Road 96

The Intel Core i5-14400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti combination delivers a highly playable experience in Road 96, with performance scaling that clearly illustrates the shift from CPU-bound to GPU-bound operation as resolution increases. The data indicates that at 1080p, the system holds a commanding lead, while at 4K, the GPU's limitations become the primary constraint. This pairing ranks in the 32nd percentile of tested combos, showing that while it is not at the top of the heap, it offers a robust platform for this adventure title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates reveal a classic resolution scaling curve, with the most dramatic performance drop occurring when transitioning from 1440p to 4K. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces an average of 99.7 FPS. Moving to 1440p reduces that to 64.3 FPS, a decrease of approximately 35%. The jump to 4K further cuts performance to 36.9 FPS, which is a 63% drop from the 1080p figure. This steep decline indicates that while the CPU can maintain high frame rates at lower resolutions, the RTX 3060 Ti's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth become the limiting factor as pixel count increases.

The scaling pattern across settings is consistent. At 4K, the difference between Low (59.4 FPS) and Ultra (27.7 FPS) is more than a 2x gap, showing that the GPU's compute resources are heavily taxed by the highest visual fidelity. At 1080p, the same setting spread yields a range from 172.3 FPS (Low) down to 79.9 FPS (Ultra), a 2.2x difference. This suggests that at lower resolutions, the i5-14400F's 10 cores and 16 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU, and the performance is dictated by the graphics card's ability to process the scene. The fact that 4K Ultra drops below 30 FPS at 27.7 FPS indicates that this resolution is only viable with reduced settings for a smooth experience.

How This Combo Ranks

In the broader context of Road 96, this specific CPU-GPU pairing achieves a combo rank of 1142 out of 1684 tested configurations. This places it in the lower third of all combos, which is a significant finding given the hardware's individual performance metrics. The RTX 3060 Ti sits at the 69th percentile among all GPUs, and the i5-14400F ranks at the 88th percentile among all CPUs. The discrepancy between the high individual rankings and the lower combo ranking suggests that Road 96 is particularly sensitive to the balance between processor and graphics capabilities, or that many higher-ranked combos utilize more recent hardware.

The data shows that the combo is not bottlenecked by the CPU in a way that would drag it down, as the processor is in the top 12% of all CPUs. Instead, the ranking implies that the GPU, while competent, is outpaced by many other cards in the database. The nearest rival for the GPU, the AMD Radeon RX 6700M, has an average score that is effectively identical, with a delta of -0.2%. Similarly, the CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-12800H, is also within 0.2% of its average score. This tight grouping indicates that the i5-14400F and RTX 3060 Ti are well-matched to their immediate competitors, but the field above them is more densely populated with faster hardware.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is the defining component in this combination's performance ceiling. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s, which is a substantial amount for a card of its class. However, the benchmark results across resolutions show that this memory configuration is a limiting factor at 4K. The card's boost clock of 1665 MHz and base clock of 1410 MHz are standard for the Ampere architecture, and its 4864 shading units contribute to its 16.20 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power.

In Road 96, the GPU's role is most evident in the scaling from Medium to Ultra settings. At 1440p, the average FPS drops from 81.1 (Medium) to 52.6 (Ultra), and at 4K, it falls from 41.0 to 27.7. This consistent 35-40% penalty for the highest quality preset suggests that the card's texture and pixel processing capabilities are being pushed to their limits. The 152 texture mapping units and 80 render output units handle the game's art style efficiently at lower settings, but the Ultra preset likely increases draw distances and shadow complexity, which taxes the memory bandwidth. The card's 38 ray tracing cores are present, but with no ray tracing data in the measured FPS, their impact on this title cannot be assessed from the available figures.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings is 64.3 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to its nearest rival?

A: The Intel Core i5-14400F has an average benchmark score of 32508, which is effectively tied with the Intel Core i7-12800H at 32513, a delta of 0%.

Q: Is this combo capable of 4K gaming in Road 96?

A: At 4K with Medium settings, the combo achieves 41.0 FPS, and with Low settings it reaches 59.4 FPS, but Ultra settings drop to 27.7 FPS, which is below the generally accepted playable threshold.

Q: What is the GPU's memory bandwidth and how does it affect performance?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti has a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. This is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but the significant frame rate drop at 4K indicates that the bandwidth is a limiting factor at that resolution.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested CPU-GPU combinations?

A: The combination ranks 1142nd out of 1684 tested combos for Road 96.

Q: What is the difference in FPS between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the average FPS goes from 172.3 on Low settings down to 79.9 on Ultra settings, a difference of 92.4 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table presents the exact average frame rates measured for this hardware combination in Road 96 across all tested resolutions and settings.

| Resolution | Settings | Average FPS |

| :--------- | :------- | ----------: |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 27.7 |

| 3840x2160 | High | 36.9 |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 41.0 |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 59.4 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 52.6 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 64.3 |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 81.1 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 108.0 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 79.9 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 99.7 |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 122.1 |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 172.3 |

The data illustrates a clear hierarchy: 1080p provides a high refresh rate experience even on Ultra, while 1440p balances visual quality with performance. 4K gaming is only feasible at Low settings, where the frame rate approaches 60 FPS. The i5-14400F's strong single-thread performance, evidenced by a Passmark single-thread score of 3723, ensures that even at 1080p Low with 172.3 FPS, the CPU does not create a bottleneck. The absolute frame rate ceiling is determined by the RTX 3060 Ti's compute throughput, which is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming in this title.