Road 96

Road 96 is an adventure title from 2021, and the benchmark data for the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 shows a combination that is overwhelmingly powerful for this game's engine. The measured results across all resolutions and settings presets indicate that the primary bottleneck is almost never the graphics card, but rather the game's own frame pacing and CPU threading. With frame rates ranging from a low of 57 FPS at 4K Ultra to a staggering 367 FPS at 1080p Low, the data reveals a system with massive headroom, making the choice of settings more about consistency and visual fidelity than about achieving playable frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear hierarchy of performance across the four available presets: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 170 FPS, while the High preset pushes that to 217 FPS, and Medium reaches 269 FPS. The Low preset jumps to 367 FPS. While all of these are far beyond the refresh rate of most standard monitors, the data suggests that the Ultra preset is the only one that introduces any significant frame pacing variance, as it is the only setting at this resolution without a recorded minimum FPS, implying potential stutters. The Medium preset, with a minimum of 229 FPS and a maximum of 309 FPS, shows a tighter and more consistent frame delivery than the jump to Low suggests.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern holds. The Ultra preset averages 108 FPS, which is still excellent, but the Medium preset provides a more stable experience with a minimum of 146 FPS and a maximum of 197 FPS. The High preset at 138 FPS is also a strong contender. However, the most interesting data point for a "best experience" recommendation appears at 3840x2160. At 4K, the Ultra preset drops to 57 FPS, which is playable but begins to test the limits of high-refresh-rate displays. The High preset at this resolution averages 73 FPS, and the Medium preset averages 91 FPS with a minimum of 77 FPS and a maximum of 104 FPS.

Given the data, the optimal experience is dependent on the display. For 1080p and 1440p users, the High preset is the best recommendation. It provides a substantial visual upgrade over Medium while maintaining an average frame rate (217 FPS and 138 FPS respectively) that is high enough to be limited by the display's refresh rate, not the hardware. The Ultra preset, while visually superior, shows no min FPS data, suggesting less consistent frame pacing. For 4K users, the Medium preset is the clear winner. The 91 FPS average with a 77 FPS minimum is significantly smoother than the High preset's 73 FPS average, and the jump to Ultra costs a 34 FPS average drop, making it the least efficient choice. The Low preset is not recommended at any resolution, as it sacrifices too much visual quality for frame rates that exceed the capabilities of most displays, particularly when the High and Medium presets already deliver such high performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is a formidable piece of hardware, featuring 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s. Its base clock is 2295 MHz, which boosts to 2617 MHz. This GPU is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture and is ranked in the 87th percentile of all GPUs in the database. In the context of Road 96, the GPU's role is almost trivialized at lower resolutions. The data shows that at 1080p, the GPU is so far ahead of the game's requirements that the frame rate is likely limited by the CPU and game engine's draw call processing, not the graphics card's pixel-pushing capabilities.

The GPU's massive memory bandwidth and 16 GB frame buffer become relevant only at higher resolutions and settings. The transition from 1440p High (138 FPS) to 4K High (73 FPS) shows a significant load increase, but even then, the RTX 5080 handles it with ease. The 4K Ultra preset, which yields a 57 FPS average, is the only point where the GPU is truly being stressed, likely due to the combination of high-resolution textures and advanced shading effects. The GPU's benchmark scores, such as a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 8637 and a Passmark G3D score of 36565, place it in the 87th percentile, which corroborates its dominance in this specific game's test suite. The data indicates that the RTX 5080 is not a limiting factor in Road 96 until the very highest settings are enabled at 4K resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 achieves a rank of 183 out of 2903 tested combos in the database for Road 96. This places the combo in the top 6.3% of all tested systems, a strong result that is consistent with the individual components' high percentiles. The CPU is in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, and the GPU is in the 87th percentile, so the combined rank is a slight underperformance relative to what those individual scores might suggest, likely due to the game's engine not scaling perfectly with such high-end hardware.

The combo's rank of 183 means that 2720 other tested systems were slower, while only 182 were faster. This puts it in the upper echelon of performance. The nearest rival data for the CPU shows it is closely matched with the AMD EPYC 4464P (deltaPct of -0.3%) and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F (deltaPct of 0.3%), suggesting that the CPU's performance is very consistent within its own family. The GPU is similarly closely matched with the AMD Radeon 8060S (deltaPct of 0.6%) and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (deltaPct of 0.7%). This high ranking in the game's combo list confirms that the measured FPS data is at the top end of what is achievable, and the frame rates reflect a system that is not struggling to maintain playability.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following is a detailed breakdown of the measured average FPS, with minimum and maximum values where available.

At 1920x1080, the performance is exceptionally high across all presets. The Low preset achieves an average of 367 FPS. The Medium preset averages 269 FPS, with a minimum of 229 FPS and a maximum of 309 FPS. The High preset averages 217 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 170 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 197 FPS, showing a significant performance cost for the highest visual quality, but the absolute numbers are so high that all are playable.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain very high. The Low preset averages 234 FPS. The Medium preset averages 171 FPS, with a minimum of 146 FPS and a maximum of 197 FPS. The High preset averages 138 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 108 FPS. The performance drop from 1080p is noticeable, with the High preset dropping from 217 to 138 FPS, but the system still delivers a smooth experience.

At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to feel the load. The Low preset averages 124 FPS. The Medium preset averages 91 FPS, with a minimum of 77 FPS and a maximum of 104 FPS. The High preset averages 73 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 57 FPS. This is the only resolution where the Ultra preset falls below the 60 FPS threshold for average frame rate, and the High preset is also below 75 FPS, indicating that 4K gaming requires a compromise on settings to maintain high refresh rates.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases. From 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, the average FPS across all settings drops by approximately 35-40%. For example, the High preset drops from 217 FPS to 138 FPS, a reduction of 79 FPS. The Medium preset drops from 269 to 171 FPS, a reduction of 98 FPS. This is a significant drop, but it is proportional to the increase in pixel count, which is about 1.77x. The scaling is not perfect, which indicates that the CPU is still playing a significant role at 1440p.

The scaling from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 is more severe for the higher settings. The High preset drops from 138 FPS to 73 FPS, a 47% reduction. The Ultra preset drops from 108 FPS to 57 FPS, a 47% reduction as well. This steeper drop is characteristic of the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck. The pixel count increases by 2.25x from 1440p to 4K, and the frame rate drops by roughly half, which is consistent with a pixel-bound workload. The Low preset shows a similar pattern, dropping from 234 FPS to 124 FPS. This analysis reveals that at 1080p and 1440p, the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 is likely the limiting factor, preventing the RTX 5080 from reaching its full potential. At 4K, the RTX 5080 becomes the definitive bottleneck, as evidenced by the frame rate halving with the resolution increase.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1440p with High settings?

A: The average FPS at 2560x1440 with the High preset is 138 FPS. This is a high frame rate that is well-suited for high refresh rate monitors.

Q: Is the Ultra preset playable at 4K resolution?

A: Yes, the Ultra preset at 3840x2160 yields an average FPS of 57. This is technically playable, but it is below the 60 FPS threshold and may not be ideal for all users.

Q: How does the Medium preset at 4K compare to the High preset at 4K?

A: The Medium preset at 4K averages 91 FPS with a minimum of 77 FPS, while the High preset averages 73 FPS with no minimum FPS data. The Medium preset is significantly smoother and is recommended over High for 4K.

Q: What is the maximum FPS recorded in the test data?

A: The maximum FPS recorded is 367, which occurs at 1920x1080 with the Low preset. The highest maximum FPS for a preset with variance data is 309, recorded at 1080p Medium.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to the Ultra preset at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 367 FPS, while the Ultra preset achieves an average of 170 FPS. The Low preset is 197 FPS faster, or about 116% faster.

Q: Does the combo rank in the top 10% of all tested systems?

A: Yes, the combo ranks 183rd out of 2903 tested combos, which places it in the top 6.3% of all tested systems for this game.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process node. It has a base clock of 2.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. It features 30 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory. In the context of Road 96, the CPU's role is critical at lower resolutions where it can become the limiting factor. The data shows that at 1080p, the frame rates are extremely high (e.g., 367 FPS on Low), which indicates that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with enough draw calls to reach these heights.

However, the CPU's performance in the benchmark data is strong but not exceptional relative to its rivals. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 42216 and its single-core score is 5960. It is ranked in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. The nearest rivals show it is closely matched with the AMD EPYC 4464P (deltaPct of -0.3%) and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F (deltaPct of 0.3%), meaning that any performance differences are within 1% of these comparable processors. The data suggests that the CPU's 20 cores are more than sufficient for Road 96, which is not a heavily threaded title. The high single-core performance, evidenced by the R23 single-core score of 5960, is likely the key factor in achieving the high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, as the game engine likely relies on a few primary threads for game logic and physics. The transition to 4K, where the GPU becomes the bottleneck, proves that the CPU is not a hindrance to high-end performance, but rather a capable partner that allows the RTX 5080 to stretch its legs.