Archeage

Settings Recommendations

For Archeage, the measured data indicates that the Medium preset provides the most balanced experience across all tested resolutions, offering a substantial frame rate uplift over High settings while maintaining smoother minimum frame rates than the Ultra preset. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers an average of 209 FPS with a minimum of 177 FPS and a maximum of 240 FPS, which is a 47% improvement over the High preset’s 142 FPS average. The jump from High to Medium is significant, but the jump from Medium to Low (234 FPS) yields only a 12% gain, making Low less compelling for the visual fidelity loss.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again stands out, producing an average of 140 FPS with a minimum of 119 FPS and a maximum of 162 FPS. This is a 47% increase over High’s 95 FPS average, and it keeps the frame rate well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset at this resolution drops to 65 FPS average, which is playable but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes, whereas Medium offers more than double that headroom.

At 3840x2160, the Medium preset is the only setting that provides a fully playable experience with recorded minimum and maximum frame rates. It averages 80 FPS, with a minimum of 68 FPS and a maximum of 92 FPS. The High preset at 4K averages 55 FPS, which is borderline for action-heavy moments, and the Ultra preset falls to 37 FPS, which is too low for consistent gameplay. Low at 4K does reach 90 FPS, but the visual compromise is severe.

The data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot for this combination of Intel Core i5-12600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER. It consistently provides frame rates that are at least 45% higher than High across all resolutions, while the gap between Medium and Low is much smaller, indicating diminishing returns from dropping settings further. For users with high-refresh-rate monitors at 1080p, Low might be tempting for its 234 FPS average, but Medium’s 209 FPS is still well above typical refresh rates and retains better visual quality.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER, based on the Ada Lovelace architecture and fabricated on a 5 nm process by TSMC, plays a central role in Archeage’s performance, particularly at higher resolutions. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. This memory configuration is sufficient for the game’s asset streaming at all tested settings, as evidenced by the lack of stutter-related minimum frame rate drops at Medium settings.

The GPU’s clock speeds are notable: a base clock of 1980 MHz and a boost clock of 2475 MHz. These clocks, combined with 7168 shading units, allow the RTX 4070 SUPER to handle the polygon and texture loads of Archeage efficiently. The GPU’s benchmark scores reflect its raw capability, with a PassMark G3D score of 29995 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4627. This places the GPU in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs, indicating strong performance relative to the broader market.

In practical terms, the GPU is the primary driver of frame rates at 4K. The measured FPS at 3840x2160 with High settings (55 FPS) and Medium settings (80 FPS) shows that the GPU’s compute and memory throughput are the limiting factors at this resolution. The GPU’s pixel rate of 198.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 554.4 GTexel/s are taxed heavily by the pixel fill requirements of 4K rendering. The 12 GB VRAM is not a bottleneck here, as the game’s memory footprint appears to fit within this capacity even at Ultra settings, where the average FPS is 37 at 4K, suggesting compute limits rather than memory limits.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the RTX 4070 SUPER’s average benchmark score of 43223 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB (43262) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile (43268), with delta percentages of -0.1% in both cases. The RTX 4090 Mobile scores higher at 43667, a 1% delta, but the RTX 4070 SUPER holds its own in this comparison, indicating that its performance in Archeage is representative of its class-leading position.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals how the workload shifts between the CPU and GPU. At 1920x1080, the High preset averages 142 FPS, while at 2560x1440 it drops to 95 FPS, a 33% reduction, and at 3840x2160 it further drops to 55 FPS, a 42% reduction from 1440p. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU becomes increasingly stressed as resolution rises, while the CPU has enough headroom to keep up at lower resolutions.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more pronounced. The 1080p Low average is 234 FPS, which drops to 158 FPS at 1440p (a 32% reduction) and then to 90 FPS at 4K (a 43% reduction from 1440p). The fact that Low settings still show significant drops from 1440p to 4K confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as CPU load does not change much with resolution.

The Medium preset shows a similar trend, with 209 FPS at 1080p, 140 FPS at 1440p (a 33% reduction), and 80 FPS at 4K (a 43% reduction from 1440p). This consistent ~33% drop from 1080p to 1440p and ~43% drop from 1440p to 4K across settings is a classic sign of GPU-bound performance at higher resolutions. The CPU’s role diminishes as resolution increases, and the RTX 4070 SUPER’s rendering throughput becomes the dominant factor.

The Ultra preset exhibits the steepest scaling curve, with 97 FPS at 1080p, 65 FPS at 1440p (a 33% reduction), and 37 FPS at 4K (a 43% reduction from 1440p). This shows that Ultra’s effects, such as shadows and post-processing, place a heavy load on the GPU, and the performance penalty for 4K Ultra is severe. The data indicates that for this combo, 1080p is CPU-leaning in its performance ceiling, while 4K is strictly GPU-limited.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured frame rates are as follows: Low settings produce an average of 234 FPS, Medium produces 209 FPS with a minimum of 177 FPS and a maximum of 240 FPS, High produces 142 FPS, and Ultra produces 97 FPS. The Medium preset’s minimum of 177 FPS is particularly strong, ensuring smooth performance even in crowded scenes. The gap between Low and Medium is 25 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 67 FPS, indicating that High is the most punishing step at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 158 FPS, Medium averages 140 FPS with a minimum of 119 FPS and a maximum of 162 FPS, High averages 95 FPS, and Ultra averages 65 FPS. The Medium minimum of 119 FPS is still well above the 60 FPS threshold, making it the most reliable preset for 1440p gaming. The drop from Medium to High is 45 FPS, which is a significant loss for the visual upgrade, while the drop from High to Ultra is 30 FPS, which is also substantial.

At 3840x2160, Low averages 90 FPS, Medium averages 80 FPS with a minimum of 68 FPS and a maximum of 92 FPS, High averages 55 FPS, and Ultra averages 37 FPS. The Medium preset is the only one at 4K with a recorded minimum above 60 FPS, making it the recommended choice for this resolution. The High preset’s 55 FPS average is playable but may dip below 60 FPS in intense moments, and Ultra’s 37 FPS is not suitable for smooth gameplay. The Low preset’s 90 FPS is high, but it sacrifices visual quality.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Archeage, the Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER ranks 595th out of 3708 combos. This places the combo in the top 16% of all tested configurations, indicating that it delivers above-average performance for this game. The ranking reflects the balance between the CPU’s 10 cores and 16 threads and the GPU’s strong rendering capabilities.

The combo’s rank is influenced by its measured FPS across all settings and resolutions. The ability to maintain 80 FPS at 4K Medium and 140 FPS at 1440p Medium puts it ahead of many configurations, especially those with lower-end GPUs or older CPUs. The rank of 595 out of 3708 means that 3113 tested combos perform worse, which underscores the effectiveness of this pairing for Archeage.

The CPU’s percentile rank of 79 against all CPUs and the GPU’s percentile rank of 83 against all GPUs both contribute to this strong showing. The combo’s performance is consistent with its component-level scores, with no significant bottleneck that would drag its rank down. This suggests that the pairing is well-matched for this MMORPG, which can be CPU-intensive in large player gatherings but also benefits from the GPU’s raw power at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF, with its 10 cores (6 performance and 4 efficiency cores) and 16 threads, provides the computational foundation for Archeage. Its base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 4.90 GHz are competitive, and its 20 MB of shared L3 cache helps with game logic and NPC AI processing. The CPU’s benchmark scores reflect its strength: a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23391 and a single-core score of 3302, along with a PassMark multithread score of 27575.

In Archeage, the CPU’s role is most evident at lower resolutions and settings where the GPU is not the bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 234 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s limit for the game’s single-threaded or lightly-threaded workloads. The CPU’s single-core performance, as shown by its 3DMark single-thread score of 1016 and PassMark single-thread score of 3925, is crucial for maintaining high frame rates in a game that may not fully utilize all 16 threads.

The CPU’s multi-threaded capabilities, demonstrated by a 3DMark max-threads score of 7952 and a Geekbench multicore score of 12137, help in large-scale PvP or raid scenarios where many characters and effects are rendered. However, the data shows that as resolution increases to 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, and the CPU’s impact on frame rates diminishes. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 27799 places it near rivals like the Intel Core i9-10900K (27872) and AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (27896), with delta percentages of -0.3% in both cases, confirming that it is a solid performer for this title.