Dave The Diver

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 296th out of 3,710 tested combinations in Dave The Diver, placing it in the top 8% of all configs. This is a strong result for a CPU that sits at the 68th percentile overall, paired with a GPU at the 86th percentile; the data shows the combination lands far higher than either component’s individual percentile might suggest, indicating the game’s modest thread demands allow the 4-core processor to keep pace with the flagship graphics card. The ranking reflects a system that delivers elite frame rates across every resolution tested, though the gap between the CPU’s mid-pack standing and the GPU’s near-top-tier position hints at where the bottleneck will emerge under specific settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s 296th place out of 3,710 configurations puts it in the 92nd percentile of tested pairings. That is a remarkable position given the CPU’s 68th percentile rank—the i3-12100F outperforms its raw standing because Dave The Diver does not heavily tax multi-threaded workloads. The RTX 4080’s 86th percentile rank is closer to the combo’s final placement, suggesting the GPU carries most of the performance weight, but the CPU does not drag it down as much as one might expect from a 4-core part. Benchmark results indicate the pairing is well-balanced for this title specifically, even though the CPU’s nearest rivals—like the Intel Core 3 N355 (0% delta) and the Intel Core i5-9500 (0.3% faster)—are all similarly positioned, meaning the i3-12100F is not an outlier in its class.

When compared to the GPU’s nearest rivals, the RTX 4080 sits nearly tied with the RTX 4080 SUPER (0.1% delta), demonstrating that the base 4080 is already at the edge of its performance tier. The combo rank benefits from this GPU strength, but the CPU’s 4 cores and 8 threads still matter: in synthetic tests, the i3-12100F scores 11,860 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, a figure that would be a liability in CPU-bound titles, yet Dave The Diver’s frame rates stay high. The data shows the ranking is reproducible—every resolution and setting combination produces playable or better FPS, with no configuration dropping below 136 FPS average. That consistency is what pushes the combo to the top decile, even if the CPU’s individual benchmarks would not predict it.

GPU Role

The RTX 4080 is the dominant component here, and its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth—ample headroom for Dave The Diver’s textures and effects. The GPU’s base clock of 2205 MHz and boost clock of 2505 MHz are high, but the memory clock of 1400 MHz (22.4 Gbps effective) is the more critical factor for this game, which appears to scale with memory throughput given the large frame rate jumps between settings. With 9,728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs, the 4080 is built for brute-force rasterization, and that shows in the passmark G3D score of 34,457, which places it at the 86th percentile of all GPUs. The GPU’s 48.74 TFLOPS FP32 compute also provides headroom that the game does not fully exploit, as evidenced by the fact that even at 4K Ultra, the average FPS of 136 is far from the hardware’s theoretical limit.

The RTX 4080’s nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, scores nearly identically (54,209 vs 54,247 average benchmark score, a 0.1% delta), so the GPU is not leaving performance on the table. In Dave The Diver, the GPU’s role is to push frame rates into triple digits at all resolutions, and the data confirms it does so: at 1080p Low, the average FPS hits 363, while at 4K Ultra, it still manages 136. This suggests the GPU is not the limiting factor at lower resolutions—the CPU starts to cap performance there—but at 4K, the 4080’s raw throughput becomes the primary driver. The 16 GB VRAM is never a constraint in this game, as even the most demanding 4K Ultra preset does not cause a frame rate collapse, and the GPU’s 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores are largely idle in this adventure title, which relies on traditional rendering.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep but not linear, revealing a shift in the limiting component. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 305 at 1080p to 230 at 1440p (a 24.6% drop), then to 154 at 4K (a 33% drop from 1440p). This pattern indicates the CPU begins to bottleneck at 1080p, where the 4-core i3-12100F cannot feed the GPU fast enough—the difference between 1080p and 1440p High is only 75 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K is 76 FPS, nearly identical, suggesting the GPU is taking over as the bottleneck at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the scaling is similar: 363 FPS at 1080p drops to 307 at 1440p (15.4% drop) and then to 206 at 4K (32.9% drop), with the 1080p-to-1440p gap being smaller, again pointing to CPU limits at lower pixel counts.

The Medium settings show a slightly different curve, with 341 FPS at 1080p, 257 at 1440p, and 172 at 4K—the percentage drops are 24.6% and 33.1%, respectively, matching the High preset’s behavior. The Ultra preset, which is the most demanding, shows the smallest absolute drop from 1080p to 1440p (269 to 203, a 24.5% drop) but the largest from 1440p to 4K (203 to 136, a 33% drop), reinforcing that the GPU becomes the sole bottleneck at 4K. The data indicates that at 1080p, the CPU’s 4.30 GHz boost clock is insufficient to fully utilize the RTX 4080, but at 4K, the GPU’s 716.8 GB/s bandwidth and 48.74 TFLOPS compute are the deciding factors. This is a classic high-end GPU with a mid-range CPU pairing: the resolution scaling shows the CPU holds back performance at 1080p by roughly 15-20%, but the gap narrows as resolution increases.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates, with Low settings averaging 363 FPS, Medium at 341 FPS (minimum 290, maximum 392), High at 305 FPS, and Ultra at 269 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 94 FPS, or 25.9% of the Low figure, indicating that graphical settings have a measurable but not overwhelming impact at this resolution. The CPU’s limitation is evident in the Medium preset’s minimum FPS of 290—a 15% drop from the average—which suggests occasional thread saturation on the 4-core part, though the minimum remains far above any playability threshold. At 1080p, the RTX 4080 is effectively underutilized, as even Ultra settings produce an average that exceeds most 240 Hz monitors’ refresh rates.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high: Low averages 307 FPS, Medium 257 FPS (minimum 219, maximum 296), High 230 FPS, and Ultra 203 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings, averaging around 25%, which aligns with the pixel count increase of 77%—the less-than-proportional drop confirms that the GPU has enough headroom to absorb the extra pixels. The Medium preset’s minimum of 219 FPS at this resolution is notably higher than the 1080p minimum of 290, which is counterintuitive but suggests that at 1440p, the GPU is doing more work and the CPU has slightly less idle time, smoothing out frame pacing. At 4K (3840x2160), the performance is still excellent: Low averages 206 FPS, Medium 172 FPS (minimum 146, maximum 198), High 154 FPS, and Ultra 136 FPS. The 4K Ultra figure of 136 FPS is the lowest average in the entire dataset, but it remains above 120 FPS, making it ideal for high-refresh 4K displays. The Medium preset at 4K shows a minimum of 146 FPS, a narrow 15% variance from the average, indicating stable performance even under load.

FAQ

Q: Is the Intel Core i3-12100F a bottleneck for the RTX 4080 in Dave The Diver?

A: Yes, but only at 1080p. The data shows that from 1080p to 1440p, frame rates drop by roughly 25%, but from 1440p to 4K, they drop by another 33%. At 1080p Low, the average FPS of 363 is likely CPU-limited, as the 4-core processor cannot push higher, but at 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, with Low settings still achieving 206 FPS.

Q: What is the best settings preset for this combo at 4K?

A: Ultra is the best choice for visual quality, as it averages 136 FPS, which is above 120 Hz. However, if you prioritize consistency, Medium offers 172 FPS average with a minimum of 146 FPS, providing a 26 FPS higher minimum and a 36 FPS higher average, making it the smoothest option for competitive play.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080 scores 54,247 on average in benchmark tests, placing it at the 86th percentile. Its nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, scores 54,209—a 0.1% delta—meaning the two are effectively identical in raw performance. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X is 1.1% slower, while the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB is 2.6% slower.

Q: Does the CPU’s 4-core design hurt multi-threaded performance in this game?

A: Not significantly. The i3-12100F scores 4,051 in 3DMark 16-thread tests and 11,860 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, which is modest, but Dave The Diver does not appear to scale with thread count beyond 8. The combo still ranks in the top 8% of all tested configurations, indicating the game is more GPU-dependent.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, Low averages 307 FPS while Ultra averages 203 FPS, a difference of 104 FPS or 33.9%. This is a larger relative gap than at 1080p (where the difference is 94 FPS or 25.9%), showing that the GPU’s workload increases more at higher resolutions when settings are maxed out.

Q: Is 16 GB of VRAM necessary for this game?

A: The data does not indicate VRAM limitations, as the RTX 4080’s 16 GB of GDDR6X is never a bottleneck. Even at 4K Ultra, the average FPS of 136 suggests the GPU’s memory bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s is sufficient, and there is no evidence that lower VRAM would change the results.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F provides 4 cores and 8 threads, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, running on Intel’s Alder Lake architecture at a 10 nm process node. Its 12 MB of shared L3 cache is modest by modern standards, but the benchmark results show it handles Dave The Diver’s single-threaded workloads effectively: the CPU scores 1,674 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 893 in 3DMark single-thread, placing it above many older 6-core parts. The CPU’s 68th percentile ranking among all processors is respectable, but its nearest rivals—the Intel Core 3 N355 (0% delta), Intel Core i5-9500 (0.3% faster), and Intel Core 5 120UL (0.7% slower)—are all similarly performing, meaning the i3-12100F is not an outlier in its tier.

In Dave The Diver, the CPU’s role is to maintain frame pacing at high FPS, and the data shows it does so admirably, though not flawlessly. The Medium preset’s minimum FPS values (290 at 1080p, 219 at 1440p, 146 at 4K) are consistently 15% below the averages, indicating occasional thread saturation on the 4-core part. However, these minimums are still far above playable thresholds, so the CPU never causes a stutter that would be noticeable in normal gameplay. The CPU’s 3DMark 4-thread score of 2,859 and 8-thread score of 4,026 suggest that the game utilizes up to 8 threads well, but the flat scaling from 8 to max threads (4,023) confirms that additional cores beyond 8 would not help. The passmark single-thread score of 3,444 is the key metric here—Dave The Diver appears to be single-thread dominant, and the i3-12100F’s strong single-core performance (1,674 in Cinebench R23) is what allows it to keep pace with the RTX 4080. The CPU’s 58 W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 compatibility make it a low-power choice, but the data shows it is not a performance liability in this specific game, as the combo rank of 296 out of 3,710 proves.