The Long Drive

The Long Drive pairs the Intel Core i7-12700K with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, producing a combination that is overwhelmingly GPU-limited at higher resolutions but reveals a significant CPU bottleneck at 1080p. The data shows a system capable of delivering extremely high frame rates, but the scaling pattern across resolutions indicates that the processor holds back the graphics card in less demanding settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and consistent pattern of resolution scaling. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 365 FPS, which drops to 260 FPS at 1440p and further to 144 FPS at 4K. This represents a 29% decrease from 1080p to 1440p, and a 45% decrease from 1440p to 4K. The magnitude of these drops suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is the primary limiting factor, as the frame rate is so high that the processor cannot feed the GPU fast enough.

Moving to Medium settings, the pattern shifts. At 1080p, the combo delivers 326 FPS, dropping to 214 FPS at 1440p (-34%) and then to 119 FPS at 4K (-44%). The High settings show a similar trend: 203 FPS at 1080p, 134 FPS at 1440p (-34%), and 74 FPS at 4K (-45%). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings indicates that the scaling behavior is primarily driven by resolution rather than graphical complexity.

Ultra settings tell a different story. Here, the frame rates are much lower, with 141 FPS at 1080p, 93 FPS at 1440p (-34%), and 51 FPS at 4K (-45%). The fact that the percentage drops remain consistent across all settings levels suggests that the game's rendering workload scales linearly with pixel count, and the GPU becomes the bottleneck at 4K regardless of quality preset. At 1080p Ultra, the 141 FPS result is still high, but the gap between 1080p and 1440p performance narrows compared to lower settings, indicating that the GPU is starting to become more relevant even at the lower resolution.

The data indicates that at 4K, the RTX 4090 is the limiting component across all settings, as the frame rates are substantially lower and the CPU has ample headroom. The 144 FPS at 4K Low versus 51 FPS at 4K Ultra shows a massive 64% performance hit from the highest quality preset, which is a GPU-side effect. This system is best suited for high-refresh-rate 1440p gaming, where it can maintain over 200 FPS on Medium and High settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combo achieves in The Long Drive?

A: The highest recorded average FPS is 365, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This represents the peak output of the system when the CPU is pushed to its limits.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K resolution with Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo delivers an average of 51 FPS. This is the lowest result in the dataset, indicating that the GPU is heavily taxed at this resolution and quality level.

Q: Is the RTX 4090 being fully utilized at 1080p?

A: Benchmark results indicate that at 1080p, the CPU becomes the limiting factor. The jump from 365 FPS at Low to 141 FPS at Ultra shows that the graphics card can handle the workload, but the processor struggles to maintain frame rates above that threshold.

Q: What is the difference in performance between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Medium settings produce 214 FPS, while High settings produce 134 FPS. This 80 FPS difference (37%) shows that the High preset imposes a significant additional load on the GPU.

Q: Does the combo maintain playable frame rates at 4K with Medium settings?

A: Yes, at 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the combo achieves 119 FPS with a minimum of 101 FPS and a maximum of 137 FPS. This indicates smooth performance above the 100 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the CPU's benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i7-12700K has an average benchmark score of 35287, which is essentially tied with the Intel Core i5-13600T at 35305 (-0.1% delta). It also sits close to the Intel Core i7-12700KF at 35365 (-0.2%) and the Intel Core i7-13700T at 35403 (-0.3%).

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 plays a dominant role in this combination, particularly at higher resolutions and quality settings. The GPU's architecture is Ada Lovelace, built on a 5 nm process at TSMC, with a die size of 609 mm² containing 76,300 million transistors. This hardware configuration includes 16384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output units, providing substantial raw compute power.

The memory subsystem is a critical factor for The Long Drive's performance. The RTX 4090 features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. This large memory pool ensures that the game's textures and geometry can be stored locally without any potential stuttering from memory overflow. The memory clock runs at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective speed, which is more than sufficient for the demands of this driving simulation.

Clock speeds for the GPU are 2235 MHz base and 2520 MHz boost, which are relatively high for a flagship card. The boost behavior is important for frame rate stability; the data shows that at 4K Medium, the minimum FPS is 101 versus the average of 119, indicating that the GPU maintains consistent performance under load. The pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s suggest that the card can handle the fill-rate requirements of The Long Drive's open-world environments.

The RTX 4090's benchmark scores corroborate its gaming performance. Its PassMark G3D score of 38194 places it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs. However, the nearest rival data shows that the Intel Arc Pro A60 scores 60326, which is essentially identical (0% delta), while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 scores 60140 (0.3% delta). This suggests that in synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 4090 is not drastically ahead of some workstation cards, though real-world gaming performance is where it excels.

In The Long Drive, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops to 51 FPS, indicating that the card is working at maximum capacity. The 74 FPS at 4K High versus the 144 FPS at 4K Low shows a 49% performance penalty for the higher quality preset, which is a direct consequence of the GPU's shading and texture units being fully engaged.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 365 FPS, which is exceptional for any hardware combination. Medium settings reduce this to 326 FPS with a minimum of 277 FPS and a maximum of 374 FPS, showing a tight frame time distribution. High settings drop further to 203 FPS, while Ultra settings yield 141 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p represents a 61% reduction in performance, highlighting the significant impact of quality presets on the CPU and GPU load.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but begins to show the GPU's influence. Low settings achieve 260 FPS, which is still very high. Medium settings produce 214 FPS with a minimum of 182 FPS and a maximum of 246 FPS, indicating good stability. High settings drop to 134 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 93 FPS. The 1440p results show that the combo can easily drive high-refresh-rate monitors at this resolution with most settings, though Ultra requires a 120Hz display to fully utilize the frame rate.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck. Low settings produce 144 FPS, which is still playable but substantially lower than lower resolutions. Medium settings yield 119 FPS with a minimum of 101 FPS and a maximum of 137 FPS, providing a consistent experience above the 100 FPS mark. High settings drop to 74 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 51 FPS. The 4K results demonstrate that while the RTX 4090 is powerful, The Long Drive at 4K Ultra is demanding enough to push the card to its limits, resulting in frame rates that are better suited for 60Hz displays.

The data shows a consistent pattern: the gap between Low and Medium settings is relatively small (around 12-17%), while the gap between High and Ultra is larger (around 30-45%). This suggests that the Ultra preset includes effects that are disproportionately expensive, such as advanced shadows or reflections, which heavily impact the GPU.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-12700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 111th out of 3725 tested combos in The Long Drive. This places it in the top 3% of all configurations, indicating that it is a high-performing setup for this game. The rank of 111 is notable because it suggests that there are 110 other combinations that achieve higher frame rates, likely involving more recent CPUs or alternative GPU configurations.

The ranking is primarily influenced by the CPU's performance at lower resolutions, where the i7-12700K may be a limiting factor. The CPU's percentile vs all CPUs is 84, meaning it is faster than 84% of processors in general benchmark tests. However, in gaming, the single-thread performance is crucial, and the i7-12700K's 3DMark single-thread score of 1043 and 2-thread score of 2065 indicate strong but not class-leading performance.

The GPU's percentile vs all GPUs is 88, placing it above 88% of graphics cards. The combination of these two high-performing components results in a system that is near the top of the database, but the 111th rank shows that there is headroom for improvement, likely from newer CPUs with higher single-thread performance. The nearest CPU rivals, such as the Intel Core i5-13600T and i7-12700KF, have nearly identical average scores, suggesting that swapping to these alternatives would not change the in-game ranking significantly.

The combo rank of 111 out of 3725 means that 3614 other combinations are slower, which is a strong endorsement of this hardware pairing. However, for users seeking the absolute highest frame rates at 1080p, the data implies that a more modern CPU could push the rank higher, as the GPU has additional headroom that is being constrained by the processor.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a 12-core, 20-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. It features a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, which allows it to handle both single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads effectively. The 25 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample data storage for gaming scenarios.

In The Long Drive, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p resolution, where the frame rates are exceptionally high. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 365 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's maximum frame rate output. The fact that increasing resolution to 1440p Low only drops the frame rate to 260 FPS (a 29% reduction) while 4K Low drops to 144 FPS (a 45% reduction from 1440p) suggests that the CPU is the bottleneck at 1080p, but the GPU takes over at higher resolutions.

The CPU's benchmark scores support this analysis. In Cinebench R23, the i7-12700K scores 19784 in multicore and 1850.5 in single-core, indicating strong multi-threaded performance but only moderate single-thread capability. The 3DMark scores show a progression from 1043 in single-thread to 9276 in 16-thread and 9979 in max-thread, demonstrating that the processor scales well with additional threads. However, for gaming, the single-thread score is more relevant, and a score of 1043 is not the highest available.

The CPU's PassMark multithread score of 34404 and single-thread score of 4013 place it in the 84th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-13600T, scores 35305, which is only 0.1% higher. This indicates that the i7-12700K is well-matched with its peers, but none of these CPUs are breaking new ground in single-thread performance.

Interestingly, the CPU's integrated graphics, UHD Graphics 770, are irrelevant for this gaming scenario, as the discrete RTX 4090 handles all rendering. The CPU's memory support for both DDR4 and DDR5 provides flexibility, but the dual-channel memory bus is standard. The 125W TDP and 20 PCIe Gen 4 lanes are sufficient for the RTX 4090, which uses a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface.

In The Long Drive, the CPU's 12 cores and 20 threads are more than adequate for the game's simulation logic, but the single-thread performance is the limiting factor at high frame rates. The data suggests that at 1080p, the CPU cannot push beyond approximately 365 FPS, which is an excellent result but leaves some performance on the table for users with 360Hz monitors. At 1440p and above, the CPU has enough headroom to keep up with the GPU, making the system balanced for most gaming scenarios.