Archeage

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates across resolutions reveal a system that transitions from CPU-bound at 1080p to GPU-bound at 4K. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo produces 70.9 FPS, while at 2560x1440 it drops to 50.7 FPS, and at 3840x2160 it falls to 29.8 FPS. This scaling pattern—a 28.5% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a 41.2% reduction from 1440p to 4K—indicates that the RTX 2060's rasterization throughput becomes the limiting factor as pixel count rises. The GPU's 6 GB GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus with 336.0 GB/s bandwidth is adequate for 1080p but begins to strain at higher resolutions where texture fetch and memory bandwidth demands increase.

The delta between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution further illustrates this shift. At 1080p, Low delivers 119.1 FPS versus Ultra's 47.7 FPS—a 2.5x spread that suggests the CPU can feed frames quickly when the GPU is lightly loaded. At 1440p, the spread narrows to 81.9 FPS versus 33.6 FPS (2.4x), and at 4K it compresses to 42.9 FPS versus 21.2 FPS (2.0x). This compression at higher resolutions is the classic signature of a GPU bottleneck: the RTX 2060's 6.451 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 201.6 GTexel/s texture rate become saturated, so reducing settings yields diminishing returns because the pixel fill rate itself is the constraint.

Notably, the Medium preset at 1080p (103 FPS) nearly matches Low (119.1 FPS) in practical terms, while at 4K the Medium preset (39.8 FPS) is only 7.2% slower than Low (42.9 FPS). The data suggests that Archeage's rendering engine scales heavily with shader complexity and post-processing, both of which tax the 1920 shading units on the TU106 chip. The 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores present in this Turing GPU are not directly relevant for this 2014 MMORPG, which predates ray tracing and DLSS, so their presence does not influence these measured results.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-13700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 ranks 1385 out of 1727 tested combos in Archeage, placing it in the bottom 19.8% of all configurations. This low ranking is surprising given the CPU's strong synthetic performance—the i7-13700K achieves a 93rd percentile score across all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 47282. The discrepancy between the CPU's raw capability and the in-game ranking points squarely at the GPU as the limiting factor.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks provide context for its headroom. The Intel Core i7-13700KF scores 47334 (0.1% higher), the AMD EPYC 4364P scores 47131 (0.3% lower), and the Intel Core i9-12900F scores 47081 (0.4% lower). These differences are negligible—all four processors sit within 0.5% of each other—meaning the CPU choice is not what separates this combo from higher-ranked configurations. Instead, the RTX 2060's 58th percentile standing among all GPUs (average benchmark score 16074) is the binding constraint.

The GPU's nearest rivals reinforce this view. The AMD Radeon RX 7600S scores 15996 (0.5% lower), while the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M and Pro 5700 both score 16351 (1.7% higher), and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 scores 15786 (1.8% lower). All of these GPUs are within 2% of the RTX 2060 in synthetic benchmarks, yet none would be considered high-end for modern gaming. In a 2014 MMORPG like Archeage, the combination of a top-tier 16-core CPU with a mid-range GPU creates an imbalance: the i7-13700K's potential is left largely untapped because the RTX 2060 cannot push frame rates high enough to engage the CPU's full throughput.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data indicates that High settings at 1080p (70.9 FPS) provide the best balance of visual fidelity and playability for this combo. This preset delivers a frame rate comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining meaningful graphical quality. The jump from High to Ultra at 1080p costs 23.2 FPS (a 32.7% reduction) for what is typically a marginal visual improvement in MMORPG environments, which are often viewed from a distance where higher shadow quality and draw distance have diminishing returns.

For players prioritizing smoothness, the Medium preset at 1080p (103 FPS) is the superior choice. It is only 13.5% slower than Low (119.1 FPS) but offers substantially better visual quality, and it is 45.3% faster than High (70.9 FPS). The 103 FPS figure approaches the 119.1 FPS Low preset closely enough that the Medium preset should be the default recommendation for competitive play or large-scale raids where frame timing consistency matters.

At 1440p, the data shows that High settings (50.7 FPS) are borderline for playable frame rates, while Medium (69.2 FPS) is the minimum recommended preset. Players with 1440p monitors should accept Medium as the practical ceiling. At 4K, no preset achieves 60 FPS: High delivers 29.8 FPS, Medium 39.8 FPS, and Low 42.9 FPS. The 4K Ultra preset (21.2 FPS) is effectively unplayable. This resolution is not viable for this combination in Archeage, and the data suggests staying at 1080p or accepting 1440p with Medium settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings range was measured. Low produced 119.1 FPS average, Medium produced 103 FPS, High produced 70.9 FPS, and Ultra produced 47.7 FPS. The progression from Low to Medium to High to Ultra shows a consistent performance penalty: 13.5% from Low to Medium, 31.2% from Medium to High, and 32.7% from High to Ultra. The Ultra preset at 1080p is the only setting where the frame rate drops below 60 FPS, indicating that the RTX 2060's 6 GB memory buffer and 48 ROPs are insufficient for the full effect suite at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the measured values are: Low 81.9 FPS, Medium 69.2 FPS, High 50.7 FPS, and Ultra 33.6 FPS. The Medium preset is the only one that exceeds 60 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra at 1440p is 17.1 FPS (a 33.7% drop), which is proportionally similar to the 1080p gap. The 1440p results are roughly 30% lower than their 1080p counterparts across all settings, consistent with the 77.8% increase in pixel count (from 2.07 million to 3.69 million pixels).

At 3840x2160, all settings fall below 60 FPS: Low 42.9 FPS, Medium 39.8 FPS, High 29.8 FPS, and Ultra 21.2 FPS. The 4K pixel count (8.29 million) is 4x the 1080p count, and the frame rates reflect this: 4K Low (42.9) is 64% lower than 1080p Low (119.1). The scaling from 1440p to 4K shows an additional 47.6% reduction in frame rate for Low settings, which aligns with the 2.25x pixel increase. The RTX 2060's 336.0 GB/s memory bandwidth becomes a clear constraint at this resolution, as the 192-bit bus cannot supply textures quickly enough to maintain higher frame rates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, built on the TU106 chip using a 12 nm process at TSMC, provides the rendering foundation for this combo. Its 1920 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs define its raw throughput capabilities. The base clock of 1365 MHz and boost clock of 1680 MHz determine how quickly these units can process geometry and pixels. The 6 GB GDDR6 memory operates at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective data rate, delivering 336.0 GB/s across a 192-bit bus.

For Archeage, a 2014 MMORPG that does not utilize ray tracing or DLSS, the RTX 2060's 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores are effectively dormant. The game's rendering workload falls entirely on the traditional rasterization pipeline—the shading units, TMUs, and ROPs. The measured FPS data shows that this GPU's performance ceiling is reached at 1080p High (70.9 FPS), and pushing beyond this requires either lowering resolution or accepting sub-60 FPS frame rates.

The GPU's synthetic benchmarks corroborate its positioning. The PassMark G3D score of 14111 and average benchmark score of 16074 place it at the 58th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals—all within 2% in average score—represent the upper boundary of mid-range performance. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1242 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 71278 indicate that this GPU is not designed for high-resolution gaming, which is consistent with the measured 4K results. The 10,800 million transistors on a 445 mm² die, while substantial for its era, cannot overcome the fundamental bandwidth limitations at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K, with 16 cores and 24 threads, represents an extreme oversupply of processing power for this game. Its Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process, features a base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.40 GHz. The 30 MB shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample caching for game logic, while the 80 KB per-core L1 cache handles immediate data needs. This CPU was released in September 2022 with a launch MSRP of $409 and supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory across a dual-channel bus.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i7-13700K demonstrates exceptional multithreaded capability: Cinebench R23 multicore scores 39000, Geekbench multicore scores 17731, and PassMark multithread scores 45887. The 16-thread 3DMark score of 10717 and max-thread score of 12412 show strong scaling across cores. However, Archeage, being a 2014 title, is unlikely to utilize more than a few threads effectively. The single-thread performance—Cinebench R23 singlecore 5505, Geekbench singlecore 2850, PassMark single-thread 4333—is more relevant, and these scores are excellent.

The measured FPS data confirms that the CPU is not the bottleneck at any resolution. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 119.1 FPS, which is close to what a 60 Hz display would need, and the 1080p Medium result of 103 FPS suggests the CPU can sustain high frame rates when the GPU is not limiting. The fact that 1080p High (70.9 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (47.7 FPS) show significant drops indicates the GPU, not the CPU, is determining performance. If the CPU were the constraint, the frame rates would remain roughly constant across resolutions at the same settings. Instead, the 4K Low result (42.9 FPS) versus 1080p Low (119.1 FPS) shows a 64% reduction, which is a GPU-bound signature. The i7-13700K's 93rd percentile CPU ranking and its proximity to rivals like the i7-13700KF (0.1% difference) and i9-12900F (0.4% difference) confirm that this processor has far more headroom than the RTX 2060 can exploit in this title.