The Long Drive

The Long Drive pairs a 6-core Intel Core i5-10400F with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070, a combination that produces a wide spread of frame rates depending on resolution and quality settings. This Comet Lake processor, with its 2.90 GHz base and 4.30 GHz boost clock, drives a GPU that sits in the 81st percentile of all tested graphics cards. The data reveals a system that can deliver exceptionally high frame rates at lower resolutions but encounters predictable limits as graphical load increases.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern of frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p with Low settings, the combination achieves 229.7 FPS, but this drops to 182.5 FPS at 1440p and further to 104.1 FPS at 4K. This represents a 54.7% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor as pixel count increases. The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings presets, though the magnitude of the drop varies.

At High settings, the frame rate falls from 146.8 FPS at 1080p to 97.8 FPS at 1440p, then to 50.6 FPS at 4K. The 4K figure is less than half the 1080p result, a steep decline that suggests the RTX 4070's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are being saturated by the higher resolution. The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling: 101.1 FPS at 1080p, 67.8 FPS at 1440p, and just 37.7 FPS at 4K. This 62.7% drop from 1080p to 4K demonstrates that Ultra settings combined with 4K resolution push the GPU to its limits.

Medium settings follow the same trajectory, with 216.8 FPS at 1080p, 152.9 FPS at 1440p, and 83.1 FPS at 4K. The scaling factor from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 70% across presets, while the 1440p to 4K transition retains about 55% of performance. This consistent pattern indicates that the RTX 4070, with its 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, scales predictably with resolution. The 4K results, all below 105 FPS, confirm that this resolution is where the GPU becomes the bottleneck, especially at higher quality presets.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F provides 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Comet Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 14 nm process. Its benchmark scores show a single-thread performance of 688 in 3dmark_single_thread and 1453 in cinebench_r23_singlecore, while multi-threaded results reach 4735 in 3dmark_max_threads and 10297 in cinebench_r23_multicore. These figures place the CPU in the 73rd percentile of all processors, with an average benchmark score of 14168.

The CPU's role in this game's results becomes evident when examining the 1080p data. At 1080p Low, the system produces 229.7 FPS, which exceeds the refresh rate of most displays. The gap between 1080p Low (229.7 FPS) and 1080p Medium (216.8 FPS) is relatively small, suggesting the CPU can feed frames quickly enough at lower settings. However, the more demanding Ultra preset at 1080p yields 101.1 FPS, indicating the GPU is now the constraining factor even at this resolution.

The processor's 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth provide adequate bandwidth for the GPU. The 3dmark_2_threads score of 1350 and 3dmark_4_threads score of 2560 suggest moderate single-thread capabilities that may limit maximum frame rates in lighter scenes. Comparing to its nearest rivals, the i5-10400F scores 0.4% higher than the AMD EPYC 7552 but 1.1% lower than the Intel Core i5-8500, indicating it sits in a competitive mid-range position. The 4.30 GHz boost clock helps maintain responsiveness, but the data shows the GPU does most of the heavy lifting, particularly at 4K where the CPU's relative influence diminishes.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combination in The Long Drive?

A: The data shows 1440p offers the best balance, with 97.8 FPS at High and 182.5 FPS at Low settings, both comfortably playable while maintaining higher visual fidelity than 1080p.

Q: How does the Ultra preset perform at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160 Ultra, the combination produces 37.7 FPS, which is below the threshold typically considered smooth for driving simulation games. The 4K High preset fares better at 50.6 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any resolution?

A: At 1080p Low, the 229.7 FPS result suggests the CPU can keep up with the GPU's output. The relatively small gap between 1080p Low and Medium (12.9 FPS) indicates the CPU is not severely limiting performance at these settings.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and High settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings produce 182.5 FPS while High settings produce 97.8 FPS, a difference of 84.7 FPS that shows the significant GPU load increase from quality improvements.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations?

A: The combination ranks 499th out of 1734 tested combos, placing it in the top 28.8% of all systems tested in this game.

Q: Is the RTX 4070's 12 GB memory sufficient at 4K?

A: The 4K results, ranging from 37.7 FPS at Ultra to 104.1 FPS at Low, suggest that memory capacity is not the primary constraint; rather, the GPU's compute throughput limits performance at this resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combination delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce 229.7 FPS, Medium reaches 216.8 FPS, and High achieves 146.8 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 101.1 FPS, representing a 56% reduction from Low to Ultra. These results indicate that 1080p is well within the system's capabilities, with even the most demanding preset remaining above 100 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales downward consistently. Low settings yield 182.5 FPS, Medium produces 152.9 FPS, and High achieves 97.8 FPS. The Ultra preset falls to 67.8 FPS, which is still playable but shows the increased graphical demands. The transition from 1080p to 1440p reduces frame rates by approximately 20-30% across all settings presets.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 4070 faces its toughest challenge. Low settings produce 104.1 FPS, Medium reaches 83.1 FPS, and High drops to 50.6 FPS. Ultra is the most demanding, yielding only 37.7 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 66.4 FPS, demonstrating the substantial cost of quality settings at this resolution. These 4K figures confirm that while the system can handle 4K at lower quality presets, Ultra settings require compromises.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 ranks 499th out of 1734 tested combinations in The Long Drive. This places the system in the upper third of all configurations, with 71.2% of tested combos ranking below it. The rank reflects the balanced performance of the two components, though the CPU's 73rd percentile and GPU's 81st percentile scores suggest the graphics card is the stronger contributor.

The RTX 4070's average benchmark score of 37283 places it close to the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, which scores 0.6% higher, and the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A, which scores 1.9% higher. The GPU's passmark_g3d score of 26927 and geekbench_opencl score of 168006 indicate strong compute capabilities. Meanwhile, the i5-10400F's average score of 14168 is within 1.2% of its nearest rivals, including the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C and Intel Core i5-8500.

The ranking of 499 out of 1734 suggests that while this system is not a top-tier configuration, it offers solid performance for The Long Drive. The measured FPS data supports this assessment, with the system capable of exceeding 200 FPS at 1080p Low and maintaining playable frame rates at 1440p High. The 4K results, while lower, still allow for playable experiences at Medium settings. This combination occupies a strong mid-to-upper position in the benchmark database, with the GPU providing the primary performance advantage over lower-ranked configurations.