Dave The Diver

Dave The Diver is a light adventure title, but the benchmark data for this AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 pairing shows it can still push a modern system. The measured results indicate that this combination is far more capable than the game's simple aesthetic suggests, delivering high frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings. The data shows a system that is clearly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while the powerful 12-core processor ensures the framerate never becomes a bottleneck at lower settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear picture of how this system handles Dave The Diver across its four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 117 FPS, which is already well above the threshold for smooth gameplay. However, stepping down to High yields 133 FPS, Medium jumps to 149 FPS, and Low reaches 178 FPS. While the low settings provide the highest headroom for competitive play or high-refresh-rate displays, the visual jump from Low to Ultra is substantial for a game with this art style.

For the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, the High preset is the recommended starting point. At 2560x1440, High delivers 100 FPS, which remains excellent for a 1440p display. The Ultra preset at this resolution drops to 88 FPS, which is still playable but begins to sacrifice some smoothness for marginal visual gains. The Medium preset, with its measured minimum of 95 FPS and maximum of 129 FPS, offers a more consistent experience if you are sensitive to frame time spikes.

The data suggests that the Ultra preset is only viable for those who prioritize image quality over all else. At 4K, Ultra drops to 59 FPS, which is the only sub-60 FPS result in the entire dataset. Given that High at 4K produces 67 FPS, it is the sensible ceiling for this combination at that resolution. The sweet spot for this system is High at 1440p, where the 100 FPS average provides a responsive feel without the need to compromise on the game's charming visual details.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is a critical factor in Dave The Diver, as the game's detailed 2D sprites and water effects still need to be stored and rendered from VRAM. The benchmark results show that the GPU is the primary scaling factor when moving between resolutions. The boost clock of 1680 MHz helps the card maintain solid performance, but the data indicates it is the limiting component in this pairing.

Looking at the GPU's synthetic benchmarks, the Passmark G3D score of 14111 places it in the 58th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 with a deltaPct of 0, the AMD Radeon 680M at 0.1, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM at 0.6. This positions the RTX 2060 as a competent mid-range card, but the results in Dave The Diver suggest it is working hard at 4K. The 6 GB VRAM capacity, while sufficient for this title, is a consideration for future games that may require more memory for higher-resolution textures.

The GPU's performance in the game scales predictably with settings. At 1920x1080, the difference between Low and Ultra is 61 FPS (178 vs 117), showing that the card has enough raw compute power to handle the game's effects at lower resolutions. However, at 3840x2160, the same settings comparison shows a drop of 31 FPS (90 vs 59). This indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth and processing power are being saturated as pixel count increases, making the RTX 2060 the clear bottleneck at 4K.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. This is a high-end desktop CPU that provides immense processing power, and its role in Dave The Diver is to ensure the game logic, AI, and physics simulations never stutter. The benchmark results show that the CPU is not a limiting factor at any resolution or settings preset tested.

The CPU's synthetic benchmarks confirm its strength. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 29300 and single-core score of 2016.5 place it in the 91st percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7313P with a deltaPct of 0.2 and the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 at -0.3. The Passmark multithread score of 51406 and single-thread score of 4238 further demonstrate its capability. In a game like Dave The Diver, which is not heavily threaded, the processor's strong single-core performance is what allows it to maintain high minimum frame rates.

The data shows that as the resolution increases and the GPU becomes more stressed, the CPU's workload remains relatively constant. The 7900X has more than enough headroom to feed the RTX 2060, even at 1080p Low where the GPU is producing 178 FPS. This suggests that if the GPU were upgraded, the CPU would not need to be replaced to see significant FPS gains in this title. The 64 MB of shared L3 cache also helps with game asset streaming, reducing any potential stutter from loading new areas.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 ranks 2922 out of 3710 tested combos in Dave The Diver. This places it in the lower-middle tier of all possible system configurations for this game. The ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU, as the RTX 2060 is an older, end-of-life product, while the CPU is a current-generation high-end part.

The rank indicates that while this system is perfectly playable, there are many other combinations that deliver higher average FPS. The data suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor in this pairing, as pairing the 7900X with a more powerful graphics card would significantly improve the system's ranking. The combo's position at 78.7% of the way down the list (2922/3710) shows that it is not a top-tier performer, but it is also not at the bottom, where older or lower-spec hardware would sit.

For a builder looking at this data, the takeaway is that this CPU is overkill for this GPU in this game. The 7900X's 91st percentile CPU score is wasted when paired with a GPU that only ranks in the 58th percentile. The system is well-balanced for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but it does not leverage the full potential of the processor. The rank reflects a system that is held back by its graphics card, and upgrading the GPU would be the most effective way to move up this list.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 133 at 1080p to 100 at 1440p, and then to 67 at 4K. This represents a 24.8% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a 33% drop from 1440p to 4K. This pattern is consistent with a system that is becoming more GPU-limited at higher resolutions.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more pronounced. The average FPS goes from 178 at 1080p to 134 at 1440p, and then to 90 at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is 24.7%, which is nearly identical to the High settings drop. However, the drop from 1440p to 4K is 32.8%, indicating that the GPU is hitting a harder wall at 4K when other settings are lowered. This suggests that at Low settings, the game is almost purely GPU-bound, and the 6 GB of VRAM may be a constraint at 4K.

The data reveals that the limiting component shifts as resolution changes. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 61 FPS, showing that the GPU has headroom to render more effects. At 4K, this difference shrinks to 31 FPS, meaning the GPU is struggling to fill all those pixels regardless of the settings. The CPU's role remains constant, as the 7900X can easily keep up with the game logic at any resolution, but the RTX 2060 simply does not have the bandwidth or compute power to maintain high framerates at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full dataset for this system in Dave The Diver is as follows:

At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset averages 59 FPS, High averages 67 FPS, Medium averages 75 FPS with a minimum of 64 and maximum of 86, and Low averages 90 FPS. The sub-60 FPS at Ultra confirms that 4K is only viable with settings lowered.

At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset averages 88 FPS, High averages 100 FPS, Medium averages 112 FPS with a minimum of 95 and maximum of 129, and Low averages 134 FPS. This resolution provides a good balance, with all presets remaining above 88 FPS.

At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset averages 117 FPS, High averages 133 FPS, Medium averages 149 FPS with a minimum of 127 and maximum of 171, and Low averages 178 FPS. The system excels at this resolution, providing high framerates even at the highest quality settings.

The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values, showing a 64-86 range at 4K, a 95-129 range at 1440p, and a 127-171 range at 1080p. This data suggests that the frame times are reasonably stable, with the minimum FPS staying within 11-16 FPS of the average across all resolutions. The lack of minimum and maximum data for the other presets means only the averages can be used for comparison, but the overall trend is clear: this system delivers a smooth experience up to 1440p, with 4K requiring a reduction in settings to maintain playable framerates.