Archeage

ArcheAge, the 2014 MMORPG, still presents a demanding workload for modern hardware, and the combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 produces a wide spectrum of performance depending on the resolution and quality settings selected. The benchmark data reveals a system capable of extreme frame rates at lower resolutions but one that also encounters significant limitations when pushed to 4K Ultra, making the choice of settings critical for the optimal experience.

Settings Recommendations

The measured performance data across the three resolutions and four quality presets paints a clear picture of where this hardware combination excels and where it struggles. The most balanced and recommended experience is found at Medium settings at 2560x1440, where the system delivers an average of 183 FPS. This setting provides a substantial frame rate headroom for high-refresh-rate monitors while maintaining a level of visual fidelity that is a significant step up from Low. The minimum frame rate recorded here is 155 FPS, ensuring that even in busy in-game scenes, the experience remains fluid and well above the threshold for competitive play.

For users prioritizing maximum smoothness and responsiveness, particularly in the game's large-scale PvP battles, Low settings at 1920x1080 is the definitive choice. The data shows an average of 305 FPS, which is an exceptionally high figure that will fully utilize the fastest 360Hz or higher displays. This setting eliminates any potential for the CPU or GPU to be a bottleneck, providing the most consistent and highest possible frame rate. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p is also notable, with the average dropping to 271 FPS, still incredibly high, but the 34 FPS difference highlights how even modest graphical increases can impact performance. At 1440p, the Low preset achieves 205 FPS, which remains excellent for competitive play.

The High preset offers a middle ground but comes with a more significant performance cost. At 1440p High, the system averages 124 FPS, which is still very good and suitable for high-refresh-rate gaming. However, the significant drop from the 183 FPS average at Medium at the same resolution suggests that the High preset introduces a much heavier load. At 1080p, High still manages a very playable 184 FPS, showing that at this resolution, the system has enough headroom to handle the increased detail.

The Ultra preset, while visually the most impressive, presents a challenge. At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS drops to 126, which is a steep decline from the High preset's 184 FPS. This trend becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions. At 1440p Ultra, the average falls to 85 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for high-refresh-rate panels. The most demanding scenario, 4K Ultra, results in an average of just 48 FPS, which is below the ideal range for a smooth experience on modern displays. Given the data, the Ultra preset is best reserved for 1080p or for players who prioritize visual fidelity over extreme frame rates and are willing to accept the lower performance at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus a bottleneck for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 in ArcheAge?

A: The data suggests the system becomes heavily GPU-limited at higher settings and resolutions. At 1080p Low, the CPU delivers 305 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, the frame rate falls to 48 FPS. This drastic drop indicates that the workload is becoming too demanding for the GPU at 4K Ultra, while the CPU is capable of producing very high frame rates at lower loads.

Q: How much of a performance difference is there between the Low and Ultra presets?

A: The performance gap is substantial and scales with resolution. At 1080p, the difference is 179 FPS (305 FPS on Low vs 126 FPS on Ultra). At 1440p, the difference is 120 FPS (205 vs 85). At 4K, the difference is 69 FPS (117 vs 48). The gap narrows at higher resolutions, further indicating that the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor.

Q: What is the best resolution to play ArcheAge with this hardware for a high-refresh-rate monitor?

A: For a 240Hz or higher monitor, 1080p on Low or Medium is ideal, with averages of 305 FPS and 271 FPS respectively. For a 144Hz monitor, 1440p on Medium is an excellent choice, providing an average of 183 FPS, while 1440p High also works well with an average of 124 FPS.

Q: Does the 32 GB of VRAM on the RTX 5090 provide any benefit in this game?

A: The benchmark data does not provide specific VRAM usage figures. However, the significant performance drop at 4K Ultra (to 48 FPS) suggests that the GPU's compute capabilities, rather than its memory capacity, are the limiting factor, as the RTX 5090 is a top-tier card in terms of memory size and bandwidth.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 compare to its nearest rivals based on its average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 5090 has an average benchmark score of 79842. This puts it 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB and 0.6% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB. It is also 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT but 1.4% behind the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X.

Q: Is the 4K Ultra experience playable with this setup?

A: With an average of 48 FPS, the 4K Ultra experience is below the 60 FPS target that many players consider the minimum for a smooth experience. While playable, it does not provide the high frame rate consistency seen at lower settings and resolutions, making it the least desirable configuration in the measured data.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a powerhouse built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, featuring a massive 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. Its compute capabilities are immense, with a boost clock of 2407 MHz and a raw FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS. In the context of ArcheAge, the data shows that the GPU's role is crucial, especially at higher resolutions and quality presets.

The benchmark results clearly indicate a transition from a CPU-bound scenario at low settings to a GPU-bound one at high settings. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 305 FPS, a figure that is likely near the CPU's maximum output. However, as the resolution increases to 1440p and 4K, the GPU must render more pixels, and the frame rate drops accordingly. The most telling data point is the 4K Ultra result of 48 FPS, which is a dramatic decrease from the 117 FPS at 4K Low. This shows that the Ultra preset's graphical effects and detail levels place an enormous load on the GPU's shaders and render output units (the RTX 5090 has 176 ROPs).

The 32 GB of VRAM is unlikely to be a limiting factor in a 2014 MMO, even at 4K. The performance scaling suggests that the GPU's raw compute power, not its memory, is the bottleneck at 4K Ultra. The card's high pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s are not enough to maintain high frame rates at the most demanding settings. This is a case where even the most powerful consumer GPU on the market can be brought to its knees by an ultra preset at 4K. The card's percentile ranking of 92 among all GPUs and its average benchmark score of 79842 confirm its top-tier status, but the game's engine and its Ultra settings prove to be a formidable challenge. The data shows the RTX 5090 is a capable card for 1440p High and below, but 4K Ultra is beyond its limits for achieving high frame rates in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database for ArcheAge, this specific combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is ranked 32nd out of 2761 tested combos. This places the system in the top 1.2% of all configurations, which is an exceptional result and reflects the high-end nature of both components.

The CPU itself is a strong performer, with an average benchmark score of 84003. This puts it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival is the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, which has an average score of 83807, a difference of just 0.2%. This indicates that the 290K Plus is essentially a marginal improvement over its predecessor. Other rivals include the AMD EPYC 4584PX, which is 1.1% slower, and the AMD EPYC 7F72, which is 1.3% faster.

The GPU also ranks highly, with an average benchmark score of 79842, placing it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are all professional or mobile parts, such as the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (0.3% slower) and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (1.1% slower), highlighting the RTX 5090's position at the top of the consumer desktop GPU hierarchy.

The combination's rank of 32 out of 2761 suggests that while it is a top-tier setup, there are 31 other combinations that produce higher frame rates in ArcheAge. These are likely to be configurations with even more extreme overclocking or potentially different CPU-GPU pairings that are better optimized for this specific game's engine. The data indicates that this combo is not the absolute best, but it is very close, and the performance differences between the top 32 are likely to be small. The high CPU and GPU scores do not perfectly translate to the top spot in-game, showing that game performance is influenced by more than just raw synthetic benchmarks. The 0.2% delta between the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and the 285K, for example, could easily be a factor in game-specific performance.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data across the three resolutions provides a clear picture of how the system scales and where the bottleneck lies. The most significant observation is the non-linear drop in performance as resolution increases, which is a hallmark of a GPU-bound workload at higher settings.

Looking at the Low preset, the system achieves 305 FPS at 1080p, 205 FPS at 1440p, and 117 FPS at 4K. This represents a 33% drop in performance from 1080p to 1440p and a further 43% drop from 1440p to 4K. This scaling is not perfectly proportional to the pixel count increase (1440p has 1.78x the pixels of 1080p, and 4K has 2.25x the pixels of 1440p), which indicates that the CPU is still playing a significant role in limiting performance at these lower settings, preventing the frame rate from dropping even more.

The High preset shows a similar trend but with a more pronounced GPU impact. The frame rates are 184 FPS at 1080p, 124 FPS at 1440p, and 71 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 33%, and from 1440p to 4K is a massive 43%. This steeper decline at 4K compared to the Low preset confirms that the GPU is becoming a more significant limiting factor as the visual load increases.

The Ultra preset exhibits the most dramatic scaling, clearly demonstrating a severe GPU bottleneck. At 1080p, the average is 126 FPS. This drops by 33% to 85 FPS at 1440p, and then by another 44% to just 48 FPS at 4K. The frame rate at 4K Ultra is less than 40% of the 1080p Low result. This sharp drop-off at 4K Ultra shows that the RTX 5090, despite its immense power, cannot maintain high frame rates when faced with the combined load of 4K resolution and the game's most demanding graphics settings. The data strongly suggests that the GPU is the primary limiting component at 4K and at 1440p on the Ultra and High presets. The CPU is capable of keeping up with the GPU at lower resolutions, but the GPU's rendering workload becomes the bottleneck as pixel count and graphical complexity increase.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following is the complete breakdown of measured average frame rates for the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination in ArcheAge.

1920x1080:

• Ultra: The average frame rate is 126 FPS.
• High: The average frame rate is 184 FPS.
• Medium: The average frame rate is 271 FPS, with a minimum of 231 FPS and a maximum of 312 FPS.
• Low: The average frame rate is 305 FPS.

2560x1440:

• Ultra: The average frame rate is 85 FPS.
• High: The average frame rate is 124 FPS.
• Medium: The average frame rate is 183 FPS, with a minimum of 155 FPS and a maximum of 210 FPS.
• Low: The average frame rate is 205 FPS.

3840x2160:

• Ultra: The average frame rate is 48 FPS.
• High: The average frame rate is 71 FPS.
• Medium: The average frame rate is 105 FPS, with a minimum of 89 FPS and a maximum of 120 FPS.
• Low: The average frame rate is 117 FPS.

These numbers show a clear and consistent hierarchy. The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values, indicating a more stable and well-optimized setting. The Low preset provides the highest frame rates, while the Ultra preset provides the lowest, particularly at 4K. The data confirms that for an optimal balance of visual quality and performance, the Medium preset at 1440p is the sweet spot for this hardware combination, and that the 4K Ultra setting is not recommended for a high-refresh-rate experience.