Dave The Diver

# Dave The Diver with Intel Core i9-14900K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

This combo ranks 1030th out of 3710 tested combinations in Dave The Diver, placing it in the top 28% of all systems measured. That is a strong result for a game of this genre, but the real story lies in how the pairing behaves across resolutions and settings — with the RTX 3080 carrying the visual load while the i9-14900K ensures the frame pacing stays fluid. The measured data shows a system capable of far beyond 60 FPS at every tested configuration, with the weakest result still hitting 102 FPS at 4K Ultra.

How This Combo Ranks

The 1030th position out of 3710 combos represents a solid upper-midfield finish. It is not a top-tier ranking, but it places this pairing ahead of roughly 72% of all tested systems in Dave The Diver specifically. The ranking reflects a balanced configuration: the RTX 3080 is 68th percentile among all GPUs, while the i9-14900K sits at 95th percentile among all CPUs. The GPU is the more modest component here, yet the game's demands are such that this pairing still delivers excellent playability.

Within the CPU's nearest rival group, the i9-14900K scores 79097 average benchmark points, trailing the Intel Core i9-14900KF by just 0.3% and the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus by 0.6%. It leads the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 by 1.7%. These margins are negligible in real-world gaming, confirming that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this configuration. On the GPU side, the RTX 3080's average benchmark score of 23172 is essentially tied with its nearest rivals — NVIDIA P106-100 (-0.3%), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (-0.3%), AMD Radeon RX 6600M (-0.4%), and AMD Radeon R9 M290X (-0.4%) — though those comparisons are more about benchmark clustering than actual gaming equivalence.

The combo's ranking in this game specifically benefits from the CPU's headroom. With 24 cores and 32 threads, the i9-14900K provides far more processing capability than Dave The Diver's adventure gameplay demands, which means the measured FPS numbers reflect GPU-bound performance at most settings. At 4K Ultra, the system still produces 102 FPS, which is well above the threshold for smooth play. This ranking suggests the combo is overqualified for the game's typical workload, yet it delivers consistent high-refresh-rate experiences across the board.

GPU Role

The RTX 3080 brings 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, yielding 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth. That memory configuration is ample for Dave The Diver's art style, which emphasizes colorful 2D sprites and modest 3D environments rather than massive texture loads. The GA102 chip, built on Samsung's 8 nm process, contains 28,300 million transistors across a 628 mm² die. Clock speeds are 1440 MHz base and 1710 MHz boost, with memory running at 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective). The card's 8704 shading units, 272 TMUs, and 96 ROPs deliver 29.77 TFLOPS of FP32 compute — a figure that is far beyond what this game can fully utilize.

The measured FPS data confirms the GPU's role as the primary scaling factor. From 1080p Low (306 FPS) to 4K Ultra (102 FPS), the frame rate drops by 66.7%, which is a direct consequence of the GPU working harder at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system is likely CPU-limited or engine-limited, as 306 FPS exceeds what most displays can show. At 4K Ultra, the GPU is clearly the limiting component, with the 102 FPS result still being highly playable. The RTX 3080's 68th percentile ranking among all GPUs reflects its position as a high-end card from the previous generation, and in this game it performs admirably at every setting.

The 10 GB VRAM capacity is not stressed by Dave The Diver. Even at 4K Ultra, the game's asset complexity does not approach the card's memory ceiling, allowing the GPU to operate without paging or compression artifacts. The 760.3 GB/s bandwidth ensures that any texture streaming or draw call overhead is handled without stutter. The card's dual-slot design and 320 W TDP indicate a power-hungry component, but the benchmark results show consistent performance across all measured rows.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound scaling pattern. At High settings, the average FPS moves from 228 (1080p) to 172 (1440p) to 115 (4K). That is a 24.6% drop from 1080p to 1440p, then a 33.1% drop from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is not linear — the jump to 4K costs disproportionately more performance, which is typical for a card with this memory bandwidth and compute capacity.

At Low settings, the pattern is more dramatic: 306 FPS at 1080p, 230 FPS at 1440p, and 154 FPS at 4K. The 1080p Low result is likely hitting engine or CPU limits, as the GPU has plenty of headroom at such low visual demand. The 4K Low result (154 FPS) still exceeds the High 4K result (115 FPS), showing that lowering settings provides meaningful FPS gains even at the highest resolution. Medium settings follow a similar trajectory: 256 FPS at 1080p, 193 FPS at 1440p, and 129 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings produce 202 FPS at 1080p, 152 FPS at 1440p, and 102 FPS at 4K.

The data indicates that the i9-14900K is not a limiting factor at any resolution. Even at 1080p Low with 306 FPS, the CPU's 24 cores and 32 threads are more than sufficient to feed the GPU. The bottleneck shifts entirely to the RTX 3080 as resolution increases. The 4K Ultra result of 102 FPS is particularly telling: the game is playable at maximum settings on a 4K display, with only a 10 FPS penalty compared to the 4K High preset. This suggests that the Ultra preset's additional visual features are relatively lightweight in this game.

Settings Recommendations

For 4K displays, the High preset at 115 FPS is the sweet spot. It delivers a 12.7% FPS improvement over Ultra (102 FPS) while likely providing nearly identical visual quality in a game with this art style. The Ultra preset's 102 FPS is still perfectly playable, but the marginal visual gains do not justify the performance cost. For users who prioritize maximum frame rates on 4K, Medium at 129 FPS offers a further 12.2% improvement over High, with the min FPS of 110 ensuring no drops below 100 FPS.

At 1440p, the High preset at 172 FPS is the recommended choice for high-refresh-rate monitors. It sits 13.2% above Medium (193 FPS) in terms of visual quality while maintaining a frame rate that exceeds most 144Hz displays. The Ultra preset at 152 FPS is also viable for those who want maximum fidelity, but the 11.6% drop from High is noticeable. For competitive play or maximum smoothness, Low at 230 FPS provides a 33.7% improvement over High, but the visual trade-off is likely unnecessary given the game's non-competitive nature.

At 1080p, the High preset at 228 FPS is the best overall choice. It delivers 26 FPS more than Ultra (202 FPS) and is only 10.9% slower than Medium (256 FPS). The data shows no scenario where dropping below High is necessary at this resolution — even Ultra maintains 202 FPS. The Medium preset at 256 FPS offers the highest min FPS (218) among all 1080p settings, making it the best choice for users with 240Hz displays who want guaranteed frame pacing. Across all resolutions, the Medium presets consistently show the most balanced performance, with min FPS values that indicate stable frame times.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo overkill for Dave The Diver?

A: The data suggests yes. The weakest measured result is 102 FPS at 4K Ultra, which is more than double the standard 60 FPS target. The i9-14900K's 95th percentile CPU ranking and the RTX 3080's 68th percentile GPU ranking combine to produce frame rates that far exceed the game's requirements at every tested setting.

Q: Which resolution offers the best experience with this hardware?

A: 1440p High at 172 FPS provides the best balance of visual quality and performance. It delivers 57 FPS more than 4K High (115 FPS) while maintaining a frame rate that fully utilizes high-refresh-rate monitors. For 4K users, High at 115 FPS is the recommended preset.

Q: How does the RTX 3080's 10 GB VRAM hold up in this game?

A: The 10 GB GDDR6X memory is more than sufficient. Dave The Diver's art style does not demand large texture pools, and the 760.3 GB/s bandwidth ensures smooth streaming. No measured setting shows signs of VRAM-related performance degradation.

Q: Is the i9-14900K bottlenecking the RTX 3080 in this game?

A: No. The CPU's 24 cores and 32 threads provide massive headroom, as evidenced by the 306 FPS result at 1080p Low. The GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions, with the frame rate scaling predictably with resolution increases.

Q: What is the difference between Ultra and High settings at 4K?

A: Ultra averages 102 FPS while High averages 115 FPS, a 12.7% difference. Given the game's visual style, the Ultra preset's additional effects are likely imperceptible in most scenes, making High the better choice for maintaining higher frame rates.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K with maximum settings?

A: Yes, comfortably. The 4K Ultra result of 102 FPS is 70% above the 60 FPS threshold, with no min FPS data suggesting any drops below that level. Even the most demanding preset leaves substantial performance headroom.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process with a 257 mm² die size. It runs at a 3.20 GHz base clock and boosts to 6.00 GHz, with 125 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB L1 per core, 2 MB L2 per core, and 36 MB shared L3. This is an extraordinarily powerful desktop CPU, and its benchmark scores reflect that: 39399.5 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 2262.5 in single-core, and 21697 in Geekbench multi-core.

In Dave The Diver, the CPU's role is to ensure the game logic, physics, and AI never bottleneck the GPU. The measured FPS data shows this is achieved effortlessly. At 1080p Low, the system produces 306 FPS, which is almost certainly an engine limit rather than a CPU limit — the i9-14900K could likely push higher if the game allowed it. The CPU's 95th percentile ranking among all CPUs means it outperforms 95% of processors in the database, and its nearest rivals (i9-14900KF at -0.3%, Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus at -0.6%) are within statistical noise.

The single-thread performance is particularly relevant for this game. Dave The Diver's adventure gameplay likely relies on a few main threads for game logic and rendering commands. The i9-14900K's 2262.5 Cinebench R23 single-core score and 4697 Passmark single-thread score indicate exceptional per-core performance, ensuring that even lightly threaded workloads run at maximum speed. The 24 cores provide ample parallel capacity for background tasks, shader compilation, and operating system overhead without impacting game performance.

The CPU's 36 MB of shared L3 cache helps with game asset access patterns, reducing memory latency for frequently accessed data. With DDR4 and DDR5 memory support on a dual-channel bus, the i9-14900K offers flexibility in system configuration, though the benchmark results do not differentiate between memory types. The integrated UHD Graphics 770 is irrelevant in this configuration since the RTX 3080 handles all rendering, but it provides a fallback for troubleshooting. The CPU's launch MSRP is $589, and it was released on 2023-10-16, making it a current-generation part that pairs well with the RTX 3080's end-of-life status — the CPU has more longevity than the GPU in this pairing.