Outriders

# Outriders Performance Analysis: Intel Core i5-10400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D

The combination of Intel's six-core Comet Lake processor and NVIDIA's flagship Blackwell GPU produces a striking performance profile in Outriders, one that shifts character dramatically depending on resolution and settings. With the RTX 5090 D operating at a base clock of 2017 MHz and boosting to 2407 MHz, paired with a CPU that tops out at 4.30 GHz across six cores and twelve threads, the measured frame rates reveal a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-limited at lower resolutions but becomes increasingly balanced as pixel count rises. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS data across three resolutions and four quality presets, contextualizes the results against the component's benchmark standings, and identifies where the bottleneck lies in this particular pairing.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K follows a predictable downward slope, but the magnitude of the drop reveals important details about where this combo's limits reside. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 125 FPS at 1920x1080 to 108 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 17 FPS, then further to 87 FPS at 3840x2160, another 21 FPS decline. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings amounts to roughly 30%, which is comparatively modest for a game like Outriders, indicating that the GPU still has substantial headroom even at the highest pixel count.

Low settings tell a similar story with slightly steeper declines. The average FPS at 1080p Low reaches 157, dropping to 134 at 1440p and 108 at 4K. That represents a 31% reduction from 1080p to 4K, nearly identical to the High preset's scaling. Medium settings show 139 FPS at 1080p, 120 at 1440p, and 96 at 4K, a 31% drop as well. Ultra settings produce the lowest overall numbers—111 FPS at 1080p, 95 at 1440p, and 68 at 4K—with a 39% decline from 1080p to 4K, the steepest scaling of any preset.

The relatively consistent scaling pattern across Low, Medium, and High suggests that the GPU is the primary limiting factor even at 1080p. If the CPU were the constraint, we would expect to see a much smaller delta between 1080p and 1440p, as the processor's workload would remain constant while the GPU's load increases. Instead, the data shows steady drops at each resolution step, with the Ultra preset showing the most pronounced sensitivity to resolution. This indicates that the most demanding settings push the GPU into a regime where pixel throughput becomes the dominant cost, while lower presets still allow the GPU to maintain high utilization across all resolutions.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090 D brings an extraordinary memory subsystem to Outriders: 32 GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's 21760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 ROPs provide the raw compute necessary to drive the high frame rates observed. Its pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s are far beyond what Outriders demands, yet the game still shows clear GPU-bound behavior at 4K Ultra, where average FPS drops to 68.

The memory configuration deserves particular attention in a looter shooter like Outriders, which features dense environments, numerous particle effects, and large texture streaming requirements. The 32 GB frame buffer is overkill for this title, but the bandwidth it provides is directly relevant. At 4K Ultra, the game pulls heavily on memory bandwidth, and the 1.79 TB/s figure helps explain why the 5090 D can still average 68 FPS under maximum load despite the game's aggressive visual demands. The boost clock of 2407 MHz, combined with the base clock of 2017 MHz, gives the GPU a 19% frequency headroom that it can exploit under sustained load.

Comparing the GPU's benchmark standing provides context for its Outriders performance. The 5090 D sits at the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77712. Its nearest rivals in aggregate benchmarks are the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT at 76904 (1.1% lower), the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT at 78940 (1.6% higher), and two NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants at 79396 and 79605 (2.1% and 2.4% higher, respectively). These small deltas suggest that the 5090 D's raw compute is competitive with a broad range of high-end GPUs, even if the specific game performance in Outriders varies with settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy of performance across the four presets, and the optimal choice depends on the target resolution. At 1080p, all presets deliver playable frame rates, with Low averaging 157 FPS, Medium 139 FPS, High 125 FPS, and Ultra 111 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 46 FPS, which is substantial but still leaves the Ultra preset above the 100 FPS threshold. For players with high-refresh displays at 1080p, the High preset at 125 FPS offers a sensible balance between visual fidelity and frame rate, while Ultra at 111 FPS remains viable if visual quality takes priority.

At 1440p, the spread narrows slightly: Low averages 134 FPS, Medium 120 FPS, High 108 FPS, and Ultra 95 FPS. The Ultra preset dips below 100 FPS here, making High a more attractive option for maintaining triple-digit frame rates. The 108 FPS average at High settings represents a 13 FPS improvement over Ultra, with only modest visual compromises. Medium at 120 FPS provides even more headroom for demanding scenes.

At 4K, the recommendation shifts decisively. Ultra averages 68 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced combat. High settings at 87 FPS offer a significant 19 FPS improvement over Ultra, while Medium at 96 FPS and Low at 108 FPS provide increasingly higher frame rates. For a looter shooter where responsiveness matters during enemy encounters, the High preset at 4K delivers the best combination of visual quality and performance, sitting comfortably above the 60 FPS minimum while avoiding the steep cost of Ultra settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset across all twelve measured configurations shows a consistent pattern of performance scaling. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves the highest average at 157 FPS, followed by Medium at 139 FPS, High at 125 FPS, and Ultra at 111 FPS. The Medium preset also reports a minimum of 118 FPS and a maximum of 160 FPS, providing the only min/max data at this resolution. The 42 FPS range between the lowest and highest presets at 1080p demonstrates that Outriders scales predictably with quality settings, but even the most demanding preset remains comfortably above 100 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages shift downward: Low hits 134 FPS, Medium 120 FPS, High 108 FPS, and Ultra 95 FPS. The Medium preset again offers min/max figures of 102 and 137 FPS, respectively. The relative ordering remains identical to 1080p, with each step down in quality yielding approximately 12-14 FPS improvement over the next higher preset. This consistent delta suggests that the performance cost of each quality tier is roughly uniform across settings.

At 3840x2160, the averages compress further: Low averages 108 FPS, Medium 96 FPS, High 87 FPS, and Ultra 68 FPS. The Medium preset's min/max of 82 and 111 FPS indicates that even at 4K, the GPU can burst well above its average when the scene allows. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 40 FPS, nearly identical to the 46 FPS gap at 1080p, showing that the settings hierarchy remains consistent regardless of resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

Among the 2913 tested CPU-GPU combinations in Outriders, this pairing of Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 1196th. That places it in the upper half of tested configurations, though not in the top tier. Given that the GPU alone sits at the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, the combo's rank of 1196 suggests that the CPU is holding the system back from the very top positions. The i5-10400F's 68th percentile standing among CPUs reinforces this interpretation—the processor is competent but not elite, and in a game that responds to both CPU and GPU performance, the CPU becomes the limiting factor in achieving higher ranks.

The gap between the GPU's percentile and the combo's rank is instructive. A GPU at the 92nd percentile paired with a CPU at the 68th percentile produces a combined rank that sits roughly at the 59th percentile of tested combos (1196 out of 2913). This discrepancy highlights how important CPU performance is in Outriders, even when the GPU is exceptionally powerful. The data suggests that pairing this GPU with a stronger CPU would likely push the combo significantly higher in the rankings, while the current CPU constrains overall performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F provides six cores and twelve threads, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 42.7 GB/s of dual-channel DDR4 memory bandwidth are modest by modern standards, and the 14 nm Comet Lake architecture is several generations behind the GPU's Blackwell design. In CPU-centric benchmarks, the i5-10400F scores 10283 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1451 in single-core, with a PassMark multi-thread score of 12115 and a single-thread score of 2541. Its average benchmark score of 14185 places it at the 68th percentile of all CPUs.

The CPU's nearest rivals in aggregate benchmarks are revealing. The Intel Xeon 6756E scores 14163 (0.2% lower), the Intel Core 7 160UL scores 14232 (0.3% higher), the AMD EPYC 7552 scores 14115 (0.5% lower), and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C scores 14277 (0.6% higher). These tiny deltas indicate that the i5-10400F sits in a crowded performance band where many processors achieve nearly identical aggregate results. However, Outriders' behavior across the measured resolutions suggests that this CPU's six-core configuration is sufficient to feed the RTX 5090 D at 1080p and 1440p without becoming a hard bottleneck, as evidenced by the strong FPS numbers at those resolutions.

At 4K, the CPU's role diminishes as the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor. The 68 FPS average at Ultra settings reflects the GPU's struggle with the game's most demanding configuration, not a CPU limitation. The consistent FPS scaling across resolutions—with the CPU's workload remaining constant while pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K—confirms that the processor is not the constraining component at higher resolutions. The data indicates that this CPU-GPU pairing is well-matched for Outriders at 1440p and below, with the GPU taking over as the primary bottleneck at 4K.