The Long Drive

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

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread Comet Lake desktop processor built on Intel's 14 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. This CPU sits in the 68th percentile of all tested processors, indicating a solid mid-range standing. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 4,748 in 3DMark 16-thread and 4,735 in max-thread tests, with a single-thread score of 688. Cinebench R23 results show 10,283 multi-core and 1,451 single-core, while Geekbench yields 6,257 multi-core and 1,420 single-core.

For The Long Drive, a driving simulation that typically favors physics and world-streaming over raw CPU throughput, this processor's 6-core/12-thread configuration provides a balanced foundation. The game's measured FPS at 1080p Low reaches 232 average, which is the highest measured value across all settings and resolutions in this dataset. This suggests that at lower graphical loads, the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU without becoming a bottleneck, allowing the frame rate to climb well past 200 FPS.

The CPU's nearest rivals in aggregate benchmark performance are the Intel Xeon 6756E (0.2% higher score), the Intel Core 7 160UL (0.3% lower), the AMD EPYC 7552 (0.5% higher), and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (0.6% lower). While these comparisons reflect overall compute capability, the i5-10400F's 12 threads are particularly relevant for The Long Drive, where background simulation tasks can scale with thread count. The 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 42.7 GB/s of DDR4 dual-channel memory bandwidth are capable for this title's open-world streaming demands.

Benchmark results indicate that the CPU's influence becomes more apparent as resolution decreases. At 1080p with Low settings, the average FPS of 232 likely approaches CPU-limited territory, given that the RTX 5070 is far more powerful than what this CPU can feed at such a low graphical load. However, the data shows that the combination still delivers playable performance across the board, with even the most demanding measured scenario (4K Ultra) holding at 39 average FPS.

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

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on preset selection across all three resolutions. At 1080p, the Low preset yields 232 average FPS, but this comes with a significant visual quality reduction. The Medium preset at 1080p delivers 216 average FPS with a minimum of 184 and maximum of 249, offering a smoother frame-time cushion while maintaining better visual fidelity. High at 1080p drops to 154 average, which is still highly playable for a driving simulation.

For 1440p, the Medium preset stands out as the sweet spot: 162 average FPS with a minimum of 138 and maximum of 186. This provides a substantial margin above typical 60 FPS display refresh rates, ensuring consistent smoothness. High at 1440p averages 101 FPS, which is acceptable but less headroom for demanding scenes. Low at 1440p reaches 197 average, but the visual tradeoff is rarely worth it at this resolution when Medium is only 18% slower.

At 4K, the recommendation shifts. Medium preset at 3840x2160 averages 90 FPS with a minimum of 76 and maximum of 103, making it the best balance of fidelity and performance for this resolution. High at 4K drops to 56 average, which is below the 60 FPS threshold many players target, while Ultra at 4K falls to 39 average, which is likely too low for smooth gameplay in a driving simulation. Low at 4K reaches 109 average but sacrifices most visual detail.

The optimal experience across the board is the Medium preset. At 1080p, it provides 216 average FPS; at 1440p, 162 average; and at 4K, 90 average. The minimum frame rates at Medium (184 at 1080p, 138 at 1440p, 76 at 4K) demonstrate that this preset maintains consistent frame pacing, avoiding the dips that can occur with High or Ultra. For players with 60 Hz displays, Medium at 4K offers the best visual quality while staying well above the refresh ceiling. For higher refresh monitors, Medium at 1440p or 1080p provides ample FPS headroom.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the average FPS at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS is 101 at 2560x1440 with High settings. This is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay but lower than the 162 average delivered by Medium at the same resolution.

Q: How does the RTX 5070's memory bandwidth compare to its predecessor's?

A: The RTX 5070 features 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 672.0 GB/s bandwidth. This is a notable upgrade over the GeForce 40-series predecessor, though exact predecessor bandwidth figures are not in the dataset.

Q: Is the i5-10400F a bottleneck at 1080p Low settings?

A: The 232 average FPS at 1080p Low suggests the CPU may be limiting performance, as the RTX 5070 is capable of far higher frame rates in less CPU-intensive scenarios. However, the data does not provide a direct comparison to isolate CPU vs GPU limitation.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Ultra and Medium at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, Ultra averages 39 FPS while Medium averages 90 FPS. This represents a 51 FPS advantage for Medium, making it the clear choice for 4K gaming with this combination.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested combinations in The Long Drive?

A: The Intel Core i5-10400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 combination ranks 851 out of 3,725 tested combos for this game, placing it in the top 23% of all configurations.

Q: What is the lowest measured average FPS in the dataset?

A: The lowest average FPS is 39 at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This is the only measured scenario that falls below 40 FPS, indicating that Ultra at 4K is not recommended for this hardware combo.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 ranks 851st out of 3,725 tested combos in The Long Drive. This places the configuration in the 77th percentile of all tested combinations, meaning it outperforms roughly 77% of the hardware pairings in the database for this specific game. Given that the RTX 5070 alone sits in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs, the combo's slightly lower rank suggests the i5-10400F is holding back the GPU to some degree, particularly at lower resolutions where CPU overhead becomes more significant.

The GPU's nearest rivals in aggregate benchmark performance are the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (0.1% higher score), AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 (0.8% higher), AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (1.2% lower), and NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (2% higher). These comparisons reflect the GPU's overall compute capability, but the in-game ranking accounts for the specific CPU-GPU pairing, which is what matters for actual performance in The Long Drive.

The rank of 851 out of 3,725 suggests that while this is not a top-tier combination for this game, it substantially outperforms the median setup. The measured FPS data corroborates this: even the most demanding scenario (4K Ultra) achieves 39 average FPS, which is playable but not smooth, while the best-case 1080p Low scenario reaches 232 average FPS. The combo's mid-pack ranking is consistent with a balanced mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU, where the CPU limits peak frame rates but the GPU ensures high performance at higher resolutions.

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

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB205 chip, manufactured on TSMC's 5 nm process. It packs 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's base clock is 2325 MHz with a boost clock of 2512 MHz, and memory runs at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). With 6,144 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, the RTX 5070 delivers 30.87 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and a pixel rate of 201.0 GPixel/s.

The GPU's 12 GB VRAM is a critical factor for The Long Drive at high resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the game demands significant memory bandwidth and capacity, which explains the 39 average FPS — the GPU is likely hitting a memory bandwidth wall despite its high compute capability. The 672.0 GB/s bandwidth is substantial, but the game's open-world driving environments with long draw distances can stress memory subsystems heavily.

In synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 5070 scores 29,137 in Passmark G3D and 15,787 in GPU compute, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5,077. Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan scores are 172,660 and 178,923 respectively. The GPU ranks in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs, confirming its high-end positioning. Its nearest rivals are AMD Radeon Pro 580 (0.1% higher), AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 (0.8% higher), AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (1.2% lower), and NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (2% higher).

The GPU's role in The Long Drive becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 1080p, the GPU is not the limiting factor, as evidenced by the high frame rates across all settings. At 4K, the GPU's capabilities are fully exercised, with the 90 average FPS at Medium showing strong performance while Ultra's 39 average indicates the game's most demanding settings exceed what the GPU can comfortably handle at this resolution.

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

The dataset provides 12 measured FPS scenarios across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 3840x2160 (4K), the results are as follows: Low settings average 109 FPS, Medium averages 90 FPS with a minimum of 76 and maximum of 103, High averages 56 FPS, and Ultra averages 39 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a clear performance cost: Ultra is 64% slower than Low at 4K.

For 2560x1440 (1440p), Low averages 197 FPS, Medium averages 162 FPS with a minimum of 138 and maximum of 186, High averages 101 FPS, and Ultra averages 70 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p provides the best minimum-to-maximum consistency, with a 48 FPS spread between min and max, compared to the wider spreads seen at higher settings.

At 1920x1080 (1080p), Low averages 232 FPS, Medium averages 216 FPS with a minimum of 184 and maximum of 249, High averages 154 FPS, and Ultra averages 106 FPS. The 1080p Low result of 232 FPS is the highest average in the entire dataset, while the 1080p Medium minimum of 184 FPS is still above the maximum FPS of most 4K scenarios.

Looking at settings progression across resolutions, the pattern is consistent: Medium provides the best balance, Ultra has the largest performance drop, and Low offers the highest frame rates at the cost of visual quality. The gap between Medium and High is substantial — at 4K, High is 38% slower than Medium (56 vs 90 FPS); at 1440p, High is 38% slower (101 vs 162); at 1080p, High is 29% slower (154 vs 216). The Ultra preset is consistently the most demanding, with the largest relative drops: 57% slower than Medium at 4K (39 vs 90), 57% slower at 1440p (70 vs 162), and 51% slower at 1080p (106 vs 216).

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

The scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights about which component limits performance at each resolution. At Medium settings, the progression is: 216 FPS at 1080p, 162 FPS at 1440p, and 90 FPS at 4K. This represents a 25% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a 58% drop from 1080p to 4K. The resolution scaling factor from 1080p to 4K is approximately 2.4x in terms of pixel count, but the FPS drop is only 2.4x (216 to 90), suggesting the GPU is scaling quite efficiently.

At Low settings, the scaling is: 232 FPS at 1080p, 197 FPS at 1440p, and 109 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K is 53%, which is less severe than the 58% drop at Medium. This indicates that at Low settings, the CPU plays a larger role in limiting performance, particularly at 1080p where the 232 FPS ceiling may reflect CPU limitations rather than GPU capability. The relatively smaller frame rate drop from 1440p to 4K at Low settings (197 to 109, a 45% drop) suggests the GPU is still capable of handling the increased pixel count without hitting a hard bottleneck.

The High and Ultra settings show more dramatic scaling. At High, FPS drops from 154 at 1080p to 101 at 1440p (34% drop) and then to 56 at 4K (64% drop from 1080p). At Ultra, the progression is 106 at 1080p, 70 at 1440p, and 39 at 4K — a 63% drop from 1080p to 4K. The steeper declines at higher settings indicate that the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck as graphical load increases, which is expected given the RTX 5070's high-end positioning.

The data suggests a balanced system where the CPU limits at low resolutions and low settings, while the GPU limits at high resolutions and high settings. The 4K Medium result of 90 FPS is notably strong, indicating that this combination can handle 4K gaming with reasonable visual quality. The 4K Ultra result of 39 FPS confirms that Ultra settings at 4K are beyond the capabilities of this pairing, and players should use Medium or lower for a smooth 4K experience. Overall, the resolution scaling profile indicates a well-matched CPU-GPU combination for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K performance dependent on settings selection.