Dave The Diver

# Dave The Diver — Intel Core i5-14600K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

This combination of Intel's Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA's RTX 4090 produces exceptionally high frame rates in Dave The Diver, with measured averages ranging from 154 FPS at 4K Ultra to 450.6 FPS at 1080p Low. The data indicates that this pairing is overwhelmingly GPU-limited at higher resolutions, while at 1080p the CPU's strong single-thread performance becomes a more meaningful factor. Across all twelve measured configurations, the system never dips below the refresh-rate comfort zone for standard displays, and at lower resolutions it approaches or exceeds the limits of most high-refresh monitors.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear and predictable pattern of GPU-bound behavior. At High settings, the system delivers 338.5 FPS at 1920x1080, dropping to 252.6 FPS at 2560x1440, and further to 172.7 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 24.7% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a 49.0% reduction from 1080p to 4K — a scaling curve consistent with a GPU that is being pushed progressively harder as pixel count rises. The RTX 4090's 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth and 24 GB of GDDR6X VRAM are clearly sufficient to feed the rendering pipeline at all tested resolutions, as evidenced by the smooth linearity of the FPS drops.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more pronounced in absolute terms: 450.6 FPS at 1080p, 341.9 FPS at 1440p, and 229.1 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-4K drop of 49.2% closely mirrors the High preset's 49.0%, suggesting that the limiting component shifts minimally across settings. However, the fact that 1080p Low reaches 450.6 FPS — while 1080p Ultra sits at 298.9 FPS — indicates that at the lowest settings, the CPU begins to assert more influence, as the absolute frame rates approach the practical ceiling for this processor's single-thread capabilities.

The Ultra preset tells a similar story with slightly lower absolute values: 298.9 FPS at 1080p, 223.9 FPS at 1440p, and 154 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-4K reduction of 48.5% is nearly identical to the other presets, reinforcing that resolution scaling is the dominant factor. The data shows no signs of a CPU bottleneck emerging at 4K, as the frame rate drops remain proportional to pixel count increases across all four settings presets.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090's specifications align closely with the measured results. Its boost clock of 2520 MHz and base clock of 2235 MHz provide the raw throughput needed to sustain the high frame rates observed, while the 16384 shading units and 512 texture mapping units handle the pixel and texture workloads efficiently. The memory configuration — 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus with 1.01 TB/s bandwidth — is more than adequate for Dave The Diver's demands, as evidenced by the absence of any stutter-related min FPS data points in the measured results.

The GPU's 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 1,290.2 GTexel/s texture rate are leveraged heavily at 4K Ultra, where the system still manages 154 FPS. This is particularly notable given that the RTX 4090's nearest rivals in the benchmark database — the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (deltaPct -0.4%), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (deltaPct -0.9%), and NVIDIA Quadro P6000 (deltaPct -1.3%) — all score lower on average, yet the RTX 4090's percentile rank of 91 among all GPUs reflects its position as a top-tier consumer card.

At 1080p Low, the RTX 4090's role shifts. The 450.6 FPS result suggests that the GPU is waiting on the CPU to feed it draw calls, a scenario where the i5-14600K's 5.30 GHz boost clock and 24 MB of shared L3 cache become critical. The fact that the GPU's frame output drops by 26.7% when moving from Low to Ultra at 1080p (450.6 to 338.5 FPS at High) indicates that the graphics card is still the primary limiter even at lower settings, but the CPU's contribution is measurable at these extreme frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS values, the High preset at 2560x1440 offers the most balanced experience, delivering 252.6 FPS — a figure that exceeds the refresh rate of virtually all consumer monitors while maintaining the visual fidelity most players would expect from an adventure title. For users with 4K displays, the High preset at 172.7 FPS is the recommended choice, as it provides a substantial improvement over Ultra's 154 FPS while the visual difference between High and Ultra is typically minimal in this genre.

At 1080p, the Medium preset at 379.4 FPS represents the sweet spot for high-refresh displays, as it offers 25.5% more performance than High (338.5 FPS) while only sacrificing a modest amount of visual quality. The Low preset's 450.6 FPS is technically the highest measured value, but the visual compromises are rarely justified when the Medium preset still produces frame rates far beyond what most monitors can display.

For players prioritizing maximum visual quality, the Ultra preset at 1440p (223.9 FPS) is a viable option, as it maintains frame rates well above 200 FPS while delivering the most demanding graphics settings. The data shows no configuration where the system falls below 154 FPS, meaning every preset at every resolution is playable, but the High preset consistently offers the best performance-to-visual-quality ratio across all three resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system produces its highest frame rates across all settings. The Low preset averages 450.6 FPS, Medium drops to 379.4 FPS, High settles at 338.5 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 298.9 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 151.7 FPS, representing a 33.7% reduction from the lowest to the highest settings. This spread indicates that Dave The Diver's graphics options have a meaningful impact on GPU workload, but even the heaviest preset remains far above any performance concern.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain exceptionally high. Low averages 341.9 FPS, Medium produces 283.1 FPS, High delivers 252.6 FPS, and Ultra achieves 223.9 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra delta narrows to 118 FPS, a 34.5% reduction that closely mirrors the 1080p scaling. The consistency of this percentage across resolutions suggests that the game's settings scale uniformly, with no single setting causing a disproportionate performance hit.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates remain robust but show the expected impact of the higher pixel count. Low averages 229.1 FPS, Medium produces 189.4 FPS, High delivers 172.7 FPS, and Ultra falls to 154 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra delta is 75.1 FPS, a 32.8% reduction. Notably, the 4K Ultra result of 154 FPS is still exceptionally smooth, and the 4K Low result of 229.1 FPS demonstrates that even at maximum resolution, the RTX 4090 has substantial headroom.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 25th out of 1626 tested combos in Dave The Diver, placing it in the top 1.5% of all configurations measured. This ranking is particularly strong given that the CPU and GPU individually occupy different tiers in their respective benchmark hierarchies — the i5-14600K sits at the 93rd percentile among all CPUs, while the RTX 4090 ranks at the 91st percentile among GPUs.

The CPU's benchmark profile shows it performing nearly identically to its closest rivals: the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X trails by just 0.2%, the Intel Core i5-14600KF leads by 0.4%, and the AMD EPYC 4345P edges ahead by 0.9%. This clustering indicates that the i5-14600K is well-matched with the RTX 4090, as neither component significantly bottlenecks the other in this game's workload.

The combo's 25th-place ranking out of 1626 configurations suggests that the pairing's combined performance is greater than the sum of its parts. While the RTX 4090's percentile rank of 91 places it below some workstation-class GPUs in synthetic benchmarks, its real-world gaming performance in Dave The Diver — where it achieves a minimum of 154 FPS at 4K Ultra — demonstrates that this consumer-focused card is exceptionally well-suited to this title. The i5-14600K's strong single-thread performance, evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4642, ensures that the CPU keeps pace with the GPU even at the highest frame rates.