Dave The Diver

Dave The Diver, an adventure title released in 2023, presents an interesting scaling profile for the Intel Core i5-12600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 pairing. The benchmark data shows that this combination delivers exceptionally high frame rates across all tested resolutions, with performance remaining fluid even at 4K Ultra settings. The measured results reveal a system where the GPU becomes the primary scaling factor as resolution increases, while the CPU provides ample headroom for the game's physics and logic at lower resolutions. This analysis examines the resolution scaling, component roles, and overall ranking of this specific combination within the database.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K demonstrates a classic GPU-bound scaling curve for this title. At 1080p with High settings, the combination produces an average of 182.5 FPS, which drops to 137.6 FPS at 1440p High, and further to 92.3 FPS at 4K High. This represents a 24.6% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, followed by a 32.9% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 5060 is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the pixel throughput requirements outpace the GPU's rendering capacity.

Looking at the full settings range at 4K, the data reveals a consistent hierarchy: Low settings produce 121.6 FPS, Medium produces 104.5 FPS, High produces 92.3 FPS, and Ultra produces 78.8 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at 4K is 42.8 FPS, showing that graphical settings have a substantial impact on performance at this resolution. Interestingly, the 4K Ultra result of 78.8 FPS remains well above playable thresholds, indicating that the RTX 5060 can handle demanding configurations in this adventure title.

At 1440p, the scaling becomes more pronounced, with Low settings reaching 183.3 FPS and Ultra dropping to 120.1 FPS. The 1080p results show even higher headroom, with Low settings hitting 244.7 FPS and Ultra still maintaining 163.6 FPS. The progressive narrowing of the FPS gap between resolutions as settings increase suggests that the GPU's compute resources are being saturated more evenly across the board at higher quality presets. The 1080p Ultra result of 163.6 FPS versus the 4K Ultra result of 78.8 FPS illustrates that resolution scaling roughly halves performance when moving from Full HD to 4K, which is consistent with a fourfold increase in pixel count.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 features 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. This memory configuration appears sufficient for Dave The Diver's art style and scene complexity, as the benchmark results show no anomalous frame drops that would indicate memory capacity or bandwidth limitations. The GPU's clock speeds are rated at 2280 MHz base and 2497 MHz boost, with the memory operating at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). These specifications contribute to the card's pixel rate of 119.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 299.6 GTexel/s.

The RTX 5060's architectural features include 3840 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output units, along with 30 ray tracing cores and 120 tensor cores. The FP32 performance of 19.18 TFLOPS provides the raw compute capability needed for the game's lighting and particle effects. In the context of this benchmark, the GPU's average score of 30109 places it at the 73rd percentile among all GPUs, with its nearest rival being the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT at a 0% delta. This indicates that the RTX 5060 delivers performance comparable to established mid-range offerings.

The measured frame rates suggest that Dave The Diver does not heavily stress the ray tracing or tensor core functionality, as the game's visual style relies more on traditional rasterization. The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support ensures compatibility with modern rendering techniques, though the benchmark data indicates that the game primarily benefits from the card's raw rasterization throughput. The 145 W TDP and dual-slot design suggest efficient power delivery, but the performance metrics are the primary indicator of capability here.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF provides a substantial foundation for this gaming workload, featuring 10 cores and 16 threads with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 4.90 GHz. This Alder Lake architecture processor, built on Intel's 10 nm process, demonstrates strong multithreaded performance with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23444 and single-core score of 3309. The CPU's 20 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support provide adequate bandwidth for feeding the GPU at high frame rates.

In Dave The Diver, the CPU's role becomes most apparent at 1080p, where the GPU is less stressed and the frame rates reach 244.7 FPS at Low settings. The data shows that the 12600KF can maintain these high frame rates without becoming a bottleneck, as the scaling from 1080p to 1440p follows a logical pattern based on pixel count rather than CPU limitations. The processor's 84th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27827, places it near the Intel Core i9-10900K with a 0% delta and just ahead of the Core i5-12600K at -0.1% delta.

The 3DMark results further contextualize the CPU's gaming capability, with a single-thread score of 1016 and a 16-thread score of 7956. These scores indicate that the processor can handle both lightly threaded and heavily threaded workloads efficiently. The PassMark multithread score of 27575 and single-thread score of 3925 reinforce this assessment. For this adventure game, which likely features moderate AI and simulation elements, the 12600KF provides more than sufficient processing power, as evidenced by the fact that the measured FPS never appears to be constrained by CPU performance across any resolution or settings combination.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable with this combo?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 244.7 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This demonstrates the CPU's capability to push very high frame rates when the GPU is not heavily burdened.

Q: How does the RTX 5060 compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5060's average benchmark score is 30109, which is identical to the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT with a 0% delta. The NVIDIA Tesla M60 trails by 0.5%, while the RTX 5070 Mobile is ahead by 0.6%.

Q: Is the 8 GB VRAM sufficient for 4K gaming in this title?

A: Yes, the 8 GB GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient, as the 4K Ultra setting still achieves 78.8 FPS. The memory configuration does not appear to cause any performance anomalies in the measured data.

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

A: At 1080p Ultra, the combo achieves 163.6 FPS, while at 4K Ultra it drops to 78.8 FPS. This represents a 51.8% reduction in frame rate when moving to 4K, which is consistent with the increased pixel workload.

Q: How does the i5-12600KF rank among all CPUs tested?

A: The processor ranks at the 84th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27827. Its nearest rival is the Intel Core i9-10900K with a 0% delta, while the Core i5-12600K is 0.1% behind.

Q: Does the game show any signs of CPU bottlenecking at high frame rates?

A: No, the data shows no evidence of CPU bottlenecking. At 1080p Low settings, the combo reaches 244.7 FPS, and the scaling to 1440p and 4K follows predictable GPU-bound patterns, indicating the 10-core processor provides ample headroom.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of 1626 tested combinations for Dave The Diver, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-12600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 ranks at position 801. This places it in the middle of the pack, which is noteworthy given the high frame rates achieved. The percentile position suggests that while this combo delivers excellent absolute performance, many other combinations with more powerful GPUs or newer CPUs achieve even higher frame rates in this less demanding adventure title.

The ranking context reveals that the combination's position is likely influenced more by the GPU than the CPU, as the RTX 5060's 73rd percentile ranking among GPUs is lower than the CPU's 84th percentile ranking. The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i9-10900K with a 0% delta and the Core i7-13700H with a 0.4% delta, show that the 12600KF sits in a competitive performance tier. Similarly, the GPU's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, matches its performance exactly, indicating that this combo's ranking reflects a balanced mid-range configuration.

Given the game's release in 2023 and the hardware's specifications, this combo ranks in the 49.2% percentile of tested configurations, meaning roughly half of the tested combinations perform better. This is expected, as Dave The Diver is not a graphically intense title, and even mid-range hardware can achieve high frame rates. The combination's strengths lie in its ability to maintain playable frame rates at 4K Ultra settings (78.8 FPS) while providing exceptional performance at lower resolutions, making it a versatile option for this game. The data confirms that this pairing offers solid performance without excelling to the top tier of the rankings, reflecting the mid-range positioning of both components.