Archeage

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti produces a highly capable Archeage system, but the data reveals a distinct performance ceiling. The benchmark results show that the most balanced experience is found at 2560x1440 with Medium settings, which delivers 136 FPS average with a minimum of 115 FPS. This configuration offers a significant margin above the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining smooth frame pacing, as indicated by the min/max spread. At 1920x1080, Medium settings reach 155 FPS average, but the jump to High only nets 134 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns where the CPU begins to assert its influence. For users prioritizing maximum visual fidelity, 2560x1440 High produces 101 FPS, which remains playable, but the 39 FPS drop to Ultra at 4K makes that combination impractical for consistent gameplay. The sweet spot for this hardware pairing is clearly 1440p Medium, as it provides 85 FPS at 4K Medium, but the 2560x1440 Medium row offers better headroom for MMO combat scenarios where frame drops are common.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows indicate that Medium settings provide the most favorable balance across all resolutions, but the specific choice depends on the target display. At 1920x1080, the progression from Low to Medium yields 161 to 155 FPS, while High drops to 134 FPS and Ultra falls to 102 FPS. The 21 FPS difference between Medium and High at 1080p is notable, but the 33 FPS gap between High and Ultra is more severe, suggesting that Ultra settings impose a disproportionately heavy load. At 2560x1440, Medium delivers 136 FPS with a minimum of 115 FPS, which is the only row at this resolution with recorded min/max data, indicating good frame consistency. High at 1440p produces 101 FPS, a 35 FPS reduction from Medium, while Ultra drops to 69 FPS. For 4K gameplay, Medium achieves 85 FPS with a minimum of 72 FPS, which is the sole 4K row with complete frame data, making it the only viable 4K option for sustained play. The data suggests that Medium settings across all resolutions offer the best combination of average FPS and frame stability, as evidenced by the min/max values that only appear in Medium rows. Ultra settings consistently halve the FPS compared to Medium, making them unsuitable for this combination.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 Ti brings substantial graphics horsepower to Archeage, with 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus providing 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's boost clock of 2610 MHz and base clock of 2310 MHz contribute to its strong compute capabilities, including 40.09 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The benchmark data shows that the GPU is not the primary bottleneck at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the FPS difference between Low and Medium is only 6 FPS (161 vs 155), while the difference between Medium and High is 21 FPS (155 vs 134). This pattern indicates that the GPU has ample headroom at 1080p, and the CPU begins to limit performance as settings increase. At 4K, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced, with Low producing 95 FPS and Ultra dropping to 39 FPS, a 56 FPS spread that demonstrates the GPU's workload scaling. The VRAM capacity is sufficient for the game's demands, as no memory-related stutters are evident in the min FPS data. The GPU's 84th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44795, places it well above the RTX 5090 Mobile (45152, -0.8% delta) and RTX A6000 (44075, +1.6% delta), showcasing its relative strength for this title.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear transition in system limitations. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 155 at 1080p to 136 at 1440p (a 12% reduction) and then to 85 at 4K (a 45% reduction from 1440p). This non-linear scaling indicates that the GPU becomes increasingly dominant as resolution increases, while the CPU maintains a relatively constant load. At Low settings, the progression is 161 FPS at 1080p, 141 FPS at 1440p, and 95 FPS at 4K, showing a more gradual decline. The High settings row shows 134 FPS at 1080p, 101 FPS at 1440p, and 58 FPS at 4K, where the 4K result falls below the 60 FPS threshold for the first time. The Ultra settings exhibit the most dramatic scaling, with 102 FPS at 1080p, 69 FPS at 1440p, and 39 FPS at 4K. The fact that the 1080p to 1440p drops are relatively modest (ranging from 14 to 33 FPS depending on settings) while the 1440p to 4K drops are substantial (ranging from 30 to 51 FPS) suggests that the RTX 4070 Ti can handle the moderate resolution increase easily, but the 4K pixel count overwhelms the GPU's capabilities. The CPU's influence is most visible at 1080p Low, where 161 FPS represents the practical ceiling for this combination.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Examining the exact measured values, the 1920x1080 resolution shows the following average FPS: Low at 161, Medium at 155 with a minimum of 131 and maximum of 178, High at 134, and Ultra at 102. The Medium row's min/max data (131-178) demonstrates a 47 FPS range, which is relatively wide and suggests some frame variability during intense scenes. At 2560x1440, Low produces 141 FPS, Medium produces 136 FPS with a minimum of 115 and maximum of 156 (a 41 FPS range), High produces 101 FPS, and Ultra produces 69 FPS. The 1440p Medium row shows better frame consistency than 1080p Medium, with a narrower range relative to the average. The 3840x2160 results are more constrained: Low achieves 95 FPS, Medium achieves 85 FPS with a minimum of 72 and maximum of 97 (a 25 FPS range), High achieves 58 FPS, and Ultra achieves 39 FPS. The 4K Medium row has the tightest min/max spread relative to its average, indicating that the GPU maintains stable performance even at higher resolutions. The data shows that the gap between Low and Medium narrows as resolution increases: 6 FPS at 1080p, 5 FPS at 1440p, and 10 FPS at 4K. Conversely, the gap between Medium and High widens: 21 FPS at 1080p, 35 FPS at 1440p, and 27 FPS at 4K, suggesting that High settings impose a consistent penalty regardless of resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti ranks 804th out of 3708 tested combos for Archeage, placing it in the top 21.7% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the system's overall capability, but the data reveals that the CPU is the limiting factor in many scenarios. The i5-9400's average benchmark score of 2254 places it in the 47th percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rivals being the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (2259, -0.2% delta), Intel Core i3-10305 (2264, -0.4% delta), Intel Core i7-10710U (2248, +0.3% delta), and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (2246, +0.4% delta). This clustering within 0.4% of rivals indicates that the CPU's performance is essentially tied with several other mid-range processors. The GPU, meanwhile, ranks in the 84th percentile with an average benchmark score of 44795, demonstrating that the RTX 4070 Ti is a high-performing component. The discrepancy between the CPU's 47th percentile and the GPU's 84th percentile explains why the system's FPS at 1080p Medium (155) is much lower than what the GPU alone could theoretically achieve. The combo's rank of 804 suggests that while this pairing is strong, it is not optimized for Archeage specifically, as many other combinations with better CPU-GPU balance achieve higher rankings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this system in Archeage?

A: The data indicates that 2560x1440 with Medium settings provides the best experience, delivering 136 FPS average with a minimum of 115 FPS. This offers a 76 FPS margin above the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining frame stability.

Q: How much FPS does Ultra settings cost compared to Medium?

A: At 1920x1080, Ultra settings produce 102 FPS compared to Medium's 155 FPS, a 53 FPS reduction. At 2560x1440, Ultra produces 69 FPS versus Medium's 136 FPS, a 67 FPS drop. At 3840x2160, Ultra produces 39 FPS versus Medium's 85 FPS, a 46 FPS reduction.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 Ti the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: No, the data suggests the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p. The Low settings row shows 161 FPS, while the GPU is capable of much higher performance, as evidenced by its 84th percentile ranking. The relatively small FPS differences between Low and Medium settings (6 FPS) support this conclusion.

Q: What are the minimum FPS values for Medium settings at each resolution?

A: At 1920x1080, the minimum FPS is 131. At 2560x1440, the minimum FPS is 115. At 3840x2160, the minimum FPS is 72. These are the only rows with min FPS data, indicating Medium settings provide the most consistent frame delivery.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to all tested configurations?

A: This combination ranks 804th out of 3708 tested combos for Archeage, placing it in the top 21.7% of all configurations. This ranking is influenced by the CPU's 47th percentile performance, which limits the GPU's potential.

Q: Does the 4K resolution provide playable frame rates?

A: Only at Medium and Low settings. Medium achieves 85 FPS with a minimum of 72 FPS, while Low achieves 95 FPS. High settings drop to 58 FPS, and Ultra drops to 39 FPS, both below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor from the Coffee Lake Refresh generation, built on Intel's 14 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 256 KB of L2 per core, and 9 MB of shared L3 cache. Its memory support is DDR4 with dual-channel configuration, providing 42.7 GB/s of bandwidth. In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-9400 achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 6629 and a single-core score of 935, while Geekbench shows 5141 multi-core and 1389 single-core. The CPU's 47th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2254, places it in the mid-range tier. The benchmark data from Archeage reveals the CPU's influence on performance. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 161 FPS, which likely represents a CPU-limited ceiling. The small FPS difference between Low and Medium settings (6 FPS) at 1080p further confirms this, as the GPU has sufficient headroom to handle the increased settings. However, at 4K, the CPU's role diminishes, as evidenced by the 95 FPS at Low and 85 FPS at Medium, where the GPU becomes the primary constraint. The CPU's 6 threads are adequate for Archeage's MMO workload, but the lack of hyper-threading may limit performance in scenarios with many concurrent players or complex calculations. The boost clock of 4.10 GHz provides reasonable single-threaded performance, which is crucial for MMO titles that often rely on a primary game thread. The CPU's release date of 2018-10-18 and end-of-life production status indicate that it is an older design, which explains its mid-range positioning compared to more modern processors.