Dave The Diver

Dave The Diver is a 2D adventure title that rarely stresses modern hardware, but the measured data for the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 reveals a fascinating scaling curve. The combination delivers exceptionally high frame rates across all tested resolutions, with the gap between 1080p and 4K proving wider than the raw number of pixels might suggest. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system produces 306 FPS average, which drops to 230 FPS at 2560x1440 and further to 154 FPS at 3840x2160. That represents a 50% reduction in frame rate from 1080p Low to 4K Low, a scaling pattern that points to the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck as resolution climbs, while the CPU’s 20 cores and 20 threads ensure the game never becomes processor-limited even at the lowest settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and consistent pattern: as resolution increases, average frame rates drop by a predictable margin across every settings preset. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings, the average FPS falls from 228 to 172, a decline of 24.6%. The step from 1440p to 3840x2160 at High settings is steeper, with the average dropping from 172 to 115 FPS, a 33.1% reduction. This accelerating decline as resolution climbs indicates that the RTX 3080’s 10 GB of GDDR6X memory and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth are being pushed harder at 4K, while the Core Ultra 7 265’s 5.30 GHz boost clock becomes less relevant.

The Low preset shows the most dramatic scaling because it removes most of the GPU’s shading workload, exposing the raw throughput limits. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 306 FPS average; at 1440p Low, it drops to 230 FPS; and at 4K Low, it falls to 154 FPS. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K at Low is 49.7%, nearly half the performance lost due to pixel count alone. This suggests that at Low settings, the limiting component shifts more toward the GPU’s pixel fill rate of 164.2 GPixel/s and the 320-bit memory bus, rather than the CPU’s processing capacity.

Ultra settings tell a similar story but from a higher baseline of graphical complexity. The 1080p Ultra average of 202 FPS drops to 152 FPS at 1440p and 102 FPS at 4K. The 1440p-to-4K transition at Ultra represents a 32.9% performance loss, which is nearly identical to the High preset’s 33.1% drop. This consistency across presets indicates that Dave The Diver’s scaling is dominated by resolution-dependent pixel work rather than preset-specific effects that might tax the CPU differently. The game’s 2D art style and relatively simple geometry mean that even at Ultra, the RTX 3080’s 8704 shading units are not overwhelmed by complex lighting or shadow calculations.

What the data does not show is any sign of CPU limitation at lower resolutions. If the Core Ultra 7 265 were the bottleneck, we would expect the 1080p-to-1440p gap to narrow substantially at Low settings, since the GPU would still have headroom. Instead, the 306-to-230 FPS drop at Low represents a 24.8% reduction, which is proportionally similar to the 228-to-172 FPS drop at High (24.6%). This uniformity strongly suggests that the Intel processor’s 20 cores and 20 threads, running at a 2.40 GHz base clock and 5.30 GHz boost, provide more than enough compute for this adventure title, leaving the RTX 3080 as the definitive limiting factor across the entire resolution range.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 achieves a combo rank of 751 out of 2867 tested combinations in Dave The Diver. This places the pairing in the top 26.2% of all tested systems, which is a strong showing given that the game is not particularly demanding. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU’s 93rd percentile standing among all processors and the GPU’s 68th percentile among all graphics cards.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in overall benchmark performance provide context for its contribution to this combo’s ranking. The AMD EPYC 4464P scores 64,823 average, which is 0.3% higher than the Core Ultra 7 265’s 64,640 average, making the two effectively identical in raw compute. The Intel Core Ultra 7 265F sits just 0.3% behind at 64,438, while the AMD EPYC 9124 leads by 0.7% with 65,104. These tiny deltas mean that swapping the CPU for any of these rivals would produce virtually no change in Dave The Diver’s frame rates, since the game is GPU-bound at all tested settings.

On the GPU side, the RTX 3080’s nearest rivals are far less competitive in terms of real-world gaming performance. The NVIDIA P106-100 scores 23,249 average, only 0.3% below the RTX 3080’s 23,172, but this is a misleading comparison since the P106-100 is a mining-oriented card with no display outputs. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 and Radeon RX 6600M also sit within 0.4% of the RTX 3080’s score, yet these mobile and workstation parts would struggle with the 4K resolution tests where the RTX 3080 excels. The combo rank of 751 benefits heavily from the CPU’s high percentile, which lifts the overall system above what the GPU alone would achieve.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Dave The Diver?

A: The maximum recorded average frame rate is 306 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the Core Ultra 7 265 compare to its closest rival, the AMD EPYC 4464P?

A: The AMD EPYC 4464P scores 64,823 in average benchmark performance, which is 0.3% higher than the Core Ultra 7 265’s 64,640 average, making them statistically tied.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded across all tested settings?

A: The lowest average frame rate is 102 FPS, recorded at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings.

Q: Does the RTX 3080’s 10 GB memory capacity cause issues at 4K?

A: The data shows no evidence of memory-related stuttering, as the 4K High preset still delivers 115 FPS average and the 4K Medium preset maintains 129 FPS with a minimum of 110 FPS.

Q: How many cores and threads does the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 have?

A: The processor features 20 cores and 20 threads, meaning it has no hyperthreading enabled, with a base clock of 2.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz.

Q: What is the combo’s ranking among all tested systems?

A: The combination ranks 751st out of 2867 tested combos in Dave The Diver, placing it in the top 26.2% of all systems.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the highest average at 306 FPS, followed by Medium at 256 FPS with a minimum of 218 FPS and a maximum of 294 FPS. High settings produce 228 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 202 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 104 FPS, indicating that graphics settings have a substantial impact on frame rates even at the lowest resolution.

At 2560x1440, the ordering remains consistent: Low leads with 230 FPS, Medium follows at 193 FPS with a 164-to-221 FPS range, High achieves 172 FPS, and Ultra trails at 152 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 78 FPS at this resolution, showing that the RTX 3080’s rendering overhead becomes more significant as pixel count increases. The Medium preset’s minimum of 164 FPS is particularly noteworthy because it means the combo never drops below 164 FPS at 1440p, regardless of settings.

The 3840x2160 results show the most compression in frame rates. Low settings average 154 FPS, Medium averages 129 FPS with a minimum of 110 FPS and a maximum of 148 FPS, High averages 115 FPS, and Ultra averages 102 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is just 52 FPS, less than half the spread seen at 1080p. This compression occurs because the GPU’s pixel throughput becomes the dominant constraint, and the relative cost of each settings tier shrinks as the base workload expands. The 4K Medium range of 110-to-148 FPS is the only recorded minimum/maximum pair at 4K, and it confirms that the RTX 3080 maintains playable frame rates even when the resolution pushes its 10 GB memory buffer.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance across all three resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 256 FPS average, which is only 50 FPS below Low but provides substantially better visual fidelity than the lowest settings. The Medium preset’s minimum of 218 FPS at 1080p ensures that even during busy underwater scenes with multiple NPCs and particle effects, the frame rate never approaches the 144 Hz refresh rate of most gaming monitors.

At 1440p, Medium remains the optimal choice with a 193 FPS average and a 164 FPS minimum. This is particularly relevant for users with high-refresh-rate 1440p displays, as the minimum frame rate stays above 160 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay without dips below the display’s refresh capabilities. High settings at 1440p drop to 172 FPS average, which is still excellent, but the 21 FPS difference between Medium and High may not justify the added visual effects for a game like Dave The Diver where environmental detail is less critical than character clarity.

For 4K displays, Medium again stands out. The 129 FPS average and 110 FPS minimum at 3840x2160 with Medium settings provide a smooth experience on 120 Hz panels, while High settings drop to 115 FPS average and Ultra falls to 102 FPS. The jump from Medium to High at 4K costs 14 FPS, and the jump from High to Ultra costs another 13 FPS, making Ultra the least efficient preset for the visual gains it provides. Given that the 4K Medium minimum of 110 FPS exceeds the 60 FPS target by a wide margin, players can safely enable Medium settings without worrying about stutter or frame pacing issues.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 brings substantial processing capability to this combination, with 20 cores and 20 threads running on the Arrow Lake architecture. The 3 nm process node from TSMC allows the chip to reach a 5.30 GHz boost clock while maintaining a 65 W TDP, which is remarkably efficient for a desktop processor. The 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample fast memory for game logic and physics calculations, though Dave The Diver’s 2D gameplay rarely stresses these resources.

The CPU’s benchmark results show strong multithreaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 42,216 and a single-core score of 5,960. The Passmark multithread score of 49,682 and single-thread score of 4,689 further confirm that this processor can handle both heavily threaded workloads and the lightly threaded tasks that most games rely on. However, in Dave The Diver, the data indicates that the CPU is never the bottleneck. The uniform scaling pattern across resolutions and settings—where frame rates drop consistently as pixel count increases—proves that the RTX 3080’s rendering pipeline is the limiting factor.

The Core Ultra 7 265’s 20 threads without hyperthreading mean that each core handles exactly one thread, which is ideal for gaming workloads that typically use fewer than eight threads. The processor’s 93rd percentile ranking among all CPUs places it well above the RTX 3080’s 68th percentile among GPUs, creating a system where the GPU is the clear performance ceiling. This imbalance is actually beneficial for Dave The Diver, as it means the CPU can feed frames to the GPU without delay, allowing the RTX 3080 to operate at its full potential. The 5.30 GHz boost clock ensures that even the most demanding single-threaded tasks in the game, such as pathfinding or inventory management, execute with minimal latency.