Road 96

The Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 delivers exceptional performance in Road 96, placing this combination in the 94th percentile of all tested configurations. With a rank of 94 out of 3713 combos, this pairing is clearly in the upper echelon, though the game’s modest demands mean the GPU is often the limiting factor only at the highest settings and resolutions. The data shows a system that can easily handle 4K Ultra, but which truly shines when pushed to high-refresh-rate 1440p or 1080p gaming.

FAQ

Q: What is the combo's overall rank among tested systems in this game?

A: This CPU and GPU pairing ranks 94th out of 3,713 tested combos in Road to 96, placing it in the top 2.5% of all systems benchmarked.

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

A: Yes, but just barely. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the measured average frame rate is 62 FPS. For a smoother experience, dropping to High settings at the same resolution yields an average of 80 FPS.

Q: What is the best resolution for high refresh-rate monitors?

A: At 2560x1440 with High settings, the system achieves an average of 151 FPS, and with Medium settings, it hits 187 FPS. For 144Hz displays, 1440p High is the sweet spot, while 1080p Low provides an extreme 401 FPS average.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5090’s average benchmark score is 79,842, which is 0.3% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB and 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT. However, it trails the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X by 1.4%.

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

A: The i7-12700KF has an average benchmark score of 35,365, which is virtually identical to the Intel Core i7-13700T (0.1% lower) and the Intel Core 5 213PE (0.2% lower). It is 0.2% faster than the Intel Core i5-13600T and i7-12700K.

Q: Does this game benefit more from the CPU or the GPU?

A: The data shows the GPU is the dominant factor. At 1080p Low, the system hits 401 FPS, but at 4K Ultra it drops to 62 FPS. This indicates that as resolution increases, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, while the CPU is more than sufficient for this title.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a monster of a graphics card, and its specs are overkill for a game like Road to 96. With 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, the card offers a staggering 1.79 TB/s of memory bandwidth. The sheer amount of VRAM is irrelevant for this title, as the game’s visual assets are unlikely to stress even a fraction of this capacity, but the bandwidth ensures that the GPU can feed its 21,760 shading units without any memory throttling.

The GPU’s clock speeds are equally impressive, with a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz. This translates to a peak texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s. These figures explain why the card can push 4K resolutions without breaking a sweat. In the context of Road to 96, the GPU’s raw rasterization power is the primary driver of performance, especially at higher settings where the game’s stylized visuals demand more fill rate.

The data confirms this. At 4K, the gap between Low and Ultra settings is massive: 135 FPS versus 62 FPS, a difference of 73 FPS. This indicates that the game’s Ultra preset significantly increases the GPU load, likely through higher-resolution textures, more detailed geometry, and enhanced post-processing effects. The RTX 5090, with its 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, is able to handle these demands, but the frame rate drops to a level that is still playable but not ideal for a fast-paced action title.

Interestingly, the GPU’s synthetic benchmark score of 39,650 in Passmark G3D places it at the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. However, its nearest rivals in the benchmark database are not consumer gaming cards, but rather professional and workstation-class GPUs like the NVIDIA Tesla P100 and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X. This underscores the RTX 5090’s position as a top-tier compute card that also excels at gaming, but in Road to 96, the workload is not heavy enough to fully stress the card’s capabilities, especially at lower resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data provides clear guidance on which settings preset offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance. For a 4K display, High settings are the sweet spot. The average of 80 FPS is significantly higher than the 62 FPS at Ultra, and the visual difference between the two presets is likely minimal in a stylized game like Road to 96. Medium at 4K drops the frame rate to 99 FPS, but this comes at a cost of lower visual detail.

For 1440p displays, the choice is between High and Medium. High settings provide 151 FPS, which is excellent for a 144Hz monitor. If you have a 165Hz or 240Hz panel, Medium settings at 187 FPS will get you closer to the refresh rate, but the visual compromise is noticeable. Ultra at 1440p still delivers a very playable 118 FPS, making it a viable option if you prioritize image quality over raw frame rates.

At 1080p, the system is almost always CPU-bound. Low settings yield 401 FPS, which is far beyond any display’s refresh rate. High settings at 237 FPS are still more than enough for any monitor, and even Ultra at 185 FPS is playable. For most users, High settings at 1080p is the recommended preset, as it provides an excellent balance of visual quality and performance. Medium at 294 FPS is only useful for competitive players with a 360Hz monitor, but the visual downgrade is not worth it for a narrative-driven game like Road to 96.

How This Combo Ranks

This combo’s rank of 94th out of 3,713 confirms its overall performance. The i7-12700KF is a capable 12-core, 20-thread processor with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, and it does not hold back the RTX 5090 in this title. The data shows that the system can achieve an average of 401 FPS at 1080p Low, indicating that the CPU is not a limiting factor at lower resolutions.

The RTX 5090 itself is a top-tier card, and its average benchmark score of 79,842 places it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. However, its nearest rivals are not gaming-focused cards, which means that in gaming workloads, it is likely to be even more dominant. The combination of a high-end 12th-gen CPU and a Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU is a powerful one, but it is not the absolute top, as the 94th rank suggests there are a handful of combos that outperform it.

The fact that this combo ranks in the top 2.5% of all tested systems is a clear indication that it is a top-tier gaming rig. The i7-12700KF’s performance is well-documented, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28,838 and a single-core score of 4,071, which ensures that it is not a bottleneck in any game. This pairing is particularly strong in games like Road to 96 that are not heavily multi-threaded, as the CPU’s high single-thread performance is fully utilized.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF is a 12-core, 20-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture. Its base clock is 3.60 GHz, which can boost up to 5.00 GHz under load. The CPU has 25 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory. In Road to 96, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and handle the game’s simulation logic. The game is an adventure title, which is not typically as CPU-intensive as a real-time strategy game, but the high thread count and clock speeds are still beneficial.

The benchmark results show that the CPU is not a limiting factor in this game. At 1080p Low, the system hits 401 FPS, which is likely near the game’s engine limit. The CPU’s PassMark single-thread score is 3,984, and its 3DMark single-thread score is 1,043, indicating strong per-core performance. The 20 threads also ensure that the game can use multiple cores for loading assets and processing physics, but the game does not appear to scale with more than a few cores.

The CPU’s average benchmark score of 35,365 places it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-13700T, is a newer but lower-power chip, and the 12700KF is within 0.1% of its performance. This shows that the 12th-gen chip is still a very competitive processor. In Road to 96, the CPU’s performance is more than sufficient, as the game’s frame rate at 1080p is often limited by the GPU, even at Low settings, which reflects the CPU’s capability.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 401 FPS average. This is the highest frame rate in the entire benchmark suite, indicating the game is not CPU-bound at this resolution.
• Medium: 294 FPS average, with a minimum of 250 and a maximum of 338 FPS. The frame time is consistent, with a tight 88 FPS range.
• High: 237 FPS average. The drop from Medium to High is 57 FPS, showing a significant increase in GPU load.
• Ultra: 185 FPS average. The lowest at 1080p, but still far above any refresh rate you would use.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 255 FPS average. A 146 FPS drop from 1080p Low, showing the GPU is now becoming more of a factor.
• Medium: 187 FPS average, with a min of 159 and max of 215 FPS. The frame range is 56 FPS, showing some variation.
• High: 151 FPS average. The 36 FPS drop from Medium to High is noticeable, but still very playable.
• Ultra: 118 FPS average. The lowest at 1440p, but a solid frame rate for a 120Hz monitor.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 135 FPS average. The GPU is now the clear bottleneck, as the frame rate drops significantly from 1080p.
• Medium: 99 FPS average, with a min of 84 and max of 114 FPS. The frame time is still consistent, but the average is below the 100 FPS mark.
• High: 80 FPS average. The 19 FPS drop from Medium to High is the largest relative drop at 4K.
• Ultra: 62 FPS average. This is the only setting where the frame rate dips below 60 FPS, making it the only setting that may cause noticeable stuttering on a 60Hz display.

The data shows a clear trend: the higher the resolution, the more the GPU is stressed. At 1080p, the system can hit 400 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, it is limited to 62 FPS. The frame rate scaling is not linear, as the transition from Medium to High at 4K causes a 19 FPS drop, while the transition from High to Ultra causes an 18 FPS drop. This indicates that the Ultra preset at 4K is the most demanding setting in the game, and it is the only one that pushes the RTX 5090 to its limits.