Road 96

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a predictable but steep decline as resolution climbs, though the shape of that decline reveals a system that is far from balanced. At 1080p with Low settings, the combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 produces 391.4 FPS. Moving to 1440p drops that to 249.9 FPS, a reduction of roughly 36%. At 4K, the same Low preset yields 133.2 FPS, which is about 47% lower than the 1440p figure and 66% lower than 1080p.

This scaling pattern strongly indicates that the RTX 4090 is the limiting component at higher resolutions, while the CPU holds the frame rate back at 1080p. The 1080p-to-1440p gap of 141.5 FPS is far larger than the 1440p-to-4K gap of 116.7 FPS, suggesting that the GPU's rendering workload is growing faster than its raw throughput can handle as pixel count increases. At 1080p, the CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads are likely saturating before the GPU can stretch its legs, which is why the Low preset hits 391.4 FPS — close to the practical ceiling for many display setups but still below what the GPU could theoretically deliver.

Ultra settings tell a similar story but with more dramatic drops. At 1080p Ultra, the combo produces 179.6 FPS. That falls to 117 FPS at 1440p and 58.9 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is less than one-third of the 1080p Low figure, underscoring how heavily the RTX 4090's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth are taxed by the combination of high resolution and maxed-out effects. The data indicates that Road 96's visual fidelity at Ultra is far more demanding than the modest scene complexity of an adventure game might suggest.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 7 5700 is a Zen 3 part with 8 cores and 16 threads, base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 4.60 GHz. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 20,655 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2,916 in single-core, placing it in the 84th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i9-9900K, which trails by just 0.7%, and the Intel Core i7-12700H, which is 0.8% behind. These margins are small, meaning the Ryzen 7 5700 is competitive but not dominant in raw compute.

For Road 96 specifically, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU at higher settings, but it becomes relevant at 1080p Low. The jump from 391.4 FPS at 1080p Low to 287.7 FPS at 1080p Medium is a 103.7 FPS drop, which is larger than the corresponding drop at 4K (133.2 to 95.7, a 37.5 FPS difference). This suggests that at low resolution, the CPU's ability to feed the GPU becomes a bottleneck. The Ryzen 7 5700's 16 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s are adequate for a game like Road 96, but they cannot keep up with the RTX 4090's ability to render frames at nearly 400 FPS.

At 4K Ultra, the CPU is almost certainly idle relative to the GPU's workload. The 58.9 FPS result is more than 6x lower than the 1080p Low figure, and that gap is almost entirely attributable to the GPU. The data shows that the Ryzen 7 5700 is capable of sustaining high frame rates in this title, but its 65 W TDP and 7 nm process node are modest compared to the GPU's 450 W TDP. For most players, the CPU will not be the limiting factor except at the lowest resolution and settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy for balancing visual quality and performance. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 287.7 FPS, which is 42% higher than High (233.5 FPS) and 60% higher than Ultra (179.6 FPS). The jump from Medium to High costs 54.2 FPS, while High to Ultra costs another 53.9 FPS. Given that Road 96 is an adventure game where frame rates above 144 FPS are already smooth, the Medium preset at 1080p offers the best experience per the data — it preserves the vast majority of the Low preset's speed (391.4 FPS) while adding visual polish.

At 1440p, the Medium preset produces 182.6 FPS, which is 24% higher than High (147.2 FPS) and 56% higher than Ultra (117 FPS). The gap between Medium and High is 35.4 FPS, while High to Ultra is 30.2 FPS. For a 1440p display, High is arguably the sweet spot: 147.2 FPS is well above the 120 Hz threshold commonly found on gaming monitors, and the visual quality improvement over Medium is worth the 35.4 FPS loss. Ultra at 1440p is still playable at 117 FPS, but the data suggests diminishing returns.

At 4K, the situation is more constrained. High produces 77.8 FPS, which is below the 90 FPS mark that many players target for high-refresh 4K panels. Medium (95.7 FPS) is the only preset that breaks 90 FPS, while Ultra (58.9 FPS) is borderline for smooth play on a 60 Hz display. Low (133.2 FPS) is the fastest but strips away too much visual detail for a game that relies on atmosphere. The data supports Medium at 4K as the best balance, with High as a fallback if the player prefers visual fidelity over frame rate.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Road 96?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 391.4, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 5700 compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 7 5700 scores 27,220 on average, which is 0.7% ahead of the Intel Core i9-9900K and 0.8% ahead of the Intel Core i7-12700H.

Q: Is the RTX 4090 the bottleneck at 4K Ultra?

A: Yes, at 4K Ultra the combo produces 58.9 FPS, which is far below the 179.6 FPS at 1080p Ultra, indicating the GPU is the primary limiting component at higher resolutions.

Q: What settings should I use for a 1440p display?

A: The data shows High settings at 2560x1440 deliver 147.2 FPS, which is a strong balance between the Medium preset (182.6 FPS) and Ultra (117 FPS).

Q: Does the CPU matter at 1080p Low?

A: The 391.4 FPS result at 1080p Low is the highest in the dataset, but the large drop to 287.7 FPS at Medium indicates the CPU is helping to feed the GPU at low settings, though it is still not the primary limiter.

Q: How does this combo rank overall in Road 96?

A: It ranks 56th out of 1,684 tested combos, placing it in the top 3.3% of all configurations tested for this game.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this pairing, and the measured FPS data makes that clear. Its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, and its 16,384 shading units deliver 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The GPU's base clock is 2235 MHz with a boost clock of 2520 MHz, and it sits in the 91st percentile of all GPUs based on average benchmark scores.

In Road 96, the RTX 4090's role shifts from overkill at 1080p to barely adequate at 4K Ultra. At 1080p Low, the GPU is producing 391.4 FPS, which is likely beyond what any current display can show. At 4K Ultra, the same GPU drops to 58.9 FPS, meaning the 4K pixel count (8.3 million pixels) is overwhelming even this flagship part. The GPU's 450 W TDP and triple-slot cooler are necessary to sustain these clock speeds, but the data shows that the RTX 4090 is not immune to the demands of Road 96 at maximum settings.

The GPU's synthetic benchmark scores reinforce its position. With a Passmark G3D score of 38,194 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9,223, the RTX 4090 outperforms its nearest rivals by small margins — the NVIDIA Tesla T4 is 0.4% behind, and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 is 0.9% ahead. These are workstation cards, however, and the RTX 4090's gaming-oriented architecture with 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores is better suited to the real-time rendering demands of Road 96.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset of measured average FPS values shows a consistent pattern across all settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 391.4 FPS, Medium drops to 287.7 FPS, High falls to 233.5 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 179.6 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 211.8 FPS, which is a 54% reduction.

At 2560x1440, the numbers are 249.9 FPS (Low), 182.6 FPS (Medium), 147.2 FPS (High), and 117 FPS (Ultra). The spread from Low to Ultra is 132.9 FPS, representing a 53% drop. At 3840x2160, the results are 133.2 FPS (Low), 95.7 FPS (Medium), 77.8 FPS (High), and 58.9 FPS (Ultra). The Low-to-Ultra gap at 4K is 74.3 FPS, or 56%.

Looking at resolution scaling within a single preset, the Low setting loses 141.5 FPS going from 1080p to 1440p and another 116.7 FPS going from 1440p to 4K. The Medium preset loses 105.1 FPS from 1080p to 1440p and 86.9 FPS from 1440p to 4K. High loses 86.3 FPS and 69.4 FPS respectively, while Ultra loses 62.6 FPS and 58.1 FPS. These diminishing absolute losses at higher settings indicate that the GPU's workload is becoming more resolution-bound as visual complexity increases.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 56th out of 1,684 tested combos in Road 96, placing it in the top 3.3% of all configurations. This is an excellent result, but it is not the absolute top because the CPU is a mid-range part while the GPU is a flagship. The data suggests that pairing the RTX 4090 with a stronger CPU would yield higher frame rates at 1080p Low, where the 391.4 FPS result is likely limited by the Ryzen 7 5700's single-thread performance (2,916 in Cinebench R23 single-core).

However, at 4K Ultra, the combo's rank would be nearly identical regardless of CPU, since the GPU is the sole bottleneck at 58.9 FPS. The rank of 56 out of 1,684 means that only 55 other combos tested faster in this game, and those likely feature more powerful CPUs. The Ryzen 7 5700's 84th percentile CPU ranking and the RTX 4090's 91st percentile GPU ranking combine to produce a system that is faster than the vast majority of setups, but the CPU's modest 65 W TDP and 7 nm process node prevent it from being the absolute best. For players targeting 1440p or 4K, this combo is effectively top-tier; for 1080p esports-style play, a faster CPU would close the gap.