Archeage

The data for Archeage, captured with an Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, shows a wide performance spread across its four settings presets and three resolutions. The benchmark results indicate that the choice of preset is the primary lever for controlling frame rate, with the difference between Low and Ultra settings often more than doubling the average FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data suggests that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all tested resolutions, providing a significant frame rate uplift over High while maintaining a level of visual fidelity likely suitable for an MMORPG. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 142.9 FPS, which is 45.6 FPS higher than the High preset's 97.3 FPS, and substantially ahead of the Ultra preset's 65.6 FPS. This represents a performance increase of roughly 47% over High and 118% over Ultra at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Medium preset continues to be the optimal choice, yielding an average of 95.7 FPS. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold and is 28.3 FPS higher than the High preset's 67.4 FPS. The Ultra preset at this resolution drops to 46.7 FPS, which may not provide a consistently smooth experience on displays with high refresh rates.

At 3840x2160, the data shows that the Medium preset is the highest setting that remains playable, producing an average of 53.4 FPS. The High preset falls to 41.1 FPS, and Ultra drops to 28.9 FPS, both of which are likely to feel sluggish. While the Low preset at 4K achieves 61.6 FPS, the visual compromises are likely too severe for a game where world immersion is key. Therefore, the benchmark results clearly favor the Medium preset as the best overall experience, balancing frame rates with graphical demands across the board.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, with its 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, provides a 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth. The data shows that this bandwidth is sufficient to handle the demands of Archeage at Medium and High settings, but the Ultra preset appears to place a disproportionate load on the GPU. The frame rate drop from High to Ultra is substantial at every resolution, indicating a rendering cost that the RTX 5060's 48 ROPs and 120 TMUs struggle to meet.

The GPU's boost clock of 2497 MHz and its 19.18 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are the primary drivers for the frame rates seen in the Low and Medium presets. The RTX 5060's performance percentile of 73 places it above the majority of all GPUs, and its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, has a near-identical average benchmark score, suggesting comparable raw processing power. However, the game's Ultra preset seems to introduce effects that are particularly taxing on the 8 GB VRAM frame buffer or the memory subsystem, as the average FPS at 1920x1080 Ultra (65.6 FPS) is less than half of the Low preset's 162.3 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of tested combinations, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 achieves a rank of 855 out of 1727 combos for Archeage. This places it in the middle of the pack, indicating that while it is not a top-tier configuration for this specific title, it is by no means a weak one. The rank suggests that the combination's performance is typical for its hardware class, with the bottleneck shifting between CPU and GPU depending on the resolution and settings.

The combo’s percentile position reflects the balance between the 6-core, 6-thread processor and the modern GPU. In a game like Archeage, which is an MMORPG with potentially complex scenes involving many players, the CPU's 6 threads can be a limiting factor in certain scenarios, preventing the RTX 5060 from reaching its full potential at lower resolutions where the GPU is less stressed.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of performance scaling across the three resolutions.

At 1920x1080, the benchmark results are as follows:

• Low: 162.3 FPS average
• Medium: 142.9 FPS average
• High: 97.3 FPS average
• Ultra: 65.6 FPS average

The gap between Low and Ultra is a massive 96.7 FPS, demonstrating the extreme performance cost of the highest settings. The step from Medium to High is the most punishing, with a loss of 45.6 FPS, suggesting that the High preset enables a specific set of effects that heavily impact performance.

At 2560x1440, the data shows the following averages:

• Low: 106.4 FPS
• Medium: 95.7 FPS
• High: 67.4 FPS
• Ultra: 46.7 FPS

The relative performance drops are consistent with the 1080p results, with the Medium to High transition again being the most significant, costing 28.3 FPS. The Low and Medium presets remain well above 60 FPS, making them ideal for high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors.

At 3840x2160, the averages are:

• Low: 61.6 FPS
• Medium: 53.4 FPS
• High: 41.1 FPS
• Ultra: 28.9 FPS

Here, only the Low preset manages to clear the 60 FPS mark. The Medium preset is playable but requires tolerance for sub-60 FPS performance. The High and Ultra presets are not recommended for a smooth experience at 4K resolution.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for a smooth 60 FPS experience at 2560x1440?

A: Based on the measured data, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 yields an average of 95.7 FPS, which is well above 60 FPS. The High preset at this resolution drops to 67.4 FPS, which is still above 60 FPS but closer to the threshold.

Q: Can this configuration achieve high refresh rates at 1920x1080?

A: Yes. The Low preset produces an average of 162.3 FPS, and the Medium preset achieves 142.9 FPS at 1920x1080. Both are suitable for 144Hz monitors. The High preset at 97.3 FPS is also viable for a 100Hz display.

Q: How much performance is lost by enabling the Ultra preset at 1920x1080?

A: The Ultra preset at 1920x1080 averages 65.6 FPS, which is a 77.3 FPS decrease compared to the Medium preset's 142.9 FPS. This represents a performance drop of over 50%.

Q: Is the RTX 5060 more powerful than the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT?

A: The benchmark scores are nearly identical. The RTX 5060 has an average benchmark score of 30109, while the RX 7700 XT scores 30097, a difference of 0%. Their performance is effectively tied in synthetic benchmarks.

Q: What is the highest playable setting at 3840x2160?

A: The Medium preset is the highest setting that maintains an average above 50 FPS, with a measured 53.4 FPS. The High preset drops to 41.1 FPS, which may be less desirable for a fluid experience.

Q: How does the CPU's single-core performance compare to its closest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2305. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i3-10305, has a score of 2300, which is a 0.2% difference. The data shows the i5-9400 is also 0.2% faster than the Intel Core i3-1125G4.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. Its benchmark results show a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 7969 and a single-core score of 1125. The single-core performance is critical for an MMORPG like Archeage, where game logic and network processing often rely on one or two threads.

The data indicates that the CPU's performance is a limiting factor in this configuration, particularly at lower resolutions. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the GPU is capable of producing 162.3 FPS, but the CPU must handle the frame pacing and game simulation. The i5-9400's 6 threads are sufficient for this task, but the 50th percentile ranking versus all CPUs suggests it is an average performer. Its nearest rival, the Intel Xeon E-2134, is only 0.4% slower, while the Intel Core i7-8809G is 0.6% faster, indicating the i5-9400 sits in a competitive but unremarkable position.

As resolution increases to 2560x1440 and 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, and the CPU's role diminishes. This is evident in the frame rate scaling; the drop from 1080p Low to 4K Low is not as severe as the drop from Low to Ultra at a single resolution. The CPU's 9 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support provide adequate data throughput for the GPU, but the overall combo rank of 855 out of 1727 reflects that this processor, while capable, does not boost the configuration beyond a mid-tier standing in the database for this game.