Road 96

Road 96 is an adventure title from 2021, and the measured data for the Intel Core i7-14700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER reveals a fascinating dynamic between the CPU and GPU across different resolutions and presets. The benchmark results show a system that is overwhelmingly capable, yet the scaling patterns expose where each component's workload begins and ends. The data suggests this combination is rarely the limiting factor, but the specific bottlenecks shift dramatically depending on the graphical load.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and highly informative. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 351.5 FPS, but at 4K with Low settings, that figure falls to 121 FPS. This represents a 65.5% reduction in frame rate, which strongly indicates that the GPU becomes the primary constraint as resolution increases. The pattern is consistent across all settings presets; for example, High settings drop from 207.7 FPS at 1080p to 130 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 71 FPS at 4K. The scaling is not linear, hinting that the RTX 4080 SUPER's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 736.3 GB/s bandwidth are being saturated at higher pixel counts.

What is more revealing is the difference between 1080p and 1440p versus 1440p and 4K. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings reduces performance by roughly 36.8%, while moving from 1440p to 4K reduces it by another 45.5%. This accelerating drop-off suggests that the game's rendering workload at 4K is particularly punishing, likely due to pixel shader complexity. The data implies that at 1080p, the CPU is still heavily involved, but by 4K, the GPU's raw throughput of 52.22 TFLOPS is the dominant factor. The RTX 4080 SUPER's boost clock of 2550 MHz appears to be working hard, but it cannot maintain the headroom seen at lower resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy for optimal play. At 4K, the Ultra preset yields 54.1 FPS, which is playable but not smooth for a game that may have fast camera movements. High at 4K gives 71 FPS, a noticeable improvement, while Medium jumps to 85.8 FPS. The best recommendation for a balance of visual fidelity and frame rate at 4K is the High preset, as it offers a 31.2% improvement over Ultra while still looking substantially better than Medium. The data shows that pushing to Ultra costs 16.7 FPS compared to High, a penalty that seems disproportionate for an adventure game.

At 1440p, the story changes. Ultra delivers 103.8 FPS, which is above the 100 FPS threshold for most displays, making it a viable option. High at 130 FPS is even better, and Medium at 162.7 FPS is exceptionally fluid. For 1440p, the High preset is the sweet spot, as it provides a 25.2% boost over Ultra without sacrificing the visual quality that makes Road 96's stylized art direction shine. At 1080p, even Ultra reaches 161.2 FPS, so users with 1080p monitors can comfortably max out the settings. The Low preset at 1080p produces 351.5 FPS, which is useful only for extreme refresh rate displays, but the visual downgrade is likely not worth it.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F is a 20-core, 28-thread processor with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, based on the Raptor Lake architecture. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 35443, and single-core is 5003, which places it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. In Road 96, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p Low, where the frame rate reaches 351.5 FPS. This is a scenario where the GPU is not stressed, and the CPU's high boost clock is likely the enabling factor for such high frame rates.

The data suggests that the i7-14700F is not a bottleneck in this game. At 1080p Ultra, the FPS is 161.2, which is still high, and the drop to 4K Ultra (54.1 FPS) is entirely attributable to the GPU. The CPU's 33 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support (DDR4 and DDR5) provide ample bandwidth for game logic. Compared to its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, the i7-14700F has a slightly lower average benchmark score (54097 vs 54450, a delta of -0.6%), but in this specific game, the frame rates are high enough that any CPU difference is masked by the GPU at higher resolutions. The data implies that for Road 96, the CPU's 20 cores are overkill, but the high single-thread performance is beneficial for maintaining consistent frame pacing.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable with this combo?

A: The highest measured average is 351.5 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: Is the RTX 4080 SUPER the bottleneck at 4K?

A: Yes, the data shows a significant drop from 121 FPS at 4K Low to 54.1 FPS at 4K Ultra, indicating the GPU is the limiting factor at this resolution.

Q: How much faster is Medium compared to Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Medium achieves 162.7 FPS, which is 56.7% faster than Ultra's 103.8 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU matter more at lower resolutions?

A: Yes, at 1080p Low, the FPS is 351.5, suggesting the CPU's boost clock of 5.40 GHz is crucial for maximizing frame rates when the GPU load is minimal.

Q: What is the performance difference between High and Ultra at 4K?

A: High produces 71 FPS, while Ultra produces 54.1 FPS, meaning High is 31.2% faster.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested systems?

A: It ranks 131st out of 1684 tested combos in Road 96, placing it in the top 7.8% of all configurations.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the primary driver of visual performance in Road 96, and its specifications tell a clear story. With 10240 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 112 ROPs, it is a formidable GPU. Its 16 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for this game, as even at 4K Ultra, memory capacity is unlikely to be a constraint. The memory clock of 1438 MHz (23 Gbps effective) provides a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s, which is critical for high-resolution textures. The GPU's percentile rank is 88, and its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, has a similar average benchmark score (53489 vs 53610, a delta of 0.2%).

In practical terms, the GPU's role is most pronounced at 4K. The scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a consistent reduction in FPS across all presets, confirming that the RTX 4080 SUPER is working near its limits at the highest resolution. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 66.9 FPS (121 vs 54.1), which highlights how much the GPU's shading units are taxed by the Ultra preset's effects. The GPU's boost clock of 2550 MHz is high, but the data shows that it cannot overcome the pixel count at 4K. The PassMark G3D score of 34245 indicates strong overall performance, yet the game's specific rendering paths seem to favor lower settings for smoother gameplay.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset provides a detailed picture of performance across all tested configurations. At 1920x1080, the results are: Low 351.5 FPS, Medium 261.2 FPS, High 207.7 FPS, and Ultra 161.2 FPS. This shows a predictable degradation as settings increase, with Ultra being 54.1% slower than Low. At 2560x1440, the numbers are Low 222 FPS, Medium 162.7 FPS, High 130 FPS, and Ultra 103.8 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is significant, ranging from 36.8% at Low to 35.6% at Ultra. At 3840x2160, the results are Low 121 FPS, Medium 85.8 FPS, High 71 FPS, and Ultra 54.1 FPS.

The most striking observation is the consistency of the relative performance between presets. At every resolution, High is roughly 20-25% faster than Ultra, and Medium is roughly 15-20% faster than High. This suggests that the Ultra preset introduces a disproportionately heavy workload, likely due to shadow quality or post-processing effects. The min and max FPS values are not provided, so the analysis relies solely on averages, but the pattern is clear: the combo is highly capable at 1080p and 1440p, while 4K requires a compromise on settings to maintain high frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand scheme of tested hardware, this combination of the Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 131st out of 1684 combos in Road 96. This places it in the top 7.8% of all configurations, which is an excellent result. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU and GPU, as neither component is severely mismatched for this game's demands. The CPU's 94th percentile ranking and the GPU's 88th percentile ranking suggest that the combo is well-matched, with the GPU being the slightly weaker link.

Compared to other potential combos, the data indicates that the RTX 4080 SUPER is the limiting factor at 4K, but the i7-14700F provides ample headroom to avoid any CPU-induced stutters. The rank of 131 implies that there are 130 combos that perform better, likely featuring higher-end GPUs like the RTX 4090 or newer generations. However, for a game like Road 96, which is not a demanding AAA title, this combo delivers exceptional performance. The data suggests that users with this setup can expect a smooth experience at high refresh rates in 1080p and 1440p, with only 4K Ultra requiring a reduction in settings to achieve playable frame rates.