The Long Drive

# The Long Drive with Intel Core i7-12700K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060

The Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 delivers a benchmark profile that is heavily resolution-dependent in The Long Drive. Measured frame rates span from 201.7 FPS at 1080p Low down to 28.7 FPS at 4K Ultra, indicating a system whose performance ceiling shifts dramatically based on both graphical preset and pixel count. The data set comprises twelve measured configurations across four settings levels and three resolutions, all with average FPS values recorded. This combination ranks 997th out of 1,734 tested combos in the game, placing it in the upper-middle portion of the database distribution.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior reveals a classic GPU-bound trajectory once pixel count rises. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 201.7 FPS, which drops to 131.7 FPS at 1440p Low — a 34.7% reduction — and then to 75.9 FPS at 4K Low, another 42.4% cut from the 1440p figure. This pattern indicates that even at the lowest settings, the RTX 4060 becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases, while the Core i7-12700K has ample headroom at 1080p.

The Medium preset shows a similar but slightly compressed scaling curve: 165.8 FPS at 1080p, 111.3 FPS at 1440p (down 32.9%), and 61.9 FPS at 4K (down 44.4% from 1440p). High settings produce 101.8 FPS at 1080p, 70.4 FPS at 1440p (a 30.8% drop), and 36.1 FPS at 4K (a 48.7% drop from 1440p). The Ultra preset exhibits the steepest degradation: 72.8 FPS at 1080p, 47.9 FPS at 1440p (down 34.2%), and 28.7 FPS at 4K (down 40.1% from 1440p).

Notably, the percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is relatively consistent across presets — ranging from 30.8% to 34.7% — which suggests a stable scaling behavior rather than a sudden bottleneck shift. The 1440p-to-4K transition shows more variance, with Low dropping 42.4% and High dropping 48.7%, implying that the GPU's memory bandwidth and shading resources become progressively more strained at higher quality levels when pixel count quadruples. The 8 GB GDDR6 frame buffer on a 128-bit bus with 272.0 GB/s bandwidth likely contributes to this scaling pattern, as 4K Ultra demands substantially more memory throughput than the card's physical capacity comfortably provides.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination holds position 997 out of 1,734 tested combos, placing it in the 57.5th percentile of all configurations tested in The Long Drive. This mid-pack ranking reflects a system that is capable but not exceptional within the broader database context. The CPU itself benchmarks in the 89th percentile against all tested processors, with an average benchmark score of 35,684, while the GPU sits in the 66th percentile with an average score of 23,181 — the CPU is clearly the stronger component relative to its peers.

Against its nearest CPU rivals, the Core i7-12700K shows tight competition. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 scores 35,802, a 0.3% advantage over the Intel part, while the Intel Core i5-14500HX leads by 0.7% with 35,940. The Intel Core i7-13700T trails by 0.6% at 35,468, and the Intel Core i7-13800H is 0.8% behind at 35,416. These sub-1% deltas indicate that CPU performance is effectively a wash among these four contenders, meaning the GPU choice and resolution determine the in-game experience more than the processor.

For the GPU, the RTX 4060's nearest rivals are similarly clustered. The AMD Radeon RX 6600M averages 23,321 (0.6% ahead), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti averages 23,338 (0.7% ahead), while the Intel Arc B580 trails by 0.7% at 23,021 and the AMD Radeon 760M is 0.8% behind at 22,999. The RTX 4060's percentile ranking of 66 suggests that while it is not a top-tier card, it sits comfortably above the median GPU in the database. The combination's overall rank of 997, however, indicates that many other CPU-GPU pairings outperform it in this specific driving simulation title.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process, with a die size of 159 mm² and 18,900 million transistors. The card operates with a base clock of 1830 MHz and a boost clock of 2460 MHz, with memory running at 2125 MHz (17 Gbps effective). The 8 GB GDDR6 frame buffer is paired with a 128-bit bus, yielding 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth — a configuration that appears adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming but becomes strained at 4K Ultra, where the measured 28.7 FPS suggests the memory subsystem is saturated.

The GPU's compute resources include 3,072 shading units, 96 texture mapping units, and 48 render output units, along with 24 ray tracing cores and 96 tensor cores. These translate to a pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance rated at 15.11 TFLOPS. In The Long Drive's measured results, the GPU's role becomes evident when comparing the 1080p Low result of 201.7 FPS against the 4K Low result of 75.9 FPS — a 62.4% reduction that cannot be attributed to CPU limitations given the i7-12700K's strong multi-threaded scores (29,241 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 9,979 in 3DMark max threads).

The card's power envelope is modest at 115 W TDP with a suggested 300 W PSU, and it connects via PCIe 4.0 x8. The dual-slot design with dimensions of 240 mm length, 111 mm height, and 40 mm width makes it a compact solution. The RTX 4060's production status is end-of-life, having been released on May 17, 2023, with its predecessor being the GeForce 30 series and successor the GeForce 50 series. The 66th percentile ranking against all GPUs, combined with an average benchmark score of 23,181, positions it as a mid-range part that delivers playable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p but falls short of smooth 4K performance in this title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on optimal settings for this CPU-GPU combination. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 165.8 FPS, which is more than sufficient for smooth gameplay while offering a 17.9% improvement over High settings at 101.8 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1080p yields 72.8 FPS, which is playable but represents a 56.1% reduction from Medium — a steep cost for the additional visual fidelity. For players prioritizing frame rate at 1080p, Low settings at 201.7 FPS provide headroom for high-refresh-rate displays, though Medium offers a better balance of quality and performance.

At 1440p, the Medium preset produces 111.3 FPS, which remains comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold and represents the best quality-to-performance ratio in the measured set. High settings at 1440p drop to 70.4 FPS, still playable but with a 36.7% performance penalty compared to Medium. The Ultra preset at 1440p falls to 47.9 FPS, which dips below the ideal smoothness threshold for many users. Low at 1440p reaches 131.7 FPS, but the visual compromise is substantial.

For 4K gaming, the data indicates that only the Low preset (75.9 FPS) and Medium preset (61.9 FPS) are viable for smooth play, with High at 36.1 FPS and Ultra at 28.7 FPS falling below playable thresholds. The 4K Medium result is particularly notable — it maintains above 60 FPS while the 4K High and Ultra results show the GPU's limits clearly. Based on these measurements, the recommended configuration is Medium settings at 1080p or 1440p, with 4K reserved for Low or Medium presets depending on whether frame rate or visual quality takes priority.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain 60+ FPS?

A: At 1080p, all four presets (Low 201.7 FPS, Medium 165.8 FPS, High 101.8 FPS, Ultra 72.8 FPS) exceed 60 FPS. At 1440p, Low, Medium, and High all stay above 60 FPS (131.7, 111.3, and 70.4 FPS respectively), while Ultra falls to 47.9 FPS. At 4K, only Low (75.9 FPS) and Medium (61.9 FPS) maintain 60+ FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 4060 has an average benchmark score of 23,181, which is 0.6% below the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23,321) and 0.7% below the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti (23,338). It runs 0.7% ahead of the Intel Arc B580 (23,021) and 0.8% ahead of the AMD Radeon 760M (22,999). These deltas are all within 1%, indicating near-identical overall performance.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in The Long Drive?

A: The scaling data indicates the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 201.7 FPS, which drops to 75.9 FPS at 4K Low — a 62.4% reduction. Given the CPU's strong multi-threaded performance (29,241 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 9,979 in 3DMark max threads), the frame rate drops align with GPU-bound behavior at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank among tested configurations?

A: This CPU-GPU combination ranks 997th out of 1,734 tested combos in The Long Drive. The CPU ranks in the 89th percentile of all processors with an average benchmark score of 35,684, while the GPU ranks in the 66th percentile with an average score of 23,181.

Q: What 4K settings are playable with this hardware?

A: At 4K, the Low preset delivers 75.9 FPS and Medium delivers 61.9 FPS, both above the 60 FPS threshold. The High preset drops to 36.1 FPS and Ultra to 28.7 FPS, which are not recommended for smooth gameplay. Medium at 4K offers the best balance of visual quality and playability.

Q: How does the CPU's single-thread performance compare to its multi-thread results?

A: The Core i7-12700K scores 4,128 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 29,241 in multi-core, a 7.1x scaling factor. In 3DMark, the single-thread score is 1,043 versus 9,979 at max threads. PassMark shows 4,013 in single-thread and 34,404 in multi-thread. These results indicate strong per-core performance that pairs well with the GPU across different resolution workloads.