Road 96

Road 96 is an adventure title that, from the measured frame rates, behaves very differently from typical AAA shooters. The combination of an AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 produces an interesting scaling curve across resolutions and presets. The data reveals a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions but becomes increasingly CPU-limited at 1080p, where the sheer power of the RTX 4090 pushes frame rates to extremes. This analysis breaks down the measured metrics to understand where the bottleneck lies and how the hardware handles the game's visual demands.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial, but the pattern is not uniform across all settings. At the Low preset, the average FPS falls from 392 at 1920x1080 to 249 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 143 FPS. Moving to 3840x2160, the average drops further to 132 FPS. This represents a 66% decrease in performance from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that even at the lowest graphical load, the resolution scaling places significant stress on the GPU.

The scaling is different at the High preset. At 1080p, the system achieves 231 FPS average. At 1440p, this drops to 147 FPS, and at 4K, it falls to 78 FPS. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is roughly 66%, similar to Low, but the absolute frame rates are lower because the High preset increases the GPU workload. The jump from 1440p to 4K at High settings costs 69 FPS, which is a more significant absolute hit than the 84 FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p when considering the starting point.

The Ultra preset shows the most severe scaling. The system averages 181 FPS at 1080p, which drops to 115 FPS at 1440p and finally to 61 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is the lowest measured in the entire dataset, showing a 66% reduction from the 1080p Ultra score. This consistent pattern across all presets strongly suggests that the RTX 4090 is the limiting component; as resolution increases, the GPU's pixel throughput and memory bandwidth are taxed harder, directly reducing frame rates.

The data indicates that the CPU is not a limiting factor at 4K. If the Ryzen 7 5800XT were the primary bottleneck, the frame rate would remain relatively flat across resolutions. Instead, the dramatic drops—from 392 to 132 FPS at Low, and from 231 to 78 FPS at High—demonstrate that the GPU's workload is the dominant variable. The RTX 4090, with its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth, has ample resources, but the rendering resolution still dictates the final output.

How This Combo Ranks

In the context of all tested combinations for Road 96, this specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 holds a rank of 152 out of 3713 combos. This places it in the top 4% of all systems tested for this game. The percentile ranking is high, indicating that this configuration delivers performance that surpasses the vast majority of other CPU-GPU pairings in the database for this title.

The rank of 152 suggests that while this is a very strong setup, it is not the absolute top performer. The gap between this combo and the number one spot is not quantified in the data, but the position implies that other combinations, likely with more recent or higher-clocked CPUs, can extract slightly more performance from the RTX 4090 in this specific game. However, the top 4% placement is a clear indicator of excellent overall capability.

Given that the RTX 4090 is an end-of-life product according to the production status, the fact that it still ranks this highly shows its sustained relevance. The Ryzen 7 5800XT, while not the newest CPU, provides enough single-thread performance to keep the GPU well-fed at most resolutions. The combination is a high-end pairing that yields a top-200 finish, which is a strong result for a game that may not be optimized for extreme multi-core scaling.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture and features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus. The memory clock is listed at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective transfer rate, producing a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. These specifications are crucial for handling the high-resolution textures and effects in Road 96 at 4K, where the average frame rates are still respectable. The large memory buffer prevents any potential VRAM capacity issues, allowing the GPU to focus on processing rather than swapping data.

The GPU's clock speeds are substantial, with a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz. These high frequencies contribute to the raw compute power, which is rated at 82.58 TFLOPS for FP32 operations. This compute capability is what allows the card to achieve 392 FPS at 1080p Low, a scenario where the CPU might be expected to bottleneck but the GPU's sheer speed still pushes through. The pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s further illustrate the card's ability to fill frames quickly.

The measured FPS data shows that the GPU is the decisive factor in this game. At 4K Ultra, the card produces 61 FPS average, which is the most demanding scenario. The transition from Medium to Ultra at 4K results in a drop from 97 to 61 FPS, a 36 FPS difference that is directly attributable to the increased GPU load from higher-quality shadows, reflections, and post-processing. The RTX 4090's performance here is not limited by its VRAM or bandwidth but rather by the computational intensity of the Ultra preset at this resolution.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 287 FPS average, which is a massive frame rate that exceeds the refresh rate of most high-end monitors. At 1440p, Medium still provides 183 FPS average, ensuring smooth gameplay on 144Hz displays. Even at 4K, Medium maintains a playable 97 FPS average, with a minimum FPS of 82 and a maximum of 111, indicating stable performance without severe dips.

The High preset is a viable alternative for users with 1440p displays, as it achieves 147 FPS average. However, at 4K, High drops to 78 FPS, which is still playable but falls below the 90 FPS threshold that many users prefer for a fluid experience. The Ultra preset is only recommended for 1080p users who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate, as it yields 181 FPS average at that resolution. At 4K, Ultra's 61 FPS average might be acceptable for a narrative-driven adventure game but is lower than what the Medium preset offers.

The Low preset provides the highest frame rates, with 392 FPS at 1080p and 132 FPS at 4K, but it sacrifices visual quality. For a game like Road 96, which likely features stylized visuals, the Medium preset seems to offer the best compromise between image quality and performance. The data shows that Medium's minimum FPS at 4K is 82, which is higher than the average FPS of Ultra at 4K, making Medium the more stable choice for high-resolution play.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the frame rates are exceptionally high across all settings. The Low preset achieves 392 FPS average, followed by Medium at 287 FPS, High at 231 FPS, and Ultra at 181 FPS. The Medium preset shows a minimum FPS of 244 and a maximum of 330, indicating a wide variance but still well above the refresh rate of standard monitors. The spread between Low and Ultra is 211 FPS, showing the significant impact of the preset selection at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down but remains robust. Low produces 249 FPS average, Medium 183 FPS, High 147 FPS, and Ultra 115 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum FPS is 155, and the maximum is 210, which still provides a smooth experience on high-refresh-rate QHD monitors. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 36% for most presets, reflecting the increased pixel count of 1.77x.

At 3840x2160, the results show the true demand of 4K rendering. Low averages 132 FPS, Medium 97 FPS, High 78 FPS, and Ultra 61 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 82 FPS is the only 4K data point with a listed minimum, and it shows that even at 4K, the system does not drop below 60 FPS on Medium. The Ultra preset's 61 FPS average is the lowest in the dataset, highlighting the extreme load of combining 4K with maximum settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable at 1080p with this combo?

A: The maximum average FPS at 1080p is 392, achieved with the Low preset. The Medium preset follows at 287 FPS, High at 231 FPS, and Ultra at 181 FPS.

Q: Does the game run smoothly at 4K resolution with this hardware?

A: Yes, it does. The Medium preset at 4K delivers an average of 97 FPS with a minimum of 82 FPS. Even the High preset at 4K achieves 78 FPS average, and Low reaches 132 FPS average.

Q: How does the combo rank compared to other tested systems for Road 96?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combo ranks 152nd out of 3713 tested combinations, placing it in the top 4% of all systems for this game.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 249 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 115 FPS. This represents a reduction of 134 FPS when moving from Low to Ultra settings.

Q: Is there a frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K at the High preset?

A: Yes, at the High preset, the average FPS drops from 231 at 1080p to 147 at 1440p and further to 78 at 4K. This is a 66% decrease from 1080p to 4K.

Q: Which preset offers the best balance of performance and quality at 4K?

A: The Medium preset offers the best balance at 4K, providing 97 FPS average with a minimum of 82 FPS, which is higher than the Ultra preset's average of 61 FPS.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT is a desktop processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, codenamed Vermeer. It features 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and a 32 MB shared L3 cache. This configuration is typical for a high-end gaming CPU, and its single-thread performance is critical for games like Road 96 that may rely on a few main threads.

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23794 and a single-core score of 3359. The single-core score is particularly relevant for gaming, as many game engines are sensitive to per-thread performance. The PassMark single-thread score of 3535 further confirms that the CPU has strong single-core capabilities. These scores suggest that the 5800XT can handle the game logic and physics without becoming a significant bottleneck at most resolutions.

However, the measured FPS data indicates that the CPU does become a limiting factor at 1080p. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 392 FPS, which is an extremely high frame rate. The fact that the 1080p Ultra preset only reaches 181 FPS, while 1440p High reaches 147 FPS, shows that the GPU is still the main driver. But the scaling from 1080p to 4K is nearly linear for the GPU load, which implies the CPU is not holding back performance at higher resolutions. The CPU's 105W TDP and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for this game, though the memory bandwidth is lower than the GPU's, which is expected.

The nearest rival CPUs in the database, such as the AMD Ryzen 7 7840H and 8845HS, have similar average benchmark scores with deltaPct values of 0 and -0.3 respectively. This indicates that the 5800XT is on par with these mobile processors in general computing tasks. For Road 96, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game state updates, and the data shows that it does so effectively, allowing the RTX 4090 to reach its full potential at 1440p and 4K, while at 1080p, the frame rates are so high that any CPU limitation is irrelevant for real-world usage.