Archeage

# Archeage Performance Analysis: Intel Core i5-14600KF + AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT

The Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT delivers a benchmark profile that spans from fully playable at 1080p to demanding at 4K, depending entirely on the graphics preset selected. Measured data for Archeage shows this combination produces an average frame rate of 210 FPS at 1080p Low settings, dropping to 33 FPS at 4K Ultra, illustrating a steep performance curve that is heavily influenced by both resolution and preset level. The combo ranks 893rd out of 3,708 tested configurations, placing it in the top quarter of all systems evaluated for this title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and consistent pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, with the magnitude of the drop varying significantly across different preset levels. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 210 FPS at 1080p to 142 FPS at 1440p, representing a 32% reduction, and further declines to 81 FPS at 4K, which is a 61% drop from the 1080p baseline. This scaling suggests that at Low settings, the system retains substantial headroom even at 4K, maintaining a playable 81 FPS average.

Moving to Medium settings, the resolution scaling becomes more pronounced. The average FPS at 1080p is 187, dropping to 126 at 1440p (a 33% decrease) and then to 72 at 4K (a 61% reduction from 1080p). The Medium preset at 4K shows a minimum FPS of 61 and a maximum of 83, indicating some frame-time variance but still maintaining a generally smooth experience.

High settings amplify the resolution sensitivity further. The average FPS goes from 127 at 1080p to 86 at 1440p (a 32% drop) and finally to 49 at 4K (a 61% decline from 1080p). This consistent 32% drop from 1080p to 1440p and 61% drop from 1080p to 4K across Low, Medium, and High presets suggests that the scaling is primarily resolution-bound rather than setting-bound — the render resolution is the dominant factor in determining frame rate at these quality levels.

Ultra settings present the steepest curve. At 1080p, the average FPS is 87, which falls to 58 at 1440p (a 33% reduction) and then to 33 at 4K (a 62% drop from 1080p). The Ultra preset at 4K represents the most demanding configuration tested, and the 33 FPS average indicates that this setting is only marginally playable at the highest resolution.

The data indicates that from 1080p to 4K, the average FPS drops by roughly 61–62% across all presets. This consistency points to the GPU becoming the limiting component as pixel count increases, with the RX 9070 XT's rendering throughput being the primary constraint at higher resolutions. The CPU's role becomes less dominant as resolution rises, since the frame rate scales almost identically regardless of whether the system is running Low or High settings at the same resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process node. It operates at a base clock of 3.50 GHz with a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, and includes 24 MB of shared L3 cache alongside 2 MB of L2 cache per core. The processor supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration and connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes.

Benchmark results show the i5-14600KF achieves a multi-core score of 32,544 in Cinebench R23 and 13,668 in Cinebench R20, while its single-core performance reaches 4,594 in Cinebench R23 and 1,929 in Cinebench R20. Geekbench scores are 17,085 for multi-core and 2,445 for single-core. The processor's PassMark multithread score is 38,697, with a single-thread score of 4,273.

The CPU's percentile ranking places it at the 90th percentile among all tested processors, with an average benchmark score of 49,394. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 with an average score of 49,228 (a 0.3% delta), the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G at 49,196 (0.4% delta), the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 at 48,995 (0.8% delta), and the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388 at 49,796 (-0.8% delta). These closely clustered scores indicate that the i5-14600KF sits in a competitive performance band, with less than 1% separating it from its nearest competitors.

In the context of Archeage, the CPU's 14 cores and 20 threads provide ample parallelism for the MMORPG's multi-threaded workloads, which include handling numerous NPCs, player characters, and world events simultaneously. The high boost clock of 5.30 GHz ensures strong single-thread performance for game logic and physics calculations that may not scale perfectly across all cores. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (210 FPS) and 1080p Medium (187 FPS) suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding frames at very high rates when the GPU is not the bottleneck, indicating the i5-14600KF is not limiting performance at lower resolutions and settings.

However, as resolution increases to 4K, the frame rate drops to 72 FPS at Medium and 49 FPS at High, which aligns with the GPU becoming the primary constraint. The CPU's PassMark physics score of 2,449 and floating point math score of 93,048 indicate strong computational throughput, but the data suggests that at 4K, the processor has sufficient headroom to keep up with the GPU's rendering output. The consistent 61–62% FPS drop from 1080p to 4K across all presets further supports the conclusion that the CPU is not the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture using TSMC's 4 nm process node, featuring the Navi 48 chip with 53,900 million transistors on a 357 mm² die. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1660 MHz, a game clock of 2400 MHz, and a boost clock of 2970 MHz. It is equipped with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering a memory bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s.

The GPU contains 4,096 shading units, 256 texture mapping units, and 128 render output units, along with 64 ray tracing cores. Its compute capabilities include 48.66 TFLOPS for FP32 and FP16 (at 1:1 ratio). The pixel rate is 380.2 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 760.3 GTexel/s. The card has a TDP of 304 W and requires a 700 W power supply, with connectivity via PCIe 5.0 x16.

Benchmark results show the RX 9070 XT achieves a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 7,260, Geekbench OpenCL score of 17,428, and Geekbench Vulkan score of 65,879. PassMark scores include 26,795 for G3D, 15,864 for GPU compute, and 1,328 for G2D. The GPU's percentile ranking is at the 55th percentile among all tested GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13,543.

The nearest rivals for the RX 9070 XT include the AMD Radeon HD 7770M with an average score of 13,536 (a 0.1% delta), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 at 13,515 (0.2% delta), the NVIDIA P106-090 at 13,470 (0.5% delta), and the AMD Radeon Pro 555 at 13,407 (1% delta). These rival scores are remarkably close, all within 1% of the RX 9070 XT's average, suggesting that the benchmark database's GPU scoring places this card in a tightly contested performance tier.

In Archeage, the GPU's role is critical at higher resolutions and settings. The 16 GB of VRAM provides ample capacity for texture-heavy scenes at 4K, and the 644.6 GB/s memory bandwidth supports high-resolution rendering without bandwidth starvation. The measured FPS at 4K Medium (72 FPS average) and 4K High (49 FPS average) indicates that the GPU is the bottleneck at this resolution, as the frame rates are significantly lower than at 1080p where the CPU can feed frames faster.

The RX 9070 XT's boost clock of 2970 MHz and 48.66 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are substantial, yet the 4K Ultra result of 33 FPS shows that even this level of hardware cannot maintain high frame rates at the most demanding settings. The data suggests that the GPU's raw compute and memory bandwidth are sufficient for 1440p gaming at high settings (86 FPS) and 1080p at ultra settings (87 FPS), but 4K Ultra remains beyond its comfortable operating range.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achieved by this combination in Archeage?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 210, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: At what resolution and preset does this combo dip below 60 FPS?

A: At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 33, and at 4K High it falls to 49. Both configurations are below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in benchmark scores?

A: The Intel Core i5-14600KF has an average benchmark score of 49,394, which is 0.3% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (49,228) and 0.4% higher than the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (49,196).

Q: What is the GPU's VRAM capacity and memory bandwidth?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 644.6 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

Q: Does the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K vary significantly across presets?

A: No, the percentage drop is remarkably consistent. From 1080p to 4K, Low settings drop by 61%, Medium by 61%, High by 61%, and Ultra by 62%.

Q: What percentile does this CPU rank among all tested processors?

A: The Intel Core i5-14600KF ranks at the 90th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49,394.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combination depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1920x1080, all presets deliver playable frame rates, with Ultra achieving 87 FPS average, which is a comfortable 60+ FPS experience. For users prioritizing maximum visual quality at 1080p, Ultra settings are recommendable since the 87 FPS average remains well above the 60 FPS threshold.

At 2560x1440, the High preset provides 86 FPS average, which is nearly identical to the 1080p Ultra result, making it the best balance of visual fidelity and performance at this resolution. The Medium preset at 1440p delivers 126 FPS average, which is suitable for high-refresh-rate monitors, while Ultra at 1440p drops to 58 FPS — just below the 60 FPS mark, making it less ideal for smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the Medium preset is the highest setting that maintains a playable frame rate, with 72 FPS average and a minimum of 61 FPS. The High preset at 4K drops to 49 FPS, which may be acceptable for slower-paced gameplay but falls short of the 60 FPS standard. Ultra at 4K is not recommended, as the 33 FPS average makes the game feel sluggish. The Low preset at 4K achieves 81 FPS, but the visual quality trade-off is substantial.

For the best overall experience, the data suggests using High settings at 1080p (127 FPS) or 1440p (86 FPS) to balance visual quality with high frame rates. At 4K, Medium settings (72 FPS) provide the best compromise between image quality and playability. The measured minimum FPS of 61 at 4K Medium indicates that even during demanding scenes, the frame rate stays above 60 FPS, ensuring a smooth experience.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are 210 for Low settings, 187 for Medium, 127 for High, and 87 for Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum FPS of 159 and a maximum of 215, indicating a frame time range of 56 FPS between the lowest and highest observed values. The Ultra preset at 1080p achieves 87 FPS average, which is a 59% reduction from the Low preset's 210 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS values are 142 for Low, 126 for Medium, 86 for High, and 58 for Ultra. The Medium preset at 1440p has a minimum of 107 FPS and a maximum of 145 FPS, showing a 38 FPS range. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at the same preset results in a 32–33% FPS reduction across all presets.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS values are 81 for Low, 72 for Medium, 49 for High, and 33 for Ultra. The Medium preset at 4K records a minimum of 61 FPS and a maximum of 83 FPS, representing a 22 FPS range. The 4K Ultra average of 33 FPS is the lowest measured value across all configurations, while the 4K Low average of 81 FPS is the highest at this resolution.

Comparing across resolutions, the 1080p Low average of 210 FPS is 2.6 times higher than the 4K Low average of 81 FPS. The 1080p Ultra average of 87 FPS is 2.6 times higher than the 4K Ultra average of 33 FPS. This consistent 2.6x scaling factor across all presets reinforces the resolution-bound nature of the performance scaling.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of the Intel Core i5-14600KF and AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT ranks 893rd out of 3,708 tested combos for Archeage, placing it in the 76th percentile of all configurations evaluated. This ranking indicates that this system performs better than approximately three-quarters of all tested combos, while remaining below the top 25% of configurations.

The CPU's 90th percentile ranking among all processors suggests that the i5-14600KF is a strong performer in isolation, while the GPU's 55th percentile ranking is more moderate. The combination's overall rank of 893 out of 3,708 suggests that the GPU's more modest percentile position constrains the system's overall performance relative to other combos that may pair the same CPU with higher-tier GPUs.

The measured FPS data shows that this combo can deliver very high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p with appropriate settings, with 210 FPS at 1080p Low and 142 FPS at 1440p Low being standout results. However, at 4K Ultra, the system produces only 33 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS standard for smooth gameplay. This performance profile positions the combo as a strong 1080p and 1440p gaming system, with the capability to handle 4K only at reduced settings.

The rank of 893 out of 3,708 means that 2,815 other combos perform worse in this game, while 892 combos perform better. The data indicates that this system is well-suited for high-refresh-rate gaming at 1080p and 1440p, but users targeting 4K gaming would need to accept either Medium settings at 72 FPS or High settings at 49 FPS, both of which are viable depending on personal preference for visual quality versus frame rate.