Road 96

The Intel Core i7-14700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER delivers playable performance in Road 96, but the data reveals a configuration that is heavily constrained by its graphics card. Ranking 1286th out of 1684 tested combos places this setup in the lower third of the database, indicating that while the CPU is a high-end part, the overall gaming experience is dictated by the GPU's limits. This rank suggests the combo is better suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where the 14700F's processing power can be fully utilized, rather than for 4K Ultra settings, where frame rates drop below acceptable thresholds.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's position at 1286 out of 1684 tested combinations is a critical indicator of its overall capability. This percentile placement is surprising given the strength of the individual components. The Intel Core i7-14700F is a 20-core, 28-thread processor with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, placing it in the 94th percentile against all CPUs in our database. Its average benchmark score of 54097 is remarkably close to the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, which scores 54450, a mere 0.6% difference. Despite this CPU pedigree, the combo rank suffers because the RTX 2060 SUPER sits in the 63rd percentile for GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19774.

This discrepancy between CPU and GPU performance tiers is the defining characteristic of this pairing. The i7-14700F is capable of feeding frames far faster than the RTX 2060 SUPER can render them. In Road 96, an adventure title that is not traditionally demanding on graphics hardware, this bottleneck manifests as solid performance at lower resolutions, but the rank suggests that in the broader database of tested hardware, many combinations with weaker CPUs but stronger GPUs achieve higher frame rates. The data indicates a system that is future-proofed on the CPU side but limited by a graphics card that is now end-of-life.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is the limiting factor in this configuration. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s, which is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming but becomes strained at 4K. The GPU's base clock of 1470 MHz and boost clock of 1650 MHz are modest by modern standards, and its 2176 shading units generate 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. These specifications place the card in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, a mid-range standing that is confirmed by its benchmark scores: 16462 in Passmark G3D and 87670 in Geekbench OpenCL.

In the context of Road 96, the GPU's role is to handle the game's rendering load, which scales significantly with resolution and settings. The data shows that the GPU's performance ceiling is reached at 4K Ultra, where it produces only 26.2 FPS. This is not a reflection of poor engineering but rather of the card's 2019 Turing architecture being outpaced by modern titles at extreme settings. The RTX 2060 SUPER's DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) ensures compatibility, but its raw throughput is the bottleneck. The nearest rivals for this GPU, such as the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN with a score of 19706 (0.3% difference) and the RTX 2070 at 19680 (0.5% difference), confirm that this card is positioned just below the performance tier needed for high-refresh 4K gaming.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data for Road 96 reveals a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases, which directly points to the GPU as the primary constraint. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 166.5 FPS, a figure that demonstrates the CPU's ability to push high frame rates when the GPU is not heavily burdened. Moving to 1440p Low, the frame rate drops to 107.9 FPS, a 35.2% decrease. At 4K Low, the frame rate falls further to 55.9 FPS, a 48.2% drop from 1440p. This scaling pattern is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where each pixel rendered requires significant graphics processing resources.

The same pattern holds across all settings. At High settings, the FPS drops from 97.3 at 1080p to 63.3 at 1440p (a 34.9% decrease) and then to 34.1 at 4K (a 46.1% decrease). This consistent reduction in frame rates as resolution climbs indicates that the RTX 2060 SUPER is the limiting component. The i7-14700F, with its 33 MB of L3 cache and 28 threads, has ample headroom to process the game's logic and physics at any resolution. The data suggests that if the CPU were the bottleneck, frame rates would remain relatively flat across resolutions, but the measurements show otherwise. The scaling from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent, confirming that gamers looking for high frame rates must stick to 1080p or 1440p with this combo.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed picture of performance across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers strong results: 166.5 FPS at Low, 125.1 FPS at Medium, 97.3 FPS at High, and 78.7 FPS at Ultra. The 1080p Ultra figure of 78.7 FPS is particularly notable, as it shows the system can handle maximum settings at this resolution with frame rates well above 60 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 87.8 FPS, a substantial gap that highlights the GPU's sensitivity to graphical detail.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains playable but shows more strain. Low settings yield 107.9 FPS, Medium drops to 78.5 FPS, High to 63.3 FPS, and Ultra falls to 50.3 FPS. The 1440p Ultra result is below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that gamers must compromise on settings to maintain smooth gameplay at this resolution. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra results in a 28.4 FPS loss, which is a significant reduction.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 2060 SUPER's limitations become pronounced. Low settings produce 55.9 FPS, Medium drops to 39.7 FPS, High to 34.1 FPS, and Ultra to 26.2 FPS. These figures are all below 60 FPS, making 4K gaming with this combo a suboptimal experience. The 4K Ultra result of 26.2 FPS is barely playable and indicates that the GPU is severely overtaxed at this resolution. The data clearly shows that 1080p is the sweet spot for this combo, with 1440p being acceptable at medium-to-high settings, and 4K being viable only at low settings.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of running Road 96 at 4K 60 FPS?

A: No. The data shows that at 4K Low settings, the combo achieves 55.9 FPS, but at Medium, High, and Ultra settings, frame rates drop to 39.7, 34.1, and 26.2 FPS respectively. None of these figures reach 60 FPS.

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this setup?

A: The data indicates that 1080p Ultra, with 78.7 FPS, offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. For higher resolutions, 1440p High at 63.3 FPS is the only other setting that maintains frame rates above 60 FPS.

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

A: The Intel Core i7-14700F has an average benchmark score of 54097, which is 0.6% lower than the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X (54450), 1.1% lower than the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D (54681), 1.2% higher than the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 (53469), and 1.7% higher than the AMD EPYC 7313P (53206). This places the CPU in the 94th percentile of all processors.

Q: What is the GPU's performance relative to its direct competitors?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER has an average score of 19774. It is 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN (19706), 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (19680), 0.8% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 (19623), and 1.3% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla K40m (19519). This places the GPU in the 63rd percentile of all graphics cards.

Q: Does the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K indicate a CPU or GPU bottleneck?

A: The data points to a GPU bottleneck. At High settings, frame rates drop from 97.3 FPS at 1080p to 63.3 FPS at 1440p and 34.1 FPS at 4K. This consistent 35-46% decrease with each resolution step is characteristic of a graphics-card-limited system, as the CPU is powerful enough to maintain high frame rates at any resolution.

Q: What memory configuration does the CPU support?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700F supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration. This flexibility allows for a wide range of system builds, though the specific memory type does not significantly impact the measured FPS in the data provided.