Road 96

# Road 96 Performance Analysis: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D + Intel Arc B390

This combo ranks 2575th out of 2903 tested configurations for Road 96, placing it in the lower 11% of all tested systems. The pairing of a strong 8-core CPU with an integrated-class GPU creates a significant performance bottleneck that becomes increasingly apparent at higher resolutions and quality settings. The data shows a system that can handle the game at playable framerates only under specific conditions, with the GPU consistently limiting performance across the board.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 2575 out of 2903 tested combinations places it firmly in the bottom tier of systems evaluated for Road 96. This positioning reflects the fundamental imbalance between the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D's substantial processing power and the Intel Arc B390's modest graphics capabilities. The CPU sits in the 77th percentile among all processors tested, while the GPU languishes in the 9th percentile among all graphics cards tested, creating a 68-percentage-point gap that explains the overall system ranking.

Benchmark results indicate that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this configuration. The Ryzen 7 5700X3D delivers a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 22366 and a single-core score of 3157, with a Passmark multithread score of 26318. These figures place it within 0.1% of the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X3D's average score of 24728 and within 0.5% of the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX's average of 24822. The CPU's performance headroom means that gaming results are almost entirely dictated by the GPU.

The Intel Arc B390's average benchmark score of 1482 places it just 1.3% above the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX and 1.5% above the GeForce 800M. This GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 represents its entire benchmark portfolio, and its 9th percentile ranking among all GPUs confirms its position at the very bottom of the graphics hierarchy. The measured FPS data across all resolutions and settings corroborates this assessment, with no configuration achieving even 100 FPS average.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics processor built on Intel's Xe3-LPG architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz, featuring 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster operation pipelines. The GPU includes 12 ray tracing cores and delivers a pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s with a texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s. Its FP32 performance is rated at 7.680 TFLOPS, with FP16 capabilities reaching 15.36 TFLOPS.

Memory configuration is entirely system-dependent, with the GPU sharing system memory rather than having dedicated VRAM. This means memory bandwidth and capacity vary based on the host system's DDR4 configuration, with the CPU's dual-channel memory bus providing a theoretical bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. The shared memory architecture is a significant constraint for gaming performance, particularly at higher resolutions where texture data requirements increase substantially.

In Road 96, the GPU's limitations manifest clearly in the FPS data. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 94 FPS average, but this drops to 56 FPS at High settings and 43 FPS at Ultra. The 4K results are even more telling: 32 FPS at Low, 23 FPS at Medium, 19 FPS at High, and just 15 FPS at Ultra. These numbers indicate that the Arc B390 struggles to maintain playable framerates at higher quality presets, with the gap between Low and Ultra settings widening as resolution increases.

The GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1482 places it in the company of legacy discrete GPUs like the GT 625 OEM and GT 710, which score 1446 and 1443 respectively. This comparison underscores the Arc B390's position as an entry-level integrated solution rather than a gaming-oriented discrete card. The 2.5% advantage over the GT 625 OEM and 2.7% over the GT 710 provides context for its expected performance in modern games like Road 96.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D is a desktop processor from the 5000 series, built on the Zen 3 architecture with the Vermeer codename. It features 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.00 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. The CPU's 105 W TDP and AMD Socket AM4 compatibility make it a mainstream desktop part, manufactured on TSMC's 7 nm process with 8,850 million transistors on a 74 mm² die.

The processor's cache hierarchy is particularly noteworthy: 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and a substantial 96 MB of shared L3 cache. This large L3 cache is designed to improve gaming performance by reducing memory latency, and benchmark results confirm the CPU's strength in this area. The Passmark physics score of 2686 and the 3DMark 16-thread score of 6764 demonstrate solid multi-threaded capability, while the single-thread score of 804 in 3DMark and 2970 in Passmark indicate competent single-core performance.

In the context of Road 96, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with sufficient data to maintain framerates. The data shows that the Ryzen 7 5700X3D is more than capable of this task, as evidenced by the consistent FPS scaling across resolution changes. When moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the average FPS drops from 56 to 35, and further to 19 at 4K. This scaling pattern is characteristic of GPU-limited scenarios, where the CPU has ample headroom to process game logic while the GPU becomes the bottleneck.

The CPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores include the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X3D (0.1% faster), AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX (0.5% faster), Intel Core i5-12450HX (0.5% slower), and Intel Core i5-11600 (0.6% slower). These tight margins confirm that the Ryzen 7 5700X3D delivers performance consistent with its market position, and its 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates that it should not be the limiting factor in gaming workloads.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its best performance across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 94 FPS, which represents the only configuration exceeding 90 FPS in the entire dataset. Medium settings achieve 69 FPS with a minimum of 59 and maximum of 79, while High settings reach 56 FPS. Ultra settings drop to 43 FPS, which remains playable but shows the GPU's limitations at maximum quality.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance impact is substantial. Low settings yield 60 FPS, exactly matching the 60 FPS threshold often considered the minimum for smooth gameplay. Medium settings produce 44 FPS with a minimum of 37 and maximum of 50, while High settings achieve 35 FPS. Ultra settings fall to 28 FPS, which is below the ideal range for responsive gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles across all settings. Low settings manage 32 FPS, Medium achieves 23 FPS with a minimum of 20 and maximum of 27, High drops to 19 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 15 FPS. None of these 4K results reach playable framerates, and the minimum FPS at Medium (20) approaches the threshold where stuttering becomes noticeable.

The Medium preset at each resolution provides the most complete data, including minimum and maximum FPS values. At 1080p Medium, the 59-79 FPS range shows reasonable consistency, while 1440p Medium's 37-50 FPS range indicates a playable but less smooth experience. The 4K Medium range of 20-27 FPS demonstrates severe performance degradation at this resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear pattern of GPU limitation. At Low settings, the transition from 1080p (94 FPS) to 1440p (60 FPS) represents a 36% decrease, and further to 4K (32 FPS) a 66% decrease from the 1080p baseline. This scaling is steeper than what would be expected from a purely CPU-limited scenario, where resolution changes typically have minimal impact on framerates.

At High settings, the scaling is even more pronounced: 56 FPS at 1080p drops to 35 FPS at 1440p (37.5% decrease) and 19 FPS at 4K (66% decrease from 1080p). The Ultra preset shows similar behavior, with 43 FPS at 1080p falling to 28 FPS at 1440p (35% decrease) and 15 FPS at 4K (65% decrease from 1080p). These consistent percentage drops across different quality presets indicate that the GPU's rendering throughput is the dominant constraint.

The data suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect framerates to remain relatively stable across resolutions, with only minor decreases at 4K. Instead, the substantial FPS drops at each resolution step confirm that the Intel Arc B390's compute capabilities are exhausted well before the Ryzen 7 5700X3D's processing power is fully utilized.

The 1080p Low result of 94 FPS represents the only configuration where the system approaches the CPU's potential performance ceiling. Even at this optimal setting, the GPU's shared memory architecture and limited shading resources prevent higher framerates. The fact that 1440p Low (60 FPS) is still playable while 4K Low (32 FPS) is not highlights the GPU's resolution ceiling at approximately 1440p for acceptable performance.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Road 96?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 at Low settings delivers 94 FPS average, which is the only configuration exceeding 90 FPS. At 2560x1440, Low settings achieve 60 FPS, which is borderline acceptable, while 3840x2160 results in 32 FPS at Low, which is below playable thresholds.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to other GPUs in this game's context?

A: The GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1482 places it 1.3% above the GeForce GT 520MX and 1.5% above the GeForce 800M. Its 9th percentile ranking among all GPUs indicates it performs in the bottom tier, which aligns with the measured FPS results across all settings.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 5700X3D powerful enough for Road 96?

A: Yes, the CPU is not the limiting factor. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 22366 and 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicate substantial processing headroom. The FPS scaling pattern across resolutions confirms that the GPU is the bottleneck.

Q: What FPS can I expect at 1440p Medium settings?

A: The measured data shows 44 FPS average at 2560x1440 with Medium settings, with a minimum of 37 FPS and maximum of 50 FPS. This represents a playable but not ideal experience, with occasional dips below 40 FPS.

Q: Does the system support ray tracing in Road 96?

A: The Intel Arc B390 includes 12 ray tracing cores and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), indicating hardware-level ray tracing capability. However, the measured FPS data does not include ray tracing-specific benchmarks, so actual performance impact cannot be determined from this dataset.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: This combo ranks 2575th out of 2903 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 11.3% of all systems tested for Road 96. This ranking reflects the GPU's 9th percentile performance, which heavily outweighs the CPU's 77th percentile capability.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data identifies 1920x1080 at Low settings as the only configuration delivering consistently smooth gameplay, with 94 FPS average. This preset is recommended for players prioritizing framerate stability over visual fidelity. The 1080p Medium setting at 69 FPS (59-79 range) offers a reasonable middle ground, providing improved visuals while maintaining playable performance.

At 2560x1440, Low settings at 60 FPS is the only viable option for acceptable gameplay. The Medium preset at 44 FPS (37-50 range) may be tolerable for less demanding players, but the minimum FPS of 37 approaches the threshold where stuttering becomes noticeable. High and Ultra presets at 1440p (35 and 28 FPS respectively) are not recommended for responsive gameplay.

The 3840x2160 resolution is not viable for this game with this combo. Even Low settings at 32 FPS fail to reach playable framerates, and the Medium preset's minimum of 20 FPS indicates severe performance issues. Players with 4K displays should consider running the game at a lower resolution or accepting significant visual compromises.

For the best balance between visual quality and performance, 1080p Medium settings provide the most consistent experience with a 69 FPS average and a 59-79 FPS range. This configuration maintains framerates above 60 FPS in the majority of scenarios while offering improved textures and effects over Low settings. Players who prioritize maximum visual quality should note that Ultra at 1080p (43 FPS) or High at 1440p (35 FPS) will require accepting substantially lower framerates.