Road 96

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a six-core, six-thread desktop CPU from the Coffee Lake generation, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. It lacks Hyper-Threading, so its compute resources are limited to six physical cores, a factor that can influence performance in games that scale well with additional threads. In this benchmark suite, the CPU’s aggregate benchmark score is 2254, placing it in the 47th percentile of all tested CPUs. Its nearest rivals are tightly clustered: the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 scores 2259 (0.2% higher), the Intel Core i3-10305 scores 2264 (0.4% higher), while the Intel Core i7-10710U scores 2248 (0.3% lower) and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 scores 2246 (0.4% lower). This indicates that the i5-9400 sits in a performance band where a few percent separates it from comparable parts, making its role in gameplay more about consistency than raw dominance.

For Road 96, an adventure game, the CPU’s workload is likely less intensive than in a real-time strategy or simulation title. The data shows that at 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 178 FPS, which is the highest measured result. At this resolution and preset, the CPU’s six cores are sufficient to feed the GPU, as the frame rate is not bottlenecked by compute. However, the picture changes at lower resolutions relative to the GPU’s capacity. At 1080p Medium, the average FPS drops to 130, and at 1080p High, it is 105. This scaling suggests that as settings increase, the CPU’s six threads do not become a limiting factor; instead, the GPU takes on more work. The CPU’s boost clock of 4.10 GHz provides adequate single-thread performance for the game’s logic, which is critical for maintaining frame pacing. The CPU’s L3 cache is 9 MB shared, which is modest but sufficient for a game of this scope. The data implies that the i5-9400 is not the primary constraint in this pairing; it delivers a stable foundation, as evidenced by the high FPS at 1080p Low, and its percentile ranking against all CPUs suggests it is a mid-range performer that will not hold back the GPU in most scenarios.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400’s six cores and six threads operate at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. Its benchmark scores show a multicore Cinebench R23 score of 6629 and a single-core score of 935, which reflects a balanced design for gaming. In Road 96, the CPU’s role is to manage game state, physics, and AI, which are not heavily multithreaded in an adventure title. The data indicates that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 178 FPS, which is 48 FPS higher than the 1080p Medium result of 130 FPSeur. This 37% drop from Low to Medium suggests that the GPU is doing more work, but the CPU is still keeping up. The CPU’s 47th percentile ranking means that roughly half of all CPUs tested are faster, but in this game, the bottleneck is not the processor. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see smaller FPS differences between settings at the same resolution. Instead, the FPS scales with settings, indicating that the GPU is the primary driver of performance. The i5-9400’s nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i7-10710U with a score of 2248, perform nearly identically, so users of this CPU can expect similar frame rates with other mid-range parts. The data shows that for Road 96, the CPU provides enough headroom to avoid becoming a constraint, as the lowest FPS recorded in the dataset is 28 FPS at 4K Ultra, which is a GPU-bound scenario.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is a RDNA 3.0 architecture GPU with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s. Its boost clock is 2755 MHz, and it has 2048 shading units. The GPU’s benchmark scores include a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2348 and a Passmark G3D score of 17132, placing it in the 60th percentile of all GPUs. In Road 96, the GPU’s role is significant because the game’s visual fidelity scales with VRAM and shader complexity. At 4K Ultra, the combo drops to 28 FPS, which is the lowest measured resulteur. This is a 78% reduction from the 1080p High result of 105 FPS, showing that the GPU is heavily taxed at high resolutions and settings. The GPU’s 16 GB VRAM is ample for this game, as even at 4K Ultra, the data does not suggest a memory capacity bottleneck, but rather a compute limitation. The RX 7600 XT’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 with a score of 17208 (0.7% higher) and the GTX 690 with 17037 (0.3% lower), indicating that this GPU sits in a competitive tier. At 1440p High, the combo achieves 67 FPS, which is a 36% drop from 1080p High, illustrating that the GPU’s performance scales with resolution. The GPU’s 60th percentile ranking means it outperforms most GPUs, but in Road 96, the demanding 4K Ultra preset exposes its limits. The data suggests that the GPU is the main bottleneck at higher settings, as the CPU can deliver 178 FPS at 1080p Low, but the GPU cannot maintain that frame rate at higher presets.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achieved by this combo in Road 96?

A: The highest average FPS is 178, measured at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

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

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2254, which is 0.2% lower than the Intel Core i7-1068NG7’s score of 2259, and 0.3% higher than the Intel Core i7-10710U’s score of 2248.

Q: At which resolution and settings does the combo achieve its lowest FPS?

A: The lowest average FPS is 28, recorded at 3840x2160 (4K) with Ultra settings.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor at 1080p Low?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 178 FPS, which is the highest result, indicating that the GPU is not a limiting factor at this preset, and the CPU’s six cores are sufficient to drive high frame rates.

Q: What is the GPU’s VRAM size and how does it affect Road 96?

A: The GPU has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory. In this game, the VRAM is not a bottleneck, as the FPS drops are more attributable to compute load, evidenced by the 4K Ultra result of 28 FPS.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested combos in this game?

A: The combo ranks 2355 out of 3713 tested combos, placing it in the lower half of the field.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT ranks 2355 out of 3713 tested combos in Road 96, which places it in the 63rd percentile of all combinations. This ranking suggests that while the individual components are not top-tier—the CPU is in the 47th percentile and the GPU in the 60th—their pairing yields a system that is above average for this game. The rank is likely influenced by the GPU’s strong performance at 1080p and 1440p, where the combo delivers playable frame rates across most settings. However, the ranking is pulled down by the 4K results, where the GPU struggles to maintain smooth gameplay, with the 4K Ultra preset dropping to 28 FPS. Compared to other combos, this system’s performance is competitive at lower resolutions, but it falls behind at higher resolutions. The data implies that the combo is well-suited for 1080p gaming, where it achieves over 100 FPS on High settings, but it is not a 4K-capable system for this game. The ranking of 2355 out of 3713 means that about 36% of combos are slower, which aligns with the mid-range positioning of the CPU and GPU. For users with a 1080p monitor, this combo offers a smooth experience, but for 4K displays, the frame rates are marginal, as seen in the measured data.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the best experience in Road 96 is achieved at 1920x1080 with High settings, which delivers an average of 105 FPS. This preset strikes a balance between visual quality and performance, as the Low preset at 178 FPS is smoother but may sacrifice visual fidelity, while the Ultra preset at 82 FPS is still playable but shows a 22% drop from High. At 1440p, the High preset yields 67 FPS, which is acceptable for a slower-paced adventure game, but the Medium preset at 83 FPS offers a better margin for frame pacing. At 4K, the Medium preset at 44 FPS is the only option that approaches playability, as the High preset drops to 35 FPS and Ultra to 28 FPS. The data suggests that for a consistent 60 FPS experience, users should target 1080p High or 1440p Medium, as these achieve 105 and 83 FPS respectively. The Ultra preset at 1080p provides 82 FPS, which is still above 60, but the visual gains may not justify the 23 FPS loss from High. For users prioritizing frame rate, the 1080p Low preset at 178 FPS is the best choice, but for a balance of quality and smoothness, 1080p High is the recommended preset. The 4K resolution is not recommended for this combo, as even the Low preset at 60 FPS is the only way to hit 60, which requires dropping to the lowest settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers an average FPS of 178 on Low, 130 on Medium (with a min of 111 and max of 150), 105 on High, and 82 on Ultra. This shows a clear scaling pattern: dropping from Low to Medium reduces FPS by 48, from Medium to High by 25, and from High to Ultra by 23. The 1080p results indicate that the GPU is the bottleneck at higher settings, as the CPU’s performance is sufficient to reach 178 FPS on Low. At 2560x1440, the average FPS is 113 on Low, 83 on Medium (with a min of 71 and max of 95), 67 on High, and 52 on Ultra. The transition from 1080p to 1440p results in a 37% FPS drop on Low (from 178 to 113), a 36% drop on Medium (from 130 to 83), a 36% drop on High (from 105 to 67), and a 37% drop on Ultra (from 82 to 52). This consistent percentage drop across settings suggests that the GPU’s performance scales linearly with pixel count, confirming that the GPU is the limiting factor. At 3840x2160, the average FPS is 60 on Low, 44 on Medium (with a min of 37 and max of 51), 35 on High, and 28 on Ultra. The 4K results show a dramatic reduction: from 1080p to 4K, the FPS drops by 66% on Low (178 to 60), 66% on Medium (130 to 44), 67% on High (105 to 35), and 66% on Ultra (82 to 28). This demonstrates that the GPU’s compute and memory bandwidth are insufficient for 4K gaming in Road 96, as the frame rates fall below 60 FPS on all settings except Low, which barely hits 60.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, indicating that the GPU is the primary limiting component. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 178 FPS, but at 4K Low, it falls to 60 FPS, a 66% reduction. This proportional drop is expected, as 4K has four times the pixels of 1080p, but the GPU’s performance does not scale linearly due to memory bandwidth and shader limits. The RX 7600 XT’s 288.0 GB/s bandwidth is a likely constraint at 4K, as the higher resolution demands more data throughput. The data shows that from 1080p to 1440p, the FPS drops by about 36-37%, which is less than the 50% pixel increase (from 2.07 million to 3.68 million pixels), indicating that the GPU can partially compensate at this step. However, from 1440p to 4K, the FPS drops by another 47-50%, which is closer to the pixel ratio, suggesting that the GPU hits a hard limit at 4K. The CPU’s role in this scaling is minimal, as the FPS drop is uniform across all settings, implying that the CPU is not the bottleneck at any resolution. If the CPU were limiting, we would see a smaller FPS drop at lower settings where the GPU has less work, but the data shows similar percentage drops across Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. This confirms that the GPU is the limiting component at all resolutions, and the CPU’s six cores are sufficient to feed the GPU even at 1080p Low where the FPS is highest. For users seeking higher 4K performance, the data suggests that lowering settings to Low is the only way to achieve 60 FPS, but even then, it is marginal. The resolution scaling analysis points to the RX 7600 XT as the deciding factor in this combo’s performance, with the i5-9400 providing a stable foundation that does not impede the GPU’s output.