Dave The Diver

# Dave The Diver: AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D + Intel Arc B390

This combo ranks 2538th out of 2867 tested configurations for Dave The Diver, placing it in the bottom 11% of all tested systems. The benchmark data shows a playable experience at 1080p and 1440p with adjusted settings, but 4K performance falls below the 60 FPS threshold across every preset tested. The pairing of a strong 6-core Zen 3 CPU with an integrated-class GPU creates a significant bottleneck, with the Intel Arc B390's modest 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1482 (9th percentile among all GPUs) limiting overall system capability.

How This Combo Ranks

The combined rank of 2538 out of 2867 test configurations places this system firmly in the lower quartile of tested hardware for Dave The Diver. This ranking reflects the GPU's position rather than the CPU's capability — the Ryzen 5 5500X3D sits at the 85th percentile among all CPUs, while the Arc B390 languishes at the 9th percentile among all GPUs. The data indicates a severe imbalance: a top-tier CPU paired with a bottom-tier graphics solution.

In practical terms, this rank means the system will handle the game's 2D/3D hybrid presentation at lower resolutions and settings, but it cannot deliver the smooth high-refresh experience that modern adventure titles typically demand. The combo sits approximately 329 positions from the bottom of the tested pool, suggesting that roughly 88% of all tested configurations outperform it in this specific title. Benchmark results show the CPU's PassMark multithread score of 20363 and single-thread score of 2941 are competitive with far more capable GPU pairings, confirming that the processor is not the limiting factor.

The rank also reflects the Arc B390's integrated nature — with a 3nm Panther Lake chip and Xe3-LPG architecture, this GPU is designed for portable devices rather than desktop gaming. Its nearest rivals in the GPU benchmark database are legacy NVIDIA parts like the GeForce GT 520MX (1.3% faster), GeForce 800M (1.5% faster), GT 625 OEM (2.5% faster), and GT 710 (2.7% faster). These comparisons underscore the performance tier this combo occupies: entry-level integrated graphics territory.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is the dominant constraint in this configuration. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 places it at the 9th percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals being ancient discrete parts that are all within 2.7% of its performance. The GPU features 1536 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 24 ROPs, with 12 ray tracing cores, though the game's art style means ray tracing is not a factor in these measurements.

Clock speeds show a base of 300 MHz and a boost of 2500 MHz, which is a wide dynamic range typical of integrated graphics that scale with thermal headroom. The memory subsystem uses system shared memory with system-dependent bandwidth, meaning the Arc B390 has no dedicated VRAM and competes with the CPU for memory access. This architecture explains the significant performance drops when moving from 1080p to 4K — the system memory bandwidth becomes a bottleneck as resolution increases.

The GPU's FP32 throughput of 7.680 TFLOPS and texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s are theoretically sufficient for esports-level gaming, but the memory constraints and integrated design limit real-world results. The pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s helps explain why 1920x1080 resolutions yield playable framerates while 3840x2160 falls short. At 4K, the GPU must drive four times the pixels of 1080p, and the measured data shows the impact: 108 FPS at 1080p Low drops to 55 FPS at 4K Low, a 49% reduction that tracks closely with pixel-count scaling.

With a 80W TDP and IGP slot width, this GPU is thermally constrained within a portable device context. The DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) support and Vulkan 1.4 compatibility are modern, but the hardware simply lacks the memory bandwidth and fill rate needed for high-resolution gaming. For Dave The Diver specifically, the GPU's role is to render a relatively simple 2D top-down ocean adventure with 3D elements — the data shows this is achievable at moderate settings, but not at high resolutions with demanding presets.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal experience balances visual quality against framerate stability. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 91 FPS average with a minimum of 77 FPS and maximum of 104 FPS, making it the best choice for a consistently smooth experience that stays well above 60 FPS. The High preset at 1080p drops to 81 FPS average, which remains playable but offers diminishing visual returns for the 10 FPS cost.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers 68 FPS average with minimums of 58 FPS and maximums of 78 FPS. This is the highest resolution at which the system maintains an average above 60 FPS, though the minimum frames dip slightly below that threshold. Players seeking a locked 60 FPS experience should consider the Low preset at 1440p, which delivers 82 FPS average and avoids the sub-60 dips seen in Medium.

For 3840x2160, no preset achieves 60 FPS. The Low preset comes closest at 55 FPS average, followed by Medium at 46 FPS, High at 41 FPS, and Ultra at 36 FPS. Given the 39 FPS minimum on Medium at 4K, even the lowest settings will struggle to maintain smooth gameplay. The recommendation is to avoid 4K entirely for this combo unless the player accepts framerates below 60 FPS.

The Ultra preset is never the best choice with this hardware. At 1080p Ultra yields 72 FPS, which is 19 FPS slower than Medium. At 1440p Ultra produces 54 FPS, falling below the 60 FPS threshold. At 4K Ultra delivers only 36 FPS. The data consistently shows that Ultra settings cost approximately 20-25% performance compared to Medium with marginal visual improvements in a game with this art style. The best experience per the measured rows is 1080p Medium or 1440p Low, depending on whether resolution or graphical fidelity matters more to the player.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080: The system performs best at this resolution. Low settings produce 108 FPS average, Medium delivers 91 FPS (minimum 77, maximum 104), High reaches 81 FPS, and Ultra drops to 72 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 33% performance penalty, which is modest compared to the resolution scaling seen at higher resolutions. The Medium preset's minimum of 77 FPS ensures no noticeable stuttering, while even Ultra stays above 70 FPS.

2560x1440: Performance scales down predictably. Low settings yield 82 FPS, Medium delivers 68 FPS (minimum 58, maximum 78), High reaches 61 FPS, and Ultra falls to 54 FPS. The jump from 1080p to 1440p costs approximately 24% performance at Low settings and 25% at Ultra. The Medium preset at 1440p is borderline for 60 FPS gaming, with the 58 FPS minimum indicating occasional dips below the target.

3840x2160: This resolution is marginal for the combo. Low settings produce 55 FPS, Medium delivers 46 FPS (minimum 39, maximum 53), High reaches 41 FPS, and Ultra drops to 36 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 19 FPS, or 35%, showing that settings have a larger relative impact at 4K due to the GPU being fully saturated. The Medium preset's 39 FPS minimum indicates that even moderate scenes can cause significant slowdowns.

Across all resolutions, the scaling pattern shows the GPU's memory bandwidth limitations. The 1080p to 1440p transition costs roughly 25% performance, while 1440p to 4K costs approximately 33% more, suggesting that the system shared memory becomes increasingly inadequate as pixel count grows. The 1080p Medium result of 91 FPS is the sweet spot, offering 77 FPS minimums that keep the experience fluid, while 1440p Low at 82 FPS is the best option for higher resolution without dropping below 60 FPS.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Dave The Diver at 60 FPS?

A: Yes, at 1920x1080 with any preset (Low: 108 FPS, Medium: 91 FPS, High: 81 FPS, Ultra: 72 FPS) and at 2560x1440 with Low (82 FPS) or Medium (68 FPS average, though minimums drop to 58 FPS). At 3840x2160, no preset achieves 60 FPS — the best is Low at 55 FPS average.

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

A: The 1080p Medium preset is the best measured configuration, delivering 91 FPS average with 77 FPS minimums and 104 FPS maximums. This provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while maintaining moderate visual quality. For 1440p, Low settings at 82 FPS is the safest choice to avoid sub-60 dips.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B390's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1482 places it slightly above the GeForce GT 520MX (1463, 1.3% slower), GeForce 800M (1460, 1.5% slower), GT 625 OEM (1446, 2.5% slower), and GT 710 (1443, 2.7% slower). It sits at the 9th percentile of all GPUs, indicating entry-level integrated graphics performance.

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D holding back performance?

A: No. The CPU benchmarks at the 85th percentile among all CPUs with an average score of 37018, which is nearly identical to rivals like the Ryzen 5 5600F (36945, 0.2% slower) and Intel Core Ultra 5 225 (36938, 0.2% slower). The 6-core, 12-thread Zen 3 processor with 96 MB of L3 cache is more than sufficient; the GPU is the limiting factor.

Q: What 4K performance can I expect with this combo?

A: The best 4K result is 55 FPS on Low settings. Medium delivers 46 FPS (39 minimum), High produces 41 FPS, and Ultra drops to 36 FPS. None of these reach the 60 FPS target, so 4K gaming with this combo requires accepting framerates in the 36-55 FPS range.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to all tested systems?

A: This configuration ranks 2538th out of 2867 tested combos for Dave The Diver, placing it in the bottom 11% of systems. This low ranking is driven entirely by the GPU, which ranks at the 9th percentile, while the CPU ranks at the 85th percentile.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D provides strong computational backing for this combo, though its capabilities far exceed what the Intel Arc B390 can utilize in Dave The Diver. This 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 5000 series uses the Zen 3 architecture (Vermeer codename) built on a 7nm TSMC process with a 74 mm² die size. The base clock of 3.00 GHz boosts to 4.00 GHz, delivering a PassMark single-thread score of 2941 and a multithread score of 20363.

The processor's key differentiator is its 96 MB shared L3 cache, which is substantial for a 6-core design and helps with the game's asset streaming. The L1 cache is 64 KB per core and L2 is 512 KB per core, providing 448 KB total L1 and 3 MB total L2 across all cores. The CPU supports DDR4 memory with dual-channel configuration and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth, which is shared with the GPU's system memory allocation — this shared bandwidth is a limiting factor at higher resolutions.

Benchmark data shows the CPU performs competitively with its nearest rivals: it is 0.2% faster than the Ryzen 5 5600F (36945 vs 37018 average), 0.2% faster than the Core Ultra 5 225 (36938), 0.2% slower than the Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (37093), and 0.3% slower than the Core i9-12900T (37112). These marginal differences confirm that the 5500X3D is not a performance outlier; it sits squarely in the mid-range desktop CPU tier.

The CPU's extended instruction score of 15925, floating point math score of 34511, and integer math score of 60033 indicate strong general-purpose compute that handles the game's physics and simulation logic without issue. The data compression score of 230392 and random string sorting score of 23675 show robust memory subsystem performance, which helps with level loading and asset streaming in Dave The Diver's underwater environments. With a 105W TDP and AMD Socket AM4 compatibility, this CPU is a mature, capable part that will not bottleneck any GPU in this performance class.

In this specific game, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, entity management, and the 2D/3D rendering calls that the GPU executes. The measured results — where the system achieves 108 FPS at 1080p Low — show that the CPU can feed the GPU adequately at lower resolutions. The performance drops at 4K are attributable to GPU fill rate and memory bandwidth limits rather than CPU throughput, as the CPU's PassMark physics score of 2282 and prime number finding score of 170 are unchanged across resolutions. Players upgrading the GPU in the future would see immediate gains without needing to replace the processor.