Dave The Diver

Dave The Diver is not a demanding title, yet the benchmark data for the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 reveals a configuration that is almost entirely GPU-limited at every resolution tested. The combo ranks in the 85th percentile overall (241st of 1626 tested combos), but the real story is the sheer headroom available: at 1080p Low, the system produces 270 FPS, which is 75% higher than the 154 FPS floor seen at 4K Ultra. This pairing demonstrates that the RTX 4090 is the dominant force, while the Ryzen 5 3600, despite being a 2019-era six-core part, provides enough throughput to keep frame rates extremely high in this adventure title.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. In the context of Dave The Diver, this CPU is not the bottleneck. The data shows that at 1080p High, the combo achieves 244.9 FPS, and at 1080p Low, it reaches 270 FPS. The fact that lowering graphical settings from High to Low at 1080p increases the average frame rate by only 25.1 FPS (from 244.9 to 270) indicates that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU well beyond the 244 FPS threshold, and the GPU’s workload is still the primary limiter even at the lowest settings.

Compared to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks, the Ryzen 5 3600’s average score of 18129 is effectively tied with the Intel Core i5-11400 (18150, -0.1% delta) and the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (18101, 0.2% delta). This means that in terms of raw processing power, this CPU sits in a well-populated mid-range tier. In this game, however, the CPU’s performance is more than sufficient: the measured FPS at 4K Ultra (154 FPS) is still far above the 60 FPS target, and the drop from 1080p to 4K is a 36% reduction in frame rate (from 244.9 to 171.7 at High settings), which is a classic sign of the GPU taking on more pixel-pushing work rather than the CPU struggling. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support are adequate for this game’s physics and AI, which are not complex enough to expose the CPU’s limits in this pairing.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the clear star of this configuration. With 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, the GPU has an enormous amount of memory bandwidth for a game like Dave The Diver, which does not feature high-resolution textures that would stress VRAM capacity. The core clocks are high (2235 MHz base, 2520 MHz boost), and the data shows that the GPU scales predictably with resolution. At 1080p Ultra, the combo hits 232.7 FPS, while at 4K Ultra, it drops to 154 FPS. This 78.7 FPS drop (34%) is almost entirely attributable to the GPU’s rendering workload at 4K, not the CPU.

The RTX 4090’s benchmark data shows it is a top-tier part, with a percentile rank of 91 vs all GPUs and an average benchmark score of 66473. Its nearest rivals in synthetic tests are all professional or workstation cards (NVIDIA Tesla T4, Tesla P40, AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56), which confirms that in gaming workloads, this consumer GPU has no direct competition in this database. In Dave The Diver, the GPU’s performance headroom is so vast that even at 4K with High settings, the system produces 171.7 FPS, which is more than enough for a smooth experience on a high-refresh-rate 4K display. The only scenario where the GPU’s limits become visible is at 4K Ultra, where the frame rate drops to 154 FPS, still a very high number.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combos for Dave The Diver, this specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 241st out of 1626 total combinations. This places it in the top 15% of all tested systems, which is a strong result. However, this rank is heavily influenced by the GPU’s dominance, not the CPU’s contribution. The data suggests that if this CPU were paired with a weaker GPU, the rank would be significantly lower, as the CPU’s synthetic benchmark scores (e.g., 15045 in Cinebench R23 multi-core) are mid-range at best. The rank of 241 indicates that there are 240 other combos that perform better, likely featuring newer, higher-core-count CPUs paired with the same or similar top-tier GPUs.

The delta between this combo and the top performers is not directly shown, but the fact that the CPU’s percentile rank is 76 (vs all CPUs) while the GPU’s is 91 (vs all GPUs) suggests that the CPU is the weaker link in this pairing. In a game like Dave The Diver, where frame rates are already extremely high, this CPU limitation is unlikely to be noticeable in practice, as the measured FPS never drops below 154 FPS in any tested configuration. The combo rank of 241 reflects the GPU’s ability to push high frame rates even with a modest CPU, but it also highlights that this is not an optimal pairing for maximizing the CPU’s potential.

FAQ

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 a bottleneck for the RTX 4090 in this game?

A: The data does not show a significant CPU bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 270 FPS, which is only 25.1 FPS higher than at 1080p High (244.9 FPS). This small gain when lowering settings indicates the CPU is not the limiting factor; the GPU is still doing the heavy lifting.

Q: How does this combo’s frame rate scale from 1080p to 4K?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 244.9 at 1080p to 221.5 at 1440p (a 23.4 FPS drop) and then to 171.7 at 4K (a 49.8 FPS drop from 1440p). This scaling shows the RTX 4090 being progressively more taxed at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 4K gaming?

A: At 4K, the High preset provides 171.7 FPS, which is a better balance than Ultra (154 FPS) or Medium (190.8 FPS). The data shows that High offers a 17.7 FPS advantage over Ultra, making it the recommended choice for 4K.

Q: How does this CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 3600 has an average benchmark score of 18129, which is -0.1% compared to the Intel Core i5-11400 (18150) and +0.2% compared to the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (18101). This indicates near-identical synthetic performance.

Q: Is the RTX 4090’s 24 GB VRAM necessary for this game?

A: No, Dave The Diver does not require that much VRAM, but the 24 GB GDDR6X memory with 1.01 TB/s bandwidth ensures there is no memory bottleneck at any resolution. The measured frame rates at 4K Ultra (154 FPS) prove the GPU is not VRAM-limited.

Q: What is the lowest frame rate this combo produces in the test set?

A: The lowest average FPS recorded is 154 at 4K with Ultra settings. This is still a very playable frame rate, indicating that the combo never drops below high-performance thresholds.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling data shows a predictable pattern of decreasing frame rates as resolution increases, but with an unusual twist: the CPU is never the bottleneck. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 270 FPS at 1080p to 245.8 FPS at 1440p (a 9% drop) and then to 217.2 FPS at 4K (a 12% drop from 1440p). This is a relatively mild scaling curve, which suggests that the RTX 4090 has enough bandwidth and compute power to handle the increased pixel count without a dramatic performance hit. At High settings, the scaling is steeper: 244.9 FPS at 1080p, 221.5 FPS at 1440p (a 10% drop), and 171.7 FPS at 4K (a 22% drop from 1440p). This indicates that the higher-quality settings add more GPU work, which is expected.

The key insight is that the limiting component shifts from being GPU-bound at 1080p to being even more GPU-bound at 4K. The CPU’s role remains constant, but the GPU’s workload increases substantially. The fact that 4K Low (217.2 FPS) is only 10% slower than 1080p High (244.9 FPS) shows that the GPU has enough headroom to run this game at 4K with low settings without any CPU interference. The data clearly shows that for this game, the RTX 4090 is the primary driver of performance, and the Ryzen 5 3600’s 6 cores are sufficient to keep up even at the highest frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the target resolution and refresh rate. For 4K displays, the High preset is the best choice, delivering 171.7 FPS. This is a 17.7 FPS improvement over Ultra (154 FPS) while still offering high-quality visuals. Medium at 4K provides 190.8 FPS, which is higher but may sacrifice visual fidelity for a marginal gain. For 1440p, the Ultra preset offers 215 FPS, which is only 6.5 FPS lower than High (221.5 FPS) and is clearly the best choice for 1440p users with high-refresh-rate monitors. At 1080p, the Low preset achieves 270 FPS, which is the highest measured frame rate in the entire dataset, but the Medium preset at 251.4 FPS and High at 244.9 FPS are both excellent choices for competitive play or smooth gameplay.

The data shows diminishing returns when moving from High to Ultra at any resolution. At 4K, the drop from High to Ultra is 17.7 FPS (10%), while at 1080p, the drop is 12.2 FPS (5%). This suggests that High is the sweet spot for visual quality and performance. The Low preset at 1080p (270 FPS) offers a 25.1 FPS advantage over High, which could be useful for players with 240 Hz or 360 Hz displays, but the visual trade-off may not be worth it for a game like Dave The Diver. For the best balance of quality and speed, the High preset is recommended across all resolutions, as it never drops below 171.7 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured frame rate data for this combo is as follows. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from a low of 232.7 on Ultra to a high of 270 on Low. The intermediate settings are 244.9 on High and 251.4 on Medium. This shows a 37.3 FPS spread between the lowest and highest settings, which is relatively small.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates are 215 FPS on Ultra, 221.5 FPS on High, 230.1 FPS on Medium, and 245.8 FPS on Low. The spread here is 30.8 FPS, indicating that the GPU is beginning to feel the resolution increase, but the performance remains very high. At 3840x2160, the frame rates are 154 FPS on Ultra, 171.7 FPS on High, 190.8 FPS on Medium, and 217.2 FPS on Low. The spread at 4K is 63.2 FPS, which is the largest of any resolution, confirming that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at this resolution. The data shows a clear pattern: as resolution increases, the impact of settings becomes more pronounced, with the difference between Low and Ultra growing from 37.3 FPS at 1080p to 63.2 FPS at 4K. This is the expected behavior for a GPU-bound scenario, and it reinforces the conclusion that the RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this pairing.