Road 96

Road 96 is an adventure game that, on the surface, would not appear to be a demanding title, yet the benchmark data for the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D reveals a fascinating set of performance characteristics. This combination achieves the top rank of 1 out of 2,903 tested combos for this game, and the measured frame rates across resolutions and settings paint a clear picture of where the bottlenecks lie. The data suggests that this system is so powerful that it often shifts the limiting factor away from the GPU and onto the CPU, even at high resolutions, which is a rare and intriguing finding for an adventure game.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture, built on a 3 nm process. It operates at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and can boost up to 5.80 GHz. This high boost clock is critical for gaming, as many game engines, including those for adventure titles like Road 96, rely heavily on single-threaded performance for game logic, physics, and draw call submission. The processor’s benchmark scores are impressive, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7,303 points and a multi-core score of 51,731 points. These numbers indicate that the CPU has both immense single-thread headroom and significant multi-threading capabilities, but for a game like Road 96, it is the single-thread performance that is most relevant.

The data shows that the CPU is the primary performance limiter in many scenarios for this game. For instance, at 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 428 FPS. This extremely high frame rate is only possible if the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with enough data, and it suggests that the CPU has substantial headroom. However, the lack of a minimum FPS value for this setting is notable. Conversely, at 1080p with Medium settings, the average FPS is 313, with a minimum of 266 FPS and a maximum of 360 FPS. The gap between the minimum and average frame rates indicates that the CPU is experiencing occasional spikes in workload, likely due to complex game logic or asset streaming, which prevents the frame rate from being perfectly flat even at such high levels.

The processor’s 36 MB of shared L3 cache is another factor. While Road 96 may not have a massive working set, the large cache helps ensure that frequently accessed data is readily available to the cores, reducing memory latency. This is supported by the PassMark data compression score of 698,346, which shows the CPU can handle data manipulation quickly. The 125 W TDP and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 115.2 GB/s of bandwidth provide a solid foundation for feeding the GPU, but the core clock speed remains the dominant factor. The benchmark results clearly demonstrate that the CPU’s strength is not just in its core count, but in the speed at which those cores can execute instructions, which is what allows the system to push frame rates well beyond what is typically seen in this genre.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus compare to its closest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K?

A: The Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has an average benchmark score of 84,003, which is 0.2% higher than the Core Ultra 9 285K’s average score of 83,807. This indicates that the 290K Plus is essentially a very slight refinement over its predecessor in general compute performance.

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this combo in Road 96?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 428 FPS, which is achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset. This demonstrates the system's immense capability to render frames at extremely high speed when graphical fidelity is minimized.

Q: What is the lowest average frame rate recorded, and under what conditions?

A: The lowest average frame rate is 67 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with the Ultra settings preset. This is still a highly playable frame rate, but it represents the most demanding configuration for the GPU in this test.

Q: Does enabling higher settings at 1440p have a significant impact on performance?

A: Yes, the impact is substantial. At 2560x1440, the average frame rate drops from 272 FPS on Low settings to 200 FPS on Medium, and further down to 161 FPS on High, and finally to 126 FPS on Ultra. This shows a clear and consistent scaling of performance cost as settings are increased.

Q: Is the GPU the bottleneck at all resolutions, or does the CPU limit performance?

A: The data indicates that the CPU is the limiting factor at lower resolutions. For example, at 1080p, the average frame rate only drops from 428 FPS on Low to 253 FPS on High, which is a smaller relative decrease than what is seen when moving from 1080p to 1440p at the same settings. This suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is nearing its limit, while the GPU has more headroom.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the Low preset achieves an average of 428 FPS, while the Ultra preset achieves an average of 198 FPS. This represents a 230 FPS drop, indicating that the Ultra preset more than doubles the rendering workload compared to Low, confirming that the GPU is being utilized more heavily at the higher settings.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The resolution scaling behavior is a textbook example of how a system transitions from being CPU-limited to GPU-limited. At the High settings preset, the average frame rate drops from 253 FPS at 1920x1080 to 161 FPS at 2560x1440, and finally to 85 FPS at 3840x2160. This is a 47.6% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 47.2% drop from 1440p to 4K. The fact that the frame rate is nearly halved each time the pixel count roughly doubles indicates that the GPU is becoming the primary bottleneck as resolution increases. The GPU must render more pixels, and its workload scales almost linearly with the number of pixels.

However, the story is different at the Low settings preset. Here, the frame rate drops from 428 FPS at 1080p to 272 FPS at 1440p, but then only to 144 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 36.4%, which is less than the 47.6% seen on High settings. This smaller drop suggests that at 1080p Low, the CPU is the limiting factor, preventing the GPU from reaching even higher frame rates. As the resolution increases to 1440p, the GPU becomes more loaded, but the CPU is still sufficiently fast to maintain a high frame rate. At 4K, the GPU is heavily loaded, but the CPU is still contributing, as the frame rate drop is more proportional to the resolution increase. This is confirmed by the Medium settings data, which shows a 36.1% drop from 1080p (313 FPS) to 1440p (200 FPS), followed by a 47% drop from 1440p to 4K (106 FPS). The data clearly shows that this combo is powerful enough to make the CPU a relevant factor even at 4K, especially at lower settings.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination achieves a rank of 1 out of 2,903 tested combos in Road 96. This is the top position, indicating that no other tested CPU and GPU pairing has produced higher average frame rates in this game. This is a significant finding, as it establishes this specific configuration as the absolute best performer in the database for this title. The fact that it holds this rank confirms the synergy between the high-clock CPU and the massive GPU, which together can overcome the game's performance demands.

This top ranking is not necessarily a surprise given the specifications of the components. The RTX 5090 D has a 32 GB memory pool and a 512-bit memory bus, making it one of the most powerful GPUs available. When paired with a CPU that can maintain a high frame rate, the combo is able to dominate the leaderboard. The data shows that the combo's performance is so high that it is likely limited by the game engine itself at lower resolutions, rather than by the hardware. The nearest rivals for the CPU, such as the AMD EPYC 4584PX, have an average score that is 1.1% lower, but these are workstation processors, so their in-game performance may differ. The CPU's 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs and the GPU's 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs further support the idea that this is a top-tier combination that is purpose-built for maximum performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across a matrix of settings and resolutions.

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Ultra: Average FPS of 198.
• High: Average FPS of 253.
• Medium: Average FPS of 313, with a minimum of 266 and a maximum of 360.
• Low: Average FPS of 428.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Ultra: Average FPS of 126.
• High: Average FPS of 161.
• Medium: Average FPS of 200, with a minimum of 170 and a maximum of 229.
• Low: Average FPS of 272.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Ultra: Average FPS of 67.
• High: Average FPS of 85.
• Medium: Average FPS of 106, with a minimum of 90 and a maximum of 121.
• Low: Average FPS of 144.

The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values across all resolutions. This data points to a distinct pattern: the frame rate is not perfectly stable, but the variance is well-contained. For instance, at 1080p Medium, the difference between the minimum (266) and maximum (360) is 94 FPS, which is a significant spread. This suggests that while the average frame rate is exceptional, there are moments of higher and lower performance, possibly due to scene complexity or loading events. The same pattern holds at 1440p and 4K, where the spread is 59 FPS and 31 FPS, respectively. This indicates that the frame pacing is not perfectly uniform, but the overall performance remains extremely high.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Based on the measured data, the choice of settings depends on the user's display and preference for visual fidelity versus raw frame rate. For a 1080p display, the High preset offers an average of 253 FPS, which is more than enough for any high-refresh-rate monitor. The Medium preset at 313 FPS is even better for competitive play, but the visual difference between Medium and High is often more noticeable. The Low preset at 428 FPS is excessive and will likely be limited by the display's refresh rate, making it a poor choice as it sacrifices visual quality for unobservable performance gains. The Ultra preset at 198 FPS is also a viable option, as it still provides a very high frame rate while offering the best visual quality.

For 1440p, the High preset at 161 FPS is an excellent balance, providing a smooth experience on 144Hz displays. The Medium preset at 200 FPS is another strong option for those with 240Hz monitors, while the Ultra preset at 126 FPS is still suitable for 120Hz displays. The Low preset at 272 FPS is again overkill for most displays. At 4K, the situation changes. The Ultra preset at 67 FPS is playable on a 60Hz display, but the High preset at 85 FPS is a better choice for a smoother experience on 60Hz or 120Hz displays. The Medium preset at 106 FPS is the best option for 4K users with high-refresh-rate monitors, as it provides a high frame rate without the massive performance hit of the Ultra preset. The Low preset at 144 FPS is viable but drastically reduces visual quality. Given the data, the Medium preset consistently provides the best balance of high average FPS and reasonable minimum FPS, making it the recommended starting point for most users.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is a massive GPU, featuring 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. Its base clock is 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz. For an adventure game like Road 96, the 32 GB of VRAM is far more than necessary, as the game's textures and assets are unlikely to require even a fraction of that capacity. This means that the GPU's memory bandwidth and capacity are not limiting factors in this title. The GPU's performance is instead dictated by its raw compute power, which is significant, with 21,760 shading units and a boost clock of 2.4 GHz.

The benchmark results for the GPU, such as a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14,326 and a PassMark G3D score of 44,065, indicate that the GPU is a top-tier performer. However, the data from the game reveals that the GPU is not always the bottleneck. At 1080p, the GPU has so much headroom that the CPU limits the frame rate. As the resolution increases, the GPU's workload increases, and it becomes the limiting factor. The 32 GB VRAM is a future-proofing feature, but it does not directly contribute to higher frame rates in this specific game. Instead, the GPU's ability to process pixels and execute shaders is what determines the frame rate at higher resolutions. The RTX 5090 D's performance is so high that it can handle Road 96 at 4K Ultra with an average of 67 FPS, which affirms its power, but the data also shows that the CPU is the reason the combo achieves the top rank at lower resolutions.