Outriders

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 lands at rank 1406 out of 1693 tested combos in Outriders. That places this build in the bottom 17% of all configurations, a positioning that reflects a hardware pairing which is competent for general use but clearly outclassed in this specific title. The data shows a combination that can deliver playable frame rates at lower settings, but which struggles to maintain smooth performance when visual fidelity is prioritized, particularly at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 1406 out of 1693 is a decisive indicator that this system sits firmly in the lower tier of tested configurations for Outriders. This ranking is not merely a reflection of the GPU’s age, but also of the balance between the two components. The Ryzen 5 3600, with its average benchmark score of 18129, is a mid-range processor that performs nearly identically to its closest rivals, including the Intel Core i5-11400 which scores 18150 (a delta of -0.1%), and the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS which scores 18101 (a delta of 0.2%). This places the CPU at the 76th percentile of all processors, suggesting it is not a bottleneck in this pairing.

However, the GPU tells a different story. The RTX 2060 has an average benchmark score of 16074 and sits at the 58th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Radeon RX 7600S with a score of 15996 (delta of 0.5%), are extremely close in performance, indicating that the RTX 2060 is a middle-of-the-pack graphics card. The combination of a slightly above-average CPU with a slightly below-average GPU results in a system that is heavily reliant on the graphics card for gaming performance. The benchmark data suggests that in Outriders, the GPU is the limiting factor, as the CPU’s raw compute is sufficient to feed the GPU at lower settings, but the GPU’s rendering capabilities cap the overall frame rate. This dynamic explains why the combo ranks so low; the CPU is not the problem, but the GPU cannot push the high frame rates needed to climb the rankings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is built on the Turing architecture and features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1365 MHz and a boost clock of 1680 MHz, with memory running at an effective speed of 14 Gbps. These specifications are critical to understanding the GPU’s performance in Outriders, a game that appears to be highly sensitive to both memory bandwidth and raw shading power.

The data shows a stark performance cliff when moving from Medium to Ultra settings at 1440p, where the average FPS drops from 86.5 to 47.6. This 38.9 FPS drop suggests that the Ultra preset introduces rendering features that heavily tax the 6 GB VRAM buffer or the 1920 shading units. At 4K, the situation becomes more pronounced, with the RTX 2060 dropping to 32.1 FPS at High settings and a near-unplayable 21.4 FPS at Ultra. The GPU’s 6 GB VRAM is likely a limiting factor at these higher resolutions and settings, as the game’s texture and geometry data exceed the available memory, causing a significant performance penalty. The RTX 2060’s 201.6 GTexel/s texture rate and 80.64 GPixel/s pixel rate are simply not sufficient to maintain high frame rates when the game is rendering at 4K with high-detail assets. The GPU’s 58th percentile ranking versus all GPUs underscores that this is an entry-level to mid-range part in the current landscape, and its performance in Outriders reflects that position.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for this combo at 1080p?

A: The data shows that at 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves the highest average FPS at 159.4, while the Medium preset delivers 137.9 FPS. The High preset produces 102.4 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 72.1 FPS. For a balance of visual quality and performance, Medium is the most sensible choice, as it offers a significant frame rate advantage over High while remaining far above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Outriders?

A: The benchmark results indicate that 4K is only viable at the Low preset, where the system achieves an average of 63.6 FPS. At Medium, the average drops to 44.6 FPS, and at High it falls to 32.1 FPS. The Ultra preset is not recommended, as it produces an average of only 21.4 FPS, which is below playable standards for most users.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rivals?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 has an average benchmark score of 18129. Its closest rival, the Intel Core i5-11400, scores 18150, which is a delta of -0.1%. Another rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 1600, scores 18158, a delta of -0.2%. This indicates that the 3600 is statistically tied with these processors, showing no significant performance difference in synthetic benchmarks.

Q: Is the RTX 2060’s performance close to other GPUs in its class?

A: The RTX 2060 has an average benchmark score of 16074. The AMD Radeon RX 7600S scores 15996, which is a delta of 0.5% relative to the RTX 2060. The AMD Radeon Pro 5600M and Radeon Pro 5700 both score 16351, representing a delta of -1.7%. These small deltas confirm that the RTX 2060 is tightly grouped with its direct competitors.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset yields an average of 117.3 FPS, while the Ultra preset yields an average of 47.6 FPS. This represents a performance drop of 69.7 FPS when moving from the lowest to the highest quality preset, illustrating the significant graphical load that Ultra settings place on the GPU.

Q: Does the CPU’s threading capability help in this game?

A: The Ryzen 5 3600 has 6 cores and 12 threads, which is generally sufficient for modern games. However, the benchmark data for this combo suggests that the CPU is not the bottleneck in Outriders, as the frame rates scale consistently with GPU load across settings. The CPU’s 3DMark 16-thread score of 4605 and Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15045 indicate adequate multi-threaded performance, but the GPU’s limitations dominate the final FPS results.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of how this combo scales across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the system performs admirably at lower settings, starting with a 159.4 FPS average on Low. Moving to Medium drops the average to 137.9 FPS, a reduction of 21.5 FPS. High settings further reduce the average to 102.4 FPS, and Ultra brings it down to 72.1 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a total performance loss of 87.3 FPS, with the most significant single drop occurring between Medium and High (35.5 FPS).

At 2560x1440, the pattern continues but with lower absolute numbers. The Low preset averages 117.3 FPS, which is a 42.1 FPS drop from the 1080p Low result. Medium averages 86.5 FPS, High averages 64 FPS, and Ultra falls to 47.6 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 69.7 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at identical settings reveals a consistent performance penalty, with the High preset dropping from 102.4 FPS to 64 FPS (a 38.4 FPS loss) and the Medium preset dropping from 137.9 FPS to 86.5 FPS (a 51.4 FPS loss).

At 3840x2160, the system’s limitations become stark. The Low preset is the only playable option, averaging 63.6 FPS. Medium drops to 44.6 FPS, High to 32.1 FPS, and Ultra to a mere 21.4 FPS. The performance degradation from 1440p to 4K is severe, with the Low preset losing 53.7 FPS and the High preset losing 31.9 FPS. The data indicates that the RTX 2060’s memory bandwidth and shading units are overwhelmed at 4K, even at lower quality settings.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that is heavily GPU-limited in Outriders. At the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 159.4 at 1080p to 117.3 at 1440p, a reduction of 26.4%, and then to 63.6 at 4K, a further reduction of 45.8% from the 1440p result. This steep decline indicates that the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints. The CPU, with its 12 threads and 32 MB of shared L3 cache, is capable of feeding the GPU at 1080p, as evidenced by the high frame rates, but the GPU cannot sustain that performance as the pixel count increases.

The scaling pattern is even more telling at higher settings. At the Ultra preset, the FPS drops from 72.1 at 1080p to 47.6 at 1440p (a 34% reduction) and then to 21.4 at 4K (a 55% reduction from 1440p). This non-linear scaling suggests that the game’s Ultra settings introduce effects that are particularly demanding on the GPU’s 6 GB VRAM and 192-bit memory bus. The data shows that the RTX 2060 is most efficient at 1080p, where it can maintain frame rates above 100 FPS at Medium and High settings. Beyond 1080p, the system’s performance degrades rapidly, confirming that this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming, with 1440p only viable at Low to Medium settings. The 4K results are marginal at best, reinforcing that the GPU is the definitive limiting component in this pairing.