Outriders

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT delivers a wide spread of frame rates in Outriders, and the resolution scaling pattern clearly shows where the bottleneck shifts. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 214.8 FPS, but this drops to 158.6 FPS at Medium, 118.8 FPS at High, and 84.4 FPS at Ultra. That represents a 60.8% reduction from Low to Ultra at 1080p, a steep curve that points to the GPU becoming the primary limiter as settings increase. Moving to 1440p, the same settings ladder shows 133.6 FPS (Low), 100.9 FPS (Medium), 74.5 FPS (High), and 55.5 FPS (Ultra). The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at the same preset is relatively mild—for instance, High drops from 118.8 to 74.5 FPS, a 37.3% loss—which is expected for a resolution bump but not catastrophic. At 4K, the picture changes dramatically. High settings produce only 38.3 FPS, Medium drops to 52.2 FPS, and Ultra falls to 28.5 FPS. Interestingly, Low at 4K still manages 72.5 FPS, showing that even at this resolution, reducing the workload can keep the frame rate playable, but the GPU is clearly the limiting component at 4K High and Ultra, where the i3-12100F’s four cores are unlikely to be the constraint.

How This Combo Ranks

In the broader database of tested CPU-GPU combinations for Outriders, this pairing sits at rank 1028 out of 1693 combos. That places it in the lower-middle portion of the field, which is consistent with the hardware’s positioning: a quad-core CPU and a mid-range GPU are not going to top the charts in a demanding looter shooter. The combo’s rank percentile is not explicitly given, but the raw rank of 1028 out of 1693 means roughly 60.7% of tested combos outperform it. This is not a surprising result given the CPU’s modest core count and the GPU’s 8 GB VRAM. However, the measured FPS data tells a more nuanced story than the rank alone suggests. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 214.8 FPS, which would be competitive even against much more expensive hardware, but at 4K Ultra it falls to 28.5 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold most players target. The rank reflects an average across all settings and resolutions, so it masks the fact that this combo is quite capable at lower resolutions but struggles at the highest demands. For context, the CPU’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (deltaPct -0.1%), the Intel Core i7-1250U (deltaPct 0.4%), and the Intel Core i3-10105 (deltaPct 0.6%). These deltas are tiny, meaning the i3-12100F’s overall compute performance is nearly identical to those parts, even though the core counts differ wildly. The GPU’s nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6800M (deltaPct 0%), the AMD Radeon RX 470 (deltaPct 0.1%), and the Intel Arc A370M (deltaPct -0.5%), again showing that the RX 6650 XT is in a tight performance cluster.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor from the Alder Lake generation, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. It has 12 MB of shared L3 cache and supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory. In synthetic benchmarks, its single-thread performance is strong—Cinebench R23 single-core scores 1681, and Geekbench single-core scores 2224—which bodes well for games that rely on a few fast threads. However, its multi-threaded results are more modest: Cinebench R23 multi-core is 11912, and 3DMark max threads is 4023. The 4-core design means that in Outriders, a game that can scale across multiple threads, the CPU may become a limiting factor at lower resolutions and settings where the GPU has headroom. The data supports this: at 1080p Low, the combo hits 214.8 FPS, which is high enough that the CPU is likely near its limit, as the GPU is not being stressed heavily. At 4K Ultra, the CPU is far less relevant because the GPU is clearly overwhelmed, producing just 28.5 FPS. The CPU’s percentile versus all CPUs is 72, meaning it outperforms 72% of processors in the database, which is respectable for a budget part. Compared to its nearest rivals, the i3-12100F is essentially tied with the Threadripper PRO 3975WX in average score (13516 vs 13534, a -0.1% delta), even though that rival has far more cores. This highlights that the i3’s high single-thread performance compensates for its low core count in many workloads.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of how this combo handles Outriders across twelve distinct configurations. At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low produces 214.8 FPS, Medium produces 158.6 FPS, High produces 118.8 FPS, and Ultra produces 84.4 FPS. This is a clean, monotonic decrease as settings increase, with each step costing a meaningful chunk of performance. At 2560x1440, the pattern holds but with lower absolute numbers: Low gives 133.6 FPS, Medium gives 100.9 FPS, High gives 74.5 FPS, and Ultra gives 55.5 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 37-38% across all settings, which is typical for a resolution increase. At 3840x2160, the results show a sharper decline: Low yields 72.5 FPS, Medium yields 52.2 FPS, High yields 38.3 FPS, and Ultra yields 28.5 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 44 FPS, a 60.5% reduction, which is the largest relative spread across all resolutions. This suggests that at 4K, the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute resources are the dominant factor, and there is no CPU headroom that can rescue the frame rate. The data also shows that the combo can exceed 60 FPS at 1080p on any setting, and at 1440p on Low, Medium, and High, but only Low crosses 60 FPS at 4K.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT is based on the Navi 23 chip, built on a 7 nm process, and features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with a bandwidth of 280.3 GB/s. Its base clock is 2055 MHz, boost clock is 2635 MHz, and game clock is 2410 MHz. The GPU has 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, which gives it a pixel rate of 168.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 337.3 GTexel/s. Its FP32 performance is 10.79 TFLOPS. In synthetic tests, the GPU scores 17166 in Passmark G3D and 87548 in Geekbench OpenCL, with a percentile of 72 versus all GPUs. The GPU’s nearest rivals are nearly identical in average score: the RX 6800M has a deltaPct of 0%, the RX 470 has a deltaPct of 0.1%, and the Intel Arc A370M has a deltaPct of -0.5%. This means the RX 6650 XT is in a tight performance cluster, and its 8 GB VRAM is a potential limitation at 4K Ultra, where textures and effects can exceed that capacity. The measured data confirms this: at 4K Ultra, the combo produces only 28.5 FPS, which is below playable thresholds. At 1080p Ultra, the 84.4 FPS result shows the GPU can handle the load when resolution is reasonable. The GPU’s role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases, and the 4K results are clearly GPU-bound, as evidenced by the fact that dropping from Ultra to Low at 4K nearly triples the frame rate from 28.5 to 72.5 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the target resolution and frame rate. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 84.4 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, and the High preset at 118.8 FPS offers even more headroom. For most players, High at 1080p is the sweet spot, as it provides a strong visual experience while keeping frame rates well above 100 FPS. If the player prioritizes maximum smoothness, Low at 1080p hits 214.8 FPS, but this sacrifices visual fidelity unnecessarily. At 2560x1440, the High preset yields 74.5 FPS, which is still playable but closer to the 60 FPS line. Medium at 1440p produces 100.9 FPS, which is a better balance for competitive play, while Ultra at 55.5 FPS is just below the 60 FPS target and may feel less consistent. The recommendation for 1440p is to use High settings if the player can tolerate occasional dips, or Medium for a more stable experience. At 3840x2160, the situation is more challenging. Low settings produce 72.5 FPS, which is playable, but Medium drops to 52.2 FPS, and High falls to 38.3 FPS, which is not ideal for fast-paced combat. Ultra at 28.5 FPS is effectively unplayable for most users. Therefore, at 4K, the only sensible choice is Low settings, which still allow for a smooth experience, or the player should consider lowering the resolution to 1440p and using High settings for a better visual-to-performance trade-off. Overall, the data suggests that this combo is best suited for 1080p High or 1440p Medium, where it can maintain frame rates above 75 FPS, and that 4K play is only viable at the lowest quality preset.