Road 96

Road 96, a narrative adventure with a stylized road-trip aesthetic, presents an interesting benchmark case for the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination. The measured data reveals a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher settings, but which also exposes the CPU's limitations at lower graphical presets. This analysis examines the 12 measured FPS data points to provide settings recommendations, assess component roles, and contextualize the combo's performance against the broader hardware landscape.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data for this pairing shows a clear hierarchy of performance across the four tested presets. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers an average of 353.4 FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded in the entire dataset. The Medium preset produces 260.3 FPS, while High follows at 205.9 FPS, and Ultra drops significantly to 162.6 FPS. For players with high refresh rate 1080p displays, the Low preset is the only option that fully saturates a 360Hz panel, but the jump from Low to Medium represents a substantial visual improvement for a 93.1 FPS reduction.

The 1440p resolution presents a more balanced picture. The High preset achieves an average of 135.1 FPS, which is a strong target for 144Hz monitors. The Medium preset is not far behind at 161.9 FPS, making it the optimal choice for those seeking a blend of visual fidelity and high frame rates. The Ultra preset at this resolution yields 106.4 FPS, which is still playable but shows a 55.5 FPS drop from Medium. Low at 1440p hits 221.6 FPS, which seems excessive for the genre and suggests the visual compromises are not worth the performance gain.

At 4K, the data indicates that the Ultra preset is the most demanding configuration tested, producing an average of 52.4 FPS. The High preset is the recommended setting for 4K displays, as it achieves an average of 69.1 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset offers 88 FPS, providing a comfortable margin for those who prefer higher frame rates over maximum detail settings. The Low preset at 4K reaches 116.6 FPS, but this appears to be a case where the graphical sacrifices are unnecessary for a game like Road 96, which is not a fast-paced competitive title.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the dominant component in this system, and its influence is most apparent at higher resolutions and settings. The GPU's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory is likely a non-factor at these resolutions, as the game's asset requirements are unlikely to exceed that capacity. The memory bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s ensures that texture streaming and data transfer are not bottlenecks, even at 4K Ultra where the average FPS drops to 52.4.

The GPU's clock speeds, with a base of 2295 MHz and a boost of 2550 MHz, directly contribute to the raw compute throughput. This is evident in the scaling from 1080p to 4K at the High preset. The average FPS drops from 205.9 at 1080p to 135.1 at 1440p, and finally to 69.1 at 4K. This represents a 66.4% reduction in performance from 1080p to 4K, which is a typical pattern for a GPU-bound scenario. The RTX 4080 SUPER's percentile ranking of 88 suggests it sits well above the median GPU, and its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, is within 0.2% in average benchmark score, indicating that the performance hierarchy is tight at the top end.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for a 60Hz 4K display?

A: The High preset at 3840x2160 is the recommended choice, as it achieves an average of 69.1 FPS. The Ultra preset falls below 60 FPS at 52.4, making High the highest quality option that maintains a playable frame rate.

Q: How much performance is gained by dropping from Ultra to Low at 1440p?

A: The data shows a significant difference. The Ultra preset averages 106.4 FPS, while the Low preset averages 221.6 FPS, representing a 115.2 FPS increase or roughly a 108% performance uplift.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p Low settings?

A: The benchmark results strongly suggest the CPU becomes the primary limiter at this configuration. With the RTX 4080 SUPER, the frame rate at 1080p Low is 353.4 FPS, which is extremely high but indicates that the CPU is struggling to feed the GPU at this level.

Q: Does the RTX 4080 SUPER's 16 GB VRAM cause any issues in Road 96?

A: Based on the measured FPS data, there is no indication of VRAM-related stuttering or performance degradation. The average frame rates scale consistently with resolution and settings, suggesting the 16 GB capacity is sufficient for all tested configurations.

Q: How does the combo's performance in Road 96 compare to its overall hardware ranking?

A: The combo ranks 128th out of 1684 tested combinations in this game, placing it in the top 7.6% of all systems. This is a strong showing that aligns with the individual component rankings.

Q: What frame rate can be expected at 4K Medium settings?

A: The measured data indicates an average of 88 FPS at 3840x2160 with the Medium preset, which is a solid performance level for a 4K display.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset provides twelve unique measurement points, covering three resolutions and four settings. At 1920x1080, the frame rates are exceptionally high, with the Low preset producing 353.4 FPS, Medium at 260.3 FPS, High at 205.9 FPS, and Ultra at 162.6 FPS. This resolution demonstrates a clear linear scaling where each step up in quality reduces performance by roughly 50-70 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show a more pronounced impact from the increased pixel count. The Low preset reaches 221.6 FPS, Medium delivers 161.9 FPS, High achieves 135.1 FPS, and Ultra settles at 106.4 FPS. The performance gap between Low and Ultra is 115.2 FPS, which is a larger absolute difference than at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates drop significantly, reflecting the four times pixel load compared to 1080p. The Low preset averages 116.6 FPS, Medium produces 88 FPS, High achieves 69.1 FPS, and Ultra drops to 52.4 FPS. This is the only resolution where the Ultra preset falls below the 60 FPS threshold, highlighting the extreme demand of 4K rendering.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights about the system's bottleneck. At the High preset, performance scales from 205.9 FPS at 1080p, to 135.1 FPS at 1440p, and down to 69.1 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is a 34.4% reduction, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is a 48.9% reduction. This non-linear scaling is characteristic of a GPU-bound workload, where the rendering load increases exponentially with pixel count.

The Low preset shows a different scaling pattern. Performance goes from 353.4 FPS at 1080p, to 221.6 FPS at 1440p, and 116.6 FPS at 4K. The relative drops are 37.3% and 47.4% respectively. Interestingly, the 1080p Low result of 353.4 FPS is suspiciously high, suggesting the CPU is the limiting factor at this point. If the GPU were fully utilized, we would expect a more linear scaling pattern based on pixel count alone.

The data implies that at 4K, the RTX 4080 SUPER is heavily loaded, and the CPU has enough headroom to keep up. At 1080p with Low settings, the CPU is likely maxed out, preventing the GPU from reaching even higher frame rates. This is a classic sign of a balanced system at high resolutions, but a CPU-bound scenario at low resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. Its benchmark scores, such as the Cinebench R23 multicore result of 16429 and single-core result of 2319, indicate a capable mid-range processor. However, when paired with a flagship GPU like the RTX 4080 SUPER, its limitations become apparent at lower graphical presets.

The 1080p Low result of 353.4 FPS is the clearest indicator of CPU involvement. This frame rate is extraordinarily high, and the fact that it doesn't scale proportionally with the GPU's capabilities suggests the Ryzen 5 5500 is hitting its maximum throughput. The processor's 16 MB of L3 cache and DDR4 memory support, with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s, may also contribute to this bottleneck in data-heavy scenarios.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 79 indicates it performs better than 79% of all tested processors. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-12500, is within 0.1% in average benchmark score, showing that the Ryzen 5 5500 is a competitive part in its class. However, the data suggests that for this particular game, the CPU's single-thread performance is adequate for high-resolution gaming but becomes a limiting factor only when the GPU is underutilized.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination ranks 128th out of 1684 tested combos in Road 96. This places it in the top 7.6% of all systems tested, which is a strong result. The ranking reflects the GPU's dominance in the pairing, as the RTX 4080 SUPER's performance is what primarily drives the high frame rates at most settings.

Given that the GPU ranks in the 88th percentile among all GPUs, while the CPU ranks in the 79th percentile, the combo's overall ranking is closer to the GPU's percentile. This suggests that the GPU is the primary performance driver in this game, and the CPU is sufficient to support it without significant compromise except in extreme low-settings scenarios. The fact that the combo ranks 128th out of 1684 means there are 127 combinations that perform better, likely featuring even higher-end CPUs paired with similar or better GPUs.

The data implies that while this combo is not the absolute top performer, it is well within the high-performance tier. The 4K High result of 69.1 FPS and 1440p High result of 135.1 FPS demonstrate that this system is more than capable of delivering excellent experiences in Road 96, which is a game that does not require extreme frame rates to be enjoyable. The ranking validates the pairing as a sensible high-end configuration, with the CPU providing adequate support for the GPU's immense power at standard gaming resolutions.