Dave The Diver

Dave The Diver presents an interesting case for the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 combination. The measured data shows a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, but which begins to reveal CPU limitations at 1080p. The RTX 5080, with its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory and a boost clock of 2617 MHz, delivers exceptionally high frame rates across the board. The Ryzen 5 8400F, a 6-core, 12-thread Zen 4 part with a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, provides sufficient headroom to keep up, though the scaling pattern suggests it is the limiting factor at lower resolutions. This analysis breaks down the measured performance data to explain the dynamics between resolution, preset, and component utilization.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data reveals a clear inverse relationship between resolution and performance, which is typical for a game like Dave The Diver where the visual load scales directly with pixel count. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 320.3 at 1920x1080 to 242.2 at 2560x1440, and finally to 163.9 at 3840x2160. This represents a 49% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K, indicating that the rendering pipeline is heavily dependent on the resolution output. The drop from 1440p to 4K is particularly steep, with a 32% performance loss, suggesting that the RTX 5080’s 960.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 256-bit bus are being saturated by the higher pixel throughput demands.

The scaling pattern changes when looking at the Low preset. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 389.6 FPS, which drops to 323.8 at 1440p and 219.7 at 4K. The percentage decrease from 1080p to 4K is 44%, slightly less pronounced than at High settings. This suggests that at Low settings, where the pixel shader workload is lighter, the bottleneck shifts more toward the CPU’s ability to feed the GPU with draw calls. The Ryzen 5 8400F’s single-thread performance, evidenced by a 3dmark_single_thread score of 951, becomes a more significant factor. The data implies that the GPU is not the sole limiting factor at lower resolutions and settings, as the frame rate ceiling appears to be constrained by the processor’s throughput.

The frame rate gap between the Low and Ultra presets also widens with resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low (389.6 FPS) and Ultra (283.1 FPS) is 106.5 FPS, or 27%. At 4K, this gap shrinks to 77.6 FPS, or 35%, with Low at 219.7 FPS and Ultra at 142.1 FPS. This indicates that the GPU’s computational resources, particularly its 10752 shading units and 56.28 TFLOPS FP32 compute, are the primary drivers of performance at higher resolutions. The game appears to scale well with the GPU’s raw power, but the CPU’s 4.70 GHz boost clock and 16 MB of L3 cache are sufficient to prevent severe stuttering, as evidenced by the consistent average FPS numbers.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved by this CPU and GPU combination?

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 389.6 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: How does the RTX 5080 perform relative to its nearest rivals in this benchmark database?

A: The RTX 5080 has an average benchmark score of 59188, placing it 1.6% ahead of the Intel Arc A570M and 2.5% ahead of the Intel Arc A580, while trailing the Intel Arc Pro A60 by 1.9%.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between the Medium and High presets at 2560x1440?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers an average of 271.6 FPS, while the High preset delivers 242.2 FPS, a difference of 29.4 FPS in favor of Medium.

Q: Does the CPU’s performance ranking suggest it is a bottleneck for this game?

A: The Ryzen 5 8400F has a percentile ranking of 82 against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25064. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, scores 25057, a 0% difference, indicating comparable overall performance.

Q: Which resolution and settings combination yields the lowest average frame rate?

A: The lowest measured average frame rate is 142.1 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with the Ultra settings preset.

Q: How much faster is the 1080p Low preset compared to the 4K Ultra preset?

A: The 1080p Low preset achieves 389.6 FPS, which is 247.5 FPS higher than the 4K Ultra preset’s 142.1 FPS, representing a 174% performance advantage.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is the dominant component in this configuration, and its specifications directly explain the high frame rates observed. With 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, the GPU offers a memory bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s, which is crucial for handling the texture and asset streaming in Dave The Diver’s underwater environments. The boost clock of 2617 MHz, combined with 10752 shading units, allows for substantial parallel processing capability. The benchmark results show this in action: the GPU’s passmark_g3d score of 36565 and its average benchmark score of 59188 place it in the 89th percentile of all GPUs.

The GPU’s performance scaling across settings is telling. At 4K, the frame rate drops from 219.7 FPS at Low to 182.9 FPS at Medium, a 17% decrease, and then to 163.9 FPS at High, an 11% decrease from Medium. The jump to Ultra at 142.1 FPS represents a 13% drop from High. This gradual degradation suggests that each settings tier adds a proportional load on the GPU’s resources. The fact that the RTX 5080 maintains over 140 FPS at 4K Ultra in this game confirms its raw compute power, but the data also shows that the GPU is not fully utilized at 1080p, where frame rates exceed 280 FPS even at Ultra settings.

The GPU’s memory capacity of 16 GB is more than sufficient for this game, as the data does not indicate any memory-related stutters or performance cliffs. The 30 Gbps effective memory speed ensures that the GPU can quickly access the frame buffer, which is critical for maintaining high average FPS numbers. The RTX 5080’s performance relative to its rivals, being 1.6% faster than the Intel Arc A570M and 2.5% faster than the Intel Arc A580, shows that it is a competitive high-end part. The GPU’s transistor density of 120.6M / mm² on a 5 nm process allows for efficient power delivery, though the 360 W TDP indicates it is a power-hungry component that requires a robust power supply, as suggested by the 750 W PSU recommendation.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the performance is consistently high across all presets. The Low preset leads with 389.6 FPS, followed by Medium at 360.3 FPS, High at 320.3 FPS, and Ultra at 283.1 FPS. The difference between the lowest and highest presets is 106.5 FPS, indicating that the CPU is able to push high frame rates even with reduced graphical load. The scaling from Low to Ultra is not linear; the drop from Low to Medium is 29.3 FPS, from Medium to High is 40 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 37.2 FPS. This suggests that the High preset introduces a significant increase in shader complexity or draw calls compared to Medium.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show a clearer separation between presets. Low delivers 323.8 FPS, Medium 271.6 FPS, High 242.2 FPS, and Ultra 215 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 108.8 FPS, slightly larger than at 1080p. The percentage drop from Low to Ultra is 34%, compared to 27% at 1080p. This indicates that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor, as the increased pixel count adds a consistent load regardless of settings. The Medium preset at 271.6 FPS is still well above the 240 Hz refresh rate threshold for most monitors, making it a viable option for high-refresh gaming.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops significantly. Low achieves 219.7 FPS, Medium 182.9 FPS, High 163.9 FPS, and Ultra 142.1 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is a 35% reduction, which is the largest percentage drop across all resolutions. This is expected, as 4K requires four times the pixel throughput of 1080p. The data shows that even at 4K Ultra, the system maintains an average FPS above 140, which is smooth for most gaming experiences. The frame rate differences between presets at 4K are more uniform, with drops of 36.8 FPS (Low to Medium), 19 FPS (Medium to High), and 21.8 FPS (High to Ultra), suggesting that the GPU is consistently limited by the resolution rather than any specific settings feature.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the target resolution and refresh rate. For 1920x1080, the Ultra preset at 283.1 FPS is the best choice for users with a 240 Hz or 360 Hz monitor, as it provides the highest visual fidelity while still delivering frame rates well above the refresh rate. The High preset at 320.3 FPS is also excellent, offering a 13% performance boost over Ultra with only a slight reduction in visual quality. For users with a 144 Hz monitor, the Medium preset at 360.3 FPS is overkill, and the visual difference between Medium and High may not justify the 40 FPS loss.

At 2560x1440, the High preset at 242.2 FPS is the recommended balance, as it offers a significant visual upgrade over Medium while still exceeding 240 FPS. The Ultra preset at 215 FPS is also viable for those with a 240 Hz display, but the 27.2 FPS drop from High may be noticeable in fast-paced scenes. For users with a 165 Hz monitor, the Medium preset at 271.6 FPS is more than sufficient, and the extra 29.4 FPS over High could be beneficial for maintaining a consistent frame time. The Low preset at 323.8 FPS is only recommended for competitive play where maximum frame rate is prioritized over visuals.

For 3840x2160, the High preset at 163.9 FPS is the best choice for a 144 Hz or 165 Hz monitor, as it delivers smooth gameplay with good visual quality. The Ultra preset at 142.1 FPS is also playable, but it may dip below the refresh rate of some 144 Hz displays, causing potential judder. The Medium preset at 182.9 FPS is an excellent alternative, offering a 19 FPS improvement over High while still looking good. The data suggests that the High preset is the sweet spot for 4K, as the incremental visual improvements from High to Ultra do not justify the 21.8 FPS loss. The Low preset at 219.7 FPS is only recommended for users with a 240 Hz 4K monitor, which is a rare combination.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F plays a crucial role in ensuring the system can deliver the high frame rates seen at 1080p. With 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture, the CPU has a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. The benchmark data shows that the CPU’s single-thread performance, as measured by a 3dmark_single_thread score of 951, is adequate for feeding the RTX 5080. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2943 and multi-core score of 20851 indicate that the CPU is well-balanced for gaming workloads, which typically rely on a few cores for high-frequency operations.

The CPU’s performance in the context of Dave The Diver is evident in the frame rate scaling. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 106.5 FPS, which suggests that the CPU is able to process the increased draw calls and game logic associated with higher settings. The fact that the frame rate exceeds 320 FPS at 1080p High indicates that the CPU is not a bottleneck at this resolution. However, the data also shows that the frame rate does not increase linearly with lower settings, which implies that the CPU’s 16 MB of shared L3 cache and DDR5 memory support (with a bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s) are sufficient for the game’s data requirements.

The Ryzen 5 8400F’s overall performance is comparable to its nearest rivals, with an average benchmark score of 25064 placing it in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs. It matches the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X’s score of 25057 with a 0% delta, and is only 0.3% faster than the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F. This suggests that the CPU is not a high-end part, but it is more than capable for this game. The CPU’s 65 W TDP and 4 nm process node, manufactured by TSMC with 25,000 million transistors, make it an efficient component. The data indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this configuration, as the GPU’s performance scaling with resolution is the primary driver of frame rate changes. The CPU’s role becomes more apparent at 1080p, where it helps achieve frame rates above 380 FPS, but at 4K, the GPU is clearly the dominant component.