The Long Drive

The Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination delivers a dominant performance profile in The Long Drive, a Driving Simulation title. The benchmark data shows this pairing ranks 14th out of 1,734 tested combos, placing it in the top 1% of all systems measured. This pairing exhibits extreme headroom across all tested settings, with frame rates that range from playable at maximum quality to exceptionally high at lower presets, indicating a system that is rarely constrained by its components in this specific title.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process node. It operates with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, featuring 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB of L2 cache per core. In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44,534 and a single-core score of 6,287, with a Geekbench multi-core score of 18,896. The processor's PassMark multithread score of 52,392 and single-thread score of 4,472 further underscore its high throughput capabilities.

In the context of The Long Drive, the CPU's role appears to be providing a solid foundation that rarely bottlenecks the GPU. The data reveals that at 1080p with Low settings, the system produces 397.9 FPS, while at 1080p with Ultra settings, it maintains 144.6 FPS. This substantial difference indicates that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at very high frame rates, but the rendering workload still scales significantly with settings. The processor's 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs suggests that its compute capabilities are near the top of the field, ensuring that physics calculations, game logic, and draw call processing for this driving simulation are handled with minimal latency.

The nearest rivals to this CPU in average benchmark score include the Intel Core i7-14700KF with a delta of 0%, and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X which is -0.5% behind. The AMD EPYC 9115 is 0.3% ahead, and the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 is 1.4% ahead. These marginal differences in synthetic scores indicate that the i7-14700K is positioned in a highly competitive performance tier, but the actual frame rates in The Long Drive are more likely dictated by the GPU at higher resolutions and settings.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on the optimal settings for different priorities. At 1080p, the High preset delivers 205.2 FPS, which is a strong result for high-refresh-rate monitors. However, the Medium preset at 1080p achieves 328.7 FPS, and Low reaches 397.9 FPS, both of which are far beyond the refresh rate of most displays. The Ultra preset at 1080p still produces 144.6 FPS, making it viable for 144Hz panels.

For 1440p, the High preset yields 133.9 FPS, which is excellent for most gaming monitors. The Medium preset at this resolution provides 217 FPS, and Low produces 261.3 FPS, offering extreme headroom for competitive play. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 94.6 FPS, which remains smooth but is noticeably lower than the other presets.

At 4K, the picture shifts significantly. The High preset delivers 74.8 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for high-refresh-rate displays. The Medium preset at 4K produces 120.6 FPS, which is a better balance of visual quality and performance. The Low preset at 4K achieves 147.5 FPS, while Ultra drops to 53.5 FPS, which is the only measured configuration that falls below the 60 FPS threshold.

Based on this data, the Medium preset at 1440p offers the best overall experience, combining high visual fidelity with a frame rate of 217 FPS that exceeds the capabilities of most displays. For users prioritizing maximum visual quality, the High preset at 1440p at 133.9 FPS is the strongest choice, as it maintains a high refresh rate while providing better graphics than Medium. At 4K, the Medium preset at 120.6 FPS is the recommended starting point, as it offers a significant performance boost over High while retaining a playable frame rate.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The FPS scaling across resolutions reveals a clear pattern of GPU limitation at higher settings and resolutions. At the Low preset, moving from 1080p to 1440p reduces the frame rate from 397.9 FPS to 261.3 FPS, a drop of approximately 34%. Moving further to 4K reduces it to 147.5 FPS, which is about 63% lower than the 1080p result. This significant scaling indicates that even at Low settings, the GPU is being tasked with more work as resolution increases.

At the Medium preset, the scaling is similar: 1080p yields 328.7 FPS, 1440p yields 217 FPS, and 4K yields 120.6 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 4K is roughly 63%, which is consistent with the Low preset scaling. At the High preset, 1080p produces 205.2 FPS, 1440p produces 133.9 FPS, and 4K produces 74.8 FPS, representing a 64% reduction from 1080p to 4K.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling: 1080p yields 144.6 FPS, 1440p yields 94.6 FPS, and 4K yields 53.5 FPS, a 63% drop from 1080p to 4K. This consistent scaling pattern of approximately 63% across all presets strongly suggests that the GPU is the primary limiting factor in this game. The RTX 4090's performance degrades in a predictable manner as pixel count increases, while the i7-14700K maintains sufficient CPU throughput to avoid introducing a separate bottleneck. The frame rates at 1080p, which exceed 200 FPS on High and approach 400 FPS on Low, further confirm that the CPU is not the limiting component in this configuration.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This specific combination of the Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 achieves a rank of 14 out of 1,734 tested combos in The Long Drive. This places the system in the 99.2nd percentile of all tested configurations, indicating that it outperforms the vast majority of systems measured in this game. The rank reflects the aggregate performance across all settings and resolutions, with the system consistently delivering high frame rates.

The data shows that this combo is among the elite performers in the database, though it is not the absolute fastest. The 13 combos ranked ahead of this one likely include configurations with even higher-end components or more favorable pairings for this specific title. However, the difference in performance between rank 14 and the top spots is likely marginal, given the high frame rates already achieved. The RTX 4090's 91st percentile ranking among all GPUs, combined with the i7-14700K's 96th percentile ranking, creates a pairing that is well-balanced and capable of handling The Long Drive at maximum settings with acceptable performance, while also providing extreme headroom at lower settings for high-refresh-rate play.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a flagship GPU based on the Ada Lovelace architecture, built on TSMC's 5 nm process node with 76,300 million transistors. It features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz, with memory running at 1313 MHz or 21 Gbps effective. Its compute capabilities include 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, with a peak FP32 performance of 82.58 TFLOPS.

In The Long Drive, the RTX 4090's role is to render the game world at various quality settings and resolutions. The large 24 GB VRAM buffer ensures that even at 4K with Ultra settings, memory capacity is not a limiting factor. The GPU's high memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s allows for rapid texture streaming and geometry processing, which is likely critical for the open-road driving environments in this simulation.

The measured frame rates demonstrate the RTX 4090's raw power. At 1080p with Low settings, it achieves 397.9 FPS, and at 4K with Ultra settings, it still manages 53.5 FPS. The GPU's performance scales predictably with resolution, as shown by the consistent frame rate drops across all presets. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9,223 and PassMark G3D score of 38,194 further validate its position as one of the most powerful GPUs available, with a 91st percentile ranking among all GPUs. The nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the NVIDIA Tesla T4 at -0.4% and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 at -0.9%, though these are professional or older cards that do not directly compete in gaming scenarios.

The RTX 4090's performance in this game is characterized by its ability to maintain high frame rates even at demanding settings. The transition from High to Ultra at 4K results in a drop from 74.8 FPS to 53.5 FPS, indicating that Ultra settings impose a significant additional rendering load. The GPU's boost clock of 2520 MHz and 128 RT cores, while not necessarily all utilized in this driving simulation, contribute to its overall capability. The data confirms that the RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this pairing, driving the frame rates across all tested configurations.