Road 96

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows for Road 96 with the Intel Core i7-14700F and AMD Radeon RX 580 show a clear hierarchy across the four available presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 90 FPS, which is the highest measured value in the entire dataset. Medium drops to 66 FPS average, High to 53 FPS, and Ultra to 42 FPS. The Low preset is the only setting at 1080p that clears the 60 FPS threshold by a wide margin, making it the most responsive option for general play. However, the Medium preset at 66 FPS still provides a smooth experience while offering better visual fidelity than Low, and the measured minimum of 56 FPS at Medium indicates that frame pacing stays within a playable range even during heavier scenes.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset produces an average of 58 FPS, which is marginally below the 60 FPS target but still close enough for acceptable gameplay in a narrative-driven adventure title. Medium at 1440p averages 42 FPS with a minimum of 36 FPS and maximum of 49 FPS, while High averages 34 FPS and Ultra averages 27 FPS. The 3840x2160 results are uniformly low: Low averages 30 FPS, Medium averages 22 FPS, High averages 18 FPS, and Ultra averages 14 FPS. None of the 4K presets reach a consistently playable frame rate.

The data indicates that the best overall experience per the measured rows is the Medium preset at 1920x1080. It provides 66 FPS average, which is 24 FPS below the Low preset but more than double the 30 FPS of 4K Lowcard. The Medium preset also has a recorded minimum of 56 FPS, meaning it rarely dips below the playable threshold. For users who prioritize maximum smoothness above all else, Low at 1080p at 90 FPS is the definitive choice, but the visual step up to Medium at a still-strong 66 FPS represents the most balanced configuration in the tested matrix. At higher resolutions, Low is the only preset that approaches usability, with 58 FPS at 1440p and 30 FPS at 4K, but neither reaches the smoothness of the 1080p Medium result.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is built on the Polaris 20 chip with a GCN 4.0 architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. The GPU contains 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die, with a transistor density of 24.6M per mm². Its memory subsystem consists of 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s. The memory clock is listed at 2000 MHz, which translates to 8 Gbps effective. The GPU's base clock is 1257 MHz with a boost clock of 1340 MHz, and it features 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 32 render output units. The pixel rate is 42.88 GPixel/s, the texture rate is 193.0 GTexel/s, and the FP32 performance is 6.175 TFLOPS, with FP16 at the same 6.175 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio).

The 8 GB VRAM allocation is ample for Road 96, an adventure title that does not demand large texture pools. The measured FPS data suggests that the RX 580's memory bandwidth is not the limiting factor at 1080p, where the GPU can push 53 FPS on High and 42 FPS on Ultra. However, the drop from 90 FPS at 1080p Low to 30 FPS at 4K Low indicates that the GPU's raw compute throughput becomes the bottleneck as resolution scales. The 6.175 TFLOPS FP32 figure places this GPU in a modest performance tier, and the benchmark results confirm this: the GPU's percentile vs. all GPUs is 53, meaning it sits near the median of the tested GPU pool. Its average benchmark score is 12928, with nearest rivals including the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (score 12940, deltaPct -0.1) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (score 12986, deltaPct -0.4).

The RX 580's boost clock of 1340 MHz is modest by modern standards, and the measured FPS scaling from 1080p to 1440p to 4K shows a consistent performance degradation that tracks with the GPU's limited shading power. At 1080p Medium, the RX 580 averages 66 FPS; at 1440p Medium, it drops to 42 FPS; at 4K Medium, it falls to 22 FPS. This pattern is characteristic of a GPU where the pixel throughput and shader compute are insufficient for higher resolutions. The 32 ROPs and 42.88 GPixel/s pixel rate are particularly limiting at 4K, where the fill rate requirement scales quadratically with resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F is a 20-core, 28-thread processor from the Core 14th Gen series, based on the Raptor Lake architecture and codenamed Raptor Lake-R. It has a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, and it has a 33 MB shared L3 cache, 2 MB L2 cache per core, and 80 KB L1 cache per core. It is built on a 10 nm process at Intel, with a die size of 257 mm², and it has 16 PCIe Gen 5 lanes (CPU only). The processor's launch MSRP is $359.

In terms of raw compute, the i7-14700F is a high-performing CPU. Its benchmarks show a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35122 and a single-core score of 4958, a Geekbench multi-core score of 19620 and single-core score of 2429, and a Passmark multithread score of 41317 with a single-thread score of 4257. The CPU's percentile vs. all CPUs is 91, placing it in the top decile of processors. Its average benchmark score is 53620, with nearest rivals including the Intel Xeon 6505P (score 53701, deltaPct -0.2) and the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X (score 53288, deltaPct 0.6).

In Road 96, the CPU's role is largely secondary given the game's nature as a narrative adventure with relatively modest system requirements. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the RX 580 can deliver 90 FPS, which is a frame rate that a 20-core, 28-thread CPU with a 5.40 GHz boost clock can easily feed without becoming a bottleneck. The fact that the FPS drops consistently as resolution increases — from 90 at 1080p Low to 58 at 1440p Low to 30 at 4K Low — strongly indicates that the GPU is the limiting component in this combo, not the CPU. The i7-14700F's high multi-threaded scores (Cinebench R20 multi-core of 14751, Passmark data compression of 505885) suggest it has ample headroom for any game logic or physics calculations Road 96 might require, but the game's measured performance is governed by the GPU's capabilities.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and 20 cores are overkill for this particular workload, but they do ensure that the system never becomes CPU-bound at any of the tested settings. The data shows no scenario where the CPU would cause a frame rate ceiling below what the GPU can produce — the 42 FPS at 1080p Ultra is clearly a GPU limitation given the RX 580's compute metrics, not a CPU constraint.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-14700F and AMD Radeon RX 580 ranks 3389 out of 3713 tested combos in Road 96. This places the combo in the bottom 9% of all tested configurations, which is a stark contrast to the individual component rankings. The CPU alone sits at the 91st percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU sits at the 53rd percentile among all GPUs. The low combo rank is entirely attributable to the GPU's modest performance in this title — the RX 580's 53rd percentile standing is dragged down further by the game's specific demands, which appear to favor GPUs with higher fill rates and more shading units.

The combo rank of 3389 out of 3713 means that the vast majority of tested CPU-GPU pairs outperform this configuration in Road 96. This is expected given that the GPU is an end-of-life product from 2017, while the CPU is a 2024 release. The pairing creates a significant bottleneck where the GPU cannot leverage the CPU's high multi-threaded performance — the i7-14700F's R23 multi-core score of 35122 and Passmark multithread score of 41317 are irrelevant when the GPU caps frame rates at 90 FPS even at 1080p Low. In fact, the data shows that the CPU's performance headroom is so large that even a much weaker CPU would likely produce identical measured FPS in this game, as the RX 580 is the limiting factor across all resolutions and settings.

The combo's rank relative to the individual component percentiles highlights a fundamental mismatch: pairing a 91st-percentile CPU with a 53rd-percentile GPU results in a system that performs near the bottom of the combo pool. Users interested in Road 96 specifically would be better served by a more balanced pairing, though the data does not include alternative GPU configurations for direct comparison.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS measured for this combo in Road 96?

A: The highest average FPS is 90, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset. The next highest is 66 FPS at 1920x1080 with the Medium preset.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU is clearly the limiting factor. This is evidenced by the FPS scaling: at Low settings, the average FPS drops from 90 at 1080p to 58 at 1440p to 30 at 4K, which tracks with GPU compute limits. The CPU's 91st-percentile ranking and high multi-core scores (Cinebench R23 multi-core of 35122) indicate it has abundant headroom.

Q: What is the playable resolution for this combo in Road 96?

A: At 1920x1080, the Medium preset averages 66 FPS with a minimum of 56 FPS, which is playable. At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 58 FPS, which is marginally below the 60 FPS threshold. At 3840x2160, the best result is 30 FPS on Low, which is not smooth.

Q: How does the RX 580 compare to its nearest rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The RX 580 has an average benchmark score of 12928, which is 0.1% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (score 12940), 0.4% below the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (score 12986), and 0.5% above the AMD Radeon 740M (score 12870).

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations in this game?

A: The combo ranks 3389 out of 3713 tested combos in Road 96, placing it in the bottom 9% of all configurations.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM on the RX 580 cause any issues in Road 96?

A: The FPS data does not show any VRAM capacity-related stutters or anomalies. The consistent FPS scaling across resolutions suggests that 8 GB of GDDR5 is sufficient for this game, and the limiting factor is the GPU's compute throughput rather than memory capacity.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results are as follows: Low preset averages 90 FPS, Medium averages 66 FPS with a minimum of 56 and maximum of 76, High averages 53 FPS, and Ultra averages 42 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 24 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 13 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 11 FPS. The diminishing returns from Low to Ultra are consistent with the GPU's compute limits — as settings increase, the additional shading and texture work progressively reduce frame rates.

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low averages 58 FPS, Medium averages 42 FPS with a minimum of 36 and maximum of 49, High averages 34 FPS, and Ultra averages 27 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at each setting is substantial: Low falls from 90 to 58 FPS (a 35.6% reduction), Medium from 66 to 42 FPS (a 36.4% reduction), High from 53 to 34 FPS (a 35.8% reduction), and Ultra from 42 to 27 FPS (a 35.7% reduction). This uniform percentage drop across settings indicates that the resolution scaling is the dominant factor, independent of the preset.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low averages 30 FPS, Medium averages 22 FPS with a minimum of 19 and maximum of 26, High averages 18 FPS, and Ultra averages 14 FPS. The 4K results are uniformly below playable thresholds, with even the Low preset failing to reach 30 FPS average in a consistent manner (the Medium minimum of 19 FPS shows significant frame dips). The gap between 1440p and 4K is even more severe: Low drops from 58 to 30 FPS (a 48.3% reduction), Medium from 42 to 22 FPS (a 47.6% reduction), High from 34 to 18 FPS (a 47.1% reduction), and Ultra from 27 to 14 FPS (a 48.1% reduction).

The measured FPS values at Medium settings across resolutions provide the most complete dataset, with recorded minimums and maximums: at 1080p, 66 average with 56-76 range; at 1440p, 42 average with 36-49 range; at 4K, 22 average with 19-26 range. These ranges show that the frame pacing remains relatively consistent at each resolution, with a spread of approximately 20 FPS at 1080p, 13 FPS at 1440p, and 7 FPS at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K in this combo is severe and consistent across all settings. At the Low preset, the average FPS goes from 90 at 1080p to 58 at 1440p to 30 at 4K. This represents a 35.6% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and an additional 48.3% reduction from 1440p to 4K. At the Ultra preset, the values are 42 at 1080p, 27 at 1440p, and 14 at 4K, with reductions of 35.7% and 48.1% respectively.

This scaling pattern is highly informative about the limiting component. The almost perfectly uniform percentage drop at each resolution step across all four presets indicates that the GPU's pixel throughput and shading power are the sole constraints — the CPU's performance is irrelevant to the FPS scaling. If the CPU were a factor, the percentage drops would differ between Low and Ultra settings, as lower settings would shift more load onto the CPU. Instead, the consistent ~36% drop from 1080p to 1440p and ~48% drop from 1440p to 4K across every preset confirms that the RX 580's compute resources are fully saturated at all resolutions and settings.

The resolution scaling also quantifies the GPU's limitations: moving from 1080p to 1440p reduces FPS by roughly a third, and moving from 1440p to 4K reduces FPS by nearly half. This is characteristic of a GPU with 2304 shading units and 32 ROPs — the 4K resolution requires four times the pixel work of 1080p, and the RX 580's 42.88 GPixel/s pixel rate and 6.175 TFLOPS FP32 compute are insufficient to maintain playable frame rates beyond 1440p. The data suggests that 1080p is the only resolution where this combo can deliver a consistently smooth experience, and even then, only with the Low or Medium presets. The 4K results, with a maximum of 30 FPS on Low, are best avoided unless frame rate is not a priority.