Dave The Diver

The Intel Core i5-12600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 combination delivers exceptional performance in Dave The Diver, a 2023 adventure title that clearly favors high refresh rate displays. Benchmark results show this pairing ranks 287th out of 1626 tested CPU-GPU combinations for this game, placing it comfortably in the top 18% of all systems. The measured frame rates reveal that this setup is capable of pushing well beyond 200 FPS at mainstream resolutions, with the RTX 5070's 12 GB of GDDR7 memory and the i5-12600KF's 10-core architecture working together to eliminate most potential bottlenecks. The data indicates a system that is overbuilt for the game’s demands, as even at 4K Ultra settings, the average frame rate remains firmly in high-refresh territory.

FAQ

*Q: What is the overall performance ranking of this CPU-GPU combo in Dave The Diver?*

A: The combination of the Intel Core i5-12600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 ranks 287th out of 1626 tested combinations in the benchmark database for this game, placing it in the 83rd percentile of all GPU scores.

Q: How does the RTX 5070 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5070 has an average benchmark score of 41687, which is essentially tied with the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (41610, delta 0.2%) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (41441, delta 0.6%). It sits 0.7% behind the AMD Radeon Pro 580X and 0.5% behind the NVIDIA Tesla M40.

Q: What frame rates can be expected at 1080p with this setup?

A: At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 346.7 on Low settings to 227.9 on Ultra settings. High settings yield 258.2 FPS, and Medium settings produce 289 FPS, all well above the refresh rate of most monitors.

Q: Is the CPU a limiting factor for this game?

A: The i5-12600KF scores 23444 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 3309 in single-core, with a max-thread 3DMark score of 7952. Given that frame rates scale significantly with resolution drops, the CPU appears more than capable of feeding the GPU, with the limiting factor shifting to the GPU at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the performance delta between the i5-12600KF and its closest rival?

A: The i5-12600KF has an average benchmark score of 27827, which is statistically identical to the Intel Core i9-10900K (27829, 0% delta) and the Intel Core i5-12600K (27851, -0.1% delta). It is 0.4% faster than the Intel Core i7-13700H.

Q: Does the game support high refresh rate displays at 4K?

A: Yes. The data shows an average of 115.5 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings and 128.6 FPS with High settings. These figures indicate that the system can drive 4K displays at refresh rates above 100 Hz even with maximum quality presets.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is the primary driver of visual fidelity in this setup, built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture using a 5 nm process at TSMC. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2325 MHz and a boost clock of 2512 MHz, with 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units. Its memory subsystem is a critical asset for Dave The Diver: 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth, ensuring that texture-heavy underwater scenes and UI elements load without stutter. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, translating to 28 Gbps effective, which is ample for the game's art style.

The GPU’s compute capabilities are substantial, delivering 30.87 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and a texture rate of 482.3 GTexel/s. The 48 ray tracing cores and 192 tensor cores are present, though Dave The Diver is not a ray tracing-heavy title, meaning these resources are largely underutilized in favor of raw rasterization. The pixel rate of 201.0 GPixel/s helps maintain smooth rendering of the game's detailed 2D sprites and dynamic lighting effects.

In synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 5070 scores 29137 in Passmark G3D and 5077 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. Its OpenCL score of 185269 and Vulkan score of 179413 in Geekbench indicate strong API flexibility. The GPU’s 83rd percentile ranking among all GPUs, combined with an average benchmark score of 41687, places it in the same performance class as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (delta 0.6%), which is notable given the 5070's newer architecture. The Passmark DirectX 12 score of 108 appears low, but this is likely a reflection of the specific workload, as the DirectX 11 score of 277 and DirectX 9 score of 320 are more representative of typical gaming performance.

The measured FPS data confirms that the GPU is the scaling component as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra settings is 118.8 FPS (from 346.7 to 227.9), indicating that the GPU has headroom to spare. At 4K, the same settings gap narrows to 56.3 FPS (from 171.8 to 115.5), showing that the GPU is being pushed closer to its limits but still delivering playable frame rates. The 672.0 GB/s memory bandwidth proves sufficient for the game's asset streaming, as even at 4K Ultra, the average FPS does not dip below the 100 FPS threshold.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF serves as the central processing unit, built on the Alder Lake-S architecture with a 10 nm process. It features 10 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. The hybrid design includes performance cores and efficiency cores, though the fact pack does not specify the exact allocation. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache, which is critical for keeping game logic and physics calculations fed. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, with 20 PCIe Gen 4 lanes for expansion.

The CPU’s benchmark scores are consistently strong. It achieves 23444 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 3309 in single-core, with corresponding R20 scores of 9846 and 1389. Geekbench results show 12373 for multi-core and 2529 for single-core. The 3DMark scores scale predictably with thread count: 1995 for 2 threads, 3806 for 4 threads, 6128 for 8 threads, and 7956 for 16 threads, with a max-thread score of 7952. This scaling indicates that the CPU’s performance is well-distributed across its cores, which benefits games that utilize multiple threads for AI, physics, and game state management.

The Passmark results further illustrate the CPU’s capabilities: 27575 for multithreaded performance, 3925 for single-thread, and 343231 for data compression. The floating-point math score of 67074 and integer math score of 87830 suggest strong arithmetic throughput, which is relevant for game logic. The CPU’s 84th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27827, places it on par with the Intel Core i9-10900K (delta 0%) and slightly behind the Intel Core i5-12600K (delta -0.1%).

In the context of Dave The Diver, which is an adventure game with 2D graphics and relatively simple physics, the CPU is likely not the primary bottleneck. The measured FPS data supports this: at 1080p Low, the system achieves 346.7 FPS, which is exceptionally high and suggests that the CPU can process frames faster than the GPU can render them. The single-thread score of 1016 in 3DMark is particularly relevant, as the game’s main loop likely operates on a single thread, and a score above 1000 indicates strong per-core performance. The boost clock of 4.90 GHz is a key asset here, allowing the CPU to handle the game’s logic with minimal latency.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the system delivers an average of 346.7 FPS on Low settings, which drops to 289 FPS on Medium, 258.2 FPS on High, and 227.9 FPS on Ultra. This represents a 34.3% reduction from Low to Ultra, indicating that the GPU is the primary scaling factor even at 1080p.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show a more pronounced drop. Low settings yield 261.3 FPS, Medium produces 217.2 FPS, High delivers 195.9 FPS, and Ultra averages 171.1 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p reduces frame rates by an average of 24.6% across all settings, which is consistent with the increase in pixel count from 2.07 million to 3.69 million.

At 3840x2160, the system still maintains playable frame rates, though the margins narrow. Low settings produce 171.8 FPS, Medium yields 147.8 FPS, High averages 128.6 FPS, and Ultra drops to 115.5 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 56.3 FPS, compared to 118.8 FPS at 1080p. This compression indicates that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor as resolution increases, but the RTX 5070’s 12 GB memory buffer and 672.0 GB/s bandwidth prevent any major performance cliff.

The data shows that the system is consistently above 100 FPS even at the most demanding settings tested. For gamers with 144Hz monitors, the system can comfortably drive 1440p Ultra at 171.1 FPS, leaving substantial headroom. At 4K, the Ultra preset averages 115.5 FPS, which is still above the 60 FPS standard and suitable for 120Hz displays. The lack of min and max FPS values in the fact pack means we cannot assess frame time consistency, but the high averages suggest a smooth experience.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights about the system’s balance. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 346.7 at 1080p to 261.3 at 1440p (a 24.6% reduction) and then to 171.8 at 4K (a 34.3% reduction from 1440p). This pattern shows a slightly steeper decline at higher resolutions, which is typical for GPU-bound scenarios. The total drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is 50.4%, meaning the system loses roughly half its frame rate when pixel count quadruples.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is similar but less steep in absolute terms. The FPS drops from 227.9 at 1080p to 171.1 at 1440p (a 24.9% reduction) and then to 115.5 at 4K (a 32.5% reduction from 1440p). The total drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is 49.3%. This consistency across settings suggests that the limiting component is the GPU, as the CPU’s role remains constant regardless of resolution.

The fact that the percentage drops are nearly identical between Low and Ultra settings (50.4% vs 49.3%) indicates that the game is not introducing additional CPU overhead at higher settings. If the CPU were a bottleneck at 1080p, we would expect to see a smaller percentage drop when moving to 4K, as the GPU would become the primary constraint. Instead, the uniform scaling points to the RTX 5070 being the limiting factor across all tested configurations.

However, the absolute frame rates at 1080p are so high (above 227 FPS even at Ultra) that the CPU must be capable of issuing draw calls at an extremely rapid pace. The i5-12600KF’s single-thread performance, evidenced by its 1016 3DMark single-thread score and 3309 Cinebench R23 single-core score, is sufficient to avoid becoming a bottleneck. The data suggests that this system is well-balanced for Dave The Diver, with the GPU being the primary scaling component as resolution rises, but the CPU providing ample headroom to prevent any frame rate collapses at lower resolutions.