Dave The Diver

# How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D achieves a combo rank of 75 out of 2,867 tested combinations in Dave The Diver. This places the pairing in the top 2.6% of all tested combos, a strong showing for a game that is not typically considered a demanding title. The ranking reflects the substantial contribution of the RTX 5090 D, which sits at the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, while the i3-12100F holds a more modest 68th percentile among CPUs. This disparity suggests the GPU is doing the heavy lifting in determining the combo's overall standing.

Benchmark results indicate that the combo's ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU's capability to push extremely high frame rates even at 4K resolution. With an average of 186 FPS at 4K High settings, the system is far beyond the threshold needed for smooth gameplay, which bolsters its position relative to combos featuring weaker graphics cards. However, the CPU's lower percentile means that in CPU-bound scenarios, particularly at lower resolutions, the combo may not scale as efficiently as pairs with more powerful processors.

# GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain why the combo ranks so highly. The GPU features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is far more than Dave The Diver requires, but it ensures that memory capacity and bandwidth never become limiting factors at any resolution or settings preset. The 32 GB capacity provides headroom for future titles or heavy multitasking, though the game itself likely uses only a fraction of it.

The RTX 5090 D's clock speeds are equally impressive: a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz. These clocks, combined with 21,760 shading units and 176 ROPs, enable raw pixel throughput of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s. For a 2D-centric adventure game like Dave The Diver, these figures translate into frame rates that far exceed display refresh rates. The GPU's FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS indicates that even if the game were to leverage compute-heavy effects, the graphics card would handle them without breaking a sweat.

The RTX 5090 D's benchmark scores corroborate its performance tier. It achieves a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14,326, a Geekbench OpenCL score of 310,674, and a Vulkan score of 376,915. Its Passmark G3D score of 44,065 places it well above the average, and its GPU compute score of 28,396 shows strong general-purpose performance. These numbers align with the measured FPS in Dave The Diver, where the GPU consistently delivers 164 FPS or higher across all tested settings at 4K resolution.

# Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how the combo scales across resolutions, and the pattern indicates a system that is primarily GPU-bound at higher resolutions but begins to show CPU limitations at 1080p. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 164; dropping to 1440p Ultra yields 245 FPS (a 49% increase), and 1080p Ultra reaches 314 FPS (a 91% increase over 4K). This scaling is not linear, and the diminishing returns at 1080p suggest that the CPU is beginning to constrain performance.

Looking at High settings, the scaling from 4K to 1440p is significant: 186 FPS to 277 FPS, a 49% improvement. However, moving from 1440p to 1080p only increases the frame rate from 277 to 328 FPS, a gain of just 18%. This smaller jump indicates that at 1440p High, the system is already approaching a CPU-imposed ceiling. The i3-12100F, with its 4 cores and 8 threads, can only push so many frames per second regardless of how powerful the GPU is.

The Medium preset shows a similar trend. At 4K, the average is 208 FPS with a minimum of 177 FPS and maximum of 239 FPS. At 1440p, the average rises to 310 FPS, but at 1080p it only reaches 341 FPS. The gap between 1440p and 1080p narrows further, confirming that the CPU becomes the limiting component as resolution drops. The Low preset exhibits the same behavior: 248 FPS at 4K, 330 FPS at 1440p, and 363 FPS at 1080p. The 1080p Low result is the highest frame rate recorded for this combo, suggesting that even with the GPU running at minimal load, the CPU cannot push the frame rate beyond roughly 363 FPS in this game.

# FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Dave The Diver with this combo?

A: The data shows that 1440p offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. At High settings, the combo achieves 277 FPS at 1440p, which is 49% higher than 4K's 186 FPS, while still maintaining a substantial visual upgrade over 1080p.

Q: Does the i3-12100F bottleneck the RTX 5090 D in this game?

A: At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor since frame rates scale nearly linearly with resolution changes. However, at 1080p, the frame rate increase from 1440p is only 18% (277 to 328 FPS on High), indicating that the CPU's 4-core/8-thread configuration begins to limit performance below 1440p.

Q: How much VRAM does Dave The Diver use with the RTX 5090 D?

A: The FACT PACK does not include VRAM usage data for this game. However, the GPU's 32 GB GDDR7 memory with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth is far beyond what a game of this genre would require, so VRAM capacity is not a concern.

Q: Is the RTX 5090 D overkill for Dave The Diver?

A: The measured FPS suggests yes; even at 4K Ultra, the combo delivers 164 FPS. This is far above the 60 FPS target most games aim for. The GPU's 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs makes it one of the most powerful cards available, while Dave The Diver is a relatively light title.

Q: What is the frame time consistency like at 4K Medium?

A: At 4K Medium, the combo records an average of 208 FPS with a minimum of 177 FPS and maximum of 239 FPS. The spread between min and max is 62 FPS, indicating some frame time variance, but the minimum is still high enough for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does this combo compare to the RTX 5090 D's nearest rivals in terms of GPU score?

A: The RTX 5090 D's average benchmark score is 77,712. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT, scores 76,904 (1.1% lower), while the RX 6850M XT scores 78,940 (1.6% higher). The NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB scores 79,396 (2.1% higher) and the 16 GB version scores 79,605 (2.4% higher).

# Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data offers clear guidance for settings optimization. At 4K, the Ultra preset delivers 164 FPS, which is already excellent for most displays. However, dropping to High increases the average to 186 FPS, a 13% improvement with presumably minimal visual difference in a game like Dave The Diver. The Medium preset at 4K provides 208 FPS, and Low reaches 248 FPS. Given that even the highest quality setting exceeds 144 Hz at 4K, players with 4K displays should default to Ultra unless they have a very high refresh rate monitor.

At 1440p, all settings produce frame rates above 245 FPS. The Ultra preset yields 245 FPS, High reaches 277 FPS, Medium hits 310 FPS, and Low tops out at 330 FPS. For 1440p displays with 240 Hz refresh rates, High or Medium settings would be appropriate to maximize frame rates while maintaining visual fidelity. The Ultra preset still provides 245 FPS, which is sufficient for most 1440p high-refresh monitors.

At 1080p, the combo achieves 314 FPS on Ultra, 328 FPS on High, 341 FPS on Medium, and 363 FPS on Low. The differences between settings are relatively small, suggesting that players with 1080p displays should use Ultra or High settings to get the best image quality without sacrificing meaningful performance. The 49 FPS gap between Ultra and Low at 1080p is the smallest across all resolutions, reinforcing that the CPU is the limiting factor here.

For the best overall experience, the data suggests using High settings at any resolution. High provides a substantial improvement over Medium in visual quality while staying within 11% of Medium's frame rate at 4K (186 vs 208 FPS) and within 4% at 1080p (328 vs 341 FPS). This preset balances quality and performance across all tested resolutions.

# CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor from the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. It features 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core. This is a modest CPU by modern standards, and its 68th percentile ranking among all CPUs reflects its mid-range positioning. In Dave The Diver, this CPU becomes a bottleneck at lower resolutions, as evidenced by the frame rate scaling patterns.

The CPU's benchmark scores provide context for its performance. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 11,860 and single-core score is 1,674. The Geekbench multicore score is 7,252 and single-core is 1,932. Passmark multithread score is 14,015, and single-thread is 3,444. The 3DMark scores show 4,051 for 16 threads, 2,859 for 4 threads, and 893 for single-thread. These numbers indicate that the CPU's single-threaded performance is adequate but not outstanding, and its multi-threaded performance is limited by the 4-core configuration.

In Dave The Diver, the CPU's role is most apparent at 1080p. The frame rate difference between 1440p High (277 FPS) and 1080p High (328 FPS) is only 18%, which is far less than the 49% difference between 4K High (186 FPS) and 1440p High (277 FPS). This suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is approaching its maximum frame rate output for this game. The i3-12100F's nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score include the Intel Core 3 N355 (13,492, 0% difference) and the Intel Core i5-9500 (13,452, 0.3% higher), indicating that this CPU sits in a well-populated performance tier.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. The Low preset averages 363 FPS, Medium averages 341 FPS with a minimum of 290 and maximum of 392, High averages 328 FPS, and Ultra averages 314 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 49 FPS, which is the smallest across all resolutions, confirming that the CPU is the limiting factor at this resolution. The Medium preset's minimum of 290 FPS shows that even in the most demanding scenes, the frame rate remains exceptionally high.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates increase noticeably over 1080p due to reduced CPU load relative to the GPU's headroom. Low averages 330 FPS, Medium averages 310 FPS with a minimum of 264 and maximum of 357, High averages 277 FPS, and Ultra averages 245 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 85 FPS, showing that the GPU has more influence at this resolution. The Medium minimum of 264 FPS is still well above any display refresh rate.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the primary driver of performance. Low averages 248 FPS, Medium averages 208 FPS with a minimum of 177 and maximum of 239, High averages 186 FPS, and Ultra averages 164 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 84 FPS, similar to 1440p, but the absolute values are lower, reflecting the increased GPU workload at 4K. Even at the most demanding settings, the 4K Ultra average of 164 FPS exceeds the refresh rate of most 4K displays.