The Long Drive

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 combination presents a classic pairing of a modern, efficient CPU with an older, mid-range GPU. In The Long Drive, the benchmark data reveals a system that is clearly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, but capable of delivering very high frame rates at 1080p. This analysis breaks down how the components scale across settings and what that means for a practical gaming experience.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a predictable and steep decline as resolution increases, which is the hallmark of a system where the GPU is the primary bottleneck. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 156 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops that to 103 FPS, a 34% reduction. At 3840x2160 Low, the average falls to 57 FPS, which is a 63% drop from the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 2060's compute and memory bandwidth are being saturated as pixel count rises.

The High settings preset tells a similar story. At 1080p High, the average is 80 FPS. At 1440p High, it drops to 53 FPS, and at 4K High, it plummets to 29 FPS. The gap between 1440p and 4K at High settings is substantial—a 45% performance loss—which strongly suggests that the GPU's 6 GB of VRAM and 192-bit memory bus are struggling with the increased texture and shading demands at 4K. The frame rate at 4K High is below the 30 FPS threshold for comfortable play, making that resolution and preset combination impractical.

The Medium preset offers the most complete data with min and max FPS values. At 1080p Medium, the average is 128 FPS with a minimum of 109 FPS, showing excellent frame pacing. At 1440p Medium, the average is 85 FPS with a minimum of 72 FPS, which remains smooth. At 4K Medium, the average drops to 47 FPS with a minimum of 40 FPS. This indicates that even at Medium settings, 4K pushes the GPU to its limits, but the 40 FPS minimum is at least playable, unlike the High preset's sub-30 average. The data across all presets shows that the RTX 2060 is the limiting factor; the CPU has enough headroom to feed the GPU at 1080p, but the GPU cannot maintain high throughput at 4K.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. Its benchmark scores are robust for gaming. In Cinebench R23, it scores 20851 multi-core and 2943 single-core, placing it in the 77th percentile of all CPUs. This level of single-thread performance is more than sufficient for a driving simulation like The Long Drive, which typically relies on a few heavily loaded threads for physics and game logic.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the database are the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F (0.2% higher avg score), the Intel Core i7-11850H (0.3% higher), and the Intel Core i7-13620H (0.4% higher). These deltas are minuscule, meaning the 8400F is effectively on par with those chips for overall processing power. The AMD EPYC 9474F is 0.4% lower in score, confirming that the 8400F sits in a very tight performance band among its peers.

Given that the FPS drops from 1080p to 4K are so severe, the data implies that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this pairing. At 1080p Low, the system produces 156 FPS, which is a high enough frame rate that a weaker CPU might start to show limitations. However, the 8400F's strong single-core Cinebench R23 score of 2943 and its PassMark single-thread score of 3685 suggest it is easily keeping up. The CPU's 16 MB of shared L3 cache and DDR5 memory support (with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth) provide ample data throughput for the GPU. The 12 threads handle background tasks and any multi-threaded game processes without issue. In this context, the CPU's role is to be a stable, high-frequency foundation that never starves the GPU, which the data confirms it does admirably.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is the older, Turing-architecture component here, with a base clock of 1365 MHz and a boost clock of 1680 MHz. It features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. Its benchmark scores place it in the 58th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 15290. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (0% delta), the AMD Radeon 680M (0.1% higher), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM (0.6% higher), and the AMD Radeon RX 7600 (0.8% higher). This places the 2060 in a crowded mid-range tier, but its age is showing.

The GPU's limitations are clearly exposed in the 4K results. At 4K Ultra, the combo manages only 20 FPS average, which is unplayable. At 4K High, it achieves 29 FPS, still below the 30 FPS standard. Even at 4K Medium, the 47 FPS average is borderline, and the 40 FPS minimum suggests occasional stutter. This is directly attributable to the 6 GB VRAM capacity and the 336.0 GB/s bandwidth. At 4K, the game's textures and draw distances demand more memory and bandwidth than the card can provide, causing the framerate to collapse.

At 1080p, the GPU is much more comfortable. The 128 FPS average at Medium settings and 156 FPS at Low settings show that the card has ample raw compute power for the lower pixel count. The 80 FPS at High is a solid result. The GPU's 1920 shading units and 120 texture mapping units are sufficient for 1080p rendering. The data suggests that the RTX 2060 is best utilized at 1080p or 1440p, where its memory constraints are less of a factor. The 1440p Medium result of 85 FPS is particularly good, showing that the card can handle a higher resolution if settings are kept in check. The GPU's 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores support DirectX 12 Ultimate, but The Long Drive does not appear to be a ray-tracing-heavy title based on these frame rates, so those features are likely unused.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 5 8400F and RTX 2060 is ranked 2937 out of 3725 tested combos in The Long Drive. This places it in the bottom 21% of all pairings, which seems low given the playable frame rates at 1080p. However, this rank is a holistic measure that likely includes all resolutions and settings, and it shows that while this combo works, it is far from the top of the heap.

A rank of 2937 out of 3725 means that about 788 combos perform worse, but over 2900 perform better. This is not a surprise, as the RTX 2060 is an older GPU nearing end-of-life status, and many newer mid-range cards like the RX 7600 (which has a 0.8% higher avg score) will outperform it. The CPU, on the other hand, is a modern part that is doing its job well, but it is held back by the GPU's age. The rank suggests that this pairing is a "1080p machine" in the context of this game. It will not win any performance awards, but the data shows it is a viable, if modest, setup. The 77th percentile CPU ranking versus the 58th percentile GPU ranking confirms that the GPU is the weaker link in this chain, dragging the overall combo rank down.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the best experience for this combo is clearly at 1920x1080 with the Medium preset. The data shows an average of 128 FPS with a minimum of 109 FPS and a maximum of 148 FPS. This provides a high, stable frame rate that is well above the refresh rate of most standard monitors, ensuring smooth gameplay with no dips below 100 FPS. The High preset at 1080p drops the average to 80 FPS, which is still good but sacrifices the headroom that Medium offers.

For users with a 1440p monitor, the Medium preset is also the sweet spot. The 85 FPS average with a 72 FPS minimum is smooth and playable, offering a significant visual upgrade over 1080p while maintaining a solid frame rate. The High preset at 1440p drops to 53 FPS, which is playable but less fluid, and the Ultra preset at 37 FPS is too choppy for a driving game where reaction time matters.

At 4K, the data strongly advises against anything above Low settings. The Low preset yields 57 FPS, which is playable, but the Medium preset drops to 47 FPS, and High falls to 29 FPS. Given the diminishing returns and the risk of stutter at 4K High, the Low preset is the only reasonable choice for 4K, and even then, it is not ideal. For the majority of users, the 1080p Medium or 1440p Medium settings offer the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, as they both maintain averages above 85 FPS with minimums above 70 FPS.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run The Long Drive at 4K smoothly?

A: Only at Low settings, where it averages 57 FPS. At Medium, it drops to 47 FPS, and at High it falls to 29 FPS, which is below the standard 30 FPS playability threshold. Ultra settings are not viable, with a 20 FPS average.

Q: What is the best resolution and settings pairing for this system?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 with Medium settings is optimal, providing a 128 FPS average and a 109 FPS minimum. At 1440p, Medium settings are also good, with an 85 FPS average and a 72 FPS minimum.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this setup?

A: The GPU is clearly the bottleneck. The FPS drops by 63% from 1080p Low to 4K Low, while the CPU's benchmark scores (77th percentile) are much stronger than the GPU's (58th percentile), indicating the GPU runs out of steam first.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: It ranks 2937 out of 3725 total combos tested in this game. This puts it in the lower 21% of all pairings, reflecting the GPU's age and limited 6 GB VRAM.

Q: What is the performance difference between High and Medium settings at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, High averages 80 FPS, while Medium averages 128 FPS. This is a 60% increase in frame rate by dropping one preset level, making Medium the better choice for higher refresh rates.

Q: What are the minimum frame rates like for the Medium preset?

A: The data shows a minimum of 109 FPS at 1080p Medium, 72 FPS at 1440p Medium, and 40 FPS at 4K Medium. These minimums indicate good frame pacing, with no severe stutters at 1080p and 1440p, but 4K is borderline.