Dave The Diver

# Dave The Diver Performance Analysis: AMD Ryzen 5 7500F + Intel Arc B390

This combination of an AMD Ryzen 5 7500F processor paired with the Intel Arc B390 integrated graphics delivers a playable but constrained experience in Dave The Diver, ranking 2538 out of 2867 tested combos for this title. The data places this setup in the lower percentile of tested hardware configurations, with the GPU clearly acting as the primary bottleneck across all resolution and settings combinations. The Arc B390's 9th percentile standing among all GPUs, combined with the Ryzen 5 7500F's 77th percentile CPU ranking, creates a striking imbalance that manifests in the measured frame rates—the processor has substantial headroom while the graphics solution struggles to keep pace.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 2538 out of 2867 tested configurations places it in the bottom 11.5% of all hardware pairings evaluated for Dave The Diver. This low ranking is not surprising given the GPU's performance class; the Intel Arc B390 sits at the 9th percentile among all GPUs, meaning roughly 91% of graphics solutions tested outperform it. The CPU, by contrast, ranks at the 77th percentile—a stark contrast that highlights the fundamental mismatch between these two components.

Benchmark results indicate the Arc B390's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 places it in direct competition with legacy mobile and entry-level desktop GPUs. The nearest rivals list shows the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX at 1463 (1.3% slower), the NVIDIA GeForce 800M at 1460 (1.5% slower), the NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM at 1446 (2.5% slower), and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 at 1443 (2.7% slower). This clustering of scores within a 2.7% band suggests the Arc B390's performance envelope is firmly entrenched in entry-level territory, which explains the combo's low overall ranking.

The Ryzen 5 7500F's position among CPU rivals paints a different picture. With an average benchmark score of 24964, it sits within 0.4% of the Intel Core i7-11850H (24935, 0.1% faster), the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F (25005, 0.2% slower), the Intel Core i7-13620H (24911, 0.2% faster), and the Intel Core 5 210H (24872, 0.4% faster). This tight grouping indicates the CPU is competitive with mid-range mobile and desktop processors, but its potential is largely unrealized in this pairing.

The data implies that for Dave The Diver, this combo's performance ceiling is defined almost entirely by the GPU. Even at 1080p Low settings, the maximum measured average FPS is 108, which suggests the Arc B390 cannot fully leverage the Ryzen 5 7500F's computational capabilities. The combination would likely perform identically with a substantially weaker CPU, making the processor's inclusion in this pairing something of a waste for this specific title.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution built on the Xe3-LPG architecture, fabricated on Intel's 3 nm process node. Its clock speeds range from a 300 MHz base to a 2500 MHz boost, with pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s. The GPU features 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, 24 raster operation units, and 12 ray tracing cores, delivering 7.680 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 15.36 TFLOPS of FP16 (2:1 ratio).

The memory configuration is entirely system-shared, with no dedicated VRAM. This means the GPU draws from the same DDR5 memory pool as the CPU, with bandwidth described as "System Dependent." The Ryzen 5 7500F supports dual-channel DDR5 with 83.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth, which becomes the effective memory bandwidth available to the Arc B390. This shared memory architecture is a significant limiting factor, as the GPU must compete with the CPU for memory access.

In Dave The Diver, the GPU's role is clearly the dominant constraint. At 1080p High settings, the combo achieves 81 FPS average, which drops to 72 FPS at Ultra. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 36 FPS swing (108 to 72), representing a 33.3% performance reduction when moving from the lowest to highest preset. This sensitivity to graphical settings confirms the GPU is the limiting component—a CPU-bound scenario would show much smaller performance deltas across settings.

The Arc B390's 80 W TDP and IGP form factor (integrated graphics processor with no power connectors and portable device dependent display outputs) further reinforce its positioning as a low-power, entry-level solution. Despite its modern Xe3-LPG architecture and DirectX 12 Ultimate support with Vulkan 1.4, the hardware resources are simply insufficient for demanding graphical workloads, though Dave The Diver's relatively modest requirements allow for playable frame rates at lower settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how the combo scales across resolutions from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 81 at 1920x1080 to 61 at 2560x1440 and further to 41 at 3840x2160. This represents a 24.7% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a 49.4% reduction from 1080p to 4K. The scaling pattern suggests the GPU is struggling with the increasing pixel count, as expected for an integrated solution.

Low settings show a similar trend: 108 FPS at 1080p, 82 FPS at 1440p (24.1% reduction), and 55 FPS at 4K (49.1% reduction). Medium settings follow with 91 FPS at 1080p, 68 FPS at 1440p (25.3% reduction), and 46 FPS at 4K (49.5% reduction). Ultra settings produce 72 FPS at 1080p, 54 FPS at 1440p (25.0% reduction), and 36 FPS at 4K (50.0% reduction).

The consistency of these percentage reductions across all settings is revealing. Whether running Low or Ultra, the performance penalty from resolution scaling remains nearly identical, which indicates the bottleneck is purely pixel-throughput related rather than texture or shading complexity related. This is characteristic of a GPU that is fill-rate limited—the Arc B390's 24 ROPs and system-shared memory simply cannot sustain higher pixel counts regardless of the graphical workload.

The data also shows that 4K resolution is effectively unplayable at any setting, with the best case being 55 FPS at Low settings. Even at Low, the 4K result is only 68% of the 1080p Low performance. At Ultra 4K, the 36 FPS average falls below the generally accepted 40 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The 1440p resolution offers a more viable experience, particularly at Medium (68 FPS) and High (61 FPS), while 1080p remains the only resolution where the combo can consistently exceed 60 FPS across most settings.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of running Dave The Diver at 1080p with playable frame rates?

A: Yes, the data shows that at 1920x1080, the combo achieves 108 FPS at Low, 91 FPS at Medium, 81 FPS at High, and 72 FPS at Ultra settings. All of these exceed the 60 FPS threshold commonly considered smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in terms of benchmark scores?

A: The Ryzen 5 7500F has an average benchmark score of 24964, placing it essentially neck-and-neck with the Intel Core i7-11850H (24935, 0.1% slower), AMD Ryzen 5 8400F (25005, 0.2% faster), Intel Core i7-13620H (24911, 0.2% slower), and Intel Core 5 210H (24872, 0.4% slower).

Q: What is the best resolution to play at with this hardware?

A: Based on the measured data, 1920x1080 provides the best balance of performance and visual quality. At 2560x1440, frame rates dip below 60 FPS at High settings (61 FPS) and Ultra (54 FPS), while 3840x2160 drops below 60 FPS even at Low settings (55 FPS).

Q: How does the Arc B390's GPU benchmark score compare to its nearest competitors?

A: The Arc B390 scores 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, which is 1.3% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463), 1.5% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce 800M (1460), 2.5% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM (1446), and 2.7% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 (1443).

Q: What settings should be avoided at 4K resolution?

A: The data shows that 4K resolution produces low frame rates across all settings—36 FPS at Ultra, 41 FPS at High, 46 FPS at Medium, and 55 FPS at Low. Ultra and High settings at 4K fall below 45 FPS and should be avoided for smooth gameplay.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU is clearly the limiting factor. The Arc B390 ranks at the 9th percentile among all GPUs, while the Ryzen 5 7500F ranks at the 77th percentile among CPUs. The consistent frame rate drops across settings and resolutions indicate GPU-bound performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest performance. Low settings produce an average of 108 FPS, Medium settings yield 91 FPS with a minimum of 77 and maximum of 104, High settings average 81 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 72 FPS. The 36 FPS spread between Low and Ultra represents the full range of graphical presets at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance degradation is immediately apparent. Low settings average 82 FPS, Medium settings produce 68 FPS with a range of 58 to 78 FPS, High settings deliver 61 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 54 FPS. The Medium setting's minimum of 58 FPS is notable, as it approaches the 60 FPS threshold even at this mid-range setting.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles to maintain playable frame rates. Low settings average 55 FPS, Medium settings drop to 46 FPS with a minimum of 39 and maximum of 53, High settings average 41 FPS, and Ultra settings produce just 36 FPS. The Medium setting's minimum of 39 FPS indicates significant frame time variance at 4K, which could result in noticeable stuttering during gameplay.

The data reveals a consistent pattern: each resolution step down from 1080p reduces frame rates by approximately 25-50%, regardless of settings. The Medium preset is the only one that provides min/max FPS data across all resolutions, showing the frame time stability degrades substantially as resolution increases—at 1080p the range is 27 FPS (77-104), at 1440p it is 20 FPS (58-78), and at 4K it is 14 FPS (39-53).

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture (codenamed Raphael), built on TSMC's 5 nm process node with 6,570 million transistors on a 71 mm² die. It features a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support is limited to DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and 83.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth, along with ECC support.

The CPU's benchmark results demonstrate solid multi-threaded performance. Cinebench R23 scores show 22,799 multi-core and 3,218 single-core, while Geekbench reports 12,362 multi-core and 2,374 single-core. PassMark results include 26,825 multi-thread, 3,841 single-thread, 79,108 integer math, 47,176 floating point math, and 17,510 data encryption. The 3DMark tests show 6,379 max threads and 974 single thread scores.

The Ryzen 5 7500F's 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs places it well above the GPU's 9th percentile. Its nearest rivals in performance are the Intel Core i7-11850H (0.1% faster), AMD Ryzen 5 8400F (0.2% slower), Intel Core i7-13620H (0.2% faster), and Intel Core 5 210H (0.4% faster). This grouping within a narrow performance band indicates the CPU is competitive with a range of mid-range processors.

In Dave The Diver, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU. The game's relatively modest computational requirements mean the Ryzen 5 7500F's 6 cores and 12 threads are more than sufficient. The data supports this interpretation: the consistent frame rate reductions across settings and resolutions point to GPU limitations rather than CPU bottlenecks. The CPU's 5.00 GHz boost clock and 32 MB L3 cache provide ample headroom for the game's logic, physics, and AI processing.

The launch MSRP for the Ryzen 5 7500F is $179, positioning it as a value-oriented desktop processor. Its production status is active, with a release date of July 2023. The unlocked multiplier allows for overclocking, though the integrated graphics-free design (no iGPU) means the Arc B390 is the only display output option in this pairing.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimal settings across different resolutions. At 1920x1080, Medium settings offer the best balance of visual quality and performance, with 91 FPS average and a minimum of 77 FPS. This provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining moderate graphical fidelity. High settings at 81 FPS are also viable for users who prioritize visual quality, though the 10 FPS penalty from Medium is noticeable.

For users with 2560x1440 displays, Medium settings at 68 FPS are the recommended choice. The minimum of 58 FPS is slightly below the 60 FPS threshold, but the average remains smooth. High settings at 61 FPS are borderline acceptable, while Ultra at 54 FPS and Low at 82 FPS represent the extremes—the former sacrifices too much performance, the latter sacrifices too much visual quality for the modest gains.

At 3840x2160, the data suggests this combo is not well-suited for 4K gaming. Even Low settings at 55 FPS fall below the 60 FPS threshold, and Medium settings at 46 FPS with a 39 FPS minimum indicate potential stuttering. For users who must play at 4K, Low settings are the only recommendation, though the 55 FPS average suggests a less than ideal experience.

The overall recommendation across all resolutions is the Medium preset. This setting consistently provides the best performance-to-quality trade-off in the measured data. At 1080p Medium produces 91 FPS with a 77 FPS minimum, at 1440p it delivers 68 FPS with a 58 FPS minimum, and even at 4K it manages 46 FPS with a 39 FPS minimum. The Medium preset's min/max data across all three resolutions shows the most consistent frame pacing, making it the safest choice for smooth gameplay.