Dave The Diver

Dave The Diver is a slower-paced adventure title that does not demand the absolute top tier of hardware, but the data for the Intel Core i7-14700F and Intel Arc B580 combo shows it can deliver a very smooth experience. The measured results across the board indicate that this pairing is well-balanced for the game, with the CPU providing ample headroom and the GPU doing the heavy lifting at higher resolutions. The benchmark results place this combination at rank 1264 out of 1626 tested combos, which is a solid mid-pack showing, leaving significant performance on the table compared to the top 20% of systems, but still providing a highly playable experience in most scenarios.

Settings Recommendations

The sweet spot for this combo is the High preset, which offers a substantial visual upgrade over Medium settings with a manageable performance cost. At 1080p, the High preset delivers 141.5 FPS, which is only a 9.2% drop from the Medium preset's 155.8 FPS, but it provides noticeably better image quality. Moving up to Ultra at 1080p yields 125.1 FPS, a further 11.6% drop from High, which is a steeper price to pay for marginal visual gains.

At 1440p, the High preset is the clear winner for a 60+ FPS experience on high-refresh displays, hitting 106.2 FPS. This is far above the 60 FPS threshold and leaves plenty of room for the game's action. While the Medium preset at 1440p gives 116 FPS, the jump to High is worth the 9.8 FPS loss for the improved fidelity. The Ultra preset at 1440p dips to 92.3 FPS, which is still very playable but starts to show the GPU working harder.

For 4K gaming, the data suggests that the High preset is the most balanced choice, achieving 68.7 FPS. This is just above the 60 FPS target, making it the only preset at this resolution that provides a consistently smooth experience without significant compromise. The Medium preset at 4K drops to 77.3 FPS, which is also acceptable, but High offers a better visual experience for only 8.6 FPS less. The Ultra preset at 4K falls to 61.8 FPS, which is too close to the 60 FPS line, leaving little headroom for demanding scenes.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F is a powerhouse with 20 cores and 28 threads, a configuration that is far more than Dave The Diver requires. Its Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, ensures that even the most demanding scenarios in this adventure game are handled with ease. The high single-thread performance, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 5003, is crucial for game logic and physics, ensuring the game world remains responsive.

The CPU's benchmark scores place it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54097. It sits just 0.6% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and 1.1% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D, while being 1.2% ahead of the Intel Xeon Phi 7290. This level of performance means that in Dave The Diver, the CPU is almost never the limiting factor. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo reaches 187.8 FPS, a number far beyond what the game's mechanics demand, indicating the CPU has significant headroom.

The i7-14700F's 33 MB of shared L3 cache is ample for the game's asset streaming, and its support for both DDR4 and DDR5 memory gives builders flexibility. The processor's TDP of 65 watts is remarkably low for a 20-core chip, meaning it won't stress most cooling solutions. The benchmark results indicate that the CPU's role here is to provide a stable, high-frequency foundation that allows the GPU to work without any bottlenecking, especially at lower resolutions where the frame rate is exceptionally high.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580, built on the Xe2-HPG architecture, is the primary driver of frame rates in this combo. With 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, it has the bandwidth (456.0 GB/s) and capacity to handle the game's textures and effects without stuttering. Its base and boost clocks are both locked at 2670 MHz, which is a high operating frequency for a modern GPU, and this is reflected in the consistent frame times across the measured settings.

The GPU's overall performance is ranked in the 66th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23021. Its closest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, is just 0.7% faster, making the B580 a very competitive option in its class. The B580 is also 1.3% ahead of the RTX 4060 Mobile and 0.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon 760M. This positioning means it is a capable 1080p and 1440p card, but at 4K Ultra, its limits become apparent, as the frame rate drops to 61.8 FPS.

The GPU's 13.67 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is a solid figure for this segment. The data shows that moving from Low to Ultra at 1080p costs 62.7 FPS (from 187.8 to 125.1), which is a 33% reduction. This scaling is typical for a GPU-bound title at lower resolutions. The B580's 190 W TDP and suggested 450 W PSU make it an efficient choice, and its dual-slot design should fit in most cases. The GPU is the clear bottleneck at 4K High, where the frame rate is 68.7 FPS, showing that the graphics card is working near its limits to maintain that level of performance.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific pairing of the Intel Core i7-14700F and Intel Arc B580 achieves a rank of 1264 out of 1626 tested combinations in Dave The Diver. This places the combo in the lower-middle portion of the field, but the raw scores tell a different story. The ranking is heavily influenced by the fact that many of the 1626 combos likely feature much more expensive, high-end GPUs like the RTX 4090 or RX 7900 XTX.

The data shows that this combo is not limiting the game's performance in a way that would cause problems. The 1080p High score of 141.5 FPS is an excellent result that would satisfy most gamers. The rank is a relative measure against the entire field, and while it is not in the top tier, the actual measured FPS values indicate that this combo is far from a poor performer. It is a well-balanced pairing where the CPU is clearly more powerful than the GPU, which means the GPU is the primary determinant of the final frame rate.

The fact that the GPU is ranked in the 66th percentile while the CPU is in the 94th percentile reinforces this. The combo's rank is dragged down by the GPU's position in the overall GPU hierarchy, not by any inefficiency in the pairing. For a builder targeting 1080p or 1440p gaming, this rank is less important than the actual playable experience, which the numbers show to be very good.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K clearly illustrates the GPU's role as the primary performance limiter. At High settings, the combo produces 141.5 FPS at 1080p, which drops to 106.2 FPS at 1440p (a 25% reduction) and then to 68.7 FPS at 4K (a 35% reduction from 1440p). This pattern shows a consistent and expected decline as the pixel count increases, putting more pressure on the GPU.

The scaling on the Low preset is even more telling. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 187.8 FPS, which is an extremely high frame rate. At 1440p Low, it drops to 144 FPS, and at 4K Low, it is 94.4 FPS. The fact that even at 4K Low, the frame rate is above 90 FPS indicates that the CPU is not a bottleneck at any resolution. If the CPU were limiting, we would see the 1080p and 1440p scores become closer together as the GPU became less stressed.

The gap between the 1080p and 4K scores at High settings (141.5 vs 68.7) is a 51% reduction, which is a significant drop. This highlights that while the B580 is a strong 1080p and 1440p card, 4K gaming is at the edge of its capabilities, requiring the High preset to maintain a playable frame rate. The data suggests that users with a 4K display should stick to the High preset, while those on 1440p or 1080p monitors have plenty of headroom to use Ultra settings if they prefer maximum visual fidelity.

FAQ

Q: What is the best setting to use for a 1440p monitor?

A: The High preset is the most balanced choice at 2560x1440, delivering 106.2 FPS. This provides a significant visual improvement over Medium (116 FPS) for a small performance cost, and it is far above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming?

A: Yes, but only with the High preset, which achieves 68.7 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 61.8 FPS, which is too close to the 60 FPS minimum for comfort. Low and Medium presets at 4K offer 94.4 and 77.3 FPS, respectively.

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

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary limiting factor. The CPU is ranked in the 94th percentile, while the GPU is in the 66th percentile. The frame rates at 1080p Low (187.8 FPS) show the CPU has significant headroom, while the large drops at 4K (down to 61.8 FPS on Ultra) show the GPU is working at its limit.

Q: How does this GPU compare to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060?

A: The Intel Arc B580 is 0.7% slower than the RTX 4060 in the average benchmark score, making them virtually neck-and-neck in performance. This means you can expect similar frame rates in Dave The Diver.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset scores 187.8 FPS, while the Ultra preset scores 125.1 FPS. This is a difference of 62.7 FPS, or a 33% reduction in performance, which is the cost of the highest visual quality settings.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking compared to other tested systems?

A: This combination ranks 1264 out of 1626 tested combos in Dave The Diver. While this is in the lower half of the field, it is a reflection of the GPU's mid-range position, and the actual measured frame rates are still very high for playable gaming.