in Archeage is inconsistent. At 1440p High, it hits 78.8 FPS, but at 4K High, it falls to 47.1 FPS. This scaling shows that the RX 6800 XT’s 4608 shading units and 128 ROPs are powerful, but the game’s engine does not scale efficiently with this hardware. The passmark G3D score of 24980 reinforces its capability, but the measured FPS data indicates that Archeage’s Ultra settings are disproportionately punishing, likely due to unoptimized shader complexity or draw calls that exceed the GPU’s scheduling efficiency.

How This Combo Ranks

With a combo rank of 631 out of 1727 tested systems, this CPU-GPU pairing sits in the 63.5th percentile for Archeage. This is a respectable position, but not elite, given that the GPU alone is in the 87th percentile. The gap between the GPU’s individual standing and the combo’s rank suggests that the Intel Core i5-10400F is holding back the RX 6800 XT in this specific title. The CPU’s percentile of 73 is significantly lower than the GPU’s, indicating a bottleneck in scenarios where the game relies on single-threaded physics or AI calculations.

Compared to other combos, this ranking implies that systems with faster CPUs, even paired with slower GPUs, could match or exceed this setup’s FPS in CPU-bound sections. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 168.1 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s maximum frame output. If the GPU were the sole constraint, we would expect higher FPS at lower resolutions, but the 1080p Low result is only 39.6 FPS higher than the 1440p Low result of 128.5 FPS, a smaller jump than the resolution change alone would predict. This points to the CPU limiting the upper bound of performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best results. Low settings produce 168.1 FPS, Medium 162.4 FPS, and High 119.9 FPS. The Ultra preset drops the average to 82.4 FPS, which is still playable but represents a 51% reduction from Low. This resolution shows the most headroom, with all presets except Ultra exceeding 100 FPS.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong for most presets. Low yields 128.5 FPS, Medium 118.2 FPS, and High 78.8 FPS. The Ultra preset falls to 57 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. This suggests that 1440p Ultra is not viable for consistent high-refresh-rate play, but High and below are comfortable.

At 3840x2160, the GPU’s limitations become apparent. Low produces 74.4 FPS, Medium 67.7 FPS, and High 47.1 FPS. Ultra drops to 29.6 FPS, which is nearly unplayable for an action-oriented MMORPG. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is only 6.7 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 20.6 FPS, indicating that High settings introduce a significant computational cost.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience, the data strongly favors Medium settings at 1080p or 1440p. At 1080p Medium, the combo achieves 162.4 FPS, which is nearly identical to Low’s 168.1 FPS, offering a negligible performance loss for improved visuals. At 1440p Medium, the 118.2 FPS result is still well above the 60 FPS threshold, making it the sweet spot for visual fidelity and smoothness.

High settings are only recommended at 1080p, where the 119.9 FPS average remains competitive for high-refresh displays. At 1440p High, the 78.8 FPS result is acceptable for 60Hz monitors but not ideal for 144Hz. Ultra settings should be avoided entirely, as they produce sub-60 FPS results at both 1440p and 4K, and even at 1080p, the 82.4 FPS average does not justify the visual upgrade over Medium. For users prioritizing frame rate, Low at 1440p offers 128.5 FPS, which is a better choice than High at that resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Comet Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support at 42.7 GB/s are typical for this generation. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU’s Cinebench R23 multicore score of 10297 and single-core score of 1453 indicate balanced performance, but its 3DMark single-thread score of 688 is modest.

In Archeage, the CPU’s role is to handle game logic, NPC AI, and network processing, which are often single-threaded. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo reaches 168.1 FPS, but at 1440p Low, it only drops to 128.5 FPS. This 39.6 FPS difference is less than the resolution scaling would suggest if the GPU were the sole bottleneck, implying that the CPU is limiting the maximum frame rate. The CPU’s passmark single-thread score of 2541 is low compared to modern parts, and its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C, score similarly, confirming that this is not a high single-thread performer.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the limiting component. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 168.1 at 1080p to 128.5 at 1440p, a 23.6% reduction, and then to 74.4 at 4K, a 55.7% reduction from 1440p. This scaling is steeper than the pixel count increase, which suggests that the GPU becomes more of a constraint at higher resolutions, but the CPU still caps the lower resolution results.

At Ultra settings, the drop is more dramatic: 82.4 FPS at 1080p, 57 FPS at 1440p, and 29.6 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is 30.8%, and from 1440p to 4K is 48.1%. This indicates that at Ultra, the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as the increased resolution multiplies the shading and texture work, overwhelming the RX 6800 XT’s 20.74 TFLOPS. The fact that the 1080p Ultra result is only 82.4 FPS, while 1080p Low is 168.1 FPS, shows that the Ultra preset adds a massive GPU workload, independent of resolution.

The data also shows that at 1080p, the gap between Low and Medium is only 5.7 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 42.5 FPS. This suggests that High and Ultra settings introduce effects that are disproportionately expensive on this hardware, likely related to shadows or post-processing. Overall, the RX 6800 XT is the limiting factor at 4K, but the i5-10400F holds back the combo at 1080p, preventing it from fully utilizing the GPU’s potential.