Archeage

Archeage, an MMORPG from 2014, still presents a demanding workload for modern hardware, and the data for the Intel Core i5-14600K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 shows a configuration that scales predictably with resolution and settings. The benchmark results reveal that while the RTX 4090 is a dominant force, the game’s engine and CPU can create bottlenecks at lower resolutions. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS data to show exactly where the limits lie.

Resolution Scaling

The progression from 1080p to 4K shows a classic pattern of GPU load increasing, but the degree of the FPS drop varies significantly by settings preset. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 285.5 FPS at 1920x1080 to 201.9 FPS at 2560x1440, a decrease of roughly 29%, and then to 117.6 FPS at 3840x2160, another 42% drop from 1440p. This steep decline indicates that even at Low settings, the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor as pixel count rises. However, the absolute numbers are so high that the experience remains fluid.

The situation is more nuanced at higher presets. With High settings, the frame rate goes from 181.8 FPS at 1080p to 121 FPS at 1440p (a 33% drop), and then to 70.7 FPS at 4K (a 42% drop from 1440p). The Ultra preset shows a similar trend, with 125.8 FPS at 1080p falling to 84.5 FPS at 1440p and finally 47.5 FPS at 4K. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is consistent across all presets, suggesting that at 4K, the GPU's rendering workload is the dominant constraint. The gap between 1080p and 1440p results, particularly at Low and Medium settings, is smaller, hinting that the CPU or game engine is holding back performance at the lower resolution where the GPU has more headroom.

This data suggests that the RTX 4090 is not fully utilized at 1080p, especially with lower graphical presets. The 285.5 FPS at Low settings is likely near the engine's or CPU's practical limit for this scene, as the jump to 1440p does not halve the frame rate as it would if the GPU were the sole bottleneck. At 4K, the situation inverts, and the GPU becomes the clear limiter, with performance scaling more directly with the pixel count and settings complexity.

FAQ

Q: What is the performance difference between 1080p and 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 181.8 FPS at 1920x1080 to 70.7 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 61% reduction in FPS, showing the heavy toll that 4K resolution takes on the GPU.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to Low at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves an average of 201.9 FPS, while the Ultra preset manages 84.5 FPS. The Ultra preset is 58% slower, demonstrating that the game's highest settings introduce a substantial rendering cost beyond just resolution.

Q: Is the RTX 4090 the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data suggests it is not the primary bottleneck at 1080p. For example, at 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system hits 285.5 FPS. This high frame rate, combined with the relatively smaller drop to 201.9 FPS at 1440p, indicates that the CPU or game engine limits performance before the GPU is fully stressed.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 4K gaming?

A: At 3840x2160, the Medium preset delivers 102.7 FPS, which is significantly higher than the 70.7 FPS of the High preset. While the Ultra preset drops to 47.5 FPS, the Medium preset appears to be the highest quality option that maintains a frame rate above the 100 FPS mark.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to Ultra at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 117.6 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 47.5 FPS. The Low preset is 147% faster, highlighting the massive performance cost of enabling the Ultra preset at 4K resolution.

Q: Does the i5-14600K hold back the RTX 4090?

A: The benchmark results imply that it can. The 285.5 FPS ceiling at 1080p Low and the 201.9 FPS at 1440p Low suggest a CPU-side limit, as the RTX 4090 is capable of much higher frame rates in less demanding scenes. The CPU has a high multi-threaded score of 32881 in Cinebench R23, but Archeage's single-thread performance is often more critical.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is an absolute powerhouse, and its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. This immense memory bandwidth is a key reason why the card scales so well from 1080p to 4K, as it can feed the high-resolution textures without stuttering. The core clock boosts up to 2520 MHz, and with 16384 shading units, the card's theoretical FP32 performance is 82.58 TFLOPS. These specifications translate directly to the high frame rates seen in the 4K benchmarks, where the GPU is the primary driver.

The GPU's influence is most apparent when comparing the 4K results. The difference between Low (117.6 FPS) and Ultra (47.5 FPS) at 3840x2160 is 70.1 FPS, a massive gap that is almost entirely attributable to the GPU's rendering workload. The card’s 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores are present, but in an MMORPG like Archeage, the raw pixel throughput is more relevant. The data shows that the RTX 4090 is not the limiting factor at 1080p, but it becomes the definitive bottleneck at 4K, where its performance scales directly with the preset complexity. The GPU's 91st percentile ranking among all GPUs and an average benchmark score of 66473 confirm its top-tier status, even if its nearest rivals in the database are professional-grade Tesla and Quadro cards.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the frame rates are exceptionally high. The Low preset yields an average of 285.5 FPS, while Medium and High achieve 265.5 and 181.8 FPS, respectively. The Ultra preset drops to 125.8 FPS, which is still a very playable number but shows a significant gap from the other presets. The 159.7 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p highlights the substantial cost of the Ultra settings.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains impressive. The Low preset averages 201.9 FPS, and the Medium preset follows closely at 181 FPS. High settings produce 121 FPS, while Ultra drops to 84.5 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is not linear; for example, High settings only lose 60.8 FPS, whereas Low settings lose 83.6 FPS. This indicates that the CPU is still providing a high baseline of performance, but the GPU is starting to take on more of the load.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is firmly in control. The Low preset is the only one to break the 100 FPS barrier, achieving 117.6 FPS. Medium follows at 102.7 FPS, High at 70.7 FPS, and Ultra at 47.5 FPS. The drop from Medium to High is 32 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 23.2 FPS, showing that the Ultra preset has a disproportionately high cost. The data shows that for a smooth 4K experience, the Medium preset is the sweet spot, while the Ultra preset is only viable for players who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K is a 14-core processor with 20 threads, based on the Raptor Lake architecture. Its base clock of 3.50 GHz boosts up to 5.30 GHz, and it has 24 MB of shared L3 cache. These specifications are critical for an MMORPG like Archeage, which often relies on a few high-frequency cores for game logic and network processing. The CPU’s single-threaded performance is strong, with a Geekbench single-core score of 2803 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4642, which helps maintain high frame rates even when the GPU is not the bottleneck.

The data strongly suggests that the i5-14600K is the limiting factor at lower resolutions and settings. The 285.5 FPS at 1080p Low is likely a ceiling imposed by the CPU's ability to process the game's draw calls and simulation logic. The fact that raising the resolution to 1440p only reduces this to 201.9 FPS, rather than a larger drop, confirms that the CPU is holding the system back. The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are not as relevant here, as the game does not seem to scale perfectly with the 20 threads, but the 32881 score in Cinebench R23 shows it has plenty of headroom for other tasks.

The CPU's high boost clock of 5.30 GHz is crucial for maintaining the high average FPS in the 1080p and 1440p tests. The data shows that the CPU is not a significant constraint at 4K, where the GPU's workload dominates. However, its performance at lower resolutions indicates that for high-refresh-rate monitors at 1440p, the CPU is the component holding back the RTX 4090 from reaching its full potential. The i5-14600K ranks in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, and its average benchmark score of 49166 is nearly identical to that of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, with a delta of just 0.2% in favor of the Intel chip.