Dave The Diver

# Dave The Diver — Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

Dave The Diver presents an unusual scaling profile for this combination of Intel's 24-core Arrow Lake Refresh flagship and NVIDIA's Ampere-based RTX 3080. The measured frame rates show that this game is far more forgiving on hardware than most modern titles, with even the heaviest preset at 4K remaining comfortably above 100 FPS. The dataset reveals a system that never comes close to being stressed to its limits, making the bottleneck analysis more about the engine's efficiency than any particular component deficiency.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 produces a dramatic but predictable drop in performance across all settings. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 306 FPS at 1080p to 154 FPS at 4K — a reduction of roughly half. This halving pattern suggests that pixel throughput is the dominant factor at lower quality presets, with the RTX 3080's 760.3 GB/s memory bandwidth and 164.2 GPixel/s pixel rate becoming the limiting resources.

Medium settings show a similar proportional decline: 256 FPS at 1080p drops to 193 FPS at 1440p and then to 129 FPS at 4K. The minimum frame rates at Medium settings tell a more interesting story — at 1080p the floor is 218 FPS, at 1440p it falls to 164 FPS, and at 4K it bottoms out at 110 FPS. The gap between average and minimum FPS widens slightly as resolution increases, indicating that frame time consistency degrades modestly with higher pixel counts.

High settings scale from 228 FPS at 1080p to 172 FPS at 1440p and finally 115 FPS at 4K. This represents a 50% performance hit when moving from 1080p to 4K, slightly less severe than the Low preset's 50% drop but with a different absolute trajectory. Ultra settings follow the same pattern: 202 FPS at 1080p, 152 FPS at 1440p, and 102 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration in the entire dataset that dips into triple-digit territory below 110 FPS.

The scaling behavior indicates that Dave The Diver is primarily GPU-limited at higher resolutions, but the CPU overhead is minimal even at 1080p. The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus, with its 24 cores and 24 threads, never appears to constrain frame delivery — the 306 FPS Low preset result at 1080p demonstrates that the processor can feed frames far faster than any current display can refresh. The fact that 4K Ultra still delivers 102 FPS average suggests the RTX 3080 has ample headroom in this title, and users with higher refresh rate 4K panels will find this combination well-matched.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 plays the decisive role in determining frame rates at higher resolutions and quality presets. Its 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus provides 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves sufficient for Dave The Diver at all tested configurations. The 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores are present but likely underutilized in this adventure title, which shows no signs of ray tracing demands in the measured data.

Clock speeds of 1440 MHz base and 1710 MHz boost position the RTX 3080 as a high-frequency Ampere part. The 8704 shading units deliver 29.77 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, and the 272 texture mapping units produce a 465.1 GTexel/s texture rate. These specifications translate into the observed performance: at 4K Ultra, the GPU still manages 102 FPS average, indicating that the render workload is moderate by modern standards.

The GPU's benchmark profile shows a Passmark G3D score of 25086, placing it in the 68th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in aggregate score include the NVIDIA P106-100 at -0.3% delta, the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 at -0.3%, and the AMD Radeon RX 6600M at -0.4%. The RTX 3080's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4407 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 152423 provide additional context for its compute capabilities, though these synthetic results do not directly translate to Dave The Diver's frame rates.

At 1080p, the GPU is not the limiting factor — the 306 FPS Low preset result exceeds what most displays can show, and even 202 FPS at Ultra is beyond typical 144Hz monitors. The RTX 3080's role becomes more pronounced at 1440p and 4K, where the pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth start to matter. The 4K Medium result of 129 FPS with a 110 FPS minimum shows that the GPU can sustain smooth gameplay even when frame times spike, which is important for a game that may have complex underwater scenes.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data supports a clear hierarchy of presets, with the differences between adjacent quality levels being consistent across resolutions. At 1080p, all presets deliver frame rates above 200 FPS, so the choice comes down to visual fidelity rather than performance. Ultra at 202 FPS is the best option for 1080p users who want maximum quality without sacrificing smoothness, as the 4 FPS difference from High (228 FPS) is negligible for most players.

At 1440p, the story shifts slightly. Ultra produces 152 FPS average, which remains well above 144Hz refresh rates. High delivers 172 FPS, and Medium sits at 193 FPS. The 20 FPS gap between Medium and Ultra at 1440p is noticeable but not critical, and the minimum frame rate at Medium (164 FPS) suggests that Medium offers the best consistency for competitive play. However, for a single-player adventure game, Ultra at 152 FPS is entirely playable and likely the preferred choice for visual quality.

At 4K, the recommendation becomes more nuanced. Ultra delivers 102 FPS average, which is above 60 FPS but may not satisfy 120Hz display owners. High provides 115 FPS, and Medium reaches 129 FPS with a 110 FPS minimum. The data suggests that High is the sweet spot at 4K — it offers a 13 FPS improvement over Ultra while presumably retaining most visual features. Low at 154 FPS is available for those prioritizing frame rate above all, but the visual sacrifice is likely too steep for a game like Dave The Diver where aesthetic immersion matters.

The Medium preset deserves special attention because it is the only configuration with reported minimum and maximum frame times. At 4K Medium, the 110-148 FPS range indicates a 38 FPS spread, while at 1440p Medium the range narrows to 164-221 FPS. At 1080p Medium, the spread is 218-294 FPS. This data suggests that Medium provides the most consistent frame pacing, making it a reliable choice for users who notice frame time stutter.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full preset ladder shows a clear progression. Low settings deliver an average of 306 FPS, Medium produces 256 FPS (minimum 218, maximum 294), High reaches 228 FPS, and Ultra tops out at 202 FPS. The 104 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is substantial, but all presets remain far above any practical refresh rate ceiling.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages drop accordingly. Low runs at 230 FPS, Medium at 193 FPS (minimum 164, maximum 221), High at 172 FPS, and Ultra at 152 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 78 FPS at this resolution, showing that the GPU begins to matter more as pixel count increases. The Medium preset's 164 FPS minimum is particularly notable, as it indicates the floor stays above most high-refresh monitors' capabilities.

At 3840x2160, the averages compress further. Low achieves 154 FPS, Medium runs at 129 FPS (minimum 110, maximum 148), High produces 115 FPS, and Ultra delivers 102 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra shrinks to 52 FPS at 4K, confirming that the RTX 3080's pixel throughput becomes the dominant constraint. The 4K Medium minimum of 110 FPS is the lowest recorded frame time in the entire dataset, but it remains comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

The combo rank in game places this configuration at 751 out of 2867 tested combinations, indicating that it performs in the upper quartile of systems tested for Dave The Diver. The measured data confirms this ranking — every preset at every resolution exceeds 100 FPS average, which is a strong result for a game of this type.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Dave The Diver at 4K 120 FPS?

A: Yes, at Medium settings the average is 129 FPS with a 110 FPS minimum, and at High settings it maintains 115 FPS average. Ultra settings dip to 102 FPS average, which falls short of 120 FPS but remains above 100 FPS.

Q: What is the best preset for 1440p gaming with this hardware?

A: Ultra settings deliver 152 FPS average, which exceeds 144Hz refresh rates. High provides 172 FPS for additional headroom, and Medium offers the most consistent frame times with a 164 FPS minimum.

Q: How does the RTX 3080's performance in this game compare to its overall GPU ranking?

A: The RTX 3080 sits in the 68th percentile among all GPUs with a Passmark G3D score of 25086. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA P106-100 and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16, both within 0.3% average score delta.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck at 1080p in this game?

A: No. At Low settings, the system achieves 306 FPS average at 1080p, which indicates the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has ample headroom. The CPU's Passmark multithread score of 60860 and single-thread score of 4823 support this conclusion.

Q: What frame rates can be expected at 4K with maximum settings?

A: Ultra settings at 3840x2160 produce an average of 102 FPS. This is the lowest average in the measured dataset but remains well above standard 60 FPS displays.

Q: How much performance is lost when going from 1080p to 4K?

A: At High settings, the average drops from 228 FPS to 115 FPS, a reduction of approximately 50%. At Low settings, the drop is from 306 FPS to 154 FPS, also roughly 50%.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture, built on TSMC's 3 nm process with 17,800 million transistors. Its base clock of 3.70 GHz boosts to 5.80 GHz, and it carries 36 MB of shared L3 cache alongside 3 MB of L2 cache per core. This configuration produces a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 51731 and a single-core score of 7303, placing the chip in the 96th percentile among all CPUs.

In Dave The Diver, the CPU's role appears minimal based on the frame rate data. The 306 FPS result at 1080p Low suggests that the processor can execute game logic and draw calls far faster than the GPU can render frames at that resolution. The 24 cores and 24 threads provide substantial parallel processing capability, with Passmark multithread and single-thread scores of 60860 and 4823 respectively. The CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, scores 0.2% higher on average, while the AMD EPYC 4584PX trails by 1.1% and the AMD EPYC 9135 by 1.2%.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s over dual-channel DDR5 is unlikely to be a constraint in this title, given the game's modest system requirements implied by the high frame rates. The integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics 64EU is present but unused in this configuration, as the discrete RTX 3080 handles all rendering duties. The 125 W TDP and unlocked multiplier indicate this is a high-end desktop part, but Dave The Diver's workload does not appear to stress it heavily.

The Passmark data compression score of 698346 and data encryption score of 52563 suggest strong general-purpose performance, but these metrics have little bearing on gaming frame rates. What matters for Dave The Diver is the CPU's ability to maintain consistent frame delivery, and the data shows that even at 4K Ultra, the system never drops below 102 FPS average. This indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor at any tested configuration — the GPU's pixel throughput and memory bandwidth define the performance envelope.