Outriders

# How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 lands at rank 370 out of 2913 tested combos in Outriders. That places this configuration in the top 12.7% of all systems tested, a strong showing for a looter shooter that tends to reward balanced hardware. The rank reflects a combination that never becomes the bottleneck in a way that ruins playability, even at demanding settings.

Benchmark results indicate this combo sits comfortably above the median tested system. With the CPU holding a percentile rank of 91 against all processors and the GPU at percentile 81 against all graphics cards, both components are well above average. The pairing is not exotic or extreme, but it is coherent: the 9900X3D's strong multi-threaded throughput and the RTX 4070's solid rasterization performance complement each other in Outriders' engine, which scales predictably with both CPU and GPU resources.

The data suggests that this is a "high refresh at high settings" build. At 1080p, the combo delivers frame rates that exceed what most monitors can display, and even at 1440p the numbers remain competitive. The rank of 370 indicates that while there are faster configurations, this one does not leave meaningful performance on the table in Outriders. Systems ranked above it typically feature higher-tier GPUs or CPUs, but the delta in real-world playability is often marginal compared to the scoreboard.

FAQ

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 9900X3D overkill for Outriders?

A: Not necessarily. The CPU's 12 cores and 24 threads, with a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, provide headroom that keeps frame rates stable even when the RTX 4070 is fully utilized. At 1080p Low settings, the combo reaches 287 FPS, indicating the CPU is not a limiting factor. The 3D V-Cache (128 MB L3) also helps in scenes with many on-screen objects, common in looter shooters.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 compare to its nearest rivals in this game?

A: The RTX 4070's average benchmark score is 37648, which is within 0.4% of the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 and 0.1% of the NVIDIA Tesla P4. It sits 1.3% behind the RTX 4080 Mobile. These deltas are small, but in Outriders the 4070's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth prove sufficient for the game's texture-heavy environments.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 60 FPS target at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the High preset delivers an average of 61 FPS, which is right at the 60 FPS target. Medium averages 81 FPS with a minimum of 69 FPS, offering more headroom. If you want to guarantee no drops below 60, Medium is the safer choice, while High is playable but with less margin.

Q: Does the combo support ray tracing in Outriders?

A: The RTX 4070 has 46 RT cores and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, so it is technically capable. However, the measured FPS data in this pack does not include ray tracing results. The game's Ultra preset, which likely includes heavier effects, drops to 44 FPS at 4K, suggesting ray tracing would further reduce performance.

Q: How does the CPU's single-thread performance affect gameplay?

A: The 9900X3D scores 6739 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 1269 in 3DMark single-thread. These are strong numbers that help maintain high frame rates in Outriders, which relies on a main game thread for physics and logic. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo hits 287 FPS, a result that depends on strong single-core throughput.

Q: Is there a risk of the GPU being the bottleneck at lower resolutions?

A: At 1080p, the gap between Low (287 FPS) and Ultra (133 FPS) is large, which indicates the GPU's workload scales with settings. The CPU can keep up, but the RTX 4070's limits become apparent at Ultra. At 1440p, the same pattern holds: Low hits 213 FPS, while Ultra drops to 84 FPS. The GPU is the primary limiter at high settings, not the CPU.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of which preset offers the best experience. For a 60 FPS target, the High preset at 4K averages 61 FPS, which is playable but close to the edge. Medium at 4K averages 81 FPS with a minimum of 69 FPS, making it the recommended choice for 4K displays. The extra 20 FPS of headroom over High ensures smoother gameplay during intense firefights.

At 1440p, the High preset averages 116 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh monitors. Ultra drops to 84 FPS, still playable but sacrificing smoothness. For competitive play, Low at 1440p delivers 213 FPS, but this reduces visual fidelity significantly. Medium at 155 FPS with a minimum of 132 FPS strikes the best balance between visual quality and frame rate stability for most users.

At 1080p, most presets are overkill. High averages 184 FPS, Medium averages 246 FPS with a minimum of 209 FPS, and Low hits 287 FPS. Even Ultra maintains 133 FPS, which is above the 120 Hz threshold. For esports-style play, Medium is the sweet spot: it offers a minimum of 209 FPS, ensuring no drops below 200 FPS in most scenes. Low's 287 FPS is only useful if you have a 240 Hz monitor and prioritize frame rate over everything else.

Given the data, the best overall recommendation is Medium at 1440p or 4K, depending on your display. Medium provides the most consistent frame pacing, as evidenced by the recorded minimum FPS values (132 at 1440p, 69 at 4K). High and Ultra lack minimum FPS data in the pack, suggesting the benchmark focused on averages, but the lower averages at those presets indicate less headroom.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 287 FPS. Medium averages 246 FPS with a minimum of 209 and a maximum of 283. High averages 184 FPS. Ultra averages 133 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 154 FPS, showing that the RTX 4070's workload scales significantly with settings.

At 2560x1440, the numbers remain strong. Low averages 213 FPS. Medium averages 155 FPS with a minimum of 132 and a maximum of 178. High averages 116 FPS. Ultra averages 84 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 25-35% across presets, which is typical for a bandwidth-limited GPU like the RTX 4070 with its 192-bit memory bus.

At 3840x2160, performance becomes more modest. Low averages 112 FPS, still very playable. Medium averages 81 FPS with a minimum of 69 and a maximum of 93. High averages 61 FPS, right at the 60 FPS threshold. Ultra averages 44 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. The 4K results show that the RTX 4070 is capable at lower settings but struggles with Ultra.

The data reveals a consistent pattern: each settings tier adds roughly 20-30% more GPU load. For example, at 4K, Low to Medium is a 38% increase in frame rate (112 to 81 FPS), while Medium to High is a 25% drop (81 to 61 FPS). This suggests that High and Ultra settings introduce effects that are disproportionately expensive on the 4070's 5888 shading units.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial and reveals the GPU as the primary limiting component. At Medium settings, the combo produces 246 FPS at 1080p, 155 FPS at 1440p, and 81 FPS at 4K. That is a 67% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which aligns with the pixel count increase of 4.5x. The scaling is not linear, indicating that memory bandwidth (504.2 GB/s) and pixel fill rate (158.4 GPixel/s) become bottlenecks at higher resolutions.

At Low settings, the scaling is similar: 287 FPS at 1080p, 213 FPS at 1440p, and 112 FPS at 4K. The reduction from 1080p to 4K is 61%, slightly better than Medium. This suggests that at Low, the CPU and GPU are both working, but the GPU's memory subsystem still limits 4K performance.

The CPU's role becomes clearer when comparing settings at the same resolution. At 1080p, Low to High is a 36% drop (287 to 184 FPS), while at 4K, Low to High is a 46% drop (112 to 61 FPS). The larger drop at 4K indicates that the GPU is more stressed at higher resolutions, and the CPU has more idle time. This is typical for a balanced combo where neither component is severely mismatched.

For 4K gaming, the data suggests that Medium is the practical ceiling. The 69 FPS minimum at 4K Medium ensures no drops below 60, while High's average of 61 FPS likely dips below 60 in demanding scenes. The 9900X3D's 24 threads are not a factor at 4K; the RTX 4070's 12 GB of VRAM and 192-bit bus are the limiting constraints.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 9 9900X3D brings 12 cores and 24 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge). Its base clock is 4.40 GHz and boost clock is 5.50 GHz, with a 120 W TDP. The 128 MB L3 cache is notable for gaming, as it reduces memory latency and improves hit rates for frequently accessed data. In Outriders, which streams many assets, this cache helps maintain consistent frame times.

Synthetic benchmarks show the CPU's strength. Cinebench R23 multi-core scores 47737, while single-core scores 6739. PassMark multi-thread scores 56154, and single-thread scores 4646. These numbers place the 9900X3D at the 91st percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF (0.6% lower average score), Intel Core Ultra 5 245K (1.3% higher), Intel Xeon 6505P (2% higher), and Intel Core i7-14700F (2.1% higher). The 9900X3D is effectively neck-and-neck with these parts in raw compute.

In Outriders specifically, the CPU's impact is most visible at 1080p Low, where the combo reaches 287 FPS. This high frame rate requires the CPU to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics updates. The 3D V-Cache likely helps in scenes with many enemies and projectiles, as the game's engine can cache more spatial data. However, at 1440p and 4K, the CPU's advantage diminishes because the GPU's rendering load dominates the frame time.

The data shows that the 9900X3D is not a bottleneck in this configuration. Even at 1080p Ultra, the combo maintains 133 FPS, which is above the 120 Hz threshold. The CPU's 24 threads ensure that background tasks, such as Discord or streaming software, do not interfere with frame pacing. For Outriders, the 9900X3D provides more than enough headroom, and the RTX 4070 is the component that defines the performance ceiling across all resolutions and settings.