The Long Drive

The Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 combination delivers a playable experience in The Long Drive, but the data shows a clear dependency on both resolution and graphics preset. At 1080p, the pairing is capable of high frame rates, but the demanding Ultra preset significantly reduces performance, while 4K resolution presents a substantial challenge unless settings are lowered. The benchmark results indicate that this system is best suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming with adjusted settings, rather than maxing out the game's visual fidelity at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average frame rate this combo achieves at 1080p?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded at 1920x1080 is 157 FPS, which is achieved with the Low settings preset.

Q: How does the RTX 2060's performance compare to its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7600S?

A: The RTX 2060's average benchmark score is 16074, which places it 0.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7600S, based on the deltaPct value.

Q: What is the average FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset yields an average of 102.5 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to an average of 35.3 FPS, a significant decrease of 67.2 FPS.

Q: Is the Core i5-9400 considered a high-performance CPU relative to all others?

A: The data indicates the Core i5-9400 has a percentile rank of 50 against all CPUs, meaning it sits exactly at the median performance level.

Q: What is the RTX 2060's standing among all GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 has a percentile rank of 58 against all GPUs, indicating it performs better than a slight majority of the GPUs in the database.

Q: Does the combo's rank in The Long Drive place it in the top half of tested systems?

A: No, the combo ranks 1429 out of 1734 tested combinations, placing it in the lower half of tested systems for this specific game.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and smooth gameplay, the data suggests that the Medium preset is the optimal choice for this hardware in The Long Drive. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 126.3 FPS, which is more than sufficient for a smooth experience and offers a substantial improvement over the High preset's 79 FPS average. The jump from Medium to High incurs a large performance penalty for what is typically a modest visual gain, making Medium the sweet spot for 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again proves to be the most balanced option, producing an average of 83.3 FPS. This frame rate remains comfortably playable, whereas the High preset drops to 53.6 FPS, which may feel less fluid. The Low preset at 1440p does provide a high 102.5 FPS average, but the Medium preset likely offers a significantly better visual experience while still maintaining a high enough frame rate.

The Ultra preset is not recommended for any resolution in this title. The data shows that at 1080p, Ultra drops to an average of 57 FPS, and at 1440p, it falls to 35.3 FPS. The performance cost of Ultra is disproportionate to its benefits on this hardware. For 4K, the Low preset is the only playable option, yielding an average of 57.7 FPS, while even Medium falls to 49.8 FPS. The analysis of the measured rows indicates that Medium at 1080p or 1440p provides the best experience, balancing visual fidelity with consistently high frame rates.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data reveals a predictable but steep decline as resolution increases, indicating that the GeForce RTX 2060 becomes the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. When comparing the High settings preset, the average frame rate drops from 79 FPS at 1920x1080 to 53.6 FPS at 2560x1440, a 32.2% decrease. Moving from 1440p to 4K at High settings shows a further drastic drop to 27.2 FPS, which is a 49.3% decrease. This scaling pattern shows a classic GPU-bound scenario, where the rendering load increases significantly with pixel count.

The scaling behavior is consistent across all presets. For instance, with the Low preset, the system achieves 157 FPS at 1080p, drops to 102.5 FPS at 1440p, and then to 57.7 FPS at 4K. The consistent halving of performance from 1080p to 4K across all settings strongly suggests that the RTX 2060's rendering capabilities, including its 6 GB of VRAM and 192-bit memory bus, are the bottleneck. The Core i5-9400, with its 6 cores and 6 threads, appears to have sufficient processing headroom to feed the GPU at lower resolutions, but the GPU cannot maintain high frame rates as the pixel count increases. The data shows that the system is well-balanced for 1080p gaming, but the GPU becomes the limiting component when pushing to 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

In The Long Drive, the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 combination ranks 1429 out of 1734 tested combinations. This places the system in the bottom half of all tested hardware configurations, indicating that while it can play the game, many other systems deliver higher performance. The ranking is a measure of the entire system's capability in this specific title, and the data shows that this combo is not competitive with top-tier builds.

The CPU and GPU each have their own performance standings that contextualize this rank. The Core i5-9400 is positioned at the 50th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2305. It sits very close to its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i3-10305, which is only 0.2% faster. The RTX 2060 performs slightly better relative to its peers, sitting at the 58th percentile among all GPUs with an average score of 16074. The GPU is 0.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7600S and 1.8% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5500. The combination of a mid-tier CPU and a slightly-better-than-mid-tier GPU results in the overall low ranking for this game, as The Long Drive likely benefits from stronger multi-core processing and higher-end graphics hardware.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is the central component for rendering in this combo, and its specifications directly correlate with the measured frame rates. The GPU features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. The data suggests that this memory configuration is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but can become a constraint at 4K with higher detail settings, contributing to the low 27.2 FPS average at 4K High.

The GPU's clock speeds are specified as a base of 1365 MHz and a boost of 1680 MHz. These clocks, combined with the 1920 shading units, produce a texture rate of 201.6 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 80.64 GPixel/s. These figures are adequate for the game's demands at lower resolutions and settings. The performance scaling observed—from 157 FPS at 1080p Low to 20.8 FPS at 4K Ultra—demonstrates how the GPU's compute resources are taxed by increasing resolution and visual complexity.

The RTX 2060's overall performance is reflected in its benchmarks, such as a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1242 and a Passmark G3D score of 14111. The GPU's percentile rank of 58 shows it is a capable mid-range part. The data indicates that while the GPU is the primary driver of frame rates, its capabilities are best utilized at 1080p and 1440p, where it can maintain high performance. The 6 GB VRAM and 192-bit bus are adequate for these resolutions, but the GPU's raw compute power is insufficient to maintain high frame rates at 4K with the Ultra preset, making the Low preset the only viable option at that resolution.