Dave The Diver

Dave The Diver is not a typical stress test for a flagship-class desktop pairing, but the measured frame rates for the Intel Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER reveal a clear performance hierarchy across resolutions. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo delivers 406 fps, which drops to 303 fps at High settings and 268 fps at Ultra. Moving to 1440p, the average at Low is 306 fps, while High and Ultra produce 228 fps and 202 fps respectively. At 4K, the frame rates compress significantly: Ultra yields 135 fps, High yields 153 fps, and Low yields 205 fps. The scaling pattern is telling: from 1080p Low to 4K Low, the frame rate falls by roughly half, from 406 fps to 205 fps, whereas from 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra, the drop is from 268 fps to 135 fps, also about half. This consistency suggests that the GPU is the primary scaling factor as resolution increases, with the CPU maintaining a sufficient headroom to feed the graphics card even at 1080p, where the 406 fps Low result indicates a largely CPU-bound scenario. The 4K Ultra figure of 135 fps, while far below the 1080p peak, still comfortably exceeds typical display refresh rates, indicating that the GPU is the limiting component at higher resolutions and settings, but the combo remains highly capable across the board.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows that Dave The Diver scales almost linearly with pixel count when settings are held constant. At Low settings, the progression is 406 fps at 1080p, 306 fps at 1440p, and 205 fps at 4K. This represents a 25% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a further 33% drop from 1440p to 4K. For High settings, the figures are 303 fps, 228 fps, and 153 fps, showing a similar proportional decline. The Ultra preset follows the same trend: 268 fps at 1080p, 202 fps at 1440p, and 135 fps at 4K. The consistent halving of frame rates from 1080p to 4K across all presets points to a GPU-bound workload at higher resolutions, where the RTX 4080 SUPER’s rendering throughput dictates the output. However, the 1080p Low result of 406 fps is unusually high, suggesting that at this resolution and preset, the CPU’s single-thread performance begins to cap the frame rate, as the GPU has ample headroom to render more frames than the processor can issue. The 4K results, by contrast, show the GPU working harder, with the gap between Low and Ultra narrowing to 70 fps (205 vs 135), compared to a 138 fps gap at 1080p (406 vs 268). This narrowing indicates that at 4K, the GPU’s compute and memory bandwidth become the dominant factors, reducing the impact of settings changes on overall performance.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific CPU-GPU combination ranks 252nd out of 3710 tested combos for Dave The Diver, placing it in the top 7% of all pairings. This percentile position is strong, but it is not at the absolute top, which suggests that while the RTX 4080 SUPER is a high-end card, the Core i5-14600K, despite being a capable processor, does not boost the combo to the very peak of the leaderboard. The combo’s rank is influenced by the fact that Dave The Diver is not a heavily threaded title, so the CPU’s 14 cores and 20 threads are underutilized, while the GPU’s raw power dominates the score. Relative to other tested configurations, this pairing outperforms the vast majority, but it sits behind combos that pair the same GPU with higher-tier CPUs like the Core i9 or Ryzen 9 parts, which would push the rank higher. The delta between this combo and the top-ranked ones is likely driven by CPU-bound scenarios at lower resolutions, where the i5-14600K’s 3.50 GHz base clock and 5.30 GHz boost clock are sufficient but not class-leading. For a game like Dave The Diver, which emphasizes 2D sprite work and light 3D elements, the rank reflects a system that is overbuilt for the task, yet the data shows it still lands in the 93rd percentile, indicating excellent overall performance relative to the entire database of tested hardware combinations.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is specified with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 2295 MHz with a boost clock of 2550 MHz, and it houses 10240 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. In Dave The Diver, these specifications translate to frame rates that are consistently high, with the lowest measured average being 135 fps at 4K Ultra. The 16 GB VRAM is not a limiting factor in this game, as the art style and scene complexity do not demand large texture pools; even at 4K Ultra, the memory footprint is well within the card’s capacity. The GPU’s 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is more than sufficient for the game’s rendering requirements, and the measured results show that the card is never the bottleneck until 4K, where the pixel fill rate and bandwidth begin to matter more. The boost clock of 2550 MHz allows the card to sustain high utilization across all resolutions, and the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6600 indicates strong general-purpose rasterization performance. Compared to its nearest rival, the RTX 4080 (non-SUPER), the RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 54209, which is just 0.1% lower than the RTX 4080’s 54247, showing that the two cards are nearly identical in raw compute. In Dave The Diver, this means the GPU delivers essentially the same experience as the non-SUPER variant, with the SUPER’s higher memory clock (23 Gbps effective) providing marginal benefits in memory-bound scenarios, though the game’s simple textures do not exploit this advantage.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and refresh rate. At 1080p, the High preset delivers 303 fps, which is more than enough for any high-refresh monitor, while Ultra drops to 268 fps, still excellent. The Medium preset yields 340 fps, but the visual uplift from High to Ultra is minimal in this game, so High is the sweet spot for 1080p, balancing frame rate and image quality without sacrificing performance. At 1440p, High produces 228 fps, which is ideal for 144Hz displays, while Ultra at 202 fps remains playable but offers diminishing returns. Medium at 1440p hits 256 fps, but the step to High is worth the 28 fps cost for better visuals. For 4K, High is the recommended preset, delivering 153 fps, which is comfortably above 120Hz refresh rates, while Ultra drops to 135 fps, still playable but with a noticeable frame rate penalty. Low settings at 4K provide 205 fps, but the visual degradation is severe for a game with such a stylized aesthetic, so High offers the best balance of fidelity and speed. The Medium preset at 4K provides 171 fps with a minimum of 146 fps, which is a good compromise for those seeking higher frame rates than High, but the 18 fps gain over High is not worth the loss in shadow and texture quality. Ultimately, High settings at any resolution are the most sensible choice, as the data shows that the GPU has ample headroom to maintain high frame rates without needing to drop to Medium or Low.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved by this combo?

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 406 fps, achieved at 1080p with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra?

A: At 4K with Ultra settings, the average frame rate is 135 fps, which is the lowest measured value but still highly playable.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the CPU becomes the limiting factor at 1080p Low, where the 406 fps result indicates GPU headroom is not fully utilized, as the CPU’s single-thread performance caps the frame rate.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between High and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, High delivers 228 fps, while Ultra delivers 202 fps, a difference of 26 fps.

Q: Does the RTX 4080 SUPER outperform the RTX 4080 in this game?

A: Based on average benchmark scores, the RTX 4080 SUPER scores 54209, which is 0.1% lower than the RTX 4080’s 54247, indicating they perform nearly identically, so no significant difference is expected.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 252nd out of 3710 tested combos for Dave The Diver, placing it in the top 7% of all pairings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. It has 24 MB of shared L3 cache and supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory. In Dave The Diver, the CPU’s role is secondary to the GPU, as the game is not heavily threaded. The measured frame rates at 1080p Low (406 fps) suggest that the CPU is capable of issuing frames at a very high rate, but the 5.30 GHz boost clock is the key factor, as the game likely relies on a few fast cores rather than many slower ones. The i5-14600K’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 24491 and single-core score of 2064 indicate strong overall performance, but its single-core score is what matters most for this title. Compared to its nearest rivals, the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H scores 48698 in average benchmark, which is 0.2% higher than the i5-14600K’s 48618, showing that the i5 holds its own against server-class parts in mixed workloads. The AMD EPYC 4345P scores 48470, 0.3% lower, while the Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX scores 48287, 0.7% lower. These deltas are minimal, indicating that the i5-14600K’s performance is well-balanced, but for Dave The Diver, the CPU’s 14 cores are largely idle, and the game’s performance is dictated by the GPU. The 125W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 compatibility make it a mainstream choice, and its 90th percentile ranking among all CPUs confirms that it is a high-performing processor, even if it does not push the combo to the top of the game-specific leaderboard. The CPU’s PassMark single-thread score of 4270 further underscores its strength in lightly threaded applications, which is exactly what Dave The Diver requires to maintain those high frame rates at lower resolutions.