Archeage

Archeage, a 2014 MMORPG, is a demanding title for modern hardware, particularly at higher resolutions and settings. The measured data for the Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 provides a clear picture of what to expect. This combination ranks at 1276 out of 2761 tested combos, placing it in the upper-middle tier of all tested systems. The pairing offers a solid foundation, but the game’s engine shows significant performance swings based on the chosen preset.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data across different presets and resolutions reveals a clear pattern for this specific combo. The most balanced experience is achieved at Medium settings. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers an average of 144 FPS, which is excellent for a smooth experience. The minimum FPS of 122 ensures that even in busier scenes, the frame rate stays well above the standard 60 FPS threshold. At 2560x1440, Medium settings provide a very playable 97 FPS average, with a minimum of 82 FPS. This is the sweet spot for this hardware, offering a significant visual upgrade over Low settings while maintaining high frame rates.

High settings are also a viable option, but the performance cost is notable. At 1920x1080, High averages 98 FPS, which is still good, but it represents a 46 FPS drop from Medium. The jump to 2560x1440 on High sees the average fall to 66 FPS. While still playable, this is a substantial decrease and suggests that the game’s higher visual fidelity options are particularly taxing. For players who prefer visual quality over maximum frame rates, High at 1080p is acceptable, but Medium is the recommended choice for a consistently fluid experience.

Low settings are the only way to push frame rates to their absolute maximum. The data shows 162 FPS at 1080p and 109 FPS at 1440p. While these numbers are impressive, the visual compromise is severe. The difference between Low and Medium is 18 FPS at 1080p, which is a modest gain for what is typically a large reduction in visual quality. At 4K, Low yields 62 FPS, which is the only way to get close to a playable frame rate at that resolution. Ultra settings are the most demanding and should be avoided for this combination. The game becomes nearly unplayable at 4K with only 26 FPS, and even at 1080p, the average drops to 67 FPS, with no minimum FPS data available to suggest stability. The performance cost of Ultra is immense and not justified by the marginal visual improvements over High.

Therefore, the recommended preset is Medium. It provides the best balance of visual quality and performance across all tested resolutions. The measured data consistently shows that this preset offers the highest frame rates without the significant drops associated with High and Ultra, and it maintains a higher minimum FPS, which is crucial for a stable experience in a game like Archeage where player counts can fluctuate.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 is a significant factor in this combo’s performance. It features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s. This is a substantial amount of VRAM, which is beneficial for higher resolutions and texture-heavy scenes. The GPU’s boost clock is rated at 2459 MHz, with a game clock of 2041 MHz. These clocks are the engine of the card's performance.

The GPU’s role becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions. The benchmark results show that the frame rate drops steeply as resolution increases, which is a classic sign of GPU-bound scenarios. At 1080p Medium, the combo achieves 144 FPS. At 1440p Medium, it drops to 97 FPS, and at 4K Medium, it falls to 55 FPS. This scaling indicates that the RX 7700 is the primary limiting component at 1440p and 4K, as the CPU has less headroom to keep up with the GPU’s rendering demands.

The RX 7700’s overall benchmark standing is modest, with an average benchmark score of 15852, placing it in the 58th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon R9 370X, which scores a near-identical 15862, and the AMD Radeon RX 9060, which scores 16014, showing a 1% performance delta. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti scores 16129, which is 1.7% higher. These scores are from synthetic tests, but they do reflect the GPU’s general performance class. The measured FPS data in Archeage, however, shows that the GPU is capable of delivering high frame rates at 1080p, but its performance ceiling is reached at 4K, where even Low settings only produce 62 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-13400F and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 is placed at rank 1276 out of 2761 tested combos for Archeage. This places it in the 46th percentile, meaning it outperforms slightly less than half of all tested pairings. This is a solid mid-pack result, indicating that the system is capable but not a top-tier performer for this specific game.

This ranking is influenced by both components. The CPU, the i5-13400F, is a strong performer in general benchmarks. It has an average benchmark score of 25292, placing it in the 77th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS, which scores 25284 (a 0% delta), and the Intel Core 5 120, which scores 25362 (a -0.3% delta). This shows that the CPU is well-matched with similar-level processors.

The GPU, however, is ranked lower in its own percentile, at 58. This mismatch suggests that the GPU is the bottleneck in this pairing. The CPU has more compute headroom relative to its peers than the GPU does. The combo’s overall rank of 1276 is a direct result of the GPU’s more limited performance. The data indicates that while the CPU is a capable partner, the RX 7700 holds the system back from achieving a higher standing in this game’s benchmark hierarchy.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed look at the performance across all three resolutions and four settings presets. Here is the exact breakdown:

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best performance. With Low settings, the average FPS is 162. Medium settings produce an average of 144 FPS, with a minimum of 122 FPS and a maximum of 166 FPS. High settings yield an average of 98 FPS. Ultra settings result in an average of 67 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates drop noticeably. Low settings average 109 FPS. Medium settings deliver 97 FPS on average, with a minimum of 82 FPS and a maximum of 111 FPS. High settings produce an average of 66 FPS. Ultra settings drop to an average of 45 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the performance is significantly lower. Low settings are the most playable, with an average of 62 FPS. Medium settings average 55 FPS, with a minimum of 47 FPS and a maximum of 64 FPS. High settings produce an average of 38 FPS. Ultra settings are nearly unplayable, with an average of 26 FPS.

The data shows a consistent pattern: Medium settings offer the best balance, and the gap between Medium and High is larger than the gap between Low and Medium at 1080p and 1440p. At 4K, the gap between Low and Medium is smaller, showing that the GPU is struggling to maintain even moderate frame rates.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K is steep and reveals the system’s limitations. Using Medium settings as a reference point, the average FPS drops from 144 at 1080p to 97 at 1440p, a 32.6% reduction. The drop from 1440p to 4K is even more severe, falling from 97 FPS to 55 FPS, a 43.3% reduction. From 1080p to 4K, the total reduction is 61.8%.

This pattern strongly indicates that the GPU is the limiting component at higher resolutions. The scaling is not linear; the larger drop between 1440p and 4K suggests that the RX 7700 is running out of pixel-pushing capability. At 1080p, the CPU is able to feed the GPU sufficiently, allowing for high frame rates. As the resolution increases, the GPU’s rendering workload grows exponentially, and it becomes the primary bottleneck.

The CPU’s performance, which is strong in synthetic benchmarks, is not the limiting factor here. The data shows that the system is capable of high FPS at 1080p, but the frame rates plummet as resolution increases. This is a classic sign of a GPU-bound system at higher resolutions. For players with a 1080p monitor, this combo is well-balanced, but for 1440p or 4K gaming, the GPU will be the limiting factor, and settings will need to be lowered to maintain playable frame rates.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor from the Raptor Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. This CPU has a 20 MB shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, it performs well, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 22604 and a single-core score of 3191. Its Geekbench multi-core score is 11068, and its single-core score is 1996.

These CPU benchmarks show that it is a capable processor for gaming. The single-core performance is particularly important for games like Archeage, which may not be fully optimized for many cores. The high boost clock of 4.60 GHz helps ensure responsive gameplay in CPU-bound scenarios.

The CPU’s role in this combo is to feed the GPU with data. At 1080p, the CPU is able to do this effectively, as seen by the high frame rates on Low and Medium settings. However, the game’s engine appears to be more GPU-intensive at higher settings and resolutions. The measured FPS data shows that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck until the GPU is fully utilized. The CPU’s strong performance, relative to its rivals, allows the RX 7700 to operate at its full potential at 1080p. The data suggests that in this pairing, the CPU has more headroom than the GPU, meaning that upgrading the GPU would likely result in higher frame rates, especially at 1440p and 4K, while the CPU could continue to keep up. The 65W TDP also makes it an efficient choice for a gaming system, though the practical implications of power draw are not measured in the FPS data.