Outriders

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 pairing in Outriders presents a clear hierarchy of playable settings across resolutions. At 4K, the High preset delivers 60.6 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes. The Medium preset at 4K yields 82.6 FPS, offering a more comfortable margin while still maintaining visual fidelity. At 1440p, High achieves 118.4 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate displays, while Ultra drops to 83.5 FPS. At 1080p, even the Ultra preset reaches 129.7 FPS, and High hits 186 FPS. The data suggests that High settings are the optimal balance for most users, as they provide the best combination of visual quality and performance across all resolutions. For users prioritizing maximum frame rates, Low settings at 1080p produce 288.5 FPS, but this sacrifices the game's environmental detail.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 9 9900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge. It operates with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, utilizing the AMD Socket AM5 platform. The processor's cache configuration includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and a shared 64 MB of L3 cache. This substantial core count and high clock speeds are relevant to Outriders, a looter shooter that can leverage multiple threads for physics, AI, and world streaming.

The CPU's benchmark scores demonstrate its multi-threaded capability. In Cinebench R23, it scores 46,438 in multicore and 6,555 in single-core. The Geekbench results show 19,827 in multicore and 3,341 in single-core. These figures indicate that the processor is not the limiting factor in most gaming scenarios. The PassMark multithread score of 54,643 and single-thread score of 4,672 further confirm its strong performance. When examining the nearest rivals, the 9900X sits within a tight performance band. It trails the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D by 0.4%, but leads the Intel Core i7-14700F by 0.7%. It also lags behind the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K by 1.5% and the 245KF by 1.8%. These small deltas mean the CPU is unlikely to create a meaningful bottleneck in Outriders when paired with the RTX 4070.

The processor's 4 nm process node from TSMC and 16,630 million transistors contribute to its efficiency. Its memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s with dual-channel DDR5 support ensures the CPU can feed data to the GPU without stalling. In the game's measured results, the scaling from 1080p to 4K shows that the CPU maintains sufficient throughput, as the FPS drops are consistent with GPU-bound behavior at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using a 5 nm process from TSMC. It features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. The GPU has a base clock of 1920 MHz and a boost clock of 2475 MHz, with memory clocked at 1313 MHz or 21 Gbps effective. The card includes 5,888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation processors. Its ray tracing capabilities include 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores.

The GPU's raw compute performance is rated at 29.15 TFLOPS for FP32 and FP16 operations. In Outriders, the VRAM capacity of 12 GB is sufficient for the game's textures at all tested settings, including 4K Ultra. The card's benchmark scores show a PassMark G3D score of 26,927 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 168,006. The percentile ranking places it at 81, meaning it outperforms 81% of all GPUs in the database. When compared to its nearest rivals, the RTX 4070 shows a unique position. It trails the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 by 0.6% and the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A by 1.9%, but it leads the AMD Radeon RX 5300M by 2.5%. The comparison with the RTX 4080 Mobile shows a 2.2% deficit, though this is a laptop part.

The GPU's role in Outriders becomes clearer when analyzing the FPS scaling. At 1080p Low, the CPU is more likely to be the limiting factor, but at 4K Ultra, the GPU is fully saturated. The RTX 4070's 200 W TDP and dual-slot design make it a capable solution for this game, as it delivers playable frame rates at 4K High and excellent performance at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo's performance. At 4K resolution, the settings show a wide range of results. Low settings produce an average of 110.6 FPS, Medium reaches 82.6 FPS, High achieves 60.6 FPS, and Ultra drops to 43.7 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 4K shows a steep performance curve, with Ultra being the only preset that falls below the 60 FPS threshold.

At 1440p, the results are more comfortable. Low settings deliver 212.5 FPS, which is an extremely high frame rate. Medium achieves 154.5 FPS, High reaches 118.4 FPS, and Ultra still maintains 83.5 FPS. All settings at 1440p are playable, with even Ultra providing a smooth experience on a 144Hz monitor.

At 1080p, the combo shows its full potential. Low settings produce 288.5 FPS, Medium hits 241.8 FPS, High reaches 186 FPS, and Ultra achieves 129.7 FPS. These numbers indicate that the RTX 4070 is well-suited for high-refresh-rate gaming at 1080p, even with the most demanding settings. The data also reveals that the gap between Low and Ultra settings narrows as resolution decreases, suggesting that the CPU becomes more of a factor at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important characteristics of this hardware combination. When comparing High settings, the FPS drops from 186 at 1080p to 118.4 at 1440p, a reduction of 36%. Moving to 4K, the FPS further decreases to 60.6, which is 67% lower than the 1080p result. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component at higher resolutions. The CPU's strong multi-threaded performance allows it to keep up with the GPU's demands even at 1440p, where the frame rates remain high.

For Ultra settings, the scaling is more pronounced. The FPS drops from 129.7 at 1080p to 83.5 at 1440p, a 35.6% reduction, and then to 43.7 at 4K, a 66.3% reduction from the 1080p baseline. The Low settings show a similar trend: 288.5 at 1080p, 212.5 at 1440p, and 110.6 at 4K. This represents a 61.7% drop from 1080p to 4K for Low settings.

The scaling data suggests that the combo is balanced for 1440p gaming. At this resolution, the frame rates are high enough to take advantage of high-refresh-rate monitors while still providing a significant visual improvement over 1080p. The 4K results are playable only at Medium and High settings, with Ultra requiring a more powerful GPU. The pattern indicates that the CPU is not a bottleneck at any tested resolution, as the FPS drops are consistent with the GPU's rendering capabilities.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 holds a rank of 209 out of 1,693 tested combos for Outriders. This places it in the top 12.3% of all combinations in the database. The ranking reflects the balanced nature of this pairing, where both components contribute to the overall performance without one becoming a significant bottleneck.

The CPU's percentile of 94 versus all CPUs indicates that the processor is in the top 6% of all tested processors. The GPU's percentile of 81 versus all GPUs shows that the graphics card is in the top 19% of all tested GPUs. This combination of a top-tier CPU with a high-end GPU results in a strong overall ranking. The rank of 209 suggests that there are 208 combinations that outperform this one, likely featuring more powerful GPUs such as the RTX 4080 or RTX 4090, or possibly higher-tier CPUs.

The data shows that the RTX 4070 is the more limiting component in this pairing, as the CPU has more headroom than the GPU. The CPU's nearest rivals, including the 9900X3D and Core i7-14700F, show that the processor is competitive with other high-end options. The GPU's rivals, while not directly comparable in gaming performance, indicate that the RTX 4070 sits in a specific performance tier. The rank of 209 is a strong result, placing this combo in the upper echelon of systems tested for Outriders.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: The High preset at 4K produces 60.6 FPS, which is the highest quality setting that maintains a playable frame rate. The Medium preset offers 82.6 FPS for a more comfortable experience, while Ultra drops to 43.7 FPS.

Q: Does this CPU bottleneck the GPU in Outriders?

A: The data suggests no significant bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the CPU produces 288.5 FPS, indicating it can handle the game's physics and AI without limiting the GPU. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 46,438 supports this capability.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival, the 9900X3D?

A: The 9900X trails the 9900X3D by 0.4% in average benchmark score. This difference is negligible and unlikely to affect gaming performance in Outriders, where the GPU is the primary factor.

Q: What is the FPS difference between High and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, High settings produce 118.4 FPS, while Ultra produces 83.5 FPS. The difference of 34.9 FPS represents a 29.5% performance hit for the Ultra preset.

Q: Is the RTX 4070's 12 GB VRAM sufficient for this game?

A: The measured data shows playable performance at 4K Ultra with 43.7 FPS, indicating that 12 GB is sufficient. The memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s also supports the game's data requirements.

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

A: It ranks 209 out of 1,693 combos, placing it in the top 12.3% of all systems tested for Outriders. This reflects a strong balance of CPU and GPU performance.