Archeage

The Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 pairing delivers a playable Archeage experience across most settings, but the data clearly shows that Ultra is a trap for this combo. The measured results indicate that Medium settings provide the best balance of visual fidelity and performance. At 1080p, Medium delivers 139.1 FPS, which is more than double the 65 FPS of Ultra and retains a smooth, high-refresh experience. Moving to 1440p, Medium drops to 89.5 FPS, still comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold, while Ultra falls to 40 FPS, which is noticeably less fluid for an MMORPG. At 4K, the gap becomes critical: Medium manages 53.3 FPS, whereas Ultra collapses to 25 FPS, which is simply not viable for active gameplay. High settings are a middle ground, offering 92.6 FPS at 1080p and 61.5 FPS at 1440p, but the step down from Medium to High does not yield enough visual gains to justify the frame rate loss. For a game like Archeage, where large player gatherings and dynamic effects tax the system, Medium is the recommended preset. It offers the highest consistent frame rates that keep the action responsive, while Low at 1080p (155.6 FPS) is only useful for competitive scenarios where every frame matters and visual quality is secondary.

How This Combo Ranks

The benchmark database places this specific CPU-GPU combination at rank 975 out of 1727 tested combos for Archeage. This places it in the lower-middle tier of the database, meaning it is outperformed by a significant number of other pairings, but it also sits above hundreds of less capable setups. The rank is a composite indicator that reflects how the i5-9400 and RTX 4060 work together specifically for this game’s engine. The CPU is an older six-core, six-thread part, and while the GPU is modern, the combination’s overall score is dragged down by the processor’s limitations in this MMORPG. The individual component benchmarks provide context: the CPU’s average benchmark score is 2305, placing it at the 50th percentile of all CPUs, which is squarely average. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i3-10305, scores 2300, a delta of only 0.2%, indicating the i5-9400 is essentially performance-equivalent to that newer budget chip. On the GPU side, the RTX 4060 has an average benchmark score of 23181, sitting at the 66th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6600M, scores 23321, which is a -0.6% delta, meaning the RTX 4060 is just slightly behind that mobile GPU in synthetic tests. This data suggests that while the GPU is a solid mid-range performer, the CPU is the bottleneck in this pairing, preventing the combo from climbing higher in the ranks.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture and features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s boost clock is rated at 2460 MHz, and it has a TDP of 115 W. For Archeage, these specifications translate into a card that is capable of high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, but the 8 GB VRAM buffer is a limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings. The measured FPS data supports this: at 4K Ultra, the frame rate plunges to 25 FPS, which is not solely a compute limitation but also a memory bandwidth and capacity issue. The game’s textures and effects at Ultra likely exceed the 8 GB capacity, causing stuttering and frame drops. In contrast, the GPU’s 15.11 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is more than enough for the game’s older engine at lower settings. The fact that the RTX 4060 performs within 0.7% of the Intel Arc B580 and 0.8% of the AMD Radeon 760M in synthetic benchmarks suggests that its raw compute is competitive, but the memory subsystem is where it falls short in this specific game. The data indicates that the GPU is not the primary constraint at Medium and Low settings, where it easily pushes 139 FPS or more at 1080p, but it becomes the decisive factor when pushing towards Ultra and 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of how this combo scales across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low settings yield 155.6 FPS, Medium yields 139.1 FPS, High yields 92.6 FPS, and Ultra yields 65 FPS. These numbers show a steep drop-off from Medium to High, a 46.5 FPS loss, which is more significant than the drop from Low to Medium at 16.5 FPS. This indicates that the High preset introduces effects that heavily tax the system, likely related to shadows or post-processing. At 2560x1440, the trend continues but with lower absolute values: Low delivers 105.8 FPS, Medium 89.5 FPS, High 61.5 FPS, and Ultra 40 FPS. The drop from Medium to High at this resolution is 28 FPS, again showing that High is a performance cliff. The 4K results at 3840x2160 are more demanding: Low produces 57 FPS, Medium 53.3 FPS, High 34.4 FPS, and Ultra 25 FPS. Notably, the difference between Low and Medium at 4K is only 3.7 FPS, but the jump from Medium to High is a 18.9 FPS loss, reinforcing that High is the least efficient setting tier. The data shows that the combo is only truly smooth at 4K when using Low settings, which barely hits 60 FPS. For 1440p, Medium is the highest playable setting, while 1080p allows for Medium or even High if the user prioritizes visuals over a strict 60 FPS floor.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the nature of the bottleneck in this system. At Medium settings, the frame rate drops from 139.1 FPS at 1080p to 89.5 FPS at 1440p, a 35.7% decrease, and then to 53.3 FPS at 4K, a further 40.4% decrease from 1440p. This scaling is roughly proportional to the increase in pixel count, which suggests that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at these settings. However, looking at Low settings, the drop from 1080p (155.6 FPS) to 1440p (105.8 FPS) is a 32% decrease, and then to 4K (57 FPS) is a 46.1% decrease from 1440p. The larger percentage drop at 4K Low indicates that the system is becoming more GPU-bound at that resolution, but the absolute numbers are still high. The most telling data point is the Ultra preset: from 1080p (65 FPS) to 1440p (40 FPS) is a 38.5% drop, and from 1440p to 4K (25 FPS) is a 37.5% drop. This consistent scaling suggests that at Ultra, the GPU is the sole constraint, as the CPU is no longer able to hide its limitations. The data implies that at 1080p and 1440p with lower settings, the i5-9400 can keep up with the RTX 4060, but as resolution increases and settings are cranked up, the GPU becomes the definitive bottleneck, and the CPU’s six-thread limit starts to show in frame pacing.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a six-core, six-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, with 9 MB of shared L3 cache. The data from synthetic benchmarks shows it has a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 7969 and a single-core score of 1125. This places it at the 50th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2305. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i3-10305, scores 2300, which is a 0.2% delta. This indicates that the i5-9400 is a competent but unremarkable processor for modern games. In Archeage, which is an MMORPG known to be CPU-intensive due to many player characters and network overhead, the six-thread limitation is a clear handicap. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (155.6 FPS) suggests that the CPU can push high frame rates when the GPU is not stressed, but the drop at higher settings is more about the GPU. However, the rank of 975 out of 1727 combos indicates that the CPU is holding the combo back. The fact that the RTX 4060 is at the 66th percentile of GPUs while the combo ranks in the lower-middle of the database underscores this. The CPU’s performance is essentially tied with the i3-10305, a lower-tier part, meaning the i5-9400 does not provide the headroom needed to fully utilize the RTX 4060’s capabilities in a game like Archeage. The 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth and dual-channel DDR4 support are adequate, but the lack of hyper-threading means that background tasks or complex game logic can cause frame hitches, particularly in large-scale battles.