Road 96

Road 96 is an adventure title that leans on narrative pacing rather than constant action, but the measured frame rates for the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER combination reveal a system with substantial headroom at most settings. The data shows a wide performance envelope, from a very playable 84.7 FPS at 1080p Ultra to a demanding 30.8 FPS at 4K Ultra. This spread suggests that the user’s choice of resolution and preset will heavily dictate whether the experience feels buttery smooth or merely cinematic.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate, the Medium preset at 1440p stands out as the sweet spot in the measured data. It delivers 88.8 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, while offering a significant visual upgrade over Low settings. Pushing to High at the same resolution drops the average to 72.4 FPS, still smooth but with a noticeable 16.4 FPS penalty for the extra detail. At 1080p, the High preset is the clear winner, producing 111.6 FPS, which is more than sufficient for high-refresh-rate monitors and keeps the experience fluid without the performance cost of Ultra.

The Ultra preset, while visually impressive, imposes a heavy load. At 1440p, it yields 55.3 FPS, which dips below the ideal 60 FPS target. At 4K, Ultra becomes nearly unplayable at 30.8 FPS, and even High at 4K struggles with 34.3 FPS. For players prioritizing a locked 60 FPS experience, the data suggests that High at 1440p or High at 1080p are the most reliable choices. The Low preset offers the highest frame rates—185.3 FPS at 1080p and 120.1 FPS at 1440p—but it likely sacrifices too much visual quality for a narrative-driven game where atmosphere matters. The data implies that Medium is the pragmatic default, with High as the upgrade path for those with capable displays.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER combination is positioned at rank 1029 out of 1684 tested combos for Road 96. This places it in the lower-middle tier of the database, meaning that while it is far from the weakest pairing, a majority of tested systems deliver higher performance in this specific title. The percentile data for the individual components supports this: the CPU sits in the 73rd percentile against all CPUs, while the GPU is in the 65th percentile against all GPUs. This suggests that the combo is more CPU-strong than GPU-strong relative to their respective pools, but neither component is top-tier.

The rank indicates that there is a large population of hardware that can push Road 96 harder, particularly at higher resolutions where the GPU becomes the bottleneck. The measured FPS figures, however, reveal that this combo is still capable of excellent performance at mainstream settings. The disparity between the component percentiles and the combo rank hints that the RTX 2070 SUPER, while competent, is the limiting factor in this pairing when the resolution climbs. This is a classic mid-range pairing that excels at 1080p and handles 1440p well, but it is not designed for 4K gaming at high presets.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture with a 12 nm process and packs 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. Its boost clock is rated at 1770 MHz, with a base clock of 1605 MHz. The GPU’s compute capabilities are substantial, with 2560 shading units and a FP32 performance of 9.062 TFLOPS. For Road 96, an adventure game that is not typically considered a GPU stress-test, these specifications are more than adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming.

The data shows that the GPU is the primary driver of performance differences between presets. At 1080p, the jump from Low to Ultra costs 100.6 FPS, dropping from 185.3 to 84.7 FPS. This is a massive swing that demonstrates how the GPU’s workload scales with settings. The 8 GB VRAM is likely sufficient for this title, as the game’s art style is stylized rather than photorealistic, but the 4K results suggest that the GPU’s raw compute power is insufficient to maintain high frame rates at that resolution. The RTX 2070 SUPER’s 65th percentile ranking against all GPUs confirms that it is a capable but not exceptional card, and in Road 96, it shines at 1080p and 1440p but falters at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 2070 SUPER delivers exceptional performance across all presets. The Low preset achieves 185.3 FPS, which is remarkably high and suggests that the game is not heavily CPU-limited at this resolution. Medium drops to 139.3 FPS, still an excellent result, while High produces 111.6 FPS and Ultra settles at 84.7 FPS. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the GPU has ample headroom to spare, and even the most demanding preset remains well above the 60 FPS threshold.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales down predictably. Low delivers 120.1 FPS, which is still incredibly smooth, and Medium follows at 88.8 FPS. High maintains a solid 72.4 FPS, but Ultra drops to 55.3 FPS, which is the first time the combo dips below 60 FPS. At 3840x2160, the picture changes dramatically. Low is the only playable option at 62.3 FPS, while Medium drops to 45.3 FPS, High falls to 34.3 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 30.8 FPS. The data shows a clear pattern: this combo is excellent for 1080p, good for 1440p with settings compromises, and only viable at 4K on the lowest preset.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and reveals the GPU’s limitations. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 111.6 at 1080p to 72.4 at 1440p, a 35.2% reduction, and then plummets to 34.3 at 4K, a 69.3% reduction from the 1440p figure. This non-linear scaling indicates that the GPU is becoming increasingly bottlenecked as the pixel count rises. The RTX 2070 SUPER’s 8 GB of VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are likely being saturated at 4K, particularly on Ultra where the 30.8 FPS result points to a severe constraint.

The data implies that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this scaling. At 1080p Low, the 185.3 FPS figure shows that the i5-10400F can feed the GPU efficiently, and the consistent performance at lower resolutions suggests that the CPU has enough single-thread throughput to handle the game’s logic. The bottleneck at 4K is clearly the GPU, as the frame rates collapse regardless of the CPU’s capabilities. For players using this combo, the resolution scaling data suggests that 1440p is the practical ceiling for a smooth experience, with 4K reserved for those who prioritize resolution over frame rate.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Comet Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its benchmark scores are respectable, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 10297 and a single-core score of 1453. The CPU’s 73rd percentile ranking against all CPUs indicates that it performs better than most, but its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7552 and Intel Core i5-8500, showing that it is a solid mid-range part rather than a high-end one.

In Road 96, the CPU’s role appears to be secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions, but it is critical for maintaining high frame rates at 1080p. The 185.3 FPS result at Low settings suggests that the i5-10400F can handle the game’s physics and AI without becoming a bottleneck. The 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth provide sufficient data throughput for the game’s needs. The single-thread performance, as evidenced by the 1453 Geekbench score, is strong enough to prevent stutter, but the data shows that the CPU is not the star of this show—it is a capable partner that allows the GPU to do its work.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 is the best resolution, with all presets delivering above 84 FPS. At 2560x1440, only Low, Medium, and High presets exceed 60 FPS, with Ultra falling to 55.3 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score is 22206, which is 0.5% lower than the NVIDIA RTX A400 (22307) and 0.9% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z (22006). It is 2.3% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile (22729) and 2.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 5700 (21670).

Q: Is the i5-10400F a bottleneck at 4K in this game?

A: No, the data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K. The CPU’s 73rd percentile ranking and high single-core scores suggest it can keep up, but the GPU’s frame rates collapse to 30-62 FPS at 4K, pointing to a GPU bottleneck.

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

A: At 2560x1440, Low delivers 120.1 FPS, while Ultra drops to 55.3 FPS. This is a 64.8 FPS difference, showing that the Ultra preset demands significantly more from the GPU.

Q: Does the combo rank high among tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 1029 out of 1684 tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle tier. This is lower than the component percentiles might suggest, indicating that many other systems are better optimized for this title.

Q: Can this setup handle 4K gaming in Road 96?

A: Only at Low settings, which achieves 62.3 FPS. Medium drops to 45.3 FPS, and High/Ultra fall below 35 FPS, making them unsuitable for smooth gameplay.