Road 96

# Road 96 Performance Analysis: AMD Ryzen 5 8400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 produces a highly capable system for Road 96, delivering frame rates that range from a playable 55 FPS at 4K Ultra to a staggering 354 FPS at 1080p Low. This pairing ranks in the 93rd percentile of all tested configurations for this title, indicating that the system is positioned well within the top tier of performance, with the data showing that the GPU becomes the primary scaling factor as resolution increases, while the CPU's strong single-thread performance ensures high minimum frame rates at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling across resolutions reveals a classic pattern where the GPU becomes the dominant bottleneck as pixel count increases. At 1080p High, the system produces 209 FPS, but this drops to 133 FPS at 1440p High—a 36% reduction—and further to 71 FPS at 4K High, which is a 47% reduction from the 1440p figure. This steep decline with each resolution step indicates that the RTX 4080's rendering pipeline is being increasingly saturated, while the Ryzen 5 8400F has ample headroom to feed frames at lower resolutions.

The Low settings preset shows the most extreme scaling behavior. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 354 FPS, which drops to 226 FPS at 1440p Low (a 36% decrease) and then to 119 FPS at 4K Low (a 47% decrease from 1440p). The consistent percentage drops across settings presets suggest that Road 96's rendering workload scales predictably with resolution, and the limiting component shifts decisively toward the GPU as resolution climbs.

Ultra settings exhibit the most pronounced resolution penalty. Starting from 164 FPS at 1080p Ultra, the frame rate falls to 104 FPS at 1440p Ultra (a 37% drop) and then to 55 FPS at 4K Ultra (a 47% drop from 1440p). The fact that 4K Ultra is the only configuration dropping below 60 FPS indicates that this is the first point where the RTX 4080's computational resources are fully exhausted by Road 96's highest visual fidelity demands.

The Medium settings row provides the only data with minimum and maximum frame rates recorded. At 1080p Medium, the average is 260 FPS with a minimum of 221 and maximum of 298, showing tight frame pacing. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 165 FPS with a range of 140 to 190, while 4K Medium averages 87 FPS with a range of 74 to 101. The consistency of the frame time variance across resolutions suggests that the engine's frame pacing remains stable even as the GPU load increases.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and RTX 4080 combination ranks 257th out of 3713 tested configurations for Road 96, placing it in the top 7% of all systems evaluated. This percentile position indicates that the pairing is exceptionally well-suited for this adventure title, with the vast majority of tested combos producing lower performance. The rank reflects the synergy between a modern mid-range CPU and a high-end GPU, where neither component significantly bottlenecks the other at typical gaming resolutions.

Given that this rank encompasses a wide variety of hardware combinations, the 257th position suggests that the system outperforms most enthusiast builds while trailing a relatively small number of configurations that likely feature top-tier CPUs paired with the same or more powerful GPUs. The data indicates that for Road 96 specifically, this combo delivers performance that places it in the upper echelon of gaming systems, making it a strong choice for players seeking high refresh rate experiences or 4K gaming.

The percentile ranking of 77 for the CPU and 86 for the GPU, when considered together, explain the strong overall combo performance. The CPU's percentile places it above the majority of processors on the market, while the GPU's percentile shows it is even more exceptional relative to other graphics cards. The combination of two components that each sit in the upper quartile of their respective categories naturally produces a system that ranks highly in gaming benchmarks.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, built on a 4 nm process at TSMC. Its base clock of 4.20 GHz and boost clock of 4.70 GHz provide the single-thread performance that Road 96's engine relies on for frame generation and game logic. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a single-thread score of 951 in 3DMark and 2943 in Cinebench R23, indicating strong per-core capabilities that translate to responsive gameplay.

The CPU's multi-threaded performance is also substantial, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 20851 and a 3DMark max threads score of 6165. For Road 96, which is an adventure title that may not scale heavily across many cores, the 6-core/12-thread configuration provides sufficient parallel processing headroom while maintaining high clock speeds. The 16 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 cache per core ensure that frequently accessed data remains close to the processing units, reducing memory latency in real-time scenarios.

The 8400F's performance relative to its nearest rivals shows it is extremely competitive. It sits within 0.4% of the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F, with a negligible 0.2% advantage in average benchmark score (25005 vs 24964). It also edges out the Intel Core i7-11850H by 0.3% and the Intel Core i7-13620H by 0.4%, while trailing the AMD EPYC 9474F by 0.4%. This tight clustering indicates that the 8400F delivers performance comparable to several other modern mid-range options, with the differentiators being platform features rather than raw computational throughput.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers frame rates that span from 164 FPS at Ultra settings to 354 FPS at Low settings. The Medium preset averages 260 FPS with a minimum of 221 FPS, while High settings produce 209 FPS. These figures indicate that at 1080p, the CPU is capable of driving the GPU to very high output levels, and even the most demanding preset maintains a frame rate well above what most displays can refresh.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains exceptionally strong but shows the expected reduction. Low settings average 226 FPS, Medium averages 165 FPS with a range of 140 to 190 FPS, High averages 133 FPS, and Ultra averages 104 FPS. All of these are above 100 FPS, meaning that 1440p gaming with this combo is smooth across every preset, with the Ultra preset still providing a high refresh rate experience on most monitors.

At 3840x2160, the GPU load becomes the defining factor. Low settings manage 119 FPS, Medium averages 87 FPS with a range of 74 to 101 FPS, High averages 71 FPS, and Ultra drops to 55 FPS. The 4K Ultra figure is the only one in the entire dataset that falls below the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting that players targeting 4K with maximum visual fidelity may need to accept a lower preset or rely on upscaling technologies to achieve higher frame rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this combination?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 354 FPS at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This indicates that the system has substantial headroom for extremely high refresh rate displays at 1080p.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K with maximum settings?

A: No. The data shows that at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate is 55 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold. However, dropping to High settings at 4K raises the average to 71 FPS.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 8400F compare to the Ryzen 5 7500F in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 8400F has an average benchmark score of 25005, which is 0.2% higher than the Ryzen 5 7500F's score of 24964. This places the two processors in a statistical tie for overall performance.

Q: What is the frame rate range at 1440p Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the system produces a minimum of 140 FPS, an average of 165 FPS, and a maximum of 190 FPS, showing a consistent frame delivery with a 50 FPS spread between minimum and maximum.

Q: Is the RTX 4080's performance close to the RTX 4080 SUPER?

A: According to the benchmark data, the RTX 4080 has an average score of 54247, which is 0.1% higher than the RTX 4080 SUPER's score of 54209. This indicates that the two graphics cards perform nearly identically in synthetic tests.

Q: At which resolution and settings does the system first drop below 100 FPS average?

A: The first configuration to drop below 100 FPS average is 1440p Ultra, which produces 104 FPS. At 4K High, the average falls to 71 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it reaches 55 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 1080p gaming, the data shows that even Ultra settings deliver 164 FPS average, making this the recommended preset for maximum visual quality without sacrificing high refresh rate performance. The Medium preset at 1080p offers 260 FPS average, which is beneficial for competitive play on 240Hz or 360Hz monitors, but the visual trade-off may not be worth the extra frames for an adventure title like Road 96.

At 1440p, the High preset at 133 FPS average provides an excellent balance of visual fidelity and performance, remaining well above the 100 FPS threshold. For those with 144Hz displays, the Ultra preset at 104 FPS average is also viable, though the 29 FPS difference between High and Ultra may not justify the visual improvement for all players. The Medium preset at 165 FPS is the best choice for high refresh rate 1440p monitors, offering smooth motion with moderate settings.

For 4K gaming, the High preset at 71 FPS average is the recommended option, as it stays above the 60 FPS comfort zone while delivering strong visual quality. The Medium preset at 87 FPS provides even more headroom for frame rate fluctuations, and the data shows a minimum of 74 FPS in this configuration, ensuring consistent performance. Ultra at 4K should be avoided if frame rate stability is a priority, as the 55 FPS average falls below the standard 60 FPS target and may produce noticeable stutter on displays with variable refresh rates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using a 5 nm process at TSMC, featuring 9728 shading units and 76 ray tracing cores. Its boost clock of 2505 MHz and base clock of 2205 MHz provide the computational throughput necessary to drive Road 96 at high resolutions, while the 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth, ensuring that texture streaming and geometry data transfer do not become bottlenecks.

The GPU's 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power and 761.5 GTexel/s texture rate are substantial for an adventure game, which typically features moderate geometric complexity but may use high-resolution textures and post-processing effects. The 112 ROPs handle pixel output at a rate of 280.6 GPixel/s, which is critical for maintaining fill rate at 4K resolutions where the pixel count is over 8 million per frame.

In synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 4080 achieves a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6567 and a Passmark G3D score of 34457, placing it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 54247 is remarkably close to the RTX 4080 SUPER, which scores 54209, a difference of only 0.1%. The GPU also outperforms the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X by 1.1% and leads the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB by 2.6%, demonstrating its position as a high-end graphics solution.