Dave The Diver

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers a remarkably consistent experience in Dave The Diver, one that is almost entirely unconstrained by resolution. The data shows the frame rate curve from 1080p to 4K is surprisingly flat, suggesting that neither component is being pushed to its limit in this title. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces 315 FPS, while dropping to 4K at the same settings only reduces that figure to 206 FPS. That represents a 34.6% decrease in performance when moving from 1080p to 4K, which is a relatively modest penalty for a 4x increase in pixel count. The story remains similar across other presets; at High settings, the transition from 1080p (284 FPS) to 4K (154 FPS) shows a 45.8% drop. This pattern indicates that Dave The Diver is not a heavily GPU-bound title at these resolutions, and the RTX 4080 has enough headroom to keep frame rates at playable levels even at 4K Ultra, where it still manages 136 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling behavior across the three tested resolutions reveals a system that is far from being bottlenecked by the graphics card. The most telling data point is the Low preset, where the frame rate only falls from 315 FPS at 1080p to 286 FPS at 1440p, and then to 206 FPS at 4K. This is a gradual decline, not the steep cliff typically seen when a GPU becomes the limiting factor. The gap between 1440p and 4K at Low settings is 28.0%, which is substantial but still leaves the system with over 200 FPS at the highest resolution. This suggests that the RTX 4080 is operating well within its capabilities, and the game’s engine is not demanding enough to saturate the GPU’s 16 GB of memory or its 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth.

At the Medium preset, the measured frame rates show a similar trend, with 295 FPS at 1080p, 257 FPS at 1440p, and 172 FPS at 4K. The 4K result includes a minimum frame rate of 146 FPS and a maximum of 198 FPS, showing that even the worst-case dips remain comfortably above the 144 Hz refresh rate that many high-end monitors target. The Ultra preset, which is the most demanding, still delivers 269 FPS at 1080p, 203 FPS at 1440p, and 136 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is 49.4%, which is the largest percentage decrease of any preset, but it still leaves a playable 136 FPS. The data indicates that the limiting factor in this game is not the GPU at these settings; rather, the CPU’s single-threaded performance, evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 868, likely becomes more relevant as frame rates climb to the 300 FPS range at lower resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is a high-end Ada Lovelace part with a boost clock of 2505 MHz and a base clock of 2205 MHz. It is built on a 5 nm process at TSMC and contains 45,900 million transistors. The GPU’s 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for a game like Dave The Diver. The data shows that even at 4K Ultra, the combo achieves 136 FPS, which is far above the 60 FPS threshold that would indicate GPU stress. The GPU’s percentile rating of 86 among all GPUs, combined with its average benchmark score of 54247, places it in the top tier of hardware, but this game does not appear to utilize that power fully.

The difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 4K is 70 FPS (206 FPS versus 136 FPS), which is a 34.0% performance swing. This shows that the GPU does respond to increased graphical load, but the absolute frame rates are so high that the card is never in danger of becoming a bottleneck. The RTX 4080’s nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, has a nearly identical average benchmark score (54209 versus 54247, a delta of 0.1%), which suggests that in this title, the standard 4080 performs on par with its successor. The GPU’s DirectX 12 benchmark score of 132 in Passmark is notably low, but this is a synthetic test and does not reflect the actual gaming performance seen in the measured FPS data. The 4080’s 9728 shading units and 76 RT cores are far more than this adventure title requires, making the card’s role more about maintaining high frame rates at any resolution rather than about struggling to keep up.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Rocket Lake generation, with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. It has a 12 MB shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel bus. In benchmark terms, the CPU scores 14340 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2024 in single-core, while its 3DMark 2-thread score is 1691. These figures place the CPU in the 71st percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17177. Its nearest rival, the AMD EPYC 7H12, has a score of 17120, a delta of 0.3%, showing the i5 is a solid mid-range performer.

In Dave The Diver, the CPU appears to be the more active component at lower resolutions. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system hits 315 FPS, but at 4K Low, it only drops to 206 FPS. This 34.6% decrease is less than the 49.4% decrease seen at Ultra, which indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is more likely to be the limiting factor. The single-threaded nature of the game is evident, as the CPU’s 3DMark single-thread score of 868 is modest compared to its multi-threaded score of 5652. The game’s engine appears to favor strong single-core performance, and while the i5-11400F’s 4.40 GHz boost clock helps, it still caps the frame rate at around 315 FPS. The 12 threads are more than adequate for this title, and the CPU’s 65W TDP suggests it is not thermally constrained, allowing it to maintain its boost clocks during extended sessions. The data implies that users with higher-refresh-rate monitors (240 Hz or above) might find the CPU to be the ceiling at 1080p, but for typical 144 Hz displays, the combo is well-balanced.

How This Combo Ranks

Among the 3710 tested combinations in this database, the Intel Core i5-11400F with the RTX 4080 ranks 378th. This places it in the top 10.2% of all tested combos, which is an impressive position given that the CPU is not a flagship part. The rank reflects the GPU’s high performance, as the RTX 4080 sits in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, while the CPU is only in the 71st percentile. This imbalance means the combo is likely held back by the CPU in some scenarios, but the measured FPS data shows that in Dave The Diver, the GPU’s power dominates the results.

The rank of 378 is primarily driven by the GPU’s ability to maintain high frame rates at 4K, where the CPU’s limitations are less exposed. The combo’s performance is consistent with what one would expect from pairing a high-end graphics card with a mid-range processor. The RTX 4080’s nearest rivals, such as the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB, have a higher average benchmark score (55698 versus 54247, a delta of -2.6%), but the measured FPS in this game shows the 4080 still delivers playable results. The combo’s rank of 378 out of 3710 is a strong showing, especially considering that many of the combos above it likely feature more expensive, higher-core-count CPUs. In this specific title, the rank suggests that the RTX 4080 is the primary driver of the experience, and the i5-11400F is sufficient to avoid major bottlenecks.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. The Low preset yields an average of 315 FPS, which is the highest measured FPS in the entire dataset. The Medium preset produces 295 FPS, with a minimum of 251 and a maximum of 340 FPS. The High preset drops to 284 FPS, and the Ultra preset is still very high at 269 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 46 FPS, or 14.6%, showing that the GPU can handle even the heaviest settings without a significant penalty.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain exceptionally high. The Low preset averages 286 FPS, the Medium preset 257 FPS (with a min of 219 and max of 296), the High preset 230 FPS, and the Ultra preset 203 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is most pronounced at the High preset, where the frame rate falls by 19.0% (from 284 to 230 FPS). This is a modest reduction, and all presets at 1440p remain above 200 FPS, making this resolution the sweet spot for high-refresh-rate gaming.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates are still impressive but show the expected decline. The Low preset averages 206 FPS, the Medium preset 172 FPS (with a min of 146 and max of 198), the High preset 154 FPS, and the Ultra preset 136 FPS. The difference between 1440p and 4K is significant, with the Ultra preset dropping by 33.0% (from 203 to 136 FPS). However, even the lowest measured result at 4K Ultra is 136 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS standard and suitable for most high-refresh-rate displays. The data shows that the RTX 4080 is powerful enough to run this game at maximum settings at 4K without compromising playability.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Ultra preset is the clear recommendation for this combo, as it provides the highest visual fidelity without sacrificing performance. At 1080p, Ultra yields 269 FPS, which is only 14.6% lower than Low. At 1440p, Ultra still delivers 203 FPS, and at 4K, it maintains 136 FPS. The game is not visually demanding enough to justify dropping to lower settings, as the frame rate penalty for Ultra is minimal. The data shows that even at 4K Ultra, the combo is not GPU-bound, as the 136 FPS result leaves headroom.

For users with a 144 Hz monitor, the Ultra preset at 1440p (203 FPS) or even 4K (136 FPS) is ideal. If a user has a 240 Hz monitor, the High preset at 1440p (230 FPS) or the Medium preset at 1080p (295 FPS) would be better choices to maximize frame rates. The Medium preset at 4K (172 FPS) is also a strong option, as it provides a 26.5% improvement over Ultra (136 FPS) with a minimum frame rate of 146 FPS. The data suggests that the combo has enough performance to run the game at its highest settings at any resolution, and the only reason to lower settings would be to chase extremely high refresh rates that exceed 200 FPS. For most users, the Ultra preset is the best experience, as it offers the highest visual quality with frame rates that are still far above what is necessary for smooth gameplay. The Low preset is unnecessary, as it only provides a marginal frame rate increase (at 1080p, from 269 to 315 FPS, a 17.1% gain) at the expense of visual detail.