Archeage

# Archeage with Intel Core i5-12400 + AMD Radeon RX 9060

This combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 9060 lands at rank 2174 out of 3708 tested combos in Archeage, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the field. The data shows a system that can handle the game at 1080p with high frame rates, but struggles significantly as resolution climbs, revealing a GPU that is the primary bottleneck at higher settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a steep performance decline from 1080p to 4K across all settings, indicating that the Radeon RX 9060 becomes increasingly stressed as pixel count rises. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 142 FPS at 1920x1080 to 95 FPS at 2560x1440, then falls further to 55 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 61% reduction from 1080p to 4K, showing that even at the lowest quality preset, the GPU cannot maintain playable 4K performance.

Moving through the settings presets, the scaling pattern becomes more dramatic. At Medium settings, 1080p delivers 126 FPS, dropping to 85 FPS at 1440p and 49 FPS at 4K. The High preset follows a similar curve: 86 FPS at 1080p, 58 FPS at 1440p, and 33 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset shows the most severe degradation, with 58 FPS at 1080p, 39 FPS at 1440p, and just 23 FPS at 4K — a 60% loss from 1080p to 4K.

The resolution scaling behavior indicates that the RX 9060's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 128-bit bus are limiting factors at higher resolutions. The frame rate drops between 1440p and 4K are particularly steep across all settings, suggesting that memory bandwidth constraints become acute at 3840x2160. At 1080p, the CPU has enough headroom to feed the GPU, but at 4K, the GPU's compute throughput and memory subsystem are overwhelmed.

The data also reveals that the gap between Low and Ultra settings widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference between Low (142 FPS) and Ultra (58 FPS) is 84 FPS. At 1440p, that gap narrows to 56 FPS (95 vs 39), and at 4K it shrinks to 32 FPS (55 vs 23). This pattern suggests that at higher resolutions, the GPU is so saturated that reducing settings yields diminishing returns — the bottleneck shifts from pixel throughput to raw memory bandwidth.

Settings Recommendations

For 1920x1080, the Medium preset at 126 FPS offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, with minimums of 107 FPS ensuring smooth gameplay even in demanding scenes. The High preset at 86 FPS is also viable, but the 40 FPS drop from Medium to High suggests that the Ultra preset's extra visual features exact a heavy toll — 58 FPS at 1080p Ultra is playable but leaves little headroom for the frame drops that often occur in MMO crowded areas.

At 2560x1440, Medium at 85 FPS is the clear recommendation, with minimums of 72 FPS keeping the experience fluid. The High preset at 58 FPS is borderline; it will feel acceptable in quiet zones but may stutter in large-scale PvP or zerg fights. The Ultra preset at 39 FPS is not recommended for 1440p, as the frame rate falls below the 60 FPS threshold that competitive players typically prefer. Low at 95 FPS exists as an option for players who prioritize frame rate over visuals, but the visual quality loss is substantial for only a 10 FPS gain over Medium.

At 3840x2160, the situation is more constrained. The Low preset at 55 FPS is the only setting that approaches playable territory, but even this is marginal for an MMO. Medium at 49 FPS and High at 33 FPS are both below acceptable thresholds for a game where reaction time matters. The Ultra preset at 23 FPS is effectively unplayable. For 4K, the data suggests that players should either drop to Low settings or consider a more powerful GPU, as the RX 9060 cannot maintain 60 FPS at any quality level in this resolution.

The minimum FPS data available for Medium settings — 107 FPS at 1080p, 72 FPS at 1440p, and 41 FPS at 4K — provides useful context for frame time consistency. The 41 FPS minimum at 4K Medium indicates that even the average 49 FPS is not stable, with dips that would be noticeable during combat. At 1080p Medium, the 107 FPS minimum ensures no perceptible hitches.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 sits at the 59th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 16014. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, scores 16129 — a marginal 0.7% difference — placing the RX 9060 within a hair's breadth of that well-known card. The data shows this GPU is positioned in the mid-range tier, capable of solid 1080p and acceptable 1440p performance in Archeage, but not equipped for 4K gaming.

The GPU's memory configuration is a critical factor in this game's results. With 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus delivering 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth, the RX 9060 has enough memory bandwidth for 1080p gaming but struggles at higher resolutions. The measured FPS drops at 4K — particularly the 23 FPS at Ultra settings — suggest that the memory subsystem becomes a bottleneck when the game needs to stream larger textures and draw distances at high pixel counts.

Clock speeds show a notable boost profile: the base clock of 1700 MHz, game clock of 2400 MHz, and boost clock of 2990 MHz. The substantial gap between base and boost clocks indicates that the GPU can ramp up significantly under load, which helps maintain frame rates in less demanding scenes at 1080p. However, the 132 W TDP and single 8-pin power connector mean the card is power-limited; sustained heavy loads at 4K may cause clock speeds to settle lower than the boost maximum, contributing to the steep performance drop at that resolution.

The GPU's compute capabilities — 21.43 TFLOPS FP32, 1792 shading units, 112 TMUs, and 64 ROPs — provide a baseline for understanding its rasterization performance. In Archeage, an older MMORPG from 2014, the game's engine is not particularly demanding on modern GPUs, yet the 4K results show the RX 9060 still cannot achieve 60 FPS. This suggests that the game's optimization, combined with the GPU's mid-range positioning, creates a hard ceiling around 1440p for playable performance.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Archeage at 4K smoothly?

A: No. The measured data shows that at 3840x2160, the highest average frame rate is 55 FPS on Low settings, dropping to 33 FPS on High and 23 FPS on Ultra. None of the 4K presets achieve 60 FPS, so 4K gaming is not viable with this combination.

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU/GPU combo?

A: 1920x1080 is the optimal resolution, with all presets except Ultra delivering above 86 FPS. The Medium preset at 126 FPS with a 107 FPS minimum provides the best balance of visual quality and frame rate stability.

Q: How does the RX 9060 compare to the RTX 3060 Ti in benchmark scores?

A: The RX 9060 scores 16014 on average, while the RTX 3060 Ti scores 16129. This places the RX 9060 0.7% behind the RTX 3060 Ti, making the two GPUs effectively equivalent in raw benchmark performance.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: At 1080p and 1440p, the CPU appears to keep up with the GPU, as frame rates scale consistently with resolution changes. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, as frame rates drop well below what the CPU could theoretically feed.

Q: Is the Ultra preset worth using at 1440p?

A: No. Ultra at 2560x1440 delivers only 39 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth MMO gameplay. The Medium preset at 85 FPS provides over double the frame rate and will feel significantly more responsive.

Q: What is the total performance percentile of the CPU?

A: The Intel Core i5-12400 sits at the 72nd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 18683. This places it in the upper-mid range, well above the GPU's 59th percentile.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 provides 6 cores and 12 threads with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its benchmark results show strong single-threaded performance with a 3DMark single-thread score of 910 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2257, which is crucial for an MMORPG like Archeage where game logic and UI interactions often rely on single-threaded performance.

The CPU's multithreaded scores — 15989 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 18747 in Passmark multithread — indicate that it has ample headroom for the background tasks and addons that MMO players typically run alongside the game. The 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 cache per core help maintain data locality, which is beneficial for the streaming world of Archeage where assets load continuously as players move between zones.

Comparing the i5-12400 to its nearest rivals, it performs nearly identically to the AMD EPYC 7643 (0.1% faster) and the Intel Core i7-1355U (0.3% faster), while trailing the AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 by 0.7%. The Intel Core i3-14100F is 0.9% slower. This clustering around the same average score — 18683 vs. 18519-18811 — suggests that the i5-12400 is well-positioned for this game, as CPU performance is not the limiting factor in the measured FPS data.

The CPU's 72nd percentile ranking versus the GPU's 59th percentile highlights an imbalance in this pairing. The i5-12400 has more relative headroom than the RX 9060, meaning that in Archeage, the GPU is the component that determines playable settings and resolutions. For players using this CPU with a more powerful GPU, frame rates could be higher in this game, as the CPU has demonstrated it can handle the load without being a bottleneck at the tested settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings delivers playable frame rates. Low settings average 142 FPS, Medium averages 126 FPS with a minimum of 107 FPS and maximum of 145 FPS, High averages 86 FPS, and Ultra averages 58 FPS. The 56 FPS spread between Low and Ultra at this resolution shows that the GPU has enough headroom at 1080p to accommodate significant visual upgrades, though the Ultra preset's 58 FPS average is below what many players would consider optimal.

At 2560x1440, the performance envelope tightens. Low averages 95 FPS, Medium averages 85 FPS with a minimum of 72 FPS and maximum of 98 FPS, High averages 58 FPS, and Ultra averages 39 FPS. The Medium preset at 85 FPS is the standout choice here, offering a 27 FPS improvement over High while maintaining a 72 FPS minimum. The Ultra preset at 39 FPS is the first clearly unplayable setting in the measured data, falling below the 40 FPS threshold that many players consider the absolute floor for an MMO.

At 3840x2160, only Low and Medium reach playable territory. Low averages 55 FPS, Medium averages 49 FPS with a minimum of 41 FPS and maximum of 56 FPS, High averages 33 FPS, and Ultra averages 23 FPS. The Medium preset's 41 FPS minimum is concerning, as it indicates frame drops into the low 40s during intense scenes. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is just 6 FPS, suggesting that the GPU is so bandwidth-limited that even small increases in visual complexity cause significant performance hits.

The complete FPS dataset shows a clear pattern: this system is best suited for 1080p gaming with Medium or High settings, capable of 1440p with Medium settings, and only marginally playable at 4K with Low or Medium settings. The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution above 1080p, and even at 1080p, its 58 FPS average leaves no margin for the frame drops that are common in MMO raids and crowded cities. Players seeking consistent 60 FPS performance should target 1080p Medium or High, or 1440p Medium, based on the measured data.