Road 96

Road 96 is an adventure title that leans more on narrative than on raw GPU muscle, but the measured data for this Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 580 combination still shows clear performance boundaries. The combo sits at rank 3389 out of 3713 tested configurations, placing it in the lower 9th percentile of all pairings in this game’s database. That ranking is not a verdict on the hardware’s overall capability, but it does indicate that this specific pairing is far from the top tier for Road 96, and the frame rate data confirms a system that will require settings discipline to stay smooth.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 3389 out of 3713 puts this pairing firmly in the bottom quarter of tested systems for Road 96. With only about 324 combinations ranked lower, the i5-9400 and RX 580 are near the tail end of the performance curve for this title. Benchmarks results indicate that this is not a configuration designed for high-refresh or maxed-out 4K play; instead, it is a pairing that will deliver playable results at more modest resolutions and settings.

Looking at the components individually, the CPU’s average benchmark score is 2254, which places it in the 47th percentile among all CPUs. The GPU’s average score of 12928 puts it in the 53rd percentile among all GPUs. Neither component is a standout, but the GPU is slightly stronger relative to its peers than the CPU is. This suggests that in Road 96, the graphics card is likely doing more of the heavy lifting, and the CPU’s lower relative standing could become a bottleneck in scenes that are more processor-intensive, even though the game is an adventure title.

The nearest rivals for the CPU include the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 with an average score of 2259 and a delta of -0.2%, meaning the i5-9400 is essentially tied with it. The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 scores 2246, which is a 0.4% delta, again a negligible difference. This indicates the i5-9400 is squarely in a performance class where small gains or losses of a few tenths of a percent separate it from its direct competitors. For the GPU, the nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile with a score of 12940 and a -0.1% delta, while the GTX 1660 SUPER scores 12986, a -0.4% delta. These are all within a fraction of a percent of the RX 580, meaning the graphics performance is right at the boundary between several older and newer cards.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is built on the Polaris 20 chip with a GCN 4.0 architecture, using a 14 nm process from GlobalFoundries. It has 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, which provides a memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s. The GPU runs at a base clock of 1257 MHz and a boost clock of 1340 MHz, with memory clocked at 2000 MHz or 8 Gbps effective. These specifications are modest by modern standards, but they are sufficient for a game like Road 96 that does not demand high-end graphics features.

The card has 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 32 raster operation units. Its pixel rate is 42.88 GPixel/s, and its texture rate is 193.0 GTexel/s, with a FP32 performance of 6.175 TFLOPS. In the measured FPS data, the GPU’s role becomes clear when looking at the scaling across settings. At 1080p, the RX 580 can push from 42 FPS on Ultra to 90 FPS on Low, showing that the card has enough headroom to handle the game’s lower presets easily. The jump from High (53 FPS) to Ultra (42 FPS) is a significant 11 FPS drop, which indicates that the Ultra preset is pushing the GPU’s shading units and texture units harder than they can comfortably handle for a locked 60 FPS experience.

The GPU’s 8 GB of VRAM is not a limiting factor at 1080p or 1440p in this title, as the measured data does not suggest any memory-related stutters or crashes. However, at 4K, the card’s compute power becomes the bottleneck, as the average FPS drops to 18 on High and just 14 on Ultra. This is a clear sign that the RX 580’s 6.175 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is insufficient for 4K gaming in Road 96, even with a relatively light adventure title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a steep drop as resolution increases, which is typical for a mid-range GPU like the RX 580. At 1080p with High settings, the average FPS is 53, which is playable but not ideal for a smooth experience. Moving to 1440p High drops the average to 34 FPS, a reduction of 19 FPS or about 36%. At 4K High, the average falls to 18 FPS, which is a further 16 FPS drop from 1440p, or a 47% reduction. This scaling pattern reveals that the GPU is the primary limiting component at higher resolutions, as the CPU’s performance does not degrade with resolution in the same way.

The data also shows that the gap between settings widens at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 48 FPS (90 vs 42). At 1440p, that gap narrows to 31 FPS (58 vs 27). At 4K, the gap shrinks to 16 FPS (30 vs 14). This behavior indicates that at 4K, the GPU is so heavily saturated that changing settings has less of an impact on the frame rate because the card is already near its compute limit. Conversely, at 1080p, the GPU has more headroom, so lowering settings yields larger FPS gains.

The 4K Low preset achieves 30 FPS, which is exactly the threshold for a playable console-like experience, but it is not smooth. The 1440p Medium preset hits 42 FPS, and 1080p Medium reaches 66 FPS, which is the first preset that approaches a solid 60 FPS experience. The data strongly suggests that the sweet spot for this combo is 1080p, where the GPU can maintain playable frame rates across all settings, with Low hitting 90 FPS and High hitting 53 FPS.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1080p is the most playable resolution, with average FPS ranging from 42 on Ultra to 90 on Low. At 1440p, the best average is 58 FPS on Low, and at 4K, the highest average is 30 FPS on Low, which is borderline playable.

Q: Can this system handle Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 42, which is playable but not smooth for a 60 Hz display. Benchmark results indicate that dropping to High settings raises the average to 53 FPS, a 26% improvement, making High the better choice for smoother gameplay.

Q: How does the RX 580 compare to its nearest rival in terms of raw performance?

A: The RX 580 has an average benchmark score of 12928, which is only 0.1% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile’s score of 12940 and 0.4% lower than the GTX 1660 SUPER’s score of 12986. These are effectively identical performance levels.

Q: Is the CPU holding back the GPU in this game?

A: The CPU’s average benchmark score of 2254 places it in the 47th percentile, which is lower than the GPU’s 53rd percentile. This suggests the CPU could be a limiting factor in CPU-bound scenes, but the game’s adventure genre and the FPS scaling indicate the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the minimum FPS at 1440p Medium?

A: The measured data shows a minimum FPS of 36 at 1440p Medium, with an average of 42 FPS and a maximum of 49 FPS. This indicates that there are noticeable frame dips during heavier scenes.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM help at 4K?

A: The 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for the game’s memory needs, but the GPU’s compute power is the limiting factor. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is only 14, which is unplayable, regardless of VRAM capacity.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear picture of which preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers an average of 66 FPS with a minimum of 56 and a maximum of 76, which is the most consistent and smooth experience in the data. The High preset drops to 53 FPS, which is still playable but has less headroom for dips. The Low preset hits 90 FPS, but the visual quality loss is substantial for an adventure game that relies on atmosphere.

At 1440p, the Medium preset averages 42 FPS with a minimum of 36, which is playable but not ideal for a fast-paced scene. The Low preset achieves 58 FPS, which is smoother, but again, the visual compromise is significant. For 4K, no preset is truly playable, with Low at 30 FPS being the only option that approaches a console-like experience, but it is not recommended.

The best experience per the measured rows is 1080p Medium. It offers a solid 66 FPS average, which stays above 56 FPS even in the worst-case scenario. This preset provides a good balance of visual fidelity and smoothness without forcing the GPU to its limits. If the user prefers higher visual quality, 1080p High is a viable option at 53 FPS, but the 13 FPS drop from Medium is noticeable. For those prioritizing frame rate above all else, 1080p Low at 90 FPS is the clear winner, but the game’s art style will lose some of its charm.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor from the Coffee Lake architecture, built on a 14 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, with a 9 MB shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration with a bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. While these specifications are not high-end, they are sufficient for Road 96, which is not a CPU-intensive title.

The CPU’s benchmark scores show a mixed picture. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 6629, and its single-core score is 935. In Geekbench, it scores 5141 multi-core and 1389 single-core. These scores place the i5-9400 in the 47th percentile, which is slightly below average. The nearest rivals, including the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500, all have average scores within 0.4% of the i5-9400, indicating that this CPU is in a very tight performance band.

In the context of Road 96, the CPU’s role is secondary to the GPU, as evidenced by the FPS scaling across resolutions. At 1080p, the CPU has enough headroom to feed the GPU, as shown by the 90 FPS result on Low settings. However, the CPU’s 6 threads without hyper-threading could become a limitation in scenes with heavy AI or physics calculations, though the measured data does not show a clear CPU bottleneck. The fact that the FPS drops significantly at 4K (from 90 to 30 FPS on Low) confirms that the GPU is the limiting component, not the CPU. For this game, the i5-9400 is a capable partner for the RX 580, but it does not boost the combo’s ranking beyond its overall percentile.