Archeage

The Intel Core i7-14700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER delivers a high-refresh-rate experience in Archeage, but the data shows a clear pattern: this is a CPU-bound title at lower resolutions, with GPU load only becoming significant at 4K Ultra settings. The benchmark results reveal that the RTX 4080 SUPER, which sits in the 88th percentile of all GPUs, is often not the limiting factor. The i7-14700K, with its 20 cores and 28 threads, provides ample headroom, as evidenced by its 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs. The measured FPS across 12 distinct resolution and settings combinations shows a wide performance envelope, ranging from a highly playable 60.7 FPS at 4K High to a blistering 266.4 FPS at 1080p Low. The data suggests that for most players, the processor is doing the heavy lifting, and the GPU's 16 GB of VRAM and 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth are more than sufficient for the game's demands.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Archeage with this hardware for a 144Hz monitor?

A: The data shows the RTX 4080 SUPER and i7-14700K can comfortably exceed 144 FPS at 1440p with High settings, hitting 111.8 FPS, and even more so on Medium at 162.7 FPS. At 1080p, all settings except Ultra exceed 144 FPS, making 1440p Medium or High the ideal pairing for high refresh rates.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to its closest rival, the RX 6900 XT, in this game?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 53610, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT's 53489. This indicates a near-identical level of raw performance, meaning the gaming experience in Archeage would be very similar between the two cards.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck at 1080p?

A: Yes, the data strongly indicates a CPU bottleneck at 1080p. The performance difference between Low (266.4 FPS) and Ultra (112.7 FPS) is substantial, but the GPU is capable of far more; the fact that the frame rate scales so much with resolution suggests the CPU is the limiting factor at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the highest framerate recorded in the entire benchmark run?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 266.4 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This shows the immense headroom available when the GPU is not heavily tasked.

Q: How does the i7-14700K's multi-core performance compare to the Ryzen 9 9950X?

A: The i7-14700K has an average benchmark score of 70074, while the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X scores 70420. This puts the i7-14700K 0.5% behind the Ryzen 9 9950X, making them essentially equivalent in overall compute performance.

Q: Does the RTX 4080 SUPER fall behind any of its rivals in the benchmark database?

A: The data shows the RTX 4080 SUPER is ahead of its nearest rivals. It is 2.1% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 7700S and 2.9% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture and features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s. Its core clocks are a base of 2295 MHz and a boost of 2550 MHz. In Archeage, this hardware is rarely the primary constraint. At 4K with High settings, the GPU manages an average of 60.7 FPS, indicating it is being utilized but not overwhelmed. The card's 88th percentile ranking among all GPUs and its benchmark scores, such as a 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 6600 and a Passmark G3D score of 34245, place it as a top-tier performer.

However, the data suggests the game's engine and CPU interaction are more critical than raw GPU power. For instance, at 1440p High, the system produces 111.8 FPS, and at 1080p High, it produces 162.7 FPS. This scaling shows that the GPU is not the limiting factor until the resolution and settings are pushed to their limits. At 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops to 44 FPS, a significant reduction that demonstrates the GPU's limits when the render load becomes extreme. The RTX 4080 SUPER's nearest rival, the RX 6900 XT, is a mere 0.2% slower on average, so the GPU is in a very competitive performance class, but the measured results in Archeage are more about how the CPU and game engine interact with it.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic CPU-bound scenario. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 266.4 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low, the frame rate drops to 180.1 FPS, a 32.4% decrease. At 4K Low, the frame rate is 101.2 FPS, a 62% drop from 1080p. This steep decline with resolution indicates that the GPU is becoming more involved, but the absolute numbers are still high, suggesting the CPU is keeping up well.

The pattern changes with higher settings. At High settings, the drop from 1080p (162.7 FPS) to 1440p (111.8 FPS) is a 31.3% reduction, and the drop to 4K (60.7 FPS) is a 62.7% reduction from 1080p. The most revealing data point is the Ultra preset. Here, the frame rate at 1080p is 112.7 FPS, which is lower than the 1440p High result of 111.8 FPS. This shows that at 1080p Ultra, the CPU is not the bottleneck; the GPU is being tasked with higher-quality rendering. The 4K Ultra result of 44 FPS is the only point where the GPU is definitively the limiting component, as the frame rate has dropped below the 60 FPS threshold, highlighting the extreme demands of that configuration.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results indicate that the "High" preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance for this hardware. At 1440p, the High preset delivers 111.8 FPS, which is excellent for a smooth experience on high-refresh-rate monitors. Stepping up to Ultra at 1440p yields only 76.8 FPS, a 31.3% performance loss for what is likely a marginal visual improvement in an MMORPG. At 4K, the High preset is the only one that maintains a playable frame rate above 60 FPS, hitting 60.7 FPS.

For players targeting 1080p, the Medium preset at 237.3 FPS or High at 162.7 FPS are both excellent choices, as they provide frame rates far beyond what most monitors can display. The Ultra preset at 1080p, while still playable at 112.7 FPS, represents a significant performance cost. The data suggests that the "High" preset is the sweet spot for this hardware, providing a high frame rate at 1440p and a playable one at 4K, without the performance penalty of the Ultra settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of performance across all tested configurations. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 266.4 on Low to 112.7 on Ultra. The Medium preset achieves 237.3 FPS, and High yields 162.7 FPS. At 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally: Low delivers 180.1 FPS, Medium 162.7 FPS, High 111.8 FPS, and Ultra 76.8 FPS. At 3840x2160, the frame rates are significantly lower: Low produces 101.2 FPS, Medium 89.4 FPS, High 60.7 FPS, and Ultra drops to 44 FPS.

These numbers show a consistent hierarchy, with Low being the fastest and Ultra the slowest at every resolution. The gap between Low and Ultra widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference is 153.7 FPS. At 1440p, the difference is 103.3 FPS. At 4K, the difference is 57.2 FPS. This narrowing gap indicates that as resolution increases, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, reducing the impact of the CPU and lower-detail settings. The 4K Ultra result of 44 FPS is the only sub-60 FPS result in the entire dataset.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. It has 33 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory. In Archeage, the data strongly suggests this CPU is the primary driver of performance at lower resolutions. The fact that the system can hit 266.4 FPS at 1080p Low shows that the CPU has immense headroom, as the GPU is capable of far more.

The i7-14700K's benchmark scores are exceptional, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44534 and a single-core score of 6287. It sits in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, and its average benchmark score of 70074 places it just 0.5% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-14700KF, has a deltaPct of 0, meaning they are statistically identical in performance. This single-core and multi-core strength is crucial for an MMORPG like Archeage, which often has many players and entities on screen, relying heavily on the CPU for game logic and world simulation. The data shows that the i7-14700K provides enough processing power to keep frame rates high, even when the GPU is not the limiting factor.