The Long Drive

The Long Drive, a driving simulation from 2019, presents a clear performance picture for the Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060. The measured data shows a system that is capable of high refresh rates at 1080p but becomes increasingly constrained by the graphics card as resolution climbs. The relationship between the CPU’s six cores and the GPU’s 6 GB of VRAM defines the experience across all tested settings.

Resolution Scaling

The most significant performance variable in this configuration is resolution, with the data showing a predictable but steep decline in average FPS as pixel count increases. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 153.4 FPS, which drops to 101.2 FPS at 2560x1440 and further to 54.5 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 65% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at the same settings, indicating that the rendering load scales heavily with resolution.

The pattern holds across other settings, though the absolute drop varies. At Medium settings, the average FPS goes from 129.7 at 1080p to 86.7 at 1440p and 49.5 at 4K. High settings see a similar trend: 81.8 FPS at 1080p, 54.1 at 1440p, and 29.5 at 4K. The Ultra preset, which is the most demanding, shows the steepest curve, falling from 56 FPS at 1080p to 35.7 at 1440p and just 19.2 at 4K.

This scaling behavior strongly suggests the GPU is the limiting component at higher resolutions. The RTX 2060’s 6 GB of GDDR6 memory and 192-bit bus appear sufficient for 1080p but become a bottleneck as the frame buffer demands grow. The fact that 4K Ultra nearly halves the frame rate compared to 4K High — 19.2 versus 29.5 FPS — indicates that the GPU’s compute resources, not just memory bandwidth, are saturated. For players targeting 4K, even Low settings only deliver 54.5 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F provides the computational foundation for this combo, featuring 6 cores and 12 threads with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. This Comet Lake architecture, built on a 14 nm process, has a 12 MB shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration. The CPU’s benchmark scores show solid single-thread performance, with a 3dmark single-thread score of 688 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1453.

In The Long Drive, the CPU’s role appears to be secondary to the GPU, particularly at higher resolutions where frame rates drop below 60 FPS. The game’s driving simulation nature likely relies on physics calculations and world streaming, which benefit from the CPU’s 12 threads. The PassMark multithread score of 12115 and the 3dmark 16-thread score of 4748 indicate that the CPU can handle multi-threaded workloads effectively, but the measured FPS data shows that resolution, not CPU load, is the primary factor in performance degradation.

The CPU’s position among rivals, sitting at the 73rd percentile of all CPUs, suggests it is a mid-range performer. Its nearest rival, the AMD EPYC 7552, has an average score 0.4% higher, while the Intel Core i5-8500 is 1.1% ahead. These small deltas confirm that the i5-10400F is not a performance outlier. In the context of this game, the CPU’s 6 cores are likely sufficient to avoid becoming a bottleneck at 1080p, where the GPU can push frame rates above 80 FPS at High settings, but the exact CPU utilization is not captured in the FPS data.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain the measured performance patterns. The GPU is built on the Turing architecture with a TU106 chip, featuring 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 48 render output units. It also includes 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores, though these are unlikely to be utilized in a driving simulation from 2019. The GPU’s base clock is 1365 MHz with a boost clock of 1680 MHz, and it has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s.

The GPU’s benchmark results place it at the 58th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 16074. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7600S, scores 0.5% higher, while the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M is 1.7% ahead. This places the RTX 2060 in the mid-range tier, which aligns with its measured performance in The Long Drive.

The GPU’s memory capacity appears to be a limiting factor at 4K. The 6 GB VRAM is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, where the game’s textures and geometry fit within the frame buffer, but at 4K, the higher memory pressure may cause the GPU to struggle. The drop from 54.5 FPS at 4K Low to 29.5 FPS at 4K High suggests that texture quality and shader complexity directly impact memory usage. The GPU’s 160 W TDP and 450 W suggested PSU indicate it is a power-hungry component, but power draw is not the performance constraint here.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 ranks 1421 out of 1734 combos for The Long Drive. This places it in the lower 18% of all tested configurations, which is a notable finding given the individual component rankings. The CPU sits at the 73rd percentile among all CPUs, and the GPU at the 58th percentile among all GPUs, but their combination yields a lower overall rank.

This discrepancy suggests that the pairing is not optimal for this particular game. The CPU’s 6 cores and the GPU’s 6 GB of VRAM may create a mismatch where neither component can fully compensate for the other’s limitations. The rank of 1421 indicates that many other combinations of CPUs and GPUs deliver better performance in this title, likely due to either more powerful GPUs or more balanced pairings. The data shows that while this combo can achieve playable frame rates at 1080p, it falls behind a significant portion of the tested population, particularly at higher resolutions where the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best performance. Low settings produce an average of 153.4 FPS, which is ideal for high refresh rate monitors. Medium settings drop to 129.7 FPS, still well above 60 FPS. High settings yield 81.8 FPS, and Ultra settings bring the average down to 56 FPS. This means that at 1080p, the system can handle all settings, with Ultra being the only preset that dips below the 60 FPS threshold.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops are significant but manageable for most settings. Low settings produce 101.2 FPS, Medium achieves 86.7 FPS, and High reaches 54.1 FPS. Ultra settings fall to 35.7 FPS, which is below the playable threshold for many users. The data shows that 1440p is a viable resolution for Low and Medium settings, but High and Ultra require compromises.

At 3840x2160, the GPU’s limitations become severe. Low settings deliver 54.5 FPS, which is borderline playable. Medium settings drop to 49.5 FPS, High falls to 29.5 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 19.2 FPS. None of the 4K presets reach 60 FPS, and even Low settings are below the ideal threshold. The data indicates that 4K is not a practical resolution for this combo unless the user is willing to accept sub-60 FPS performance.

The frame rates across all resolutions and settings show a consistent pattern: the gap between Low and Medium is smaller than the gap between High and Ultra. For example, at 1080p, the difference between Low and Medium is 23.7 FPS, while the difference between High and Ultra is 25.8 FPS. At 4K, the Low-to-Medium gap is 5 FPS, but the High-to-Ultra gap is 10.3 FPS. This suggests that the Ultra preset introduces effects that disproportionately tax the GPU, likely related to shadows, reflections, or draw distance. For users seeking the best balance of visual quality and performance, Medium or High settings at 1080p appear to be the optimal choices, with the data showing 129.7 FPS and 81.8 FPS respectively.