Dave The Diver

Dave The Diver, an adventure title released on 2023-06-27, presents a unique scaling pattern for the Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 combination. The measured data indicates that this pairing delivers exceptionally high frame rates even at maximum settings, with the performance curve revealing a system that is primarily GPU-limited at lower resolutions and increasingly balanced as pixel count rises.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 produces a dramatic reduction in average frame rates, demonstrating how resolution directly impacts the rendering load. At Ultra settings, the average FPS drops from 205.1 at 1080p to 152.6 at 1440p, a decline of approximately 25.6%, and then further to 104.3 at 4K, representing a 49.2% reduction from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario where the RTX 3080's 10 GB of GDDR6X memory and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth are being progressively saturated.

The data reveals that at 1080p, the CPU's headroom is substantial. The Intel Core i7-14700F, with its 20 cores and 28 threads boosting up to 5.40 GHz, can feed frames faster than the GPU can process them, leading to a wider gap between Low and Ultra settings. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 307 FPS, while at 1080p Ultra it drops to 205.1 FPS, a 33.2% performance penalty for maxing out visual fidelity. This suggests that at lower resolutions, the GPU is the limiting component, and the CPU's single-core performance, evidenced by a Geekbench single-core score of 2711, is more than adequate.

Moving to 2560x1440, the gap between settings narrows. The Low preset yields 229.7 FPS, while Ultra delivers 152.6 FPS, a 33.6% reduction. Interestingly, the percentage drop from Low to Ultra remains similar to 1080p, but the absolute numbers are lower, indicating that the GPU is starting to become the primary bottleneck. At 3840x2160, the pattern shifts decisively. The Ultra preset manages 104.3 FPS, while Low achieves 156.3 FPS, a 33.3% reduction. The consistency of this relative penalty across resolutions suggests that while the absolute frame rates scale with resolution, the cost of higher settings is a constant factor, pointing to a well-balanced system where neither component is drastically outpacing the other at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 achieves a combo rank of 471 out of 1626 tested combinations for Dave The Diver. This places the configuration in the top 29% of all tested systems, indicating that this hardware setup is well above average for this title. The percentile ranking for the CPU against all processors is 94, while the GPU sits at the 80th percentile against all graphics cards, suggesting that the processor is the stronger component relative to its peers.

The CPU's benchmark scores reinforce its position. In Cinebench R23, it scores 35443 in multi-core and 5003 in single-core, putting it in a class where its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, which scores 54450 and is only 0.6% ahead, and the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D, which is 1.1% ahead. Conversely, the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 trails by 1.2%. This places the i7-14700F in a highly competitive tier where performance differences are marginal. The GPU's nearest rival is the AMD Radeon Pro Duo, which is 0.2% ahead, while the AMD Radeon 880M trails by 0.4%. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile is 1% behind, showing the RTX 3080's position is similarly tight.

The combination's rank of 471 is particularly strong given that the game is an adventure title, which often relies more on CPU logic than pure GPU fill rate. The data shows that the combo is not just an average performer; it is positioned in the upper echelon of tested systems, making it capable of handling the game's demands without significant compromise.

Settings Recommendations

Analyzing the measured FPS rows, the optimal experience for this combination depends heavily on the target display resolution. For 1920x1080, the Ultra preset is the clear choice, as it still delivers an average of 205.1 FPS. This is well above the threshold for high-refresh-rate monitors, and the performance cost of 33.2% versus Low settings (307 FPS) is a reasonable trade-off for maximum visual fidelity. The High preset at 227.5 FPS offers a middle ground, but with Ultra already exceeding 200 FPS, there is no practical reason to compromise.

At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset remains viable, achieving an average of 152.6 FPS. This is still high enough for smooth gameplay on most displays. The High preset at 173.8 FPS provides a slight performance boost, but the difference of 21.2 FPS is unlikely to be noticeable in a game like Dave The Diver. The data suggests that 1440p Ultra is the sweet spot, as it maintains a high frame rate while leveraging the full capabilities of the RTX 3080.

For 3840x2160, the situation changes. The Ultra preset drops to 104.3 FPS, which is playable but may not satisfy users with 120Hz+ displays. The High preset at 115.6 FPS offers a modest 10.8% improvement, while the Medium preset at 130.4 FPS provides a more substantial 25% boost over Ultra. For 4K, the recommendation is to use the High preset as a balance between visual quality and performance. The Medium preset is a fallback for those prioritizing frame rate, but the High preset at 115.6 FPS is generally the best experience per the measured data.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full dataset provides a comprehensive view of performance across all settings and resolutions. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 307 on Low to 205.1 on Ultra. The Medium preset hits 257.8, and High achieves 227.5. This shows a clear progression where each step up in settings costs roughly 25-30 FPS, with the largest single drop occurring from Low to Medium (49.2 FPS).

At 2560x1440, the averages are 229.7 for Low, 190.7 for Medium, 173.8 for High, and 152.6 for Ultra. The relative scaling is similar to 1080p, but the absolute values are lower. The drop from Low to Medium is 39 FPS, from Medium to High is 16.9 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 21.2 FPS. This suggests that the Medium to High transition is the least costly in performance terms.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 156.3 for Low, 130.4 for Medium, 115.6 for High, and 104.3 for Ultra. The scaling here shows a more linear progression, with each setting level costing approximately 11-26 FPS. The largest gap is between Low and Medium (25.9 FPS), while the smallest is between High and Ultra (11.3 FPS). This indicates that at 4K, the GPU is working harder, and the performance cost of each setting tier is more pronounced relative to the lower resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is a key determinant in these results. Its 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s, which is critical for maintaining high frame rates at 4K. The GPU's boost clock of 1710 MHz, built on the Ampere architecture with 8704 shading units, allows it to handle the game's rendering demands effectively. The fact that the GPU is end-of-life in production status but still performs at the 80th percentile against all GPUs demonstrates its lasting capability.

The VRAM capacity is a potential concern at higher resolutions, but the measured data shows no catastrophic drops that would indicate memory swapping. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS of 104.3 suggests that the 10 GB frame buffer is sufficient for this title, even at maximum settings. The GPU's 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores are not heavily utilized in Dave The Diver, as the game is not graphically intensive in terms of ray tracing or AI upscaling, but they contribute to the overall feature set.

The GPU's position relative to its nearest rivals is tight, with a delta of only -0.2% versus the AMD Radeon Pro Duo and +1% versus the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile. This indicates that the RTX 3080 is still a competitive offering in this specific workload. The benchmark results show a Passmark G3D score of 25086 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 167014, which are strong indicators of its raw compute ability. In Dave The Diver, the GPU is the primary scaling factor from 1080p to 4K, and its performance headroom at 1080p is what allows the CPU to push frame rates beyond 300 FPS on Low settings.