Dave The Diver

Dave The Diver, an adventure title released in mid-2023, proves to be remarkably undemanding on modern hardware. The measured data for the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 shows frame rates that consistently exceed the refresh rates of most high-end displays, even at maximum settings and 4K resolution. This combination of a 6-core Zen 4 processor and an Ada Lovelace GPU delivers a performance profile that is heavily skewed toward the GPU at higher resolutions, while the CPU demonstrates ample headroom to push extreme frame rates at 1080p. The following analysis breaks down the measured FPS data to provide specific settings recommendations and contextualize the role each component plays in this game.

Settings Recommendations

The measured frame rate data provides a clear hierarchy across the four tested presets: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. At every resolution, the average FPS scales predictably with the graphical preset, with Low being the fastest and Ultra being the most demanding. However, the absolute numbers are so high that the choice of preset should be dictated by display capabilities and preference for visual fidelity, not by a need to achieve playable frame rates.

At 1080p, the data shows that the Ultra preset still achieves an average of 211 FPS. This is a remarkably high figure that would satisfy any high-refresh-rate monitor. The High preset at 1080p yields 238 FPS, a modest 27 FPS increase over Ultra, while the Medium preset hits 267 FPS. The Low preset reaches 319 FPS. Given that the difference between Ultra and High is relatively small in frame rate terms (211 vs 238 FPS), but the visual quality jump from High to Ultra is typically substantial, the Ultra preset is the recommended choice for 1080p users who prioritize image quality, as the performance cost is minimal in percentage terms.

Moving to 1440p, the pattern remains consistent but the frame rates become more tempered. The Ultra preset averages 158 FPS, which is still exceptionally smooth and well above the 144Hz standard for many monitors. The High preset at 1440p averages 179 FPS, while Medium and Low reach 201 FPS and 240 FPS, respectively. For 1440p, the High preset offers an excellent balance, providing a 21 FPS advantage over Ultra while still delivering a high level of visual quality. However, given that Ultra at 1440p still exceeds 150 FPS, users with 144Hz displays could comfortably select Ultra without any noticeable compromise in smoothness.

At 4K (3840x2160), the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, but the RTX 4070 still handles the game with ease. The Ultra preset averages 106 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS target for most 4K displays and even approaches the 120Hz threshold. The High preset at 4K averages 120 FPS, making it the ideal choice for users with 120Hz or 144Hz 4K displays, as it provides a perfect match for a 120Hz refresh rate. Medium preset yields 135 FPS, and Low reaches 161 FPS. For 4K, the High preset is the recommended setting, as it delivers a 14 FPS improvement over Ultra (120 vs 106 FPS) while maintaining a high level of detail, and it aligns perfectly with the refresh rate of many high-end 4K monitors.

The overall recommendation is to prioritize the Ultra preset at 1080p and 1440p, as the performance is more than sufficient. At 4K, the High preset is the optimal choice, as it provides the best balance between the measured 120 FPS average and the visual enhancements over Medium settings. The data does not indicate any stability issues at any preset, as the only recorded minimum FPS values (114 FPS at 4K Medium and 227 FPS at 1080p Medium) are still far above any playability threshold.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to use with this combo for a 144Hz monitor?

A: The data shows that at 1440p, the Ultra preset averages 158 FPS, comfortably exceeding 144Hz. At 4K, the High preset averages 120 FPS, which is below 144Hz but still very smooth. For a 144Hz display, 1440p with Ultra settings is the recommended configuration based on the measured FPS.

Q: How much of a performance drop is there from 1080p to 4K at the Ultra preset?

A: The measured average FPS at 1080p Ultra is 211 FPS, while at 4K Ultra it drops to 106 FPS. This represents a reduction of approximately 105 FPS, or roughly half the frame rate, when moving from the lowest to the highest tested resolution.

Q: Does the RTX 4070 have enough VRAM for this game at maximum settings?

A: The RTX 4070 is equipped with 12 GB of GDDR6X memory. While the factor pack does not provide specific VRAM usage data for Dave The Diver, the very high average FPS at 4K Ultra (106 FPS) indicates that the GPU is not being bottlenecked by memory capacity in this title.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: The data suggests that the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p. The frame rate at 1080p Low is 319 FPS, which is exceptionally high. The fact that the FPS decreases significantly as resolution increases (to 161 FPS at 4K Low) indicates that the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions, while the CPU is able to feed frames very quickly at 1080p.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The only measured minimum FPS values in the data are for the Medium preset: 114 FPS at 4K, 171 FPS at 1440p, and 227 FPS at 1080p. These figures indicate that even the minimum frame rates are well above 60 FPS, suggesting a consistently smooth experience.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations for this game?

A: According to the data, this specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 ranks at 846 out of 3710 tested combos for Dave The Diver, placing it in the top quarter of all tested systems.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070, based on the Ada Lovelace architecture, demonstrates a clear capacity to handle Dave The Diver's graphical demands. The GPU's specifications include 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, with a boost clock of 2475 MHz. It is equipped with 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. The GPU's FP32 performance is rated at 29.15 TFLOPS.

The measured FPS data reveals the GPU's scaling behavior under load. At 1080p, the performance difference between presets is relatively small in absolute terms: the Low preset hits 319 FPS, while Ultra reduces this to 211 FPS. This 108 FPS spread suggests that the game's visual settings have a moderate impact on GPU work at this resolution. However, at 4K, the same preset comparison shows a larger gap: Low averages 161 FPS, while Ultra drops to 106 FPS, a difference of 55 FPS. This indicates that the GPU is working significantly harder at 4K, and the Ultra preset's effects (likely higher-resolution textures, more complex shading, and additional post-processing) are taxing the RTX 4070 more heavily.

The memory configuration of the RTX 4070 appears sufficient for the game, given that the 4K Ultra preset still maintains an average of 106 FPS. The 12 GB VRAM capacity and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are likely not bottlenecks, as such a high frame rate would be constrained if the GPU were paging to system memory. The GPU's 200 W TDP and dual-slot design are consistent with a mid-to-high-range card that can sustain these performance levels.

The data shows that the GPU's role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 4K, the difference between the Low (161 FPS) and Ultra (106 FPS) presets is a 34% reduction in FPS, highlighting the GPU's sensitivity to settings at higher pixel counts. In contrast, at 1080p, the same preset change only reduces FPS by 34% (from 319 to 211 FPS). This suggests that the GPU is the primary scaling factor for resolution, while the CPU has sufficient headroom to maintain high frame rates at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 319 FPS, the Medium preset averages 267 FPS with a minimum of 227 FPS and a maximum of 307 FPS, the High preset averages 238 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 211 FPS. These figures demonstrate a clear linear progression, with each step down in settings yielding a roughly 9-12% increase in frame rate.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down as expected. The Low preset averages 240 FPS, the Medium preset averages 201 FPS with a minimum of 171 FPS and a maximum of 231 FPS, the High preset averages 179 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 158 FPS. The delta between presets remains consistent, with Ultra being roughly 34% slower than Low at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates remain high but show a more significant drop. The Low preset averages 161 FPS, the Medium preset averages 135 FPS with a minimum of 114 FPS and a maximum of 155 FPS, the High preset averages 120 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 106 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 55 FPS, which is a 34% reduction, mirroring the percentage drop seen at 1080p but with a smaller absolute difference.

The only presets with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values are the Medium settings at each resolution. At 1080p Medium, the FPS ranges from 227 to 307 FPS, a spread of 80 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the range is 171 to 231 FPS, a 60 FPS spread. At 4K Medium, the range is 114 to 155 FPS, a 41 FPS spread. This narrowing spread at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU's workload becomes more consistent, reducing frame time variance.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals a clear pattern of FPS decline as resolution increases, which is expected given the GPU's role in rendering pixels. At the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 319 at 1080p to 240 at 1440p, a 25% reduction, and then to 161 at 4K, a further 33% reduction from 1440p. This indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, as the CPU is capable of sustaining very high frame rates at 1080p.

At the Ultra preset, the scaling is similar: 211 FPS at 1080p drops to 158 FPS at 1440p (a 25% reduction) and then to 106 FPS at 4K (a 33% reduction from 1440p). The consistent percentage drops across presets suggest that resolution scaling is independent of the specific settings used, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario.

The fact that 1080p Low achieves 319 FPS while 1080p Ultra achieves 211 FPS indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor at 1080p, as the frame rate is still very high. However, the gap between 1080p and 4K at the same preset (e.g., 319 FPS to 161 FPS at Low) is significant, showing that the GPU's rendering workload increases substantially with resolution. This suggests that the RTX 4070 is the limiting component at 4K, while the Ryzen 5 8400F provides ample CPU headroom at all tested resolutions.

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K at the Medium preset is from 267 FPS to 135 FPS, a 49% reduction. This is a larger relative drop than the Low preset's 50% reduction (319 to 161 FPS), indicating that the Medium preset's additional effects (such as higher-quality shadows or textures) compound the GPU load at higher resolutions. Overall, the data paints a picture of a system where the GPU is the scaling factor for resolution, and the CPU is not a constraint.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. It has a 16 MB shared L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus. The CPU's benchmark scores show strong single-thread performance (e.g., 2943 in Cinebench R23 single-core) and robust multi-thread capabilities (e.g., 20851 in Cinebench R23 multi-core).

In Dave The Diver, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p, where the frame rates are exceptionally high. The 1080p Low preset averages 319 FPS, which is a very high frame rate that requires the CPU to process game logic and submit draw calls rapidly. The fact that the FPS at 1080p Low is significantly higher than at 4K Low (161 FPS) indicates that the CPU is capable of driving the GPU to its limits at lower resolutions, but the GPU becomes the bottleneck as resolution increases.

The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are likely sufficient for this game, as the measured FPS does not show any signs of a CPU bottleneck at lower resolutions. For example, at 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 211, which is still very high and suggests that the CPU is not limiting the frame rate. The CPU's boost clock of 4.70 GHz and Zen 4 architecture provide strong single-threaded performance, which is often critical for game logic and physics.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 25005 places it in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F (with a 0.2% higher score) and the Intel Core i7-13620H (with a 0.4% higher score). This indicates that the 8400F is a competitive mid-range processor. In this game, the CPU's performance is more than adequate, as evidenced by the fact that the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is dominated by the GPU, not the CPU.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 holds a rank of 846 out of 3710 tested combos for Dave The Diver. This places it in the top 23% of all tested configurations, which is a strong showing for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU. The rank reflects the overall performance of the system in this specific game, taking into account both the CPU and GPU contributions.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 81 among all GPUs and the CPU's percentile ranking of 77 among all CPUs provide context for this combo rank. The system's performance is slightly higher than what the individual component percentiles might suggest, indicating that the pairing works well together for this game. The fact that the combo rank is 846 out of 3710 means that there are 845 other combinations that perform better, likely featuring higher-end CPUs (such as the Ryzen 7 or 9 series) or more powerful GPUs (such as the RTX 4080 or 4090).

The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F, have a nearly identical average benchmark score (24964 vs 25005, a 0.2% difference), which suggests that swapping the 8400F for a similar CPU would not significantly change the combo's ranking. Similarly, the GPU's nearest rivals, like the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, are less powerful, so the RTX 4070's strong performance is a key factor in the combo's high ranking.

Overall, the data indicates that this combo is well-suited for Dave The Diver, delivering frame rates that are far above playable thresholds at all resolutions and settings. The rank of 846 out of 3710 confirms that this system is among the top performers for this game, making it a capable choice for players seeking high refresh rates or 4K gaming.