Road 96

Road 96 is a narrative-driven adventure game, and the benchmark data for the Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 reveals a configuration that is heavily overqualified for the title's demands, yet the scaling patterns show where the bottlenecks lie. The measured frame rates across three resolutions and four quality presets tell a clear story of a GPU that is never truly challenged at lower settings, with the CPU taking on a more significant role as resolution drops. The data suggests this combo delivers exceptionally high performance, but the way those frames are distributed across settings provides a fascinating look at the game's engine limits.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 1440p to 4K shows a classic pattern of GPU load increasing, but the magnitude of the frame rate drops is telling. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 296 at 1920x1080 to 188 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 108 FPS, and then to 100 at 3840x2160, a further drop of 88 FPS. This steep decline at Low settings indicates that the RTX 5070 is the primary performance driver here, as the work per pixel increases dramatically with resolution. The data implies that at 1080p Low, the game is likely hitting engine-level frame caps or CPU limitations, as the 296 FPS average is extraordinarily high and suggests the GPU is not being fully utilized.

Moving to High settings, the scaling is more moderate. The average FPS drops from 175 at 1080p to 111 at 1440p, a 64 FPS decrease, and then to 59 at 4K, a further 52 FPS decrease. This pattern continues to point at the GPU as the limiting component, but the smaller absolute drops at higher settings suggest that the increased graphical load is starting to bring the GPU's performance curve into a more predictable range. At Medium settings, the same trend holds: 217 FPS at 1080p, 138 at 1440p, and 73 at 4K. The only setting where the scaling seems less steep is Ultra, where the frame rates are already lower, moving from 137 at 1080p to 87 at 1440p to 46 at 4K.

The data indicates that at 4K Ultra, the combo produces just 46 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold many consider smooth. This is the only configuration in the measured data where the RTX 5070 appears to be genuinely struggling, suggesting that Road 96's Ultra preset includes effects that are disproportionately expensive at high resolutions. The fact that the 1080p to 1440p drop at Ultra is 50 FPS, while the 1440p to 4K drop is 41 FPS, shows a somewhat linear scaling, which is unusual and might point to a specific rendering feature that does not scale well with pixel count. The low-resolution numbers, particularly the 296 FPS at 1080p Low, suggest that the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU, but the ceiling for frame generation is likely the game's engine itself.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal experience for this combo depends heavily on the target resolution and refresh rate. For 1080p displays, the High preset at 175 FPS average is an excellent choice, providing a significant visual upgrade over Low while still maintaining a frame rate that far exceeds any standard 144Hz monitor's capability. Pushing to Ultra at 1080p brings the average down to 137 FPS, which is still very playable and offers the highest visual fidelity, but the 38 FPS difference between High and Ultra might not justify the visual gains for all users. The Medium preset at 217 FPS is only recommended for those with extremely high refresh rate displays (240Hz or more), as the visual compromise is notable.

At 1440p, the High preset at 111 FPS is the sweet spot, offering a smooth experience on 144Hz displays with a strong balance between visual quality and performance. The Ultra preset at 87 FPS is also viable for 1440p, but the drop to below 90 FPS might be noticeable to sensitive eyes, especially in fast-paced scenes. Medium at 138 FPS is a good option for 144Hz monitors if the user prioritizes frame rate over visual detail. At 4K, the situation is more nuanced. The High preset at 59 FPS is just under the 60 FPS target, which could be acceptable for a narrative adventure game where precise timing is less critical. However, the Medium preset at 73 FPS is a safer choice, providing a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while still offering better visuals than Low.

The data strongly suggests that High is the best overall preset for this combo across all resolutions, as it consistently provides the highest visual quality while maintaining frame rates that are either above 60 FPS (at 4K) or far above it (at 1080p and 1440p). The Ultra preset is only recommended for 1080p users who want the absolute best image quality and have a monitor that can take advantage of the 137 FPS average. The Low preset is only useful for competitive play, which is not a primary concern for an adventure game like Road 96. The measured data shows that the jump from Low to Medium provides a massive visual improvement with a relatively modest FPS cost (79 FPS at 1080p, 50 FPS at 1440p, and 27 FPS at 4K), making Medium a better baseline than Low for almost all scenarios.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Intel Core i5-11400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 has a comboRankInGame of 791 out of 3713 tested combos. This places it in the top 21.3% of all configurations, which is a strong showing but not elite. The data indicates that while this combo is very capable, there are many other pairings that achieve higher frame rates in Road 96, likely due to more powerful CPUs or GPUs. The rank is a composite measure that considers performance across all tested settings and resolutions, and the fact that this combo sits at 791 suggests that it is not the absolute top tier but is well above the median.

The CPU's percentileVsAllCpus is 71, meaning it performs better than 71% of all CPUs in the database, but its nearest rivals show a tight cluster of scores. The Intel Core i5-11400F has an avgBenchmarkScore of 17177, which is just 0.3% lower than the AMD EPYC 7H12 (17120), 0.4% higher than the Intel Core i5-12450H (17239), and 0.6% higher than the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G (17278). This indicates that the i5-11400F is a mid-range performer in synthetic tests, but its gaming performance in Road 96 is likely sufficient to avoid being a major bottleneck, especially at lower resolutions where the GPU is the limiting factor.

The GPU's percentileVsAllGpus is 82, placing it higher in the performance hierarchy than the CPU. The RTX 5070's avgBenchmarkScore of 40377 is very close to its nearest rivals, with a deltaPct of only 0.1% against the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (40318), 0.8% against the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 (40063), and -1.2% against the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (40870). This clustering suggests that the RTX 5070 is a high-end GPU that performs consistently, but the rank of 791 out of 3713 implies that the combo's overall position is dragged down by the CPU's more modest standing. In a game like Road 96, which is not graphically intensive, the GPU's headroom is vast, but the combo rank reflects that other users with higher-end CPUs and similar GPUs might achieve better frame rates at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of the combo's performance across all tested configurations. At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields an average of 296 FPS, which is the highest recorded in the dataset. The Medium preset at the same resolution produces an average of 217 FPS, with a minimum of 184 FPS and a maximum of 249 FPS, showing a stable frame time distribution. High at 1080p averages 175 FPS, while Ultra drops to 137 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 159 FPS, indicating that the game's settings have a massive impact on performance at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 188 FPS, which is still extremely high. Medium averages 138 FPS with a minimum of 117 FPS and a maximum of 159 FPS, showing a slightly wider variance than at 1080p. High averages 111 FPS, and Ultra drops to 87 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1440p is 101 FPS, narrower than at 1080p but still substantial. At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 100 FPS, Medium averages 73 FPS with a minimum of 62 FPS and a maximum of 84 FPS, High averages 59 FPS, and Ultra drops to 46 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 4K is 54 FPS, showing that the settings have less relative impact at higher resolutions because the GPU is already under significant load.

The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values across all resolutions, which allows for a deeper analysis of frame pacing. At 1080p Medium, the range from min to max is 65 FPS (184 to 249), at 1440p it is 42 FPS (117 to 159), and at 4K it is 22 FPS (62 to 84). This tightening of the frame range as resolution increases suggests that the GPU's workload becomes more consistent, reducing the variability in frame times. The data implies that at 1080p, the combo has so much headroom that frame rates can fluctuate wildly based on scene complexity, while at 4K, the GPU is more consistently maxed out, leading to a more stable but lower average FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is the dominant component in this combo, and its specifications explain the high frame rates observed. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s. This is ample memory bandwidth for Road 96, which is an adventure game with relatively modest texture and geometry demands. The 12 GB VRAM capacity is more than sufficient for 4K resolution, as the measured data shows that even at 4K Ultra, the combo achieves 46 FPS, indicating that the GPU is not running out of memory and being forced to use system RAM.

The GPU's clock speeds are a base of 2325 MHz and a boost of 2512 MHz, which are high for a modern graphics card. The boost clock of 2512 MHz allows the GPU to operate at a high frequency during gaming, which contributes to its strong performance in Road 96. The GPU has 6144 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, which are all high counts that enable it to process pixel and texture data quickly. The RTX 5070's FP32 performance of 30.87 TFLOPS is a measure of its raw compute capability, and while Road 96 may not be a compute-heavy game, this headroom ensures that the GPU can handle the game's rendering with ease.

The GPU's percentileVsAllGpus of 82 and its avgBenchmarkScore of 40377, which is within 2% of its nearest rivals, confirm that it is a high-performance part. In Road 96, the GPU is clearly the main driver of performance, as evidenced by the fact that the frame rates scale significantly with resolution and settings. The fact that the combo achieves 100 FPS at 4K Low and 59 FPS at 4K High shows that the GPU's rendering capabilities are what create the difference, not the CPU. The GPU's 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores are advanced features, but for a game like Road 96, they are likely not heavily utilized, meaning the rasterization performance is what matters most.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to achieve a smooth 60 FPS experience?

A: At 4K High, the combo achieves an average of 59 FPS, which is just under the 60 FPS target. For a comfortable margin above 60 FPS, the 4K Medium preset at 73 FPS is the best choice. At 1440p, all presets exceed 87 FPS, ensuring a smooth experience on any monitor.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-11400F a bottleneck for the RTX 5070 in Road 96?

A: The data suggests that the CPU is not a bottleneck at higher resolutions, as the frame rates scale with GPU load. At 1080p Low, the 296 FPS average is likely limited by the game's engine, not the CPU, which has a boost clock of 4.40 GHz and 6 cores. The CPU's percentileVsAllCpus of 71 indicates it is capable enough.

Q: How does the RTX 5070's memory bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s affect 4K performance?

A: The high memory bandwidth ensures that the GPU can quickly access texture and geometry data at 4K resolution. The measured 4K Medium FPS of 73, with a minimum of 62 FPS, shows that the memory subsystem is not a limiting factor, as the frame rates are stable and well above playable levels.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 296 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 137 FPS. This is a difference of 159 FPS, or a 54% reduction in performance when moving from the lowest to the highest quality preset.

Q: Is this combo more likely to be limited by the CPU or the GPU at 4K Ultra?

A: At 4K Ultra, the combo achieves 46 FPS, which is the lowest result in the dataset. The GPU is the clear limiting factor here, as the increased pixel count and effects overwhelm the RTX 5070. The CPU's 6 cores are not the issue, as even the weakest GPU-bound scenario shows the GPU working hard to produce frames.

Q: How does the combo's rank of 791 out of 3713 compare to other tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks in the top 21.3% of all tested combos, indicating it is a strong performer. However, the rank is not in the top 10%, suggesting that there are many combos with more powerful CPUs or GPUs that achieve higher frame rates in Road 96, likely at lower resolutions where the CPU matters more.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Rocket Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. It has 12 MB of shared L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. In the context of Road 96, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic, and the data shows that it does so effectively at all tested resolutions. The CPU's single-threaded performance, as measured by a 3dmark_single_thread score of 868, is sufficient for the game's engine, which likely relies on a few primary threads for simulation.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are demonstrated by a cinebench_r23_multicore score of 14340, which is strong for a 6-core part. In an adventure game like Road 96, which may have complex scene scripts and AI routines, having 12 threads helps ensure that background tasks do not cause frame hitches. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p, the combo achieves 296 FPS at Low settings, which is far beyond the refresh rate of any mainstream monitor. This suggests that the CPU is not limiting the frame rate at that resolution, and the limitation is likely the game's engine or the GPU's ability to issue frames.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the database show that it is a mid-range performer, with an avgBenchmarkScore of 17177 that is within 0.6% of its closest competitors. The percentileVsAllCpus of 71 indicates that the i5-11400F is better than 71% of all CPUs, but it is not a top-tier part. In Road 96, the CPU's performance is not a significant factor at 1440p or 4K, as the GPU becomes the bottleneck. However, at 1080p, the CPU's ability to maintain high frame rates is crucial, and the data shows that it can deliver over 137 FPS at Ultra settings, which is more than enough for a smooth experience. The CPU's TDP of 65 W is modest, indicating that it does not generate excessive heat, allowing it to sustain its boost clock of 4.40 GHz during gaming sessions.