The Long Drive

# The Long Drive with AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 delivers a broad spectrum of performance in The Long Drive, a driving simulation that scales from highly playable at 1080p to demanding at 4K Ultra. The measured data across twelve resolution and settings combinations shows a system that excels at lower resolutions and mid-tier presets, while struggling to maintain smooth frame rates at the highest visual fidelity. The CPU, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, provides strong headroom, while the GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 128-bit bus become the limiting factor as resolution increases.

FAQ

Q: What is the best overall preset for this system at 1440p?

A: Medium settings at 2560x1440 deliver 109.3 FPS average, which is nearly double the 67.3 FPS seen at High and more than double the 50.4 FPS at Ultra. This preset offers the best balance between visual quality and frame rate.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4060 has an average benchmark score of 23181, placing it 0.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6600M and 0.7% behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti, while sitting 0.7% ahead of the Intel Arc B580 and 0.8% ahead of the AMD Radeon 760M.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 5800XT competitive with similarly priced CPUs?

A: The CPU sits at the 86th percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 29774. It trails the AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS and AMD Ryzen 7 7840H by 0.3% each, while leading the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755GE by 0.1% and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 by 0.3%.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in The Long Drive?

A: At 4K, only Low settings achieve a playable frame rate at 75.7 FPS average. Medium drops to 59.9 FPS, High falls to 40 FPS, and Ultra becomes nearly unplayable at 28.6 FPS.

Q: What frame rate can be expected at 1080p with maximum settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the system produces 75.4 FPS average. This is the only 1080p preset below the 100 FPS threshold, with Low hitting 202.1 FPS, Medium at 169.6 FPS, and High at 104.2 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its single-thread results?

A: The Ryzen 7 5800XT scores 23794 in Cinebench R23 multi-core but only 3359 in single-core, showing strong scaling. In 3DMark, the 16-thread score of 7683 is nearly identical to the maximum threads score of 7680, indicating efficient thread utilization.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Medium settings as the optimal preset for this combination, particularly at 1440p where the 109.3 FPS average provides a smooth experience without sacrificing too much visual detail. At 1080p, High settings at 104.2 FPS offer a better visual experience while still maintaining triple-digit frame rates, making it the recommended choice for competitive or fast-paced driving. Low settings at 1080p produce an exceptionally high 202.1 FPS, but this comes at the cost of visual fidelity and is only recommended for maximum frame rate scenarios. Ultra settings should be avoided across all resolutions, as even at 1080p the 75.4 FPS average represents a significant drop from High, and at 4K the 28.6 FPS result is below acceptable playability. For users prioritizing visual quality over raw performance, High at 1440p delivers 67.3 FPS, which is still playable but shows the GPU struggling with the increased resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that becomes increasingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the drop from 202.1 FPS at 1080p to 134.8 FPS at 1440p represents a 33% reduction, while the further drop to 75.7 FPS at 4K is a 63% reduction from the 1440p figure. Medium settings show a similar pattern: 169.6 FPS at 1080p, 109.3 FPS at 1440p, and 59.9 FPS at 4K. The High preset drops from 104.2 FPS at 1080p to 67.3 FPS at 1440p, then to 40 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings are the most demanding, falling from 75.4 FPS at 1080p to 50.4 FPS at 1440p and finally to 28.6 FPS at 4K. The consistent pattern across presets indicates that the GPU's 8 GB memory capacity and 272.0 GB/s bandwidth become the limiting factors at higher resolutions, as the pixel throughput requirements exceed what the RTX 4060 can deliver beyond 1080p for most settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system demonstrates its strongest performance. Low settings achieve 202.1 FPS average, Medium reaches 169.6 FPS, High produces 104.2 FPS, and Ultra manages 75.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 126.7 FPS, showing the significant impact of visual settings on performance. Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates drop substantially: Low delivers 134.8 FPS, Medium 109.3 FPS, High 67.3 FPS, and Ultra 50.4 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra narrows to 84.4 FPS at this resolution. At 3840x2160, the system is clearly constrained: Low produces 75.7 FPS, Medium 59.9 FPS, High 40 FPS, and Ultra 28.6 FPS. The margin between Low and Ultra shrinks further to 47.1 FPS, indicating that the GPU is reaching its limits regardless of settings. The data shows that 1080p Medium and High are the most efficient combinations, offering high frame rates with reasonable visual quality, while 4K should only be attempted with Low settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process, provides the graphical horsepower for this system. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus delivers 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming but becomes a bottleneck at 4K. The GPU's boost clock of 2460 MHz and 3072 shading units contribute to its 15.11 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The 24 RT cores and 96 tensor cores support advanced features, though their impact on The Long Drive is not directly measured. The GPU's average benchmark score of 23181 places it in the 66th percentile of all GPUs, with its closest rival being the AMD Radeon RX 6600M at 0.6% higher performance. The measured FPS data shows the RTX 4060 handling 1080p Ultra at 75.4 FPS but dropping to 28.6 FPS at 4K Ultra, a 62% reduction that highlights the memory bandwidth limitations. The 118.1 GPixel/s pixel rate and 236.2 GTexel/s texture rate are adequate for lower resolutions but struggle with the pixel throughput demanded by 4K.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT, with its 8 cores and 16 threads based on Zen 3 architecture, provides substantial processing power for The Long Drive. Its base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 4.80 GHz, combined with 32 MB of L3 cache, ensure that CPU performance is rarely the limiting factor in this system. The processor's Cinebench R23 scores of 23794 multi-core and 3359 single-core demonstrate strong performance, while the 3DMark 16-thread score of 7683 nearly matches the maximum threads score of 7680, indicating excellent multi-thread utilization. The CPU's 86th percentile ranking among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 29774, places it slightly above the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755GE and marginally below the AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS. The PassMark multi-thread score of 27988 and floating point math score of 53683 show the CPU's capability in physics calculations and simulation logic that driving games often require. With a TDP of 105 W and support for dual-channel DDR4 memory at 51.2 GB/s bandwidth, the 5800XT provides ample headroom for the GPU at 1080p, where frame rates exceed 200 FPS at Low settings, suggesting the CPU is not the bottleneck in this configuration.