Outriders

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and Intel Arc B580 pairing delivers a playable but setting-sensitive experience in Outriders. The data shows that the Ultra preset is largely impractical at higher resolutions, while the Low preset provides a dramatic performance headroom that suggests a GPU-bound configuration. The sweet spot for this combo is the Medium preset, which offers a balanced blend of visual fidelity and frame rate across all tested resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results indicate a clear hierarchy in performance scaling based on the four tested presets: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. For a 60 FPS baseline, the Medium preset is the only consistent choice across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 141.4 FPS, which is a substantial 75% increase over the High preset's 108 FPS, while still maintaining a playable experience. At 2560x1440, Medium yields 93.9 FPS, comfortably above the 60 FPS target, whereas High drops to 69.1 FPS, which is still playable but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes. At 3840x2160, Medium produces exactly 50 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold but remains functional; High falls to 35.8 FPS, which is borderline for a fast-paced looter shooter.

The Ultra preset is not recommended for this configuration. It only achieves 80.8 FPS at 1080p, 51.8 FPS at 1440p, and a sluggish 27 FPS at 4K. The performance cost of Ultra over High is significant, with a 25% drop in average FPS at 1080p and a 24.6% drop at 1440p, for what is typically a marginal visual improvement. The Low preset, while offering the highest frame rates (196.9 FPS at 1080p, 124.7 FPS at 1440p, and 62.3 FPS at 4K), sacrifices too much visual quality for a game that relies on environmental detail.

The best experience per the measured rows is the Medium preset. It provides the most consistent frame rates that scale predictably with resolution, making it the optimal choice for players prioritizing smooth gameplay. The High preset is a viable alternative for 1080p and 1440p users with high-refresh-rate monitors, but it is not suitable for 4K.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 is the primary bottleneck in this configuration, as the data indicates a strong dependency on its capabilities. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 456.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is sufficient for Outriders at 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K results suggest that the GPU's compute resources, not the memory capacity, are the limiting factor.

The Arc B580's clocks are listed with a base and boost of 2670 MHz, which is a high operating frequency. Despite this, the 4K performance is weak, with the Ultra preset only reaching 27 FPS. This indicates that the GPU's raw throughput, measured at 13.67 TFLOPS FP32, is insufficient for the high pixel count of 3840x2160 when paired with demanding settings. The GPU's percentile ranking among all GPUs is 66, and its average benchmark score is 23021, which places it as a mid-range part. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, has an average score of 23181, showing a deltaPct of -0.7%, meaning the Arc B580 trails by less than one percent in synthetic benchmarks, which aligns with the observed frame rates.

The data suggests that the GPU is heavily utilized at higher resolutions. The frame rate drop from 1080p Low (196.9 FPS) to 4K Low (62.3 FPS) is a 68% reduction, which is a typical sign of a GPU-bound scenario where the rendering load increases with pixel count. The GPU's 12 GB VRAM is not the constraint here, as even the Low preset at 4K does not show a catastrophic collapse in performance that would indicate memory swapping.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and Intel Arc B580 ranks 1282 out of 1693 tested combos in Outriders. This places it in the lower 24th percentile of all tested configurations, indicating that while the setup is functional, it is not a high-performing match for this title. The rank reflects the GPU's mid-range standing, as the CPU is a high-end part.

The CPU alone is a top-tier performer, with a percentile ranking of 94 among all CPUs. Its average benchmark score is 54450, which is nearly 2.4 times higher than the GPU's average score of 23021. This disparity highlights that the GPU is the limiting factor in this pairing. The CPU's nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D, has a deltaPct of -0.4%, meaning the 9900X is essentially tied with it in synthetic tests. This suggests that the CPU is not holding the system back in any way, and the poor combo rank is entirely attributable to the Arc B580's performance ceiling in this game.

FAQ

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

A: According to the measured data, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 delivers 93.9 FPS, and the Low preset at 3840x2160 delivers 62.3 FPS. The Medium preset at 1920x1080 also achieves 141.4 FPS, but the 1440p Medium setting is the highest resolution and quality combination that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to its nearest rival?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X has an average benchmark score of 54450, while its closest competitor, the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D, scores 54681, representing a deltaPct of -0.4%. This indicates that the 9900X is statistically tied with the 9900X3D in synthetic benchmarks.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor in this configuration?

A: The data shows the GPU is the limiting factor. The CPU ranks in the 94th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU ranks in the 66th percentile. The combo rank of 1282 out of 1693 is much lower than what the CPU alone would suggest, pointing to the GPU's performance ceiling as the primary constraint.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: The Low preset achieves 196.9 FPS, while the Ultra preset achieves 80.8 FPS. This represents a 144% increase in frame rate when dropping from Ultra to Low, which is a massive performance headroom for competitive play.

Q: Does the game benefit from the CPU's high core count?

A: The CPU has 12 cores and 24 threads, with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. The benchmark results show that the frame rates scale almost entirely with resolution and settings, not with CPU load. Since the CPU is ranked in the 94th percentile and the combo rank is low, the game is not utilizing the CPU to its full potential, indicating a GPU bottleneck.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is a clear indicator of a GPU-bound workload. At the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 196.9 at 1920x1080 to 124.7 at 2560x1440, a 37% reduction, and then to 62.3 at 3840x2160, a further 50% reduction. This pattern is consistent with the GPU's rendering load increasing proportionally with the number of pixels.

At the Medium preset, the scaling shows a similar trend: 141.4 FPS at 1080p, 93.9 FPS at 1440p (a 34% drop), and 50 FPS at 4K (a 47% drop). The High preset follows suit with 108 FPS, 69.1 FPS, and 35.8 FPS respectively. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, with 80.8 FPS at 1080p, 51.8 FPS at 1440p, and 27 FPS at 4K.

The data shows that the frame rate is not halving exactly when the resolution doubles, which suggests that the GPU is not purely pixel-bound. For instance, the 1080p Low (196.9 FPS) to 4K Low (62.3 FPS) is a 68% drop, not a 75% drop (which would be expected if the workload scaled perfectly with pixel count). This indicates that other factors, such as memory bandwidth or driver overhead, are also playing a role. The GPU's 456.0 GB/s memory bandwidth appears adequate for 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K results show that the GPU's execution units are saturated.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a high-end desktop processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge. It features 12 cores and 24 threads, with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. The CPU has a 64 MB shared L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus, providing 89.6 GB/s of memory bandwidth. It is built on a 4 nm process and has a TDP of 120 W.

In Outriders, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with data and handle game logic. The benchmark data shows that the CPU is not a bottleneck in this pairing. The CPU's average benchmark score of 54450 places it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-14700F, scores 54097, with a deltaPct of 0.7%, meaning the 9900X is 0.7% faster. However, the combo rank in-game is 1282 out of 1693, which is far below what the CPU's synthetic performance would suggest.

This discrepancy is explained by the GPU's limitations. The CPU can easily produce frame rates well above what the GPU can render, as evidenced by the 1080p Low preset hitting 196.9 FPS. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 12552 and the Cinebench R23 multicore score of 46438 indicate that the CPU has ample headroom for gaming workloads. The data shows that the CPU is effectively idle waiting for the GPU to complete its rendering tasks, especially at higher resolutions and settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive look at the combo's performance across all settings and resolutions.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 196.9 FPS, making it the highest-performing setting. The Medium preset follows with 141.4 FPS, which is a 28% reduction. The High preset achieves 108 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 80.8 FPS. This shows a clear performance hierarchy where each preset tier costs roughly 20-25% of the previous tier's frame rate.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 124.7 FPS, which is still very high. The Medium preset hits 93.9 FPS, providing a smooth experience for most users. The High preset produces 69.1 FPS, which is playable but close to the 60 FPS threshold. The Ultra preset falls to 51.8 FPS, which is below the ideal target for a fast-paced game.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset is the only one that exceeds 60 FPS, with an average of 62.3 FPS. The Medium preset drops to exactly 50 FPS, which is a significant compromise. The High preset manages only 35.8 FPS, and the Ultra preset is virtually unplayable at 27 FPS. The 4K results confirm that this combo is not suited for high-fidelity gaming at this resolution.

The data shows a consistent pattern: the Low preset provides the most stable experience across all resolutions, while the Ultra preset is only viable at 1080p. For a balanced experience, the Medium preset at 1440p offers the best combination of visual quality and performance, with 93.9 FPS.