Dave The Diver

Dave The Diver presents an interesting case for the Intel Core i7-12700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 combination. The measured frame rates are exceptionally high across all resolutions, indicating that this hardware pairing is far more powerful than the game demands. The data shows a clear hierarchy where the CPU's strong multi-threaded performance, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28979, ensures that the GPU is the primary bottleneck in most scenarios. The combination ranks in the 741st position out of 1626 tested combos, placing it in the upper-middle tier of the database, which aligns with its ability to deliver high refresh rate experiences at 1440p and even smooth 4K gameplay.

Settings Recommendations

For this specific hardware configuration, the benchmark data suggests that the "Ultra" preset is the optimal choice for most users, as it provides a substantial visual upgrade while maintaining frame rates well above the 60 FPS threshold. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 173.9 FPS, which is only 91.4 FPS lower than the Low preset's 265.3 FPS but offers significantly better visual fidelity. The gap between settings narrows at higher resolutions, making Ultra even more compelling. At 2560x1440, Ultra achieves 129.8 FPS, which remains comfortably high for high-refresh-rate monitors. Moving to 3840x2160, the Ultra preset drops to 85.9 FPS, which is still above the 60 FPS standard for smooth gameplay. Given that the CPU's percentile ranking against all CPUs is 89, meaning it outperforms 89% of tested processors, the system has ample headroom to handle the increased draw calls and physics calculations that come with higher settings.

The data indicates that the Medium preset offers a balanced alternative for users who prioritize higher frame rates over maximum visual quality. At 1080p, Medium produces 223.2 FPS, which is 49.3 FPS more than Ultra, and at 1440p it reaches 165.2 FPS. For competitive play or use with very high refresh rate displays, the Low preset at 1080p yields 265.3 FPS, but this comes at a significant visual cost that seems unnecessary given the hardware's capability. The High preset serves as a middle ground, providing 196.2 FPS at 1080p and 146.3 FPS at 1440p. Since the Ultra preset at 1440p still exceeds 120 FPS, it is the recommended starting point for this combination, with adjustments downward only for users with 240Hz or faster displays who demand absolute maximum frame rates.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Dave The Diver at 4K with the Ultra preset?

A: Yes. The measured average frame rate at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 85.9 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. This indicates the combination is fully capable of 4K gaming at maximum settings.

Q: How much performance difference is there between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: The difference is significant. The Low preset produces 265.3 FPS while Ultra produces 173.9 FPS, representing a 91.4 FPS gap. This means Ultra is about 34% slower in terms of raw frame rate, but both values are extremely high.

Q: Is the RTX 3070's 8 GB VRAM sufficient for this game at 4K?

A: The benchmark data shows playable frame rates at 4K, with the Low preset achieving 132.6 FPS and Ultra achieving 85.9 FPS. This suggests that the 8 GB memory capacity is not a limiting factor for Dave The Diver, as the game is not VRAM-intensive.

Q: How does the i7-12700KF compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i7-12700KF has an average benchmark score of 35355, which is nearly identical to the Intel Core i5-14400 at 35336, a difference of only 0.1%. It is also 0.2% behind the Intel Core i7-13800H and 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core i9-12900HX.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The measured average frame rate is 165.2 FPS at 2560x1440 with Medium settings. This is a high value that comfortably exceeds the refresh rate of most 1440p gaming monitors.

Q: Does the game scale well with resolution on this hardware?

A: Yes, but the scaling is more pronounced at higher settings. From 1080p to 4K, the frame rate drops by 91.4 FPS on Ultra (from 173.9 to 85.9), while on Low the drop is 132.7 FPS (from 265.3 to 132.6). This indicates a stronger GPU limitation at higher settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, with its GA104 chip and 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, provides a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The benchmark results show that this bandwidth is sufficient for Dave The Diver at all tested resolutions, as even the 4K Ultra preset maintains 85.9 FPS. The GPU's boost clock of 1725 MHz and its 5888 shading units contribute to its FP32 performance of 20.31 TFLOPS, which the data suggests is more than adequate for this title. The GPU's percentile ranking against all GPUs is 72, placing it in the upper quarter of the database, and its average benchmark score of 28238 is just 0.9% above the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT's 27985.

The role of the GPU becomes more apparent as resolution increases. At 1080p, the frame rate differences between settings are large, with Low at 265.3 FPS and Ultra at 173.9 FPS. This suggests that at lower resolutions, the GPU is still the limiting factor, but the CPU's high single-thread performance, indicated by a Geekbench single-core score of 2526, ensures it can feed frames quickly. At 4K, the gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 46.7 FPS (132.6 vs 85.9), showing that the GPU's workload increases more uniformly with resolution. The RTX 3070's 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores are present but not heavily utilized in this game, as the performance profile points to traditional rasterization being the primary workload. The GPU's TDP of 220 W and suggested PSU of 550 W are within normal range for this class of card, and the 14 Gbps effective memory speed helps maintain consistent bandwidth at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-12700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 combination holds the 741st rank out of 1626 tested combos in Dave The Diver. This places it in the 45th percentile of all tested systems, which is notable given the game's relatively low system requirements. The ranking reflects the GPU's position at the 72nd percentile of all GPUs and the CPU's position at the 89th percentile of all CPUs, but the combination's rank is pulled down by the fact that many higher-tier GPUs can achieve even higher frame rates in this game. The data shows that this combo is not near the top of the leaderboard, but it consistently delivers high frame rates across all tested settings.

The GPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are the AMD FirePro S7150, which scores 28409 and is 0.6% higher, and the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, which scores 27985 and is 0.9% lower. This close grouping suggests that the RTX 3070 is competitively positioned in raw compute power, but in Dave The Diver, the actual frame rates are more dependent on driver optimization and game-specific factors. The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-14400, which has a delta of 0.1%, and the Intel Core i7-13800H at -0.2%. These small deltas indicate that the i7-12700KF is well-matched to its contemporaries, and any performance difference in-game would be minimal. The combo's rank of 741 suggests that while this system is capable, there are many other configurations that achieve higher frame rates, likely due to more powerful GPUs being paired with similar CPUs.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data reveals a predictable pattern of scaling from 1080p to 4K, with the magnitude of the drop depending heavily on the settings preset. At the Low preset, the average frame rate falls from 265.3 FPS at 1920x1080 to 196.4 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 68.9 FPS, and then to 132.6 FPS at 3840x2160, another reduction of 63.8 FPS. This represents a total drop of 132.7 FPS from 1080p to 4K, or approximately 50% of the original frame rate. For the Ultra preset, the decline is from 173.9 FPS at 1080p to 129.8 FPS at 1440p, a drop of 44.1 FPS, and then to 85.9 FPS at 4K, a further drop of 43.9 FPS, totaling 88 FPS or about 51% of the 1080p value.

The consistency of these percentage drops across settings suggests that the limiting component is the GPU, as the frame rate scales proportionally with the number of pixels rendered. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see less variation between resolutions, particularly at lower settings where the CPU has more influence. The fact that the Low preset at 4K (132.6 FPS) is still higher than the Ultra preset at 1080p (173.9 FPS) indicates that the GPU has headroom even at 4K, and the CPU is not the primary constraint. The i7-12700KF's strong multi-core performance, with a Passmark multi-thread score of 34092, ensures that it can keep up with the GPU's output at all resolutions. The data suggests that users with a 1440p 144Hz monitor will be fully satisfied with this combo, as even the Ultra preset exceeds the refresh rate by 14.2 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average frame rates are 265.3 FPS on Low, 223.2 FPS on Medium, 196.2 FPS on High, and 173.9 FPS on Ultra. The spread between Low and Ultra is 91.4 FPS, indicating that the graphics settings have a significant impact on performance at this resolution. The High preset, at 196.2 FPS, is only 22.3 FPS slower than Medium, while the jump from High to Ultra costs 22.3 FPS as well. This linear progression suggests that each settings tier adds a consistent load on the GPU.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates decrease to 196.4 FPS on Low, 165.2 FPS on Medium, 146.3 FPS on High, and 129.8 FPS on Ultra. The difference between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 66.6 FPS, which is smaller than at 1080p. The Medium preset at 1440p (165.2 FPS) is nearly identical to the Ultra preset at 1080p (173.9 FPS), showing that the resolution increase has a similar effect to raising the settings by one tier. At 3840x2160, the frame rates are 132.6 FPS on Low, 110.9 FPS on Medium, 99.3 FPS on High, and 85.9 FPS on Ultra. The 4K Ultra result of 85.9 FPS is still well above 60 FPS, confirming that this combination can handle 4K gaming with maximum settings. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 46.7 FPS, which is the smallest absolute difference across all resolutions, reinforcing the idea that the GPU is the limiting factor and that its performance scales almost linearly with pixel count.