Road 96

# Road 96 Performance Analysis: Intel Core Ultra 5 225 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

This combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers exceptional frame rates across all tested configurations in Road 96, with the data showing that even the most demanding settings remain highly playable at every resolution. The measured results place this pairing at rank 124 out of 2,903 tested combinations, placing it in the top 4.3% of all systems evaluated for this game.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data for Road 96 reveals a clear progression of performance across four quality presets, and the optimal choice depends heavily on the target display resolution. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset still delivers a measured average of 181 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any display technology currently available. The High preset at this resolution reaches 231 FPS, while Medium produces 287 FPS and Low achieves an extraordinary 392 FPS. Given that even Ultra maintains frame rates well above the refresh rates of virtually all 1080p monitors, players with 1080p displays should select Ultra for maximum visual fidelity without sacrificing smoothness.

Moving to 2560x1440, the situation remains similarly favorable. The Ultra preset maintains a measured 115 FPS average, which comfortably exceeds the 100 Hz threshold that many high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors offer. High settings at this resolution reach 147 FPS, while Medium produces 183 FPS and Low scales to 249 FPS. The data suggests that 1440p Ultra offers the best balance between visual quality and performance headroom, as the 115 FPS average leaves sufficient margin above the typical 144 Hz refresh rate for most users to remain within adaptive sync ranges.

At 3840x2160, the recommendation shifts toward High settings. The measured 78 FPS average at High is the best compromise between image quality and smoothness, as it sits comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold that defines the baseline for playable 4K gaming. The Ultra preset at this resolution drops to 61 FPS, which remains technically playable but leaves little room for demanding scenes or background tasks. Medium at 4K produces 97 FPS, yet the visual degradation from High to Medium is typically more noticeable than the frame rate improvement. For 4K displays, High settings provide the optimal experience per the measured data, with Low at 132 FPS being the choice for those prioritizing maximum frame rates over visual fidelity.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 serves as the dominant performance driver in this configuration, particularly at higher resolutions where its substantial memory resources and bandwidth come into play. The card features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. This memory configuration proves more than adequate for Road 96's demands, as even at 4K Ultra settings, the game does not appear to strain the available VRAM capacity.

The GPU's clock behavior shows a base clock of 2235 MHz with a boost clock of 2520 MHz, operating on the Ada Lovelace architecture built on a 5 nm process. The RTX 4090's raw compute capabilities, including 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, 16,384 shading units, and 128 RT cores, provide substantial headroom for this adventure title. The measured data indicates that across all resolutions, the RTX 4090 maintains frame rates that scale predictably with the quality preset, suggesting that the GPU is never the limiting factor in this pairing.

The GPU's 88th percentile ranking among all tested graphics cards, combined with its average benchmark score of 60,347, positions it as a top-tier performer. When compared to its nearest rivals in the benchmark database, the RTX 4090 shows a 0% delta against the Intel Arc Pro A60, a 0.3% advantage over the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48, a 2.5% advantage over the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M, and a 2.9% deficit compared to the AMD Radeon PRO V710. These comparisons highlight that while the RTX 4090 is exceptionally powerful, its benchmark scores place it in a competitive cluster rather than at an isolated peak.

FAQ

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra settings in Road 96?

A: Yes, the measured data shows an average of 61 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This barely exceeds the 60 FPS threshold, making it technically playable but with minimal headroom for demanding scenes.

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

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset achieves 147 FPS while Ultra produces 115 FPS, representing a 32 FPS difference. This 21.8% reduction in frame rate for the Ultra preset may not justify the visual improvements for competitive play.

Q: How does the RTX 4090 compare to its closest benchmark rivals?

A: The RTX 4090's average benchmark score of 60,347 places it within 2.9% of the AMD Radeon PRO V710 (58,657) and 2.5% behind the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (61,896), while matching the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60,326) and surpassing the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (60,140) by 0.3%.

Q: Is the Core Ultra 5 225 sufficient for high refresh rate gaming at 1080p?

A: The data shows that at 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system reaches 392 FPS, and even at Ultra settings it maintains 181 FPS. These figures indicate that the CPU does not bottleneck the GPU at this resolution, as frame rates scale consistently across presets.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded across all tested configurations?

A: The only configuration with a recorded minimum FPS is the Medium preset, which shows minimums of 244 FPS at 1080p, 155 FPS at 1440p, and 82 FPS at 4K. All other presets have null minimum values in the measured data.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems for Road 96?

A: This combination of Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and RTX 4090 ranks 124th out of 2,903 tested combinations, placing it in the top 4.3% of all systems evaluated for this game.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank in game positions this pairing at 124th out of 2,903 tested combinations, which translates to approximately the 95.7th percentile. This ranking reflects the substantial performance headroom that the RTX 4090 provides in Road 96, though it is worth remembering the CPU's percentile ranking of 85th among all processors is lower than the GPU's 88th percentile ranking among all graphics cards.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 36,938 places it in close competition with several rivals. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600F scores 36,945 (0% delta), the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D scores 37,018 (-0.2% delta), the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 scores 37,093 (-0.4% delta), and the Intel Core i9-12900T scores 37,112 (-0.5% delta). These tight margins indicate that the Core Ultra 5 225 performs within a narrow band of its direct competitors, with all five processors clustering within 0.5% of each other.

The 124th rank out of 2,903 combinations suggests that while this system is exceptionally capable, there are 123 other tested configurations that achieve higher performance in Road 96. Given that the RTX 4090 is among the most powerful GPUs available, the ranking is likely influenced by the CPU's position within its performance class rather than any GPU limitation. The data indicates that this combo delivers near-top-tier performance, with the CPU representing the more modest component of the pairing.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates reveal how performance scales as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, providing insight into which component limits performance at each setting level. At Low settings, the system achieves 392 FPS at 1080p, 249 FPS at 1440p, and 132 FPS at 4K. This represents a 36.5% drop from 1080p to 1440p, followed by a 47.0% drop from 1440p to 4K, showing that the GPU becomes progressively more stressed as pixel count increases.

With Medium settings, the frame rates are 287 FPS at 1080p, 183 FPS at 1440p, and 97 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 36.2% from 1080p to 1440p and 47.0% from 1440p to 4K, nearly identical to the Low preset scaling. This consistency suggests that the rendering workload scales predictably with resolution regardless of quality preset.

High settings show 231 FPS at 1080p, 147 FPS at 1440p, and 78 FPS at 4K, with drops of 36.4% and 47.0% respectively. Ultra settings produce 181 FPS at 1080p, 115 FPS at 1440p, and 61 FPS at 4K, with drops of 36.5% and 47.0%. The remarkable consistency in scaling percentages across all four presets — approximately 36.5% for the 1080p-to-1440p transition and 47% for the 1440p-to-4K transition — indicates that Road 96's rendering workload is purely resolution-bound, with no unexpected bottlenecks emerging at higher pixel densities.

This uniform scaling pattern strongly suggests that the GPU is the primary determinant of frame rates across all tested configurations, as the CPU's performance headroom remains sufficient even at the highest settings and lowest resolutions where frame rates exceed 300 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all presets. The Low setting achieves a measured average of 392 FPS, representing the peak performance of this configuration. Medium settings produce 287 FPS with a recorded range of 244 to 330 FPS, indicating some frame time variance under load. High settings reach 231 FPS, while Ultra maintains 181 FPS. These figures demonstrate that at 1080p, the system operates far beyond the refresh rate capabilities of any mainstream display, making this resolution suitable for maximum visual quality settings.

The 2560x1440 resolution shows proportionally lower but still exceptional performance. Low settings achieve 249 FPS, Medium produces 183 FPS with a range of 155 to 210 FPS, High reaches 147 FPS, and Ultra maintains 115 FPS. Every preset at 1440p exceeds 100 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay on high-refresh-rate monitors. The Medium preset's minimum of 155 FPS still provides a comfortable margin above typical 144 Hz display refresh rates.

At 3840x2160, the system's performance remains strong but begins to show the GPU's limits. Low settings achieve 132 FPS, Medium produces 97 FPS with a range of 82 to 111 FPS, High reaches 78 FPS, and Ultra maintains 61 FPS. While the Ultra preset's 61 FPS average barely exceeds the 60 FPS threshold, the Medium preset's 82 FPS minimum demonstrates more consistent frame delivery. The High preset at 78 FPS offers the best balance of visual quality and performance headroom at 4K, with the data showing that the system can comfortably handle 4K gaming across all but the most demanding preset.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 provides the processing foundation for this system, featuring 10 cores and 10 threads on the Arrow Lake architecture built on a 3 nm process from TSMC. The CPU operates with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, drawing 65 W TDP. Its cache configuration includes 192 KB of L1 cache per core, 3 MB of L2 cache per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache, providing 17,800 million transistors across a 243 mm² die.

In the context of Road 96, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU, as evidenced by the consistent frame rate scaling patterns across resolutions. The CPU's single-threaded performance, measured at 3,655 in Cinebench R23 and 4,412 in Passmark single-thread tests, proves more than sufficient for this adventure title's demands. The multi-threaded score of 25,891 in Cinebench R23 and 30,459 in Passmark multithread tests indicates substantial parallel processing capability, though Road 96 likely does not heavily utilize all 10 threads.

The CPU's 85th percentile ranking among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 36,938, places it in the upper tier of desktop processors. Its nearest rivals in the benchmark database — the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D, AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450, and Intel Core i9-12900T — all score within 0.5% of the Core Ultra 5 225, demonstrating that this processor performs competitively within its market segment. The data suggests that in Road 96, the CPU provides sufficient processing power to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 4090, as frame rates remain high even at 1080p where CPU overhead typically becomes more significant.