Dave The Diver

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

The measured FPS data reveals a remarkably smooth scaling curve as resolution climbs, which is unusual for a game of this visual complexity. At 1080p High settings, the system delivers 185.9 FPS. Moving to 1440p High drops that to 137.6 FPS, a 26% reduction, and then to 4K High at 94 FPS, another 31.7% drop from the 1440p figure. This pattern—roughly a quarter to a third loss at each step—indicates the workload is becoming progressively more GPU-bound as pixel count rises, but not dramatically so.

What is more telling is the Low preset behavior. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 243.6 FPS, which is an exceptionally high ceiling. Dropping to 1440p Low yields 185.6 FPS (a 23.8% decrease), and 4K Low still manages 120.7 FPS (a 35% decrease from 1440p). The fact that Low settings at 4K still exceed 120 FPS suggests that even at the highest resolution, the GPU is not being pushed to its absolute limit in this title.

The scaling from Medium to High to Ultra at each resolution is also informative. At 4K, Medium produces 100.4 FPS, High drops to 94 FPS, and Ultra falls to 79.4 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is only 6.4 FPS, while High to Ultra is a steeper 14.6 FPS decline. This non-linear penalty implies that Ultra settings introduce disproportionately heavy effects that tax the render pipeline more than the incremental visual upgrade might justify.

The data suggests that the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 with its 8 cores and 16 threads is comfortably keeping pace with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 across all resolution points. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see much smaller FPS gaps between 1080p and 1440p, because the CPU workload per frame would cap performance regardless of resolution. Instead, the consistent 20-30% scaling at each resolution step points to a system where the GPU is the primary driver of performance, especially at higher resolutions.

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

The RTX 5060 brings 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. For a game like Dave The Diver, which is an adventure title with stylized visuals rather than a photorealistic simulator, this memory configuration appears sufficient based on the measured results. The GPU's base clock is 2280 MHz with a boost of 2497 MHz, and the memory runs at 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective throughput.

What stands out in the benchmark data is how the GPU's compute resources translate to playable frame rates. The RTX 5060 has 3840 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs, producing a pixel rate of 119.9 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 299.6 GTexel/s. These figures explain why the card can push 243.6 FPS at 1080p Low—the pixel throughput is ample for that resolution, and the texture units are not bottlenecked by the game's asset complexity.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is worth examining against the 4K Ultra result of 79.4 FPS. While that is still a playable number, the relatively small drop from High to Ultra (94 to 79.4 FPS) suggests the game may be compressing or streaming textures more aggressively at Ultra, or that the VRAM capacity is starting to influence performance at the highest settings. The fact that 4K Medium hits 100.4 FPS while 4K Ultra drops to 79.4 FPS—a 21 FPS gap—hints that the Ultra preset's additional memory footprint may be causing the GPU to work harder than the visual difference justifies.

The GPU's position relative to its nearest rivals further contextualizes these results. The RTX 5060's average benchmark score of 30109 is virtually tied with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT at 30097 (a 0% delta), and slightly ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla M60 at 29969 (0.5% delta). This places the card in a competitive mid-range tier, and Dave The Diver's measured FPS aligns with that positioning—strong at 1080p, capable at 1440p, and playable at 4K.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Based strictly on the measured FPS rows, the Medium preset at 1440p emerges as the strongest balance point. It delivers 155.3 FPS, which is 17.7 FPS higher than High at the same resolution (137.6 FPS) and only 30.3 FPS below Low (185.6 FPS). The visual quality upgrade from Low to Medium is substantial in most games, and the FPS cost here is a manageable 30.3 FPS.

For users targeting 4K, Medium is the clear recommendation. At 100.4 FPS, it clears the 100 FPS threshold comfortably, whereas High dips to 94 FPS and Ultra falls to 79.4 FPS. The 21 FPS difference between Medium and Ultra at 4K is significant, and the incremental settings changes between those presets are unlikely to justify the performance loss in a fast-paced diving adventure.

At 1080p, the situation is different. With 243.6 FPS on Low and 206.5 FPS on Medium, there is enough headroom to run Ultra at 161.6 FPS without any concern for display refresh rates. Even the most demanding 240 Hz displays would be nearly saturated by the Ultra preset's 161.6 FPS, making it the optimal choice for competitive or high-refresh gaming at this resolution.

The data does not support Ultra at any resolution above 1080p. The 4K Ultra figure of 79.4 FPS, while technically playable, sits below the 80 FPS mark and represents a 20.9% drop from Medium at the same resolution. For 1440p Ultra at 120.6 FPS, the preset is viable, but Medium at 155.3 FPS offers a 28.8% performance advantage with relatively modest visual compromises.

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

At 1920x1080, the full settings sweep shows the GPU's headroom clearly. Low produces 243.6 FPS, Medium drops to 206.5 FPS (a 15.2% reduction), High reaches 185.9 FPS (a 9.9% drop from Medium), and Ultra lands at 161.6 FPS (a 13% drop from High). The progression is linear, with each preset tier costing roughly 20-25 FPS, indicating a well-optimized settings ladder.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. Low yields 185.6 FPS, Medium 155.3 FPS (a 16.3% drop), High 137.6 FPS (an 11.4% drop from Medium), and Ultra 120.6 FPS (a 12.4% drop from High). Notably, the absolute FPS losses between presets are smaller than at 1080p, but the percentage drops are similar, confirming that the GPU is scaling consistently with resolution.

At 3840x2160, the 4K results compress the range. Low delivers 120.7 FPS, Medium 100.4 FPS (a 16.8% drop), High 94 FPS (a 6.4% drop), and Ultra 79.4 FPS (a 15.5% drop from High). The Medium-to-High gap shrinks dramatically at 4K, which is an anomaly compared to the other resolutions. This could indicate that High settings at 4K are hitting a memory bandwidth or fill-rate limit that Medium avoids, making the incremental visual upgrade less costly than expected.

The widest spread across all measurements is at 1080p, where the difference between Low (243.6 FPS) and Ultra (161.6 FPS) is 82 FPS. At 4K, the same spread narrows to 41.3 FPS (120.7 to 79.4). This compression at higher resolutions reinforces the GPU-bound nature of the workload, as the settings impact becomes relatively less significant when pixel count dominates the rendering cost.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This particular pairing of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 achieves a combo rank of 798 out of 1626 tested combinations in Dave The Diver. That places it in the lower half of the field, but the context matters: the rank is a composite across all resolutions and settings, and the measured FPS figures tell a more nuanced story than the raw position suggests.

A rank of 798 out of 1626 puts this combo in the 49th percentile, meaning roughly half of all tested configurations outperform it. However, many of those higher-ranked combos likely pair more expensive GPUs or CPUs. The RTX 5060's average benchmark score of 30109 places it in the 73rd percentile of all GPUs, while the Ryzen 7 5700's average score of 27220 puts it in the 84th percentile of all CPUs. The gap between the combo's in-game rank and the component-level percentiles suggests that Dave The Diver may favor certain hardware configurations that this pairing does not fully exploit.

Looking at the CPU's nearest rivals, the Ryzen 7 5700 is closely matched with the Intel Core i9-9900K (0.7% delta), Intel Core i7-12700H (0.8% delta), and AMD Ryzen AI 5 340 (1.2% delta). These are all capable processors, and the fact that the Ryzen 7 5700 sits in the 84th percentile of all CPUs confirms it is not holding the GPU back in most scenarios. The GPU's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, has an identical average score (0% delta), suggesting that swapping to that card would yield nearly identical in-game results.

The 49th percentile in-game rank, therefore, is more a reflection of the game's optimization priorities than a condemnation of this hardware. The measured FPS data shows this combo is perfectly capable of high frame rates, and the rank likely reflects that many of the 1626 tested combos include higher-tier components that push the average up.

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

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 is a Zen 3 architecture desktop processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, running at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. It has a 16 MB L3 cache, 64 KB L1 and 512 KB L2 per core, and supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel bus and 51.2 GB/s bandwidth. These specifications position it as a solid mid-range CPU with ample multi-threading capability.

In Dave The Diver, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU, based on the FPS scaling patterns. The 8 cores and 16 threads are more than sufficient for a game of this genre, which typically does not require massive thread counts. The CPU's single-thread performance, as measured by 3dmark_single_thread at 901 and cinebench_r23_singlecore at 2916, is strong enough to avoid bottlenecking the GPU at any resolution.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities, demonstrated by a cinebench_r23_multicore score of 20655 and a passmark_multithread score of 24303, suggest that even if Dave The Diver utilized additional threads for physics or AI, this processor would handle it without issue. The 3dmark_max_threads score of 6617 shows consistent scaling from 2 threads (1762) to 16 threads (6628), indicating efficient thread management.

The fact that 1080p Low hits 243.6 FPS without the CPU becoming the limiting factor is telling. At that frame rate, the CPU has only about 4.1 milliseconds per frame to process game logic, and the Ryzen 7 5700 manages it without issue. Even at 1080p Ultra with 161.6 FPS, the CPU is not the constraint, as evidenced by the smooth scaling to lower resolutions.

The CPU's position in the 84th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27220, places it slightly ahead of the Intel Core i9-9900K (27043, 0.7% delta) and Intel Core i7-12700H (27006, 0.8% delta). This confirms that the Ryzen 7 5700 is a capable partner for the RTX 5060 in this title, with no evidence of CPU-induced frame rate dips in the measured data.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum FPS achievable with this combo at 1080p?

A: The highest measured FPS is 243.6 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At Ultra settings, the same resolution yields 161.6 FPS.

Q: Is the RTX 5060's 8 GB VRAM sufficient for 4K gaming in Dave The Diver?

A: Yes, the measured 4K results show playable frame rates across all presets, with Low at 120.7 FPS, Medium at 100.4 FPS, High at 94 FPS, and Ultra at 79.4 FPS. The VRAM capacity appears adequate for this title.

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

A: It ranks 798 out of 1626 tested combos in Dave The Diver, placing it in the lower half. However, the component-level percentiles are higher, with the CPU in the 84th percentile and GPU in the 73rd percentile.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo if prioritizing frame rate?

A: At 1080p, the combo delivers well above 160 FPS on all presets. For 1440p, Medium offers 155.3 FPS, while 4K Medium still achieves 100.4 FPS, so the choice depends on display refresh rate and visual preference.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: No. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows consistent GPU-bound behavior, and the Ryzen 7 5700's 8-core/16-thread configuration with a 4.60 GHz boost clock easily keeps pace.

Q: How does the RTX 5060 compare to its nearest rival in terms of average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 5060 scores 30109 on average, which is identical to the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT at 30097 (0% delta). It is also 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla M60 at 29969.