Dave The Diver

The Intel Core i5-14600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 consistently deliver high frame rates in Dave The Diver, a measured build that ranks 215th out of 3,710 tested combinations. Across the three tested resolutions and four quality presets, the setup rarely drops below 136 FPS at 4K and never falls below 230 FPS at 1440p. The pair's performance is so consistent that the only time the combo yields a frame rate below 150 FPS is at 4K Ultra, where it still averages 136 FPS. With the CPU's launch MSRP at $294 and the GPU at 1,199 USD, this is a high-end pairing, and the measured data confirms it positions near the top of the database.

Looking at the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K, the data shows a clear trend. At the Ultra preset, the average frame rate moves from 269 at 1920x1080 to 203 at 2560x1440, then to 136 at 3840x2160. The high-request, High preset sees the average drop from 305 at FHD to 230 at QHD and then to 154 at 4K. The gap between resolutions is large, especially from 1080p to 4K, where the average drops by more than half in most presets. This indicates the workload becomes much heavier as pixel count increases, and the GPU is the component taking most of the load at higher resolutions.

However, even the lowest measured 4K numbers (Low preset) reach 206 FPS, which is still above 200. That suggests the CPU never becomes a limiting factor at this resolution, because the FPS at 4K Low is lower than at 1080p Low (408 FPS) – but compare the two: at 1080p Low you get 408, at 1440p Low 307, at 4K Low 206. The scaling suggests that each pixel step reduces frame rates roughly linearly, but importantly, the game stays playable across all tested settings. Even at 1440p Ultra, the average is 203 FPS, which is above the refresh rate of most monitors.

Nevertheless, the data shows the two components work together: the buffer of 16 GB GDDR6X on the GPU is more than the game's demands, and the high single-core performance of the CPU permits 269 FPS at 1080p Ultra. This combination is clearly more ahead of the curve in this title, because the frame-time variance (low a min 146 FPS at 4K Medium) remains stable even when the resolution bracket rises.

How This Combo Ranks

The measured position is 215th out of 3,710 unique CPU-GPU pairings tested in Dave The Diver. That is a top-tier placement, though not the absolute elite. Out of thousands of possible combinations, this computer sits in the top 6% – it is a very high performer for this game. The percentile ranking of the CPU (90th among all CPUs) and the GPU (86th among all GPUs) shows the assembly is above average on both sides, but not the absolute best on either. However, the resulting bench mark suggests the two components work coherently in this game, producing higher results than the individual component percentiles might imply.

The nearest CPU rivals highlight its position: the Intel i5-14600KF averages a score of 49,394 across benchmark suites, which is 0.3% above the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 and 0.4% above the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G, and 0.8% above the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K. On the GPU side, the RTX 4080's average score of 54,247 is essentially the same as the RTX 4080 SUPER (0.1% difference), ensuring that within the 40-series lineup this card is a high but not peak choice. This ranking confirms that the i5-14600KF is a high-end but not halo processor, while the RTX 4080 performance is only a hair's breadth behind its closest sibling.

Because the game is measured and not an estimated projection, the ranking is based on actual. The combination is still nearly 1% behind the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388 in the CPU benchmark, yet the game-specific result is strong because the game likely relies on the integrated approach – and the measured FPS shows it does better than that gap might suggest.

GPU Role

The 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on the RTX 4080 is a feature that may be overkill for Dave The Diver; the game is not likely to require anywhere near 16 GB at these settings. The measured data supports that notion: even at 4K Ultra, the GPU sustains an average FPS of 136 while sending a massive texture load through a 20-inch bandwidth – 22.4 Gbps effective memory speed is the spec. The card runs at a base clock of 2205 MHz and boosts to 2505 MHz, and these clocks are enough to keep the frame meter above 200 at 1080p High. The measured FPS values are most likely dictated by the GPU's rendering power, not by its VRAM or cache structure.

The RTX 4080's dual approach includes 76 ray-tracing cores, 304 tensor cores, and 12 (actually 48.74 TFLOPS FP32). Again, the game's performance doesn't heavily engage ray tracing, so those cores are not the deciding factor. The truth is that the GPU is so fast that even at Low preset 4K with a 206 FPS average, it never becomes the strict limit at moderate resolutions. Rather, the GPU's high pixel rate (280.6 GPixel/s) and texture rate (761.5 GTexel/s) allow it to push 408 FPS at 1080p Low, which is near the head of a 3060 Ti would not be the same.

When comparing to the nearest GPU rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER is only 0.1% ahead, and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12GB is 2.6% behind in synthetic benchmarks, but for this game the actual result is what matters. The GPU's 86th percentile across all GPUs confirms it's a high-tier card that makes extensive use of its 9728 shader units and 112 ROPs. Despite its high power, its position is not the top due to presence of successor/card trucks.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS tables contain 12 entry points, each a unique resolution/setting combination. The numbers are averages, and for three instances (Medium preset at each resolution) the data also includes minimum and maximum frame levels. Here is the full list:

• 1920x1080 Low: 408 average
• 1920x1080 Medium: 342 average, 290 minimum, 393 maximum
• 1920x1080 High: 305 average
• 1920x1080 Ultra: 269 average
• 2560x1440 Low: 307 average
• 2560x1440 Medium: 257 average, 219 minimum, 296 maximum
• 2560x1440 High: 230 average
• 2560x1440 Ultra: 203 average
• 3840x2160 Low: 206 average
• 3840x2160 Medium: 172 average, 146 minimum, 198 maximum
• 3840x2160 High: 154 average
• 3840x2160 Ultra: 136 average

Across the board, Low to Medium adds about 66 FPS at 1080p (408 to 342), but the exact difference varies. The resolution step from 1080p to 1440p causes a typical drop of about 100 FPS at Low, from 408 to 307. The highest measured point is the FPS of 305 while for 1080p High, which is far above 205 – at 1440p is 230. No matter what preset you use at 1080p, the result is above 269, and even at 1440p the framerate never goes below 203. Only at 4K the FPS finally falls into the 100s – High is 154, Ultra is 136.

The min/max at Medium suggests stability: at 4K Medium, the minimum is 146 so frame drops only by about 15% from average, indicating the game is not heavy, and the numbers across the three Min data are consistent.

Settings Recommendations

Since almost every tested setting delivers above 130 FPS at 4K, the choice of setting should depend on the refresh rate. For a 144 Hz monitor at 1440p, the Medium preset is a safe recommendation; it provides a 257 average, a 219 minimum, so it won't dip below a 144 Hz threshold in a pronounced fashion. At 4K, the best balance according to the measured rows is Medium, since it yields an average of 172 FPS and a minimum of 146, which stays above 144 in practice. Ultra at 4K drops to 136 average, so for a 60Hz monitor Ultra is fine, but for leaders High or Medium is preferable.

At 1920x1080, all settings are playable. Even the Ultra preset from the data averages 269 FPS, so you can pick Ultra for image fidelity and still have a huge margin. However, the biggest cost benefit is available at Low, which yields 408 FPS, but that visual quality is probably not needed. The most rational option for a high refresh display (144-240 Hz) is Medium/High at 1440p (230-257 FPS) or Medium at 4K (172). The "High" setting is a good conservative choice for QHD.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is a 14-core, 20-thread processor from Raptor Lake, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost of up to 5.30 GHz. Its L3 cache is 24 MB shared. This CPU clears the way for the GPU, as seen in the FPS numbers: at 1080p Low the GPU puts out 408 FPS, which indicates the CPU can feed it frames that fast. Even but at 1080p Ultra it's 269 FPS, so the CPU holds no constraint. Its single-core scores are high enough: Cinebench R23 single-core 4,124, Geekbench single 2445. Those synthetic numbers translate to the game's responsiveness. The 2 MB per-core L2 caches are plenty for this adventure title.

The CPU sits above 90% of all desktop processors, and its nearest rivals are substantially close in average score: Ryzen 9 7900 is 0.3% lower, Ryzen 7 PRO 5750G 0.4% lower, Core Ultra 5 245 0.8% lower, and the laptop-core Ryzen AI Max+ 388 0.8% higher. In Dave The Diver, the measured frame rates show the processor is seldom the problematic part; it's the pair's slowest link is the GPU only when resolution increases forward to 4K the downward slope is likely GPU because the 1080p FPS is not falling below 269, whereas the 4K FPS for the same GPU settings falls to 136 – a drop that is too large to be a CPU bottleneck.

The CPU's 24 remaining threads, 20 overall, support the game's background simulation. The high boost clock and 24 MB L3 give the game single-thread headroom; even at 3700 of the tested workloads. In the frame you can never see the CPU limiting at any setting, which is exactly what a high-end processor should do for a title that is not inherently physics heavy.