Dave The Diver

Dave The Diver is an adventure title that proves surprisingly demanding at the high end, and the pairing of the Intel Core i5-12400 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a performance profile that is both exceptional and revealing about the game's scaling characteristics. The data shows a combination that ranks 51st out of 1,626 tested combos, placing it in the top 3.1% of all systems evaluated. This is a configuration that obliterates standard refresh rate targets at every resolution, yet the frame rate deltas between settings tiers expose where the CPU begins to assert its influence over the GPU.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 51 out of 1,626 tested configurations is a strong indicator of top-tier performance, though it is not the absolute pinnacle. This placement suggests that while the RTX 4090 is the dominant force in this pairing, the Intel Core i5-12400 does not hold it back to any significant degree, but it also doesn't boost the system into the top 50. The data indicates that the i5-12400 sits at the 77th percentile among all CPUs, a solid but not elite position, which aligns with its role as a high-value mid-range processor paired with a flagship GPU.

The GPU, in contrast, is at the 91st percentile among all graphics cards, making it the clear driver of this system's high ranking. The gap in percentile performance between the CPU and GPU is the defining characteristic of this combo; the RTX 4090 is operating at a level where it is waiting on the rest of the system in some scenarios. In the context of Dave The Diver, this rank means the system is positioned to deliver frame rates that are dramatically above the thresholds for smooth gameplay, but the specific scores at 1080p reveal that the CPU is the limiting factor in certain settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the undisputed powerhouse of this setup, and its specifications dictate the extreme performance ceiling. It is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process at TSMC, featuring a massive AD102 chip with 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die. The GPU operates with a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz, while its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus delivers a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. This memory configuration is far beyond what an adventure game like Dave The Diver requires, ensuring that texture streaming and high-resolution assets are never a bottleneck.

In this game, the GPU's role is to provide massive headroom. At 4K Ultra, the combo still manages 153.6 FPS, a figure that is limited more by the game's engine and CPU overhead than by the GPU's raw compute. The data shows the RTX 4090's FP32 performance of 82.58 TFLOPS and its 16,384 shading units are simply overkill for this title. The benchmark results confirm this: the passmark G3D score of 38,194 places it in the 91st percentile, and its nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score are professional workstation cards like the NVIDIA Tesla T4 and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56, which are not gaming-oriented. The GPU is effectively coasting, which is why we see such high frame rates even at the most demanding settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 plays a supporting but critical role in this combination, particularly as resolution decreases and frame rates climb. This processor is an Alder Lake-S part with 6 cores and 12 threads, operating at a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. It has a 65 W TDP and features 18 MB of shared L3 cache, with a die size of 163 mm² on Intel's 10 nm process. The CPU's average benchmark score of 19,850 places it in the 77th percentile, and its nearest rival in synthetic tests is the Intel Core i7-9700, which it edges out by 0.1%.

The CPU's influence on Dave The Diver becomes apparent when analyzing the 1080p results. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 365.2 FPS, while at 1080p Ultra it drops to 300.9 FPS. This 64.3 FPS gap is much smaller than the gap seen at 4K, where the difference between Low and Ultra is 72.8 FPS. This compression at lower resolutions indicates that the CPU is hitting a limit around the 365 FPS mark, preventing the GPU from stretching its legs further. The single-thread performance, as measured by Cinebench R23 at 2,249 points, is strong for the CPU's class, but it is not sufficient to feed the RTX 4090's immense throughput at such high frame rates. The data suggests that in this specific game, the i5-12400 is the bottleneck at 1080p, while at 1440p and 4K, the GPU takes over as the primary determinant of performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo shows a clear hierarchy based on resolution and settings, with the system delivering playable frame rates even at the most extreme configurations. At 3840x2160, the performance scales from 153.6 FPS on Ultra to 192.3 FPS on Medium, 170.1 FPS on High, and peaks at 226.4 FPS on Low. This represents a 47.4% increase in frame rate when dropping from Ultra to Low, showing that the game is still GPU-bound at this resolution, but with enough headroom to allow for significant settings flexibility.

Moving to 2560x1440, the scores jump substantially. The Ultra preset yields 224.3 FPS, High produces 256.5 FPS, Medium reaches 287.6 FPS, and Low hits 330.5 FPS. The gap between Ultra and Low here is 106.2 FPS, a larger absolute difference than at 4K, which suggests that the GPU is less stressed and the CPU is beginning to handle more of the work. At 1920x1080, the results are exceptionally high but show diminishing returns. The Ultra setting delivers 300.9 FPS, High reaches 327.3 FPS, Medium achieves 340.4 FPS, and Low peaks at 365.2 FPS. The delta between Ultra and Low at 1080p is only 64.3 FPS, which is the smallest absolute gap across all resolutions, reinforcing that the CPU is the limiting factor here.

The data indicates that the sweet spot for this combo is 1440p, where the GPU is still heavily utilized but the CPU has enough headroom to push frame rates well beyond 200 FPS. At 4K, the system is firmly GPU-bound, offering excellent performance for high-refresh-rate 4K displays. At 1080p, the system is CPU-bound, and the frame rates, while astronomical, are capped by the i5-12400's capabilities rather than the RTX 4090's.

FAQ

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-12400 a bottleneck for the RTX 4090 in Dave The Diver?

A: At 1080p, yes. The data shows that dropping from Ultra to Low at 1920x1080 only increases performance from 300.9 FPS to 365.2 FPS, a 64.3 FPS gain. This is a smaller absolute increase than at 1440p, where the same settings change yields a 106.2 FPS difference, indicating the CPU is limiting the GPU's output at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the best resolution to use with this combo for the highest frame rates?

A: The highest average FPS is achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings, reaching 365.2 FPS. However, for a balance of visual quality and performance, 2560x1440 at High settings provides 256.5 FPS, which is still exceptionally high and uses the GPU more effectively.

Q: How does this combo compare to other systems in the database?

A: This specific pairing ranks 51st out of 1,626 tested combos. The GPU is in the 91st percentile of all graphics cards, while the CPU is in the 77th percentile, showing that the GPU is the primary reason for the high ranking.

Q: What is the difference in performance between the lowest and highest settings at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset produces 153.6 FPS, while the Low preset produces 226.4 FPS. This represents a 72.8 FPS increase, or roughly 47%, when switching from the most demanding to the least demanding settings.

Q: Does the CPU's memory support affect performance in this game?

A: The Core i5-12400 supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration. The benchmark data does not specify which memory type was used, but the CPU's overall average benchmark score of 19,850 places it in the 77th percentile, which is a moderate score that suggests memory bandwidth is not a defining factor for this combo's results.

Q: How does the RTX 4090's performance in this game compare to its synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4090 has a passmark G3D score of 38,194 and an average benchmark score of 66,473, which places it in the 91st percentile. In Dave The Diver, it achieves over 300 FPS at 1080p across all settings, which is consistent with its top-tier synthetic scores, though the CPU limits its full potential at 1080p.