Road 96

Road 96 is an adventure game that leans more on narrative than raw graphical fidelity, but the measured data for this AMD Ryzen 7 7700 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER pairing shows a clear hierarchy of performance across its preset and resolution scaling. The sweet spot for this combo is the Medium preset, which delivers a balanced experience that comfortably clears the 60 FPS mark at both 1080p and 1440p while maintaining a playable frame rate at 4K. The data indicates that Medium is the best experience because it provides a significant frame rate advantage over High settings — 137.3 FPS versus 109.2 FPS at 1080p — while avoiding the steep performance penalty that Ultra imposes, which drops the average to 85.6 FPS at the same resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows reveal a consistent pattern: the jump from Low to Medium costs roughly 25% of the frame rate, but the visual fidelity gain is typically worth that trade-off in a game like this. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 137.3 FPS, which is far beyond what a standard 60 Hz display needs, and it leaves enough headroom for demanding scenes to stay smooth. High settings at 1080p still manage 109.2 FPS, making it a viable alternative if you prefer sharper textures, but Medium is the recommended default because it offers a more comfortable margin above the refresh-rate threshold for high-refresh monitors. At 2560x1440, Medium drops to 85.4 FPS, which is still excellent for a 1440p panel, whereas High falls to 69.5 FPS — playable but closer to the edge. Ultra settings are the outlier here: 85.6 FPS at 1080p and 52.3 FPS at 1440p indicate that the RTX 2070 SUPER’s 8 GB VRAM and Turing architecture are being pushed hard, and the visual uplift in this stylized adventure may not justify the performance loss.

The 4K results reinforce the Medium recommendation. At 3840x2160, Medium produces 44.6 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target but still smooth enough for a story-driven game where reaction time is less critical. High at 4K yields 38.7 FPS, and Ultra drops to an uncomfortable 28.8 FPS. Low settings are the only way to hit 60 FPS at 4K, with 63.6 FPS, but the visual compromise is severe for an adventure game that relies on atmosphere. For most players, the practical choice is to run Medium at 1440p or 1080p, or to use Low at 4K if you must have that resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is the primary driver of these frame rates, and its specifications explain the scaling behavior. The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for Road 96’s art style at Medium and High presets, but the Ultra preset appears to stress the memory subsystem more heavily. The boost clock of 1770 MHz and the 2560 shading units deliver 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which is what carries the 1080p and 1440p results. The GPU’s percentile ranking of 65 places it mid-pack among all tested GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 22206 is within 2.3% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile, indicating that the desktop 2070 SUPER is still competitive for this game.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings is stark, and the data shows the GPU is the limiting factor at the higher presets. At 1080p, the frame rate swings from 185.1 FPS on Low to 85.6 FPS on Ultra, a 54% reduction that aligns with the heavier shading and memory loads. The RTX 2070 SUPER’s 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are present, but Road 96 does not appear to use ray tracing or DLSS in these measurements, so those features do not influence the results. The 215 W TDP and dual-slot design suggest the card is running at its intended thermal envelope, and the data shows no signs of throttling since the frame rates scale predictably with resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 1043 out of 1684 tested combos in Road 96. That places it in the lower-middle portion of the database, which makes sense given the GPU’s age and the fact that the CPU is far more capable than what this game requires. The combo rank is not a reflection of poor performance — the measured FPS numbers are solid for 1080p and 1440p gaming — but it indicates that many other pairings in the database achieve higher average frame rates, likely due to more powerful GPUs. The Ryzen 7 7700 itself sits in the 91st percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 40468, which puts it just 0.1% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H and 0.6% ahead of the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365. The GPU’s 65th percentile ranking is the bottleneck here, and the combo rank reflects that imbalance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a complete picture across three resolutions and four presets. At 1920x1080, the results are: Low 185.1 FPS, Medium 137.3 FPS, High 109.2 FPS, and Ultra 85.6 FPS. This shows a smooth progression of performance loss as settings increase, with the step from Low to Medium costing 47.8 FPS, Medium to High costing 28.1 FPS, and High to Ultra costing 23.6 FPS. At 2560x1440, the numbers are: Low 122.1 FPS, Medium 85.4 FPS, High 69.5 FPS, and Ultra 52.3 FPS. The relative drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent — about 34% at Low, 38% at Medium, 36% at High, and 39% at Ultra — indicating that the GPU’s memory bandwidth is the limiting factor as pixel count increases. At 3840x2160, the results are: Low 63.6 FPS, Medium 44.6 FPS, High 38.7 FPS, and Ultra 28.8 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only one that falls below 30 FPS, which is a threshold where gameplay becomes noticeably choppy even for an adventure title.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Road 96 at 60 FPS on a 1440p monitor?

A: Yes. The Medium preset produces 85.4 FPS at 2560x1440, and High settings yield 69.5 FPS, both of which exceed the 60 FPS target. Ultra drops to 52.3 FPS, so it falls short.

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

A: Low settings are the only preset that reaches 60 FPS at 3840x2160, with an average of 63.6 FPS. Medium produces 44.6 FPS, which is playable for a story-driven game but not smooth.

Q: How does this GPU compare to its closest rival in raw benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 2070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 22206, which is 0.5% lower than the NVIDIA RTX A400’s score of 22307 and 2.3% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile’s score of 22729.

Q: Is the CPU holding back the GPU in this game?

A: No. The Ryzen 7 7700 scores 29302 in Cinebench R23 multicore and ranks in the 91st percentile, which is far more than Road 96 needs. The GPU is the limiting factor, as shown by the 65th percentile ranking.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average is 109.2 FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings, which is well above the refresh rate of most standard monitors and provides a smooth experience.

Q: Does the Ultra preset provide a worthwhile performance uplift?

A: No. Ultra at 1080p drops to 85.6 FPS, which is a 21.6% reduction from High’s 109.2 FPS. Given the visual style of Road 96, the Medium or High preset offers a better balance.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 is overqualified for this game, but that is not a drawback. The CPU has 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. Its 32 MB of shared L3 cache and DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s of bandwidth ensure that it never becomes a bottleneck in Road 96, which is a title that primarily relies on single-threaded performance for game logic. The 3DMark single-thread score of 1049 and the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4136 are strong indicators that the 7700 can handle the game’s AI and scripting without issue. In multi-threaded workloads, the CPU scores 29302 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 34470 in Passmark multithread, but these numbers are irrelevant to the game’s frame rates since the GPU is clearly the limiting factor.

The CPU’s nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H, has an average benchmark score of 40431, which is only 0.1% behind the 7700’s 40468. This shows that the 7700 is performing exactly as expected for its position. The 65 W TDP and 5 nm process node from TSMC mean the CPU runs cool and efficient, which is beneficial for a system that pairs it with a 215 W GPU. In practice, the data shows that the CPU’s role in Road 96 is to provide a stable platform for the GPU to operate at its full potential, and it does so without any signs of strain. The combination rank of 1043 out of 1684 is a direct result of the GPU’s mid-tier standing, not the CPU’s capability. If you were to pair this CPU with a stronger GPU, the combo rank would improve significantly, but with the RTX 2070 SUPER, the system delivers respectable performance that matches the GPU’s 65th percentile positioning.