Outriders

# Performance Analysis: Outriders on AMD Ryzen 9 9900X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 delivers a fascinating performance profile in Outriders, a looter shooter released in 2021. The data shows a system that scales predictably across resolutions, but with some surprising bottlenecks that reveal the game's engine characteristics. This combination ranks in the 57th percentile of tested combos, sitting at rank 712 out of 1693 total configurations, which places it solidly in the upper half but far from the top tier.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a classic GPU-bound scaling pattern, but the magnitude of the drop from 1080p to 4K tells a compelling story about where the limiting component sits. At High settings, the system achieves 139.5 FPS at 1920x1080, which drops to 91.7 FPS at 2560x1440, and further to 45.6 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 67% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K, indicating that the RTX 5060's rendering workload grows substantially as pixel count increases.

The Low settings row shows even more dramatic scaling. At 1080p Low, the system hits 255.6 FPS, which is remarkably high and suggests the CPU has ample headroom. Moving to 1440p Low drops performance to 163.3 FPS, and at 4K Low the system still manages 84.1 FPS. The fact that 4K Low outperforms 1080p Ultra by a significant margin (84.1 vs 103.4 FPS) suggests that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints at higher resolutions, not the raw compute capability.

The scaling between Medium and High settings across all resolutions shows a consistent 15-20% performance penalty, which points to the memory bandwidth of the 8 GB GDDR7 buffer being a crucial factor. At 4K, the jump from Medium (64.8 FPS) to High (45.6 FPS) represents a 30% drop, which is steeper than the same transition at 1080p (188.8 to 139.5 FPS, a 26% drop). This nonlinear scaling suggests that the 448 GB/s bandwidth and 128-bit memory bus become increasingly stressed as resolution increases, particularly when texture quality demands more memory throughput.

Settings Recommendations

Examining the measured rows, the Medium preset emerges as the sweet spot for this combination across most resolutions. At 1440p, Medium delivers 116.2 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay while maintaining visual fidelity. The jump to High costs 24.5 FPS (down to 91.7), which represents a significant trade-off for what is typically a modest visual improvement in Outriders' sci-fi environments.

For 4K users, the choice becomes more constrained. Medium at 4K yields 64.8 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for a fast-paced looter shooter. Dropping to Low at 4K provides 84.1 FPS, which is a much safer margin for maintaining consistent frame times during intense combat sequences with multiple enemies and particle effects. The data suggests that 4K Ultra (37.1 FPS) is effectively unplayable for this title, while 4K High (45.6 FPS) sits right at the edge of acceptable performance.

At 1080p, the system has enough headroom that Ultra settings (103.4 FPS) are viable, but the 85 FPS gap between Ultra and Low (255.6 FPS) indicates that esports-style competitive play would benefit from lower settings. For the best balance of visual quality and performance, Medium at 1080p (188.8 FPS) provides an exceptional experience that far exceeds display refresh rate capabilities of most monitors.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 712 out of 1693 tested combinations places this system in the upper-middle tier of all configurations tested in Outriders. This ranking (57.9th percentile) is somewhat surprising given the individual component performance. The Ryzen 9 9900X sits in the 94th percentile among all CPUs, while the RTX 5060 ranks in the 73rd percentile among all GPUs. The gap between component rankings and the final combo ranking suggests that Outriders has specific bottleneck characteristics that prevent this pairing from achieving its theoretical potential.

The CPU's nearest rival data shows a tight cluster of performance. The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D scores 54681, which is only 0.4% higher than the 9900X's average of 54450. The Intel Core i7-14700F trails by 0.7%, while the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K and 245KF lead by 1.5% and 1.8% respectively. This indicates that the 9900X is well-positioned among its peers, but the game's engine likely doesn't leverage the full 12-core/24-thread capacity.

On the GPU side, the RTX 5060's average benchmark score of 30109 places it in a dead heat with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (30097, 0% delta). Interestingly, the AMD Radeon RX 570 shows a 0.2% higher score (30158), which is a statistical anomaly given the generational gap between these cards. The NVIDIA Tesla M60 and RTX 5070 Mobile are within 0.5-0.6% of the 5060's score, showing that the desktop 5060 performs comparably to mobile variants in synthetic tests.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system demonstrates exceptional performance across all settings. Low delivers 255.6 FPS, Medium achieves 188.8 FPS, High reaches 139.5 FPS, and Ultra maintains 103.4 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra represents a 60% performance reduction, which is substantial but expected for a modern GPU pushing a 2021 title at mainstream resolution.

The 2560x1440 results show a proportionate decline. Low produces 163.3 FPS, Medium delivers 116.2 FPS, High achieves 91.7 FPS, and Ultra drops to 63.7 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 35-40% performance at every settings level, which aligns with the 78% increase in pixel count that 1440p represents over 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the numbers become more constrained. Low manages 84.1 FPS, Medium delivers 64.8 FPS, High drops to 45.6 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 37.1 FPS. The 4K to 1440p transition costs approximately 45-50% performance, which is steeper than the 1080p to 1440p drop. This nonlinear degradation suggests that the 8 GB VRAM capacity becomes a limiting factor at 4K, particularly at higher settings where texture memory demands increase.

FAQ

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 1440p with high settings?

A: Yes, the data shows 91.7 FPS at 1440p High, which provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. Even at 1440p Ultra, the system achieves 63.7 FPS, just barely clearing the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: What is the highest settings preset that stays above 60 FPS at 4K?

A: Medium settings at 4K deliver 64.8 FPS, which is the highest preset to remain above 60 FPS. High settings drop to 45.6 FPS, and Ultra falls to 37.1 FPS, both below the 60 FPS target.

Q: How does the Ryzen 9 9900X compare to its nearest CPU rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The 9900X scores 54450 on average, which is 0.4% lower than the Ryzen 9 9900X3D (54681) and 0.7% higher than the Intel Core i7-14700F (54097). The Intel Core Ultra 5 245K and 245KF lead by 1.5% and 1.8% respectively.

Q: Is the RTX 5060's performance comparable to any AMD GPUs?

A: The RTX 5060's average benchmark score of 30109 is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT's 30097, representing a 0% performance delta. Both cards effectively perform at the same level in synthetic testing.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: The measured data shows 103.4 FPS at 1080p Ultra, which provides smooth gameplay on standard 60-100 Hz monitors. For higher refresh rate displays, dropping to Medium settings (188.8 FPS) or Low settings (255.6 FPS) unlocks significantly higher frame rates.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1440p Medium to 4K Medium?

A: The system delivers 116.2 FPS at 1440p Medium and 64.8 FPS at 4K Medium, representing a 44% performance reduction when moving to 4K. This substantial drop reflects the GPU's memory bandwidth limitations at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X features 12 cores and 24 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture, built on a 4 nm process at TSMC. With base and boost clocks of 4.40 GHz and 5.60 GHz respectively, this processor provides substantial compute headroom for Outriders. The 64 MB of shared L3 cache, combined with 1 MB of L2 cache per core and 80 KB of L1 cache per core, creates a memory hierarchy well-suited for gaming workloads.

The CPU's synthetic benchmark results demonstrate its strength in multi-threaded scenarios. Cinebench R23 multicore score of 46438 and Geekbench multicore score of 19827 indicate strong parallel performance, while the single-thread scores of 6555 (Cinebench R23) and 3341 (Geekbench) show excellent per-core efficiency. The PassMark multithread score of 54643 and single-thread score of 4672 further confirm this processor's balanced capabilities.

For Outriders specifically, the game's 2021 release date means it was designed for the CPU landscape of that era. The 9900X's 12 cores provide significant overcapacity for a game that likely scales well with 6-8 cores. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 12552 versus the max-thread score of 13929 suggests that scaling plateaus beyond 16 threads, which is typical for games of this era. The CPU's 94th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates it is far from being a bottleneck in this configuration.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 utilizes the GB206 chip on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. With 3840 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs, this GPU provides solid rasterization performance. The 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus delivers 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming but becomes a limiting factor at 4K.

The GPU's clock speeds of 2280 MHz base and 2497 MHz boost, combined with 30 RT cores and 120 tensor cores, provide modern feature support including DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6. The FP32 performance of 19.18 TFLOPS positions this card as a mid-range option that can handle current titles at mainstream resolutions.

The PassMark G3D score of 20891 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 120785 demonstrate the GPU's raw compute capability. However, the 73rd percentile ranking among all GPUs reveals that the RTX 5060 is not a top-tier performer. In Outriders, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck at 4K, particularly at higher settings where the 8 GB VRAM capacity and 128-bit memory bus struggle to keep up with the increased memory demands. The measured FPS data confirms this pattern, with 4K Ultra dropping to 37.1 FPS while 1080p Ultra maintains 103.4 FPS.