Dave The Diver

Dave The Diver is not the kind of title that typically stresses a flagship GPU, but the benchmark data for the Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination tells a story of massive headroom. The measured frames per second are exceptionally high across all tested configurations, placing this combo in the 13th spot out of 1,626 tested hardware combinations for this game. This places the system in the top percentile of all configurations, indicating that users will be limited by their display’s refresh rate long before the hardware runs out of compute.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling behavior from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that is almost entirely GPU-bound at lower resolutions but transitions smoothly as pixel count increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the RTX 5090 pushes an average of 448.3 FPS. Moving to 1440p at the same settings drops that figure to 353.8 FPS, a reduction of roughly 21%. The jump to 4K Low brings the average down to 237.4 FPS, which is another 33% drop from the 1440p result. This pattern indicates that even at 4K Low, the GPU is still not fully saturated, as the frame rates remain extraordinarily high.

The Ultra preset tells a similar scaling story but with a steeper curve. At 1080p Ultra, the system averages 310.7 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, that falls to 230.2 FPS, a 26% decline. At 4K Ultra, the average settles at 154.2 FPS, which is a 33% drop from 1440p. The consistency of these percentage drops across presets suggests that the game’s rendering load scales predictably with resolution, and the RTX 5090’s 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus is never a limiting factor. Even at the heaviest tested setting, the system maintains a frame rate well above the 144 Hz refresh rate that most high-end monitors offer.

The data suggests the limiting component at 1080p is likely the CPU, given the i7-14700F’s 20 cores and 28 threads are working hard to feed the GPU at over 400 FPS. However, the game is not a demanding title, and the bottleneck is not a practical concern. At 4K, the GPU begins to take on more of the load, but the RTX 5090’s massive compute resources, including 21,760 shading units and a 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth, keep the frame rates at levels that would be considered exceptional for far more demanding titles.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this hardware combo?

A: The highest average frame rate is 448.3 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings?

A: At Ultra settings, the average frame rate drops from 310.7 FPS at 1080p to 154.2 FPS at 4K, representing a performance reduction of approximately 50%.

Q: Is the RTX 5090 the bottleneck at any of the tested settings?

A: At 1080p Low, the GPU is likely not the primary constraint, as the CPU must work hard to maintain such high frame rates. However, at 4K Ultra, the GPU becomes more of a limiting factor, though it still delivers 154.2 FPS.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, Low settings yield an average of 353.8 FPS, while Ultra settings yield 230.2 FPS. This is a 35% reduction in frame rate for the highest visual quality preset.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 compare to its closest rival in the GPU benchmark database?

A: The RTX 5090 holds an average benchmark score of 84,306. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D, scores 84,241, which is a 0.1% difference. The RTX 5090 also leads the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 by 1.3%.

Q: Does the i7-14700F hold back the RTX 5090 in this game?

A: The data shows no practical bottleneck. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35,443 and single-core score of 5,003 indicate strong performance. The lowest average frame rate recorded is 154.2 FPS at 4K Ultra, which is still exceptionally smooth.

Settings Recommendations

For users with a high refresh rate 1080p or 1440p monitor, the Ultra preset is the obvious choice, as the system maintains an average of 310.7 FPS at 1080p and 230.2 FPS at 1440p. These frame rates far exceed the capabilities of most displays, and there is no reason to sacrifice visual fidelity for additional performance. The gap between Medium and High settings at 1080p is 41.7 FPS (391 vs. 349.3), but the jump from High to Ultra is 38.6 FPS. The visual difference between High and Ultra is often minor, but the performance cost is consistent.

At 4K, the recommendation becomes more nuanced. The Ultra preset delivers an average of 154.2 FPS, which is still excellent for a 4K panel. However, for users with a 120 Hz or 144 Hz 4K display, the High preset at 174 FPS provides additional headroom and a more consistent frame time experience. The Medium preset at 199.9 FPS offers even more margin, though the visual downgrade from Ultra may be noticeable in a game with detailed underwater environments. The Low preset at 4K yields 237.4 FPS, but this is only recommended for competitive play where frame rate is the absolute priority, as the visual quality loss is significant.

The sweet spot for most users is the High preset at 1440p. It delivers an average of 261.7 FPS, which is more than enough for any high refresh rate monitor, while maintaining the visual quality that Dave The Diver’s pixel-art aesthetic benefits from. The data shows that the system has massive performance reserves, so users should prioritize visual quality settings before worrying about frame rate targets.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the frame rates are consistently high across all settings. The Low preset averages 448.3 FPS, which is the peak performance for the entire test suite. The Medium preset averages 391 FPS, while the High preset averages 349.3 FPS. The Ultra preset brings the average down to 310.7 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at this resolution is a 30.7% reduction in frame rate, which is a relatively modest penalty for the highest visual quality.

At 2560x1440, the results show a similar pattern with slightly lower absolute numbers. The Low preset averages 353.8 FPS, followed by the Medium preset at 296 FPS. The High preset averages 261.7 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 230.2 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra at 1440p is 34.9%, which is slightly steeper than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is beginning to take on more of the rendering load.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates remain impressive but show the expected decline. The Low preset averages 237.4 FPS, the Medium preset averages 199.9 FPS, and the High preset averages 174 FPS. The Ultra preset delivers an average of 154.2 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 4K is a 35% reduction, consistent with the 1440p results. This consistency suggests that the game’s rendering pipeline scales linearly with resolution, and the RTX 5090’s compute resources are well-utilized across all tested configurations.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant component in this configuration, and its specifications are directly reflected in the benchmark results. The GPU’s 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s, which ensures that texture streaming and asset loading are never a bottleneck, even at 4K Ultra settings. The GPU’s boost clock of 2407 MHz and base clock of 2017 MHz are high for a flagship card, and the 21,760 shading units provide the raw compute power necessary to achieve the frame rates seen in the data.

The RTX 5090’s benchmark scores are equally impressive. It holds a Passmark G3D score of 39,650 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 380,114. The GPU’s percentile rank of 94 places it in the top tier of all graphics cards, and its average benchmark score of 84,306 is only 0.1% higher than the RTX 5090 D and 1.3% higher than the AMD Radeon PRO W6600. The GPU’s 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14,411 further confirms its position as one of the fastest consumer graphics cards available.

In Dave The Diver, the GPU’s role is to render a relatively simple 2D-style game with pixel-art graphics, which is not a demanding workload. However, the data shows that the RTX 5090 is still fully engaged, delivering frame rates that are several times higher than what a typical display can show. The GPU’s massive memory pool and bandwidth are overkill for this title, but they ensure that there are no performance dips or stutters, even during complex underwater scenes with many on-screen elements. The RTX 5090’s 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is more than sufficient to handle the game’s rendering requirements, and the result is a flawless, high-frame-rate experience across all tested settings and resolutions.