Archeage

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER delivers a robust Archeage experience across most configurations, with the data clearly indicating that the High preset at 1440p offers the most balanced combination of visual fidelity and frame rate, while 1080p Ultra remains viable for those prioritizing image quality over raw speed.

Settings Recommendations

Benchmark results for this specific CPU-GPU combination in Archeage show a clear hierarchy across the four tested presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset produces an average of 231.2 FPS, which represents the highest raw throughput available from this combo. However, the jump to Medium yields 208.6 FPS, a reduction of only 22.6 FPS (approximately 9.8%) that comes with a substantial improvement in visual quality. The High preset at 1080p delivers 143.8 FPS, still comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, while Ultra drops to 95.6 FPS.

The most compelling argument for High as the recommended setting emerges at 2560x1440. Here, High produces 96.8 FPS, which is nearly identical to the 1080p Ultra result of 95.6 FPS. This means users can enjoy a higher resolution with the High preset and achieve virtually the same frame rate as they would at 1080p with maximum settings. The Medium preset at 1440p reaches 138.8 FPS, offering a high-refresh-rate experience, but the visual trade-off from High to Medium is more noticeable than the resolution jump from 1080p to 1440p in most gameplay scenarios.

At 3840x2160, the picture changes dramatically. High settings produce 57 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced combat encounters common in MMORPGs. The Ultra preset at 4K falls to 36 FPS, which the data suggests is below the threshold for a consistently smooth experience. The measured results indicate that High at 1440p is the sweet spot, providing 96.8 FPS while retaining the majority of the graphical features that make Archeage's world visually engaging. For users with 1080p displays, High at 143.8 FPS is the recommended choice, as it leaves ample headroom for the frame drops that can occur in crowded player hubs or during large-scale siege warfare, which are characteristic of the MMORPG genre.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for a 1440p monitor with this CPU and GPU?

A: The High preset at 2560x1440 delivers 96.8 FPS on average, which provides a smooth experience while maintaining higher visual quality than Medium (138.8 FPS) or Low (155.4 FPS). Ultra at this resolution drops to 62.7 FPS, making High the most balanced option.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Archeage?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 3840x2160, the High preset achieves 57 FPS, which is playable, while Medium reaches 81.7 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K falls to 36 FPS, which may feel sluggish in action-heavy scenarios. Low at 4K produces 92.5 FPS.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings?

A: The average frame rate drops from 143.8 FPS at 1920x1080 to 96.8 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 47 FPS (approximately 32.7%). This indicates a significant portion of the rendering load shifts to the GPU as resolution increases.

Q: Is the Ultra preset ever the best choice for this hardware?

A: At 1080p, Ultra produces 95.6 FPS, which is perfectly playable and offers the maximum visual fidelity. However, it is 48.2 FPS slower than High at the same resolution. At higher resolutions, Ultra becomes increasingly demanding, with 62.7 FPS at 1440p and 36 FPS at 4K.

Q: What frame rate can users expect in uncapped scenarios?

A: The highest measured average is 231.2 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The Medium preset at 1080p still achieves 208.6 FPS, suggesting that the CPU and GPU combination has substantial headroom for high-refresh-rate displays at lower settings.

Q: How does the 4K Low preset compare to the 1080p Ultra preset?

A: Interestingly, 4K Low (92.5 FPS) produces a slightly lower average frame rate than 1080p Ultra (95.6 FPS). This suggests that at 4K, even Low settings impose a greater rendering load than Ultra at 1080p, likely due to the pixel count difference.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. In the context of Archeage, an MMORPG that often involves numerous player characters, NPCs, and dynamic world events, the CPU's multithreading capabilities play a significant role in maintaining consistent frame rates. The processor's 3DMark scores show a scaling pattern from 910 in single-thread to 5890 in max-threads, demonstrating that it leverages additional cores effectively up to 12 threads.

The benchmark data reveals that this CPU sits at the 77th percentile compared to all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19850. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-9700, scores 19831, placing the i5-12400 a marginal 0.1% ahead. This close competition indicates that the i5-12400 holds its own against older higher-tier processors. In Archeage specifically, the measured FPS data shows that at 1080p with Low settings, the system reaches 231.2 FPS, a figure that is unlikely to be constrained by the CPU given the GPU's capabilities. However, the drop from 231.2 FPS at Low to 143.8 FPS at High suggests that while the GPU becomes more involved, the CPU still manages the game logic and draw calls effectively.

The processor's 18 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support facilitate the handling of large amounts of game state data, which is crucial in an MMORPG where the world persists and many entities are tracked simultaneously. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5873, which is nearly identical to the max-threads score of 5890, indicates that the 12 threads are fully utilized without significant diminishing returns. This suggests that in Archeage, where multithreaded workloads are common due to network processing and AI calculations, the i5-12400 provides a solid foundation that does not bottleneck the RTX 4070 SUPER in most scenarios, except perhaps at very high frame rates in low-detail settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER ranks 288th out of 1727 tested combinations in Archeage, placing it in the top 16.7% of all tested systems. This ranking reflects the balance between the two components; the CPU is in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU is in the 84th percentile of all GPUs. The GPU's average benchmark score of 42576 places it just 0.2% behind the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (42653) and 0.3% behind the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE (42723), while it leads the AMD Radeon Pro 580X by 1.4% and the NVIDIA Tesla M40 by 1.6%.

In the context of Archeage, this rank of 288 out of 1727 indicates that the system is well above average but not at the absolute top tier. The measured FPS data supports this position, as the combo achieves 143.8 FPS at 1080p High, which is strong but not record-breaking. The gap between this combo and higher-ranked systems likely stems from the CPU's mid-range positioning; while the GPU is capable of pushing very high frame rates, the i5-12400's 6-core configuration may limit performance in CPU-bound scenarios, such as crowded areas with many players. However, the data shows that at 4K Ultra, the combo still manages 36 FPS, indicating that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at that extreme setting, as the resolution scaling demonstrates a significant performance cost that a faster CPU would not alleviate.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data across the three resolutions reveals clear scaling patterns that highlight the role of each component. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 143.8 FPS at 1080p to 96.8 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 47 FPS (32.7%), and then further to 57 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 39.8 FPS (41.1% from 1440p). This consistent decline indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor as resolution increases, since the rendering workload scales directly with pixel count.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more pronounced: 231.2 FPS at 1080p drops to 155.4 FPS at 1440p (a 75.8 FPS or 32.8% decrease) and then to 92.5 FPS at 4K (a 62.9 FPS or 40.5% decrease from 1440p). The fact that the percentage drops are similar between Low and High settings across resolutions suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources are being taxed proportionally, regardless of the visual complexity. The RTX 4070 SUPER's 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth and 12 GB of GDDR6X memory are sufficient for 4K, but the data shows that frame rates below 60 FPS at 4K High are the result of the GPU's raw compute limits, not memory capacity.

The transition from 1080p to 1440p at Medium settings shows a drop from 208.6 FPS to 138.8 FPS, a 69.8 FPS (33.5%) reduction. This is consistent with the scaling observed at other presets, further confirming that resolution is the dominant factor in performance variation. The data indicates that the CPU is not a significant bottleneck at higher resolutions, as the frame rate declines smoothly with increasing pixel count. However, at 1080p Low, the 231.2 FPS figure suggests that the CPU's 3.50 GHz boost clock (note: the fact pack lists base 2.50 and boost 4.40) is sufficient to feed the GPU, and any further frame rate increases would likely require a higher-end CPU with more cores or higher clock speeds.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured average FPS values for this combination is as follows:

At 1920x1080, the Low preset produces an average of 231.2 FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded across all settings and resolutions. The Medium preset achieves 208.6 FPS, a 22.6 FPS reduction that is relatively modest given the visual upgrade. High settings at 1080p yield 143.8 FPS, which represents a 64.8 FPS drop from Medium, indicating a significant increase in rendering complexity. The Ultra preset at 1080p delivers 95.6 FPS, which is 48.2 FPS below High and represents a 58.8% reduction from the Low preset's score.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset produces 155.4 FPS, which is still a high-refresh-rate experience. Medium settings at 1440p achieve 138.8 FPS, a 16.6 FPS reduction from Low. High at 1440p yields 96.8 FPS, which is 42.0 FPS below Medium and represents the recommended balance point. Ultra at 1440p drops to 62.7 FPS, which is 34.1 FPS below High and begins to approach the lower bounds of smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset produces 92.5 FPS, which is surprisingly high for 4K and indicates that the GPU can handle lower-complexity rendering at this resolution. Medium settings at 4K achieve 81.7 FPS, a 10.8 FPS reduction from Low. High at 4K yields 57 FPS, which is 24.7 FPS below Medium and is the last playable preset before Ultra. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 36 FPS, which is 21 FPS below High and represents the most demanding configuration tested.

The data shows a consistent pattern where each settings tier at a given resolution reduces the average FPS by approximately 20-30%, with the exception of the jump from High to Ultra at 1080p, which results in a 48.2 FPS drop. This suggests that the Ultra preset introduces particularly expensive effects that are best avoided at higher resolutions. The overall range of performance, from 36 FPS at 4K Ultra to 231.2 FPS at 1080p Low, demonstrates that this combo offers substantial flexibility for users to tailor their experience based on their display's resolution and refresh rate capabilities.