Road 96

Road 96 is an adventure title that rarely stresses a modern system, yet the pairing of the Intel Core i5-9400 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 produces a wide spread of frame rates that clearly delineates the responsibilities of each component. The data shows a configuration capable of triple-digit frame rates at 1080p, but one where the CPU’s six-thread ceiling and the GPU’s memory bandwidth become increasingly relevant as resolution and quality settings climb. The benchmark results indicate that this combo is positioned at rank 789 out of 1684 tested combinations, placing it in the upper-middle tier of systems for this specific game.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a six-core, six-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, running on a 14 nm process node. With a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, it provides a modest foundation for gaming workloads. The chip’s cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 and 256 KB of L2 per core, alongside a shared 9 MB L3 cache, which is adequate for feeding the GPU in an adventure game like Road 96. The processor’s memory bandwidth is rated at 42.7 GB/s over a dual-channel DDR4 interface, a figure that becomes a potential bottleneck when the system is asked to produce extremely high frame rates.

Benchmark data places the i5-9400’s average score at 2305, with a percentile ranking of 50 against all CPUs. This places it in the dead center of the performance distribution, directly alongside its nearest rivals. The data shows it is virtually tied with the Intel Core i3-10305 and Intel Core i3-1125G4, both of which have an average score within 0.2% of the i5-9400. It also sits close to the Intel Xeon E-2134, which trails by 0.4%, and the Intel Core i7-8809G, which leads by 0.6%. In the context of Road 96, this mid-pack CPU performance is sufficient to drive the game at high settings without becoming the primary constraint.

The impact of the CPU is most evident when examining the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 227.7 FPS, a figure that suggests the GPU is being fed ample data. However, the six-thread configuration means that the CPU is working near its limits at these high frame rates, as there are no additional threads to handle background tasks or game logic spikes. The single-core Cinebench R23 score of 1125 and multi-core score of 7969 confirm that the chip’s strength is in consistent, moderate throughput rather than exceptional single-thread performance. For an adventure game with unpredictable scene complexity, the i5-9400 provides a stable platform, but the benchmark results indicate that it is the limiting factor when trying to push beyond 200 FPS at lower resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is built on the Ampere architecture using an 8 nm process from Samsung, featuring a GA104 chip with 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1500 MHz and a boost clock of 1725 MHz, with memory clocked at 1750 MHz for an effective 14 Gbps data rate. It is equipped with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The card’s 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output units provide substantial compute power, evidenced by its FP32 performance of 20.31 TFLOPS.

The GPU’s benchmark scores reflect its strength, with an average score of 28238 and a percentile ranking of 72 against all GPUs. This places it ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, which trails by 0.9%, and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, which is 1% behind. The RTX 3070 also leads the AMD FirePro S7150 by 0.6% and the AMD Radeon R9 M295X by 1.1%. In Road 96, the GPU’s role becomes dominant at higher resolutions and quality settings, where the 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the game’s textures and effects.

The measured FPS data demonstrates the GPU’s scaling capability. At 1440p High settings, the system delivers 83.8 FPS, which drops to 66.3 FPS at Ultra. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the primary driver, as the frame rate falls from 44.4 FPS at High to 36.8 FPS at Ultra. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is stark, with a jump from 79 FPS to 36.8 FPS, indicating that the GPU’s compute and memory subsystems are heavily taxed by the higher fidelity settings. The RTX 3070’s 8 GB VRAM is adequate for this title, as the data does not show any memory-related stutters, but the performance drop at 4K Ultra suggests the card is reaching its limits for this game.

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-9400 compare to its closest rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The i5-9400 has an average score of 2305, which is within 0.2% of the Intel Core i3-10305 (2300) and Intel Core i3-1125G4 (2299). It is 0.4% ahead of the Intel Xeon E-2134 (2295) and 0.6% behind the Intel Core i7-8809G (2319).

Q: What is the performance difference between the RTX 3070 and the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT?

A: The RTX 3070 has an average benchmark score of 28238, which is 0.9% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT’s score of 27985.

Q: What frame rate can the system achieve at 1080p with High settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with High settings, the system delivers an average frame rate of 133 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At 1080p High, the average FPS is 133. This drops to 83.8 FPS at 1440p and further to 44.4 FPS at 4K, representing a significant reduction of 66.6% from 1080p to 4K.

Q: What is the GPU’s percentile ranking compared to all other GPUs?

A: The RTX 3070 ranks in the 72nd percentile against all GPUs, indicating it performs better than 72% of the graphics cards in the database.

Q: What is the system’s overall rank out of all tested combos for Road 96?

A: The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is ranked 789th out of 1684 tested combinations for Road 96.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the i5-9400 and RTX 3070 holds a rank of 789 out of 1684 tested combos in Road 96. This places it in the 53rd percentile of all systems tested for this game, meaning roughly half of the tested configurations perform better. The ranking is influenced by the CPU’s mid-pack positioning, as the i5-9400 sits at the 50th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU is stronger, at the 72nd percentile. This imbalance suggests that the CPU is holding back the system’s overall potential in this title.

The data shows that the combo’s rank is not a reflection of poor individual component performance, but rather a mismatch in capabilities. The RTX 3070 is capable of significantly higher frame rates, as evidenced by its GPU-bound scores at lower resolutions, but the six-thread CPU limits the system’s ability to sustain those rates. When compared to other combos, this system is positioned among those with a strong GPU paired with a mid-range CPU, a common configuration that offers a balanced experience for most games but falls short of top-tier rankings in CPU-sensitive titles. The 1684 total combos tested provide a broad context, and the 789th rank indicates that while this system is above average, it is not in the upper echelon for Road 96 specifically.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of resolution scaling that highlights the shifting bottleneck between CPU and GPU. At 1080p, the system is heavily CPU-bound, as evidenced by the frame rates exceeding 200 FPS at Low settings (227.7 FPS) and remaining high at Medium (165.4 FPS). The jump from 1080p High (133 FPS) to 1080p Ultra (107.5 FPS) shows a modest 19.2% drop, indicating that the GPU has enough headroom at this resolution to handle increased quality settings without significant frame loss.

Moving to 1440p, the frame rates show a more pronounced drop, with High settings delivering 83.8 FPS and Ultra falling to 66.3 FPS. This represents a 37% reduction from 1080p High to 1440p High, suggesting that the GPU is beginning to become the limiting factor. At 4K, the bottleneck shifts almost entirely to the GPU. The system achieves 44.4 FPS at High settings, which is a 66.6% drop from 1080p High. At 4K Ultra, the frame rate falls to 36.8 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

The resolution scaling data indicates that the RTX 3070’s 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming in Road 96, but the GPU’s compute limits become apparent at 4K. The difference between Low and Medium at 4K is 25.2 FPS (from 79 to 53.8 FPS), while the difference between High and Ultra is only 7.6 FPS (from 44.4 to 36.8 FPS). This suggests that the most demanding settings at 4K push the GPU to its limits, and the CPU is no longer a factor at this resolution. The data confirms that for this combo, 1440p High is the sweet spot, offering a playable 83.8 FPS without the steep performance penalties seen at 4K Ultra.