Archeage

Archeage, a 2014 MMORPG, presents an interesting stress test for the Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 pairing. The data shows a clear scaling pattern from 1080p to 4K, revealing a shift in bottleneck as resolution increases. At 1920x1080, the system produces remarkably high frame rates, with the Low preset hitting 240.4 FPS and Medium at 231.2 FPS. Even the demanding Ultra preset maintains a solid 122 FPS at this resolution. Moving to 2560x1440, performance remains strong but drops proportionally, with High settings at 121 FPS and Low at 201.5 FPS. The 4K results tell a different story, where the GPU becomes the limiting factor, with High settings falling to 70.6 FPS and Ultra dropping to just 47.3 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K illustrates a classic GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the average FPS across all settings is roughly 194, indicating that the CPU is keeping pace with the RTX 4090's output. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 118.4 FPS, showing that the GPU has headroom to render more complex scenes even at this resolution. However, at 1440p, the average drops to 145.8 FPS, with the gap between Low and Ultra widening to 119.8 FPS. At 4K, the average plummets to 82.6 FPS, and the difference between Low and Ultra becomes 65.2 FPS, demonstrating that the GPU's rendering capabilities are being saturated.

The scaling behavior reveals that the RTX 4090's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth are sufficient for even the highest settings at 4K, but the raw compute power becomes the bottleneck. The transition from 1440p to 4K shows a 42% reduction in average FPS, which is consistent with the pixel count increase. Data indicates that at 1080p, the i5-13400F with its 10 cores and 16 threads can feed the GPU adequately, but at 4K, the frame rate is dictated almost entirely by the GPU's 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The measured rows show that High settings at 4K (70.6 FPS) is still playable, while Ultra (47.3 FPS) becomes less fluid.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results provide clear guidance on the optimal settings for this hardware combination. At 1080p, the Medium preset offers the best balance, delivering 231.2 FPS compared to High's 182.4 FPS and Ultra's 122 FPS. The performance delta between Medium and Ultra is 109.2 FPS, indicating that the visual gains from Ultra come at a significant cost. For 1440p gaming, High settings at 121 FPS provide a smooth experience, while Medium at 179 FPS offers additional headroom for competitive play. The data suggests that Medium at 1440p is the sweet spot, as it stays above 144 Hz for high-refresh-rate monitors.

At 4K, the choices become more constrained. High settings at 70.6 FPS is the recommended baseline for a playable experience, while Medium at 100 FPS offers better fluidity without sacrificing too much visual fidelity. Ultra at 4K (47.3 FPS) is not recommended due to the frame rate dropping below 60 FPS. The measured rows show that the scaling from Medium to High at 4K costs 29.4 FPS, while the jump from High to Ultra costs another 23.3 FPS. For the best experience per the data, Medium at 1440p provides the highest frame rate above 144 Hz with reasonable visual quality, while High at 4K offers the best visual experience that maintains playability.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 serves as the primary performance driver in this configuration, particularly at higher resolutions. The card's specifications are formidable: 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, coupled with a boost clock of 2520 MHz. The 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for texture-heavy MMORPG environments. The benchmark data shows the GPU's dominance in raw throughput, with a Passmark G3D score of 38,194 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 9,223.

The GPU's role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 1080p, the RTX 4090 is underutilized, as evidenced by the 240.4 FPS on Low settings, which suggests the CPU is the limiting factor. However, at 4K, the GPU's compute capabilities are fully exercised, with the Ultra preset dropping to 47.3 FPS. The card's 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores are not heavily utilized in Archeage, given its 2014 release, but the raw rasterization performance is what matters. The GPU's 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 1,290.2 GTexel/s texture rate are the key metrics driving these results. The data indicates that the RTX 4090 sits in the 91st percentile of all GPUs, with its average benchmark score of 66,473 placing it close to the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (delta -0.4%) and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (delta -0.9%).

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-13400F and RTX 4090 combination ranks 61st out of 1,727 tested combos in Archeage, placing it in the top 3.5% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the strong performance of the GPU, though it is somewhat tempered by the CPU's mid-range positioning. The combo's rank suggests that while the RTX 4090 is a top-tier card, the i5-13400F prevents it from achieving the absolute highest frame rates in this CPU-sensitive title. The data shows that the CPU's average benchmark score of 25,236 places it in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rival being the Intel Core i7-13620H (delta 0.1%) and AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (delta -0.5%).

The combination of a 10-core, 16-thread CPU with a 24 GB GPU creates a balanced system for most scenarios, but the 4K results reveal the GPU's dominance. At 1080p, the combo achieves frame rates that rival much more expensive CPU-GPU pairings, with the 240.4 FPS on Low settings being particularly impressive. However, the 61st rank out of 1,727 indicates that there are 60 combos that achieve higher performance, likely featuring more powerful CPUs like the Core i9 or Ryzen 9 series. The data suggests that this combo is best suited for high-refresh-rate 1440p gaming, where it delivers 179 FPS on Medium settings, rather than 4K gaming, where it falls to 70.6 FPS on High.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F plays a supporting role in this configuration, but its impact is measurable, particularly at lower resolutions. The CPU features 10 cores (6 performance and 4 efficiency) and 16 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. Its 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 10 nm process node are typical for the Raptor Lake architecture. The benchmark data shows strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 21,279 and a Passmark multithread score of 25,032. Single-thread performance is also solid, with a Geekbench single-core score of 2,301 and a Passmark single-thread score of 3,634.

In Archeage, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p, where the frame rates are high enough to expose any CPU limitations. The 240.4 FPS on Low settings at 1080p suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU, but the drop to 122 FPS on Ultra indicates that the game's draw calls and physics calculations are taxing the CPU. The CPU's 3DMark scores show a scaling pattern from 1,880 (2-thread) to 7,314 (16-thread), indicating good multi-thread scaling. However, the CPU's 65W TDP and lack of an unlocked multiplier mean it is not designed for extreme overclocking, which could limit its ability to push frame rates higher in CPU-bound scenarios. The data shows that the CPU's average benchmark score of 25,236 is nearly identical to the Intel Core i7-13620H (25,201), indicating that the i5-13400F provides comparable performance to a higher-tier mobile chip, making it a capable partner for the RTX 4090 in this game.