Archeage

The Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER pairing in Archeage demonstrates a performance curve that is heavily dictated by resolution, with the GPU taking on an increasingly dominant role as pixel count rises. The data reveals a clear divide between the 1080p and 1440p results, where the CPU has ample headroom, and the 4K results, where the GPU’s limits become the primary constraint. This analysis breaks down the measured frames per second (FPS) across the tested settings and resolutions to identify where this combo excels and where it struggles.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 produces a dramatic shift in performance, indicating a classic GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. At the High preset, the average FPS drops from 80.7 at 1080p to 51.8 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 28.9 FPS, and then further plummets to 29.8 at 4K. This steep decline, particularly the 22 FPS drop between 1440p and 4K, shows that the RTX 2060 SUPER’s rendering capabilities are being saturated as the pixel workload quadruples. The game’s engine, originally released in 2014, does not appear to scale efficiently with resolution, amplifying the GPU’s workload.

The Low preset tells a similar story but with higher absolute values. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 127.5 FPS, which is an excellent result for a smooth experience. Moving to 1440p Low sees this figure fall to 87.1 FPS, a 40.4 FPS decrease, and at 4K Low the average drops to 47.8 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at Low settings is a 39.3 FPS loss, which is proportionally similar to the High preset’s drop, confirming that the GPU is the limiting factor regardless of the graphical load. The data suggests that the i5-9400, with its 6 cores and 6 threads, is not the bottleneck in this title, as the FPS scales predictably with resolution changes.

The gap between the Low and Ultra presets also widens with resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low (127.5 FPS) and Ultra (53.2 FPS) is 74.3 FPS, showing a massive performance hit from the highest settings. At 4K, this gap narrows to 25.7 FPS (47.8 vs 22.1), indicating that the GPU is so overwhelmed at 4K that even lowering settings cannot restore playable frame rates. This behavior points to a hard ceiling imposed by the GPU’s pixel throughput, making the RTX 2060 SUPER the definitive performance limiter at 4K resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER, built on the Turing architecture with a 12 nm process, is the central component governing this game’s performance at higher resolutions. Its memory configuration, featuring 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, provides a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s, which is sufficient for the textures and assets in Archeage at the tested settings. However, the data shows that the GPU’s raw compute power, measured at 7.181 TFLOPS FP32, is the deciding factor when pushing 3840x2160. The 4K Ultra result of 22.1 FPS is a clear indicator that the GPU’s shading units, 2176 in total, are unable to keep pace with the demands of the game at that resolution and setting combination.

The GPU’s clock speeds, with a base of 1470 MHz and a boost of 1650 MHz, are typical for the 20-series, but they do not compensate for the architectural limits exposed by this workload. The card’s performance percentile of 63 among all GPUs places it in the mid-upper tier, and its benchmark scores reflect a strong 1080p and 1440p performer. In direct comparison, the RTX 2060 SUPER sits just ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070, with an average benchmark score of 19774 versus 19680, a delta of 0.5%. This marginal lead in synthetic tests does not translate into a significant advantage in Archeage, where the measured FPS at 1440p High (51.8) is still below the 60 FPS threshold that many players target.

The GPU’s memory clock of 1750 MHz, running at 14 Gbps effective, is not a limiting factor in these tests, as the VRAM usage does not appear to exceed the 8 GB capacity at any resolution. Instead, the bottleneck is the shader and texture processing rate. The pixel rate of 105.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 224.4 GTexel/s are the theoretical limits, and the measured 4K results suggest the card is operating near these ceilings. This is a GPU-bound scenario where the CPU, with its 2.90 GHz base and 4.10 GHz boost clock, provides adequate instructions but cannot compensate for the GPU’s fill rate limitations.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal balance between visual quality and performance is found at the Medium preset for most resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 113.5 FPS, which is only 14 FPS less than Low but offers a significant visual upgrade over the lowest settings. This is the sweet spot for a high-refresh-rate monitor, as the frame rate remains well above the 100 FPS mark. The High preset at 1080p, with 80.7 FPS, is also viable for users who prioritize image quality, but the 32.8 FPS penalty compared to Medium may not be worth the graphical gains for competitive play.

For 2560x1440, the Medium preset again emerges as the recommended choice, yielding 76.2 FPS. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS target and provides a smooth experience on a 1440p display. The Low preset at 1440p offers a higher 87.1 FPS, but the visual degradation is substantial. The High preset at 51.8 FPS is borderline, and the Ultra preset at 34.1 FPS is not advisable due to the noticeable drop in fluidity. The data indicates that Medium is the highest setting that maintains a playable frame rate at 1440p.

At 3840x2160, no preset achieves a consistently smooth experience. The Low preset, with 47.8 FPS, is the only option that approaches playability, but it is still below the 60 FPS standard. The Medium preset at 44.1 FPS is close, but the High and Ultra presets, at 29.8 and 22.1 FPS respectively, are too demanding. For 4K gaming, the recommendation is to use the Low preset and accept the frame rate, or alternatively, reduce the resolution to 1440p to unlock the Medium preset’s better performance. The Ultra preset is universally poor across all resolutions, with the 1080p result of 53.2 FPS being the only time it reaches a playable threshold, and even then, it is inferior to the Medium preset at that resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The data provides a comprehensive view of the combo’s capabilities across twelve distinct configurations. Beginning with 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves the highest average FPS at 127.5, showcasing the CPU’s ability to feed the GPU effectively at lower graphical loads. The Medium preset follows at 113.5 FPS, and the High preset drops to 80.7 FPS. The Ultra preset is the outlier, falling to 53.2 FPS, a significant 60.3 FPS reduction from the Low preset, which is a clear indication that the Ultra settings introduce effects that heavily tax the GPU.

At 2560x1440, the performance hierarchy remains consistent but with lower absolute values. The Low preset leads with 87.1 FPS, followed by Medium at 76.2 FPS, and High at 51.8 FPS. The Ultra preset at 34.1 FPS is the weakest, showing a 53 FPS difference from Low. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at any given setting results in a substantial FPS loss, with the High preset losing 28.9 FPS and the Low preset losing 40.4 FPS, illustrating that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at this resolution.

The 3840x2160 results are the most demanding, with all settings failing to reach 60 FPS. The Low preset produces 47.8 FPS, Medium drops to 44.1 FPS, High falls to 29.8 FPS, and Ultra yields only 22.1 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at 4K is 25.7 FPS, which is less than half the delta seen at 1080p, confirming that the GPU is operating at its absolute limit. The data shows that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with the 4K experience being marginal even at the lowest settings.

How This Combo Ranks

In the broader context of tested hardware combinations for Archeage, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER holds a rank of 1286 out of 1727 tested combos. This places it in the lower-middle tier of all configurations, indicating that while it is not a top performer, it is also not among the worst. The percentile ranking of the CPU is 50, meaning it sits exactly at the median of all tested processors, while the GPU’s percentile of 63 is higher, suggesting that the graphics card is the stronger component in this pairing.

The combo rank of 1286 is influenced by the game’s engine and its scaling behavior. The CPU’s nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i3-10305 with an average score of 2300 and a delta of 0.2%, show that the i5-9400’s processing power is comparable to more modern low-end chips. The GPU’s nearest rivals, including the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN with a score of 19706 and a delta of 0.3%, demonstrate that the RTX 2060 SUPER is a solid mid-range card, but it does not have the headroom to push this combo higher in the rankings.

This ranking suggests that the system is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming in Archeage, but it is not optimized for high-refresh-rate or 4K experiences. The measured FPS data aligns with this ranking, showing that the combo achieves its best results at 1080p Medium, where it can deliver over 100 FPS. For users seeking a better ranking, the data indicates that a more powerful GPU would be necessary to improve the 4K performance, while the CPU would only become a limiting factor at very low resolutions or high frame rates. The overall position of 1286 out of 1727 is a fair reflection of the hardware’s capabilities in this specific title.