Road 96

# CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread desktop processor based on the Rocket Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process node. It operates with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration, providing 51.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth, and connects via PCIe Gen 4 with 20 CPU lanes.

In the context of Road 96, an adventure game, the CPU's threading capabilities matter less than raw single-thread performance for frame pacing, but the 12 threads ensure that background tasks and game logic never starve the main render thread. The CPU's benchmark profile shows a single-thread score of 868 in 3DMark and 2024 in Cinebench R23 single-core, which places it in the 71st percentile among all CPUs. This percentile indicates that the i5-11400F is a solidly above-average processor for gaming workloads, though not a top-tier part.

The multi-threaded results are more substantial: Cinebench R23 multi-core scores 14340, and 3DMark max-threads scores 5652. In Road 96, where the game's world simulation and AI routines are not particularly demanding, the CPU's 12 threads provide ample headroom. The data shows that the CPU is unlikely to be the limiting factor at any resolution tested, as even at 1080p Low, where the GPU has the least work, the average FPS reaches 90 — a figure that suggests the CPU can feed the GPU adequately without bottlenecking.

The nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the AMD EPYC 7H12 (0.3% higher), Intel Core i5-12450H (0.4% lower), and AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G (0.6% lower). These deltas are all within 1%, meaning the i5-11400F is performance-equivalent to a broad range of server, mobile, and desktop chips in synthetic tests, though its gaming behavior in this specific title is what matters for the measured FPS.

# FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with High settings for this CPU-GPU combo?

A: At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo delivers an average of 53 FPS. This is the middle ground between Low (90 FPS) and Ultra (42 FPS), making it a playable baseline for the game.

Q: How does the CPU's single-thread performance compare to its multi-thread performance?

A: The CPU scores 868 in 3DMark single-thread and 5652 in max-threads, a ratio of roughly 1:6.5. In Cinebench R23, the single-core score is 2024 versus 14340 multi-core, a similar ratio. This indicates strong scaling across its 12 threads.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded for this combo, and at what settings?

A: The lowest average FPS is 14, achieved at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This is the only configuration where the frame rate drops below 15 FPS, making it unsuitable for smooth gameplay.

Q: Does the combo rank in the top half of tested combinations for Road 96?

A: No. The combo ranks 3389 out of 3713 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 9% of all configurations. This indicates that while the hardware is competent, many other combos deliver higher frame rates in this title.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded, and at what resolution and settings?

A: The highest average FPS is 90, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only configuration that breaks the 90 FPS barrier, and it represents the best-case scenario for this hardware in Road 96.

Q: How much VRAM does the GPU have, and does it appear sufficient for the tested settings?

A: The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Given that even at 4K Ultra the game runs (albeit at 14 FPS), the VRAM capacity is sufficient for the maximum settings tested, as memory size is not the limiting factor.

# Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 90 at 1080p, to 58 at 1440p, to 30 at 4K. This represents a 36% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 48% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The pattern is similar at Medium settings: 66 FPS at 1080p, 42 at 1440p, and 22 at 4K — a 36% drop, then a 48% drop.

The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is nearly identical across all settings in proportional terms, which strongly suggests that the GPU is the primary limiting component. When resolution increases, the pixel count grows by a factor of 1.78 from 1080p to 1440p, and by 2.25 from 1440p to 4K. The FPS drops are roughly inversely proportional to these pixel count increases, indicating that the AMD Radeon RX 580 is being pushed to its fillrate and shading limits.

However, the drop from 1440p to 4K is steeper than the pixel count ratio alone would predict. At High settings, going from 1440p (34 FPS) to 4K (18 FPS) is a 47% reduction, while the pixel count increases by 125%. This suggests that at 4K, the GPU is not just fillrate-bound but also memory-bandwidth-bound, as the 256.0 GB/s bandwidth of the RX 580 becomes a bottleneck for the higher resolution's larger textures and buffers.

The 1080p to 1440p transition shows a more moderate drop. At High settings, 53 FPS at 1080p becomes 34 FPS at 1440p, a 36% reduction. This is slightly less than the 56% pixel increase, meaning the GPU still has some headroom at 1080p that gets consumed at 1440p. At 4K, the GPU is fully saturated, and the frame rates drop to unplayable levels for anything above Low settings.

The data indicates that the Core i5-11400F is not the limiting component at any resolution. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see similar FPS across resolutions, as the CPU workload does not scale with pixel count. Instead, the FPS drops are consistent with a GPU-bound scenario at all settings, with the RX 580 being the sole determinant of performance. The CPU's 12 threads and high single-thread scores provide sufficient headroom to feed the GPU even at 1080p Low, where the 90 FPS average is the highest recorded.

# Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

For the Intel Core i5-11400F and AMD Radeon RX 580 combination in Road 96, the measured data provides clear guidance on which settings preset delivers the optimal balance of frame rate and visual quality.

At 1920x1080, the Medium preset stands out as the recommended choice. It delivers an average of 66 FPS with a minimum of 56 FPS and a maximum of 76 FPS. This frame rate range is smooth for an adventure game, where precise timing is rarely critical, and the visual uplift over Low settings is meaningful. The Low preset at 1080p achieves 90 FPS average, but the visual compromise — likely reduced draw distances and simpler shadows — is not worth the extra 24 FPS when the Medium preset already exceeds 60 FPS consistently.

The High preset at 1080p yields 53 FPS average, which is playable but dips below the 60 FPS threshold that many players prefer for fluid camera movement. The Ultra preset at 42 FPS is noticeably less smooth and should be avoided unless the player prioritizes visual fidelity over frame rate. Given that the Medium preset's minimum FPS of 56 is close to the average of High, the stability of Medium makes it the superior choice.

At 2560x1440, the situation changes. The Medium preset delivers 42 FPS average with a minimum of 36 FPS, which is borderline for an adventure game but may cause noticeable stutter during scene transitions. The Low preset at 58 FPS average is the better option at this resolution, as it maintains a frame rate close to 60 FPS while allowing the higher resolution to compensate for reduced graphical settings. The High preset at 34 FPS and Ultra at 27 FPS are both too low for a comfortable experience.

At 3840x2160, none of the presets provide a playable experience. The Low preset achieves 30 FPS average, which is technically playable but below the 30 FPS minimum that most players consider acceptable. The Medium preset drops to 22 FPS, and High and Ultra fall to 18 and 14 FPS respectively. For 4K gaming, the data suggests that the RX 580 is simply not capable of delivering a smooth experience in Road 96, and players should either lower the resolution or accept sub-30 FPS performance.

The overall recommendation is to play at 1920x1080 with Medium settings, where the combo achieves 66 FPS average and stays above 56 FPS at all times. This configuration provides the best experience per the measured rows, balancing frame rate stability with visual quality. For players with 1440p displays, dropping to Low settings is the only viable option to maintain playable frame rates.

# How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the Intel Core i5-11400F and AMD Radeon RX 580 ranks 3389 out of 3713 tested combos in Road 96. This places it in the bottom 9% of all configurations tested, which is a surprisingly low ranking given the hardware's individual specifications.

To contextualize this ranking, consider the CPU's percentile of 71 among all CPUs and the GPU's percentile of 53 among all GPUs. Both components are above average individually, yet their combination ranks in the bottom decile for this specific game. This discrepancy suggests that Road 96 has unusual performance characteristics that do not align with the strengths of this hardware pairing.

The CPU's nearest rivals — the AMD EPYC 7H12 (0.3% faster), Intel Core i5-12450H (0.4% slower), and AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G (0.6% slower) — all have nearly identical average benchmark scores. However, these rivals are not necessarily paired with the RX 580 in the tested combos, so the ranking reflects the entire system configuration rather than just the CPU.

The GPU's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (0.1% faster), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (0.4% faster), and AMD Radeon 740M (0.5% slower). The GTX 1660 SUPER, being a desktop card with similar performance, would likely rank higher in this game due to its architecture's efficiency in directx 12 workloads, but this is speculative from the data.

The rank of 3389 out of 3713 indicates that the majority of tested combos — 324 of them — perform worse than this setup. While the ranking is low in absolute terms, it is important to note that the combo is still functional across all tested settings, and the frame rates, while not high, are consistent. The ranking likely reflects the RX 580's age and its 14 nm GCN 4.0 architecture, which is less efficient in modern game engines than newer RDNA or NVIDIA architectures.

In practical terms, the combo rank means that players using this hardware should expect performance in the bottom tier of tested systems. However, for a game like Road 96, which is an adventure title rather than a fast-paced shooter, the low ranking does not necessarily translate to a poor experience, as the frame rates at 1080p Medium (66 FPS) are perfectly serviceable.

# Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured FPS data for the Intel Core i5-11400F and AMD Radeon RX 580 in Road 96 is as follows:

1920x1080:

• Low: 90 FPS average
• Medium: 66 FPS average, with a minimum of 56 FPS and a maximum of 76 FPS
• High: 53 FPS average
• Ultra: 42 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 58 FPS average
• Medium: 42 FPS average, with a minimum of 36 FPS and a maximum of 49 FPS
• High: 34 FPS average
• Ultra: 27 FPS average

3840x2160:

• Low: 30 FPS average
• Medium: 22 FPS average, with a minimum of 19 FPS and a maximum of 26 FPS
• High: 18 FPS average
• Ultra: 14 FPS average

The data shows a clear progression: as resolution increases, the FPS drops are consistent with GPU-bound behavior. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 48 FPS (90 to 42), which is a 53% reduction. At 1440p, the difference is 31 FPS (58 to 27), a 53% reduction. At 4K, the difference is 16 FPS (30 to 14), also a 53% reduction. This consistency across resolutions indicates that the settings presets have a uniform impact on GPU load, regardless of resolution.

The Medium settings are the only preset with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values at all three resolutions. At 1080p, the range is 56 to 76 FPS, a 20 FPS spread. At 1440p, the range is 36 to 49 FPS, a 13 FPS spread. At 4K, the range is 19 to 26 FPS, a 7 FPS spread. The narrowing range at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU becomes more consistently utilized, with less variance in frame times as it approaches its limits.

The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 24 FPS (90 to 66), while the jump from Medium to High costs 13 FPS (66 to 53), and from High to Ultra costs 11 FPS (53 to 42). This diminishing returns pattern is typical, with each higher preset costing less in absolute FPS terms but more in relative terms. The same pattern holds at 1440p and 4K, with the largest single drop occurring between Low and Medium at every resolution.

# GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is a Polaris 20 chip built on GlobalFoundries' 14 nm process, featuring 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die. It operates with a base clock of 1257 MHz and a boost clock of 1340 MHz, with memory clocked at 2000 MHz (8 Gbps effective). The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

The GPU's compute capabilities include 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 32 raster operation units. It delivers a pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 6.175 TFLOPS. The GPU supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3, with a TDP of 185 W and a suggested power supply of 450 W.

In Road 96, the RX 580's 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for all tested settings, including 4K Ultra, where the average FPS is 14. The memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s becomes a limiting factor at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the steeper FPS drops from 1440p to 4K compared to 1080p to 1440p. The GPU's 32 ROPs are likely the primary constraint at 4K, as the pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s is insufficient to fill 8.3 million pixels at high frame rates.

The GPU's benchmark scores show a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1005, a Geekbench OpenCL score of 37453, and a Passmark G3D score of 8813. The GPU ranks in the 53rd percentile among all GPUs, placing it in the middle of the pack. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (0.1% faster), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (0.4% faster), and AMD Radeon 740M (0.5% slower), indicating that the RX 580 is performance-equivalent to a mid-range laptop GPU and a slightly older desktop GPU.

The GPU's DirectX 12 benchmark scores are notably lower than its DirectX 11 scores: Passmark DirectX 12 scores 43, while DirectX 11 scores 60. This suggests that the GCN 4.0 architecture is less efficient in DirectX 12 workloads, which is relevant for Road 96 if the game uses DirectX 12. The lower DirectX 12 performance may contribute to the combo's low ranking of 3389 out of 3713, as modern titles increasingly rely on DirectX 12's lower-level API features.

The GPU's 14 nm process node and 185 W TDP mean it draws significant power relative to its performance, but the data shows that in Road 96, the GPU delivers playable frame rates at 1080p Medium (66 FPS) and acceptable frame rates at 1440p Low (58 FPS). The 8 GB VRAM is never exhausted, as the game's textures at 4K Ultra still fit within the memory capacity, but the GPU's compute throughput and memory bandwidth are insufficient for smooth 4K gameplay.