Outriders

Resolution Scaling

Outriders shows a steep, predictable FPS curve as resolution climbs, but the shape of that curve reveals a system that is not purely GPU-bound at every setting. At 1080p Low, the combo posts 211.6 FPS, which drops to 182.9 FPS at 1440p Low and then to 145.8 FPS at 4K Low. That is a 31% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, which is a smaller drop than what you would expect if the GPU were the sole limiting factor. The i3-12100F, with its 4 cores and 8 threads, is clearly holding back the RTX 5090 at lower resolutions and lower settings.

The picture changes dramatically at Ultra settings. At 1080p Ultra, the system delivers 151.3 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 123.7 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 65.5 FPS. The 1080p-to-4K reduction here is roughly 57%, which is much closer to a pure GPU-bound scenario. This indicates that as the rendering load increases, the RTX 5090's raw compute power becomes the dominant factor, and the CPU bottleneck fades into the background.

The Medium settings tier tells a similar story. 1080p Medium yields 189.8 FPS, 1440p Medium drops to 159.4 FPS, and 4K Medium lands at 121 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is a 16% drop, while 1440p to 4K is a 24% drop. The High settings tier shows 167.7 FPS at 1080p, 146.8 FPS at 1440p, and 90.6 FPS at 4K. The 4K High result is particularly telling: it is 46% lower than the 1080p High result, confirming that the GPU is working hard at that resolution.

What this data suggests for a builder is straightforward: if you are targeting 4K with this CPU-GPU pairing, you should expect to use High or Ultra settings to shift the load onto the GPU where it belongs. At 1080p or 1440p with Low or Medium settings, the i3-12100F will leave performance on the table. The 4K Low result of 145.8 FPS versus the 4K Ultra result of 65.5 FPS shows a 222% swing in FPS based purely on settings, which is an enormous range that reflects both the GPU's headroom and the CPU's constraints at lower loads.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread part based on Alder Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, with 12 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 11,912 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 1,681 in single-core, with a Geekbench multicore score of 7,413 and single-core score of 2,224. These numbers place it at the 72nd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13,516.

The nearest rivals in the benchmark database are telling. The AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX scores 13,534, which is just 0.1% higher. The Intel Core i7-1250U scores 13,462, 0.4% lower. The Intel Core i3-10105 scores 13,430, 0.6% lower. And the Intel Core i7-7700K scores 13,280, 1.8% lower. This is a striking grouping: a modern budget quad-core is matching or beating a Threadripper and a 7th-gen i7 in average score. The i3-12100F's single-thread performance is its strong suit, which matters for Outriders because the game's engine tends to favor a few fast cores over many slower ones.

In Outriders specifically, the CPU's role is most visible at 1080p Low, where the system hits 211.6 FPS. That number is likely near the ceiling of what the i3-12100F can feed to the GPU. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 4,051 and 8-thread score of 4,026 show that the CPU's multithreaded scaling is limited by its 4 physical cores — going from 8 threads to 16 threads only adds 25 points, which is negligible. The Passmark multithread score of 14,015 versus a single-thread score of 3,444 reinforces this: the CPU is far better at single-threaded tasks than at parallel workloads.

For Outriders, this means the CPU is adequate for 60 FPS gaming at most settings, but it will struggle to push past roughly 200 FPS at low settings. The 4-core design means that any scene with heavy physics or AI calculations could cause frame dips, even if the average FPS looks healthy. The 12 MB L3 cache is shared across all cores, which helps with latency-sensitive workloads but does not compensate for the lack of physical cores.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Outriders at 4K 60 FPS?

A: Yes, at High settings the system averages 90.6 FPS at 4K, and at Medium it averages 121 FPS. Even at Ultra, it maintains 65.5 FPS, which is above 60. The 4K Low result of 145.8 FPS shows there is headroom to spare if you prefer lower settings for competitive play.

Q: Is the Intel Core i3-12100F a bottleneck for the RTX 5090 in Outriders?

A: The data suggests yes, particularly at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 211.6 FPS, but scaling to 1440p Low only drops to 182.9 FPS, which is a smaller reduction than expected. This indicates the CPU is limiting performance. At 4K Ultra, the 65.5 FPS result shows the GPU becomes the primary constraint.

Q: What is the best settings tier for 1440p gaming with this combo?

A: At 1440p Ultra, the system averages 123.7 FPS, which is excellent for a high-refresh monitor. If you prefer even higher frame rates, 1440p High delivers 146.8 FPS, and 1440p Medium hits 159.4 FPS. The 1440p Low result of 182.9 FPS is there for esports-style play, but the CPU may cause inconsistent frame pacing at that level.

Q: How does the i3-12100F compare to its closest CPU rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The i3-12100F has an average benchmark score of 13,516. The AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX scores 13,534, just 0.1% higher. The Intel Core i7-1250U scores 13,462, 0.4% lower. The Intel Core i3-10105 scores 13,430, 0.6% lower. The Intel Core i7-7700K scores 13,280, 1.8% lower.

Q: Does the RTX 5090's 32 GB VRAM matter for Outriders?

A: Outriders is not a VRAM-heavy title, and the 32 GB GDDR7 memory with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth is far more than the game requires. The GPU's 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are the specs that drive the 4K Ultra result of 65.5 FPS.

Q: Is the measured FPS data reliable?

A: Yes, the data is marked as measured, not estimated. The combo ranks 177th out of 1,693 tested combos in Outriders, which places it in the top 11% of tested systems.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the RTX 5090 ranks 177th out of 1,693 tested combos in Outriders. That places this system in the top 10.5% of all tested configurations, which is impressive given the CPU's budget positioning. The ranking reflects the GPU's dominance: the RTX 5090 sits at the 94th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84,306. Its nearest rivals in the GPU database are the RTX 5090 D (84,241, 0.1% lower), the RTX 5050 Mobile (84,171, 0.2% lower), and the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 (83,209, 1.3% lower). Notably, the NVIDIA CMP 40HX scores 85,637, which is 1.6% higher.

The 177th rank out of 1,693 is a strong result, but it is not a top-50 finish. The data suggests that combos with more capable CPUs likely occupy the higher ranks, because the i3-12100F limits the RTX 5090 in CPU-bound scenarios. The 4K Ultra result of 65.5 FPS is the best-case scenario for this pairing, as it leans most heavily on the GPU. If you compare this to the 1080p Low result of 211.6 FPS, the gap between the best and worst case is 146.1 FPS, which is a massive range that underscores the CPU bottleneck at lower settings.

For context, the CPU's 72nd percentile ranking among all CPUs is solid, but the GPU's 94th percentile is exceptional. This mismatch is typical of a budget CPU paired with a flagship GPU. The combo rank of 177 means that most of the 1,692 other tested combos are either using a stronger CPU, a weaker GPU, or both. The data does not show how many combos use the RTX 5090 with a better CPU, but the rank implies that many do.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU built on TSMC's 5 nm process, with a die size of 750 mm² and 92,200 million transistors. It has 21,760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, with 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores. The base clock is 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz, and memory runs at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) across a 512-bit bus. The 32 GB of GDDR7 memory provides 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth.

In Outriders, the GPU's role is most clearly seen at 4K Ultra, where it delivers 65.5 FPS. This is the most demanding scenario in the measured data, and the GPU's 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 compute is the key driver. The pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s are also relevant for a game with Outriders' visual effects. The 575 W TDP and suggested 950 W PSU are worth noting for system planning, but the GPU's performance is what matters for frame rates.

The RTX 5090's nearest GPU rival, the RTX 5090 D, scores 84,241 in average benchmark, which is 0.1% lower. The RTX 5050 Mobile scores 84,171, 0.2% lower, and the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 scores 83,209, 1.3% lower. The NVIDIA CMP 40HX scores 85,637, 1.6% higher. These are all very close scores, indicating that the RTX 5090 sits in a tightly packed group at the top of the GPU benchmark charts.

In practical terms for Outriders, the GPU is the star of the show at 4K. The jump from 4K High (90.6 FPS) to 4K Ultra (65.5 FPS) is a 38% reduction, which shows how much headroom the Ultra preset demands. The 4K Low result of 145.8 FPS versus 4K Ultra's 65.5 FPS is a 223% difference, demonstrating that the GPU can handle much more than the game throws at it at lower settings. The 32 GB VRAM is overkill for Outriders, but it ensures no memory-related stutters regardless of texture quality.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce 211.6 FPS, Medium produces 189.8 FPS, High produces 167.7 FPS, and Ultra produces 151.3 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 60.3 FPS, which is the smallest of the three resolutions tested. This is because at 1080p, the CPU becomes the limiting factor, and the GPU's extra power cannot be fully utilized.

At 2560x1440, the results are 182.9 FPS on Low, 159.4 FPS on Medium, 146.8 FPS on High, and 123.7 FPS on Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra spread is 59.2 FPS, similar to 1080p. The 1440p Low result is 13.6% lower than 1080p Low, while 1440p Ultra is 18.2% lower than 1080p Ultra. This suggests that at 1440p, the GPU is starting to take on more of the load, but the CPU is still a factor at lower settings.

At 3840x2160, the results are 145.8 FPS on Low, 121 FPS on Medium, 90.6 FPS on High, and 65.5 FPS on Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra spread is 80.3 FPS, the largest of any resolution. The 4K Low result is 31.1% lower than 1080p Low, while 4K Ultra is 56.7% lower than 1080p Ultra. This confirms that at 4K, the GPU is the primary bottleneck, especially at Ultra settings where the 65.5 FPS result reflects the RTX 5090's raw power being fully exercised.

The overall pattern is clear: the i3-12100F holds the system back at 1080p and 1440p with lower settings, while the RTX 5090 dominates at 4K and at higher settings. The most balanced scenario in the data is 1440p High at 146.8 FPS, which offers a smooth experience without leaving excessive performance on the table. For 4K gaming, High settings at 90.6 FPS is the sweet spot, as Ultra drops below 70 FPS and Low leaves visual quality on the table for a frame rate that most monitors cannot display.