Dave The Diver

Dave The Diver, a pixel-art adventure about managing a sushi restaurant by day and exploring the ocean by night, is not typically the first title that comes to mind when stress-testing flagship hardware. Yet the measured data for the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 reveals a fascinating case study in how modern high-end components handle a game with modest visual demands. The combination ranks 146th out of 2,867 tested combos, placing it in the top 5% of all systems tested, which is a remarkable result for a game that often flies under the radar in performance discussions. The sheer headroom available in this pairing becomes immediately apparent when examining the frame rates across different presets and resolutions, with the system frequently exceeding the refresh rates of even the fastest gaming monitors.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data strongly suggests that players should gravitate toward the Ultra preset, despite it being the most demanding option tested. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 279 FPS, while the High preset yields 316 FPS, and Medium produces 354 FPS. The differences between these presets are substantial in raw numbers, but the absolute values are so high that the visual fidelity gains from Ultra far outweigh the frame rate cost. At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset still maintains an average of 210 FPS, which is comfortably above the 144Hz threshold most high-refresh-rate monitors operate at, and only 28 FPS lower than the High preset's 238 FPS. Even at 3840x2160, Ultra holds its own with an average of 141 FPS, making it a viable option for 4K gaming on a high-refresh display.

The data indicates that the Medium preset, which is the only setting with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values, shows a tighter frame time distribution at lower resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the minimum FPS is 301 and the maximum is 407, giving a spread of 106 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the range narrows to 79 FPS with a minimum of 227 and maximum of 306. At 4K Medium, the spread expands to 53 FPS with a minimum of 152 and maximum of 205. This pattern suggests that as resolution increases, the frame pacing becomes more consistent, which is likely due to the GPU becoming a more dominant factor in the rendering pipeline, smoothing out CPU-side hitches that can cause frame time spikes at lower resolutions.

For players prioritizing maximum visual quality without sacrificing the high refresh rate experience, the Ultra preset at 1440p represents the sweet spot in the measured data. It delivers 210 FPS average, which is 69 FPS higher than the 4K Ultra result, while still offering the full suite of graphical enhancements. The 1080p Ultra result of 279 FPS is arguably excessive for most displays, as it exceeds the capabilities of all but the most specialized esports monitors. Considering the game's art style relies heavily on pixel art and stylized visuals rather than photorealistic textures, the difference between High and Ultra may be less perceptible than in other titles, but the frame rate headroom makes it a moot point — the system can handle Ultra without breaking a sweat.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 146 out of 2,867 tested combos places this system in the 95th percentile of all configurations benchmarked for Dave The Diver. This is a strong showing, but the context of the game's modest requirements makes this ranking particularly interesting. The fact that this pairing, which features a flagship GPU and a high-end 8-core CPU, does not crack the top 100 suggests that other combinations — possibly those with even more powerful CPUs or GPUs — achieve slightly higher frame rates at the extreme high end. However, the delta between the top performers and this combination is likely minimal, given the game's relatively low ceiling for performance scaling.

The CPU's individual benchmark performance provides context for the combo's ranking. The Ryzen 7 9700F scores 36,470 in Passmark's multithread test and 4,691 in the single-thread test, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (0.2% higher score), Intel Core i7-14700KF (0.2% lower), AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (0.7% higher), and Intel Core i7-14700K (0.9% higher). These are all formidable processors, and the 9700F's position among them indicates that it is not a bottleneck for this game. The GPU, meanwhile, scores 36,565 in Passmark's G3D test, placing it in the 87th percentile of all GPUs, with rivals like the AMD Radeon 8060S (0.6% higher) and AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE (2.2% higher) showing that the RTX 5080 is competitively positioned.

The measured FPS data reveals that this combination is more than capable of delivering playable frame rates at all tested settings, which is the ultimate validation of the combo's ranking. The fact that it doesn't rank higher likely reflects the game's engine limitations rather than any deficiency in the hardware. Dave The Diver is not a title that scales infinitely with hardware investment; there is a point where additional GPU or CPU power yields diminishing returns. This combo appears to be operating near that plateau, where the remaining performance gains would be marginal and possibly imperceptible in actual gameplay.

GPU Role

The RTX 5080's 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is substantial for a game like Dave The Diver that likely does not require massive texture memory allocation. The GPU's 10,752 shading units, 336 TMUs, and 112 ROPs are more than sufficient for the pixel-art rendering style, which typically stresses fill-rate and texture filtering less than modern 3D titles. The boost clock of 2,617 MHz and base clock of 2,295 MHz are standard for the Blackwell architecture, and the measured FPS results suggest that the GPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution tested.

The GPU's benchmark scores paint a picture of a highly capable card that sits in the upper echelon of available hardware. Its Passmark G3D score of 36,565 places it in the 87th percentile, and its performance in synthetic tests like 3DMark Steel Nomad (8,637) and Geekbench Vulkan (255,450) confirms its compute capabilities. However, in Dave The Diver, the GPU's role appears to be more about maintaining high frame rates at high resolutions rather than pushing through heavy computational workloads. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 423 FPS, which is likely approaching the game's engine limit rather than the GPU's limit. At 4K Ultra, the 141 FPS result demonstrates that the GPU still has ample headroom, as the drop from 1080p to 4K is less than half, indicating that the game's rendering load is not scaling linearly with resolution.

The VRAM capacity of 16 GB is more than adequate for this game, and the lack of any frame rate drops that would indicate memory pressure suggests that the game's assets are well within the card's memory budget. The GPU's memory clock of 1,875 MHz (30 Gbps effective) and the resulting bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s are likely overkill for the game's requirements, but they contribute to the consistent frame pacing observed in the Medium preset's minimum FPS values. Overall, the RTX 5080's role in this configuration is to provide a high ceiling for resolution scaling while ensuring that even the most demanding visual settings remain playable at high refresh rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combo in Dave The Diver?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 423, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset. The High preset at the same resolution delivers 316 FPS, while Medium yields 354 FPS and Ultra produces 279 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 5080 compare to its nearest rival GPU in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5080 scores 36,565 in Passmark's G3D test. The AMD Radeon 8060S scores 55,757 (0.6% higher), the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB scores 55,698 (0.7% higher), and the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54,828 (2.3% higher). The AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE scores 57,367, which is 2.2% higher than the RTX 5080.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 9700F a bottleneck for the RTX 5080 in this game?

A: The data does not indicate a CPU bottleneck. The Ryzen 7 9700F scores 36,470 in Passmark's multithread test and 4,691 in single-thread, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. The frame rates scale appropriately with resolution changes, suggesting the GPU is the primary driver at higher settings.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 146th out of 2,867 tested combos for Dave The Diver, placing it in the top 5% of all systems benchmarked for this game.

Q: Does the game run better at 1440p Ultra or 4K High?

A: At 1440p Ultra, the average FPS is 210, while at 4K High, the average FPS is 159. The 1440p Ultra result is 51 FPS higher, making it the better choice for high-refresh-rate gaming, while 4K High still offers a playable experience on a standard 60Hz display.

Q: What is the frame time consistency at 1080p Medium?

A: At 1080p Medium, the minimum FPS is 301, the maximum is 407, and the average is 354. This gives a spread of 106 FPS, indicating that while the average is high, there is notable variance in frame times at this resolution and setting.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear pattern in how the system handles increasing resolution. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 423 FPS, while at 1440p Low it drops to 318 FPS (a 25% decrease), and at 4K Low it further drops to 213 FPS (a 33% decrease from 1440p). This scaling is steeper than linear, suggesting that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor as resolution increases, but the absolute values remain extremely high. At 1080p Ultra, the system hits 279 FPS, which drops to 210 FPS at 1440p (25% decrease) and 141 FPS at 4K (33% decrease from 1440p). The consistent percentage drops across settings indicate that the GPU is the primary scaling factor, with the CPU maintaining its role as a non-bottleneck.

The transition from 1080p to 1440p represents a 1.78x increase in pixel count, while the transition from 1440p to 4K represents a 2.25x increase. The measured FPS drops do not perfectly match these pixel count ratios, which suggests that the game's rendering pipeline has other bottlenecks beyond pure rasterization. The fact that the FPS drops are smaller than the pixel count increases (e.g., 423 to 318 FPS for a 1.78x pixel increase) indicates that the system is not purely GPU-limited at lower resolutions, with the CPU still contributing to the overall frame rate. At 4K, the FPS drops become more proportional to the pixel count, suggesting that the GPU becomes the dominant limiting factor at this resolution.

This scaling behavior implies that the RTX 5080's 16 GB of VRAM and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient to handle the increased memory pressure at higher resolutions without causing stutters or frame drops. The Medium preset's minimum FPS values support this: at 1080p the minimum is 301 FPS, at 1440p it's 227 FPS, and at 4K it's 152 FPS. These minimums scale more predictably than the averages, indicating that the worst-case frame times are more sensitive to resolution increases, likely due to texture streaming and memory access patterns. Overall, the resolution scaling data shows that the system is well-balanced, with the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck only at 4K, where it still delivers playable frame rates at all settings.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 7 9700F's 8 cores and 16 threads, based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge), are more than sufficient for Dave The Diver's demands. The CPU's base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.50 GHz provide strong single-threaded performance, which is crucial for games that rely on a primary game thread. The Passmark single-thread score of 4,691 places this CPU in the 94th percentile, and its multithread score of 36,470 indicates that it can handle any background tasks or game logic threads without issue. The CPU's 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 cache per core provide ample fast memory for game data, and its DDR5 support with dual-channel memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s ensures that the CPU can feed data to the GPU without creating a bottleneck.

The CPU's benchmark performance relative to its nearest rivals is telling. The Ryzen 9 7940HX scores 69,875 (0.2% higher), the Intel Core i7-14700KF scores 70,163 (0.2% lower), and the Ryzen 9 7950X scores 69,515 (0.7% higher). These deltas are minimal, indicating that the 9700F is essentially on par with much higher-tier CPUs in synthetic benchmarks. For Dave The Diver, the data suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution or setting, as the FPS scales consistently with GPU load. At 1080p Low, the CPU is likely the primary driver of the 423 FPS result, as the GPU is underutilized at this resolution. As resolution increases, the GPU takes over as the bottleneck, and the CPU's role diminishes.

The CPU's 65W TDP and active production status suggest that it is a power-efficient part, which is beneficial for maintaining consistent performance without thermal throttling. The fact that the measured FPS values show no obvious signs of CPU-related stuttering (such as inconsistent minimums at low resolutions) further supports the conclusion that the 9700F is more than adequate for this game. The combo's overall rank of 146th out of 2,867 is likely influenced more by the GPU's performance than the CPU's, as the CPU is already operating well above the threshold required for this game's engine to run at its full potential.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional performance across all settings. The Low preset achieves an average of 423 FPS, which is the highest measured result in the entire dataset. The Medium preset averages 354 FPS, with a minimum of 301 FPS and maximum of 407 FPS, showing a broad range of frame times. The High preset averages 316 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 279 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 144 FPS, which is significant, but even the Ultra result is well above the refresh rate of most gaming monitors.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains extremely high. The Low preset averages 318 FPS, a 25% drop from 1080p. The Medium preset averages 266 FPS, with a minimum of 227 FPS and maximum of 306 FPS, showing a tighter frame time distribution than at 1080p. The High preset averages 238 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 210 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 108 FPS, which is narrower than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is becoming a more significant factor in limiting performance.

At 3840x2160, the system still delivers playable frame rates at all settings. The Low preset averages 213 FPS, which is a 33% drop from 1440p. The Medium preset averages 179 FPS, with a minimum of 152 FPS and maximum of 205 FPS, providing the most consistent frame pacing of any resolution tested. The High preset averages 159 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 141 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 72 FPS, which is the smallest gap across all resolutions, confirming that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at this resolution. The Ultra preset's 141 FPS average is still above the 120Hz threshold commonly found on high-end 4K displays, making it a viable option for those seeking the best visual quality.