Dave The Diver

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combination delivers exceptional performance in Dave The Diver, achieving frame rates that far exceed display refresh rate capabilities at every tested resolution. The benchmark data shows this pairing ranks in the top 6% of all tested combinations, with the CPU providing substantial headroom and the GPU demonstrating formidable rasterization power across all settings.

The Core Ultra 7 265K features 20 cores and 20 threads, operating at a base clock of 3.90 GHz with a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. This configuration, built on the Arrow Lake architecture with a 3 nm process from TSMC, delivers a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35850 and a single-core score of 2020. In Geekbench testing, the processor achieves 23085 multi-core and 2713 single-core results. These figures place the CPU in the 94th percentile of all processors, indicating its position among high-performance desktop parts. The nearest rival comparisons show the Intel Xeon 6511P scoring 71051 average benchmark points, representing a negligible 0.2% difference from the Core Ultra 7's 70879 average. The Intel Core i7-14700KF trails by 1% with a score of 70163, while the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F sits 1.3% behind at 69996.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Core Ultra 7 265K provides substantial processing headroom for Dave The Diver, as evidenced by the measured frame rates at 1080p where the CPU's influence becomes more pronounced. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves 408 FPS average, which represents the highest measured frame rate across all configurations in this dataset. This performance at lower resolutions demonstrates that the CPU's 20 cores and 5.50 GHz boost clock are more than sufficient to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic updates.

The processor's 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache contribute to reducing memory latency in scene-heavy moments. The dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth ensures the CPU can quickly access game assets. At 1080p Ultra settings, the frame rate drops to 269 FPS average, which still represents exceptional performance but shows a 34% reduction from the Low preset. This scaling pattern indicates that even at lower resolutions, the GPU remains the primary performance limiter, as the CPU maintains consistent throughput.

The benchmark results for the Core Ultra 7 265K show strong multi-threaded performance with a PassMark multithread score of 58594 and a Cinebench R20 multi-core score of 20918. These synthetic benchmarks translate to real-world gaming performance where the CPU can handle background tasks without impacting frame delivery. The processor's 125W TDP and Intel Socket 1851 compatibility make it a mainstream high-performance choice, though the data shows its gaming performance in this title is more than adequate rather than being the bottleneck.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Analyzing the measured FPS across settings presets reveals that Medium settings provide the most balanced experience at each resolution. At 4K (3840x2160), the Medium preset delivers 172 FPS average with a minimum of 146 FPS and maximum of 198 FPS. This represents a 12% improvement over High settings at 154 FPS, while maintaining a smoother frame delivery than the Low preset's 206 FPS which may introduce visual artifacts. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 136 FPS average, which is still playable but represents a 21% performance penalty compared to Medium.

At 1440p, the Medium preset achieves 257 FPS average with a minimum of 219 FPS, providing a substantial margin above common 144Hz displays. The High preset at 230 FPS offers similar smoothness, while Ultra at 203 FPS remains well above typical refresh rate targets. The 1080p results show Medium at 342 FPS average with a minimum of 290 FPS, which exceeds the capabilities of even the highest refresh rate monitors available.

The data indicates that Medium settings offer the optimal balance between visual fidelity and performance headroom. The minimum FPS values available for Medium presets show consistent frame delivery: 146 FPS at 4K, 219 FPS at 1440p, and 290 FPS at 1080p. These minimums demonstrate that the Medium preset maintains stable frame pacing without significant drops, which is critical for the exploration and fishing gameplay mechanics in Dave The Diver. High settings provide a reasonable alternative for users prioritizing visual quality, but the measured data shows Medium offers the best overall experience when considering both average and minimum frame rates.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The resolution scaling analysis reveals the GPU's dominance as the performance limiter in this configuration. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the average FPS drops from 305 to 230, a 24.6% reduction. The transition from 1440p to 4K at High settings shows a further drop from 230 to 154 FPS, representing a 33% decrease. This accelerating performance decline with increasing resolution is characteristic of GPU-bound scenarios, where the RTX 4080's rendering workload grows exponentially with pixel count.

At Low settings, the scaling pattern shows 408 FPS at 1080p, dropping to 307 FPS at 1440p (24.8% reduction) and 206 FPS at 4K (32.9% reduction from 1440p). The consistent percentage drops across settings presets confirm that the GPU is the primary bottleneck. If the CPU were limiting performance, we would expect to see smaller FPS differences between resolutions, particularly at lower settings where the GPU has less work to do.

The RTX 4080's memory configuration of 16 GB GDDR6X with a 256-bit bus and 716.8 GB/s bandwidth provides ample resources for 4K textures. The GPU's boost clock of 2505 MHz and base clock of 2205 MHz, combined with 9728 shading units, deliver the raw compute throughput needed to maintain high frame rates. The pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s scale appropriately with resolution increases, but the measured data shows that even this powerful GPU cannot maintain the same frame delivery at 4K as at lower resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This specific CPU-GPU combination achieves a rank of 215 out of 3710 tested combinations in Dave The Diver, placing it in the top 5.8% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the exceptional synergy between the Core Ultra 7 265K and RTX 4080, which together deliver frame rates that surpass the vast majority of tested systems. The combination's performance is particularly notable given the game's Adventure genre, which typically benefits from both strong single-threaded performance for game logic and substantial GPU resources for visual rendering.

The CPU's 94th percentile ranking among all processors and the GPU's 86th percentile ranking among all graphics cards combine to create a system that excels in this title. The measured FPS data shows this combo outperforms the median configuration by a significant margin, with 4K Ultra settings achieving 136 FPS average compared to what would be expected from lower-performing combinations. The ranking of 215 out of 3710 indicates that only 214 combinations perform better, which likely include higher-end GPUs or more recent processor generations.

The nearest rival comparisons for both components provide context for this ranking. The CPU's benchmark scores are nearly identical to the Intel Xeon 6511P (0.2% difference) and Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 (0.7% difference), while the GPU's scores are within 0.1% of the RTX 4080 SUPER. These close benchmark scores suggest that systems with similar components would achieve comparable rankings, though the specific combination of this CPU and GPU produces the measured results.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 serves as the primary performance driver in this configuration, with its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 716.8 GB/s bandwidth providing the necessary resources for high-resolution textures and effects. The GPU's Ada Lovelace architecture, built on a 5 nm process with 45,900 million transistors, delivers substantial compute capabilities through its 9728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. The 48.74 TFLOPS FP32 performance enables the high frame rates observed across all tested configurations.

At 4K Ultra settings, the RTX 4080 achieves 136 FPS average, which demonstrates its capability to handle the most demanding preset in this title. The GPU's boost clock of 2505 MHz and memory clock of 1400 MHz (22.4 Gbps effective) contribute to this performance. The measured results show that the GPU's 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores, while not directly utilized in this game's benchmarks, provide future-proofing capabilities.

The GPU's performance relative to its nearest rivals shows the RTX 4080 SUPER scoring 54209 average benchmark points, just 0.1% higher than the RTX 4080's 54247. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54828 (1.1% higher), while the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB scores 55698 (2.6% higher). These comparisons indicate that the RTX 4080 performs competitively within its class, with the measured FPS data in Dave The Diver confirming its strong gaming performance.

The GPU's 320W TDP and triple-slot design indicate substantial power delivery requirements, with a suggested PSU of 700W and a single 16-pin power connector. The 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs support multiple display configurations, though the benchmark data does not indicate multi-monitor testing.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achieved by this combination?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 408, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This represents the maximum performance ceiling for this configuration in Dave The Diver.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its nearest rival in benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER scores 54209 average benchmark points, which is only 0.1% higher than the RTX 4080's 54247. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X is 1.1% higher at 54828, and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB is 2.6% higher at 55698.

Q: What is the recommended settings preset for 1440p gaming?

A: The Medium preset at 2560x1440 delivers 257 FPS average with a minimum of 219 FPS, providing the best balance of visual quality and performance. This exceeds the refresh rate capabilities of most displays while maintaining smooth frame delivery.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-core performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Core Ultra 7 265K scores 70879 average benchmark points, placing it within 0.2% of the Intel Xeon 6511P (71051) and 0.7% of the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 (71370). The Intel Core i7-14700KF scores 70163 (1% lower), and the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F scores 69996 (1.3% lower).

Q: At what resolution does this combo maintain frame rates above 200 FPS on High settings?

A: The combination achieves 305 FPS at 1920x1080 High settings and 230 FPS at 2560x1440 High settings. At 3840x2160 High settings, the average drops to 154 FPS, which falls below the 200 FPS threshold.

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

A: At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset achieves 136 FPS average while the Low preset achieves 206 FPS average. This represents a 51.5% performance improvement from Ultra to Low settings, with the Medium preset at 172 FPS providing an intermediate option.