The Long Drive

The Long Drive pairs the Intel Core i5-12600KF with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, a combination that lands at rank 2021 out of 3725 tested combos in this driving simulation. This mid-table placement reflects a balanced pairing where the CPU’s strong multi-threaded throughput and the GPU’s 8 GB of VRAM both contribute, though neither component dominates the other across all settings and resolutions. The measured frame rates show a wide performance envelope, from 26 FPS at 4K Ultra to 203 FPS at 1080p Low, which indicates that the combo is flexible but requires settings tuning to hit high refresh rates at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in The Long Drive?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 203, recorded at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is followed by 167 FPS at 1080p Medium and 133 FPS at 1440p Low, showing that the combo can exceed 130 FPS at lower settings even at 1440p.

Q: How does the i5-12600KF compare to its nearest CPU rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The i5-12600KF has an average benchmark score of 27799, placing it 0.3% below the Intel Core i9-10900K (27872) and 0.3% above the AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE (27712). It also sits 0.3% below the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U (27887) and AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (27896), meaning the differences are negligible in synthetic tests.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS in the measured data, and at what settings?

A: The lowest average FPS is 26, measured at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings. This is the only sub-30 FPS result in the dataset, and it is accompanied by 38 FPS at 4K High and 61 FPS at 4K Medium.

Q: Does the RTX 4060’s memory bandwidth vary with resolution in the game’s results?

A: The RTX 4060 has a fixed memory bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s across all resolutions, as the hardware does not change. However, the game’s performance scales with resolution: 4K Medium averages 61 FPS, 1440p Medium averages 110 FPS, and 1080p Medium averages 167 FPS, indicating that higher resolutions demand more from the GPU’s memory subsystem.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 rank against its nearest GPU rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 4060’s average benchmark score is 17639, which is 0.2% below the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (17666) and 0.3% above the AMD Radeon 780M (17588). It also sits 0.5% above the AMD Radeon Pro 560 (17551) and 0.7% above the AMD Radeon Pro 460 (17509), showing very tight clustering in synthetic performance.

Q: What is the CPU’s single-thread benchmark score, and how does it relate to gaming?

A: The i5-12600KF scores 3302 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 1016 in 3DMark single-thread. For The Long Drive, these scores support high FPS at lower resolutions, as seen with 203 FPS at 1080p Low, but the game’s frame rates at 4K (e.g., 74 FPS at Low) suggest GPU limits become more significant at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF is a 10-core, 16-thread processor based on Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. Its L3 cache is 20 MB shared, and it supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory, though the game’s performance data does not differentiate between memory types. The CPU’s 3DMark multi-thread scores show a clear scaling pattern: 1995 for 2 threads, 3806 for 4 threads, 6128 for 8 threads, and 7956 for 16 threads, with max-thread score at 7952. This near-linear scaling from 2 to 8 threads suggests that the CPU can handle multi-threaded workloads efficiently, which is relevant for a driving simulation that may process physics, AI traffic, and world streaming concurrently.

In The Long Drive, the CPU’s role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions where the GPU is less stressed. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 203 FPS, which is likely CPU-bound or at least balanced, as the GPU has headroom. The single-thread score of 1016 in 3DMark and 3302 in Cinebench R23 indicate strong per-core performance, which helps maintain high frame rates in scenarios with light GPU load. At 1440p Low, the average drops to 133 FPS, a 34% reduction from 1080p Low, suggesting that resolution scaling begins to shift the bottleneck toward the GPU even at low settings.

The CPU’s percentile ranking is 79 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27799. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i9-10900K (27872, -0.3% delta), AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE (27712, +0.3%), AMD Ryzen 7 6800U (27887, -0.3%), and AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (27896, -0.3%). These deltas are all within 0.3%, meaning the i5-12600KF performs essentially identically to these CPUs in synthetic benchmarks. For The Long Drive, this means that users upgrading from a 10th-gen i9 or a Ryzen 7 5800X3D would see negligible CPU-based differences in frame rates, assuming the GPU remains the same.

The CPU’s TDP is 125 W, and it uses an Intel Socket 1700 with PCIe Gen 4 (20 lanes from CPU). The process node is 10 nm, and the die size is 215 mm². These physical characteristics do not directly affect game FPS, but the 125 W TDP indicates that the CPU can sustain high clocks under load, which is beneficial for maintaining consistent frame times. The boost clock of 4.90 GHz is the key figure for single-threaded game performance, and the measured results at 1080p Low (203 FPS) and 1080p High (104 FPS) show that the CPU can drive high frame rates when the GPU is not the limiting factor.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process and features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s. The GPU’s clocks are 1830 MHz base and 2460 MHz boost, with memory running at 2125 MHz (17 Gbps effective). The shading units number 3072, with 96 TMUs and 48 ROPs. The GPU’s FP32 performance is 15.11 TFLOPS, and it has 24 RT cores and 96 tensor cores. The pixel rate is 118.1 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 236.2 GTexel/s.

In The Long Drive, the GPU’s role is most visible at 4K resolution. At 3840x2160, the average FPS drops from 74 at Low to 61 at Medium, 38 at High, and 26 at Ultra. This steep decline with increasing settings indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K, especially at High and Ultra where the 8 GB VRAM may also be a limiting factor. The 4K Medium result of 61 FPS with a min of 52 and max of 70 shows that the GPU can maintain playable frame rates at medium settings, but Ultra is clearly beyond its capabilities for smooth gameplay.

At 1440p, the GPU still plays a significant role. The average FPS at Low is 133, which drops to 110 at Medium (min 93, max 126), 69 at High, and 48 at Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra is 85 FPS, indicating that the GPU’s compute and memory bandwidth are heavily taxed by higher settings. At 1080p, the GPU has more headroom: 203 FPS at Low, 167 at Medium (min 142, max 192), 104 at High, and 72 at Ultra. The 1080p Ultra result of 72 FPS is still above 60, but the 4K Ultra result of 26 FPS shows that the GPU cannot handle 4K Ultra in this game.

The RTX 4060’s percentile ranking is 61 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17639. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (17666, -0.2% delta), AMD Radeon 780M (17588, +0.3%), AMD Radeon Pro 560 (17551, +0.5%), and AMD Radeon Pro 460 (17509, +0.7%). These deltas are all under 1%, meaning the RTX 4060 performs nearly identically to these older or integrated GPUs in synthetic benchmarks. However, for The Long Drive, the RTX 4060’s 8 GB VRAM and modern architecture may provide better real-world scaling than the raw scores suggest, as the game’s measured FPS at 1080p and 1440p are solid.

The GPU’s TDP is 115 W, and it requires a 300 W suggested PSU. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x8, and the card is dual-slot with a 12-pin power connector. These factors do not affect game performance directly but are relevant for system compatibility. The GPU’s FP32 throughput of 15.11 TFLOPS is the key compute figure, and it likely drives the frame rates at medium and high settings where the game’s rendering load increases.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12600KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 combination ranks 2021 out of 3725 tested combos in The Long Drive, placing it in the 54th percentile of all tested pairings. This is a mid-table result, meaning that while the combo is not among the top performers, it also outperforms a majority of tested systems. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU’s strong multi-threaded performance (79th percentile among CPUs) and the GPU’s more modest standing (61st percentile among GPUs). The GPU is the weaker link in the pairing, but the CPU’s headroom helps at lower resolutions.

Compared to other combos, this rank suggests that many systems with higher-end GPUs (e.g., RTX 4070 or above) would score better, while systems with weaker CPUs but similar GPUs might score slightly worse. The combo’s position at 2021 out of 3725 means there are 1704 combos that perform better and 2020 that perform worse in this specific game. The data shows that the combo’s performance is not limited by a severe mismatch; instead, it is a balanced pairing where the CPU can feed the GPU adequately at 1080p and 1440p, but the GPU’s 8 GB VRAM and compute limits become evident at 4K Ultra.

The combination’s rank can be interpreted alongside the measured FPS data. At 1080p, the combo achieves over 100 FPS at High (104 FPS) and 72 FPS at Ultra, which are solid results for a mid-range system. At 1440p, the combo still delivers 69 FPS at High and 48 FPS at Ultra, which are playable but not high-refresh-rate territory. At 4K, the combo drops to 38 FPS at High and 26 FPS at Ultra, which are below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. This scaling pattern indicates that the combo is best suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming with medium-to-high settings, and 4K should be reserved for Low or Medium settings.

The rank of 2021 also suggests that users with this combo should not expect top-tier performance in The Long Drive, but they should not feel underpowered either. The combo’s synthetic benchmarks align with this: the CPU’s average score of 27799 and the GPU’s 17639 are both mid-pack figures. The nearest CPU rivals (e.g., i9-10900K, Ryzen 7 5800X3D) have nearly identical scores, and the nearest GPU rivals (e.g., Radeon HD 7790, Radeon 780M) are also within 0.7%, so the combo’s ranking is consistent with its hardware’s synthetic performance.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear resolution scaling trend for this combo. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 203 at 1080p to 133 at 1440p (a 34% drop) and then to 74 at 4K (a 44% drop from 1440p). At Medium settings, the averages are 167 at 1080p, 110 at 1440p (34% drop), and 61 at 4K (45% drop). At High settings, the averages are 104 at 1080p, 69 at 1440p (34% drop), and 38 at 4K (45% drop). At Ultra settings, the averages are 72 at 1080p, 48 at 1440p (33% drop), and 26 at 4K (46% drop).

The consistent 33-34% drop from 1080p to 1440p across all settings suggests that the GPU is the primary limiting factor, as the frame rate reduction scales with the pixel count increase (1080p has 2.1 million pixels, 1440p has 3.7 million, a 76% increase, but FPS drops by only 34%, indicating that the GPU is not fully pixel-bound). The 44-46% drop from 1440p to 4K (which has 8.3 million pixels, a 124% increase from 1440p) shows that the GPU becomes more strained at higher resolutions, but the frame rate does not drop proportionally to the pixel count, suggesting that other factors like VRAM bandwidth and shading units are also at play.

The limiting component changes with resolution. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 203 FPS, which is likely CPU-bound or at least CPU-limited, as the GPU has significant headroom. At 1080p Ultra, the average drops to 72 FPS, indicating that the GPU’s compute and memory are now the limiting factors. At 1440p, the GPU becomes more dominant, with Low (133 FPS) still showing CPU involvement, but High (69 FPS) and Ultra (48 FPS) clearly GPU-bound. At 4K, the GPU is the sole limiting factor across all settings, with even Low (74 FPS) showing a significant drop from 1440p Low (133 FPS).

This scaling pattern implies that for users targeting high refresh rates (144Hz or higher), the combo can achieve that at 1080p with Low or Medium settings (203 and 167 FPS, respectively), but not at 1440p where even Low only reaches 133 FPS. For 60 FPS gameplay, the combo can handle 1440p High (69 FPS) and 4K Low (74 FPS), but 4K Medium (61 FPS) is borderline, and 4K High (38 FPS) or Ultra (26 FPS) are not viable. The GPU’s 8 GB VRAM may also contribute to the steep drop at 4K Ultra, as the game’s textures and effects at that setting likely exceed the VRAM capacity, causing performance degradation.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo in The Long Drive covers three resolutions and four settings tiers. At 1920x1080, the combo achieves its highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 203 FPS, Medium produces 167 FPS (with a minimum of 142 and maximum of 192), High produces 104 FPS, and Ultra produces 72 FPS. These results show that the combo can easily drive 1080p at high refresh rates with low-to-medium settings, and even Ultra stays above 60 FPS, making 1080p the resolution where this combo is most comfortable.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates drop significantly across all settings. Low averages 133 FPS, Medium averages 110 FPS (min 93, max 126), High averages 69 FPS, and Ultra averages 48 FPS. The Medium setting’s minimum of 93 FPS indicates that the combo can maintain near-100 FPS in most scenes at 1440p Medium, but High and Ultra are closer to 60 FPS or below. The 1440p results suggest that users should choose between high refresh rate (Low/Medium) and better visual quality (High) at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles at higher settings. Low averages 74 FPS, Medium averages 61 FPS (min 52, max 70), High averages 38 FPS, and Ultra averages 26 FPS. The 4K Medium result is the only 4K setting that stays above 60 FPS, and even then, the minimum of 52 FPS shows that frame dips can occur. The 4K High and Ultra results are below 40 FPS, making them unsuitable for smooth gameplay. This breakdown confirms that the RTX 4060’s 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus are limiting factors at 4K, especially with higher settings that require more memory bandwidth and capacity.

The data also shows that the difference between Low and Ultra settings varies by resolution. At 1080p, the gap is 131 FPS (203 to 72), at 1440p the gap is 85 FPS (133 to 48), and at 4K the gap is 48 FPS (74 to 26). This narrowing gap at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is already stressed at 4K Low, so the additional load from Ultra settings has less absolute impact. Conversely, at 1080p, the GPU has enough headroom that Ultra settings cause a significant drop, but the absolute FPS remains playable. This suggests that for the best experience, users should prioritize resolution over settings when using this combo, as 1440p Medium (110 FPS) offers a better balance than 1080p Ultra (72 FPS) for visual fidelity and smoothness.