The Long Drive

The Long Drive, a driving simulation released on 2019-09-02, presents a unique challenge for hardware analysis due to its procedural generation and physics-heavy gameplay. This analysis examines the measured performance of the Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090. The data shows a combination that is heavily influenced by the CPU's architectural limits and the GPU's immense raw power, with the final frame rates dependent on which component becomes the bottleneck at a given resolution and setting.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Comet Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process. With a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, it provides a balanced foundation for gaming. Its 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth are typical for its generation. In standardized benchmarks, the chip scores 10297 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 1453 in single-core, placing it in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs. Its performance is closely matched by rivals such as the AMD EPYC 7552, which is 0.4% faster, and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C, which is 0.8% slower.

In the context of The Long Drive, the CPU's role is critical for simulating the game's persistent world and vehicle physics. The benchmark results indicate that at lower resolutions, the game becomes increasingly CPU-bound. The data shows that at 1080p with Low settings, the average FPS is 230. This high frame rate suggests that the i5-10400F is capable of driving the game's logic at a very high level, but the scaling to higher resolutions reveals its limitations. The 6-core, 12-thread configuration is sufficient for the game's threading model, but the Comet Lake architecture's lower IPC compared to newer designs means it struggles to maintain high frame rates when the GPU is not the limiting factor. For instance, the difference between 1080p Low and 1080p Ultra is a drop from 230 FPS to 147.8 FPS, a performance hit that is more attributable to the increased GPU load, but the CPU's single-thread performance (1453 in Cinebench R23) becomes a ceiling for maximum achievable FPS in less demanding scenes.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a behemoth of a graphics card, built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture and the GB202 chip using a 5 nm process. It features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing a massive 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. With 21760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, its raw compute power is staggering, as evidenced by its 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 throughput. The card's base clock is 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz. It ranks in the 94th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84306. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D, is only 0.1% faster, highlighting its position at the top of the performance stack.

In The Long Drive, the RTX 5090's role is to render the vast, open landscapes and handle the game's visual effects. The measured FPS data shows that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions and settings. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 53.9, a significant reduction from the 149.6 FPS at 4K Low. This scaling demonstrates that the game's Ultra settings impose a massive rendering load that even the RTX 5090 cannot overcome at 4K. The 32 GB VRAM is more than ample for this title, and its bandwidth ensures that texture streaming is not a limiting factor. The card's performance is consistent with its position in the benchmark hierarchy, but the game's engine seems to have a performance ceiling that prevents the GPU from fully flexing its muscles at lower resolutions where the CPU becomes the constraint.

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-10400F compare to its closest rivals in terms of average benchmark score?

A: The i5-10400F has an average benchmark score of 14168. Its closest rival, the AMD EPYC 7552, scores 14115, which is 0.4% faster. The AMD Ryzen 3 7320C scores 14277, which is 0.8% slower, and the Intel Core i5-8500 scores 14332, which is 1.1% slower.

Q: What is the performance difference between the RTX 5090 and the RTX 5090 D?

A: The RTX 5090 has an average benchmark score of 84306, while the RTX 5090 D has a score of 84241. This places the RTX 5090 D as 0.1% faster than the standard RTX 5090, making them effectively identical in performance.

Q: What is the maximum average FPS recorded for this CPU and GPU combination?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 230, which occurs at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: At what resolution and settings does the combination achieve the lowest average FPS?

A: The lowest average FPS is 53.9, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 5090 than the AMD Radeon PRO W6600?

A: The RTX 5090 has an average benchmark score of 84306, while the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 has a score of 83209. The RTX 5090 is 1.3% faster than the AMD Radeon PRO W6600.

Q: What is the single-core performance of the i5-10400F in Cinebench R23?

A: The i5-10400F scores 1453 points in the Cinebench R23 single-core test.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates for this combination reveal a clear pattern of performance scaling across resolutions and settings. The data is presented as average FPS, with no minimum or maximum values recorded.

At 1920x1080, the results show the CPU's influence. With Low settings, the average FPS is 230. Moving to Medium settings, the FPS drops to 217.7. High settings yield 181.3 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 147.8 FPS. The performance gap between Low and Ultra is 82.2 FPS, indicating that the GPU is still taking on more work, but the CPU is the primary limiter for the highest frame rates.

At 2560x1440, the balance shifts. Low settings produce an average of 200.8 FPS. Medium settings are close behind at 189.2 FPS. High settings see a more significant drop to 138.7 FPS, while Ultra settings bring the average down to 97.6 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is a drop of 103.2 FPS, showing the increased load on the GPU.

At 3840x2160, the GPU dominates the performance profile. Low settings yield an average of 149.6 FPS. Medium settings drop to 121.5 FPS. High settings further reduce the average to 78.1 FPS. Ultra settings are the most demanding, with an average of 53.9 FPS. The total reduction from Low to Ultra is 95.7 FPS, which demonstrates that the rendering resolution is the primary factor in performance degradation at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear trend in how the FPS scales from 1080p to 4K. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 230 at 1080p to 200.8 at 1440p, a reduction of 29.2 FPS, and then to 149.6 at 4K, a further reduction of 51.2 FPS. This indicates that even at Low settings, the GPU is becoming a more significant bottleneck as resolution increases.

At Medium settings, the FPS drops from 217.7 at 1080p to 189.2 at 1440p, and then to 121.5 at 4K. The scaling is more aggressive than Low settings, showing that the increased pixel count and texture detail strain the GPU further.

For High settings, the FPS drops from 181.3 at 1080p to 138.7 at 1440p, and then to 78.1 at 4K. This represents a 103.2 FPS difference between 1080p and 4K, a 56.9% reduction in performance.

Ultra settings show the most dramatic scaling. The FPS drops from 147.8 at 1080p to 97.6 at 1440p, and then to 53.9 at 4K. The difference between 1080p and 4K is 93.9 FPS, a 63.5% reduction. This confirms that at Ultra settings and 4K resolution, the RTX 5090 is heavily loaded, and the performance is limited by its rendering capabilities rather than the CPU.

The analysis indicates that at 1080p, the Intel Core i5-10400F is the limiting component, as the FPS does not scale linearly with GPU load. However, at 4K, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 becomes the clear bottleneck, especially at higher settings. The data suggests that for this game, the sweet spot for this combination is 1440p with Medium or High settings, where the balance between CPU and GPU load produces a smooth experience.