Dave The Diver

Dave The Diver is not a demanding title by modern standards, and the combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 produces exceptionally high frame rates across all tested configurations. The data shows a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-limited at higher resolutions, but the sheer headroom available means the aging six-core CPU rarely becomes a bottleneck for this adventure game. The measured results place this combo in the 65th percentile of all tested configurations, which is a strong showing given the CPU's age, but the real story is how effortlessly the RTX 4070 pushes frame rates past 100 FPS even at 4K Ultra.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is remarkably shallow, which indicates that the RTX 4070 has ample compute headroom for this game's art style. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 198 FPS at 1920x1080 to 179 FPS at 2560x1440, a decline of roughly 10%. Moving to 3840x2160, the average drops further to 120 FPS, which represents a 39% reduction from the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern is unusual because most games show a steeper penalty at 4K, but Dave The Diver's relatively simple 2D/3D hybrid visuals do not saturate the GPU's 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth or its 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 compute.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens as resolution increases, which highlights the pixel-rate pressure on the GPU. At 1080p, the spread from Low (219 FPS) to Ultra (189 FPS) is only 30 FPS, or 14%. At 1440p, the same spread grows to 41 FPS (199 vs 158), and at 4K it reaches 55 FPS (161 vs 106). This behavior suggests that the CPU can feed frames fast enough at lower resolutions, but the GPU's work per pixel becomes the limiting factor when both resolution and quality settings rise. The 4K Ultra result of 106 FPS is still far above the 60 FPS threshold, so users with 120Hz displays will not feel constrained.

The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is particularly mild, with only a 4-5% drop across all settings. This indicates that the RTX 4070 is not even remotely stressed at these resolutions. The biggest single-step decline occurs between 1440p High (179 FPS) and 4K High (120 FPS), a 33% reduction that still leaves performance in triple digits. For a game like Dave The Diver, which features pixel-art sprites over 3D environments, the rendering load is light enough that even the 4K Ultra preset only demands a fraction of the GPU's capabilities.

How This Combo Ranks

Out of 3,710 tested combinations in Dave The Diver, this CPU-GPU pairing ranks 1,287th, placing it in the 65th percentile of all systems. This rank is respectable but not top-tier, which makes sense given the CPU's position in the overall hierarchy. The Intel Core i5-9400 sits at the 47th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2,254 across various tests. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-1068NG7, scores 2,259 (0.2% higher), while the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 trails at 2,246 (0.4% lower). These deltas are tiny, meaning the i5-9400's compute performance is firmly mid-pack.

The GPU, however, is a different story. The RTX 4070 ranks at the 81st percentile among all GPUs with an average score of 37,648. Its closest competitor, the NVIDIA Tesla P4, scores 37,628 (0.1% higher), while the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 sits 0.4% lower at 37,507. The fact that the combo ranks higher than the CPU's percentile but lower than the GPU's percentile suggests that the CPU does impose some ceiling in lighter scenes. However, the measured FPS numbers show that this ceiling is very high — above 100 FPS in every tested configuration.

The gap between the combo's rank (65th percentile) and the GPU's individual rank (81st percentile) is 16 points, which quantifies the CPU's drag on overall performance. Had the i5-9400 been paired with a weaker GPU, the rank would likely be lower, but the RTX 4070's immense power compensates for the CPU's age. Notably, the combo outperforms what the CPU's 47th percentile might suggest, because Dave The Diver's frame rate is not heavily dependent on multi-core scaling. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 6,629 and single-core score of 935 indicate modest throughput, but the game's engine appears to favor GPU throughput.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain why the measured frame rates are so high. With 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, the card delivers 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for Dave The Diver's texture loads. The GPU has 5,888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output units, giving it a pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s. These figures are far beyond what this game requires, as evidenced by the 4K Low result of 161 FPS.

Clock speeds are also favorable, with a base clock of 1920 MHz and a boost clock of 2475 MHz. The effective memory speed is 21 Gbps, which contributes to the high bandwidth figure. In synthetic benchmarks, the GPU scores 26,927 in Passmark G3D and 15,4858 in Geekbench OpenCL, indicating strong general-purpose compute. Its DirectX 12 Passmark score of 103 is less impressive, but Dave The Diver likely does not stress modern DX12 features heavily. The GPU's 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores are present but largely idle in this title, as the game does not appear to use ray tracing or DLSS based on the measured data.

The GPU's power draw is rated at 200 W with a suggested 550 W PSU, which is modest for its performance class. The 16-pin power connector and dual-slot design are standard for this generation. The card's 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die (121.8M transistors per mm²) show a dense architecture, but the game's simple rendering pipeline does not exploit this complexity fully. In short, the RTX 4070 is overqualified for Dave The Diver, and the data reflects that — the GPU is never the limiting factor even at 4K Ultra.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the lowest tested resolution, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 219 FPS, while Medium averages 206 FPS with a minimum of 175 FPS and maximum of 237 FPS. High settings drop slightly to 198 FPS, and Ultra maintains 189 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is only 30 FPS, which means even the most demanding preset at 1080p stays well above 144Hz refresh rates. The minimum FPS recorded at Medium (175) is higher than the average FPS at 4K Ultra (106), showing the CPU's ability to feed frames at lower resolutions.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain extremely high. Low settings average 199 FPS, Medium 187 FPS (min 159, max 215), High 179 FPS, and Ultra 158 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is minimal, ranging from 9-11% depending on the preset. The Medium preset's minimum of 159 FPS indicates that even the most demanding moments in the game do not cause significant stutter. Ultra at 1440p still exceeds 150 FPS, which is more than enough for high-refresh monitors.

At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to show its workload, but results remain excellent. Low settings average 161 FPS, Medium 135 FPS (min 114, max 155), High 120 FPS, and Ultra 106 FPS. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium (114) is still above the 100 FPS mark, and even Ultra does not dip below 100 FPS on average. The scaling from High to Ultra at 4K is a 14 FPS drop, which is the largest single-preset penalty in the entire dataset. This suggests that Ultra settings add effects that are disproportionately heavy at 4K, but the absolute numbers remain playable on any display.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to High settings as the sweet spot for this combo across all resolutions. At 1080p, High (198 FPS) trails Low (219 FPS) by only 21 FPS but provides significantly better visual quality. At 1440p, High (179 FPS) is 20 FPS slower than Low (199 FPS) but still 21 FPS faster than Ultra (158 FPS). At 4K, High (120 FPS) offers the best balance between quality and performance, sitting 41 FPS above Ultra (106 FPS) and 41 FPS below Low (161 FPS). The Medium preset, while slightly slower than High at each resolution, does provide the only min/max data points in the set, showing a minimum of 175 FPS at 1080p and 114 FPS at 4K.

For users prioritizing maximum frame rates, Low settings at 1440p yield 199 FPS, which is the highest 1440p result and only 20 FPS below the 1080p Low figure. However, the visual compromise is unnecessary given the hardware's headroom. The Ultra preset is only recommended for 1080p users who want every visual feature, as it still hits 189 FPS. At 4K, Ultra (106 FPS) is playable but offers diminishing returns over High (120 FPS), and the 14 FPS gap suggests that High is the more efficient choice.

Given that the game is an adventure title with slower pacing, frame rates above 120 FPS are arguably wasted. Therefore, the recommended configuration is High settings at 1440p, which delivers 179 FPS with a comfortable margin above any display's refresh rate. For 4K display owners, High settings at 2160p (120 FPS) provide the best experience, as they match the 120Hz refresh rate of many monitors without sacrificing visual fidelity. The data does not support using Low or Medium presets, as the performance gains are marginal relative to the visual downgrade.

FAQ

Q: Will this combo hit 60 FPS at 4K Ultra?

A: Yes, the measured average at 3840x2160 Ultra is 106 FPS, which is 76% above the 60 FPS target. Even the most demanding preset at the highest resolution leaves significant headroom.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in Dave The Diver?

A: The GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as shown by the 39% drop from 1080p High (198 FPS) to 4K High (120 FPS). At 1080p, the CPU's 47th percentile ranking may cap performance, but the game still averages 189 FPS on Ultra.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 compare to its nearest rivals in this context?

A: The RTX 4070's average benchmark score of 37,648 is 0.1% higher than the Tesla P4 and 0.4% higher than the RX Vega 56, but 1.3% lower than the RTX 4080 Mobile. These differences are negligible in actual gameplay.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: The data shows 2560x1440 High (179 FPS) as the optimal balance, but 3840x2160 High (120 FPS) is also excellent. The 1440p result offers a 49% higher frame rate than 4K High while still exceeding any display's refresh needs.

Q: Does the CPU's age hurt performance in this game?

A: The i5-9400's 47th percentile ranking suggests it is not a top-tier CPU, but the combo ranks in the 65th percentile overall. The measured frame rates above 100 FPS at all settings indicate that the CPU does not cause problematic bottlenecks.

Q: Can this system handle future updates to the game?

A: The RTX 4070's 12 GB VRAM and 81st percentile GPU ranking provide substantial headroom. The CPU's 6 cores and 6 threads, while dated, still deliver a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 6,629, which should suffice for this adventure genre.