Archeage

Archeage, a 2014 MMORPG, presents an interesting scalability test for the Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090. This combination, ranked 290th out of 3708 tested combos, places it in the top 8% of all configurations in the database. The data shows a system capable of high frame rates, but the pattern of performance across settings and resolutions reveals a complex relationship between the aging CPU and the flagship GPU.

Settings Recommendations

For this specific combo, the measured data indicates that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all tested resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 190 FPS average, which is only 8 FPS behind the Low preset's 198 FPS, while providing significantly better visual quality. The gap widens at 1440p, where Medium achieves 167 FPS versus Low's 174 FPS, a difference of just 7 FPS. Even at 4K, Medium maintains a playable 105 FPS average with a recorded minimum of 89 FPS and maximum of 120 FPS, making it the only preset that provides both a solid frame rate and a consistent frame pacing window at that resolution.

The High preset, while offering superior visuals, shows a notable performance penalty. At 1080p, High drops to 164 FPS, a 26 FPS reduction from Medium. This penalty becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions, with High falling to 124 FPS at 1440p and 71 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, yielding 126 FPS at 1080p, 85 FPS at 1440p, and only 48 FPS at 4K. Given that Ultra at 4K dips below 50 FPS, it is not recommended for this combo, while High at 4K is borderline at 71 FPS.

The data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot because it avoids the steep performance cliff seen when moving from Medium to High, while still offering a substantial improvement over Low. The 4K Medium result, with its 89-120 FPS range, indicates a playable experience that the higher presets cannot match at that resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. Its core clocks are 2017 MHz base and 2407 MHz boost, with 21760 shading units. This hardware is clearly overkill for a 2014 MMORPG, yet the benchmark results show that the GPU is not always the limiting factor.

The GPU's role becomes apparent when examining the scaling from Low to Ultra at each resolution. At 1080p, the frame rate only drops from 198 FPS on Low to 126 FPS on Ultra, a 36% reduction. This relatively modest scaling suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is often the bottleneck, preventing the GPU from fully flexing its muscles. The RTX 5090's massive compute resources are being held back by the i5-11400F's ability to feed it data.

At 4K, the GPU's role becomes more dominant. The spread from 117 FPS on Low to 48 FPS on Ultra is a 59% reduction, demonstrating that at higher resolutions the GPU's rendering workload becomes more significant. The 32 GB VRAM is ample for any texture load Archeage can present, and the 1.79 TB/s bandwidth ensures that even at 4K Ultra, memory bandwidth is not a constraint. The data indicates that the RTX 5090 is capable of delivering 117 FPS at 4K Low, which reflects its raw power, but the CPU limits its potential at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals the shifting bottleneck between CPU and GPU. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 198 at 1080p to 174 at 1440p and finally 117 at 4K. This represents a 41% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which is relatively mild. The CPU is clearly the primary limiter at Low settings, as even at 4K the GPU is still producing over 100 FPS.

At Medium settings, the scaling shows 190 FPS at 1080p, 167 FPS at 1440p, and 105 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is only 23 FPS, but the drop from 1440p to 4K is 62 FPS. This accelerating decline indicates that the GPU is starting to become more involved at 4K, but the CPU still holds the system back at lower resolutions.

The High preset shows a more aggressive scaling pattern: 164 FPS at 1080p, 124 FPS at 1440p, and 71 FPS at 4K. This 57% reduction from 1080p to 4K suggests that High settings are where the GPU begins to take on a more significant workload. The Ultra preset exhibits the steepest drop, from 126 FPS at 1080p to 85 FPS at 1440p to 48 FPS at 4K, a 62% reduction overall. This pattern confirms that at Ultra, the GPU is the dominant constraint across all resolutions.

The data shows that at 1080p, the system is heavily CPU-bound, as evidenced by the relatively small FPS differences between settings. At 4K, the GPU becomes the primary limiter, but the CPU's influence is still felt, as the Low preset at 4K (117 FPS) is not far off the High preset at 1080p (164 FPS). This indicates that the i5-11400F is a consistent bottleneck, capping performance around 200 FPS regardless of resolution.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: The data shows that 1440p Medium provides 167 FPS average, which is a balanced trade-off between visual fidelity and performance. At 4K Medium, the average drops to 105 FPS, which is still playable, but 1440p offers a smoother experience with a 62 FPS advantage.

Q: Why does the FPS difference between Low and Ultra shrink at higher resolutions?

A: At 1080p, the gap between Low (198 FPS) and Ultra (126 FPS) is 72 FPS. At 4K, this gap narrows to 69 FPS (117 FPS vs 48 FPS). This occurs because at lower resolutions the CPU limits the frame rate, compressing the performance range, while at 4K the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, allowing the settings to have a more proportional impact.

Q: Is the RTX 5090's 32 GB VRAM necessary for this game?

A: The benchmark data does not indicate any VRAM limitation for Archeage. The GPU's 32 GB GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are far beyond what this game requires, as evidenced by the fact that even at 4K Ultra, the GPU is still able to render frames, albeit at 48 FPS, without any reported memory-related issues.

Q: How does the i5-11400F's 6-core/12-thread configuration affect performance?

A: The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, appear to be the limiting factor in this combo. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system cannot exceed 198 FPS, suggesting the CPU reaches its processing limit. This is consistent with the CPU's 71st percentile ranking among all CPUs.

Q: Should I use High or Medium settings at 4K?

A: The data shows a significant drop from 105 FPS on Medium to 71 FPS on High at 4K. Given that Medium provides a 34 FPS advantage and maintains a minimum of 89 FPS, it is the safer choice for consistent gameplay, whereas High at 4K with 71 FPS may suffer from more noticeable frame pacing issues.

Q: What does the combo's rank of 290 out of 3708 mean?

A: This rank places the combo in the top 7.8% of all tested combinations. It indicates that while the system is not the absolute top performer, it is significantly above average, with the RTX 5090 contributing to high GPU scores (92nd percentile) and the i5-11400F providing solid, if not exceptional, CPU performance (71st percentile).

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-11400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination holds a combo rank of 290 out of 3708 tested combos for Archeage. This places it in the 92nd percentile of all configurations, meaning it outperforms approximately 92% of the systems tested with this game. The ranking reflects the RTX 5090's immense GPU power, which ranks in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, but it is tempered by the i5-11400F's more modest 71st percentile CPU ranking.

The data shows that this combo is not limited by the GPU, which has an average benchmark score of 79842 and sits in the top percentile of graphics cards. The CPU, with an average benchmark score of 17177, is the weaker link. This is evident in the measured FPS results, where the system cannot exceed 198 FPS even at 1080p Low, suggesting a hard CPU limit. The combo's rank of 290 indicates that there are 289 combos that perform better, likely featuring more powerful CPUs paired with the RTX 5090 or similar GPUs. However, for a game like Archeage, this combo still delivers excellent playable frame rates at all settings except 4K Ultra.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Rocket Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. It has a 12 MB shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel bus. Its benchmark scores show a single-thread performance of 2981 in Passmark, which is respectable, and a multi-thread score of 16908. The CPU's 3DMark scores range from 868 (single-thread) to 5652 (max threads), indicating a moderate scaling with thread count.

In Archeage, the CPU's role is clearly that of a bottleneck, particularly at lower resolutions. The data shows that at 1080p, the frame rates across all settings are tightly clustered, with only a 72 FPS difference between Low (198 FPS) and Ultra (126 FPS). This clustering suggests that the CPU is unable to feed the GPU enough data to differentiate between settings, capping the maximum frame rate around 200 FPS. The CPU's 6 cores may be sufficient for a game of this era, but its single-thread performance, while solid, is not enough to push frame rates higher.

The i5-11400F's 71st percentile ranking among all CPUs confirms that it is not a top-tier processor, but it is far from weak. In this combo, it serves as the limiting factor, preventing the RTX 5090 from achieving its full potential at 1080p and 1440p. At 4K, the CPU's influence diminishes, but it still prevents the system from achieving the frame rates that the GPU alone could deliver. The CPU's 12 threads are likely sufficient for Archeage's multi-threaded tasks, but the overall processing power is the primary constraint on this system's performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo provides a complete picture of its performance across three resolutions and four settings presets.

1920x1080:

• Low: 198 FPS average
• Medium: 190 FPS average, with a minimum of 162 FPS and maximum of 219 FPS
• High: 164 FPS average
• Ultra: 126 FPS average

At 1080p, the system is clearly CPU-bound. The 198 FPS ceiling on Low indicates the CPU's limit. The Medium preset offers 190 FPS, a 4% reduction from Low, while High and Ultra drop by 17% and 36% respectively. The Medium preset's 162-219 FPS range shows some frame variability, but the average is strong.

2560x1440:

• Low: 174 FPS average
• Medium: 167 FPS average, with a minimum of 142 FPS and maximum of 192 FPS
• High: 124 FPS average
• Ultra: 85 FPS average

At 1440p, the CPU still dominates. The drop from Low to Medium is only 7 FPS, but High incurs a 50 FPS penalty over Medium, and Ultra falls to 85 FPS. The Medium preset's 142-192 FPS range is wider than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is becoming more involved. The 174 FPS on Low shows that the CPU's limit has dropped slightly from 198 FPS at 1080p, but it is still the primary constraint.

3840x2160:

• Low: 117 FPS average
• Medium: 105 FPS average, with a minimum of 89 FPS and maximum of 120 FPS
• High: 71 FPS average
• Ultra: 48 FPS average

At 4K, the GPU begins to take over as the limiting factor. The drop from Low to Medium is 12 FPS, which is smaller than at 1440p, but the drop from Medium to High is 34 FPS, and High to Ultra is 23 FPS. The Ultra preset's 48 FPS average is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset, with its 89-120 FPS range, is the only 4K setting that provides a consistently playable experience. The Low preset at 117 FPS shows that the GPU can still deliver high frame rates, but the CPU's influence is still present, as evidenced by the fact that 4K Low (117 FPS) is not far off 1080p High (164 FPS).

The data across all resolutions shows a clear pattern: the i5-11400F limits frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, while the RTX 5090 becomes the primary bottleneck at 4K Ultra. The Medium preset offers the best balance of performance and quality at all resolutions, with the 4K Medium result being particularly notable for its consistency.