Archeage

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 produces a playable but demanding experience in Archeage, with performance heavily dependent on the selected graphics preset. The measured data shows that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions, providing a substantial frame rate improvement over High settings while maintaining acceptable visual quality. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 121 FPS on average, which is a significant jump from the 82 FPS seen at High settings. At 1440p, the Medium preset still holds up well with 81 FPS average, while at 4K it drops to 47 FPS average, which is still more playable than the 32 FPS average at High settings. The Low preset is the only option that maintains high frame rates at 4K with a 52 FPS average, but it sacrifices visual fidelity. The Ultra preset is essentially unplayable at 4K with a 22 FPS average and only reaches 56 FPS at 1080p, making it the least practical choice for this combination. For the best experience, the Medium preset is the recommended starting point, as it offers a playable frame rate at 1440p and above while keeping the visual quality reasonable. If the user prioritizes frame rate over visuals, the Low preset provides the smoothest experience at 1440p and 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Comet Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 14 nm process node. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The processor features a 12 MB shared L3 cache, with 64 KB L1 and 256 KB L2 per core. It supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel bus and a memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. The CPU connects via PCIe Gen 3 with 16 lanes. Its benchmark scores place it at the 68th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 14185. The CPU’s closest rivals are the Intel Xeon 6756E with an average score of 14163 and a deltaPct of 0.2, the Intel Core 7 160UL with an average score of 14232 and a deltaPct of -0.3, the AMD EPYC 7552 with an average score of 14115 and a deltaPct of 0.5, and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C with an average score of 14277 and a deltaPct of -0.6.

For an MMORPG like Archeage, which often involves large player populations and complex world interactions, the CPU plays a significant role in maintaining consistent frame rates. The i5-10400F's 6 cores and 12 threads provide solid multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 10283 and a single-core score of 1451. The boost clock of 4.30 GHz ensures that single-threaded tasks, which are common in MMO game logic, can be handled efficiently. In the measured results, the CPU's capabilities are sufficient to keep up with the RTX 5050 at 1080p, as evidenced by the frame rates at Low settings reaching 136 FPS average. However, the data suggests that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in this pairing, as the frame rates scale more significantly with resolution changes, pointing to the GPU as the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The processor’s benchmark scores, such as a 3DMark max threads score of 4735 and a Passmark multithread score of 12115, indicate it has enough headroom for MMO workloads, but the measured FPS at Ultra settings (56 FPS at 1080p) suggests that the game’s engine may be limited by factors other than raw CPU compute.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 is a modern graphics card based on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, built on TSMC's 5 nm process node. It features 2560 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, along with 20 RT cores and 80 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2317 MHz and a boost clock of 2572 MHz, with memory clocked at 2500 MHz, effectively 20 Gbps. It has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 320.0 GB/s. The card's compute capabilities include a FP32 performance of 13.17 TFLOPS and a pixel rate of 82.30 GPixel/s. It has a TDP of 130 W and requires a 300 W power supply. The GPU’s benchmark scores place it at the 66th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 21035. Its closest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL with an average score of 21153 and a deltaPct of -0.6, the AMD Radeon HD 8970M with an average score of 21237 and a deltaPct of -1, the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT with an average score of 20713 and a deltaPct of 1.6, and the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile with an average score of 21379 and a deltaPct of -1.6.

The RTX 5050's 8 GB of VRAM is a crucial factor in Archeage, especially at higher resolutions and settings. At 4K Ultra, the card is clearly overwhelmed, producing only 22 FPS average, which suggests that both VRAM capacity and memory bandwidth are insufficient for the demands of the game at that extreme setting. The 320.0 GB/s bandwidth is a limiting factor when handling high-resolution textures. The GPU’s performance scales predictably with resolution, as seen in the measured FPS data. At 1080p, the card delivers 136 FPS on Low and 121 FPS on Medium, but this drops to 82 FPS on High and 56 FPS on Ultra. At 1440p, the frame rates are 91 FPS on Low, 81 FPS on Medium, 55 FPS on High, and 38 FPS on Ultra. At 4K, the card manages 52 FPS on Low, 47 FPS on Medium, 32 FPS on High, and 22 FPS on Ultra. These numbers indicate that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K, especially considering its performance relative to rivals like the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, which it leads by 1.6%. The 13.17 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is decent for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the combination of limited VRAM and memory bandwidth prevents it from handling Ultra settings at 4K effectively.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-10400F and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 ranks 1691 out of 2761 tested combos in Archeage. This places it in the lower-middle portion of the ranking, indicating that while it is not a top-tier setup, it is also far from being the worst. The percentile ranking of the CPU at 68 and the GPU at 66 suggests that both components are slightly above average in their respective categories, but the combo’s overall rank is dragged down by the demanding nature of the game. The ranking implies that many other CPU-GPU pairings can achieve higher frame rates in Archeage, but this setup is still capable of providing a playable experience at reasonable settings. The data shows that the combo performs best at 1080p and 1440p with Medium or Low settings, where it can achieve frame rates above 60 FPS. The rank of 1691 out of 2761 means that approximately 61% of tested combinations outperform it, but this does not account for the specific price-to-performance or the fact that many of those combos may use much more powerful and expensive components. The measured data indicates that this combo is better suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming rather than 4K, and users should adjust their expectations accordingly.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern of performance degradation as the resolution increases from 1080p to 1440p and then to 4K. At 1080p, the average frame rates across all settings are 136 FPS on Low, 121 FPS on Medium, 82 FPS on High, and 56 FPS on Ultra. Moving to 1440p, the frame rates drop to 91 FPS on Low, 81 FPS on Medium, 55 FPS on High, and 38 FPS on Ultra. This represents a percentage decrease of approximately 33% on Low, 33% on Medium, 33% on High, and 32% on Ultra when moving from 1080p to 1440p. The drop from 1440p to 4K is more severe: at 4K, the frame rates are 52 FPS on Low, 47 FPS on Medium, 32 FPS on High, and 22 FPS on Ultra. This represents a further decrease of approximately 43% on Low, 42% on Medium, 42% on High, and 42% on Ultra.

The scaling pattern reveals that the GPU is the limiting component in this pairing. The consistent percentage drops across all settings when moving from 1440p to 4K indicate that the RTX 5050’s rendering capabilities, including its 8 GB VRAM and 320.0 GB/s bandwidth, are being saturated. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rate drops would be less pronounced at higher resolutions, as the GPU would have more time to render each frame. Instead, the fact that the frame rates nearly halve at 4K compared to 1440p suggests that the GPU is struggling to fill the increased pixel count. At 1080p, the CPU is more likely to be the limiting factor, as the frame rates at Low settings (136 FPS) are high enough that the CPU’s single-thread performance may not keep up. However, the data shows that the CPU’s boost clock of 4.30 GHz is sufficient to maintain high frame rates at 1080p Low, so the system is well-balanced at lower resolutions. The 4K Ultra results, with an average of 22 FPS, are the clearest indicator that the GPU cannot handle the most demanding settings at the highest resolution, making 1440p Medium or High the most sensible choice for a balance of visual quality and performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following is the complete breakdown of measured FPS for the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 combination in Archeage.

At 3840x2160 (4K), the performance is limited. On Low settings, the average FPS is 52. On Medium settings, the average FPS is 47, with a minimum of 40 and a maximum of 53. On High settings, the average FPS drops to 32. On Ultra settings, the average FPS is 22. This clear degradation from Low to Ultra highlights the GPU’s limitations at this resolution.

At 2560x1440 (1440p), the performance is more playable. On Low settings, the average FPS is 91. On Medium settings, the average FPS is 81, with a minimum of 69 and a maximum of 93. On High settings, the average FPS is 55. On Ultra settings, the average FPS is 38. The step from Low to Medium is relatively small, but the drop to High is significant, indicating that the High preset adds a substantial load.

At 1920x1080 (1080p), the performance is strong. On Low settings, the average FPS is 136. On Medium settings, the average FPS is 121, with a minimum of 103 and a maximum of 139. On High settings, the average FPS is 82. On Ultra settings, the average FPS is 56. The 1080p results show that the combo can handle high refresh rate gaming at Low and Medium settings, but Ultra still struggles to maintain 60 FPS.

The data across all resolutions and settings shows a consistent pattern. The Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, with frame rates that are playable at 1080p and 1440p. The Low preset is the only option that provides smooth gameplay at 4K, but it does so at the cost of visual fidelity. The High preset is a middle ground that works well at 1080p but becomes less viable at 1440p and 4K. The Ultra preset is only recommended for users who prioritize visual quality over frame rate and are willing to accept sub-60 FPS performance at 1080p and below 40 FPS at 1440p. For most users, the Medium preset at 1440p or the High preset at 1080p will provide the best overall experience.