Road 96

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a mixed bag in Road 96, depending heavily on your target resolution. At 1080p, the combo is thoroughly playable across every preset, while 1440p requires dropping to Medium settings for a consistent frame rate. At 4K, the hardware falls short of the 60 FPS playability threshold on all tested settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rate data for this CPU-GPU pair in Road 96 shows a clear scaling pattern from 1080p up to 4K. At 1920x1080, the combo starts strong: Low settings produce an average of 145 FPS, Medium averages 106 FPS with a minimum of 90 FPS and a maximum of 122 FPS, High averages 85 FPS, and Ultra averages 67 FPS. The 1080p results are all comfortably above the 60 FPS playability threshold, with even the most demanding preset keeping a 7 FPS margin over the line.

Stepping up to 2560x1440, the performance drops noticeably. Low settings still deliver a solid 92 FPS average, and Medium manages 67 FPS average with a minimum of 57 FPS and a maximum of 78 FPS. High settings fall to a 54 FPS average, which sits below the 60 FPS threshold, and Ultra drops further to 43 FPS. The 1440p Medium preset is the only non-Low option that remains playable, though its 57 FPS minimum shows occasional dips under the target.

At 3840x2160, the picture weakens considerably. Low settings average 49 FPS, Medium averages 36 FPS with a minimum of 30 FPS and a maximum of 41 FPS, High averages 29 FPS, and Ultra averages 23 FPS. No 4K preset reaches the 60 FPS playability threshold; the closest is Low, which still falls 11 FPS short. The data shows a steep drop from 1440p to 4K, with the Medium preset losing roughly half its average frame rate between those resolutions.

Across all resolutions, the gap between Low and Ultra presets is substantial. At 1080p, the spread is 78 FPS (145 down to 67); at 1440p, it narrows to 49 FPS (92 down to 43); at 4K, it compresses to 26 FPS (49 down to 23). This compression at higher resolutions indicates that pixel throughput becomes the limiting factor as the resolution climbs.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark results reveal a shifting balance between the i3-12100F and the Arc B570 depending on resolution. At 1920x1080, the CPU has more headroom relative to the GPU workload, which is why the frame rate scales so steeply between presets — the GPU is being pushed harder at Ultra, and the 67 FPS result suggests the graphics card is the primary constraint even at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the scaling between Low and Medium (92 to 67 FPS) shows the GPU taking on more work, while the drop to High (54 FPS) and Ultra (43 FPS) indicates the graphics pipeline is saturated. The Arc B570's 10 GB GDDR6 memory and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for these settings, but the rendering load at 1440p High and Ultra exceeds what the card can sustain at 60 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is overwhelmingly the dominant factor. The 4K results — 49 FPS at Low, 36 FPS at Medium, 29 FPS at High, 23 FPS at Ultra — show a near-linear decline as settings increase, which is typical of a GPU-bound scenario. The i3-12100F's four cores and eight threads are sufficient to feed the Arc B570 at this resolution; the bottleneck is squarely on the graphics card's 2304 shading units and 80 ROPs.

Comparing resolution scaling, the 1080p Low to 1440p Low transition drops from 145 to 92 FPS (a 37% reduction), while the 1440p Low to 4K Low transition drops from 92 to 49 FPS (a 47% reduction). This steeper decline at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU's pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s is the limiting resource as pixel count quadruples from 1440p to 4K.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the best settings are Ultra, which delivers an average of 67 FPS. This is the most demanding preset that stays at or above the 60 FPS threshold, and it does so with a modest 7 FPS margin. All four presets — Low, Medium, High, and Ultra — are playable at 1080p, so users can prioritize visual quality without sacrificing smoothness.

At 2560x1440, the best settings are Medium, with an average of 67 FPS. This preset stays above the 60 FPS threshold on average, although the 57 FPS minimum shows that brief dips below the target are possible during demanding scenes. Low is also playable at 92 FPS, but Medium offers a meaningful visual upgrade while maintaining the same average frame rate as 1080p Ultra.

At 3840x2160, there are no playable settings. The highest average FPS across any preset is 49 at Low, which falls 11 FPS short of the 60 FPS threshold. Medium, High, and Ultra all deliver averages below 40 FPS, making 4K impractical for this hardware combination in Road 96.

The data indicates that 1440p Medium is the sweet spot for this combo: it matches the 67 FPS average of 1080p Ultra while rendering at a higher resolution. Users with 1440p displays should target that configuration, while 4K owners will need to lower resolution or accept sub-60 FPS performance.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific CPU-GPU pairing ranks 2987 out of 3713 tested combinations for Road 96. That places it in the lower half of all combos, at roughly the 20th percentile of the tested field. The percentile rankings for the individual components align with this: the i3-12100F sits at the 68th percentile among all CPUs, while the Arc B570 sits at the 65th percentile among all GPUs.

The combo rank suggests that Road 96 is moderately demanding on this hardware. The i3-12100F's average benchmark score of 13494 is respectable for a quad-core part, and the Arc B570's average benchmark score of 20556 places it near the middle of the GPU field. Yet the game's rendering requirements, particularly at higher resolutions and presets, push this pairing below the median combo performance.

The measured FPS data reinforces this ranking. At 1080p Ultra, the combo hits 67 FPS, which is a passable result but not exceptional for a game of this genre. The 4K results, where no preset reaches 60 FPS, drag the overall ranking down relative to combos that can handle 4K playable settings.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Looking at the nearest rivals for each component provides a sense of what other hardware would behave similarly. For the CPU, the Intel Core 3 N355 has an average benchmark score of 13492, a 0% delta from the i3-12100F's 13494 — effectively identical performance. The Intel Core i5-9500 scores 13452, a 0.3% delta, meaning it would produce nearly the same frame rates in CPU-light scenarios. The Intel Core 5 120UL is 0.7% faster at 13594, and the Intel Core i7-1250U is 1.1% faster at 13351, though the latter's mobile orientation may not translate directly to desktop gaming.

For the GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 20534, a 0.1% delta from the Arc B570's 20556 — statistically indistinguishable. The Intel Arc A750 scores 20582, a -0.1% delta, making it a near-perfect match. The NVIDIA Quadro M4000M is 0.4% slower at 20480, and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X is 0.5% slower at 20662. In practice, swapping the Arc B570 for an Arc A750 or RTX 3070 Mobile would yield nearly identical frame rates in Road 96.

A system with the i3-12100F paired with any of these rival GPUs would land in the same performance envelope: playable at 1080p across all presets, playable at 1440p up to Medium, and not playable at 4K. Similarly, keeping the Arc B570 and swapping the CPU to a Core i5-9500 or Core 3 N355 would produce comparable results, since Road 96 at these settings is largely GPU-bound.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Road 96 at 60 FPS on a 1080p monitor?

A: Yes. At 1920x1080, all four presets — Low (145 FPS), Medium (106 FPS), High (85 FPS), and Ultra (67 FPS) — average at or above 60 FPS.

Q: What is the highest settings preset at 1440p that stays above 60 FPS?

A: Medium is the best option at 2560x1440, averaging 67 FPS with a minimum of 57 FPS and a maximum of 78 FPS.

Q: Is 4K gaming possible with the Intel Core i3-12100F and Intel Arc B570 in Road 96?

A: No. The best 4K result is 49 FPS at Low settings, which is below the 60 FPS playability threshold. Medium averages 36 FPS, High averages 29 FPS, and Ultra averages 23 FPS.

Q: How does the Arc B570 compare to the Arc A750 in overall GPU benchmark scores?

A: The Arc B570 has an average benchmark score of 20556, while the Arc A750 scores 20582 — a -0.1% delta, meaning the A750 is marginally faster but effectively equivalent.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested CPU-GPU pairs for this game?

A: This pairing ranks 2987 out of 3713 tested combinations in the database for Road 96.

Q: Which component is the limiting factor at 4K resolution?

A: The Arc B570 GPU. At 3840x2160, frame rates decline steeply across presets (49 to 23 FPS), and the i3-12100F's benchmark scores (e.g., 11860 in Cinebench R23 multicore) are sufficient to feed the GPU at that resolution.