Dave The Diver

# Dave The Diver: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050

The pairing of AMD's Ryzen 5 3600 with NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5050 in Dave The Diver produces a system that ranks 1725th out of 2867 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the benchmark database for this title. What makes this configuration particularly interesting is the contrast between the CPU's older Zen 2 architecture and the GPU's modern Blackwell design, a generational gap that manifests differently depending on resolution and settings. The measured frame rates across all tested configurations suggest a system that can handle the game comfortably at lower resolutions but begins to show strain as pixel counts rise, inviting a closer look at which component is truly steering the ship.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor built on the Zen 2 architecture (codenamed Matisse) using TSMC's 7 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, drawing 65 W TDP. The processor's cache layout includes 64 KB L1 per core, 512 KB L2 per core, and a shared 32 MB L3 cache. Memory support is DDR4 with dual-channel configuration and a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. The CPU connects via PCIe Gen 4 with 16 lanes, and it sits in the AMD Socket AM4.

In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU demonstrates a balanced profile. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 15045, while the single-core score is 2124. Geekbench results show 7372 multicore and 1536 single-core. The PassMark multithread score reaches 17700, with a single-thread score of 2562. The 3DMark tests reveal scaling characteristics: 2-thread score is 1361, 4-thread is 2579, 8-thread is 3844, and 16-thread is 4605, with max-threads at 4603. The single-thread 3DMark score is 696. This scaling pattern shows solid multi-threaded growth but modest per-core performance, which matters for Dave The Diver's mixed gameplay loops.

The CPU's percentile ranking versus all processors is 71, meaning it outperforms roughly 71% of the database's CPUs. Its nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the Intel Core i7-1260P at 17007 (0.2% difference), Intel Core i5-11400 at 17067 (-0.2%), AMD EPYC 7573X at 17070 (-0.2%), and AMD EPYC 7742 at 16998 (0.2%). The Ryzen 5 3600's average benchmark score is 17035, placing it essentially neck-and-neck with these very different processors — a laptop-oriented Intel chip, a desktop Intel chip, and two server-grade EPYC parts.

For Dave The Diver, the 6-core/12-thread configuration appears adequate. The game's measured FPS at 1080p Low (206 avg) suggests the CPU is not a limiting factor at lower settings, where the workload is less demanding on the GPU. However, the single-thread score of 696 in 3DMark hints that per-core performance could become relevant in gameplay sections with heavy scripting or AI, even if the average frame rates remain high.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB207 chip, fabricated on TSMC's 5 nm process with 16,900 million transistors on a 149 mm² die. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 320.0 GB/s bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective). The GPU's base clock is 2317 MHz with a boost clock of 2572 MHz. It houses 2560 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, along with 20 RT cores and 80 tensor cores. Pixel rate is 82.30 GPixel/s, texture rate is 205.8 GTexel/s, and FP32 performance is 13.17 TFLOPS (with FP16 at the same 13.17 TFLOPS 1:1 ratio). The card's TDP is 130 W, requiring a 300 W suggested PSU and a single 8-pin connector. It interfaces via PCIe 5.0 x8.

In GPU benchmarks, the RTX 5050's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 2502. Geekbench results show 90334 in OpenCL and 89381 in Vulkan. PassMark scores include 17326 in G3D and 9184 in GPU compute, with DirectX tests at 186 (DX9), 150 (DX11), 103 (DX10), and 66 (DX12). The GPU's percentile versus all GPUs is 66, and its average benchmark score is 21035. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL at 21153 (-0.6%), AMD Radeon HD 8970M at 21237 (-1%), AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT at 20713 (1.6%), and NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile at 21379 (-1.6%). The delta percentages here are small, indicating the RTX 5050 sits in a tightly contested performance cluster.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity becomes a talking point at 4K resolution. Dave The Diver's measured FPS at 3840x2160 ranges from 68 (Ultra) to 104 (Low), with High at 77 and Medium at 87. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 36 FPS, suggesting that texture and shading demands scale significantly with settings. At 1080p, the same settings spread yields a 70 FPS difference (206 Low vs 136 Ultra), indicating the GPU has more headroom at lower resolutions. The RTX 5050's memory bandwidth of 320.0 GB/s appears sufficient for this game's needs, but the 128-bit bus could be a constraint if the game's asset streaming is bandwidth-sensitive.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This specific combination of AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 achieves a rank of 1725 out of 2867 tested combos in Dave The Diver. This places the system in the 60th percentile of all tested configurations — meaning roughly 40% of tested combos perform worse, while 60% perform better. The rank reflects the balanced but not exceptional nature of this pairing.

The CPU's percentile of 71 and GPU's percentile of 66 both sit above the combo's overall game rank percentile, suggesting that the combination underperforms relative to what each component's synthetic benchmarks might predict. This could indicate that Dave The Diver has specific optimization characteristics that don't align perfectly with this hardware pairing. The CPU's nearest rivals include processors with different core counts and architectures, yet they cluster within 0.2% of the 3600's average score, showing that raw synthetic performance is not the sole determinant of in-game results.

The GPU's rival cluster is similarly tight, with the RX 5600 XT just 1.6% behind and the RX Vega M GL 0.6% ahead. These small deltas in synthetic benchmarks do not necessarily translate to proportional differences in Dave The Diver, where the measured FPS data shows a system that performs admirably at 1080p but struggles to maintain high refresh rates at 4K. The rank of 1725 suggests that many combos with similar or even lower individual component scores achieve better in-game results, pointing to potential driver optimization or game-specific quirks.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its strongest performance. Low settings produce an average of 206 FPS, which drops to 172 FPS at Medium (with min 146 and max 198), 154 FPS at High, and 136 FPS at Ultra. The spread from Low to Ultra is 70 FPS, representing a 34% reduction in average frame rate when maxing out settings. The Medium preset's min FPS of 146 ensures smooth gameplay even in demanding scenes, while Ultra's average of 136 remains above common 120 Hz display refresh rates.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages decrease across all settings. Low delivers 155 FPS, Medium 129 FPS (min 110, max 149), High 116 FPS, and Ultra 102 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent: Low loses 51 FPS (25% reduction), Medium loses 43 FPS (25%), High loses 38 FPS (25%), and Ultra loses 34 FPS (25%). This uniform scaling suggests a balanced workload distribution between CPU and GPU at these resolutions.

At 3840x2160, the system's limitations become apparent. Low averages 104 FPS, Medium 87 FPS (min 74, max 100), High 77 FPS, and Ultra 68 FPS. The 4K to 1440p transition shows steeper percentage drops: Low loses 51 FPS (33%), Medium loses 42 FPS (33%), High loses 39 FPS (34%), and Ultra loses 34 FPS (33%). The consistency within each resolution tier is notable — a 33-34% reduction across all settings when moving from 1440p to 4K suggests the GPU is becoming the primary constraint at higher pixel counts.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a textbook pattern of GPU-bound behavior at higher resolutions. From 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS drops by exactly 25% across all four settings presets. This uniform percentage reduction indicates that the workload is scaling predictably with pixel count, which is characteristic of a system where the GPU is the primary bottleneck even at 1080p.

The transition from 1440p to 4K shows a steeper 33-34% reduction across all settings. This disproportionate drop — larger than the pixel count increase alone would suggest (1440p to 4K is a 2.25x pixel increase, but the FPS drop is only about one-third) — points to the GPU's memory bandwidth or fill rate becoming more constrained at 4K. The RTX 5050's 320.0 GB/s bandwidth and 82.30 GPixel/s pixel rate are being pushed harder at 3840x2160, where the 8 GB VRAM capacity might also come into play for texture storage.

The CPU's role appears secondary in this scaling analysis. The Ryzen 5 3600's 3DMark scores show it can handle 4 threads at 2579 and 8 threads at 3844, which should be sufficient for Dave The Diver's gameplay. The consistent percentage drops across all settings from 1080p to 4K — always exactly 25% and then 33-34% — suggest that resolution scaling is purely GPU-limited. If the CPU were a bottleneck at lower resolutions, we would expect the 1080p to 1440p drop to be smaller than 25%, as the GPU would have more headroom. The data indicates the GPU is the limiting component even at 1080p Low where the system achieves 206 FPS.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Dave The Diver?

A: At 1920x1080, all settings presets deliver average FPS above 136, with Low hitting 206 FPS. At 2560x1440, averages range from 102 to 155 FPS depending on settings. At 3840x2160, averages drop to 68-104 FPS. For smooth high-refresh gameplay, 1080p is ideal, while 1440p remains viable for 100+ FPS at lower presets.

Q: How does the RTX 5050 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 5050's average benchmark score is 21035, placing it 0.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL (21153), 1% behind the AMD Radeon HD 8970M (21237), and 1.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (20713). It trails the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile (21379) by 1.6%.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 3600 holding back the RTX 5050?

A: The CPU's percentile is 71 while the GPU's is 66, and the combo ranks 1725 out of 2867 in this game. The uniform resolution scaling suggests GPU limitation. The 3DMark scores show the CPU's 8-thread score of 3844, which appears adequate for this title's demands.

Q: What FPS can I expect at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings is 116 FPS. This is comfortable for 100+ Hz displays. For comparison, Medium delivers 129 FPS and Ultra drops to 102 FPS at the same resolution.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM cause problems at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the system manages an average of 68 FPS at Ultra and 104 FPS at Low. The 33-34% FPS drop from 1440p to 4K suggests bandwidth or fill-rate constraints rather than outright VRAM capacity failure, since the game remains playable at all settings.

Q: How does this combo rank overall in the database for this game?

A: The combination ranks 1725 out of 2867 tested combos. This places it in the lower-middle portion of all configurations tested for Dave The Diver, despite both components having percentiles above 66 individually.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and performance, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 is the standout configuration. It delivers an average of 129 FPS with a minimum of 110 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay even during demanding scenes. The 149 FPS maximum shows headroom for less intense moments. This configuration offers a 43 FPS improvement over High settings at the same resolution, while the visual difference between Medium and High in Dave The Diver's art style is likely minimal given the game's 2D-pixel-meets-3D aesthetic.

At 1920x1080, Ultra settings with 136 FPS average are viable for players prioritizing image quality, though the 70 FPS gap between Ultra and Low suggests diminishing returns. For players with 144 Hz displays at 1080p, High settings at 154 FPS hit the refresh rate target while retaining more visual fidelity than Medium's 172 FPS would sacrifice.

At 3840x2160, the system is limited to sub-100 FPS averages at all settings. The Low preset's 104 FPS is the only 4K configuration that breaks the triple-digit barrier, while Ultra drops to 68 FPS. For 4K gaming, Medium at 87 FPS offers a reasonable compromise between the 77 FPS of High and the 104 FPS of Low. Players who prioritize frame rate over resolution should consider 1440p Medium as the sweet spot, delivering 129 FPS with a 110 FPS floor — a configuration that balances the CPU and GPU capabilities effectively without pushing either component to its limits.