Dave The Diver

Dave the Diver is an adventure title that clearly favors high-refresh-rate displays on this Intel Core i5-12600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER pairing. The measured frame rates are exceptionally high across all tested configurations, with the combo ranking 109th out of 1626 tested combinations in this game. At 1080p with Low settings, the system pushes an average of 406.9 FPS, which drops to a still-impressive 270.5 FPS at Ultra settings. This hardware combination is positioned firmly in the top percentile of tested systems, with the CPU sitting at the 84th percentile and the GPU at the 88th percentile among all tested components.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals a predictable yet steep curve as resolution increases, but the frame rates remain high enough that the limiting factor shifts between components depending on the resolution. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the average FPS drops from 303 to 225.5, a reduction of 77.5 frames per second. The jump from 1440p to 4K at High settings brings the average down to 150.5 FPS, another 75 frames per second lost. This consistent drop of roughly 75 FPS per resolution step indicates that the GPU is becoming progressively more dominant as pixel count increases.

At 1080p Low, the system achieves 406.9 FPS, which suggests that the CPU is the primary constraint at this resolution, as the graphics card has ample headroom to render frames far faster than the processor can feed it. The scaling from 1080p Low to 1440p Low shows a 103.2 FPS drop to 303.7, and then 4K Low settles at 206.8 FPS. The pattern across all settings shows that 4K Ultra is the most demanding configuration at 136 FPS average, which still clears 120 FPS comfortably. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 70.8 FPS, while at 1080p that same gap is 136.4 FPS, indicating that the GPU bottleneck at higher resolutions compresses the performance differences between settings.

The resolution scaling data suggests that this combination is well-suited for 1440p and 4K gaming, with the 4K Ultra result of 136 FPS being particularly notable given that most titles struggle to maintain triple-digit frame rates at this resolution. The diminishing returns from settings changes at 4K compared to 1080p point to the GPU being the limiting factor at higher resolutions, which is expected given the pixel throughput requirements.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using a 5 nm process at TSMC, featuring 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus. The memory runs at 1438 MHz with 23 Gbps effective speed, delivering a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s. This memory configuration is clearly sufficient for Dave the Diver, as even at 4K Ultra the game maintains 136 FPS average without any signs of memory capacity being a limiting factor. The GPU's 10240 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 112 render output units provide substantial raw compute power.

The GPU's clock speeds are 2295 MHz base and 2550 MHz boost, which contribute to a pixel rate of 285.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 816.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance of 52.22 TFLOPS places this card in the upper echelon of graphics processors. In benchmark comparisons, the RTX 4080 SUPER scores 34245 in Passmark G3D and 246994 in Geekbench OpenCL, with a Passmark GPU compute score of 19822. The GPU's average benchmark score of 53610 puts it 0.2 percent ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, which scored 53489, and 2.9 percent ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti at 52086.

The measured frame rates in Dave the Diver show that the GPU has significant headroom for this title. At 1080p Low, the 406.9 FPS result is more than double the 4K Ultra result, demonstrating that the graphics card is not being fully utilized at lower resolutions. The 4K High result of 150.5 FPS is particularly strong, suggesting that players can enable higher settings at 4K without sacrificing smoothness. The GPU's 16 GB of VRAM is more than adequate for this game, as the data shows no indication of VRAM-related performance drops at any tested setting.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF features 10 cores and 16 threads with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. This Alder Lake-S architecture processor has a 20 MB shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 cache per core, along with 80 KB L1 cache per core. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration and connects via PCIe Gen 4 with 20 lanes. The processor is unlocked for overclocking and launched with an MSRP of $264.

Benchmark results show the CPU's single-thread performance is strong, with a 3dmark single-thread score of 1016 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3309. Multi-threaded performance is equally impressive, with a 3dmark max threads score of 7952 and a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23444. The Passmark multithread score of 27575 and single-thread score of 3925 further demonstrate the processor's capabilities. The CPU's average benchmark score of 27827 places it essentially tied with the Intel Core i9-10900K, which scored 27829 with a delta of 0 percent.

In Dave the Diver, the CPU's role is most apparent at 1080p, where frame rates reach 406.9 FPS at Low settings. This high frame rate indicates that the processor is capable of feeding the GPU with enough data to achieve these results. The scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a 256.4 FPS drop at Low settings, which is the largest drop across all settings and confirms that the CPU becomes less of a bottleneck as resolution increases. The 3dmark 2-thread score of 1995 and 4-thread score of 3806 suggest that the processor handles the lightly-threaded workload of this adventure game efficiently. The CPU's 84th percentile ranking among all processors indicates that it is a strong performer for this title.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable with this combination in Dave the Diver?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 406.9 at 1080p with Low settings.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to its nearest rival in benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER scores 53610 on average, which is 0.2 percent higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT at 53489.

Q: What is the performance difference between 1080p and 4K at Ultra settings?

A: At 1080p Ultra the average FPS is 270.5, while at 4K Ultra it drops to 136, representing a 134.5 FPS difference.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K resolution?

A: At 4K, the GPU is the limiting factor, as evidenced by the smaller performance gap between Low and Ultra settings (70.8 FPS) compared to 1080p (136.4 FPS).

Q: What is the lowest measured frame rate in the dataset?

A: The lowest average FPS is 136 at 4K with Ultra settings, which still provides a smooth experience.

Q: How does the i5-12600KF compare to the i7-13700H in average benchmark score?

A: The i5-12600KF scores 27827, which is 0.4 percent higher than the Intel Core i7-13700H at 27716.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows that Ultra settings are viable at all tested resolutions, with the lowest result being 136 FPS at 4K Ultra. For players with high-refresh-rate monitors at 1080p, the Ultra preset at 270.5 FPS is the best choice, as it provides the highest visual quality while still maintaining frame rates well above 240 Hz. At 1440p, Ultra settings deliver 201.8 FPS, which is excellent for most high-refresh displays.

For 4K gaming, High settings at 150.5 FPS provide the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, as the jump from High to Ultra costs 14.5 FPS but the visual difference is likely minimal in this adventure title. The Medium preset at 4K offers 169.2 FPS, which may be preferable for players targeting 165 Hz displays, while Low at 206.8 FPS is unnecessary given the high frame rates already achieved at higher settings.

The data suggests that players should prioritize the High preset as the default option across all resolutions, as it offers a strong balance between the Low and Ultra extremes. The 4K High result of 150.5 FPS is particularly compelling, as it demonstrates that this combination can handle 4K gaming with high settings while maintaining smooth performance. For players with 240 Hz displays at 1440p, the Ultra preset at 201.8 FPS is the recommended choice, as it provides the best visual experience without dropping below 200 FPS.