Road 96

# Road 96 — Intel Core i7-12700K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER

Benchmark results for Road 96 with this CPU/GPU pairing reveal a title that scales dramatically across resolutions and presets, with the RTX 4070 SUPER's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and the i7-12700K's 12-core / 20-thread configuration combining to deliver anything from a silky 4K experience to triple-digit 1080p frame rates. The data set covers four quality presets at three resolutions, and the patterns expose where the bottleneck truly resides.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep but uneven across presets, telling a clear story about GPU-bound behavior at higher pixel counts. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 305.8 FPS at 1920x1080 to 195.3 FPS at 2560x1440 — a 36% reduction — and then to 103.8 FPS at 3840x2160, another 47% drop. This scaling suggests that even at Low, the RTX 4070 SUPER is doing heavy lifting as resolution climbs, but the sheer headroom at 1080p indicates the CPU is not the primary constraint there.

At Medium settings, the progression is 225.4 FPS (1080p) → 142.5 FPS (1440p) → 77.5 FPS (4K). The percentage losses are 37% and 46%, nearly identical to Low, implying that the GPU's workload scales proportionally with pixel count regardless of the preset's geometry and texture demands. High settings show 180.0 FPS at 1080p, 117.4 FPS at 1440p (a 35% drop), and 60.2 FPS at 4K (a 49% drop). Ultra is the most punishing: 144.4 FPS at 1080p, 89.8 FPS at 1440p (38% lower), and 50.7 FPS at 4K (44% lower).

The consistency of these 35-49% per-step reductions points to a GPU-bound scenario at 4K across all presets. If the CPU were limiting, we would expect the 1080p to 1440p gap to be much smaller, since the frame rate would plateau near the CPU's maximum throughput. Instead, the data shows the i7-12700K has ample headroom: at 1080p Low, it pushes 305.8 FPS, far beyond what most displays can show, meaning the GPU is still the limiting factor even at that resolution. The RTX 4070 SUPER, with its 2475 MHz boost clock and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth, appears to be the component that governs frame rates as pixel count rises.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i7-12700K brings 12 cores and 20 threads to Road 96, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. Its Alder Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process, includes a 25 MB shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory. In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU posts a 3dmark max threads score of 9979 and a single-thread score of 1043, while Cinebench R23 results show 29241 multicore and 4128 singlecore.

Road 96, as an adventure title, does not appear to demand extreme multi-threading. The measured FPS at 1080p Low — 305.8 FPS — is far above the 144 Hz threshold most gamers target, and even at 1080p Ultra, the frame rate holds at 144.4 FPS. These numbers suggest the game engine scales well with the i7-12700K's single-thread performance, which ranks in the 89th percentile among all CPUs. The processor's boost clock of 5.00 GHz likely plays a larger role than its core count here, since the benchmark shows no signs of a CPU bottleneck even at the highest frame rates.

Comparatively, the i7-12700K sits between the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 (0.3% lower average score) and the Intel Core i7-13700T (0.6% higher) in overall CPU benchmarks. This mid-pack positioning in raw compute does not translate to any measurable impact on Road 96's frame rates, as the game's demands are easily met. The 20 threads are effectively underutilized — this is not a title that will stress the CPU's multi-core muscle, but the strong single-core performance ensures the GPU is never left waiting for draw calls.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Interpreting the measured rows, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 offers the most balanced experience: 142.5 FPS average, which is comfortably above 120 FPS for high-refresh displays while still delivering better visual fidelity than Low. At 4K, Medium drops to 77.5 FPS, which remains playable, but High at 60.2 FPS is exactly at the 60 FPS threshold — a risky margin for any scene complexity spikes.

For 1080p users, Ultra at 144.4 FPS is the clear winner. It provides the highest visual quality in the data set while maintaining a frame rate that matches or exceeds most 144 Hz monitors. The jump from High (180.0 FPS) to Ultra (144.4 FPS) costs 36 FPS but likely adds meaningful shadow, texture, and post-processing effects. At 1440p, Medium (142.5 FPS) beats High (117.4 FPS) and Ultra (89.8 FPS) on frame rate, and the 26 FPS gap between Medium and High suggests Medium is the sweet spot for 1440p gaming.

At 4K, the data presents a compromise: Low (103.8 FPS) is the only preset above 100 FPS, but Medium (77.5 FPS) offers a substantial quality upgrade for a 26 FPS penalty. High (60.2 FPS) is marginal, and Ultra (50.7 FPS) falls below the 60 FPS line, making it the least advisable choice for 4K unless one prioritizes visuals over smoothness. The recommendation is Medium for 4K, Medium for 1440p, and Ultra for 1080p, based purely on the measured averages.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This specific combination of Intel Core i7-12700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER ranks 325th out of 1684 tested combos in Road 96, placing it in the top 19% of all configurations. That ranking is respectable but not elite, indicating that many other CPU/GPU pairings deliver higher average frame rates in this title.

The RTX 4070 SUPER itself sits near the top of the GPU hierarchy, with an average benchmark score of 42576 and a percentile rank of 84 among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals — the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (0.2% higher score) and AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE (0.3% higher) — are within a hair's breadth of its performance, yet the combo rank of 325 suggests that in Road 96, other factors like CPU pairing and memory configuration can shift results more than the GPU alone.

The i7-12700K's 89th percentile CPU rank, combined with the GPU's 84th percentile, should theoretically place this combo higher than 325th. This gap implies that Road 96's engine may favor GPUs with different characteristics — perhaps higher memory bandwidth or different driver optimizations — or that the 12 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient but not exceptional for this title at 4K Ultra. The data shows the combo is capable of 4K Ultra at 50.7 FPS, which is playable, but it is clearly not a top-tier pairing for this specific game.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Road 96 with this hardware if I want maximum FPS?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 305.8 FPS, which is the highest measured average in the data set. Even at 1080p Ultra, it maintains 144.4 FPS.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming at 60 FPS?

A: At 4K with High settings, the average FPS is 60.2, just above the 60 FPS line. Medium settings at 4K deliver 77.5 FPS, providing a safer margin.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The i7-12700K averages 35684 in benchmark scores, which is 0.3% below the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 and 0.6% above the Intel Core i7-13700T.

Q: What is the RTX 4070 SUPER's standing among GPUs?

A: It ranks in the 84th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 42576. Its closest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A6000, is only 0.2% higher.

Q: Does the 12 GB VRAM limit performance at 4K Ultra?

A: At 4K Ultra, the combo averages 50.7 FPS, which is below 60 FPS. However, the GPU's 504.2 GB/s bandwidth and 192-bit bus are likely the limiting factors, not the 12 GB capacity.

Q: Is the i7-12700K's 12-core / 20-thread configuration necessary for Road 96?

A: The benchmark data shows no CPU bottleneck even at 305.8 FPS, suggesting that the game utilizes only a fraction of the CPU's multi-threading capability. Single-thread performance (3dmark single score of 1043) matters more.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

1920x1080: Low settings average 305.8 FPS, Medium 225.4 FPS, High 180.0 FPS, and Ultra 144.4 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 161.4 FPS, showing the full impact of preset scaling at this resolution.

2560x1440: Low settings average 195.3 FPS, Medium 142.5 FPS, High 117.4 FPS, and Ultra 89.8 FPS. The step from Medium to High costs 25.1 FPS, while High to Ultra costs 27.6 FPS.

3840x2160: Low settings average 103.8 FPS, Medium 77.5 FPS, High 60.2 FPS, and Ultra 50.7 FPS. This is the only resolution where no preset exceeds 120 FPS, and where Ultra falls below 60 FPS.

The data shows a consistent pattern: each preset step at a given resolution costs roughly 20-25% performance, and each resolution step at a given preset costs roughly 35-47% performance. This consistency suggests the game's rendering pipeline scales predictably, with no anomalous spikes or bottlenecks across the tested configurations.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm TSMC process, is the primary driver of Road 96's frame rates. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory operates at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) across a 192-bit bus, yielding 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's 7168 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 80 ROPs work together to deliver the measured performance, with a boost clock of 2475 MHz.

In synthetic tests, the GPU scores 29995 in Passmark G3D and 17108 in Passmark GPU Compute, placing it in the 84th percentile. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A6000, scores 42653 (0.2% higher), while the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE scores 42723 (0.3% higher). These margins are negligible, yet the combo rank of 325 suggests Road 96's engine may not fully utilize the GPU's compute capabilities.

The 12 GB VRAM is adequate for all tested settings, as the frame rates at 4K Ultra (50.7 FPS) remain respectable despite the high resolution. The GPU's pixel rate of 198.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 554.4 GTexel/s are sufficient for this adventure title's rendering demands. The fact that 4K Low produces 103.8 FPS — more than double the 4K Ultra result — indicates the GPU's shading units and ROPs are the limiting factors at high quality presets, not memory bandwidth or capacity. The 220 W TDP and 550 W suggested PSU are consistent with the GPU's performance class, and the dual-slot design with a 16-pin connector is standard for this tier.