Dave The Diver

# Dave The Diver — Intel Core i9-14900K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060

This combination pairs a flagship 24-core desktop processor with a mid-range Turing-era GPU, and the measured frame rates across resolutions reveal a system that is overwhelmingly constrained by the graphics card. The RTX 2060, which sits at the 58th percentile of all GPUs, delivers playable results even at 4K, but the scaling pattern from 1080p to 2160p makes it clear that the i9-14900K's immense compute headroom is largely untapped in this title. The data shows a classic bottleneck scenario where resolution increases punish the GPU disproportionately, while the CPU's 97th percentile standing among all processors remains largely irrelevant to the final frame output.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS deltas from 1080p to 4K tell a straightforward story about where the performance ceiling lives. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 135.8 FPS at 1920x1080 to 99.1 FPS at 2560x1440, a decline of 36.7 FPS, and then further to 65.9 FPS at 3840x2160. That translates to a 51.5% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at High settings. The pattern is consistent across all quality presets: Low settings see a drop from 176.8 FPS to 92.8 FPS (a 47.5% reduction), Medium goes from 149.4 FPS to 72.8 FPS (51.3% reduction), and Ultra falls from 119.1 FPS to 58.5 FPS (50.9% reduction).

What is striking is how uniform these percentage drops are regardless of settings. If the CPU were a meaningful participant in the scaling equation, you would expect the lower-resolution, higher-FPS scenarios to show a more pronounced plateau effect — that is, the GPU would be less burdened at 1080p, allowing the CPU to become the limiting factor. Instead, the near-identical proportional declines across all four presets suggest the RTX 2060 is the binding constraint even at 1080p. The i9-14900K, with its 24 cores and 32 threads boosting to 6.00 GHz, has far more headroom than this game demands at any resolution tested. The scaling curves indicate that Dave The Diver's rendering workload scales almost linearly with pixel count, a hallmark of GPU-bound performance.

GPU Role

The RTX 2060's specifications provide context for its behavior in this game. Built on the 12 nm TU106 chip with 1,920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs, this GPU was designed for 1080p gaming at high refresh rates. Its 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus delivers 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves adequate for Dave The Diver's art style. The boost clock of 1680 MHz, combined with a pixel rate of 80.64 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 201.6 GTexel/s, explains why the card can still push past 60 FPS at 4K on High settings — the game's visual complexity is not particularly demanding by modern standards.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 58 among all GPUs places it in the lower-middle tier, and its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks — the AMD Radeon RX 7600S (0.5% ahead), AMD Radeon Pro 5600M (1.7% behind), and AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (1.8% ahead) — are all comparable performers. None of these rivals would be considered high-end gaming parts today. The fact that this 2019-era GPU still manages 65.9 FPS at 4K High confirms the game's optimization, but the data also shows the card's limits: at 4K Ultra, the average drops to 58.5 FPS, dipping below the 60 FPS threshold that many consider the baseline for smooth gameplay.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is an absolute powerhouse, with 24 cores (8 performance and 16 efficiency cores by architecture design) and 32 threads. Its base clock of 3.20 GHz and boost clock of 6.00 GHz place it at the top of the desktop CPU hierarchy. The benchmark data confirms this: it scores 49,872 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 7,040 in single-core, and holds a 97th percentile ranking among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the AMD EPYC 7413 (0.3% behind), Intel Core i9-14900KF (0.7% ahead), and Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF (0.7% ahead) — all within a fraction of a percent of each other.

However, in Dave The Diver, the CPU's role is minimal. The measured frame rates show no evidence of CPU limitation at any resolution. At 1080p Low, where the GPU has the least work to do, the system reaches 176.8 FPS — a respectable number but nowhere near what this CPU could theoretically support if the GPU were not the bottleneck. The 36 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support (DDR4 or DDR5) are more than sufficient for this game's data demands. The PassMark multithread score of 58,674 and single-thread score of 4,697 indicate that both heavily threaded and lightly threaded workloads are handled with ease, yet the game's frame output is still dictated by the GPU's rendering capabilities.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the i9-14900K and RTX 2060 ranks 1,314 out of 1,626 tested combos in Dave The Diver, placing it in the bottom 20% of all system pairings. This ranking reflects the GPU's position as the weak link; the CPU is among the best available, but the GPU's 58th percentile standing drags the overall combo down. The data implies that pairing this flagship processor with a mid-range 2019 GPU creates a significant imbalance — the CPU's potential is wasted in a game where the GPU is the sole performance arbiter.

This ranking also suggests that users who invested in the i9-14900K for CPU-intensive tasks would see dramatic frame rate improvements in this game by upgrading the GPU alone. The combo's position at 1,314 of 1,626 means that more than 80% of tested systems outperform it in Dave The Diver, even though the CPU portion of this combo outperforms the vast majority of processors in synthetic benchmarks. The disconnect between the CPU's individual ranking and the combo's overall ranking is a clear signal of where the performance bottleneck resides.

FAQ

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

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K High settings, the average frame rate is 65.9 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold. At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 58.5 FPS, which is below 60 FPS. Low and Medium settings at 4K yield 92.8 FPS and 72.8 FPS respectively.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: Based on the measured data, 2560x1440 provides the best balance of visual quality and performance. At 1440p High, the system achieves 99.1 FPS, and even at Ultra it maintains 89.4 FPS. 1080p delivers higher frame rates but the GPU is already the bottleneck at that resolution.

Q: Is the CPU holding back performance in this game?

A: No. The i9-14900K's 24-core, 32-thread configuration with a 6.00 GHz boost clock is far more powerful than this game requires. The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K follows a GPU-bound pattern, indicating the RTX 2060 is the limiting component.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 2060 has an average benchmark score of 16,074. The AMD Radeon RX 7600S is 0.5% ahead, the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M and Pro 5700 are both 1.7% behind, and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 is 1.8% ahead. All are within a narrow performance band.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p with this setup?

A: At 1080p, the system delivers 176.8 FPS on Low, 149.4 FPS on Medium, 135.8 FPS on High, and 119.1 FPS on Ultra. All settings exceed 100 FPS, making 1080p gaming smooth on any preset.

Q: Does the 6 GB VRAM cause issues at higher resolutions?

A: The measured data shows playable frame rates at 4K, indicating that 6 GB of GDDR6 memory is sufficient for Dave The Diver's texture and asset requirements. The 336.0 GB/s memory bandwidth also appears adequate, as frame rates do not collapse at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured results for this CPU-GPU combination are as follows:

At 1920x1080, Low settings produce an average of 176.8 FPS, Medium produces 149.4 FPS, High produces 135.8 FPS, and Ultra produces 119.1 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 57.7 FPS, indicating that quality presets have a substantial impact on performance at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, Low settings produce an average of 134.1 FPS, Medium produces 113 FPS, High produces 99.1 FPS, and Ultra produces 89.4 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra narrows to 44.7 FPS, showing that resolution scaling compresses the differences between quality settings.

At 3840x2160, Low settings produce an average of 92.8 FPS, Medium produces 72.8 FPS, High produces 65.9 FPS, and Ultra produces 58.5 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 34.3 FPS, the narrowest of all resolutions. This compression occurs because the GPU is increasingly saturated at higher resolutions, leaving less headroom for quality preset adjustments to make a difference.

Across all resolutions, the transition from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 24-30% of the frame rate, while the transition from 1440p to 4K costs roughly 33-36% more. The diminishing returns of lower quality presets at higher resolutions are evident in the data.

Settings Recommendations

For users targeting 60 FPS as a minimum, the 4K Ultra preset is the only configuration that fails to meet this threshold, averaging 58.5 FPS. The 4K High preset at 65.9 FPS and 4K Medium at 72.8 FPS both provide comfortable margins above 60 FPS. At 1440p, every settings preset exceeds 89 FPS, making even Ultra a viable choice for high refresh rate displays.

The optimal experience depends on the display's native resolution. For 4K displays, High settings offer the best visual fidelity while maintaining a 5.9 FPS buffer above 60 FPS. For 1440p displays, Ultra settings at 89.4 FPS deliver the full visual experience without compromising smoothness. For 1080p displays, any preset works, but Medium at 149.4 FPS or High at 135.8 FPS are sensible choices for users with 144 Hz monitors, as they stay above the 120 FPS threshold that many such displays target.

The data suggests that users should prioritize resolution over quality presets. Dropping from Ultra to High at 4K recovers 7.4 FPS, while dropping from 4K to 1440p at the same settings recovers 33.2 FPS. The quality preset differences become less meaningful at higher resolutions, so choosing a higher resolution with Medium or High settings yields a better experience than a lower resolution with Ultra settings.