The Long Drive

The Long Drive, a driving simulation that released on September 2, 2019, presents an interesting performance profile when paired with the Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. The benchmark data shows a system capable of extreme frame rates at lower resolutions, but one that requires careful settings management to maintain high refresh rates at 4K. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across resolutions and presets, interprets the CPU and GPU roles, and contextualizes the combo’s rank against the broader tested database.

Settings Recommendations

The data indicates that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions, but the ideal choice depends heavily on the target display. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 308.8 FPS average, which is only 23.8 FPS behind the Low preset’s 332.6 FPS. Given that the jump to High drops performance to 205.4 FPS, Medium is the sweet spot for high-refresh-rate monitors at 1080p. The Ultra preset, while visually superior, still produces a very playable 142.7 FPS at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Medium preset again stands out. It achieves 214.9 FPS, which is ample for most high-refresh displays. The High preset drops to 131.8 FPS, which is still smooth but begins to sacrifice the headroom needed for a 144Hz or higher panel. The Low preset’s 263.7 FPS is the only option that eclipses the Medium setting, but the visual quality trade-off is significant. For 1440p, Medium provides the best combination of frame rate and graphical fidelity.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes dramatically. The High preset yields 71.9 FPS, which is borderline for a 60Hz display but not for higher refresh rates. The Ultra preset falls to 52.1 FPS, making it the only unplayable option in the entire dataset. The Medium preset, however, shines with 120.6 FPS, providing a fluid 4K experience that neither High nor Ultra can match. The Low preset offers 146.5 FPS, but the visual compromise is substantial. For 4K gaming, the benchmark results clearly favor the Medium preset as the optimal choice, delivering nearly double the frame rate of High while maintaining reasonable detail.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its capabilities are clearly reflected in the data. With 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, the GPU has ample resources for high-resolution textures. The memory clock runs at 1313 MHz, translating to 21 Gbps effective, and the bandwidth is a massive 1.01 TB/s. These specifications ensure that memory bandwidth is rarely a bottleneck, even at 4K with demanding settings.

The GPU’s clock speeds are also notable. The base clock is 2235 MHz, boosting to 2520 MHz. This high boost clock allows the RTX 4090 to sustain significant throughput. The shading units number 16,384, with 512 TMUs and 176 ROPs. The pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s indicate that the card can process geometry and textures at an extraordinary pace. The FP32 performance of 82.58 TFLOPS confirms that the GPU is the primary driver of frame rates in this game.

The data supports this interpretation. At 1080p Low, the system hits 332.6 FPS. When the resolution is increased to 4K Low, the frame rate drops to 146.5 FPS. This is a significant reduction, but the RTX 4090 still delivers a high frame rate. The fact that moving from Low to Ultra at 1080p drops the FPS from 332.6 to 142.7 — a 56% reduction — shows that the GPU is heavily engaged by the graphical settings. The RTX 4090’s 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores are present in the hardware, and while The Long Drive may not use ray tracing extensively, the raw compute power of this GPU is what enables the high frame rates seen in the Medium preset across all resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific combination of the Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 holds a rank of 45 out of 1734 tested combos for The Long Drive. This places the system in the top 2.6% of all configurations tested, indicating exceptional performance. The ranking reflects the raw power of the RTX 4090, which is the primary driver of this high placement.

The CPU’s contribution to this rank is also relevant. The Intel Core i5-13400F has an average benchmark score of 25,236 and sits in the 82nd percentile against all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-13620H with a score of 25,201 (a 0.1% delta), the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D with 25,365 (a -0.5% delta), and the AMD EPYC 9474F with 25,103 (a 0.5% delta). These figures show that the i5-13400F is competitive with these processors, but its performance is not exceptional. The GPU, however, is in the 91st percentile against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 66,473. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA Tesla T4 with 66,733 (a -0.4% delta) and the NVIDIA Tesla P40 with 66,127 (a 0.5% delta), showing that the RTX 4090 is near the top of the GPU hierarchy.

The combo rank of 45 reflects the synergy between a top-tier GPU and a mid-range CPU. The data suggests that the GPU is doing the heavy lifting, as the CPU is not bottlenecking the system at higher resolutions. The rank is impressive, but it is likely higher than what a similar CPU paired with a less powerful GPU would achieve, confirming that the RTX 4090 is the defining factor in this configuration’s success.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional frame rates. The Low preset achieves 332.6 FPS, which is the highest score in the entire dataset. The Medium preset is close behind at 308.8 FPS. The High preset drops to 205.4 FPS, while the Ultra preset manages 142.7 FPS. This progression shows a clear scaling pattern where each increase in settings costs a significant number of frames.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains high. The Low preset yields 263.7 FPS, which is still above the refresh rate of most monitors. The Medium preset drops to 214.9 FPS, and the High preset falls to 131.8 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p delivers 94.9 FPS, which is the first time the system dips below the 100 FPS mark in this resolution. This indicates that 1440p Ultra is a demanding configuration, but the RTX 4090 still handles it adequately.

The 3840x2160 results show the most variation. The Low preset produces 146.5 FPS, which is excellent for 4K. The Medium preset follows with 120.6 FPS, providing a smooth experience. The High preset drops to 71.9 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for high-refresh displays. The Ultra preset, however, falls to 52.1 FPS, which is the lowest score in the dataset. This 4K Ultra result is the only configuration that struggles to maintain a stable 60 FPS, highlighting the extreme demands of the Ultra preset at this resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling patterns reveal important insights about the system’s bottleneck. When moving from 1080p to 1440p, the frame rates drop by an average of roughly 25-30% across all settings. For example, the Low preset goes from 332.6 FPS to 263.7 FPS, a 20.7% decrease. The Medium preset drops from 308.8 to 214.9, a 30.4% decrease. This pattern suggests that the system is not purely GPU-bound at 1080p, as the CPU is likely providing a performance ceiling that prevents the GPU from fully scaling.

The transition from 1440p to 4K is more dramatic. The Low preset drops from 263.7 to 146.5 FPS, a 44.4% decrease. The Medium preset falls from 214.9 to 120.6, a 43.9% decrease. The High preset drops from 131.8 to 71.9, a 45.4% decrease. This consistent ~45% reduction across settings indicates that the system becomes heavily GPU-bound at 4K. The RTX 4090’s pixel throughput is the limiting factor, and the CPU is no longer a constraint.

The data shows that at 1080p, the Intel Core i5-13400F is the limiting component. The CPU’s 10 cores and 16 threads, with a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, are sufficient for most games, but the RTX 4090 is so powerful that it can outpace the CPU’s ability to feed it data. This is evident in the relatively small FPS gap between the 1080p and 1440p results at Low settings. Once the resolution increases to 4K, the GPU’s workload becomes the dominant factor, and the frame rates scale accordingly with the pixel count. This analysis confirms that the RTX 4090 is the primary driver of performance in this configuration, while the CPU plays a supporting role that becomes less significant as resolution increases.