Dave The Diver

Dave The Diver is a 2D adventure title that places surprisingly heavy demands on the GPU when pushed to higher resolutions, and the Intel Core i5-12400 + Intel Arc B390 combination reveals a system that is strictly bound by its graphics solution. The measured data shows a clear pattern: the CPU has ample headroom, while the integrated Arc B390 struggles to maintain playable frame rates at 4K, making this a pairing best suited for 1080p or modest 1440p gaming.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, confirming that the Intel Arc B390 is the limiting component in this system. At High settings, average FPS falls from 81 at 1920x1080 to 61 at 2560x1440, a 25% reduction, and then plummets to 41 at 3840x2160, representing a 49% loss from the 1080p baseline. This scaling is characteristic of a GPU that is running out of pixel throughput, not a CPU bottleneck.

The Low settings preset tells the same story with even more clarity. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 108 FPS, which drops to 82 at 1440p and 55 at 4K. The 4K figure is just barely above half of the 1080p result, indicating that the Arc B390’s render output units and shading units are saturated at higher resolutions. The gap between 1440p and 4K is particularly telling: a 27 FPS loss at Low settings, versus a 21 FPS loss at High settings, suggesting that the GPU’s fixed-function hardware, not memory bandwidth, is the primary constraint.

Medium settings show the same downward trajectory: 91 FPS at 1080p, 68 at 1440p, and 46 at 4K. The minimum FPS data available for Medium settings reinforces the trend — at 4K, the minimum dips to 39 FPS, which is below the 40 FPS threshold many players consider the floor for acceptable action gameplay. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 58 FPS, and at 1080p Medium it is 77 FPS, showing that the frame pacing degrades proportionally with resolution.

Ultra settings are the most demanding, and the results are predictable: 72 FPS at 1080p, 54 at 1440p, and 36 at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is the only measured configuration that falls below 40 FPS on average, and it represents a 50% drop from the 1080p Ultra score. This scaling pattern is a textbook example of GPU-limited performance — the Intel Core i5-12400, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, is more than capable of feeding frames at these rates, but the Arc B390 cannot keep up as pixel count rises.

The data indicates that resolution scaling is nearly linear with pixel count, which is a hallmark of a GPU that is compute-bound rather than bandwidth-bound. The Arc B390’s memory is listed as "System Shared" with "System Dependent" bandwidth, meaning the 4K results are achieved without dedicated VRAM advantages, yet the performance degradation matches what one would expect from a discrete GPU with modest specs. For practical use, this combo is viable at 1080p across all settings, borderline at 1440p for High and Medium, and not recommended at 4K except for Low settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide clear guidance on which preset delivers the best experience for this hardware combination. At 1920x1080, the jump from Low to Medium costs 17 FPS (108 to 91), but the visual improvement in a detail-rich game like Dave The Diver is substantial, making Medium the sweet spot. The Medium preset also reports a minimum FPS of 77, which ensures smooth gameplay even during busy scenes with multiple on-screen elements.

High settings at 1080p reduce the average to 81 FPS, a further 10 FPS loss from Medium, but the minimum FPS is not reported, leaving some uncertainty about frame consistency. Ultra at 1080p brings the average down to 72 FPS, which is still playable but begins to approach the threshold where input latency becomes noticeable in a game that requires precise timing for harpooning and dodging. For the best balance of visual fidelity and performance at 1080p, Medium is the recommended preset, with High as a viable alternative for players who prioritize image quality over a larger FPS buffer.

At 2560x1440, the situation changes. Low settings deliver 82 FPS, which is excellent for a 1440p experience, but Medium drops to 68 FPS and High to 61 FPS. The 1440p Medium result includes a minimum FPS of 58, which is acceptable for most players, but the 61 FPS High average suggests that demanding scenes could dip below 60 FPS, causing noticeable stutter. For 1440p, Low or Medium are the sensible choices; High is only recommended if the player accepts occasional frame drops, and Ultra at 54 FPS is likely too inconsistent for comfortable play.

At 3840x2160, the options are limited. Low settings produce 55 FPS, which is marginally playable, but Medium drops to 46 FPS and High to 41 FPS, both of which risk feeling sluggish. Ultra at 36 FPS is effectively unplayable for a game that benefits from responsive controls. Given the data, the recommended settings are Medium at 1080p, Low or Medium at 1440p, and Low at 4K — with the caveat that 4K players should expect to make significant visual compromises to maintain frame rates above 50 FPS.

The data also reveals that the difference between Low and Medium settings is consistent across resolutions: approximately 17 FPS at 1080p, 14 FPS at 1440p, and 9 FPS at 4K. This narrowing gap at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU is becoming the bottleneck regardless of settings, so players at 4K will not gain much by dropping to Low — the 55 FPS at 4K Low is only 9 FPS higher than 4K Medium, a marginal improvement for a significant visual downgrade.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution built on the Xe3-LPG architecture, using a 3 nm process from Intel. Its specifications are modest: 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 ROPs, with 12 ray tracing cores that are largely irrelevant for Dave The Diver’s 2D presentation. The boost clock reaches 2500 MHz, which is respectable for an integrated part, and the FP32 performance is rated at 7.680 TFLOPS, placing it in the lower tier of the GPU benchmark percentile at just 9% compared to all GPUs.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in the benchmark database are all legacy NVIDIA parts: the GeForce GT 520MX, GeForce 800M, GeForce GT 625 OEM, and GeForce GT 710. The Arc B390’s 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 is only 1.3% higher than the GT 520MX’s 1463, and 2.7% higher than the GT 710’s 1443. This places the Arc B390 in performance territory that is historically associated with entry-level laptops and low-end desktops, which explains the difficulty it faces at higher resolutions in Dave The Diver.

Memory is a critical factor here. The Arc B390 has no dedicated VRAM; its memory size, type, and bus width are all listed as "System Shared," with bandwidth that is "System Dependent." In practice, this means the GPU relies on the system’s DDR4 or DDR5 memory, and the measured frame rates at 4K suggest that this arrangement is insufficient for high pixel counts. The 4K results, ranging from 36 to 55 FPS depending on settings, indicate that the shared memory architecture cannot provide the bandwidth needed to sustain 60 FPS at that resolution, even with a capable CPU like the i5-12400 feeding it data.

The GPU’s pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s are theoretical maximums that are likely never achieved in real-world gaming, but they provide context for the scaling behavior. At 4K, the pixel count is 8.3 million per frame, and at 60 FPS that would require nearly 500 GPixel/s — far beyond the B390’s rated capability. This explains why the 4K results cap out at 55 FPS on Low settings; the GPU is simply unable to fill pixels fast enough to reach higher frame rates.

The Arc B390’s TDP is 80 W, and it operates as an IGP with no power connectors, meaning it shares thermal and power budgets with the CPU. This is not a bottleneck in Dave The Diver specifically, but it does limit the GPU’s ability to boost under sustained load. The 2500 MHz boost clock is the maximum, and the data suggests that the GPU is likely running at or near this frequency during the 1080p tests, where it achieves respectable results, but at 4K the workload is too heavy for the architecture to maintain performance.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12400 + Intel Arc B390 combination ranks 2538 out of 2867 tested combos in Dave The Diver, placing it in the bottom 11% of all systems tested for this game. This ranking is a direct consequence of the GPU’s low percentile (9%), while the CPU’s percentile is substantially higher at 72% — confirming that the pairing is heavily imbalanced, with the GPU holding back the overall experience.

The i5-12400’s benchmark scores are respectable for a mid-range CPU: its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 15989, and its single-core score is 2257, putting it in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7643 (0.1% faster), Intel Core i7-1355U (0.3% faster), and AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 (0.7% faster), while the Intel Core i3-14100F is 0.9% slower. These deltas are negligible, meaning the CPU is not a differentiator in this combo’s ranking — it is the GPU that drags the overall position down.

In contrast, the Arc B390’s nearest rivals are all vastly inferior in age and capability, yet the performance gaps are tiny. The GT 520MX is only 1.3% slower, the GeForce 800M is 1.5% slower, and the GT 625 OEM is 2.5% slower. This suggests that the Arc B390 is not meaningfully better than a decade-old entry-level GPU, which is why the combo ranks so poorly in a game that can be demanding at higher resolutions.

The combo rank of 2538 out of 2867 means that only 329 tested combos perform worse, and those are likely systems with even older or weaker integrated graphics. For a player with this combo, the data implies that Dave The Diver is playable at 1080p, but the experience will be firmly entry-level, with no headroom for higher resolutions or future games with similar GPU demands.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of running Dave The Diver at 60 FPS?

A: Yes, but only at 1080p. The measured results show 108 FPS at Low, 91 FPS at Medium, 81 FPS at High, and 72 FPS at Ultra, all of which exceed 60 FPS. At 1440p, only Low (82 FPS) and Medium (68 FPS) achieve 60 FPS or higher, while High (61 FPS) is borderline and Ultra (54 FPS) falls short.

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU and GPU pairing?

A: 1920x1080 is the only resolution where all four settings presets maintain averages above 70 FPS. At 2560x1440, performance is acceptable for Low and Medium, but at 3840x2160, all presets drop to 55 FPS or below, making 4K unsuitable for consistent gameplay.

Q: How does the Arc B390 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B390’s 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1482 is 1.3% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, 1.5% higher than the GeForce 800M, 2.5% higher than the GeForce GT 625 OEM, and 2.7% higher than the GeForce GT 710. These are all older entry-level parts, and the performance gaps are minimal.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: No. The Intel Core i5-12400 has a 72nd percentile CPU ranking with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15989, and its nearest rivals are within 0.9% in performance. The frame rate drops from 1080p to 4K are consistent with GPU limitations, not CPU constraints.

Q: What settings are recommended for 1440p gaming?

A: Low settings produce 82 FPS average, and Medium produces 68 FPS with a minimum of 58 FPS. High drops to 61 FPS, which may cause stutter in busy scenes, and Ultra at 54 FPS is not recommended for smooth play.

Q: Why is the 4K performance so poor?

A: The Arc B390 has no dedicated VRAM, using System Shared memory with System Dependent bandwidth. Its pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s is insufficient for 4K workloads, resulting in average FPS of 55 at Low, 46 at Medium, 41 at High, and 36 at Ultra.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are: Low 108, Medium 91 (minimum 77, maximum 104), High 81, and Ultra 72. This is the only resolution where all presets exceed 70 FPS, providing a smooth experience across the board.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low 82, Medium 68 (minimum 58, maximum 78), High 61, and Ultra 54. The Medium preset is the only one with reported minimum and maximum values, showing a 20 FPS range that indicates moderate frame pacing variability.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low 55, Medium 46 (minimum 39, maximum 53), High 41, and Ultra 36. The Medium preset’s minimum of 39 FPS is the lowest recorded value across all settings and resolutions, confirming that 4K pushes the Arc B390 beyond its comfortable operating range.

The progression from 1080p to 1440p to 4K is consistent: each resolution step reduces FPS by approximately 20-30% depending on the preset, with the steepest drops occurring from 1440p to 4K. Low settings see the smallest absolute drop from 1440p to 4K (27 FPS), while Ultra sees the largest (18 FPS), but in percentage terms, the loss is similar across all presets, ranging from 33% to 40%. This uniform scaling indicates a GPU that is compute-bound, with no single bottleneck that settings changes can meaningfully alleviate.