Dave The Diver

# Dave The Diver — Intel Core i5-14600K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060

The Intel Core i5-14600K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 delivers a thoroughly capable experience in Dave The Diver, a 2023-released adventure title that is far less demanding than modern AAA shooters. Benchmark results show this combination producing smooth, high-refresh-rate gameplay even at 4K, with the CPU's strong single-thread performance and the GPU's Blackwell architecture combining to eliminate most bottlenecks. The data reveals a system that scales predictably across resolutions, with the RTX 5060's 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus proving sufficient for this game's modest visual demands.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and consistent pattern: as resolution increases, frame rates drop in a nearly linear fashion, indicating that the RTX 5060 becomes the primary limiting factor at higher pixel counts. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 245.3 FPS, while at 3840x2160 with the same Low settings, it drops to 122.2 FPS — a reduction of 50.2% when pixel count quadruples. This halving of performance is exactly what would be expected from a GPU-bound scenario, confirming that the i5-14600K is not holding back frame delivery at lower resolutions.

The scaling pattern holds across all settings tiers. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the average FPS falls from 180.3 to 140.3, a 22.2% decrease. From 1440p to 4K at High settings, the drop is more severe: from 140.3 to 91.5 FPS, a 34.8% reduction. This steeper decline at higher resolutions reinforces that the RTX 5060's 448.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth and 19.18 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are the constraining factors once pixel counts rise, while the CPU's 14 cores and 20 threads remain largely idle.

The spread between Low and Ultra settings also widens with resolution. At 1080p, the gap between Low (245.3 FPS) and Ultra (162.6 FPS) is 82.7 FPS, or 33.7%. At 4K, that same gap narrows to 41.7 FPS (from 122.2 Low to 80.5 Ultra), a 34.1% difference. This consistency suggests Dave The Diver's settings scale primarily through pixel-shading load rather than introducing new CPU-side work, allowing the GPU to remain the dominant factor across the entire resolution spectrum.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific combination of Intel Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 achieves a rank of 817 out of 1626 tested combos in Dave The Diver. This places the pairing in the upper half of all systems tested, though notably not in the top tier. The percentile position reflects the RTX 5060's mid-range standing — it sits at the 73rd percentile among all GPUs — while the i5-14600K ranks at the 93rd percentile among all CPUs, indicating the processor is substantially more capable than the graphics card in this pairing.

The CPU's benchmark average score of 49166 places it 0.2% above the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (49062) and 1% above the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48698), while sitting 0.4% below the Intel Core i5-14600KF (49367) and 0.9% below the AMD EPYC 4345P (49595). These narrow deltas show the i5-14600K performing essentially at parity with its closest rivals, with differences well within run-to-run variance. On the GPU side, the RTX 5060's average benchmark score of 30109 is virtually identical to the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (30097, 0% delta), while trailing the AMD Radeon RX 570 (30158, -0.2%) and leading the NVIDIA Tesla M60 (29969, 0.5%) and RTX 5070 Mobile (29928, 0.6%).

The rank of 817 out of 1626 suggests that while many lower-end configurations fall behind this combo, a significant number of higher-tier GPU pairings surpass it. Given that the game runs at 80.5 FPS minimum at 4K Ultra, the ranking likely undervalues the practical experience — this combination delivers playable frame rates at every tested setting, which is not true for the lower-ranked combos.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Dave The Diver at 4K?

A: Yes. The measured data shows 91.5 FPS at 4K High and 80.5 FPS at 4K Ultra, both comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Even at 4K Low, the system delivers 122.2 FPS.

Q: How much performance is lost when going from 1080p to 4K?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 180.3 at 1920x1080 to 91.5 at 3840x2160, a reduction of 48.8%. At Low settings, the drop is from 245.3 to 122.2 FPS, a 50.2% decrease.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The RTX 5060's performance scales predictably with pixel count, while the i5-14600K's 93rd percentile CPU ranking and 14 cores provide ample headroom. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 32881 and single-core score of 4642 are far beyond what this adventure title requires.

Q: What is the best settings preset for this combo?

A: At 1080p, all presets exceed 160 FPS, with Ultra delivering 162.6 FPS. At 1440p, Ultra still achieves 123.2 FPS. At 4K, High settings at 91.5 FPS offers the best balance, while Ultra drops to 80.5 FPS.

Q: How does this combo compare to the RTX 5060's closest GPU rival?

A: The RTX 5060's average benchmark score of 30109 is effectively identical to the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT at 30097, a 0% delta. In-game performance would therefore be expected to be near-identical between these two cards.

Q: Is the RTX 5060's 8 GB memory capacity sufficient for this game?

A: Yes. The measured frame rates show no evidence of memory-related stuttering or performance collapse, even at 4K Ultra. The 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth handles Dave The Diver's requirements without issue.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 245.3 FPS, Medium reaches 202.9 FPS, High achieves 180.3 FPS, and Ultra still maintains 162.6 FPS. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the system has substantial headroom even for 144Hz or 165Hz monitors, with the lowest preset nearly hitting 240 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance remains strong but drops noticeably. Low settings yield 182.4 FPS, Medium 151.8 FPS, High 140.3 FPS, and Ultra 123.2 FPS. The 1440p results show that even at the highest quality preset, the system stays above 120 FPS, making this resolution the sweet spot for high-refresh-rate gaming with this hardware.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 5060 begins to show its limits. Low settings deliver 122.2 FPS, Medium 101.5 FPS, High 91.5 FPS, and Ultra 80.5 FPS. While all presets remain above 60 FPS, the gap between Low and Ultra narrows to just 41.7 FPS, indicating that the GPU's compute resources are being fully utilized at this resolution regardless of quality settings.

The progression across all twelve measured points shows a consistent pattern: each settings tier costs roughly 15-20% performance, and each resolution step costs approximately 25-35% performance. This regularity suggests well-optimized scaling in the game engine, with no unexpected bottlenecks or anomalies in the data.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K, part of the Raptor Lake Refresh generation built on Intel's 10 nm process, provides 14 cores and 20 threads with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz. This configuration ranks at the 93rd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49166 that places it in a tight cluster with rivals such as the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (0.2% ahead), Intel Core i5-14600KF (0.4% behind), and AMD EPYC 4345P (0.9% behind).

In Dave The Diver, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU, as evidenced by the resolution scaling data. If the i5-14600K were the bottleneck, frame rates would remain flat across resolutions rather than dropping consistently from 1080p to 4K. The processor's Cinebench R23 results — 32881 multicore and 4642 single-core — demonstrate exceptional capability for a desktop chip, while its Geekbench scores of 15846 multicore and 2803 single-core reinforce that this is a high-end processor that will not constrain gaming performance in this title.

The 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample bandwidth for game data, and the dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 memory support allows flexibility in system configuration. The processor's 125 W TDP and UHD Graphics 770 integrated GPU are irrelevant for this discrete-GPU setup, but the unlocked multiplier and Intel Socket 1700 compatibility make it a versatile choice for future upgrades. For a game like Dave The Diver, which is far from CPU-intensive, the i5-14600K provides massive headroom — the benchmark data shows the GPU as the consistent limiting factor, which is the ideal scenario for a balanced gaming system.