Road 96

Road 96, an adventure title from 2021, responds to hardware in a way that clearly separates CPU-bound and GPU-bound scenarios. The measured frame rates for the Intel Core i7-13700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 show a system that is overwhelmingly capable, but the scaling patterns reveal where the performance ceiling actually sits. This analysis walks through the resolution scaling, the specific role of the GPU's memory and clocks, and the CPU's contribution, using only the measured data.

Resolution Scaling

The most direct way to see the balance of this combo is to track average FPS across the three tested resolutions at the same settings. At High settings, the system produces 209 FPS at 1920x1080, 133 FPS at 2560x1440, and 71 FPS at 3840x2160. Moving from 1080p to 1440p reduces performance by 76 FPS, a 36% drop. Moving from 1440p to 4K reduces performance by 62 FPS, a 47% drop. From 1080p to 4K, the frame rate falls from 209 FPS to 71 FPS, a loss of 138 FPS or roughly 66%.

This pattern shows a heavily GPU-limited scenario at higher resolutions. The 1080p High result of 209 FPS is high enough that the CPU, with its 16 cores and 24 threads, is likely providing enough throughput to keep the GPU fed, but the steep decline at 4K indicates the RTX 4080 is doing the heavy lifting. The 3840x2160 Ultra setting drops to 55 FPS, which is the lowest measured value in the entire dataset. That is a 74% drop from the 1080p Ultra result of 164 FPS.

Looking at the Low preset tells a similar story. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 354 FPS, an enormous number that suggests the CPU is the limiting factor at that point, since the GPU has very little work to do. At 1440p Low, the result is 226 FPS, a 36% decline. At 4K Low, the result is 119 FPS, a 47% decline from 1440p. The relative drop between steps is nearly identical to the High preset, indicating that the scaling is consistent regardless of the graphics load.

The Medium preset offers the only measured minimum and maximum frame times in the dataset. At 4K Medium, the average is 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 and a maximum of 101. At 1440p Medium, the average is 165 FPS with a minimum of 140 and a maximum of 190. At 1080p Medium, the average is 260 FPS with a minimum of 221 and a maximum of 298. The spread between min and max is modest, roughly 31% of the average at 1080p, which indicates a stable experience with no severe frame time spikes.

The data shows that Road 96 is not a demanding title for this combination. The GPU becomes the clear limiting factor only when the resolution reaches 4K. At 1080p and even 1440p, the frame rates are high enough that the game is likely CPU-bound or engine-bound, not GPU-bound.

GPU Role

The RTX 4080 is the dominant component in these results, and its memory configuration and clock speeds explain why. The GPU features a 256-bit memory bus and a bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s. The 16 GB of GDDR6X memory is more than enough for any of the measured settings. The game's asset load at 4K Ultra, which produces 55 FPS, is not a capacity issue; it is a compute and memory bandwidth issue.

The GPU's base clock is 2205 MHz and the boost clock is 2505 MHz. The memory clock runs at 1400 MHz, or 22.4 Gbps effective. These clocks, combined with the 9728 shading units, allow the RTX 4080 to deliver 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. That raw compute is what allows the 4K High result of 71 FPS to be playable, but it doesn't overcome the sheer load of 4K Ultra.

The RTX 4080 has 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores, but Road 96 is not a ray-tracing heavy title. The game's result at 4K Ultra of 55 FPS is the worst case, and it indicates that even this powerful GPU is limit by the game's engine. The GPU's passmark G3D score of 34457 and its 86th percentile rank among all GPUs place it well above average. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck. The evidence: at 1080p Low, the frame rate reaches 354 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, it falls to 55 FPS. That's a 6.4x reduction in frame rate, which is far too large to be caused by anything other than GPU load.

The GPU's nearest rivals in the overall benchmark data include the RTX 4080 SUPER, which is 0.1% faster in average score, and the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X, which is 1.1% slower. These small deltas confirm that the RTX 4080 is a top-tier card. For Road 96, the 4K results show that even a 1% difference in raw compute translates to only a few FPS. The 4K High result of 71 FPS and 4K Medium of 87 FPS show the game is playable at high settings, but the Ultra preset is a step too far for strictly smooth 60 FPS.

FAQ

Q: Is the RTX 4080 powerful enough for 4K gaming in Road 96?

A: Yes, at 4K High the average FPS is 71, and at 4K Medium it is 87 FPS. The only setting that drops below 60 FPS is 4K Ultra, which averages 55 FPS.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 4080 compared to its nearest rival?

A: The closest competitor is the RTX 4080 SUPER, which has an average benchmark score 0.1% higher. The RTX 4080 is 1.1% slower than the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X and 2.6% slower than the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB.

Q: Does the CPU limit performance at any resolution?

A: At 1080p Low, the frame rate of 354 FPS is so high that the CPU is likely the limiting factor. At 4K, the GPU is the clear bottleneck, as the frame rate drops to 71 FPS at High settings.

Q: What is the difference between the High and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, High averages 133 FPS and Ultra averages 104 FPS. The drop from High to Ultra is 29 FPS, a 22% reduction in performance.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 4K with High settings?

A: The measured average is 71 FPS, with the 4K Medium setting providing 87 FPS. The 4K Ultra setting averages 55 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its direct successor in performance?

A: The data shows the RTX 4080 has a Passmark G3D score of 34457. The RTX 4080 SUPER scores 0.1% higher in the average benchmark, meaning the performance difference is negligible.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Core i7-13700K and RTX 4080 is ranked 257th out of 3713 tested combos in Road 96. This places it in the top 7% of all tested combinations. The percentile of this combo is not explicitly listed, but the rank clearly indicates a very high position. This is a system that will crush the game at any resolution.

The CPU's percentile versus all CPUs is 89, and the GPU's percentile versus all GPUs is 86. This means both components are near the top of their respective charts. The combo's rank of 257 out of 3713 puts it ahead of the vast majority of systems.

The performance gap to the next combos is not broken down in this data, but the deltaPct values for the CPU's nearest rivals are very small. The CPU is 0.2% slower than the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 and 0.5% faster than the AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX. For the GPU, the RTX 4080 is 0.1% slower than the RTX 4080 SUPER and 2.7% slower than the AMD Radeon 8060S. These differences are tiny, meaning the combo's rank is not effected by a weak component. It's a balanced, top-tier pairing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following data is the complete measured FPS table for this combo:

At 1920x1080:

• Low: average 354 FPS
• Medium: average 260 FPS, minimum 221, maximum 298
• High: average 209 FPS
• Ultra: average 164 FPS

At 2560x1440:

• Low: average 226 FPS
• Medium: average 165 FPS, minimum 140, maximum 190
• High: average 133 FPS
• Ultra: average 104 FPS

At 3840x2160:

• Low: average 119 FPS
• Medium: average 87 FPS, minimum 74, maximum 101
• High: average 71 FPS
• Ultra: average 55 FPS

The scaling from 1080p to 4K is significant. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 354 to 119, a 66% reduction. At Medium, it goes from 260 to 87, a 67% reduction. At High, it goes from 209 to 71, a 66% reduction. At Ultra, it goes from 164 to 55, a 66% reduction. The consistency of the relative drop across settings indicates the scaling is resolution-dominated, not setting-dominated.

The minimum FPS data points are sparse, but the Medium preset shows the frame pacing. At 1080p Medium, the range is 221 to 298 FPS, which is a 77 FPS spread. At 1440p Medium, the range is 140 to 190, a 50 FPS spread. At 4K Medium, the range is 74 to 101, a 27 FPS spread. This shows that as resolution increases, the absolute variance shrinks, but the relative variance remains similar.

Settings Recommendations

The best experience depends on the target resolution and the desire for maximum smoothness. At 1080p, every setting is playable. Even Ultra produces 164 FPS, which is far beyond any display's refresh rate. The High preset at 209 FPS is an excellent choice for 120Hz or 144Hz displays. The Medium preset at 260 FPS is ideal for 240Hz panels. The Low preset at 354 FPS is unnecessary but available for competitive play.

At 1440p, the High preset at 133 FPS is the sweet spot for a 144Hz monitor. Ultra at 104 FPS is still above 60 FPS and is visually richer, but the 22% reduction from High is noticeable. The Medium preset at 165 FPS is the best for 165Hz monitors. The Low preset at 226 FPS is only useful for high refresh rate e-sports style play.

At 4K, the choices are more constrained. The High preset at 71 FPS is the best for a 60Hz panel, as it stays above 60 FPS. The Medium preset at 87 FPS provides even more headroom, but the Ultra preset at 55 FPS drops below 60 and is not recommended for smooth play on a 60Hz display. The Low preset at 119 FPS is a viable option if the user wants to hit high refresh rates even at 4K.

For a 60Hz display at 4K, the High preset is the best balance of visual quality and frame rate. For 1440p, the High preset is the recommended choice, as it exceeds the refresh rate of most 144Hz panels. For 1080p, the High or Medium presets are excellent, with the Medium setting providing a higher frame rate without a large visual penalty.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a 16-core, 24-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. The 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample headroom for the game's logic. The CPU's 3DMark scores show strong multi-threaded performance: 10717 in the 16-thread test and 12412 in the max-thread test. The single-thread score is 1136 in 3DMark.

In Road 96, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p. The frame rates above 200 FPS are only possible if the CPU can feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. The 1080p Low result of 354 FPS is a clear indicator that the CPU is not a bottleneck at that setting. The fact that the 4K Low result is 119 FPS, while 1080p Low is 354 FPS, means the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K, not the CPU.

The CPU's benchmark performance shows it is near the top of the chart. It is 0.2% slower than the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 in average score, and 0.5% faster than the AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX. The CPU's percentile rank of 89 means it outperforms 89% of all CPUs in the database. This is a high-end part.

The game's engine appears to scale well with the CPU's 16 cores. The 3dmark 16-thread score of 10717 is close to the max-thread score of 12412, meaning the game is likely using more than a few cores. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 30745 further confirms the processor's high multi-threaded capability. However, the game's frame rates at high resolutions are still GPU-limited, indicating that the CPU's headroom is not fully utilized in Road 3's engine.

The 13700K also has an integrated UHD Graphics 770, but this is not used in the measured results. The game's performance is entirely driven by the RTX 4080. The CPU's memory support includes DDR4 and DDR5, but the memory bandwidth is not a factor in this game's results, as the GPU is the bottleneck at higher resolutions.

The CPU's boost clock of 5.40 GHz is high, and the single-thread performance is strong, as shown by the 3dmark_single_thread score of 1136. This helps in the game's logic and draw call handling, which is often single-threaded. The, the CPU is a capable partner for the GPU, but the game's performance is ultimately decided by the GPU's rasterization power.