Dave The Diver

# Dave The Diver — Intel Core i9-14900K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070

The data for Dave The Diver with this Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 combination reveals a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions but shows surprising CPU headroom at 1080p. The measured FPS ranges from 87 frames per second at 4K Ultra to 262 FPS at 1080p Low, indicating that the RTX 3070's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are the primary constraints as resolution scales. The combo ranks 1588 out of 3710 tested configurations, placing it in the 57th percentile among all tested combos, which is respectable given that the GPU sits at the 61st percentile among all GPUs while the CPU is at the 95th percentile among all CPUs.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lies in this system. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the average FPS drops from 196 to 147, a 25% reduction. Scaling further from 1440p to 4K at High settings drops the average from 147 to 99 FPS, another 33% reduction. This progressive decline is characteristic of a GPU-limited scenario — the RTX 3070's 8 GB memory buffer and 256-bit bus are being saturated as pixel count increases.

At Low settings, the pattern intensifies. The system produces 262 FPS at 1080p, 197 FPS at 1440p, and 132 FPS at 4K. That represents a 50% drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, compared to a 49% drop at High settings (196 to 99 FPS). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings presets suggests that the GPU's raw throughput, not its memory capacity, is the limiting factor. If VRAM were the constraint, we would expect to see a more pronounced collapse at 4K Ultra where memory pressure is highest.

The Medium settings row provides the only min/max FPS data in the measured results, offering insight into frame pacing. At 4K Medium, the system averages 111 FPS with a minimum of 94 and maximum of 127. At 1440p Medium, it averages 165 FPS with a range of 140 to 190. At 1080p Medium, the average is 220 FPS with a spread from 187 to 252. The relative spread increases as resolution drops — at 4K the range is 33 FPS, at 1440p it's 50 FPS, and at 1080p it's 65 FPS. This widening variance at lower resolutions is a classic sign of the CPU beginning to contribute more variability, though the i9-14900K's 24 cores and 32 threads are clearly sufficient to keep minimums above 187 FPS even at 1080p.

The data suggests that 4K Ultra at 87 FPS is still playable, but the jump from 4K Medium (111 FPS) to 4K Ultra (87 FPS) represents a 22% performance cost for the highest preset. Meanwhile, the gap between 1080p Low (262 FPS) and 1080p High (196 FPS) is 25%, indicating that each settings tier costs roughly a quarter of the performance headroom at any given resolution.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combination?

A: The maximum recorded average is 262 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This drops to 173 FPS at the same resolution with Ultra settings, showing a 34% penalty for the highest preset.

Q: Does the system maintain playable frame rates at 4K?

A: Yes. The lowest measured average is 87 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. At 4K High, the average rises to 99 FPS, and at 4K Medium it reaches 111 FPS, indicating the RTX 3070 remains viable for 4K gaming in this title.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems for Dave The Diver?

A: The combination ranks 1588 out of 3710 tested combos. This places it in roughly the 57th percentile, which is notable given that the GPU alone sits at the 61st percentile among all GPUs.

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

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings produce 197 FPS while Ultra produces 130 FPS. That is a 34% reduction in average frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest preset.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary constraint at higher resolutions, since FPS scales consistently with resolution changes. At 1080p, the CPU's 6.00 GHz boost clock and 24 cores provide ample headroom, as evidenced by 262 FPS at Low settings.

Q: Are there any settings where the minimum FPS falls below 90?

A: The only measured minimum FPS values come from Medium settings. The lowest minimum recorded is 94 FPS at 4K Medium, which stays above the 90 FPS threshold. All other settings rows lack min/max data, so no conclusions can be drawn for those presets.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is the workhorse in this configuration, and its specifications directly explain the measured performance. With 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, the card is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming but begins to show strain at 4K. The 5888 shading units and 96 ROPs provide substantial fill rate — 165.6 GPixel/s — which is why the card still manages 87 FPS at 4K Ultra despite the memory bandwidth constraints.

The clock behavior is telling. The base clock of 1500 MHz boosts to 1725 MHz, a 15% increase. This boost behavior is evident in the scaling between resolutions. At 1080p Low, the card produces 262 FPS, which suggests it is running at or near its boost clock continuously. At 4K Ultra, the 87 FPS result indicates the card is still boosting but is constrained by memory bandwidth rather than compute throughput. The FP32 performance of 20.31 TFLOPS is more than adequate for this Adventure title, which does not appear to be compute-limited based on the resolution scaling pattern.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity deserves scrutiny. Dave The Diver is not a VRAM-heavy title — the fact that 4K Ultra still produces 87 FPS suggests the game fits within the 8 GB frame buffer at that resolution. However, the 22% drop from 4K Medium (111 FPS) to 4K Ultra (87 FPS) could indicate that Ultra settings push memory usage closer to the limit, causing some texture swapping or compression overhead. The GPU's end-of-life production status and 220 W TDP also suggest that while it remains capable, it is not a future-proof solution for higher resolutions.

The RTX 3070's percentile ranking of 61 among all GPUs is consistent with its performance in this game. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT, scores 0.7% higher in average benchmark score (17083 vs 17037 for the RTX 3070), yet the measured FPS in this title shows the NVIDIA card handling 4K Ultra at 87 FPS. The GTX 690 and AMD HD 7970M, which are within 1.1% of the RTX 3070's average score, are clearly older architectures and would not be expected to match the 3070's feature set in modern titles.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 1588 out of 3710 tested combinations places this system in the middle-upper tier of all tested configurations for Dave The Diver. Given that the CPU is at the 95th percentile among all CPUs and the GPU is at the 61st percentile among all GPUs, the combined ranking reflects the GPU's relative weakness compared to the CPU's strength. The i9-14900K is clearly overqualified for this title, as evidenced by its average benchmark score of 79097, but the RTX 3070's 17208 average score pulls the overall combo down.

This rank becomes more meaningful when compared to the GPU's nearest rivals. The RX 7600 XT, which scores 0.7% higher in average benchmark score, would likely produce similar FPS in this game. The GTX 690 and HD 7970M, despite having average scores within 1.1%, are from older generations and would not be expected to match the RTX 3070's DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4 support. The Tesla K40c, scoring 1.5% higher, is a compute-oriented card that would not be suitable for gaming.

The CPU's nearest rivals are all within 1.7% of its average score. The i9-14900KF is 0.3% lower, the Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus is 0.6% lower, and the AMD EPYC 7413 is 1.2% lower. Only the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 scores higher at 1.7% above. These margin differences are negligible for gaming, which confirms that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combination. The 1588 rank out of 3710 means roughly 43% of tested combos perform better, which is a reasonable outcome for a GPU that was released in 2020.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal balance between visual quality and performance appears to be High settings at 1440p or Medium settings at 4K. At 1440p High, the system delivers 147 FPS, which is well above the threshold for smooth gameplay on high-refresh-rate monitors. The 1440p Ultra preset at 130 FPS is also viable, offering a 12% improvement in visual quality for a 12% reduction in frame rate — a nearly linear trade-off.

For 4K displays, Medium settings at 111 FPS is the recommended choice. The 4K Medium row is the only one with complete min/max data (94 to 127 FPS), providing confidence in frame consistency. Dropping to 4K Low yields 132 FPS, a 19% improvement, but the visual quality loss is substantial for an Adventure game where environmental detail matters. Pushing to 4K Ultra at 87 FPS is technically playable but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes, and the 22% drop from Medium to Ultra is not justified by the marginal visual gains.

At 1080p, the situation is different. Even Ultra settings produce 173 FPS, which is excellent for competitive or fast-paced play. The 1080p Medium setting at 220 FPS with a minimum of 187 FPS offers the best consistency for esports-style play, while 1080p High at 196 FPS balances quality and speed. Given that the game is an Adventure title, players should prioritize visual fidelity at 1080p — Ultra at 173 FPS is entirely viable and provides the best experience.

The data suggests that the RTX 3070 can handle Ultra settings at 1440p and below, but Medium is the sweet spot at 4K. The 94 FPS minimum at 4K Medium ensures that even the most demanding scenes stay above common 90 FPS thresholds, whereas the lack of min/max data for other presets means frame pacing at those settings is unknown.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS table from the data is as follows:

At 3840x2160 (4K), the system produces 99 FPS on High, 132 FPS on Low, 111 FPS on Medium (min 94, max 127), and 87 FPS on Ultra. The spread from Low to Ultra is 45 FPS, with each settings tier costing roughly 10-15% performance.

At 2560x1440, the results are 147 FPS on High, 197 FPS on Low, 165 FPS on Medium (min 140, max 190), and 130 FPS on Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra spread is 67 FPS, showing more absolute headroom at this resolution.

At 1920x1080, the system achieves 196 FPS on High, 262 FPS on Low, 220 FPS on Medium (min 187, max 252), and 173 FPS on Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra spread is 89 FPS, indicating that the CPU is capable of pushing the GPU to very high frame rates when not constrained by resolution.

The scaling between resolutions is consistent. At High settings, the FPS drops from 196 at 1080p to 147 at 1440p (25% reduction) and then to 99 at 4K (33% reduction from 1440p). At Low settings, the drop from 262 at 1080p to 197 at 1440p is 25%, and from 197 to 132 at 4K is 33%. This pattern holds for Medium (220 to 165 to 111) and Ultra (173 to 130 to 87) as well. The consistent 25%/33% split between resolution tiers strongly indicates a GPU-bound scenario.

The Medium settings rows provide the only min/max data, which shows a pattern of increasing variance at lower resolutions. At 4K, the min-max range is 33 FPS; at 1440p, it's 50 FPS; at 1080p, it's 65 FPS. This suggests that at lower resolutions, the CPU's frame delivery becomes more variable, though the i9-14900K's 24 cores keep minimums high enough to avoid stuttering.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor with a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz. Its 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample memory hierarchy for gaming workloads. The CPU's benchmark scores are exceptional — a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 39399.5 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 21697 — placing it at the 95th percentile among all CPUs.

In Dave The Diver, the CPU's role is clearly secondary. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (262 FPS) demonstrates that the i9-14900K can feed the RTX 3070 well beyond its comfort zone. The question is whether the CPU is ever the bottleneck. At 1080p Ultra, the system produces 173 FPS, which is still far below the CPU's theoretical maximum frame rate. The data suggests that even at 1080p Low, the GPU is the limiting factor, since the 262 FPS result is within the RTX 3070's capability for this title.

The CPU's 6.00 GHz boost clock is likely the key enabler for high frame rates in this game. Dave The Diver is an Adventure title that may have single-threaded dependencies in its game logic. The i9-14900K's single-core Cinebench R23 score of 2262.5 and PassMark single-thread score of 4697 ensure that no single-thread bottleneck exists. The 24 cores and 32 threads also handle any background tasks without impacting game performance.

The CPU's nearest rivals show that its performance is well-matched to its peers. The i9-14900KF is 0.3% lower, the Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus is 0.6% lower, and the AMD EPYC 7413 is 1.2% lower. The only rival that scores higher is the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 at 1.7% above. These differences are within the margin of error for gaming workloads secret, meaning that any of these CPUs would produce nearly identical FPS in Dave The Diver when paired with the same GPU.

The CPU's 125 W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 platform are standard for a high-end desktop processor. Its support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory, along with dual-channel memory bus, provides flexibility for system builders. The integrated UHD Graphics 770 is present but unused in this configuration. The CPU's launch MSRP of $589 positions it as a flagship product, but the data shows that for this game, a less expensive CPU would likely deliver the same FPS, since the GPU is the clear limiting factor at all resolutions.