The Long Drive

# The Long Drive with Intel Core i5-9400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 delivers a playable experience in The Long Drive, a Driving Simulation title released on 2019-09-02. Across 12 measured configurations spanning 1080p, 1440p, and 4K with four quality presets each, the combo's performance swings dramatically based on resolution and settings, revealing a system that is clearly GPU-bound at higher resolutions but increasingly CPU-limited at lower ones. The measured frame rates range from 27.5 FPS at 4K Ultra to 201.9 FPS at 1080p Low, placing this combination at rank 979 out of 1,734 tested combos in this game — a mid-pack result that reflects balanced but not exceptional hardware.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a steep FPS drop when moving from 1080p to 4K, with the magnitude of that drop heavily dependent on the quality preset. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 106.6 FPS at 1920x1080 to 66.8 FPS at 2560x1440, then further to 37.1 FPS at 3840x2160. That represents a 65.2% reduction from 1080p to 4K. The scaling pattern is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario: as pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, the rendering load on the RTX 4060 grows substantially, and the frame rate drops accordingly.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more dramatic in absolute terms. The combo achieves 201.9 FPS at 1080p Low, drops to 135.7 FPS at 1440p, and lands at 76.2 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-4K reduction here is 62.2%, which is slightly less severe than at High settings. This suggests that even with minimal graphical load, the GPU still plays a dominant role, though the smaller relative drop at Low settings hints that the CPU begins to matter more when the GPU has less work to do.

The Ultra preset tells a different story. At 4K Ultra, the system manages only 27.5 FPS — a barely playable result. The progression from 72.4 FPS at 1080p Ultra to 49.9 FPS at 1440p Ultra to 27.5 FPS at 4K Ultra shows a 62.0% total reduction. Interestingly, the gap between Medium and High at each resolution is relatively consistent: at 1080p, Medium delivers 168.1 FPS versus 106.6 FPS on High; at 1440p, 107.4 versus 66.8; at 4K, 63.4 versus 37.1. This consistent offset across resolutions indicates that the quality preset scales computational cost fairly uniformly, while resolution scaling dominates the overall performance curve.

The limiting component at 4K is clearly the GPU. The RTX 4060, with its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 128-bit bus, must handle a massive pixel throughput at 3840x2160, and the frame rates reflect that strain. At 1080p, however, the i5-9400's six cores and six threads without hyper-threading become more relevant, as the high frame rates (over 200 FPS at Low) approach the point where CPU instruction throughput can cap performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process, with the AD107 chip housing 18,900 million transistors on a 159 mm² die. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1830 MHz and boosts to 2460 MHz, paired with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory running at 2125 MHz (17 Gbps effective) across a 128-bit bus, yielding 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth. These specifications position the card as a mid-range offering, and its 66th percentile rank among all GPUs confirms that placement.

In The Long Drive, the GPU's memory configuration and clock speeds directly influence the measured results. At 4K Ultra, the combo drops to 27.5 FPS, suggesting that both the memory bandwidth and the compute throughput are stretched thin. The 128-bit bus, while adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming, becomes a bottleneck at 4K with high-quality textures and effects. The 8 GB capacity is sufficient for this game's demands at the tested settings, but the bandwidth limitation is evident in the steep scaling curve.

The GPU's compute capabilities — 3072 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs — deliver a pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s. These figures translate to strong 1080p performance: the combo achieves 106.6 FPS at High and 72.4 FPS at Ultra. The 15.11 TFLOPS of FP32 compute helps sustain these frame rates, but the game's rendering requirements at higher resolutions quickly outpace the card's throughput.

The RTX 4060's nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (average score 23,321, delta -0.6%), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti (23,338, delta -0.7%), the Intel Arc B580 (23,021, delta +0.7%), and the AMD Radeon 760M (22,999, delta +0.8%). The RTX 4060's average benchmark score of 23,181 is within 1% of all these competitors, indicating that the GPU's raw compute performance is closely matched by a range of other cards. In The Long Drive specifically, the measured frame rates reflect this mid-pack positioning, with the combo landing at rank 979 out of 1,734.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a Coffee Lake Refresh part built on Intel's 14 nm process, featuring six cores and six threads with no hyper-threading. It runs at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and boosts to 4.10 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The processor includes 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 256 KB of L2 per core, and 9 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support is dual-channel DDR4 with a bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. The CPU's 50th percentile rank among all processors places it exactly in the middle of the distribution.

In The Long Drive, the CPU's role is most apparent at lower resolutions and lower quality settings, where the GPU is less burdened. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 201.9 FPS, and at 1440p Low it manages 135.7 FPS. These high frame rates suggest that the i5-9400 can feed the GPU adequately up to a point, but the six-thread limitation may cap performance in scenes with heavy physics or AI simulation typical of a driving game. The 4.10 GHz boost clock helps in single-threaded tasks, and the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1,125 reflects competent single-thread performance.

The CPU's multi-core scores — 7,969 in Cinebench R23 and 3,346 in Cinebench R20 — indicate that the six physical cores provide solid throughput for games that scale across threads. However, the lack of hyper-threading means that the processor cannot handle as many concurrent threads as competitors with similar core counts but additional logical threads. In the benchmark database, the i5-9400's nearest rivals are the Intel Core i3-10305 (average score 2,300, delta +0.2%), the Intel Core i3-1125G4 (2,299, delta +0.2%), the Intel Xeon E-2134 (2,295, delta +0.4%), and the Intel Core i7-8809G (2,319, delta -0.6%). All of these are within 1% of the i5-9400's average score of 2,305, showing that the CPU sits in a tightly contested performance tier.

The 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth is a potential constraint in a driving simulation that may stream large environments. At 4K resolutions, however, the GPU bottleneck dominates, and the CPU's memory bandwidth becomes less critical. The data shows that at 4K Ultra (27.5 FPS) and 4K High (37.1 FPS), the frame rates are so low that the CPU is unlikely to be the limiting factor. Only at 1080p Low (201.9 FPS) does the CPU potentially become the constraint, though the frame rate remains high enough for smooth gameplay.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this CPU-GPU pair?

A: At 1080p High, the combo delivers 106.6 FPS, which is smooth and visually solid. At 1440p High, it drops to 66.8 FPS, still playable. The 4K High result of 37.1 FPS is borderline, while 4K Ultra at 27.5 FPS is not recommended for playable frame rates.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in terms of average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 4060's average benchmark score is 23,181. The AMD Radeon RX 6600M scores 23,321 (0.6% higher), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti scores 23,338 (0.7% higher), the Intel Arc B580 scores 23,021 (0.7% lower), and the AMD Radeon 760M scores 22,999 (0.8% lower). All are within 1% of the RTX 4060.

Q: Is the i5-9400 CPU a bottleneck for this game at any resolution?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 201.9 FPS, which is high enough that the CPU's six-thread configuration could limit further gains. At higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the limiting component, as shown by the steep frame rate drops at 4K.

Q: What memory configuration does the RTX 4060 use, and how does it affect 4K performance?

A: The RTX 4060 uses 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 272.0 GB/s bandwidth. At 4K, this bandwidth is a limiting factor, with frame rates dropping to 37.1 FPS at High and 27.5 FPS at Ultra.

Q: How does the i5-9400's single-core performance compare to its multi-core performance in this context?

A: The i5-9400 has a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1,125 and a multi-core score of 7,969. The single-core performance is adequate for driving simulations that may rely on one main thread, while the multi-core score supports broader game logic.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking among tested configurations in The Long Drive?

A: The combo ranks 979 out of 1,734 tested combos, placing it in the middle of the distribution. This reflects a balanced but not exceptional pairing for this game.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 ranks 979 out of 1,734 tested combos in The Long Drive, placing it squarely in the middle of the field. This percentile position is consistent with the individual component rankings: the CPU sits at the 50th percentile among all processors, and the GPU at the 66th percentile among all GPUs. The combo's mid-pack rank suggests that neither component is dramatically over- or under-performing relative to the other in this game.

The measured data supports this interpretation. At 1080p High, the combo achieves 106.6 FPS, which is a solid result for a driving simulation. At 1440p High, 66.8 FPS remains playable. However, at 4K Ultra, the 27.5 FPS result is among the lower tiers of playability, and even 4K High at 37.1 FPS is marginal. The 1080p Low result of 201.9 FPS shows the system's ceiling when the GPU is least stressed.

Compared to the CPU's nearest rivals — all of which score within 0.6% of the i5-9400's average of 2,305 — this combo's performance is typical for the processor tier. Similarly, the GPU's rivals are all within 0.8% of the RTX 4060's average score of 23,181, meaning that swapping in any of those GPUs would likely produce similar frame rates in this game. The rank of 979 out of 1,734 indicates that while many combos outperform this one, an equally large number fall below it. For a driving simulation that does not demand state-of-the-art hardware, this mid-pack ranking translates to a competent but not outstanding experience, with the primary caveat being the poor 4K Ultra performance.