Outriders

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 delivers a compelling, high-refresh-rate experience in Outriders, though the data reveals a clear shift in system bottlenecks as resolution increases. This combination ranks 1716th out of 3710 tested combos, placing it in the upper-middle tier of the database. The measured frame rates show that while the RTX 3080 has ample headroom at 1080p, the CPU begins to assert its influence at lower resolutions, whereas at 4K the GPU becomes the definitive limiting factor.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals a classic GPU-bound curve, but with an interesting twist at the top end. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 131 FPS at 1080p to 112 FPS at 1440p, a decrease of approximately 14.5%. Moving from 1440p to 4K, the frame rate falls more steeply to 58 FPS, a 48.2% reduction. This pattern indicates that the RTX 3080 is the primary constraint at 4K, where pixel throughput demands outpace the CPU's ability to feed the pipeline.

However, the Low settings data tells a different story. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 164 FPS, which drops only to 141 FPS at 1440p (a 14% decline). But at 4K Low, the frame rate falls dramatically to 107 FPS, a 24.1% drop from 1440p. This suggests that even at low graphical fidelity, the 4K resolution imposes a significant load on the GPU's memory subsystem and shading units, preventing the CPU from becoming the sole bottleneck. The spread between Low and Ultra at each resolution further underscores this: at 1080p, the gap between 164 FPS (Low) and 116 FPS (Ultra) is 48 FPS, while at 4K, the gap between 107 FPS (Low) and 42 FPS (Ultra) is 65 FPS. The wider spread at 4K indicates that the GPU's compute resources are being saturated more uniformly across settings.

The Medium settings data provides the only min/max FPS measurements in the pack. At 4K Medium, the average is 78 FPS with a minimum of 66 and maximum of 89, showing a 23 FPS variance. At 1440p Medium, the average rises to 125 FPS, with a minimum of 106 and maximum of 144, a 38 FPS variance. At 1080p Medium, the average is 146 FPS, with a minimum of 124 and maximum of 167, a 43 FPS variance. The increasing variance at lower resolutions suggests that frame pacing becomes less consistent when the CPU has more headroom, likely due to scene complexity and draw call variability rather than GPU throughput limits.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its 32 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support provide a solid foundation for gaming workloads. In CPU-bound scenarios, such as 1080p Low, the processor's multithreaded capabilities come into play, as evidenced by its Cinebench R15 multicore score of 2092 and Geekbench multicore score of 8899. The single-thread performance, measured at 204 in Cinebench R15 and 1593 in Geekbench, is adequate but not exceptional by modern standards.

The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU's influence on frame rates is modest. The jump from High (131 FPS) to Low (164 FPS) at 1080p represents a 25.2% increase, which is larger than the corresponding jump at 4K (from 58 FPS to 107 FPS, an 84.5% increase). This suggests that while the CPU can push more frames at lower resolutions, the GPU is still the primary limiter even at 1080p High. The processor's Passmark multithread score of 22458 and physics score of 1181 indicate strong multi-core performance, which helps maintain stable frame rates in Outriders' combat-heavy scenes with numerous enemies and particle effects.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s and PCIe Gen 4 support (24 lanes) ensure that data transfer to the RTX 3080 is not a bottleneck. However, the processor's 84th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates that it sits below the top tier of gaming processors. In comparison to its nearest rivals, the Ryzen 7 3700X's average benchmark score of 34260 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (34222, a 0.1% delta) and the AMD EPYC 4244P (34220, a 0.1% delta), while being slightly behind the Intel Core i5-13450HX (34333, a -0.2% delta). These small differences suggest that the 3700X is well-matched to the RTX 3080 at 1440p, where the measured 112 FPS at High settings shows a balanced system.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achieved by this combo in Outriders?

A: The highest average FPS is 164 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

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

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo achieves an average of 42 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the difference in average FPS between 1080p and 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 131 at 1920x1080 to 58 at 3840x2160, a decrease of 73 FPS.

Q: Are there any min/max FPS measurements available?

A: Yes, the data includes min/max FPS only for Medium settings. At 1080p Medium, the range is 124-167 FPS; at 1440p Medium, the range is 106-144 FPS; at 4K Medium, the range is 66-89 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance at 1440p?

A: At 1440p High, the combo achieves 112 FPS, which is relatively close to the 1080p High result of 131 FPS, suggesting a balanced workload between CPU and GPU at this resolution.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations?

A: This combo ranks 1716th out of 3710 tested combos, placing it in the 46th percentile of all configurations.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 achieves a rank of 1716 out of 3710 combos in Outriders. This places it squarely in the middle of the database, which is notable given the hardware's specifications. The RTX 3080 itself holds a 68th percentile ranking among all GPUs, while the CPU holds an 84th percentile ranking, indicating that the processor is relatively stronger than the graphics card in this pairing.

The rank suggests that while this combo is capable of high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, it is not optimized for maximum performance in this specific title. The 4K Ultra result of 42 FPS is a significant drag on the overall ranking, as many modern GPUs can achieve higher frame rates at this resolution. The combo's performance at 1440p High (112 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (116 FPS) shows that it is well-suited for high-refresh-rate monitors at lower resolutions, but the 4K experience is less compelling.

Compared to the GPU's nearest rivals, the RTX 3080's average benchmark score of 23172 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA P106-100 (23249, a -0.3% delta) and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (23250, a -0.3% delta), while slightly behind the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23273, a -0.4% delta) and AMD Radeon R9 M290X (23276, a -0.4% delta). These small deltas indicate that the RTX 3080's raw compute performance is well-understood, but its gaming-specific features, such as ray tracing cores and DLSS, are not reflected in these synthetic benchmarks.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is built on the Ampere architecture with the GA102 chip, fabricated on an 8 nm process by Samsung. It features 8704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output units, along with 68 ray tracing cores and 272 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1440 MHz and a boost clock of 1710 MHz, with 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, providing 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is critical for Outriders at 4K, where the 10 GB capacity is sufficient but the bandwidth is heavily utilized.

The GPU's FP32 performance of 29.77 TFLOPS and texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s are substantial, but the measured frame rates show that the 4K Ultra setting (42 FPS) is particularly demanding. The pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s is the limiting factor at 4K, as the GPU must process over 8 million pixels per frame. The transition from 4K Medium (78 FPS) to 4K High (58 FPS) represents a 25.6% drop, while the transition from 4K High to 4K Ultra (42 FPS) is a 27.6% drop, indicating that each settings tier imposes a significant additional load.

The GPU's Passmark G3D score of 25086 and DirectX 12 score of 100 provide context for its gaming performance, but the real-world data shows that the RTX 3080 excels at 1440p, where it maintains over 100 FPS at all settings except Ultra (81 FPS). At 1080p, the GPU is never the bottleneck, as even Ultra settings achieve 116 FPS, which is likely CPU-limited given the 3700X's single-thread performance. The GPU's 68th percentile ranking among all GPUs suggests that while it is a high-end part, it is not the absolute fastest available, and its 4K performance in Outriders reflects this.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo's performance across three resolutions and four settings levels. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 164 (Low) to 116 (Ultra), with High at 131 and Medium at 146. The Medium setting includes a minimum of 124 and maximum of 167, showing a wide variance that indicates occasional frame drops in heavy scenes. At 2560x1440, the average FPS ranges from 141 (Low) to 81 (Ultra), with High at 112 and Medium at 125. The Medium setting's min/max of 106/144 shows a narrower variance than at 1080p, suggesting more consistent frame delivery. At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 107 (Low) to 42 (Ultra), with High at 58 and Medium at 78. The Medium setting's min/max of 66/89 shows the tightest variance of all resolutions, indicating that the GPU is consistently loaded.

The scaling efficiency between settings tiers varies by resolution. At 1080p, the drop from Low to High is 33 FPS (20.1%), and from High to Ultra is 15 FPS (11.5%). At 1440p, the drop from Low to High is 29 FPS (20.6%), and from High to Ultra is 31 FPS (27.7%). At 4K, the drop from Low to High is 49 FPS (45.8%), and from High to Ultra is 16 FPS (27.6%). These numbers show that the GPU's performance scales more steeply with settings at 4K, particularly in the Low-to-High transition, which is expected as higher resolutions amplify the impact of texture and shading complexity.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience per the measured rows, the data suggests that 2560x1440 with High settings is the sweet spot for this combo, offering 112 FPS average with no reported minimum below 60 FPS. This provides a smooth, high-fidelity experience that leverages both the CPU and GPU effectively. At 1920x1080, High settings at 131 FPS are also excellent, but the extra resolution at 1440p is worth the 19 FPS cost for most users with capable displays.

If targeting 4K, Medium settings at 78 FPS is the only viable option, as High (58 FPS) and Ultra (42 FPS) fall below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The 4K Medium settings also show a minimum of 66 FPS, which is acceptable, though the 89 FPS maximum indicates some headroom. For users prioritizing frame rate over visual fidelity, 1080p Low at 164 FPS is the maximum achievable, but this is likely unnecessary given the high performance at higher settings.

The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution, as even at 1080p it only achieves 116 FPS, which is only 15 FPS higher than 1440p High (112 FPS) and 38 FPS lower than 1440p Low (141 FPS). The diminishing returns from High to Ultra are evident across all resolutions, making High the optimal balance of performance and visual quality for this hardware combination.