Road 96

Road 96 is an adventure title that scales dramatically across resolutions and settings with the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combination. The measured data shows a clear progression from extremely high frame rates at 1080p to playable but increasingly demanding figures at 4K, with the delta between Low and Ultra presets widening as pixel count rises. This pairing demonstrates that the RTX 4080 is the dominant component in the system, though the 6-core i5-9400 still holds its ground at lower resolutions where CPU overhead becomes more relevant.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, revealing a GPU-bound workload at higher pixel counts. At Low settings, average FPS falls from 263 at 1920x1080 to 119 at 3840x2160, a reduction of 144 FPS or roughly 55%. The Ultra preset shows a similar pattern, dropping from 164 FPS at 1080p to 55 FPS at 4K, a 109 FPS decrease. Medium settings demonstrate the same trend, with averages of 235 FPS at 1080p, 165 FPS at 1440p, and 87 FPS at 4K. High settings follow suit, going from 209 FPS at 1080p to 133 FPS at 1440p and finally 71 FPS at 4K.

This scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 4080 is the primary limiting factor as resolution increases. The GPU's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 256-bit bus provide ample bandwidth, but the sheer pixel throughput required at 4K cuts performance to less than half of what the system achieves at 1080p. The gap between 1440p and 4K is particularly pronounced — for High settings, the drop is 62 FPS (133 to 71), while the 1080p to 1440p drop is 76 FPS (209 to 133), suggesting diminishing returns as resolution climbs.

At 1080p, the frame rates are so high — even 164 FPS at Ultra — that the CPU's role becomes more apparent. The i5-9400's 6 cores and 6 threads, running at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost of 4.10 GHz, are sufficient to keep the GPU fed at these levels, but the data suggests that the CPU is nearing its limit. The 263 FPS at Low 1080p is a strong indicator that the GPU is not fully utilized at this resolution, as the CPU's single-thread performance — evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 935 — becomes the bottleneck for such high frame rates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is a monster of a GPU, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory operates at 1400 MHz with 22.4 Gbps effective speed, delivering 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth across a 256-bit bus. The card's 9728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs provide massive compute throughput, with FP32 performance rated at 48.74 TFLOPS. These specifications translate directly into the measured FPS figures, where the GPU dominates the rendering pipeline at all resolutions.

The RTX 4080's 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54247, places it in the upper echelon of graphics hardware. Its nearest rivals — the RTX 4080 SUPER (0.1% ahead), AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (1.1% behind), and AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (2.6% behind) — are all within a few percentage points in synthetic benchmarks, yet the measured FPS in Road 96 shows this card punching well above its weight in real-world gameplay. At 4K Ultra, the 55 FPS average is respectable for a demanding adventure title, while 1080p Low at 263 FPS showcases the card's raw headroom.

The GPU's 2205 MHz base and 2505 MHz boost clocks are key to its performance consistency across the 12 measured scenarios. The card's 320 W TDP and triple-slot design indicate it draws significant power, but the data shows no thermal throttling issues, as FPS remains stable from the 1080p Low test to the 4K Ultra test. The 1400 MHz memory clock, while not the highest available, provides enough bandwidth for Road 96's scene complexity, as evidenced by the smooth scaling between Medium and High settings at each resolution.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Road 96 with this hardware combination?

A: At 1440p Ultra, the combo delivers 104 FPS average, which balances visual quality with high refresh rate performance. At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 55 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced sections. The 1080p Ultra figure of 164 FPS is excellent for competitive play, but the CPU becomes more of a limiting factor at this resolution.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080 scores 54247 on average, which is 0.1% behind the RTX 4080 SUPER (54209), 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (54828), and 2.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55698). These deltaPct values show the RTX 4080 sits in a tight performance cluster with those cards.

Q: Does the i5-9400 bottleneck the RTX 4080 in this game?

A: The data suggests partial bottlenecking at 1080p Low, where the system hits 263 FPS. The i5-9400's 6 cores and 6 threads, with a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, are likely limiting the GPU's potential at such high frame rates. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, as FPS drops to 119 even at Low settings.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Medium and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Medium settings yield 165 FPS average with a minimum of 140 FPS, while Ultra settings produce 104 FPS average. This 61 FPS gap represents a 37% performance reduction for the highest visual quality preset.

Q: Is the RTX 4080's 16 GB VRAM sufficient for Road 96?

A: Yes, the measured data shows no issues related to memory capacity. The GPU's 16 GB GDDR6X memory with 716.8 GB/s bandwidth handles all tested settings and resolutions without any signs of frame rate instability or stuttering, even at 4K Ultra.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested combinations?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combo ranks 437th out of 3713 tested combinations, placing it in the top 12% of all systems. This ranking reflects the strong GPU performance despite the older CPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 263 FPS, Medium settings reach 235 FPS with a minimum of 199 FPS and maximum of 270 FPS, High settings achieve 209 FPS, and Ultra settings still manage 164 FPS. These numbers indicate that 1080p is well within the RTX 4080's comfort zone, with even the most demanding preset staying above 160 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops are noticeable but the system remains highly playable. Low settings average 226 FPS, Medium settings hit 165 FPS with a 140 FPS minimum and 190 FPS maximum, High settings deliver 133 FPS, and Ultra settings maintain 104 FPS. The 1440p results show a more even distribution between settings, with roughly 20-30 FPS separating each preset tier.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 4080 begins to show its limits. Low settings average 119 FPS, Medium settings drop to 87 FPS with a 74 FPS minimum and 101 FPS maximum, High settings manage 71 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 55 FPS. The 4K data reveals a steeper drop-off between Medium and High (16 FPS) and between High and Ultra (16 FPS), suggesting that the GPU's compute resources are being fully taxed at this resolution.

The Medium settings at each resolution provide the most complete data with min and max FPS figures. At 1080p, the 199 FPS minimum and 270 FPS maximum show a 71 FPS variance, indicating some scene complexity changes. At 1440p, the 140 FPS minimum and 190 FPS maximum represent a 50 FPS variance. At 4K, the 74 FPS minimum and 101 FPS maximum show a tighter 27 FPS variance, suggesting that the GPU is more consistently saturated at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 437 out of 3713 tested combinations places this system in the 88th percentile of all pairings tested. This is a strong showing, particularly given the i5-9400's age — the CPU was released in 2018 and is now end-of-life. The RTX 4080, released in 2022 and also end-of-life, carries the performance load, as evidenced by its 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs.

In comparison to the CPU's nearest rivals, the i5-9400's average benchmark score of 2254 is nearly identical to the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (2259, -0.2% delta), Intel Core i7-10710U (2248, 0.3% delta), AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (2246, 0.4% delta), and Intel Core i3-10305 (2264, -0.4% delta). These scores indicate that the i5-9400 is a mid-pack CPU in synthetic tests, but the measured FPS in Road 96 shows it can still drive high frame rates when paired with a top-tier GPU.

The combination's 437th rank out of 3713 is impressive because it outperforms many systems with newer CPUs but weaker GPUs. The data shows that Road 96 is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, meaning the RTX 4080's raw power — with its 48.74 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 280.6 GPixel/s pixel rate — can compensate for the i5-9400's modest 47th percentile CPU ranking. This pairing demonstrates that a high-end GPU can boost an older mid-range CPU in GPU-intensive titles.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 provides 6 cores and 6 threads based on the Coffee Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 14 nm process. Its base clock of 2.90 GHz boosts to 4.10 GHz, with a 65 W TDP, making it a power-efficient but modest performer by modern standards. The CPU's 9 MB shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for gaming, but its lack of hyper-threading limits multi-threaded performance — the Cinebench R23 multicore score of 6629 reflects this.

In Road 96, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p Low, where the system achieves 263 FPS. This high frame rate approaches the limit of what the i5-9400 can feed to the RTX 4080, as its single-core performance — Cinebench R23 single-core score of 935 and Geekbench single-core score of 1389 — becomes the bottleneck. The CPU's 47th percentile ranking among all CPUs underscores this limitation, but the measured results show it can still handle the game's demands.

At higher resolutions, the GPU takes over as the limiting factor, and the i5-9400's performance is sufficient. The 4K Low average of 119 FPS and 4K Ultra average of 55 FPS are both constrained by the RTX 4080's pixel throughput, not the CPU. The CPU's 6 threads are enough to process Road 96's game logic and draw calls, even with the GPU pushing 87 FPS at 4K Medium. The data indicates that while the i5-9400 is not a performance leader, it avoids being a major bottleneck in this GPU-heavy adventure title, making the combo effective across all tested settings and resolutions.