The Long Drive

The Long Drive pairs a 6-core Intel Core i5-12400F with the flagship NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D, creating a test bench for how a high-end GPU behaves when paired with a mid-range CPU from a previous generation. The data shows a system capable of extreme frame rates, but the relationship between resolution, settings, and performance reveals a complex picture of where the bottleneck lies. This analysis examines the measured FPS across three resolutions and four quality presets to determine the optimal configuration for this specific combo.

FAQ

Q: What is the best-performing settings preset for this combo at 1080p?

A: The Low preset achieves the highest average frame rate at 1920x1080, hitting 318 FPS. Medium follows closely at 297 FPS, while High drops to 222 FPS and Ultra falls to 154 FPS.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra performance compare to the 1080p Low performance?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 56, which is less than one-fifth of the 318 FPS seen at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This represents a dramatic 82% reduction in frame rate.

Q: Does the RTX 5090 D show a significant advantage over its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 77,712. Its closest competitor, the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT, scores 76,904, putting the RTX 5090 D just 1.1% ahead. The NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB is 2.4% behind.

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested systems for this game?

A: This configuration is ranked 58th out of 2,934 tested combos, placing it in the top 2% of all systems tested for The Long Drive.

Q: What is the difference in performance between the Medium and Ultra presets at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 234 FPS, while Ultra averages 101 FPS. The Medium preset is more than double the frame rate of Ultra, showing a significant performance cost for the highest quality settings.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: The data suggests a CPU limitation at 1080p. The gap between Low (318 FPS) and Medium (297 FPS) is only 21 FPS, while the jump from Medium to High (222 FPS) is a much larger 75 FPS drop, indicating the CPU is likely saturated before the GPU's full potential is reached.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the dominant component in this pairing, built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus. The memory runs at an effective speed of 28 Gbps, delivering a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. This massive memory pool and bandwidth are crucial for high-resolution textures and data throughput, though The Long Drive's measured results show that the GPU's capabilities are not always the primary constraint.

The GPU's core configuration includes 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output units. Its boost clock reaches 2407 MHz, with a base clock of 2017 MHz. These specifications translate to a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s, figures that far exceed the demands of most driving simulations. The FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS places it among the most powerful consumer GPUs available.

In synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 5090 D scores 44,065 in Passmark's G3D test and 28,396 in GPU compute, with a 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 77,712 is remarkably close to its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT, which scores 76,904 (a 1.1% delta). This proximity in synthetic scores is interesting, though the real-world gaming results in The Long Drive do not show such a close contest with other hardware.

The GPU's role becomes clearer when examining the measured FPS. At 4K Ultra, the RTX 5090 D produces 56 FPS, suggesting the GPU is working hard but not maxed out. The 32 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for this game, so the limitation is likely in the rendering pipeline. The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, ensuring full API compatibility with modern game engines. The 575 W TDP and 950 W suggested PSU indicate a power-hungry component, but the data shows it delivers substantial performance at lower resolutions where the CPU becomes the bottleneck.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic pattern of shifting bottlenecks. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 318 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops this to 277 FPS, a 13% reduction. At 3840x2160 Low, the frame rate falls to 158 FPS, which is a 50% drop from the 1440p figure and a 50% drop from 1080p. This steep decline at 4K indicates the GPU is becoming the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The Medium preset shows a similar trend. At 1080p, it averages 297 FPS with a minimum of 253 and maximum of 342. At 1440p, the average is 234 FPS (min 199, max 269), and at 4K it drops to 130 FPS (min 110, max 149). The scaling from 1440p to 4K is a 44% reduction, while the 1080p to 1440p step is only 21%, showing that the GPU workload increases disproportionately at 4K.

High settings exhibit the most linear scaling. The 1080p result is 222 FPS, 1440p is 146 FPS (a 34% drop), and 4K is 81 FPS (a 45% drop from 1440p). This suggests that at High settings, the system is more balanced, with both CPU and GPU contributing to the frame rate. The Ultra preset, however, shows the most dramatic scaling. At 1080p, it produces 154 FPS, but at 1440p, this falls to 101 FPS (a 34% drop), and at 4K, it plummets to 56 FPS (a 45% drop from 1440p).

The 1080p data points to a CPU limitation. The difference between Low (318 FPS) and Medium (297 FPS) is small, suggesting the CPU is nearing its maximum throughput. The i5-12400F has a boost clock of 4.40 GHz and 6 cores with 12 threads, which is sufficient for high frame rates but can cap performance in less demanding scenes. At 4K, the GPU's rendering load increases, and the frame rates drop substantially, confirming that the RTX 5090 D is the primary constraint at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for the optimal settings preset. For players prioritizing maximum smoothness, the Low preset at 1080p delivers 318 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. However, the Medium preset at 1080p offers a better balance, providing 297 FPS (only 7% less than Low) while presumably improving visual quality. The minimum FPS for Medium at 1080p is 253, which still exceeds the refresh rate of most displays.

At 1440p, the Medium preset stands out as the best experience. It averages 234 FPS with a minimum of 199 FPS, ensuring consistent frame times even in demanding scenes. The High preset at 1440p drops to 146 FPS, which is still playable but represents a 38% reduction from Medium. The Ultra preset at 1440p (101 FPS) is not recommended, as it sacrifices half the frame rate of Medium for marginal visual gains.

For 4K gaming, the Medium preset again offers the best compromise. It averages 130 FPS with a minimum of 110 FPS, which is smooth for most gaming scenarios. The High preset at 4K (81 FPS) is acceptable for slower-paced driving, but the Ultra preset (56 FPS) dips below the 60 FPS threshold, making it unsuitable for a driving simulation where smoothness is critical. The Low preset at 4K (158 FPS) is an option for competitive play, but the visual quality degradation may not be worth the frame rate increase over Medium.

The data indicates that Medium settings provide the best overall experience across all resolutions. It offers a significant jump in frame rate over High and Ultra while maintaining a stable minimum FPS. The only exception is at 1080p, where Low (318 FPS) might be preferred by esports-oriented players, but for most users, Medium at 297 FPS is the sweet spot.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination ranks 58th out of 2,934 tested combos for The Long Drive, placing it in the top 2% of all systems. This high ranking is primarily driven by the GPU's raw power, but the CPU's performance is also relevant. The i5-12400F has an average benchmark score of 19,039, which puts it in the 73rd percentile among all CPUs. Its closest rival is the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS, which scores 19,047 (a 0% delta), indicating they are virtually identical in synthetic performance.

The CPU's 3DMark scores show a single-thread result of 909 and a max-thread result of 5,912, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 12,380. These figures are respectable for a 6-core part but are not class-leading. The GPU, however, dominates its category. The RTX 5090 D's 92nd percentile ranking reflects its position among all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 77,712 is 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT and 2.4% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB.

The combo's rank of 58 suggests that while the GPU is top-tier, the CPU holds it back from the absolute top positions. Combos ranked higher likely feature newer, higher-core-count CPUs that can feed the RTX 5090 D more effectively at lower resolutions. In synthetic tests, the i5-12400F's Passmark multi-thread score is 19,433, and its single-thread score is 3,481, which are mid-pack results. The gap between the CPU's 73rd percentile and the GPU's 92nd percentile highlights the imbalance in this pairing.

Despite this, the combo's in-game performance is excellent. The measured FPS at 4K Medium (130 FPS) and 1440p Medium (234 FPS) are strong results for a driving simulation. The ranking of 58 out of 2,934 means that only 57 other configurations outperform it, which confirms the RTX 5090 D's ability to compensate for the CPU's limitations in most scenarios.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured FPS data provides a detailed view of the combo's performance across all tested configurations. At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 318 FPS, the highest score in the entire dataset. The Medium preset at 1080p averages 297 FPS with a minimum of 253 and maximum of 342, showing tight frame pacing. High at 1080p drops to 222 FPS, and Ultra at 1080p averages 154 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves 277 FPS, which is a 13% reduction from the 1080p Low result. Medium at 1440p averages 234 FPS (min 199, max 269), representing a 21% drop from 1080p Medium. High at 1440p averages 146 FPS, a 34% drop from 1080p High. Ultra at 1440p drops to 101 FPS, a 34% reduction from 1080p Ultra.

The 3840x2160 results show the most significant performance degradation. Low at 4K averages 158 FPS, which is a 50% drop from 1440p Low. Medium at 4K averages 130 FPS (min 110, max 149), a 44% drop from 1440p Medium. High at 4K averages 81 FPS, a 45% drop from 1440p High. Ultra at 4K averages 56 FPS, a 45% drop from 1440p Ultra.

The pattern is consistent: the frame rate penalty for moving from 1440p to 4K is roughly 44-50% across all settings, while the penalty from 1080p to 1440p is 13-34%, depending on the preset. The larger proportional drop at higher settings (Ultra) compared to lower settings (Low) indicates that the GPU's workload scales more steeply with resolution when visual complexity is high. The minimum FPS values, available only for Medium settings, show that the 4K Medium preset (min 110) is still more consistent than the 1440p Ultra (no min data), further supporting Medium as the recommended preset for this combo.