Road 96

FAQ

Q: What is the combo rank for the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 in Road 96?

A: This combination ranks 921st out of 2,903 tested combos in the database for this game, placing it in the upper third of all tested systems.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Core Ultra 9 185H has an average benchmark score of 35,670. The AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 scores 35,719 (0.1% higher), the Intel Core 7 250H scores 35,728 (0.2% higher), and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 scores 35,802 (0.4% higher). The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is 0.7% ahead with 35,909.

Q: What is the GPU’s position relative to its closest competitors?

A: The RTX 4080 has an average benchmark score of 54,247. The RTX 4080 SUPER is essentially tied at 54,209 (0.1% ahead). The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54,828 (1.1% higher), while the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB and AMD Radeon 8060S are 2.6% and 2.7% higher, respectively.

Q: What are the measured FPS figures at 1080p for this combo?

A: At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 254 on Low settings to 118 on Ultra. Medium averages 186 FPS (min 158, max 214), and High averages 150 FPS.

Q: How does performance scale when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: At High settings, average FPS drops from 150 at 1080p to 96 at 1440p, then to 51 at 4K. This represents a 66% reduction from 1080p to 4K at High settings, indicating a strong GPU dependency as resolution increases.

Q: What is the VRAM capacity and memory bandwidth of the RTX 4080?

A: The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 716.8 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process node from TSMC. The chip contains 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die, with a transistor density of 121.1 million per square millimeter. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2205 MHz and boosts to 2505 MHz, with memory running at 1400 MHz (22.4 Gbps effective). The 16 GB GDDR6X frame buffer across a 256-bit bus delivers 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth, which is substantial for handling the high-resolution textures and effects in Road 96.

The GPU’s shading units number 9,728, paired with 304 texture mapping units and 112 raster output units. Ray tracing is handled by 76 dedicated RT cores, while 304 tensor cores support AI-accelerated features. The compute throughput reaches 48.74 TFLOPS for both FP32 and FP16 (1:1 ratio), with a pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s. The card’s 320 W TDP and triple-slot design indicate a high-power component, with a 700 W suggested PSU and a single 16-pin power connector.

In Road 96, the GPU’s role is clearly dominant. The measured FPS data shows that at 4K resolution, even on Low settings, the average frame rate is 86 FPS, which is still well above playable thresholds. The VRAM capacity of 16 GB is more than sufficient for this adventure title, as the game does not appear to be memory-constrained based on the performance scaling. The benchmark results show that the RTX 4080’s raw rasterization power is the primary driver of frame rates, especially at higher resolutions where pixel throughput becomes the limiting factor.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and consistent scaling pattern across resolutions. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 254 FPS average. At 1440p Low, this drops to 162 FPS, and at 4K Low, it falls to 86 FPS. The percentage reductions are substantial: moving from 1080p to 1440p costs 36% of performance, while moving from 1440p to 4K costs an additional 47%.

At High settings, the pattern is similar but with lower absolute numbers. The 1080p High average is 150 FPS, 1440p High averages 96 FPS, and 4K High averages 51 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 36% again, but the drop from 1440p to 4K is 47%, identical to the Low settings scaling. This consistency suggests that resolution scaling is uniform across quality presets, which indicates the limiting component remains the same throughout.

The intermediate Medium settings preset provides the only data with min and max FPS values. At 1080p Medium, the average is 186 FPS with a range from 158 to 214. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 119 FPS (min 101, max 136). At 4K Medium, the average is 63 FPS (min 53, max 72). The frame time consistency appears reasonable, with the spread between minimum and maximum FPS staying proportionally similar across resolutions.

The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings shows a 66% reduction in average FPS (186 to 63). This magnitude of performance loss with increasing resolution strongly indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see smaller differences between resolutions, particularly at lower settings where CPU overhead would dominate. The data instead shows that the RTX 4080’s rendering throughput is what determines the frame rate at each resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide four quality presets: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. At 1080p, all presets deliver playable frame rates, with Ultra averaging 118 FPS and Low reaching 254 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium costs 68 FPS (254 to 186), while Medium to High costs 36 FPS (186 to 150), and High to Ultra costs 32 FPS (150 to 118). The diminishing returns are evident, but even the largest quality step (Low to Medium) maintains an average above 180 FPS.

At 1440p, the picture changes. Ultra averages 75 FPS, which is still smooth. High averages 96 FPS, Medium 119 FPS, and Low 162 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra costs 87 FPS, but every preset remains comfortably playable. The Medium preset at 1440p offers a strong balance, with a 119 FPS average and a minimum of 101 FPS that stays well above any concern for frame drops.

At 4K, the recommendations become more nuanced. Ultra averages 40 FPS, which is borderline for smooth gameplay. High averages 51 FPS, Medium 63 FPS, and Low 86 FPS. Given that Road 96 is an adventure game where precise timing is less critical, even the 40 FPS Ultra average could be acceptable for some players. However, the Medium preset at 63 FPS (min 53, max 72) provides a more consistent experience while still offering substantial visual quality improvements over Low.

The best experience per the measured rows appears to be the Medium preset at 1440p. This combination yields a 119 FPS average with a minimum of 101 FPS, providing headroom for any scene complexity spikes. The 4K Medium preset is also viable at 63 FPS average, but the 1440p Medium option delivers nearly double the frame rate with only a modest resolution decrease. For players prioritizing smoothness over maximum resolution, the 1440p Medium preset is the data-supported choice.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combination ranks 921st out of 2,903 tested combos in Road 96. This places the system in the 68th percentile of all tested configurations, meaning roughly two-thirds of tested combos perform worse and one-third perform better. For a mobile CPU paired with a high-end desktop GPU, this ranking reflects the inherent performance ceiling imposed by the processor’s mobile design.

The GPU’s individual percentile rank is 86th among all GPUs, while the CPU’s percentile is 85th among all CPUs. The combination’s in-game rank of 921st out of 2,903 suggests that the pairing is well-balanced, with neither component severely bottlenecking the other in this particular title. The CPU’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks (AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350, Intel Core 7 250H, AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845, and AMD Ryzen 7 7700X) all score within 0.7% of the Core Ultra 9 185H, indicating that processor choice among these options would have minimal impact on Road 96 performance.

The GPU’s nearest rivals (RTX 4080 SUPER, AMD Radeon Pro W5700X, AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB, and AMD Radeon 8060S) also show very small benchmark deltas, with the largest gap being 2.7%. This suggests that the RTX 4080 is positioned in a tightly competitive performance tier, and the in-game rank of 921st reflects the specific interaction between this GPU and the mobile CPU within Road 96’s engine.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for this combo in Road 96 is as follows:

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 254 FPS average
• Medium: 186 FPS average (min 158, max 214)
• High: 150 FPS average
• Ultra: 118 FPS average

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 162 FPS average
• Medium: 119 FPS average (min 101, max 136)
• High: 96 FPS average
• Ultra: 75 FPS average

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 86 FPS average
• Medium: 63 FPS average (min 53, max 72)
• High: 51 FPS average
• Ultra: 40 FPS average

The data shows a clear hierarchy: at every resolution, Low settings provide the highest frame rates, followed by Medium, High, and Ultra in descending order. The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values, providing insight into frame time variability. At 1080p Medium, the spread is 56 FPS (158 to 214). At 1440p Medium, the spread narrows to 35 FPS (101 to 136). At 4K Medium, the spread is 19 FPS (53 to 72). The absolute spread decreases as resolution increases, but the proportional spread relative to the average remains similar.

The performance gaps between presets are consistent across resolutions. The difference between Low and Medium at 1080p is 68 FPS, at 1440p it is 43 FPS, and at 4K it is 23 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 1080p is 32 FPS, at 1440p it is 21 FPS, and at 4K it is 11 FPS. These diminishing absolute differences at higher resolutions reinforce the GPU-bound nature of the workload.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H is a mobile processor from the Core Ultra Series 1, based on the Meteor Lake architecture on Intel’s 7 nm process node. It features 16 cores and 22 threads, with a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 112 KB L1 per core, 2 MB L2 per core, and 24 MB shared L3 cache. The CPU supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth, and it integrates Arc Xe-LPG Graphics with 128 execution units.

Synthetic benchmarks show the CPU’s capabilities: Cinebench R23 multicore scores 17,984.5 and single-core 1,810.5. Geekbench multicore is 11,657 and single-core 1,794. Passmark multithread scores 29,376, with single-thread at 3,697. The CPU’s average benchmark score is 35,670, placing it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals in the database are the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 (35,719, -0.1%), Intel Core 7 250H (35,728, -0.2%), AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 (35,802, -0.4%), and AMD Ryzen 7 7700X (35,909, -0.7%). All four rivals are within 0.7% of the Core Ultra 9 185H, indicating a very tight performance cluster.

In the context of Road 96, the CPU’s role appears secondary to the GPU. The resolution scaling data shows that frame rates drop dramatically as resolution increases, which is characteristic of a GPU-limited scenario. At 1080p Low, the 254 FPS average suggests the CPU can feed frames quickly enough to saturate the GPU at lower resolutions. However, the CPU’s 45 W TDP and mobile design mean it cannot sustain the same level of performance as a desktop processor, which may explain why the combo ranks 921st rather than higher. The 16 cores and 22 threads provide ample parallelism for the game’s logic and physics, but the adventure genre’s relatively light CPU demands mean that the RTX 4080’s rendering power is the dominant factor in determining the measured frame rates.