Road 96

Road 96, an adventure title from 2021, presents an interesting benchmark scenario for the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 combination. The data shows a system that is capable of delivering high frame rates at mainstream resolutions but begins to show its limitations as the rendering load increases. The measured FPS across the three resolutions and four quality presets reveals a clear performance hierarchy, with the GPU’s role becoming more pronounced at higher settings and resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is significant and clearly indicates a GPU-bound scenario at the higher resolutions. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 126.5 FPS at 1920x1080 to 80.6 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 45.9 FPS. Moving to 3840x2160, the average drops further to 42.8 FPS, representing a 66.2% decrease from the 1080p figure. This pattern is consistent across all quality presets, demonstrating that the rendering resolution is the dominant factor in performance.

The scaling behavior reveals the limiting component. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 210.7 FPS, a figure that suggests the CPU is reaching its limit in frame generation. However, as resolution increases to 4K, the FPS at Low settings drops to 71.8, a 66% reduction. This dramatic fall, even at low graphical fidelity, points to the GPU being the primary bottleneck at 4K. The gap between Low and Ultra settings also widens with resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low (210.7 FPS) and Ultra (96.8 FPS) is 113.9 FPS. At 4K, the difference between Low (71.8 FPS) and Ultra (30.5 FPS) narrows to 41.3 FPS, indicating that the GPU's raw compute and memory bandwidth are being saturated at 4K regardless of the quality preset.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Road 96, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 holds the 830th position out of 1684 combos. This places it in the middle of the pack, indicating that while it is not a top-tier configuration for this title, it is also far from being an outlier on the low end. The combo's rank is a function of both components, and the data suggests that the CPU’s performance profile is a contributing factor to this mid-pack standing.

The CPU’s average benchmark score is 2305, which places it at the 50th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i3-10305 and Intel Core i3-1125G4, achieve average scores of 2300 and 2299, respectively, with deltaPct values of 0.2%. This indicates that the i5-9400 is statistically tied with these newer, lower-tier processors in synthetic workloads. This mid-pack CPU performance likely prevents the combo from ranking higher, as the RTX 5060, which sits at the 73rd percentile for GPUs, has the potential to push higher frame rates if paired with a more capable processor.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is a significant contributor to this combo's performance, especially at 1080p and 1440p. Its 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus provides a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The benchmark results show that this bandwidth is sufficient to feed the GPU’s 3840 shading units at lower resolutions. The card's boost clock of 2497 MHz, based on its 2280 MHz base clock, allows it to maintain high throughput in Road 96’s stylized environments.

The GPU’s performance is most evident when looking at the 1440p High result of 80.6 FPS, which is a playable and smooth experience for an adventure game. The data suggests that the RTX 5060 is the deciding factor in scaling from 1080p to 1440p, as the frame rate remains high. However, the 4K Ultra result of 30.5 FPS reveals the GPU's capacity limit. The 8 GB VRAM buffer, while adequate for 1080p and 1440p, may be a limiting factor at 4K Ultra, where texture and geometry data can exceed the available memory, causing the performance to drop below the 60 FPS threshold. The 4K Low result of 71.8 FPS indicates that the GPU still has raw power, but its memory subsystem and bus width are constraints at the highest resolution. The RTX 5060's nearest rivals, such as the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT with a 0.0% deltaPct, show that it is competitively positioned in terms of raw compute, but the game's demands at 4K Ultra can still overwhelm it.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate for this combo at 1080p High settings?

A: The measured average FPS for the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 at 1920x1080 with High settings is 126.5 FPS.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate drops to 30.5 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold typically desired for smooth gameplay.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck at 4K resolution?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck. At 4K Low settings, the average FPS is 71.8, which is a 66% drop from the 210.7 FPS seen at 1080p Low, showing that the rendering resolution is heavily impacting performance regardless of the low graphical load.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations in Road 96?

A: This specific combo is ranked 830th out of 1684 tested combinations for the game, placing it in the middle of the performance spectrum.

Q: What is the GPU's average benchmark score and percentile ranking?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 has an average benchmark score of 30109, which places it in the 73rd percentile of all GPUs.

Q: What are the CPU's core and thread counts?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 has 6 cores and 6 threads, with a boost clock of 4.10 GHz.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400's role in this combo is to provide a baseline level of frame generation that, while not the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, still shapes the overall experience. With 6 cores and 6 threads, it lacks the multi-threading capabilities of more modern processors. Its base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost clock of 4.10 GHz are modest by current standards. The CPU's performance is reflected in its Cinebench R23 scores, where it achieves 7969 points in the multi-core test and 1125 points in the single-core test.

These numbers suggest that the CPU can keep up with the GPU at 1080p, as evidenced by the 210.7 FPS at Low settings. This high frame rate indicates that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with enough data to maintain a high output. However, at 4K, the CPU’s limitations are less exposed because the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The data shows that the CPU is not the primary constraint in this title at 4K, but its mid-pack ranking (50th percentile) and its close benchmark scores to rivals like the Intel Core i3-10305 suggest it is not providing a significant advantage either. The 6-thread configuration might cause occasional frame hitches in scenes with heavy physics or AI, but the benchmark averages do not show this to be a major issue for Road 96. The CPU’s performance is sufficient to support the GPU's output at 1080p and 1440p, but it does not boost the combo's ranking beyond the mid-pack position it holds.