Dave The Diver

Dave The Diver, an adventure title released in 2023, presents an interesting case study for the Intel Core i5-14600K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060. This combination delivers a highly playable experience across all tested settings and resolutions, with the data indicating that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher graphical presets. The benchmark results show that this combo ranks 2922 out of 3710 tested combinations, placing it in the 79th percentile of all tested systems. The pairing of a 14-core, 20-thread Raptor Lake processor with a 6 GB Turing-based graphics card proves to be well-balanced for this specific title, though the performance ceiling is clearly defined by the graphics card's capabilities.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-14600K is the computational heart of this system, built on the Raptor Lake architecture with a 10 nm process node. It features 14 cores and 20 threads, operating at a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. This processor's performance profile is strong, as evidenced by its 90th percentile ranking among all CPUs and an average benchmark score of 48618. In multi-threaded workloads, it achieves a Cinebench R23 score of 24491, while its single-core performance reaches 2064 in the same test. The processor's memory support for DDR4 and DDR5, along with its dual-channel memory bus, provides ample bandwidth for feeding the GPU in this adventure game.

The CPU's role in Dave The Diver is largely about maintaining a steady frame delivery to avoid bottlenecking the graphics card. At 1080p with Low settings, the system reaches 178 FPS, which is the highest recorded average. This suggests that even at this resolution, the RTX 2060 is capable of producing frames faster than the CPU can dictate, or vice versa, but the overall system throughput remains high. The i5-14600K's nearest rivals include the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H with a delta of -0.2%, the AMD EPYC 4345P with a delta of 0.3%, and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX with a delta of 0.7%. These tight deltas indicate that the i5-14600K sits in a competitive performance band for its processing power.

In a game like Dave The Diver, which is not typically CPU-intensive, the 14-core processor provides significant headroom. The data shows that the CPU's raw computational power, reflected in its Passmark scores of 125737 for integer math and 92794 for floating point math, is more than sufficient to handle the game's logic and physics calculations. The 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache help reduce latency, ensuring that the game's assets and instructions are readily available. The CPU's 125 W TDP and support for PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes means it can interface with the RTX 2060 via PCIe 3.0 without data transfer limitations, as the GPU uses a PCIe 3.0 x16 interface. Overall, the processor's influence on the measured FPS is minimal, as the system demonstrates consistent scaling when CPU load is not the limiting factor.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the best average FPS achievable with this CPU and GPU combination at 1080p?

A: The highest average FPS recorded at 1920x1080 is 178 FPS, achieved with Low settings. The Medium preset provides 149 FPS, High provides 133 FPS, and Ultra provides 117 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-14600K compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i5-14600K scores an average of 48618 points. Its nearest rival, the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H, scores 48698, which is -0.2% relative performance. The AMD EPYC 4345P is 0.3% behind, and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX is 0.7% behind, showing the i5-14600K is closely matched with these processors.

Q: Does the RTX 2060 bottleneck the system at 4K resolution?

A: The data indicates that the RTX 2060 becomes the limiting factor at 3840x2160. The average FPS drops to 67 on High, 75 on Medium, and 59 on Ultra, which is a significant reduction compared to 1080p results, confirming that the GPU struggles to maintain high frame rates at this resolution.

Q: What is the percentile ranking of the RTX 2060 among all GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 ranks in the 58th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 15290. Its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 with a delta of 0%, indicating near-identical average performance.

Q: Are there any FPS drops recorded for the Medium settings across resolutions?

A: Yes, the Medium settings are the only preset with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values. At 1080p, the minimum is 127 FPS and the maximum is 171 FPS. At 1440p, the minimum is 95 FPS and the maximum is 129 FPS. At 4K, the minimum is 64 FPS and the maximum is 86 FPS.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested combinations in Dave The Diver?

A: This specific CPU and GPU combination ranks 2922 out of 3710 tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the ranking distribution for this game.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of scaling from 1080p to 4K, which helps identify the bottleneck in this system. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the average FPS is 133. Moving to 2560x1440, the average drops to 100, a reduction of 33 FPS or approximately 24.8%. When scaling further to 3840x2160, the average falls to 67, a 66 FPS drop from the 1080p baseline, representing a 49.6% decrease. This substantial drop at 4K indicates that the RTX 2060 is being pushed to its limits, as the GPU must render four times the pixels of 1080p.

The pattern is consistent across all settings presets. For Low settings, the system achieves 178 FPS at 1080p, 134 FPS at 1440p, and 90 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K is 88 FPS, a 49.4% reduction. Medium settings show 149 FPS at 1080p, 112 FPS at 1440p, and 75 FPS at 4K, with a 49.7% decrease. Ultra settings demonstrate the most dramatic scaling, going from 117 FPS at 1080p to 88 FPS at 1440p and finally 59 FPS at 4K, a 49.6% drop. This consistent percentage reduction across all presets is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the graphics card's fill rate and memory bandwidth become the defining factors.

The RTX 2060's specifications support this analysis. It has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's pixel rate is 80.64 GPixel/s and its texture rate is 201.6 GTexel/s, which are modest figures by modern standards. At 4K resolution, the demand on these resources increases exponentially, and the data shows that the GPU cannot keep up with the CPU's ability to feed it frames. The i5-14600K, with its high single-core performance and 20 threads, is likely not the limiting factor at any resolution tested. The consistent FPS drops of nearly 50% when moving from 1080p to 4K strongly suggest that the RTX 2060 is the bottleneck, particularly at higher resolutions where pixel throughput dominates.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium settings preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, Medium achieves 149 FPS average, with a minimum of 127 FPS and a maximum of 171 FPS. This provides a smooth experience well above the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining visual fidelity. At 2560x1440, Medium delivers 112 FPS average with a minimum of 95 FPS, which remains highly playable for most users. Even at 3840x2160, Medium manages 75 FPS average with a minimum of 64 FPS, staying above the 60 FPS target for most of the time.

The High settings preset also provides strong performance, with 133 FPS at 1080p, 100 FPS at 1440p, and 67 FPS at 4K. However, the Medium preset shows a more consistent minimum FPS at higher resolutions. At 4K, Medium's 64 FPS minimum is higher than the High preset's average of 67, suggesting that Medium will have fewer noticeable stutters. The Ultra preset, while offering the best visual quality, dips to 59 FPS at 4K, which is below the 60 FPS threshold and may result in less smooth gameplay. At 1080p and 1440p, Ultra still provides 117 FPS and 88 FPS respectively, making it a viable option for users with lower-resolution displays.

For users prioritizing a consistent 60+ FPS experience at 4K, Medium is the recommended preset. It provides a 75 FPS average with a 64 FPS minimum, ensuring that the game remains fluid during demanding scenes. At 1440p, Medium offers a 112 FPS average, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Low preset, while achieving 178 FPS at 1080p and 134 FPS at 1440p, sacrifices too much visual quality for a marginal performance gain over Medium. The data clearly shows that Medium provides the best balance between frame rate and graphical fidelity, making it the optimal choice for this hardware configuration.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The Intel Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 combination ranks 2922 out of 3710 tested combos in Dave The Diver. This ranking places the system in the 79th percentile, meaning it outperforms 78.8% of all tested combinations but is outperformed by the top 21.2%. This is a moderate ranking, reflecting the fact that while the CPU is high-performing, the GPU is an older, mid-range part that limits the overall system's potential in this game.

When considering the individual components, the CPU's 90th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates that the processor is well above average. However, the GPU's 58th percentile ranking among all GPUs shows that the graphics card is slightly above average but not exceptional. The combination of a top-tier CPU with a mid-range GPU creates a system where the GPU is the limiting factor, which is reflected in the combo's rank. The system's measured FPS at 4K Ultra (59 FPS) and 4K High (67 FPS) are the lowest recorded values, indicating that the GPU cannot fully utilize the CPU's capabilities at high resolutions.

Compared to other combos, this pairing is not near the top of the rankings, but it is not at the bottom either. The 2922 rank suggests that there are over 2000 other combinations that perform better in this game, likely featuring more powerful GPUs. The deltaPct values for the CPU's nearest rivals show that the i5-14600K is competitive with other high-end processors, but the GPU's performance is more limiting. This combo would be suitable for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it achieves high frame rates, but it struggles to maintain 60+ FPS at 4K on Ultra settings. The ranking reflects this balance, positioning it as a solid mid-range performer that excels in lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the system demonstrates its strongest performance. With Low settings, the average FPS is 178, providing an extremely smooth experience. Medium settings yield 149 FPS average, with a minimum of 127 FPS and a maximum of 171 FPS. High settings produce 133 FPS average, and Ultra settings deliver 117 FPS average. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the system is more than capable of handling any preset, with even Ultra settings maintaining frame rates well above 100 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains robust but shows the GPU's limitations beginning to appear. Low settings achieve 134 FPS average. Medium settings produce 112 FPS average, with a minimum of 95 FPS and a maximum of 129 FPS. High settings deliver 100 FPS average, and Ultra settings provide 88 FPS average. The data shows a clear step-down from 1080p, but all presets remain above 60 FPS, making 1440p a viable resolution for this hardware.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's constraints become evident. Low settings achieve 90 FPS average. Medium settings produce 75 FPS average, with a minimum of 64 FPS and a maximum of 86 FPS. High settings deliver 67 FPS average, and Ultra settings provide 59 FPS average. At this resolution, only the Low and Medium presets maintain an average above 60 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls below the 60 FPS target. The minimum FPS of 64 at Medium settings is the only recorded minimum above 60 FPS at 4K, making Medium the recommended preset for 4K gaming. The progression from 178 FPS at 1080p Low to 59 FPS at 4K Ultra demonstrates the significant performance cost of higher resolutions, with the RTX 2060's 6 GB memory buffer and 336.0 GB/s bandwidth being the likely limiting factors.