The Long Drive

# The Long Drive with Intel Core i5-9400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070

The Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 combination delivers a distinctive performance profile in The Long Drive, a driving simulation from 2019. The measured data shows a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while the six-core, six-thread Coffee Lake processor at 2.90 GHz base and 4.10 GHz boost provides sufficient headroom at lower settings. The RTX 3070, with its 8 GB GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus yielding 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, dominates the frame rate trajectory across all tested configurations. This pairing ranks 759th out of 1,734 tested combos, placing it in the upper-middle tier of the database. The benchmark results reveal a clear scaling pattern: moving from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings incurs a substantial performance penalty, while Low settings at 1080p nearly triple the frame rate of the Ultra 4K result.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and reveals the GPU as the primary limiting component. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 121.1 FPS at 1920x1080 to 75.9 FPS at 2560x1440, then to 45.9 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 37.3% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 39.5% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 3070's 20.31 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 165.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are increasingly stressed as pixel count rises. At Low settings, the trend is steeper in absolute terms: 224 FPS at 1080p drops to 153 FPS at 1440p, and then to 84 FPS at 4K. The Low-setting 4K result of 84 FPS is actually higher than the High-setting 1440p result of 75.9 FPS, demonstrating that settings adjustments can compensate for resolution increases in this title. The Ultra preset shows the most severe scaling, with 86 FPS at 1080p falling to 58.2 FPS at 1440p and finally 30.7 FPS at 4K. This 55.3 FPS difference between 1080p Ultra and 4K Ultra suggests that the combination of high pixel count and maximum graphical features pushes the GPU to its limits.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 plays the dominant role in this system's performance. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, running at 14 Gbps effective with a 256-bit bus, provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth — a figure that appears sufficient for The Long Drive's textures and geometry at all tested settings. The GPU's boost clock of 1725 MHz and base clock of 1500 MHz, combined with 5,888 shading units and 184 texture mapping units, drive the frame rates across all resolution and settings combinations. The card's 72nd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 28,238, places it well above the median. In the nearest rival comparison, the RTX 3070 sits between the AMD FirePro S7150 (0.6% higher average score) and the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (0.9% lower average score), indicating that its raw compute performance is closely matched by these alternatives. The 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores contribute to the card's DirectX 12 Ultimate support, though the measured FPS data suggests that traditional rasterization performance is the key factor in this driving simulation. The GPU's 20.31 TFLOPS FP32 throughput appears to be the bottleneck at 4K Ultra, where the 30.7 FPS result indicates the rendering pipeline is saturated.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 achieves a rank of 759 out of 1,734 tested combos in The Long Drive, placing it in the 56th percentile of all configurations. This mid-pack ranking is notable given the individual component standings: the CPU sits at the 50th percentile among all processors with an average benchmark score of 2,305, while the GPU ranks at the 72nd percentile. The disparity between component percentiles and the combo's overall rank suggests that The Long Drive is particularly sensitive to GPU performance, but the CPU's position as a mid-tier processor prevents the system from reaching higher echelons. The i5-9400's nearest rivals — the Intel Core i3-10305 (0.2% higher average score), Intel Core i3-1125G4 (0.2% higher), Intel Xeon E-2134 (0.4% higher), and Intel Core i7-8809G (0.6% lower) — all fall within a narrow performance band, confirming that this processor is firmly in the mainstream segment. The combo's 759th rank reflects a balanced but not exceptional pairing, where the GPU's strength is partially offset by the CPU's moderate multi-core throughput of 7,969 in Cinebench R23 multicore.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers playable frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 224 FPS average, Medium yields 189.8 FPS, High reaches 121.1 FPS, and Ultra drops to 86 FPS. The 138 FPS gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p demonstrates the significant performance cost of maximum graphical fidelity. Moving to 2560x1440, the results show 153 FPS at Low, 127.9 FPS at Medium, 75.9 FPS at High, and 58.2 FPS at Ultra. The transition from 1080p to 1440p reduces frame rates by 31.7% at Low, 32.6% at Medium, 37.3% at High, and 32.3% at Ultra. At 3840x2160, the 4K results are 84 FPS at Low, 69 FPS at Medium, 45.9 FPS at High, and 30.7 FPS at Ultra. The 4K Ultra result of 30.7 FPS is the only configuration that falls below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, while 4K High at 45.9 FPS also approaches this limit. The data shows that Medium settings at 4K, with 69 FPS, represent the highest fidelity option that maintains comfortable playability. Across all resolutions, the scaling from Medium to High costs approximately 35-40% of frame rate, while the jump from High to Ultra costs an additional 30-35%. The Low to Medium transition is comparatively modest, costing 15-20% at each resolution, suggesting that the GPU handles the initial settings increases efficiently before hitting diminishing returns at higher presets.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings configuration for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: At 3840x2160, Medium settings produce 69 FPS average, which is the highest quality preset that maintains frame rates above 60 FPS. High settings drop to 45.9 FPS, and Ultra falls to 30.7 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2,305, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core i3-10305 and Intel Core i3-1125G4, 0.4% higher than the Intel Xeon E-2134, and 0.6% lower than the Intel Core i7-8809G.

Q: Is the RTX 3070's memory bandwidth sufficient for The Long Drive?

A: The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth from 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus supports the observed frame rates well. The 4K Medium result of 69 FPS suggests memory bandwidth is not a limiting factor at that configuration.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings achieve 224 FPS while Ultra settings produce 86 FPS, representing a 138 FPS difference. This shows the substantial impact of graphical settings on performance.

Q: How does this combo's rank compare to the individual component percentiles?

A: The combo ranks 759th out of 1,734 (56th percentile), while the CPU sits at the 50th percentile and the GPU at the 72nd percentile. The GPU's higher standing does not fully translate to combo rank, indicating game-specific performance characteristics.

Q: Which resolution and settings combination provides the highest frame rate above 60 FPS?

A: The 2560x1440 High configuration delivers 75.9 FPS, while 1920x1080 Ultra achieves 86 FPS. At 4K, only Low (84 FPS) and Medium (69 FPS) exceed 60 FPS.