Road 96

Road 96 is a narrative-driven adventure title where performance demands are modest by modern standards, but the Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination still delivers a revealing dataset. The measured results show this pairing at the absolute top of the database, ranking first out of 2,903 tested combos for this game. Across three resolutions and four quality presets, the frame rates range from a low of 67 FPS at 4K Ultra to a high of 428 FPS at 1080p Low, indicating that the hardware is never the limiting factor in any scenario tested. The data confirms that this is a system built for extreme headroom, even in a game that does not demand it.

FAQ

Q: What is the overall rank of this CPU and GPU combo in Road 96?

A: The combo ranks first out of 2,903 tested combinations for this game, placing it at the very top of the database’s performance hierarchy for Road 96.

Q: How does the Intel Core i7-13700K compare to its nearest rivals in general benchmarks?

A: The CPU’s average benchmark score is 46,881, which is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 (46,971, a -0.2% delta) and the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 (47,022, a -0.3% delta). It sits slightly ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX (46,654, +0.5%) and the Intel Xeon w3-2535 (46,653, +0.5%).

Q: What is the maximum average FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The highest average frame rate is 428 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. The next highest is 313 FPS at 1080p Medium, followed by 272 FPS at 1440p Low.

Q: Are there any settings where the frame rate drops below 100 FPS at 4K?

A: Yes, at 3840x2160 resolution, the Ultra preset yields an average of 67 FPS, and the High preset yields 85 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K averages 106 FPS, while Low averages 144 FPS.

Q: Does the GPU’s benchmark performance align with its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77,712. It outperforms the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76,904, +1.1%) but trails the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940, -1.6%), the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79,396, -2.1%), and the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79,605, -2.4%).

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded across all tested settings?

A: The lowest average is 67 FPS, observed at 3840x2160 resolution with the Ultra preset. This is the only measured configuration that falls below the 85 FPS mark.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a 16-core, 24-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with a TDP of 125 watts. The CPU’s cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 30 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory across a dual-channel bus, and it integrates UHD Graphics 770, though the discrete GPU handles all rendering in these tests.

For Road 96, the CPU’s role is primarily about maintaining high frame rates without bottlenecking the GPU. The game is not heavily threaded, but the i7-13700K’s single-thread performance is strong, as evidenced by a 3DMark single-thread score of 1,136 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2,529. Multi-threaded scores are also robust, with Cinebench R23 multi-core at 30,745 and PassMark multi-thread at 45,887. The processor’s 89th percentile rank versus all CPUs indicates it sits well above most alternatives, though its average benchmark score of 46,881 places it in a tight cluster with rivals like the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 (46,971) and the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 (47,022), where deltas are within half a percent.

In practical terms, the CPU’s 16 cores and 24 threads are far more than Road 96 requires, but the high boost clock of 5.40 GHz ensures that even lightly threaded scenes can reach high frame rates. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system hit 428 FPS, which suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU well beyond typical display refresh rates. The CPU’s PassMark single-thread score of 4,333 and 3DMark 2-thread score of 2,262 further confirm that the processor excels in the low-thread scenarios that adventure games often present. As resolution increases, the GPU becomes the primary driver of performance, but the i7-13700K’s headroom ensures it never becomes a limiting factor in the measured results.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D achieves a rank of 1 out of 2,903 tested combos for Road 96. This is the top position in the database, meaning no other CPU-GPU pairing in the dataset delivered higher measured performance in this game. The rank is based on the measured FPS values across all resolutions and settings, and the data is marked as measured rather than estimated.

This top ranking is notable because the individual components do not have the absolute highest benchmark scores in their respective categories. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 46,881 places it in a near-tie with several rivals, with deltas of -0.2% to +0.5% against the AMD Ryzen 9 5900, AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375, AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX, and Intel Xeon w3-2535. Similarly, the GPU’s average score of 77,712 trails the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940) by 1.6% and the NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants by over 2%. Yet, when paired together, the combination outperforms all other 2,902 tested combos in Road 96 specifically.

The explanation lies in the game’s modest hardware demands. Road 96 is an adventure title with relatively simple rendering requirements, so even a mid-range GPU can produce high frame rates. The RTX 5090 D’s raw power, combined with the i7-13700K’s strong single-thread performance, creates a system that maximizes the frame rate ceiling in this title. The rank of 1 suggests that the data includes no other combination that matches or exceeds the measured FPS values, which range from 67 FPS at 4K Ultra to 428 FPS at 1080p Low. The combo’s dominance is most evident at lower resolutions, where the CPU and GPU both have ample headroom to push frame rates beyond 200 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions (3840x2160, 2560x1440, and 1920x1080) and four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra). At 4K, the average frame rates are 144 FPS on Low, 106 FPS on Medium, 85 FPS on High, and 67 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset at 4K includes a minimum of 90 FPS and a maximum of 121 FPS, providing a clear range of variability. The other 4K presets do not have reported min or max values, so only averages are available.

At 1440p, performance scales significantly. Low settings produce an average of 272 FPS, Medium yields 200 FPS (with a min of 170 and max of 229), High delivers 161 FPS, and Ultra drops to 126 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 146 FPS, highlighting the impact of quality settings on frame rate. At 1080p, the results are even higher: Low averages 428 FPS, Medium averages 313 FPS (min 266, max 360), High averages 253 FPS, and Ultra averages 198 FPS.

The data shows a consistent pattern: lowering resolution and settings increases average FPS, with the largest jumps occurring when moving from High to Medium or Low. For example, at 1080p, going from Ultra (198 FPS) to High (253 FPS) adds 55 FPS, while going from High to Medium (313 FPS) adds 60 FPS, and Medium to Low (428 FPS) adds 115 FPS. Similar trends appear at 1440p and 4K, though the absolute gains shrink at higher resolutions due to GPU load. The Medium presets across all resolutions include min and max values, showing a spread of roughly 31 FPS at 4K, 59 FPS at 1440p, and 94 FPS at 1080p, which indicates moderate frame pacing variability even at high averages.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is based on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, built on TSMC’s 5 nm process with 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die. It features 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output units, along with 170 ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores. The GPU has a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz, with memory clocked at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). The 32 GB of GDDR7 memory runs across a 512-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s.

In Road 96, the GPU’s role is dominant at higher resolutions and settings. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 67, suggesting that the game’s Ultra preset introduces significant rendering load, likely through effects like shadows, reflections, or post-processing. The GPU’s pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s are more than sufficient for most scenes, but the 4K Ultra result indicates that the game can still stress even a top-tier card. The FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS is substantial, yet the measured data shows that Road 96 does not scale linearly with GPU compute, as evidenced by the jump from 67 FPS at 4K Ultra to 85 FPS at 4K High.

The GPU’s benchmark scores show it ranks in the 92nd percentile versus all GPUs, with an average score of 77,712. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76,904), which it beats by 1.1%, and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940), which beats it by 1.6%. The NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants also outperform it by 2.1% to 2.4% in aggregate benchmarks, but those are compute-oriented cards not designed for gaming. In this game, the RTX 5090 D’s 32 GB VRAM is vastly underutilized, as Road 96 does not require high memory capacities. The GPU’s memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s is also far beyond what this title needs, meaning the card operates well below its limits at lower resolutions.

At 1080p Low, the system reaches 428 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s frame delivery limit rather than the GPU’s. The GPU’s role becomes more prominent at 4K, where the average FPS drops below 100 for High and Ultra presets. The data indicates that the RTX 5090 D is capable of handling Road 96 at maximum settings at 4K, but at lower settings, the frame rate is constrained by other factors, likely the CPU or game engine's rendering thread. The GPU’s DirectX 12 score of 219 in PassMark is relatively low compared to its other scores, but this does not appear to impact gaming performance in this title.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS values, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1920x1080, all presets deliver above 198 FPS, so the choice comes down to visual quality versus raw speed. Ultra settings at 1080p average 198 FPS, which is still exceptionally high and suitable for any high-refresh-rate display. For users prioritizing maximum smoothness, Low settings at 1080p produce 428 FPS, but the visual trade-off is substantial. The Medium preset at 1080p offers a balanced option at 313 FPS, with a minimum of 266 FPS ensuring consistent performance.

At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset averages 126 FPS, which is playable on high-refresh monitors, but the High preset at 161 FPS provides a better balance between visual fidelity and speed. Medium at 1440p reaches 200 FPS, which is ideal for 144Hz or 165Hz displays, while Low at 272 FPS offers headroom for 240Hz panels. The data suggests that for 1440p, High or Medium settings are the sweet spot, as they maintain frame rates well above 144 FPS without the performance drop seen at Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the choices are more constrained. Ultra averages 67 FPS, which may be acceptable for 60Hz displays but not for higher refresh rates. High raises the average to 85 FPS, providing a smoother experience on 60Hz screens and borderline playability on 120Hz panels. Medium at 4K averages 106 FPS, which is comfortable for 100Hz+ displays, and Low reaches 144 FPS, suitable for 144Hz monitors. For 4K, the Medium preset is recommended for most users, as it offers a 26% improvement over High (106 vs 85 FPS) while likely retaining acceptable visual quality. Low at 4K provides the highest frame rate (144 FPS) but sacrifices visual fidelity that may be noticeable on large screens.

The measured data indicates that the Medium preset is the most versatile across all resolutions, with averages of 106 FPS at 4K, 200 FPS at 1440p, and 313 FPS at 1080p. It also has the only reported min/max values, showing a minimum of 90 FPS at 4K, 170 FPS at 1440p, and 266 FPS at 1080p, which means it never drops below a playable threshold. For users with high-refresh displays, the High preset at 1440p (161 FPS) or 1080p (253 FPS) offers a strong combination of visuals and speed. The Ultra preset is only recommended for 1080p, where it still averages 198 FPS, or for users who prioritize image quality over frame rate at 1440p (126 FPS) or 4K (67 FPS). Ultimately, the RTX 5090 D has enough power to run Road 96 at any setting, but the Medium preset provides the best overall experience based on the measured frame rates.