Road 96

Road 96 is an adventure title from 2021 that places its visual demands squarely on the GPU, and the pairing of the Intel Core i5-14600KF with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER produces a wide performance envelope depending on how aggressively you push the settings. The data indicates a system that can deliver high refresh rates at 1080p but transitions into a more demanding experience as resolution scales, with the GPU becoming the definitive bottleneck at 4K. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS, the role of each component, and how this specific combo ranks against the broader database of tested configurations.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combo achieves in Road 96?

A: The highest recorded average is 187 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This drops to 86 FPS at the same resolution when settings are raised to Ultra.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its closest rivals in the database?

A: The GPU sits at the 65th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest competitors are the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (1% slower), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (1.2% slower), the Intel Arc B570 (1.3% slower), and the Intel Arc A750 (1.5% slower).

Q: Is the CPU a limiting factor at 4K resolution?

A: No. The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial (e.g., from 110 FPS to 37 FPS at High settings), which points to the GPU being the primary constraint. The CPU has ample headroom at higher resolutions.

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

A: At 2560x1440, the average frame rate moves from 119 FPS on Low to 55 FPS on Ultra. This represents a significant 64 FPS drop for the highest visual quality preset.

Q: How does the Core i5-14600KF rank against other CPUs?

A: The CPU is in the 90th percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score is 49,394, which places it within 0.8% of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900, AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G, and Intel Core Ultra 5 245.

Q: Does the combo rank highly among all tested systems for this game?

A: Out of 3,713 total tested combos, this specific pairing of CPU and GPU ranks at position 2,154. This places it in the lower-middle portion of the database for Road 96.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is the dominant component in determining Road 96's performance. Built on the Turing architecture with a TU104 chip on a 12 nm process, this GPU features 2,560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. Its core clocks are rated at 1605 MHz base and 1770 MHz boost, with the memory running at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) across a 256-bit bus. This configuration yields a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s, which is a critical figure for texture-heavy scenes.

The GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory is sufficient for Road 96 at the tested resolutions, though the data shows a clear ceiling. The frame rate variance from Low to Ultra settings is the most direct evidence of the GPU's workload. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is a 101 FPS swing (187 FPS down to 86 FPS). This indicates that the GPU's raw compute and shading capabilities are being heavily taxed by the Ultra preset's effects, likely including higher resolution textures and more complex lighting. The GPU's FP32 performance is rated at 9.062 TFLOPS, which is the raw throughput available for these calculations.

The GPU also has 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores, though Road 96 likely does not heavily utilize ray tracing given its art style and release date. The standard DirectX 12 (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4 API support ensures compatibility with the game's rendering pipeline. In the database, the RTX 2070 SUPER holds the 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20,282. Its nearest rival, the Intel Arc A750, is 1.5% slower, which contextualizes the GPU's position as a solid mid-to-high-tier performer from its generation.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a textbook case of GPU-bound scaling as resolution increases. At 1920x1080, the system delivers high frame rates across all settings, with the Low preset achieving 187 FPS and High hitting 110 FPS. This suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU adequately at this resolution, and the GPU has enough headroom to process frames quickly.

Moving to 2560x1440, there is a noticeable drop in performance. The High preset falls from 110 FPS to 70 FPS, a 36% reduction. The Low preset drops from 187 FPS to 119 FPS, a 36% reduction as well. This consistent percentage drop indicates that the GPU's pixel throughput and memory bandwidth are becoming more significant factors. The 4K resolution (3840x2160) shows the most dramatic scaling. At High settings, the average FPS collapses to 37, and at Ultra, it drops to 29 FPS. The Low preset at 4K still manages 63 FPS, but this is a 66% reduction from the 1080p Low result.

This scaling pattern strongly suggests that the limiting component at higher resolutions is the GPU. The RTX 2070 SUPER's 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth and 113.3 GPixel/s pixel rate are being saturated as the number of pixels rendered quadruples from 1080p to 4K. The CPU's role diminishes at 4K, as the frame time is dominated by the GPU's rendering workload rather than the CPU's draw call submission or physics calculations. The data shows that for a smooth 60 FPS experience at 4K, the settings must be dropped to Low, while at 1440p, High settings are viable at 70 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete matrix of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the system performs exceptionally well. The Low preset achieves an average of 187 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. Medium settings deliver 137 FPS, with a minimum of 116 FPS and a maximum of 157 FPS, showing good frame pacing. High settings produce 110 FPS, while Ultra drops to 86 FPS. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the system can handle any preset with ease, maintaining playable frame rates even at the highest quality.

At 2560x1440, the performance is still strong but shows the GPU's workload increasing. The Low preset yields 119 FPS, which is excellent for a 1440p panel. Medium settings average 87 FPS, with a range of 74 to 100 FPS. High settings drop to 70 FPS, which is still smooth for most users. The Ultra preset falls to 55 FPS, which approaches the threshold where some users might prefer to lower settings for a higher refresh rate. The data indicates that 1440p High is the sweet spot for balancing visual quality and performance.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck. The Low preset averages 63 FPS, which is playable but requires significant visual compromises. Medium settings drop to 46 FPS, with a minimum of 39 FPS and a maximum of 53 FPS. High settings produce only 37 FPS, and Ultra falls to 29 FPS. These results show that 4K gaming with this combo requires a substantial reduction in settings to achieve a consistent 60 FPS, and even then, the Low preset is the only option that comes close. The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is non-linear, illustrating the exponential increase in GPU workload at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested CPU and GPU combinations for Road 96, this specific pairing ranks at position 2,154 out of 3,713 total combos. This places it in the lower-middle tier of all tested systems. The rank of 2,154 indicates that a significant portion of other hardware combinations can achieve higher average frame rates in this game. This is likely due to the RTX 2070 SUPER being an older GPU (released in 2019) that is now a few generations behind, while the CPU is a newer, high-end part from 2023.

The combo's rank is primarily dragged down by the GPU's performance at higher resolutions. The CPU, which sits in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, is not the limiting factor. The GPU, at the 65th percentile, has more room for improvement. The data shows that the GPU is the bottleneck at 1440p and 4K, which means that a stronger GPU paired with this CPU would likely result in a much higher rank. The combination's position at 2,154 suggests that it is a capable setup for 1080p gaming or for 1440p at medium-to-high settings, but it is not competitive with systems that feature more modern, higher-end GPUs. The deltaPct values for the GPU's rivals are all within 1.5%, indicating that this GPU is closely matched with several other mid-range options, which further explains the mid-pack ranking.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is a high-performance processor that is not the bottleneck in Road 96 at the tested settings. This CPU features 14 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. It has a 24 MB shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache, providing ample fast storage for game assets and instructions. The CPU's architecture is Raptor Lake-R, built on a 10 nm process, and it supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory.

In the benchmark database, the i5-14600KF holds the 90th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49,394. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (0.3% faster), the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (0.4% faster), and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 (0.8% faster). These close margins indicate that the CPU's performance is right in line with other high-end desktop processors.

For Road 96, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, AI, and draw calls. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p, the CPU is able to feed the GPU fast enough to achieve 187 FPS at Low settings. As resolution increases to 4K, the frame rate drops significantly, which is a clear sign that the GPU is the limiting factor, not the CPU. The CPU's high boost clock of 5.30 GHz and strong single-thread performance (evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4,594) are likely sufficient for the game's engine, which typically relies on a few primary threads. The multi-core performance is also robust, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32,544, ensuring that any background tasks or game engine threading does not cause stutters. The data confirms that this CPU provides a solid foundation, and any performance limitations in this pairing are attributable to the GPU.