Archeage

Archeage, a 2014 MMORPG, behaves in a way that clearly separates it from modern, demanding titles when paired with the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER. The data shows that this combination is overwhelmingly capable, delivering playable frame rates even at 4K Ultra, but the performance scaling reveals a nuance: this game is far more sensitive to graphics settings than to raw resolution. The measured FPS indicates that the bottleneck shifts from the GPU at lower resolutions to a mix of engine and CPU limitations at higher settings, making the choice of in-game preset more impactful than the choice of monitor resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The benchmark results for this combination show a dramatic, non-linear drop in frame rate as resolution increases, but the most startling revelation is how the game's settings amplify this effect. When moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings, the average FPS falls from 162 to 109, a 33% reduction. However, pushing further to 3840x2160 at High yields just 62 average FPS, representing another 43% drop from the 1440p figure. This suggests that while 4K is playable, it demands a significant performance sacrifice.

The scaling pattern changes drastically depending on the preset. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 268 FPS at 1080p to 180 FPS at 1440p (a 33% decrease) and then to 103 FPS at 4K (a 43% decrease). This consistency suggests that at Low settings, the GPU is the primary limiter across all resolutions, and the scaling follows a predictable path based on pixel count.

The Ultra preset tells a different story. At 1080p, the average FPS is 111, which is already lower than the High preset at 4K (62 FPS) by a factor of 1.8. When resolution increases to 1440p, Ultra drops to 74 FPS, and at 4K it plummets to 43 FPS. The delta between 1080p Ultra (111 FPS) and 1080p Low (268 FPS) is 157 FPS, which is a massive gap that dwarfs the 74 FPS difference between 1080p Low and 4K Low. The data clearly indicates that the graphics settings have a more profound impact on performance than the resolution does.

The 4K Medium result of 92 FPS (with a minimum of 78 and maximum of 106) is a key data point. It shows that a moderate settings increase from Low at 4K (103 FPS) costs only 11 FPS, while a jump from Medium to High at 4K (62 FPS) costs 30 FPS. This suggests that the High and Ultra presets introduce effects that are disproportionately expensive on this hardware, likely related to shadow quality and draw distances that stress the CPU's ability to feed the GPU. The frame rate scaling indicates that for this specific combination, the limiting component at 4K High and Ultra is not the RTX 4080 SUPER's raw pixel throughput, but rather the game engine's single-threaded performance and data preparation, which the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus cannot fully mitigate.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER serves as the primary workhorse for this configuration, and its specifications are more than sufficient for a game of Archeage's age. With 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus providing 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth, the card is not memory-starved at any of the tested resolutions. The data supports this: the 4K Low preset (103 FPS) versus 4K Medium (92 FPS) shows only an 11% penalty for increased texture and effect complexity, indicating the VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor even when pushing higher detail levels.

The GPU's clock speeds, with a base of 2295 MHz and a boost of 2550 MHz, are substantial. However, the benchmark data reveals that the card is often not the bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the RTX 4080 SUPER achieves 268 FPS, but at 1080p Ultra it only manages 111 FPS. This 157 FPS gap is not explained by GPU core clock scaling; rather, it points to the game's Ultra preset introducing CPU-bound workloads, such as complex physics or AI calculations, that stall the GPU. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 34245 and its 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs confirm its high-end status, yet those metrics do not translate into proportional gains in Archeage because the game's rendering pipeline is not fully utilizing the Ada Lovelace architecture's capabilities.

The card's DirectX 12 benchmark scores (PassMark score of 134) and DirectX 11 score (301) are instructive. While Archeage can run on modern APIs, the data suggests that the game's core engine operations are not scaling with the GPU's raw compute power. The RTX 4080 SUPER's FP32 performance of 52.22 TFLOPS is immense, but the measured FPS at 4K Ultra (43 FPS) indicates that the game is not demanding that level of compute. Instead, the GPU is likely waiting on draw calls and scene management from the CPU. The 4K Medium result of 92 FPS, compared to the 4K Low result of 103 FPS, shows that the GPU can handle increased shader complexity with minimal loss, but the jump to High (62 FPS) introduces a new bottleneck, likely related to the game's LOD (level of detail) system and shadow rendering, which tax the CPU's cache and memory subsystems.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combination depend on the user's priority: maximum smoothness or maximum visual fidelity. For competitive play or large-scale PvP battles where frame rate consistency is paramount, the Low preset at 2560x1440 is the clear winner. It delivers an average of 180 FPS, which is 65% higher than the High preset at the same resolution (109 FPS). Even at 4K, the Low preset achieves 103 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

The Medium preset offers a compelling balance. At 2560x1440, it averages 161 FPS with a minimum of 136 FPS and a maximum of 185 FPS, ensuring no noticeable stutters. At 4K, Medium still provides 92 FPS, which is smoother than High at 4K by 48%. The gap between Medium and High is substantial: at 1080p, the difference is 76 FPS (238 vs 162), and at 1440p it is 52 FPS (161 vs 109). This indicates that the High preset enables features that are disproportionately expensive, making Medium the most efficient preset for maintaining high refresh rates.

The Ultra preset is not recommended for this game at any resolution. Even at 1080p, it only reaches 111 FPS, which is lower than the Medium preset at 4K (92 FPS) by only 19 FPS, but it sacrifices resolution. At 4K Ultra, the 43 FPS average is below the ideal threshold for an MMORPG where reactive gameplay is important. The data suggests that the Ultra preset's visual improvements are not worth the performance cost, as the jump from High to Ultra at 4K costs 19 FPS (62 to 43), a 31% reduction for what is likely a marginal visual gain in a game with dated graphics. The best experience per the measured rows is the Medium preset at 2560x1440, which provides a high average FPS, a solid minimum FPS of 136, and a maximum of 185, offering both smoothness and a resolution that benefits from the RTX 4080 SUPER's capabilities.

FAQ

Q: Can this combination run Archeage at 4K resolution?

A: Yes, it can. The data shows an average of 62 FPS at 4K High and 43 FPS at 4K Ultra. For a smoother experience, the 4K Medium preset delivers 92 FPS, and 4K Low delivers 103 FPS.

Q: What is the best settings preset for this game with this hardware?

A: Based on the measured FPS, the Medium preset offers the best balance. At 2560x1440, it provides 161 FPS average, 136 FPS minimum, and 185 FPS maximum. At 1920x1080, it delivers 238 FPS average.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High in terms of performance?

A: The Ultra preset is significantly more demanding. At 1920x1080, High averages 162 FPS while Ultra averages 111 FPS, a 51 FPS difference. At 3840x2160, High averages 62 FPS while Ultra averages 43 FPS, a 19 FPS difference.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor at 4K High settings?

A: The data indicates the game engine and CPU become the limiter at 4K High. The GPU handles 4K Low at 103 FPS, but the jump to High drops performance to 62 FPS, suggesting that High settings introduce CPU-bound workloads that the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus cannot fully process in time.

Q: What is the frame rate at 1080p with this setup?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 ranges from 268 FPS at Low, 238 FPS at Medium, 162 FPS at High, to 111 FPS at Ultra.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER's memory bandwidth affect performance?

A: With 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth and 16 GB of GDDR6X, the GPU is not memory-limited. The 4K Medium result (92 FPS) versus 4K Low (103 FPS) shows only an 11 FPS penalty, indicating that the memory subsystem can handle increased texture loads without significant performance loss.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER achieves a rank of 171 out of 2761 tested combos in Archeage. This places it in the top 6.2% of all configurations tested, which is a strong positioning for a game that is not known for leveraging the latest hardware. The high rank is surprising given the game's age, but it reflects the fact that the CPU and GPU are both high-end parts that handle the game's single-threaded nature reasonably well.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 96th among all CPUs and its average benchmark score of 84003 contribute to this ranking, but the game's performance is not purely CPU-driven. The GPU's percentile rank of 86th and its average benchmark score of 54209 are also factors, but the measured FPS data shows that the game does not scale well with the GPU's compute power. The rank of 171 is likely boosted by the CPU's strong single-core performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7303, which helps with the game's physics and AI calculations.

Compared to other tested combos, this pairing is in the upper echelon, but it is not at the top. The data suggests that combos with even higher single-threaded CPU performance or different GPU architectures might achieve better results, but within the tested pool, this combo is a strong contender. The rank of 171 out of 2761 indicates that the combination is well-matched for Archeage, with neither component being a significant weak link, though the game's engine limits the GPU's potential, preventing a higher rank. The fact that the combo ranks this high despite the game's age points to the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus's ability to manage the game's legacy code effectively.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a critical component in this configuration, and its characteristics are well-suited to Archeage's specific demands. With 24 cores and 24 threads, the CPU has ample parallel processing power, but the game's engine, released in 2014, does not scale well with multi-threading. Instead, Archeage typically relies on a few high-performance cores for its main game logic, physics, and draw call preparation. The CPU's boost clock of 5.80 GHz, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz, provides the high single-threaded performance necessary for this workload.

The benchmark data supports this theory. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 268 FPS, which is a high frame rate that suggests the CPU can feed the GPU efficiently at lower settings. However, when moving to 1080p Ultra (111 FPS), the performance drops by 157 FPS, even though the GPU is the same. This indicates that the Ultra preset increases the CPU's workload, likely through more complex scene graph management and shadow calculations, which creates a bottleneck. The CPU's Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7303 and multi-core score of 51731 show that it is powerful, but the game cannot leverage the multi-core score to overcome the single-threaded limitations.

The CPU's cache hierarchy is also relevant. With 192 KB of L1 cache per core, 3 MB of L2 cache per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache, the CPU has a large amount of fast memory to hold the game's assets and state. This helps mitigate the impact of Archeage's frequent data access patterns. The memory bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s, while modest by modern standards, is sufficient for the game's needs, as the data shows that the 4K Medium preset (92 FPS) is not heavily penalized compared to 4K Low (103 FPS), suggesting that memory bandwidth is not a limiting factor.

The CPU's performance in PassMark tests further illustrates its capabilities. A single-thread score of 4823 and a physics score of 3315 indicate strong per-core performance, which is more important for Archeage than the multi-thread score of 60860. The data suggests that the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is the primary reason this combo ranks as high as 171st, as it provides the necessary single-core speed to keep the game's logic running smoothly, even if the GPU goes underutilized at higher settings. The CPU's 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs confirms its high-end status, but the game's engine prevents it from fully showcasing its multi-core capabilities.