Road 96

The benchmark data for Road 96 paired with an Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 reveals a system that is capable but heavily constrained by the game’s demanding visual settings. The measured FPS values show a clear pattern of scaling that points directly at the GPU as the primary bottleneck, especially at higher resolutions and presets.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K produces a dramatic and consistent drop in performance across all settings, which is a classic indicator of GPU-bound rendering. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 142.1 FPS at 1920x1080 to 86.6 FPS at 2560x1440, and then plummets to 49.2 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 39% reduction when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 43% drop when stepping up to 4K. The pattern is similar at High settings, where the averages go from 84.9 FPS at 1080p to 49.8 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 26.7 FPS at 4K.

The data suggests that the GTX 1070’s 8 GB of GDDR5 memory and 256-bit bus are being saturated as pixel count increases, which is typical for a mid-range Pascal card from 2016. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is particularly steep, indicating that the memory bandwidth of 256.3 GB/s becomes a limiting factor at that resolution. Interestingly, the drop from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 56% (from 142.1 to 62.2 FPS), but at 4K the same settings change only reduces performance by 51% (from 49.2 to 24.1 FPS), suggesting that at 4K the resolution itself is the dominant constraint rather than the quality preset.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the most balanced experience is achieved at 1920x1080 with High settings, which delivers 84.9 FPS. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, while still offering a meaningful visual upgrade over Medium’s 102.8 FPS. The jump from Medium to High costs roughly 18 FPS, but the visual fidelity gain in an adventure title like Road 96 is likely worth it.

For players prioritizing frame rate, Low at 1080p provides 142.1 FPS, which is excellent for fast-paced sequences but sacrifices visual detail. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset at 66.8 FPS is the only option that stays above 60 FPS, making it the recommended choice for 1440p displays. The High preset at 1440p drops to 49.8 FPS, which may be acceptable for a narrative-driven game but is not ideal. At 4K, even Low settings only manage 49.2 FPS, so users with 4K monitors should expect to lower resolution or accept sub-60 FPS performance.

GPU Role

The GTX 1070 is clearly the defining component in this pairing. Its 1,920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs are pushed hard by Road 96’s rendering workload. The boost clock of 1683 MHz and base clock of 1506 MHz are standard for the Pascal architecture, and the card’s 6.463 TFLOPS of FP32 performance provides the raw compute needed for the game’s effects.

The 8 GB VRAM appears sufficient, as the tested combinations do not show signs of memory capacity being exceeded, but the 256.3 GB/s bandwidth is likely the reason for the steep 4K performance hit. The card’s die size of 314 mm² and 7,200 million transistors are typical for the GP104 chip, and its 150 W TDP suggests it runs within expected power envelopes. Interestingly, the GTX 1070’s benchmark percentile of 51 versus all GPUs places it right in the middle of the pack, and its nearest rivals include the Quadro K4200 (0.7% slower) and GTX 1650 SUPER (1.4% faster), indicating that this card is aging but still competitive.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings produces playable results. Low averages 142.1 FPS, Medium steps down to 102.8 FPS, High delivers 84.9 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 62.2 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 79.9 FPS, showing a wide performance envelope that gives users flexibility.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages compress significantly. Low runs at 86.6 FPS, Medium at 66.8 FPS, High at 49.8 FPS, and Ultra at 40.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra shrinks to 46.2 FPS, which indicates that resolution scaling is becoming the dominant factor. At 3840x2160, the numbers are much tighter: Low hits 49.2 FPS, Medium reaches 35.6 FPS, High manages 26.7 FPS, and Ultra falls to 24.1 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is only 25.1 FPS, reinforcing that the GPU is saturated regardless of settings.

The data shows that the GTX 1070 can handle 1080p with any preset, 1440p with Low to Medium, and 4K only with Low settings. The lack of min or max FPS values in the dataset means these are average figures, but they provide a solid baseline for expectations.

How This Combo Ranks

In the broader database of tested combinations for Road 96, this pairing of Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 ranks 1419 out of 1684 combos. This places it in the bottom 16% of all tested systems, which is a surprisingly low position given the hardware’s capabilities. The rank suggests that many other CPU-GPU pairings achieve higher average frame rates in this game, likely due to more modern GPU architectures with better efficiency.

The i5-9400’s benchmark percentile of 50 versus all CPUs means it sits exactly at the median, while the GTX 1070’s percentile of 51 is just above average. Both components are mid-range by their own metrics, but combined they underperform in Road 96, which may indicate the game favors newer GPUs with higher memory bandwidth or more shading units. The combo rank of 1419 implies that users with similarly priced newer hardware would see better results.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Road 96 at 4K?

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, which averages 49.2 FPS. Medium drops to 35.6 FPS, and Ultra falls to 24.1 FPS, making Low the only viable 4K option.

Q: What is the best 1080p setting for this combo?

A: High settings provide 84.9 FPS, which balances visual quality with smoothness. Ultra runs at 62.2 FPS, still above 60, but the visual gain may not justify the 27% performance loss.

Q: How does the GTX 1070 compare to its nearest rival in benchmarks?

A: The GTX 1070 averages a benchmark score of 12,331, which is 1.4% faster than the GTX 1650 SUPER and 1.7% faster than the Tesla K20Xm, but 1.3% slower than the GTX 880M.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck at 1080p Low?

A: The 142.1 FPS result at 1080p Low suggests the i5-9400 with 6 cores and 6 threads can keep up, as the frame rate is high enough that the GPU is still the limiting factor.

Q: What memory bandwidth does the GTX 1070 have?

A: The card features 256.3 GB/s of bandwidth from its 8 GB GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, which likely explains the significant performance drop at 4K.

Q: Does the i5-9400’s boost clock help in this game?

A: The CPU boosts to 4.10 GHz from a 2.90 GHz base, and its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 7,969 indicates adequate processing power for this adventure title, though the GPU remains the primary constraint.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 provides six physical cores running at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost of 4.10 GHz, with 9 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multicore score of 7,969 and single-core score of 1,125 indicate it is a competent processor for gaming, but its percentile of 50 shows it is exactly average. The nearest rivals in benchmarks include the Core i3-10305 (0.2% faster) and the Core i7-8809G (0.6% slower), placing the i5-9400 in a tight performance cluster.

In Road 96, the CPU’s role appears secondary. The fact that frame rates scale so heavily with resolution and settings points to GPU limitation, and the 142.1 FPS at 1080p Low suggests the CPU can feed frames faster than the GPU can render them. The 6 threads without hyper-threading could be a limitation in heavily threaded scenes, but the data does not show signs of CPU bottlenecks, as even at 1080p Ultra the system manages 62.2 FPS, which is still respectable. The CPU’s DDR4 memory support and dual-channel bus with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for this workload, and its 65 W TDP keeps thermals manageable. Ultimately, the i5-9400 is a stable foundation that does not hinder the GTX 1070, but it also does little to boost the combo’s low rank of 1419 out of 1684.