The Long Drive

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 combination delivers a broad performance envelope in The Long Drive, with average frame rates ranging from a highly playable 53 FPS at 4K High to a fluid 280 FPS at 1080p Low. The benchmark data reveals a system that is well-balanced at higher resolutions but becomes increasingly CPU-bound as resolution drops, making settings and resolution choices critical for optimizing the experience.

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

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge), manufactured on TSMC's 4 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. This processor is part of the 9000 series and is built for the AMD Socket AM5 platform, featuring a 32 MB shared L3 cache and 1 MB of L2 cache per core. Its memory bandwidth is rated at 89.6 GB/s via a dual-channel DDR5 interface.

In The Long Drive, a driving simulation that often involves physics calculations and world streaming, the CPU's multi-threaded capacity is a significant factor. The PassMark multithread score for this CPU is 36,470, which places it in the 94th percentile against all CPUs. Its single-thread score of 4,691 is also strong, indicating good responsiveness for game logic that is not perfectly parallelized. The 8-core/16-thread configuration ensures that background tasks and the game's simulation threads have ample resources, preventing bottlenecks that could cause frame time spikes.

Benchmark results indicate that at 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 280 FPS, while at 4K with Low settings, it achieves 102 FPS. This 175% frame rate increase when lowering resolution from 4K to 1080p strongly suggests that at lower resolutions and settings, the CPU is the limiting component, as the GPU has less work to do per frame. The CPU's ability to maintain high frame rates is further supported by its performance relative to its nearest rivals. The Ryzen 7 9700F scores 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX and 0.7% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, while trailing the Intel Core i7-14700KF by 0.2%. This places it in a tight performance cluster at the top of the desktop processor market, ensuring consistent frame delivery in CPU-intensive scenarios.

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

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy of settings presets across all resolutions. At 1080p, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 100 FPS, which is smooth, but the Medium preset at 230 FPS offers a dramatically more responsive experience. The High preset at 144 FPS is a strong middle ground, but the jump to Medium provides a 60% performance increase. The 1080p Low preset pushes the engine to its limits at 280 FPS, which is beneficial for high-refresh-rate displays, but the visual fidelity trade-off may not be worth it for most users.

At 1440p, the pattern continues. The Ultra preset drops to 66 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for a fast-paced driving game. The High preset at 95 FPS is competent, but the Medium preset at 152 FPS provides a much larger performance buffer, ensuring smoother gameplay with less risk of drops below the refresh rate threshold. The Medium preset at 1440p appears to be the sweet spot, delivering over 150 FPS while maintaining higher visual quality than Low.

At 4K, the situation changes. The Ultra preset struggles at 36 FPS, which is not recommended for a smooth experience. The High preset at 53 FPS is borderline playable but may feel sluggish. The Medium preset at 84 FPS is the first truly comfortable option, offering a significant improvement over High. The Low preset at 102 FPS is the best for competitive or high-refresh-rate 4K gaming, though it sacrifices visual richness.

Overall, the data shows that the Medium preset offers the best balance of performance and visual quality across all resolutions. It is the only preset that provides a playable frame rate at 4K (84 FPS) while also delivering very high frame rates at lower resolutions. The Ultra preset is only viable for users who prioritize graphical fidelity over performance, and even then, only at 1080p and 1440p.

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

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the shifting bottleneck between the CPU and GPU. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 280 at 1080p to 184 at 1440p and then to 102 at 4K. This is a 64% reduction from 1080p to 4K. If the system were entirely GPU-bound, we would expect a more dramatic drop, as the pixel count increases by a factor of four. The fact that the drop is less than 4x suggests that at 1080p Low, the CPU is the primary limiting factor, preventing the GPU from reaching its full potential.

At Medium settings, the FPS drops from 230 at 1080p to 152 at 1440p and then to 84 at 4K. This is a 63% reduction from 1080p to 4K, similar to Low. The consistent scaling pattern indicates that the CPU remains a significant constraint even at Medium settings across all resolutions. However, the absolute frame rates are high enough that the GPU is still being fed adequately.

At High settings, the FPS drops from 144 at 1080p to 95 at 1440p and then to 53 at 4K. This is a 63% reduction from 1080p to 4K as well. At Ultra settings, the FPS drops from 100 at 1080p to 66 at 1440p and then to 36 at 4K, a 64% reduction. The consistent ~63-64% scaling across all settings suggests that the system is not purely GPU-bound at any resolution. If the GPU were the sole bottleneck, the scaling from 1080p to 4K would be closer to a 75% reduction (e.g., 280 to 70 FPS). The measured behavior indicates that the CPU is limiting performance at 1080p, and as the resolution increases, the GPU load increases, but the CPU's frame generation capability still sets an upper bound.

This analysis is supported by the fact that the 1440p Low preset (184 FPS) is higher than the 1080p Ultra preset (100 FPS). The GPU has less work at 1440p Low than at 1080p Ultra, allowing the CPU to push more frames. This confirms that the Ryzen 7 9700F is a capable partner, but its performance ceiling is reached at higher settings, where the GPU's rendering workload becomes more demanding.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 combination holds a combo rank of 640 out of 2,934 tested combos in The Long Drive. This places it in the top 22% of all tested hardware configurations, indicating a strong overall performance level. The rank is a composite measure that likely considers average frame rates across various resolutions and settings.

Given the CPU's 94th percentile ranking and the GPU's 81st percentile ranking, the combo rank of 640 is slightly lower than what the individual component percentiles might suggest. This implies that the pairing is not perfectly optimized for this specific game, or that other combos with higher-end GPUs or CPUs achieve better frame rates. However, a rank of 640 out of 2,934 is still a solid result, putting the system in the upper quartile of all tested configurations.

The GPU's nearest rivals provide context for its performance. The RTX 4070 scores 0.1% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P4 and 0.4% higher than the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, while trailing the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile by 1.3%. This indicates that the desktop RTX 4070 is positioned at a specific performance tier. The combo rank confirms that this tier is sufficient for high frame rates in The Long Drive, but there is headroom for improvement with a more powerful GPU or CPU.

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

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is based on the Ada Lovelace architecture (AD104 chip), manufactured on TSMC's 5 nm process. It features 5,888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, with 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores. The GPU has a base clock of 1920 MHz and a boost clock of 2475 MHz, with 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. Its FP32 performance is rated at 29.15 TFLOPS.

In The Long Drive, the GPU's role becomes more prominent at higher resolutions and settings. The 12 GB VRAM is sufficient for the game's texture and geometry data, and the high memory bandwidth ensures that data can be streamed quickly to the GPU cores. The boost clock of 2475 MHz is high for a desktop GPU, contributing to the strong frame rates observed at 1440p and 1080p.

The benchmark data shows that the GPU can deliver 84 FPS at 4K Medium, which is a demanding scenario. This indicates that the RTX 4070's 29.15 TFLOPS of compute power is well-utilized when the CPU can keep up. At lower resolutions, the GPU is often not the limiting factor, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p Low (280 FPS). The GPU's performance is also reflected in its PassMark G3D score of 26,927, which places it in the 81st percentile against all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Tesla P4, has a score of 37,628, which is 0.1% higher, showing that the RTX 4070 is at the edge of its performance tier.

The GPU's texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s are substantial, allowing it to handle high-resolution textures and complex scenes without stuttering. The 12 GB of VRAM is a key asset for 4K gaming, as it prevents texture swapping that could cause frame drops. The measured FPS data confirms that the GPU can handle 4K High at 53 FPS, which is playable, but the Medium preset at 84 FPS is a more comfortable target.

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

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of the system's performance across all tested configurations.

1080p (1920x1080):

• Low: 280 FPS average. This is the highest frame rate recorded, indicating the CPU is the primary limiter here.
• Medium: 230 FPS average, with a minimum of 196 FPS and a maximum of 265 FPS. The consistency is good, with the minimum still well above 144 Hz.
• High: 144 FPS average. This aligns perfectly with a 144 Hz monitor's refresh rate, providing a smooth experience.
• Ultra: 100 FPS average. This is the most demanding preset at 1080p, but still playable.

1440p (2560x1440):

• Low: 184 FPS average. A significant drop from 1080p Low, but still very high.
• Medium: 152 FPS average, with a minimum of 129 FPS and a maximum of 174 FPS. The minimum is just above 120 Hz, ensuring a mostly smooth experience.
• High: 95 FPS average. This is a comfortable frame rate for 1440p gaming.
• Ultra: 66 FPS average. This is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action.

4K (3840x2160):

• Low: 102 FPS average. This is a very good result for 4K, showing the GPU's strength.
• Medium: 84 FPS average, with a minimum of 71 FPS and a maximum of 97 FPS. The minimum is above 60 FPS, making this a solid choice for 4K.
• High: 53 FPS average. This is borderline playable, but frame drops below 48 FPS are possible.
• Ultra: 36 FPS average. This is not recommended for a smooth experience.

The data shows a clear pattern: the Medium preset offers the best balance of performance and visual quality at every resolution. The minimum FPS values at Medium settings (196 at 1080p, 129 at 1440p, 71 at 4K) are all well above the 60 FPS threshold, ensuring a consistent gameplay experience without major stutters.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 1440p monitor?

A: The Medium preset at 1440p provides an average of 152 FPS with a minimum of 129 FPS, which is the best balance of high frame rates and visual quality. The High preset at 95 FPS is also viable, but the Medium preset offers a 60% performance increase.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming?

A: Yes, the data shows that the system can achieve 102 FPS at 4K Low and 84 FPS at 4K Medium. The Medium preset is the recommended choice for 4K, as it provides a smooth experience with a minimum of 71 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the system reaches 280 FPS, which is a very high frame rate. The fact that lowering resolution from 1440p to 1080p increases FPS by 52% (from 184 to 280) suggests the CPU is the limiting factor at these settings, as the GPU has less work to do.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested systems?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 combination ranks 640th out of 2,934 tested combos in The Long Drive, placing it in the top 22% of all tested configurations.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Ultra and Medium presets?

A: At 1440p, the Ultra preset averages 66 FPS, while the Medium preset averages 152 FPS. This is a 130% performance increase, making the Medium preset significantly more responsive for gameplay.

Q: Does the GPU have enough VRAM for this game?

A: The RTX 4070 has 12 GB of GDDR6X memory. The benchmark results show no indication of VRAM limitations, as the system achieves 84 FPS at 4K Medium, a memory-intensive scenario, without significant frame drops.