Dave The Diver

# Dave The Diver with Intel Core i3-12100F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

The combination of Intel's quad-core i3-12100F and NVIDIA's RTX 3080 produces an interesting study in bottleneck dynamics within Dave The Diver. This pairing ranks 1030th out of 3710 tested combos, placing it in the upper third of all configurations, though the data reveals significant headroom in the CPU that the GPU alone cannot exploit at lower resolutions. The benchmark results show a system where the GPU scales impressively with resolution, but the CPU's 4-core, 8-thread design becomes a limiting factor at 1080p, creating a pattern worth examining closely for anyone considering this pairing.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression across resolutions tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lives in this combo. At 1080p High settings, the system delivers 228 FPS, but at 1440p High, it drops to 172 FPS, and at 4K High, it settles at 115 FPS. This represents a 24.6% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 33.1% drop from 1440p to 4K. The scaling pattern suggests the GPU is becoming more dominant as resolution increases, while the CPU's influence wanes.

Looking at Low settings, the pattern becomes even more pronounced. The 1080p Low result of 306 FPS drops to 230 FPS at 1440p, then to 154 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p reduction of 76 FPS is substantial, but the 1440p to 4K reduction of 76 FPS is identical, indicating a consistent GPU-bound scaling at lower quality presets. This consistency suggests that at Low settings, the RTX 3080 is the primary driver of performance, with the CPU contributing less to frame pacing.

At Medium settings, the measured rows include min and max FPS values, providing additional insight into frame consistency. At 1080p Medium, the average is 256 FPS with a range of 218 to 294 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 193 FPS with a range of 164 to 221 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 129 FPS with a range of 110 to 148 FPS. The min-to-max spread narrows as resolution increases, suggesting that the GPU's workload becomes more uniform at higher resolutions, reducing CPU-induced frame hitches.

The Ultra preset shows the steepest resolution penalty. At 1080p Ultra, the system achieves 202 FPS, but this falls to 152 FPS at 1440p (a 24.8% drop) and 102 FPS at 4K (a 32.9% drop from 1440p). These percentages closely mirror the High preset scaling, indicating that the resolution bottleneck is consistent regardless of quality level. The data implies that at 4K, the RTX 3080 is working near its limits for this title, while at 1080p, the i3-12100F's 4 physical cores may be preventing the GPU from reaching even higher frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of i3-12100F and RTX 3080 holds the 1030th position out of 3710 tested combos in Dave The Diver, placing it in the 72nd percentile of all configurations. This rank reflects a system that performs well above average but is not among the elite pairings for this game. The ranking suggests that while the RTX 3080 is a high-end GPU, the budget-oriented CPU holds the combo back from the top tiers.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks provide context for its overall capability. The i3-12100F scores 13494 on average, sitting nearly tied with the Intel Core 3 N355 (13492, 0% delta) and the Intel Core i5-9500 (13452, 0.3% delta). It edges out the Intel Core 7-1250U (13351, 1.1% delta) but trails the Intel Core 5 120UL (13594, -0.7% delta). These tight margins indicate that the i3-12100F performs at a level comparable to mid-range processors from both older and newer generations, though none of these rivals would be considered high-end desktop parts.

For the GPU, the RTX 3080's average benchmark score of 23172 places it near the NVIDIA P106-100 (23249, -0.3% delta) and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (23250, -0.3% delta), while slightly ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23273, -0.4% delta) and AMD Radeon R9 M290X (23276, -0.4% delta). These rivals are a mix of professional and mobile parts, suggesting that the RTX 3080's raw compute power is substantial, yet its ranking in this game's combo list indicates that CPU pairing matters significantly for achieving top-tier results.

The gap between the GPU's strong synthetic performance and the combo's mid-tier rank in Dave The Diver points to a CPU-limited scenario at lower resolutions. The data shows that this combo would likely rank higher if tested at 4K exclusively, where the GPU becomes the dominant factor in frame generation.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 brings substantial hardware to this pairing, with 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus delivering 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's memory clock runs at 1188 MHz with 19 Gbps effective speed, while the core operates at 1440 MHz base and 1710 MHz boost. These specifications translate into a pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s, with FP32 compute reaching 29.77 TFLOPS.

In Dave The Diver, the 10 GB VRAM capacity proves sufficient even at 4K Ultra, where the GPU still manages 102 FPS. The 4K High preset at 115 FPS and 4K Medium at 129 FPS demonstrate that memory bandwidth is not a limiting constraint in this title. The RTX 3080's 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores are present but appear unnecessary for this game's rendering demands, as the performance scaling follows a predictable resolution-based pattern rather than exhibiting any compute-related anomalies.

The GPU's percentile ranking at 68 versus all GPUs indicates it sits comfortably above the median, and its PassMark G3D score of 25086 reinforces its position as a high-performance part. However, the nearest rival comparisons show that in synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 3080 is closely matched by parts with vastly different architectures and market positions, including the P106-100 and Radeon R9 M290X. This suggests that raw benchmark scores may not fully capture the RTX 3080's real-world capabilities in modern titles like Dave The Diver.

The measured FPS data shows the GPU scaling well with resolution, with the 4K to 1080p ratio at High settings being roughly 1:2 (115 vs 228 FPS). This scaling factor aligns with the pixel count difference between 4K and 1080p, indicating that the GPU is the primary limiter at 4K while the CPU takes over at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the RTX 3080 paired with the i3-12100F produces frame rates that range from 202 FPS at Ultra to 306 FPS at Low. The Medium preset averages 256 FPS with a minimum of 218 FPS and maximum of 294 FPS, while High settings deliver 228 FPS. These numbers show that even at the most demanding quality preset, the system exceeds 200 FPS, making it well-suited for high-refresh-rate displays at this resolution.

At 1440p, the performance remains strong but begins to show the GPU's workload increasing. The Low preset achieves 230 FPS, Medium averages 193 FPS (min 164, max 221), High delivers 172 FPS, and Ultra drops to 152 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p results in approximately 25% lower frame rates across all presets, which is consistent with the GPU handling 78% more pixels.

At 4K, the frame rates become more moderate but remain playable. Low settings produce 154 FPS, Medium averages 129 FPS (min 110, max 148), High reaches 115 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 102 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is notably close to the 100 FPS threshold, which many users consider the minimum for smooth gameplay, and the 4K Medium range shows that frame pacing remains stable even when the GPU is under significant load.

The complete dataset reveals a consistent pattern: each quality preset at a given resolution maintains a roughly 20-30% performance gap from its neighboring preset. For example, at 4K, Low (154 FPS) to Medium (129 FPS) is a 16.2% drop, Medium to High (115 FPS) is a 10.9% drop, and High to Ultra (102 FPS) is an 11.3% drop. This suggests that the game's quality settings have diminishing returns at higher resolutions, where the GPU is already working at near capacity.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support for DDR4 and DDR5 provide adequate bandwidth for most gaming workloads, but the core count limits its ability to feed a high-end GPU at lower resolutions.

The CPU's synthetic benchmarks show strong single-thread performance relative to its multi-thread capabilities. The 3DMark single-thread score of 893 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1674 indicate solid per-core performance, while the multi-thread scores (3DMark max threads: 4023, Cinebench R23 multicore: 11860) reveal that scaling from 4 to 8 threads yields modest gains. The PassMark single-thread score of 3444 and multithread score of 14015 confirm this pattern, with the CPU achieving roughly 4x scaling from single to multi-threaded workloads.

In Dave The Diver, the CPU's 4 physical cores appear to be a limiting factor at 1080p, where frame rates exceed 200 FPS. At these high frame rates, the CPU must process draw calls and game logic at a pace that may exceed its capability, potentially capping performance below what the RTX 3080 could deliver. The relatively small FPS gap between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings (306 vs 230 FPS, a 24.8% drop) compared to the pixel count difference (a 78% increase) suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is preventing the GPU from reaching its full potential.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 68 against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13494, places it near the Intel Core i5-9500 (13452, 0.3% delta), a 6-core, 6-thread processor from an older generation. This comparison is telling: the i3-12100F matches a mid-range six-core CPU in synthetic tests, but in gaming scenarios where multi-threading is less critical, its 4 cores may not provide enough parallel processing headroom for GPU-bound frame rates above 250 FPS.

The 3DMark 16-thread score of 4051 and 4-thread score of 2859 indicate that the CPU's performance plateaus quickly beyond 4 threads, with the 8-thread score of 4026 barely exceeding the 16-thread result. This suggests that Dave The Diver, which likely relies on a limited number of threads, may not fully utilize the CPU's 8 threads, leaving performance dependent on single-core speed and cache efficiency.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance across all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the system delivers 256 FPS with a minimum of 218 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay even during intense scenes. At 1440p Medium, the 193 FPS average with a 164 FPS minimum provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold for most displays. Even at 4K Medium, the 129 FPS average with a 110 FPS minimum keeps the experience well above playable levels.

For users with 1080p displays, the Ultra preset at 202 FPS remains highly playable and offers the best visual fidelity without sacrificing performance. The High preset at 228 FPS provides a middle ground for those who prefer higher frame rates over maximum quality, though the difference between High and Ultra (26 FPS) is relatively small compared to the visual gains.

At 1440p, the High preset (172 FPS) is recommended for users with 144Hz displays, as it provides frame rates that fully utilize such monitors. The Ultra preset (152 FPS) also exceeds 144Hz, making it a viable option for those who prioritize image quality. For 60Hz displays, even the Ultra preset at 1440p offers nearly 2.5x the required frame rate, allowing for maximum settings without concern.

For 4K gaming, the Medium preset (129 FPS) is the clear recommendation, as it maintains an average above 120 FPS while the minimum of 110 FPS ensures consistent frame delivery. The High preset (115 FPS) is also acceptable for users with 120Hz displays, but the Ultra preset (102 FPS) pushes closer to the edge of what might be considered smooth, especially during rapid scene transitions. The Low preset at 4K (154 FPS) offers no visual benefit and is not recommended given the GPU's capability at Medium settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to use with this CPU-GPU combo?

A: The data shows that 1440p Medium provides an excellent balance with 193 FPS average and 164 FPS minimum, while 4K Medium at 129 FPS (min 110) is also highly playable. At 1080p, the CPU becomes a limiting factor, with Ultra settings achieving 202 FPS but potentially not utilizing the GPU fully.

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

A: At 4K, the system delivers 154 FPS on Low, 129 FPS on Medium (min 110, max 148), 115 FPS on High, and 102 FPS on Ultra. The GPU's 10 GB VRAM and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for all presets, with even Ultra maintaining an average above 100 FPS.

Q: Is the i3-12100F bottlenecking the RTX 3080 in this game?

A: The evidence suggests yes at 1080p, where frame rates exceed 200 FPS. The 1080p to 1440p scaling at Low settings (306 to 230 FPS, a 24.8% drop) is smaller than the 78% pixel increase, indicating CPU limitation. At 4K, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck.

Q: What is the frame consistency like at Medium settings?

A: Medium settings show a min-max range of 218-294 FPS at 1080p, 164-221 FPS at 1440p, and 110-148 FPS at 4K. The variance is relatively consistent across resolutions, with the minimum staying above 110 FPS even at 4K.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested configurations?

A: This pairing ranks 1030th out of 3710 combos, placing it in the 72nd percentile. The CPU's average benchmark score of 13494 is nearly tied with the Core i5-9500 (13452, 0.3% delta), while the GPU's 23172 average score is closely matched by the P106-100 (23249, -0.3% delta).

Q: Does the RTX 3080's VRAM capacity matter for this game?

A: With 10 GB of GDDR6X memory, the GPU handles all presets at 4K without issue, as evidenced by the 102 FPS Ultra result. The 760.3 GB/s bandwidth and 320-bit bus provide ample memory throughput for Dave The Diver's requirements.