Archeage

# Archeage with Intel Core i5-12400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080

This combination delivers a highly capable Archeage experience, with the measured data indicating that the RTX 4080 is the dominant performance driver at higher resolutions while the i5-12400F keeps pace admirably at 1080p. The combo ranks 297th out of 3708 tested configurations, placing it in the top 8% of all systems, and the frame rates show a system that can handle the game's demands across most settings, though Ultra presets at 4K remain a challenge.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K reveals a predictable pattern of GPU-bound scaling, but the magnitude of the drop varies significantly depending on the quality preset. At Low settings, the system delivers 232 FPS at 1920x1080, which falls to 181 FPS at 2560x1440 — a 22% reduction — and then to 104 FPS at 3840x2160, representing a 55% drop from the 1080p baseline. This scaling curve is characteristic of a GPU that is being progressively saturated as pixel count increases, with the 4K resolution demanding roughly four times the pixel throughput of 1080p.

The Medium preset shows a similar trend but with slightly less dramatic scaling. Starting at 223 FPS in 1080p, the frame rate drops to 161 FPS at 1440p (a 28% reduction) and then to 92 FPS at 4K (a 59% drop from 1080p). The High preset follows a steeper decline: 163 FPS at 1080p, 110 FPS at 1440p (33% lower), and 63 FPS at 4K (61% lower). The Ultra preset exhibits the most severe scaling, with 111 FPS at 1080p collapsing to 75 FPS at 1440p (32% lower) and then to 43 FPS at 4K (61% lower).

The consistency of the percentage drop between 1440p and 4K across Medium, High, and Ultra settings — all hovering around 59-61% — indicates that the RTX 4080 is the limiting component at these resolutions. The GPU's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 716.8 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the textures at all tested settings, so the scaling is driven by raw shader and rasterization throughput. The fact that the Low preset shows a smaller relative drop between 1440p and 4K (43%) suggests that at lower settings, the frame rate is partially lifted by reduced shading load, but the GPU still remains the primary constraint. At 1080p, the CPU begins to play a more significant role, evidenced by the relatively small gap between Low (232 FPS) and Medium (223 FPS) — only a 4% difference — which points to the i5-12400F's single-thread performance becoming a factor at very high frame rates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the clear performance anchor in this configuration, and its specifications align closely with the measured results. The GPU operates with a base clock of 2205 MHz and a boost clock of 2505 MHz, built on the AD103 chip with 9728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units. The 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 compute provides ample raw horsepower for Archeage's DirectX 11-era rendering, and the data confirms that the card scales predictably across resolution and quality settings.

The 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus with 716.8 GB/s bandwidth is more than sufficient for this 2014 MMORPG, even at 4K with High textures. The measured frame rates at 4K High (63 FPS) and 4K Medium (92 FPS) show that memory capacity is not a bottleneck — the RTX 4080's 16 GB allocation comfortably exceeds the game's VRAM demands at any tested preset. The GPU's 112 ROPs and 280.6 GPixel/s pixel rate directly influence the resolution scaling observed, as the fill-rate requirements at 3840x2160 are substantial.

The RTX 4080's benchmark standing reinforces its position: it scores 34457 in Passmark G3D and 54247 in average benchmark score, placing it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, scores 54209 (0.1% higher), while the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54828 (1.1% higher) — these margins are negligible in real-world gaming. The GPU's raw compute, measured at 48.74 TFLOPS FP32, is what enables the high frame rates at 1440p, and the 4K results indicate that the card is performing at the expected level for its class. The fact that 4K Ultra drops to 43 FPS suggests that Archeage's Ultra preset includes effects that heavily tax the GPU's shading units, but the card's overall capability is not in question given the strong 1440p results.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Medium settings as the optimal balance for this configuration, particularly for players targeting high refresh rates. At 1080p, Medium delivers 223 FPS with a minimum of 189 FPS and a maximum of 256 FPS — this is the only preset at 1080p that provides both a high average and a floor above 180 FPS, making it ideal for competitive play. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs only 9 FPS (from 232 to 223), which is a negligible penalty for the visual quality improvement that Medium typically provides over Low.

At 1440p, Medium is again the standout choice, producing 161 FPS with a minimum of 137 FPS and a maximum of 186 FPS. This is a 50 FPS improvement over High (110 FPS) and a 36 FPS gain over Low (181 FPS is actually lower than Medium, which is anomalous but reflects the measured data). The High preset at 1440p (110 FPS) is still playable but leaves headroom on the table, while Ultra (75 FPS) starts to approach the threshold where motion smoothness becomes compromised on high-refresh displays.

For 4K, the recommendation shifts to High settings, which delivers 63 FPS — just above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Medium at 4K (92 FPS) is also viable and provides a better experience if visual fidelity is secondary to frame rate, but High represents the sweet spot for image quality without sacrificing playability. Ultra at 4K (43 FPS) should be avoided, as the frame rate falls below 45 FPS, which will be perceptibly stuttery in a fast-paced MMORPG environment. The Low preset at any resolution is not recommended because the visual downgrade is significant, and the frame rate gains over Medium are marginal at 1080p (9 FPS) and 1440p (20 FPS), though at 4K the Low preset's 104 FPS is a notable improvement over High's 63 FPS for players who prioritize frame rate above all else.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the configuration shows its strongest performance across all presets. Low settings produce 232 FPS average, Medium delivers 223 FPS with a minimum of 189 FPS and a maximum of 256 FPS, High reaches 163 FPS, and Ultra manages 111 FPS. The gradient from Low to Ultra is 121 FPS, with the largest single drop occurring between Medium and High (60 FPS difference). The minimum frame rate at Medium (189 FPS) indicates that even in demanding scenes, the system maintains a high floor.

At 2560x1440, the results scale down consistently. Low settings yield 181 FPS, Medium delivers 161 FPS (minimum 137 FPS, maximum 186 FPS), High produces 110 FPS, and Ultra drops to 75 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 106 FPS, and notably, the Medium preset's minimum of 137 FPS is still higher than the High preset's average of 110 FPS, suggesting that the Medium quality level provides a more consistent experience than High at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates show the GPU's limits. Low settings achieve 104 FPS, Medium delivers 92 FPS (minimum 79 FPS, maximum 106 FPS), High manages 63 FPS, and Ultra falls to 43 FPS. The minimum at Medium (79 FPS) is above the 60 FPS threshold, making Medium the safest choice for 4K gaming without frame rate dips. The Ultra preset's 43 FPS average is the only measured result that falls below 60 FPS, and it represents a 51% drop from the High preset's 63 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset's additional effects are disproportionately expensive at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 297th out of 3708 tested combos in Archeage, placing it in the top 8% of all configurations. This is a strong result, though not exceptional given the RTX 4080's position as an upper-mid-range GPU in the current market. The ranking reflects the fact that Archeage is a 2014 MMORPG that does not fully utilize the RTX 4080's modern feature set — the game predates DLSS and ray tracing support, so the GPU's Ada Lovelace architecture advantages are largely untapped in this title.

The CPU's contribution to this ranking is worth noting. The i5-12400F has an average benchmark score of 19039 and sits in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rivals being the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (19047, 0% delta), Intel Core 3 201E (19056, -0.1% delta), Intel Core i5-1335U (18982, 0.3% delta), and AMD EPYC 7773X (18979, 0.3% delta). These rivals are all within 0.3% of the i5-12400F's average score, indicating that the CPU's performance is solidly mid-pack. In Archeage, which is known to be more GPU-dependent at high resolutions, the CPU's 73rd percentile standing is sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 4080, as evidenced by the strong 1080p results.

The combo rank of 297 out of 3708 suggests that there are 296 configurations that perform better in Archeage, likely comprising systems with higher-end CPUs (such as Core i9 or Ryzen 9 parts) paired with the RTX 4080 or faster GPUs. However, the rank also indicates that this combo outperforms the vast majority of tested systems — roughly 3400 combos rank below it — which reflects the RTX 4080's raw power even in an older title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F plays a supporting but non-trivial role in this configuration's Archeage performance. The CPU features 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its 18 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 memory support provide adequate bandwidth for gaming workloads, and the 65 W TDP indicates efficient power draw that does not thermally throttle in standard desktop configurations.

In Archeage, the CPU's single-thread performance is the more critical factor, given that MMORPGs typically rely heavily on one or two threads for game logic, network handling, and draw call submission. The i5-12400F scores 909 in 3DMark single-thread, 1680 in Cinebench R23 single-core, and 3481 in Passmark single-thread — all respectable numbers that place it in the upper tier of CPUs for this generation. The multi-threaded scores (5912 in 3DMark max threads, 12380 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 19433 in Passmark multithread) show that the CPU can handle background tasks while gaming, but the 1080p results in Archeage suggest that the single-thread performance is the ceiling at lower resolutions.

At 1080p Low settings, the system achieves 232 FPS, which is close to the CPU's practical limit for this game. The fact that increasing from Low to Medium only reduces frame rates by 9 FPS (from 232 to 223) while High drops to 163 FPS indicates that the GPU becomes the bottleneck once the quality preset increases, but the CPU is still near its maximum output at the Low settings. The 1080p Ultra result of 111 FPS is more than 50% lower than the Low result, showing that the GPU's load increases substantially at higher presets, but the CPU's 2.50 GHz base clock and 4.40 GHz boost capability are adequate to feed the RTX 4080 at these frame rates.

The CPU's 73rd percentile ranking and its closeness to rivals like the Ryzen 5 7535HS (0% delta) and Intel Core 3 201E (-0.1% delta) confirm that it is not a limiting factor in this combo's overall ranking. If the i5-12400F were significantly weaker, the 1080p frame rates would be substantially lower across all presets, but the measured data shows a consistent scaling pattern that aligns with GPU-bound behavior. For Archeage specifically, the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are more than sufficient, and the data suggests that upgrading to a higher-core-count CPU would yield no meaningful performance gains in this title — the RTX 4080 remains the dominant component determining frame rates at all resolutions above 1080p.