The Long Drive

The Long Drive pairs the Intel Core i3-12100F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, a combination that ranks 1054th out of 3,725 tested combos in this driving simulation. This puts it in the 72nd percentile of all tested configurations, with the 4-core, 8-thread CPU boosting up to 4.30 GHz and the RTX 3080 providing 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus. The data shows a system that can handle The Long Drive well, though the wide range of performance across settings reveals where the bottleneck lies.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern of scaling as the resolution drops from 4K to 1080p. At 4K with Ultra settings, the combo records an average of 35 FPS, which jumps to 50 FPS at High, 81 FPS at Medium, and 98 FPS at Low. This quite large spread at the same resolution suggests that the GPU is doing most of the heavy lifting; only at the lowest quality does the data show the framerate more than doubling from Ultra to reach nearly 100 FPS.

Moving to 1440p, the same pattern holds. Ultra averages 63 FPS, High jumps to 91, Medium to 145, and Low reaches 176 FPS. At 1080p, the figures are 95 (Ultra), 138 (High), 221 (Medium), and 268 FPS (Low). The jump from 1440p to 1080p is less dramatic on High settings, going from 91 to 138 FPS, but the Low preset at 1080p hits 268 FPS. The data suggests that at 4K Ultra, the RTX 3080 is the limiting factor, as the framerate drops below 60 FPS. At 1080p Low, the CPU—the i3-12100F with its 4.3 GHz boost—starts to become the constraint, as the GPU has slack to render more frames but the CPU cannot feed it faster than the 268 FPS average.

The scaling from 1440p to 1080p is not linear. At High settings, going from 1440p to 1080p only improves the average by about 50% (91 to 138), while the Low preset sees a gain from 176 to 268, roughly 50% as well. But the Ultra preset at 1080p averages 95 FPS, only slightly higher than the 63 FPS at 1440p Ultra. This hints that at Ultra, the GPU is still the stress point even at 1080p, because the increase in resolution from 1080p to 4K at Ultra drops FPS from 95 to 35, a 2.7x reduction.

The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor at high resolutions—at 4K, all presets are limited by the GPU. At 1080p Low, the CPU becomes the limit, as the 268 FPS is far beyond what the GPU can render. The medium preset at 1080p with avg 221 FPS and a max of 254 also suggests a CPU limit, as the GPU could likely push more if the CPU were faster.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of the Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 sits at rank 1,054 out of 3,725 tested combos in The Long Drive, putting it in the top 28% of all results. The data shows this is a mid-to-high performing pairing, not the absolute top tier but well above the median.

The combo’s rank reflects a balance between the i3’s 4-core, 8-thread design and the RTX 3080’s high-end GPU. The i3-12100F has a single-core score of 1,674 in Cinebench R23, and the GPU has a 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 4,407. In the game’s measured data, the average FPS across all measured rows is (50+98+81+35+91+176+145+63+138+268+221+95) divided by 12, which equals roughly 138 FPS. The combo is not in the top 100, but it is also not in the bottom half—the ranking shows that many other combinations are slower.

The RTX 3080’s percentile is 68, meaning it performs better than 68% of all GPUs in the database. The i3-12100F also has a percentile of 68, so both components are solidly above average. The rank of 1,054 out of 3,725 (about 28%) suggests that The Long Drive favors the higher-end GPUs, and this combo sits in the upper third. The data indicates that the low-end CPU does not drag the combo into the bottom half, but the combo is not near the top 10% either.

The combo’s rank in The Long Drive is not as high as the GPU’s percentile alone might imply, because the data shows that at high resolutions and settings, the CPU is not the bottleneck, so the combo benefits from the GPU. But at 1080p Low, the CPU caps the framerate.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor from the Alder Lake generation, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. It has 12 MB of shared L3 cache, and the data shows it has a passmark_multithread score of 14,015 and a passmark_single_thread score of 3,444. In Cinebench R23, it gets 1,674 single-core and 11,860 multi-core. This is a low-end CPU in terms of core count, but its single-thread performance is decent.

In The Long Drive, the CPU role is crucial at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo averages 268 FPS, which is the highest measured value across all rows. At 1080p Medium, it averages 221 FPS, and at 1080p High, 138 FPS. At 1080p Ultra, it drops to 95 FPS. The fact that the Low preset at 1080p hits 268 FPS while the High setting at the same resolution is 138 FPS shows that the GPU is still scaling with settings, but at Low, the CPU is likely the limiting factor, because the FPS is so high.

The i3-12100F’s 8 threads are enough for the game, but the data shows that at 4K, the CPU is not the bottleneck. At 4K Low, the average is 98 FPS, which is still far from the 268 at 1080p Low. So the CPU can push 268 FPS at 1080p, but at 4K, the GPU limits it to 98 FPS. The CPU’s boost clock of 4.30 GHz is high, and its 3DMark single-thread score of 893 and Geekbench single-core of 1,932 indicate it can handle the game’s physics and logic.

The CPU’s 4 cores are fewer than many modern CPUs, but The Long Drive does not seem to require many threads—otherwise the combo would not reach 268 FPS at 1080p Low. The 8 threads allow for some multi-processing, but the game is likely not heavily threaded, so the single-core performance matters. With a Cinebench R23 single-core of 1,674, the i3 is not top-tier, but it is sufficient for this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The data includes 12 measured FPS rows across three resolutions and four settings. Here is the exact breakdown:

3840x2160 (4K)

• Low: 98 FPS average
• Medium: 81 FPS average, with a minimum of 68 and a maximum of 93
• High: 50 FPS average
• Ultra: 35 FPS average

At 4K, the best FPS is 98 on Low, and the worst is 35 on Ultra. The Medium setting offers a 81 FPS average, which is above 60, while High is below 60 at 50 FPS. Ultra is barely playable at 35 FPS.

2560x1440 (1440p)

Low: 176 FPS average

Medium: 145 FPS average, with min 123 and max 167

High: 91 FPS average

Ultra: 63 FPS average

At 1440p, the Ultra preset averages 63 FPS, which is playable, and Medium at 145 FPS is smooth. High at 91 FPS is good. Low is 176 FPS.

1920x1080 (1080p)

Low: 268 FPS average

Medium: 221 FPS average, with min 188 and max 254

High: 138 FPS average

Ultra: 95 FPS average

At 1080p, the Medium preset has a min of 188 FPS and max 254, and the average is 221. High is 138, Ultra is 95. Low is 268.

The data shows that the Medium preset is the only one with min/max values across all resolutions: at 4K, min 68, max 93; at 1440p, min 123, max 167; at 1080p, min 188, max 254. The spread is about 25 FPS at 4K, 44 at 1440p, and 66 at 1080p. This indicates that the Medium preset has less frame-time variation at lower resolutions, but the average FPS scales well.

In terms of scaling: from 4K to 1440p on High, FPS goes from 50 to 91, a 1.8x increase. From 1440p to 1080p on High, it goes from 91 to 138, a 1.5x. On Low, 4K to 1440p is 98 to 176 (1.8x), and 1440p to 1080p is 176 to 268 (1.5x). The 1080p Low FPS is 5.5x the 4K Ultra FPS.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in The Long Drive?

A: The highest average FPS is 268, measured at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next is 221 FPS at 1080p Medium.

Q: Does the Intel Core i3-12100F bottleneck the RTX 3080 at 4K?

A: No. At 4K, the FPS is limited by the GPU, with 98 FPS on Low and 38 on Ultra. The CPU is not the limiting factor at high resolution.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded?

A: The lowest average FPS is 38, at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. The next low is 50 FPS at 4K High.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: It ranks 1,054 out of 3,725 combos, placing it in the top 28% of results.

Q: What is the FPS at 1440p Medium?

A: At 1440p Medium, the average is 145 FPS, with a minimum of 123 and a maximum of 167.

Q: Is the RTX 3080’s VRAM a factor?

A: The RTX 3080 has 10 GB of GDDR6X memory. The game’s performance at 4K Ultra shows 38 FPS, but the VRAM capacity is not directly measured in the data.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS, the best experience per the data depends on the resolution. At 1080p, the Medium preset offers a robust 221 FPS average with a minimum of 188 FPS, which is far above 60. The High preset at 138 FPS is also smooth, but Medium has a higher peak of 254. The Ultra preset at 95 FPS is playable but drops below 100. For the smoothest experience with visuals, Medium at 1080p gives 221 FPS, but High at 138 FPS is still above the threshold.

At 1440p, the Medium preset averages 145 FPS with a min of 123, which is excellent. High at 91 FPS is solid, and Ultra at 63 FPS is barely above 60. For a good balance, Medium at 1440p is recommended, as it delivers 145 FPS while Ultra is 63. If the user prefers higher fidelity, Ultra at 63 FPS is playable, but the data shows a stability issue as the min is not recorded.

At 4K, the Medium preset averages 81 FPS with a min of 68, which is the only preset above 60 FPS. High averages 50 FPS, and Ultra is 38. Low is 98 FPS but lacks detail. The data suggests that 4K Medium is the best compromise, as it is above 60 FPS, while High dips to 50 and Ultra to 38. The min of 68 FPS indicates that even at its worst, it stays above 60.

Overall, the Medium setting is the best across all resolutions. At 1080p, it achieves 221 FPS, at 1440p 145 FPS, and at 4K 81 FPS. It is the only preset that provides a min FPS above 60 in all cases, with min values of 188, 123, and 68 FPS. The data shows that Medium offers a great balance of framerate and visual quality. If you want higher visuals, High is 50 FPS at 4K and 63 at 1440p Ultra, but the low-end can dip. Therefore, the data supports Medium as the recommended preset.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is the primary driver of performance in this combo. It is built on the Ampere architecture with the GA102 chip, using an 8 nm process. It has 10 GB of GDDR6X memory with a 320-bit bus and a bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s. Its base clock is 1440 MHz with a boost of 1710 MHz, and it delivers 29.77 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The GPU has 8,704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs.

In The Long Drive, the RTX 3080 is the bottleneck at higher resolutions. At 4K, the FPS scales with settings—Low 98, Medium 81, High 50, Ultra 38—which shows the GPU is the limiting factor. At 4K, the CPU can deliver the frames, but the GPU cannot. The GPU’s memory bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s is not a constraint, as the game’s data does not show a VRAM issue.

The RTX 3080’s percentile is 68, meaning it outperforms 68% of all GPUs, and its average benchmark score is 23,172. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad score is 4,407. The GPU’s role is to render the driving simulation’s scenery, which includes large distances. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the GPU is not fully utilized, as the CPU caps the FPS at 268. At 1080p High, the FPS drops to 138, so the GPU is still working, but the CPU is not the limit.

The RTX 3080 has a TDP of 320 W and requires a 700 W power supply, but the performance is high. In comparison to its nearest rivals (based on average benchmark scores), the RTX 3080 is -0.3% below the NVIDIA P106-100, and -0.4% below the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16. These rivals offer similar average scores but are not in the same class, yet the data shows the RTX 3080 is not the absolute top.

The GPU’s 10 GB VRAM is sufficient for this game, as the FPS at 4K Ultra is 38, meaning the GPU can handle the memory. The RTX 3080 is the stronger component in this combo, and the data shows that for the best experience, the CPU is not the limiting factor except at 1080p Low.