Archeage

# Archeage Performance Analysis: Intel Core Ultra 7 155H + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 produces a highly uneven performance profile in Archeage, with results that shift dramatically based on resolution and quality settings. At 1080p Low, the system delivers 132 FPS average, but this collapses to 21 FPS at 4K Ultra — a spread that reveals clear bottlenecks and capability limits. This analysis breaks down the measured data across resolutions, settings, and component roles to provide a complete picture of what this pairing can achieve in the 2014 MMORPG.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior in Archeage exposes a steep performance cliff as pixel count rises. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings reduces average FPS from 80 to 54, a 32.5% drop. The subsequent jump to 3840x2160 at High cuts performance further to 31 FPS, representing another 42.6% decline from the 1440p result. This pattern indicates that the rendering load scales aggressively with resolution, and the RTX 5060's capabilities are increasingly taxed as the pixel count grows.

At Low settings, the scaling trend is even more pronounced in absolute terms. The system achieves 132 FPS at 1080p, drops to 89 FPS at 1440p (a 32.6% reduction), and then falls to 51 FPS at 4K (a 42.7% drop from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage declines across settings suggests that resolution scaling follows a predictable curve regardless of quality level, though the absolute frame rates differ substantially.

The Medium preset shows the most complete data with min/max values recorded. At 1080p Medium, the system averages 118 FPS with a minimum of 100 and maximum of 135 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average falls to 79 FPS with a range of 67 to 91 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average drops to 45 FPS with a range of 38 to 52 FPS. The min-to-max spread narrows as resolution increases, indicating that frame time variance becomes more constrained at higher pixel counts — likely due to the GPU becoming the consistent limiting factor.

The 4K Ultra result of 21 FPS represents the worst-case scenario in the measured data. This is a 61.1% reduction from the 4K Medium result and a 84.1% reduction from the 1080p Ultra result of 54 FPS. The extreme drop suggests that Ultra settings at 4K push the RTX 5060 well beyond its practical comfort zone for this title. The scaling from 1080p Ultra (54 FPS) to 1440p Ultra (37 FPS) shows a 31.5% decline, which is consistent with the other settings' resolution scaling patterns, but the 4K Ultra result falls far below what the trend would predict — indicating a threshold effect where the combination of high resolution and maximum quality exceeds available resources.

The data strongly indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component at higher resolutions. The RTX 5060's 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth appears insufficient for 4K Ultra in this title, given the collapsed frame rate. At 1080p, the system shows healthy performance across all settings, suggesting that the CPU and memory subsystem can feed the GPU adequately at that resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H brings 16 cores and 22 threads to the pairing, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 4.80 GHz. This Meteor Lake processor, built on a 7 nm process, features 24 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth. For an MMORPG like Archeage, which typically relies on single-thread performance for game logic and network handling, the boost clock of 4.80 GHz is the more relevant specification.

The CPU's benchmark results place it in a competitive position. In Cinebench R23, it scores 15028 multi-core and 1743 single-core. The PassMark single-thread score is 3468, with a multi-thread score of 24873. The processor's percentile ranking of 83 versus all CPUs indicates it outperforms the majority of processors in general benchmarks, though its nearest rivals are closely matched. The AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 is 0.1% ahead in average benchmark score, while the Intel Core i5-14600T is essentially tied at 0% delta. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850H is 0.4% behind.

In Archeage specifically, the CPU's role appears secondary at lower resolutions but becomes more relevant at higher settings. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 132 FPS, which suggests the CPU can handle the game's logic requirements comfortably. However, the fact that 1080p Ultra only reaches 54 FPS — less than half the Low setting result — indicates that the GPU is already the limiting factor even at 1080p when quality settings increase. The CPU's 22 threads provide ample headroom for the game's background tasks, but Archeage's age (released in 2014) means it likely cannot fully utilize the available thread count.

The measured FPS data shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck in most scenarios. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p (from 132 to 54 FPS) is far too severe to be CPU-caused; a CPU-limited scenario would show much smaller differences between quality settings. The CPU's single-thread score of 1743 in Cinebench R23 is solid for a mobile processor, and the 3.80 GHz base clock ensures consistent performance during extended gaming sessions. The 28 W TDP indicates this is designed for mobile use, which may explain why the performance in a demanding MMORPG at high resolutions falls short of desktop-class alternatives.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimal settings selection. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 118 FPS average with a minimum of 100 FPS, offering a strong balance of visual quality and smoothness. The High preset at 80 FPS is still very playable, but the 38 FPS gap between Medium and High represents a substantial visual improvement that may not justify the performance cost for competitive play. The Ultra preset at 54 FPS is the minimum for acceptable smoothness, but the 64 FPS difference between Medium and Ultra is substantial.

At 1440p, the Medium preset again emerges as the recommended choice, delivering 79 FPS average with a minimum of 67 FPS. This keeps frame rates comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The High preset at 54 FPS is playable but falls below the 60 FPS mark, which may cause noticeable stutter in fast-moving scenes. The Low preset at 89 FPS offers maximum smoothness but sacrifices significant visual quality. The Ultra preset at 37 FPS is not recommended for serious gameplay, as it sits well below the 60 FPS target.

At 4K, the situation is more constrained. The Low preset at 51 FPS is the only setting that approaches playable frame rates, though it still falls below 60 FPS. The Medium preset at 45 FPS is marginal, and the High preset at 31 FPS and Ultra at 21 FPS are not suitable for gameplay. For 4K users, the Low preset is the only viable option, and even then, the frame rate may be inconsistent in crowded areas typical of MMORPGs.

The overall recommendation is to use Medium settings at 1080p or 1440p for the best balance of visual quality and performance. The Medium preset shows the most complete data with recorded min/max values, indicating it was the most thoroughly tested configuration. At 1080p Medium, the 100 FPS minimum ensures that even the most demanding scenes remain fluid. At 1440p Medium, the 67 FPS minimum is still above the 60 FPS target, though with less margin for error.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 combination ranks 2465 out of 3708 tested combos in Archeage, placing it in the 33.5th percentile of all tested configurations. This is a below-average ranking that reflects the system's struggles at higher resolutions and settings. The rank suggests that while this combo can handle the game at lower resolutions, it falls behind many other pairings when pushed to more demanding configurations.

The CPU's individual ranking of 83rd percentile versus all CPUs shows that the processor is not the weak link in this pairing. The GPU's ranking of 72nd percentile versus all GPUs is also respectable. However, the combo's performance in Archeage specifically is dragged down by the GPU's 8 GB VRAM limitation and the game's apparently high memory demands at higher settings. The 4K Ultra result of 21 FPS is particularly damaging to the overall ranking, as it represents a worst-case scenario that many other combos handle better.

The nearest rival comparisons for the GPU provide context. The AMD Radeon 860M is 0.3% behind in average benchmark score, the NVIDIA GeForce MX550 is also 0.3% behind, and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary is 0.8% behind. The AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT is 1.2% ahead. These rivals are all within a narrow band of performance, suggesting that the RTX 5060 is competitively positioned in synthetic benchmarks, but its real-world gaming performance in Archeage at high settings is limited by its memory configuration.

The combo rank of 2465 out of 3708 means that 1243 combos performed worse, while 2464 performed better. This places the system in the lower third of tested configurations for this game, which is a significant finding given the relatively modern components involved. The ranking highlights that Archeage's performance characteristics are unusual — the game appears to favor configurations with larger memory capacities and higher bandwidth over raw compute performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB206 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features 3840 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs, with 30 RT cores and 120 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2280 MHz and a boost clock of 2497 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) on 8 GB of GDDR7 memory. The 128-bit memory bus delivers 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, and the card has a TDP of 145 W.

The GPU's synthetic benchmark scores show a mixed picture. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 3628. In Geekbench, it achieves 112787 in OpenCL and 113321 in Vulkan. The PassMark G3D score is 20891, with a GPU compute score of 10899. The percentile ranking of 72 versus all GPUs indicates it outperforms 72% of graphics cards in general benchmarks, though its nearest rivals in the database are closely matched.

In Archeage, the GPU's role is clearly the primary determinant of performance at higher resolutions and settings. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is likely the critical limitation at 4K Ultra, where the 21 FPS result suggests the card is either running out of memory or severely bandwidth-constrained. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, while respectable for a 128-bit bus, appears insufficient for 4K Ultra textures and effects in this game.

The GPU's performance scaling across settings at each resolution shows consistent behavior. At 1080p, the jump from Low (132 FPS) to Medium (118 FPS) costs 14 FPS, from Medium to High (80 FPS) costs 38 FPS, and from High to Ultra (54 FPS) costs 26 FPS. The largest drop occurs between Medium and High, suggesting that High settings introduce rendering features that significantly increase GPU load. At 1440p, the pattern is similar: Low (89 FPS) to Medium (79 FPS) costs 10 FPS, Medium to High (54 FPS) costs 25 FPS, and High to Ultra (37 FPS) costs 17 FPS. At 4K, the drops are: Low (51 FPS) to Medium (45 FPS) costs 6 FPS, Medium to High (31 FPS) costs 14 FPS, and High to Ultra (21 FPS) costs 10 FPS.

The FP32 throughput of 19.18 TFLOPS places the RTX 5060 in a competitive position for rasterized rendering, and the pixel rate of 119.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 299.6 GTexel/s are respectable for the class. However, the 48 ROPs are relatively few for a modern GPU, which may explain the poor 4K performance — fill-rate limitations become more pronounced at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its strongest performance. The Low preset achieves 132 FPS average, providing exceptional smoothness for competitive play or maximum frame rates. The Medium preset delivers 118 FPS average with a minimum of 100 FPS and maximum of 135 FPS, offering excellent consistency with a 35 FPS spread. The High preset drops to 80 FPS average, which is still very playable but represents a 32.2% reduction from Medium. The Ultra preset falls to 54 FPS average, which is the minimum recommended for acceptable gameplay.

At 2560x1440, performance decreases across all settings. The Low preset achieves 89 FPS average, a 32.6% reduction from 1080p Low. The Medium preset delivers 79 FPS average with a minimum of 67 FPS and maximum of 91 FPS, maintaining a 24 FPS spread. The High preset drops to 54 FPS average, a 32.5% reduction from 1080p High. The Ultra preset falls to 37 FPS average, a 31.5% reduction from 1080p Ultra. The consistent percentage reductions across settings indicate that resolution scaling is uniform, with the GPU's workload increasing proportionally.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles significantly. The Low preset achieves 51 FPS average, a 42.7% reduction from 1440p Low. The Medium preset delivers 45 FPS average with a minimum of 38 FPS and maximum of 52 FPS, a 43.0% reduction from 1440p Medium. The High preset drops to 31 FPS average, a 42.6% reduction from 1440p High. The Ultra preset falls to 21 FPS average, a 43.2% reduction from 1440p Ultra. The 4K results show a steeper decline than the 1080p-to-1440p transition, indicating that the GPU's memory bandwidth or capacity is being exceeded.

The complete dataset reveals that the system is capable of smooth gameplay at 1080p across all settings, acceptable performance at 1440p with Medium or lower settings, and only marginal performance at 4K with Low settings. The Medium preset provides the most consistent experience with recorded min/max values at every resolution, showing that even at 4K, the frame rate range (38-52 FPS) is relatively stable despite the low average.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Archeage?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 provides the most consistent performance, with all settings achieving at least 54 FPS average. At 2560x1440, Medium settings maintain 79 FPS average with a 67 FPS minimum, which is acceptable. At 3840x2160, only Low settings reach 51 FPS average, making 4K generally unsuitable for this game.

Q: How does the RTX 5060's VRAM affect Archeage performance?

A: The 8 GB GDDR7 memory with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth appears to be the limiting factor at 4K, where the Ultra preset collapses to 21 FPS. The steep performance decline from 1440p to 4K (approximately 43% across all settings) suggests the memory subsystem cannot sustain the data demands of 4K rendering in this game.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H a bottleneck for the RTX 5060 in this game?

A: The CPU does not appear to be the primary bottleneck. The processor scores 15028 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1743 in single-core, ranking in the 83rd percentile. The performance differences between settings at the same resolution are far too large to be CPU-caused, indicating the GPU is the limiting component.

Q: What is the best quality preset for this system?

A: The Medium preset provides the best balance, delivering 118 FPS at 1080p and 79 FPS at 1440p, with recorded minimums of 100 FPS and 67 FPS respectively. The High preset at 1080p (80 FPS) is also viable, but Medium offers a larger safety margin for demanding scenes.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: This combo ranks 2465 out of 3708 tested combos in Archeage, placing it in the lower third of all configurations. The GPU's 72nd percentile ranking versus all GPUs and the CPU's 83rd percentile ranking suggest the combo's below-average game-specific rank is due to Archeage's particular demands.

Q: Can this system achieve 60 FPS at 1440p in Archeage?

A: Only with the Low preset, which achieves 89 FPS average. The Medium preset averages 79 FPS with a minimum of 67 FPS, which exceeds the 60 FPS target in most scenes. The High preset at 54 FPS and Ultra at 37 FPS both fall below 60 FPS and are not recommended for smooth gameplay.