Dave The Diver

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 delivers exceptionally high frame rates in Dave The Diver, ranking 611th out of 2867 tested combinations. This places the combo in the top percentile of all systems tested for this title, indicating a hardware pairing that is far more capable than the game's modest graphical demands require. The data shows a system that will not struggle with this adventure title at any settings level, though the performance ceiling suggests the CPU is doing significant heavy lifting.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 achieves a rank of 611 out of 2867 tested combos for this game. That puts the system comfortably in the top 21% of all configurations tested, a strong showing for a game that is not typically associated with extreme hardware demands. The ranking reflects the raw power of both components, but the data suggests the CPU is the dominant factor in this pairing's success.

The Core Ultra 9 290K Plus posts an average benchmark score of 84003, placing it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, scores 83807, a delta of just 0.2% — essentially a statistical tie. The AMD EPYC 4584PX and AMD EPYC 9135 trail by 1.1% and 1.2% respectively, while the AMD EPYC 7F72 actually leads by 1.3% with a score of 85072. This CPU is clearly at the top of the consumer desktop heap, and its 24 cores and 24 threads provide ample headroom for any game logic or physics calculations Dave The Diver might throw at it.

On the GPU side, the RTX 4070 posts an average benchmark score of 37648, placing it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are remarkably close: the NVIDIA Tesla P4 scores 37628 (0.1% delta), the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 scores 37507 (0.4% delta), and the AMD Radeon PRO W6400 scores 37157 (1.3% delta). The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile is the only rival that leads, scoring 38135 for a -1.3% delta. This suggests the RTX 4070 is a solid mid-to-high-range performer, but it is not the class leader — yet the combo still ranks in the top quarter of all tested systems.

The rank of 611 is notable because it shows that even with a GPU that is not the absolute fastest, the combination with a top-tier CPU produces a system that handles this game with enormous margin. The data implies that in Dave The Diver, the bottleneck is rarely the hardware — it is the game engine's own frame pacing or VSync limits that would cap the experience.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with an AD104 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory runs at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective speed. The GPU's base clock is 1920 MHz with a boost clock of 2475 MHz, and it packs 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation units.

For Dave The Diver, the GPU's 12 GB VRAM is more than sufficient — the game's art style and scene complexity do not demand large texture pools, and the measured FPS data confirms no VRAM-related stutters or dips. The RTX 4070 also includes 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores, though this game does not appear to use ray tracing effects based on the measured results. The GPU's FP32 performance of 29.15 TFLOPS and texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s are far beyond what this title requires.

The measured FPS data shows that the GPU is never the limiting factor, even at 4K resolution. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the system still averages 106 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The RTX 4070's pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s and its PCIe 4.0 x16 interface provide plenty of bandwidth for this game's relatively simple geometry and effects. The GPU's 200 W TDP and dual-slot design are typical for this performance class, and its 550 W suggested PSU is modest.

Interestingly, the RTX 4070's benchmark scores in specific tests reveal its character: it scores 26927 in Passmark G3D, 14720 in GPU compute, and 154858 in Geekbench OpenCL. These are solid numbers but not exceptional, confirming that the GPU is a capable mid-range performer that excels when paired with a strong CPU. The fact that the combo still achieves 120 FPS at 4K High settings confirms the game's optimization rather than the GPU's raw power.

Settings Recommendations

Analyzing the measured FPS data, the sweet spot for this combo is the High preset across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, High settings deliver 238 FPS, which is only 33 FPS below the Low preset's 319 FPS but offers significantly better visual quality. Moving to Medium at 1080p gives 267 FPS, but the jump from Medium to High costs only 29 FPS while providing noticeable visual improvements in texture detail and shadow quality.

At 2560x1440, High settings produce 179 FPS, which is still far above any display's refresh rate that would be paired with this system. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 158 FPS, a 21 FPS penalty for marginal visual gains. For competitive or high-refresh-rate displays, High is the clear recommendation — it maintains a 179 FPS average while keeping visuals crisp.

At 4K, the story changes slightly. High settings yield 120 FPS, which is excellent for 4K gaming. Ultra drops to 106 FPS, a 14 FPS penalty that might not justify the extra visual fidelity on a 4K display. Medium at 4K gives 135 FPS, but the step up to High costs only 15 FPS while delivering better texture filtering and post-processing. The data shows that High at 4K is the optimal balance of visual quality and performance, especially since the minimum FPS at Medium 4K is 114, suggesting High would not dip far below that.

For players prioritizing maximum visual fidelity, Ultra at 1080p (211 FPS) or 1440p (158 FPS) is still viable, but the gains over High are modest. The measured data indicates that High is the best preset for this game on this hardware — it provides the highest frame rates that still take advantage of the game's visual upgrades over Low and Medium, without paying the performance tax of Ultra.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data shows a consistent pattern: this combo delivers playable frame rates at every resolution and settings combination, with no configuration falling below 106 FPS average.

1920x1080:

• Low: 319 FPS average
• Medium: 267 FPS average (min 227, max 307)
• High: 238 FPS average
• Ultra: 211 FPS average

At 1080p, the system is heavily CPU-bound. The jump from Low to Medium costs 52 FPS, while Medium to High costs another 29 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 27 FPS. The progression is nearly linear, suggesting the game engine's settings scale predictably with this hardware.

2560x1440:

• Low: 240 FPS average
• Medium: 201 FPS average (min 171, max 231)
• High: 179 FPS average
• Ultra: 158 FPS average

At 1440p, the GPU starts to exert more influence. Low to Medium costs 39 FPS, Medium to High costs 22 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 21 FPS. The diminishing returns are clear — the gap between settings narrows as resolution increases.

3840x2160:

• Low: 161 FPS average
• Medium: 135 FPS average (min 114, max 155)
• High: 120 FPS average
• Ultra: 106 FPS average

At 4K, the GPU becomes the primary constraint. Low to Medium costs 26 FPS, Medium to High costs 15 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 14 FPS. The minimum FPS at Medium 4K (114) indicates the system never stutters, and even the Ultra preset's 106 FPS average is well above the 100 FPS threshold for high-refresh-rate 4K displays.

The only configuration with reported minimum and maximum FPS is Medium at all resolutions: 1080p shows min 227 / max 307, 1440p shows min 171 / max 231, and 4K shows min 114 / max 155. These ranges suggest the Medium preset produces the most consistent frame pacing, with the 4K Medium range of 41 FPS being the tightest spread of any measured configuration.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals the bottleneck characteristics of this combo. At High settings, the system drops from 238 FPS at 1080p to 179 FPS at 1440p (a 25% reduction) and then to 120 FPS at 4K (a 33% reduction from 1440p). The total drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings is 118 FPS, or roughly 50% of the original frame rate.

At Low settings, the scaling is similar: 319 FPS at 1080p drops to 240 FPS at 1440p (25% reduction) and then to 161 FPS at 4K (33% reduction from 1440p). The total drop is 158 FPS, or about 50% of the original. This consistency across settings suggests the resolution scaling factor is independent of the quality preset, indicating the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors at higher resolutions.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is slightly steeper: 211 FPS at 1080p drops to 158 FPS at 1440p (25% reduction) and then to 106 FPS at 4K (33% reduction from 1440p). The total drop is 105 FPS, again about 50%. The uniform 25% drop from 1080p to 1440p and 33% drop from 1440p to 4K across all settings points to a GPU that is scaling predictably with pixel count.

The data indicates the CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution. The Core Ultra 9 290K Plus's 5.80 GHz boost clock and 36 MB of shared L3 cache provide more than enough processing power to feed the GPU at 4K. The 115.2 GB/s memory bandwidth and DDR5 support ensure the CPU can keep up with the game's logic and physics at any frame rate. The bottleneck at 4K is purely the RTX 4070's rasterization throughput and memory bandwidth, which is expected given the 192-bit bus and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Dave The Diver at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: Yes. The measured data shows 120 FPS at 4K High settings and 106 FPS at 4K Ultra, both well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the best settings preset for this hardware?

A: High settings provide the best balance, delivering 238 FPS at 1080p, 179 FPS at 1440p, and 120 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings cost 27-21 FPS depending on resolution with minimal visual gains.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more important for this game with this combo?

A: The CPU is the dominant factor at 1080p, where the system exceeds 300 FPS on Low settings. At 4K, the GPU becomes the constraint, but the CPU's 96th percentile ranking ensures it never bottlenecks.

Q: How does this combo rank against all tested systems?

A: It ranks 611th out of 2867 tested combinations, placing it in the top 21% of all systems tested for Dave The Diver.

Q: Does the RTX 4070's 12 GB VRAM cause any issues at 4K?

A: No. The measured data shows no VRAM-related performance dips. The 12 GB GDDR6X memory with 504.2 GB/s bandwidth is more than sufficient for this game's texture and geometry requirements.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The lowest minimum FPS recorded is 114 FPS at 4K Medium settings, which is still far above the 60 FPS standard for smooth gameplay. No configuration drops below 100 FPS average.