Dave The Diver

Dave The Diver, paired with an AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090, delivers exceptional performance that is constrained almost entirely by the CPU at lower resolutions, with the GPU only beginning to assert its dominance at 4K. The data shows this combination achieves a combo rank of 800 out of 3710 tested combos, placing it in the top 21.6% of systems, which is a strong result given the generational gap between the older processor and the flagship graphics card.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic CPU bottleneck pattern, with the RTX 5090's immense power being held back by the Ryzen 5 2600 at lower resolutions. At 1080p with High settings, the system delivers 213 FPS, which drops to 194 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 170 FPS at 4K. This represents a 20.2% performance drop from 1080p to 4K, which is remarkably small for a game like Dave The Diver that is not graphically demanding. The relatively modest 43 FPS difference between 1080p and 4K indicates that the GPU is not the limiting factor at lower resolutions; instead, the Ryzen 5 2600's single-thread performance (as evidenced by its Geekbench single-core score of 1154) is likely capping frame rates.

When examining the Low settings preset, the CPU bottleneck becomes even more apparent. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 236 FPS, and at 1440p Low it achieves 215 FPS, showing only a 8.9% drop. However, at 4K Low, the frame rate falls to 188 FPS, a 20.3% decrease from 1440p. This pattern suggests that at 1080p and 1440p, the CPU is the primary constraint, as the GPU has ample headroom even at Low settings. The RTX 5090, with its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth, is barely taxed by this game's requirements at lower resolutions, leaving the processor to dictate the frame rate ceiling.

The scaling behavior at 4K tells a different story. From 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings, the frame rate drops from 204 FPS to 154 FPS, a 24.5% reduction. This is the largest percentage drop across all settings presets, indicating that at 4K Ultra, the GPU begins to become more relevant, though still not fully utilized. The RTX 5090's 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are more than sufficient for this title, but the resolution scaling suggests that even at 4K, the Ryzen 5 2600's capabilities are still influencing the results. The 170 FPS at 4K High versus 188 FPS at 4K Low shows an 18 FPS gap, which is smaller than the 23 FPS gap seen at 1080p between the same settings, further confirming that the CPU bottleneck diminishes as resolution increases.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 5 2600 and RTX 5090 achieves a combo rank of 800 out of 3710 tested combos, placing it in the 78.4th percentile of all systems tested. This ranking is surprisingly strong for a processor released in 2018 paired with a GPU from 2025, but the data confirms that Dave The Diver is not a demanding title that would expose the CPU's weaknesses. The Ryzen 5 2600's average benchmark score of 21484 places it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rival being the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V, which scores 21440 (only 0.2% higher). This indicates that despite its age, the processor remains competitive in general workloads, though its single-thread performance (Geekbench score of 1154) is modest by modern standards.

The RTX 5090, on the other hand, is a powerhouse that ranks in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 79842. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB, scores 79605 (0.3% lower), while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X scores 80959 (1.4% higher), showing that the GPU is near the top of the performance hierarchy. However, the combo's rank of 800 suggests that the CPU is dragging down what would otherwise be a top-tier system. In fact, the data indicates that the Ryzen 5 2600's performance is significantly below what the RTX 5090 is capable of supporting, as evidenced by the PassMark multi-thread score of 13160 and single-thread score of 2239. This creates an imbalance where the GPU is underutilized in CPU-bound scenarios, which is precisely what the resolution scaling analysis reveals.

When comparing to other combos, the 800th rank out of 3710 means that 2910 other configurations outperform this pairing in Dave The Diver. This is a notable finding because it suggests that many systems with less powerful GPUs but more modern CPUs achieve higher frame rates in this game. The bottleneck is clear: the Ryzen 5 2600's 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 3.90 GHz, are insufficient to fully drive the RTX 5090's capabilities in a title that appears to have modest GPU requirements. This combo ranking underscores the importance of CPU-GPU balance, even in games that are not graphically intensive.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimizing the gaming experience, with the Ultra preset at 1080p delivering 204 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any display. However, the data shows that the Low preset at 1080p achieves 236 FPS, which is 32 FPS higher than Ultra, representing a 15.7% performance gain. Given that Dave The Diver is a 2D-style adventure game where visual fidelity differences between Low and Ultra are likely minimal, the Low preset at 1080p offers the best experience for competitive or high-refresh-rate displays. The 236 FPS at 1080p Low is the highest frame rate recorded in the entire dataset, making it the optimal choice for maximizing smoothness.

For users with 1440p displays, the Medium preset provides a balanced experience at 202 FPS, with a minimum of 171 FPS and maximum of 232 FPS. This is only 13 FPS lower than the Low preset (215 FPS) but offers better visual quality. The data shows that at 1440p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 29 FPS (215 vs. 186 FPS), which is a 15.6% variation. The Medium preset at 1440p represents a sweet spot, delivering 202 FPS while maintaining a minimum frame rate above 170 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay without visual compromises. Given that the game's genre (Adventure) does not require competitive frame rates, the Medium preset is recommended for 1440p users who prioritize visual quality.

At 4K, the situation changes slightly. The Ultra preset delivers 154 FPS, while the Low preset achieves 188 FPS, a 34 FPS difference (22.1%). The High preset at 170 FPS offers a middle ground, but the Medium preset at 176 FPS with a minimum of 150 FPS and maximum of 203 FPS provides the most consistent experience. For 4K displays, the Medium preset is recommended because it delivers 176 FPS, which is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate of most gaming monitors, while the higher settings only provide marginal visual improvements. The data suggests that users should avoid the Ultra preset at 4K, as the 154 FPS average represents a noticeable drop from Medium while offering minimal visual gains in a game with this art style.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. The Low preset achieves 236 FPS, followed by Medium at 222 FPS (with a minimum of 188 and maximum of 255), High at 213 FPS, and Ultra at 204 FPS. This represents a 32 FPS spread between Low and Ultra, which is a 15.7% performance range. The data shows that even at Ultra settings, the system maintains over 200 FPS, making any settings choice viable at this resolution. The Medium preset's minimum of 188 FPS is particularly noteworthy, as it indicates smooth performance even in demanding scenes.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show a wider spread between settings. The Low preset achieves 215 FPS, Medium delivers 202 FPS (minimum 171, maximum 232), High reaches 194 FPS, and Ultra drops to 186 FPS. The 29 FPS difference between Low and Ultra (13.5%) is slightly larger than at 1080p, reflecting the increased GPU load. The Medium preset's minimum of 171 FPS is still well above 144 Hz, ensuring a fluid experience for most users. Interestingly, the gap between High (194 FPS) and Ultra (186 FPS) is only 8 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional visual effects have minimal performance impact at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the performance differences become more pronounced. The Low preset achieves 188 FPS, Medium delivers 176 FPS (minimum 150, maximum 203), High reaches 170 FPS, and Ultra drops to 154 FPS. The 34 FPS spread between Low and Ultra (22.1%) is the largest across all resolutions, confirming that the GPU becomes more relevant at 4K. The Medium preset's minimum of 150 FPS is still above 144 Hz, but the Ultra preset's 154 FPS average suggests that users with 4K 144 Hz displays should stick to Medium or lower. The data reveals that the RTX 5090's 32 GB of VRAM is never a limiting factor, as even at 4K Ultra, the frame rates remain high.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 plays a significant but underutilized role in this combination, as its massive specifications are not fully taxed by Dave The Diver. The GPU's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory with a 512-bit bus width and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth provides 1.79 TB/s of memory bandwidth, which is far more than this game requires. The RTX 5090's base clock of 2017 MHz and boost clock of 2407 MHz, combined with 21760 shading units, deliver 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, yet the measured FPS data suggests that the GPU is often idle, waiting for the CPU to provide draw calls. This is evident from the relatively small frame rate differences between settings at 1080p, where the GPU's performance headroom is enormous.

The GPU's memory configuration is particularly relevant for this game's results. With 32 GB of GDDR7 memory, the RTX 5090 can easily hold all textures and assets in VRAM, eliminating any potential memory-related stutters. The 1.79 TB/s bandwidth ensures that data transfer is never a bottleneck, even at 4K resolution. However, the PassMark G3D score of 39650 and the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18355 indicate that the GPU's raw performance is far beyond what Dave The Diver requires. The GPU's 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79842, confirms its status as a top-tier component, but its performance in this game is constrained by the CPU.

The RTX 5090's architecture, Blackwell 2.0, with 170 ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores, provides features that Dave The Diver likely does not utilize extensively. The GPU's 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate and 1,636.8 GTexel/s texture rate are more relevant to 3D rendering than this 2D-style adventure game. The data indicates that the GPU's role in this combination is to ensure that even at 4K Ultra settings, the frame rates remain well above playable thresholds, but the true performance ceiling is set by the Ryzen 5 2600. The GPU's 575 W TDP and PCIe 5.0 x16 interface are overkill for this workload, but they ensure that the system never becomes GPU-limited in this title.

FAQ

Q: What is the combination's overall rank in Dave The Diver?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination ranks 800th out of 3710 tested combos, placing it in the top 21.6% of systems tested for this game.

Q: What is the highest frame rate achieved by this system?

A: The highest measured frame rate is 236 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 2600 has an average benchmark score of 21484, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V (21440) and 0.5% higher than the Intel Core i9-11900H (21367), but 0.7% lower than the Intel Xeon D-1746TER (21635).

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset delivers 188 FPS while the Ultra preset delivers 154 FPS, representing a 34 FPS difference or a 22.1% performance drop when using Ultra settings.

Q: Does the RTX 5090's 32 GB of VRAM matter for this game?

A: The 32 GB of GDDR7 memory is more than sufficient for Dave The Diver, ensuring that no memory-related performance issues occur, although the game's requirements are likely far below this capacity.

Q: Is the system CPU-bound or GPU-bound in this game?

A: The system is CPU-bound at 1080p and 1440p, as evidenced by the small frame rate differences between settings, with the GPU only becoming more relevant at 4K where the frame rate spread between Low and Ultra widens.