Dave The Diver

# Dave The Diver with AMD Ryzen 7 9700X + Intel Arc B570

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a surprisingly robust experience in Dave The Diver, a game that blends resource management with 2D side-scrolling exploration. The measured data reveals a combo that performs well across all tested resolutions, with the 1080p results showing exceptional headroom. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS data, ranking context, and the individual roles of the CPU and GPU in shaping the final performance picture.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the Medium preset appears to offer the most balanced experience across all three resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers an average of 139 FPS with a minimum of 118 FPS and maximum of 160 FPS. This represents a significant jump from High's 124 FPS average, while only dropping 28 FPS from Low's 167 FPS average. The Medium preset seems to hit a sweet spot where visual quality remains respectable while keeping frame rates well above the 60 FPS threshold.

Moving to 1440p, the Medium preset continues to impress with an average of 105 FPS, minimum of 89 FPS, and maximum of 121 FPS. This is particularly notable because it maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS even in the minimum frame time, which is often where stutter and hitching become visible. The drop from Low's 125 FPS to Medium's 105 FPS is a 16% reduction, but the visual improvement from Low to Medium is typically substantial in this genre.

At 4K, the Medium preset shows an average of 70 FPS with a minimum of 60 FPS and maximum of 81 FPS. The 60 FPS minimum is exactly at the standard target for smooth gameplay, making Medium the only preset at 4K that guarantees a playable experience without drops below the threshold. High at 4K averages 63 FPS but lacks the minimum frame data, making it riskier for users with 60Hz displays. Ultra at 4K drops to 55 FPS average, which is below the 60 FPS target and not recommended for smooth play.

The data suggests that Medium is the optimal preset for this combination, as it provides the most consistent frame times across resolutions. The 1440p Medium results are particularly compelling, offering 105 FPS average with a 89 FPS minimum, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate displays in the 100-144Hz range. Users with 4K displays should also consider Medium, as it is the only preset that maintains a 60 FPS minimum frame rate.

How This Combo Ranks

The Ryzen 7 9700X + Arc B570 combination ranks 2282 out of 2867 tested combos in Dave The Diver, placing it in the 20.4th percentile of all combinations tested. This ranking might seem low at first glance, but considering the game's relatively light performance demands and the large number of high-end combos tested, this position is not surprising. The combo's performance is clearly sufficient for excellent gameplay, as evidenced by the 4K Medium results maintaining 60 FPS minimum.

The CPU alone sits in the 86th percentile among all tested CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37943. This places it well above the majority of processors in the database. The GPU, however, sits in the 65th percentile among all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 20556. The combination of a high-percentile CPU with a mid-range GPU creates a system where the GPU is more likely to be the limiting factor, especially at higher resolutions.

The combo's rank of 2282 out of 2867 suggests that many other tested configurations deliver higher frame rates in this game. However, the actual measured FPS data shows this combo is far from inadequate. The 1080p High average of 124 FPS and 1440p High average of 94 FPS demonstrate that this combination handles the game with ease. The ranking likely reflects the presence of many combos with higher-end GPUs that push frame rates even higher, particularly at 1080p where CPU-bound scenarios can favor more powerful processors.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 brings 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, delivering 380.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth. This memory configuration proves sufficient for Dave The Diver across all tested resolutions, with the 4K Ultra preset being the only setting that pushes the GPU hard enough to drop below 60 FPS average. The GPU's 2500 MHz base and boost clock, combined with 2304 shading units, provides a solid foundation for this game's 2D graphics workload.

The GPU's 11.52 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 200.0 GPixel/s pixel rate are more than adequate for a game that primarily renders 2D sprites and environments. The 360.0 GTexel/s texture rate ensures that the game's detailed textures can be sampled efficiently, which is likely why the difference between Low and Ultra settings is relatively modest in terms of FPS impact. The 18 ray tracing cores are present but not particularly relevant for this game, as Dave The Diver does not appear to use ray-traced effects in its rendering pipeline.

The GPU's 65th percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 20556 place it in a competitive position against the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile and Intel Arc A750. The measured FPS data suggests that the Arc B570's performance in Dave The Diver is well within its expected capabilities, with the 4K Medium preset showing 70 FPS average and the 1080p Ultra showing 110 FPS average. The GPU's 10 GB VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor here, as even 4K Ultra settings do not appear to exceed this memory allocation based on the performance data.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured FPS data shows a clear progression across settings. Low delivers 167 FPS average, Medium delivers 139 FPS average, High delivers 124 FPS average, and Ultra delivers 110 FPS average. The Medium preset's minimum of 118 FPS and maximum of 160 FPS provide the most complete picture of performance consistency at this resolution. The gap between Low and Ultra is 57 FPS, representing a 34% performance reduction when moving from the lowest to highest quality settings.

At 2560x1440, the data shows similar scaling patterns with slightly lower absolute numbers. Low delivers 125 FPS average, Medium delivers 105 FPS average, High delivers 94 FPS average, and Ultra delivers 83 FPS average. The Medium preset's minimum of 89 FPS and maximum of 121 FPS maintain a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 42 FPS, indicating a 34% reduction, which mirrors the 1080p scaling pattern.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops become more pronounced. Low delivers 84 FPS average, Medium delivers 70 FPS average with a 60 FPS minimum and 81 FPS maximum, High delivers 63 FPS average, and Ultra delivers 55 FPS average. The Medium preset is the only one that maintains a minimum above 60 FPS at this resolution. The jump from Low to Ultra at 4K represents a 29 FPS reduction, or 35% performance loss, which is consistent with the other resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals important information about the system's bottleneck characteristics. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 167 at 1080p to 84 at 4K, representing a 50% reduction. At Medium, the drop is from 139 to 70, also a 50% reduction. High settings drop from 124 to 63, a 49% reduction, and Ultra drops from 110 to 55, exactly 50% reduction.

This consistent 50% reduction across all settings suggests that the GPU is the primary limiting factor when moving to higher resolutions. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see a smaller percentage drop at higher resolutions because the CPU workload would remain relatively constant while the GPU workload increases. The data shows a nearly perfect halving of frame rates when moving from 1080p to 4K, which indicates that the GPU's rendering throughput is scaling directly with pixel count.

The 1440p results provide further evidence of this pattern. At Medium settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 139 to 105 FPS, a 24% reduction. From 1440p to 4K, the drop is 105 to 70 FPS, a 33% reduction. This non-linear scaling suggests that the GPU is becoming progressively more stressed as resolution increases, with the 4K workload being particularly demanding. The data points to the Arc B570 as the limiting component in this system for Dave The Diver, with the CPU having ample headroom to support higher frame rates if the GPU could deliver them.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset to use with this combo at 1440p?

A: The Medium preset at 1440p delivers 105 FPS average with a minimum of 89 FPS and maximum of 121 FPS, making it the best choice for maintaining smooth gameplay on high-refresh-rate displays.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Dave The Diver?

A: Yes, but only with the Medium preset, which achieves 70 FPS average with a 60 FPS minimum. High settings average 63 FPS, while Ultra drops to 55 FPS average, both below the 60 FPS threshold for consistent smoothness.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700X has an average benchmark score of 37943, which is 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i9-14901E and AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, 0.3% ahead of the Intel Core 5 211E, and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Ryzen AI Embedded P132.

Q: What is the GPU's performance relative to its closest competitors?

A: The Intel Arc B570's average benchmark score of 20556 places it 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, 0.1% behind the Intel Arc A750, 0.4% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M, and 0.5% behind the AMD Radeon R9 M390X.

Q: Is the 10 GB VRAM sufficient for this game at 4K?

A: Based on the measured data, yes. The 4K Medium preset maintains a 60 FPS minimum, and even Ultra averages 55 FPS, indicating that VRAM capacity is not causing significant performance degradation at any tested setting.

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

A: This combo ranks 2282 out of 2867 tested combos in Dave The Diver, placing it in the lower 80% of all tested configurations, though the actual measured FPS shows it handles the game well across all resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X provides 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. This processing power is more than sufficient for Dave The Diver, as evidenced by the game's performance at 1080p where the GPU is likely the limiting factor. The CPU's 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample fast storage for game data, while the 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth through DDR5 support ensures data flows efficiently to the GPU.

The CPU's benchmark scores paint a picture of a highly capable processor. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 20485 and single-core score of 2211 demonstrate strong multi-threaded and single-threaded performance. The 3DMark scores show scaling from 2525 at 2 threads to 9771 at max threads, indicating effective utilization of additional cores. The Geekbench multicore score of 17906 and single-core score of 3023 further confirm the CPU's strength in both lightly-threaded and heavily-threaded workloads.

The 9700X's 86th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37943, places it in the upper tier of processors. Its nearest rivals are all within 0.4% of its average score, showing that it competes directly with the Intel Core i9-14901E, AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, Intel Core 5 211E, and AMD Ryzen AI Embedded P132. For Dave The Diver specifically, the CPU's single-thread performance is crucial since the game likely relies on a primary game logic thread, and the 9700X's 3DMark single-thread score of 1280 and Passmark single-thread score of 4654 indicate strong performance in this area.

The data suggests that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this system for Dave The Diver. The consistent 50% FPS reduction from 1080p to 4K across all settings points to GPU-bound performance, with the CPU having sufficient headroom to feed the Arc B570 at all tested resolutions. The 16 threads provide comfortable multitasking capability, allowing background applications to run without impacting game performance, and the 65W TDP ensures the CPU can maintain its boost clocks without thermal throttling in most system configurations.