Dave The Diver

The Intel Core i7-13700K paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a surprisingly robust experience in Dave The Diver, a game that clearly favors high refresh rates over raw graphical fidelity. The measured data shows a system that scales predictably with resolution, but the relationship between settings and performance reveals where the bottleneck truly lies. This analysis walks through the resolution scaling, the GPU's role, optimal settings, and how this specific combination ranks against other tested hardware.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is significant but not catastrophic, indicating a balanced system that transitions from CPU-bound at lower resolutions to GPU-bound at higher ones. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces an average of 167 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low, that figure drops to 125 FPS, a decline of 42 FPS (roughly 25%). Pushing further to 4K Low yields 84 FPS, another 41 FPS drop from 1440p. This pattern shows that the GPU is taking on progressively more work as pixel count rises, but the CPU is still feeding it enough data to maintain high triple-digit frame rates at 1080p.

The scaling becomes even more telling at higher settings. With High settings, the average FPS goes from 124 at 1080p, to 94 at 1440p, and finally to 63 at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 30 FPS, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 31 FPS—a remarkably consistent linear scaling. This suggests that the game's rendering load increases proportionally with pixel count, and neither component is hitting a hard wall until the very high end.

At Ultra settings, the pattern holds but with lower absolute numbers: 110 FPS at 1080p, 83 FPS at 1440p, and 55 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is 27 FPS, while 1440p to 4K is 28 FPS. The consistency across all four settings presets indicates that Dave The Diver is not a title with sudden performance cliffs; instead, it scales smoothly. The 4K Ultra result of 55 FPS is the only point where the system drops below the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting that 4K Ultra is the edge of this combo's capability.

The limiting component shifts based on resolution. At 1080p, the high frame rates across all settings (110 to 167 FPS) suggest the CPU has ample headroom, and the GPU is the primary driver of performance differences between presets. At 4K, the spread between Low (84 FPS) and Ultra (55 FPS) narrows in percentage terms, but the absolute numbers confirm the GPU is now the dominant constraint. The data indicates a healthy balance: the i7-13700K provides enough throughput to keep the Arc B570 busy even at lower resolutions, while the GPU's 10 GB memory and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth handle the higher pixel counts without catastrophic frame drops.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is the workhorse in this pairing, and its specifications directly correlate with the measured results. The GPU features 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output pipelines. These raw compute resources are backed by 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, delivering 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The boost clock is fixed at 2500 MHz, and the card operates within a 150 W TDP.

In Dave The Diver, the GPU's memory configuration proves adequate for all tested resolutions. The 4K Medium preset, which includes min/max FPS data, shows an average of 70 FPS with a minimum of 60 and a maximum of 81. The minimum of 60 FPS at 4K Medium indicates that the 10 GB frame buffer is sufficient to avoid memory-related stutters, even at 3840x2160. The bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s appears well-suited for the game's texture streaming demands, as the 4K High preset still maintains 63 FPS average.

The GPU's architecture, Xe2-HPG on a 5 nm process from TSMC, provides 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. This raw throughput translates directly to the rasterization-heavy workload of an adventure title like Dave The Diver. The measured results show that the GPU scales predictably with settings: from Low to Medium to High to Ultra, there is a consistent step-down in average FPS at each resolution. For instance, at 1440p, the progression is 125 (Low), 105 (Medium), 94 (High), and 83 (Ultra) FPS. Each setting tier costs roughly 10-20 FPS, which is a reasonable trade-off for visual fidelity.

The GPU's percentile ranking versus all GPUs is 65, placing it in the upper-midrange tier. Its average benchmark score of 20556 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534, deltaPct 0.1) and the Intel Arc A750 (20582, deltaPct -0.1). This close grouping means the Arc B570 performs almost exactly like its closest competitors in synthetic tests, and the Dave The Diver results reflect this positioning—capable of high refresh rates at 1440p, but not a 4K powerhouse. The GPU's 18 ray tracing cores and support for DirectX 12 Ultimate are present, but this game's measured data does not show any ray tracing-specific workloads, so the focus remains on traditional fill rate and shader performance.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear picture of which preset offers the best experience. For players targeting a locked 60 FPS, the 4K Medium preset is the highest visual quality option that averages 70 FPS with a 60 FPS minimum. This is the only 4K preset with recorded min/max data, showing a stable frame delivery window of 60 to 81 FPS. The 4K High preset dips to 63 FPS average, which is playable but leaves less headroom for complex scenes, and 4K Ultra falls to 55 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold.

At 1440p, the Ultra preset delivers 83 FPS average, which is high enough for smooth gameplay on most displays. The 1440p Medium preset offers 105 FPS with a minimum of 89 and maximum of 121, providing excellent smoothness. For competitive or fast-paced play, 1440p Low at 125 FPS is the best choice for maximizing refresh rate. The sweet spot, however, appears to be 1440p High at 94 FPS—it balances visual quality with performance, offering a substantial improvement over Medium without the diminishing returns seen at Ultra.

At 1080p, all presets exceed 110 FPS, making the choice purely about visual preference. The 1080p Ultra preset at 110 FPS is perfectly playable and offers the best image quality. The 1080p Medium preset at 139 FPS (minimum 118, maximum 160) provides a wide safety margin for high-refresh-rate monitors. Since the game runs so well at 1080p, users should prioritize visual settings over frame rate, as even Ultra maintains a triple-digit average.

The data suggests that the best overall experience is 1440p High. It provides a 94 FPS average, which is well above the 60 FPS standard, and the visual uplift from Medium to High is typically noticeable in adventure games with detailed environments. For 4K users, Medium is the recommended preset to maintain a stable 60 FPS floor, as evidenced by the 60 FPS minimum recorded in the measured data.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-13700K with the Intel Arc B570 ranks 2282 out of 2867 tested combos in Dave The Diver. This places the combo in the 79.6th percentile (calculated from the rank), meaning it outperforms roughly four out of five tested configurations. While this is not a top-tier ranking, it is respectable given the GPU's midrange positioning.

The CPU's own benchmark data helps contextualize this ranking. The i7-13700K has an average benchmark score of 46881, placing it in the 89th percentile versus all CPUs. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 (46971, deltaPct -0.2) and the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 (47022, deltaPct -0.3), showing that the CPU is essentially tied with its closest competitors in synthetic tests. The GPU, by contrast, sits in the 65th percentile with an average score of 20556, closely matching the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534, deltaPct 0.1) and the Intel Arc A750 (20582, deltaPct -0.1).

The gap between the CPU's high percentile (89) and the GPU's lower percentile (65) explains why the combo ranks in the 80th percentile overall—the GPU is the limiting factor in most games, including Dave The Diver. The combo rank of 2282 out of 2867 suggests that many other configurations with faster GPUs outperform this pairing, even if they have slower CPUs. The data indicates that the i7-13700K has significant headroom, and pairing it with a higher-tier GPU would likely push the combo into a much higher rank. However, for the specific task of running Dave The Diver, this combo still delivers playable performance at all tested settings except 4K Ultra.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K brings substantial processing power to this pairing, and its specifications are more than sufficient for Dave The Diver. The CPU features 16 cores and 24 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. It is built on Intel's 10 nm process (Raptor Lake-S architecture) and has a 30 MB shared L3 cache, alongside 2 MB L2 cache per core and 80 KB L1 cache per core. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel mode, and its 125 W TDP is standard for a desktop part.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i7-13700K demonstrates strong multi-threaded performance. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 30745, and its 3DMark max threads score is 12412. The single-thread performance is also solid, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2116 and a 3DMark single-thread score of 1136. These numbers suggest the CPU can handle both lightly-threaded game logic and heavily-threaded background tasks without issue.

For Dave The Diver, the CPU's role is to maintain consistent frame pacing. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 167 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's limit for this game. The fact that dropping from Low to Ultra at 1080p only reduces performance from 167 to 110 FPS (a 34% drop) indicates that the GPU is still the primary variable. The CPU's high boost clock of 5.40 GHz helps ensure that single-threaded game processes do not become a bottleneck, which is critical for maintaining high average FPS.

The CPU's memory support for DDR5 provides ample bandwidth for feeding the GPU, though the exact impact on Dave The Diver is not directly measured. The 30 MB L3 cache is likely beneficial for keeping game assets close to the cores. The CPU's 89th percentile ranking versus all CPUs confirms it is a high-end part, and its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 5900, has a nearly identical average score (46971 vs 46881, deltaPct -0.2). This means the i7-13700K is performing exactly as expected for its class. In this game, the CPU is not the limiting factor; the measured results show that the GPU is the component that determines the final frame rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured dataset for this combo in Dave The Diver provides a precise picture of performance across all combinations of resolution and settings.

1080p (1920x1080):

• Low: 167 FPS average
• Medium: 139 FPS average (minimum 118, maximum 160)
• High: 124 FPS average
• Ultra: 110 FPS average

1440p (2560x1440):

• Low: 125 FPS average
• Medium: 105 FPS average (minimum 89, maximum 121)
• High: 94 FPS average
• Ultra: 83 FPS average

4K (3840x2160):

• Low: 84 FPS average
• Medium: 70 FPS average (minimum 60, maximum 81)
• High: 63 FPS average
• Ultra: 55 FPS average

The data shows a clear pattern: each resolution step (1080p to 1440p, 1440p to 4K) costs approximately 30-40 FPS at Low settings, and 30-35 FPS at Ultra settings. The Medium preset includes min/max values at every resolution, providing insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p Medium, the range is 118 to 160 FPS, a spread of 42 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the range narrows to 89 to 121 FPS (32 FPS spread). At 4K Medium, the range is 60 to 81 FPS (21 FPS spread). This narrowing spread with higher resolution indicates that the GPU becomes more consistently loaded, reducing the variance caused by CPU-side frame generation.

The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that falls below 60 FPS, averaging 55 FPS. This is a 20% drop from the 4K High preset's 63 FPS, which is a significant penalty for the visual upgrade from High to Ultra. The Low preset at 4K still delivers 84 FPS, which is smooth, but the visual quality trade-off is substantial. The data suggests that 4K is viable for this combo, but only with Medium settings or lower to maintain a stable 60 FPS experience.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Dave The Diver?*

A: The data shows 1440p is the sweet spot. At High settings, it delivers 94 FPS average, which is well above the 60 FPS standard. 4K is also viable, but only at Medium settings (70 FPS average) or lower to maintain a stable frame rate.

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

A: Yes, but with caveats. The 4K Low preset averages 84 FPS, 4K Medium averages 70 FPS with a 60 FPS minimum, and 4K High averages 63 FPS. Only 4K Ultra falls below 60 FPS, averaging 55 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B570 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Arc B570 has an average benchmark score of 20556. Its closest rival is the Intel Arc A750 with a score of 20582 (deltaPct -0.1), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile with a score of 20534 (deltaPct 0.1). All three are effectively tied in performance.

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

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. The CPU ranks in the 89th percentile for all CPUs, while the GPU ranks in the 65th percentile. At 1080p, the system reaches 167 FPS, but the GPU's performance dictates the differences between settings presets.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations?

A: This combo ranks 2282 out of 2867 tested combos in Dave The Diver. This places it in the upper-midrange, outperforming about 80% of other tested systems.

Q: Does the 10 GB VRAM cause any issues at 4K?

A: No. The 4K Medium preset shows a minimum of 60 FPS, indicating no memory-related stuttering. The 380.0 GB/s bandwidth appears sufficient for the game's 4K textures, as evidenced by the 63 FPS average at 4K High.