Dave The Diver

Dave The Diver is an Adventure title that places surprisingly modest demands on this Intel Core i5-14600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 pairing. The measured frames per second data reveals a system that is heavily overqualified for the task, delivering playable results even at the most demanding settings, but the scaling patterns expose where the bottlenecks truly lie. This analysis breaks down the measured performance row by row, interpreting what the numbers mean for real-world play.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows that Ultra settings at 2560x1440 still produce an average of 151.2 FPS, while the High preset at the same resolution yields 171.1 FPS. The gap between these two is only 19.9 FPS, suggesting the visual fidelity jump to Ultra is relatively cheap in this game. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset holds 203.4 FPS average, which is still far beyond the refresh rate of most monitors. For players seeking the best experience per the measured rows, the High preset represents the strongest balance: at 1080p it hits 228.3 FPS, at 1440p it reaches 171.1 FPS, and even at 4K it maintains 114.6 FPS. The Low preset at 1080p produces 308 FPS, but this is only 79.7 FPS higher than High — a diminishing return given the likely visual sacrifice. The data indicates that High is the sweet spot, as it remains above 114 FPS across all tested resolutions, making it the only preset that clears the 100 FPS threshold at 3840x2160 alongside Medium's 130.8 FPS. Ultra at 4K drops to 105 FPS, which is still smooth but shows the first sign of strain. Given that the difference between Medium and High at 1080p is only 26.8 FPS (255.1 vs 228.3), the High preset appears to be the most efficient use of the hardware's headroom.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of this CPU and GPU ranks 480 out of 1626 tested combos in Dave The Diver. This places it in the upper third of all systems tested, which is notable given that the game is not graphically intensive. The RTX 3080 sits at the 80th percentile among all GPUs, while the i5-14600KF ranks in the 93rd percentile among all CPUs. This disparity in percentile rankings is telling: the processor is more exceptional relative to its peers than the graphics card is. The combo rank of 480 out of 1626 suggests that while this system is strong, there are many configurations that outperform it — likely those with newer GPUs that excel in higher-resolution scenarios. However, the measured FPS data contradicts this ranking's implication of mediocrity. At 1080p High, the system produces 228.3 FPS, which is far beyond the 144Hz or 165Hz refresh rates common in gaming monitors. The rank likely reflects the broader benchmark suite used to score combos, not this specific game's performance. In Dave The Diver specifically, this combo's low rank is more a function of the game's low requirements than any weakness in the hardware. The data shows the system is capable of 308 FPS at 1080p Low, which would place it near the top of any leaderboard for this title.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 features 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, delivering 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1188 MHz, translating to 19 Gbps effective, while the base and boost clocks are 1440 MHz and 1710 MHz respectively. In Dave The Diver, this GPU configuration proves more than adequate. The measured results show the card's compute power — 29.77 TFLOPS FP32 and 8704 shading units — is barely taxed at lower resolutions. The transition from 1080p Ultra (203.4 FPS) to 4K Ultra (105 FPS) represents a 98.4 FPS drop, which indicates the GPU is becoming the limiting factor at higher resolutions, but only mildly so. The 10 GB VRAM is not a constraint here, as the game's asset demands are modest. The GPU's 80th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35787, places it close to the AMD Radeon Pro Duo (35860, 0.2% slower) and slightly behind the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE (36101, 0.9% slower). These rivals are within 1% of the RTX 3080's performance, yet the RTX 3080's 4K High result of 114.6 FPS shows it handles this game's top-end loads with ease. The card's 8 nm process node and 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die contribute to its 320 W TDP, but the game's framerates suggest the GPU is rarely hitting sustained peak loads.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the four settings produce a clear hierarchy: Low at 308 FPS, Medium at 255.1 FPS, High at 228.3 FPS, and Ultra at 203.4 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 52.9 FPS, while Medium to High costs 26.8 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 24.9 FPS. This diminishing return pattern suggests each preset tier adds visual complexity at a decreasing performance cost. Moving to 2560x1440, the numbers shift: Low hits 228.9 FPS, Medium drops to 193.9 FPS, High settles at 171.1 FPS, and Ultra reaches 151.2 FPS. The resolution increase from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 25-35% of the framerate across all settings. At 3840x2160, the pattern continues: Low produces 154.8 FPS, Medium 130.8 FPS, High 114.6 FPS, and Ultra 105 FPS. Notably, the gap between High and Ultra at 4K is only 9.6 FPS, the smallest difference between any two adjacent settings at any resolution. This indicates that Ultra's additional effects are nearly free at high resolution, or that the GPU has hit a performance plateau. The 4K Ultra result of 105 FPS is exactly triple the 1080p Ultra's 203.4 FPS deficit, showing a consistent scaling penalty. Across all resolutions, the Low preset maintains an average above 150 FPS, confirming that this game is far from demanding even at maximum resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and consistent. At Low settings, 308 FPS at 1080p falls to 228.9 FPS at 1440p (a 79.1 FPS drop), then to 154.8 FPS at 4K (another 74.1 FPS drop). The total reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low is 153.2 FPS, representing a 49.7% decrease. At High settings, the drop is 228.3 to 171.1 to 114.6, a total loss of 113.7 FPS (49.8% decrease). Ultra settings show a similar proportional decline: 203.4 to 151.2 to 105, losing 98.4 FPS (48.4% decrease). This near-uniform scaling across settings strongly indicates the limiting component is the GPU, as CPU-bound scenarios would show less severe resolution penalties. The fact that 4K Low (154.8 FPS) is still higher than 1080p Ultra (203.4 FPS) by a significant margin suggests the game's graphical settings have a more substantial impact on performance than resolution alone. However, the data also reveals that at 1440p Ultra (151.2 FPS) versus 4K Low (154.8 FPS), the higher resolution with lower settings actually performs slightly better, implying that resolution scaling is not purely linear and that the GPU's pixel fill rate — 164.2 GPixel/s — is the relevant constraint. The 320-bit memory bus and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth appear sufficient, as the game does not exhibit signs of memory bandwidth starvation at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on Raptor Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. Its base clock of 3.50 GHz boosts to 5.30 GHz, and the 24 MB of shared L3 cache provides ample headroom for gaming workloads. In Dave The Diver, the CPU's role is clearly secondary to the GPU. The benchmark results show this processor is exceptionally strong: its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32889 and single-core score of 4643 place it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 49367 is 0.4% higher than the Intel Core i5-14600K (49166) and 0.6% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (49062), while being 0.5% lower than the AMD EPYC 4345P (49595). These near-ties indicate the 14600KF is at the top of its class. Given the game's modest requirements, the CPU is never the bottleneck. Even at 1080p Low, where the GPU has the least work, the 308 FPS result is likely limited by the game engine's frame pacing or the GPU's command processor, not the CPU's 5.30 GHz boost clock. The 20 threads are far more than needed for this title, and the PassMark single-thread score of 4273 confirms the per-core performance is more than adequate. The data suggests that if a weaker CPU were paired with this GPU, the 1080p Low result would likely be the first to show CPU limitations, but with this processor, those limits are never approached.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1440p gaming with this combo?

A: The High preset at 2560x1440 delivers 171.1 FPS, which is 20 FPS more than Ultra's 151.2 FPS and only 22.8 FPS less than Medium's 193.9 FPS. The High preset offers the best balance of visual quality and framerate headroom.

Q: How does this system perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 Ultra, the combo produces 105 FPS average, which is 9.6 FPS below the High preset's 114.6 FPS at the same resolution. This is still smooth for most displays, but it represents the lowest measured result in the dataset.

Q: Is the RTX 3080 the limiting factor in this game?

A: Yes, the resolution scaling data shows a 48-50% framerate drop from 1080p to 4K at all settings, which is characteristic of GPU-bound performance. The CPU's 93rd percentile ranking and high single-core scores (4643 in Cinebench R23) mean it is not constraining results.

Q: How does the i5-14600KF compare to its nearest rival, the i5-14600K?

A: The i5-14600KF has an average benchmark score of 49367, which is 0.4% higher than the i5-14600K's 49166. This places the two effectively equal in performance, with a delta of just 201 points.

Q: What framerate can I expect at 1080p with the Low preset?

A: The measured average is 308 FPS, the highest result in the entire dataset. This is 52.9 FPS more than Medium (255.1 FPS) and 104.6 FPS more than Ultra (203.4 FPS) at the same resolution.

Q: Does the 10 GB VRAM on the RTX 3080 cause any issues in Dave The Diver?

A: The measured data shows no VRAM-related performance drops. Even at 4K Ultra, the system maintains 105 FPS, and the game's modest asset demands do not approach the 10 GB GDDR6X capacity or the 760.3 GB/s bandwidth.