Outriders

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Outriders on the Intel Core i5-12400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti combination reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling, though the shape of that curve changes dramatically depending on the preset. At 1080p Low, the system pushes 211.2 FPS average, but dropping to 1440p Low still yields 158.8 FPS, and 4K Low lands at 86.5 FPS. That represents a 58.9% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, which indicates the GPU is already the primary limiter even at the lowest quality tier.

The scaling becomes steeper as settings increase. At High settings, the transition from 1080p (139.5 FPS) to 1440p (89.8 FPS) costs 35.6% of the frame rate, while moving to 4K High (48.5 FPS) drops another 46% from the 1440p figure. The Ultra preset shows the most aggressive scaling curve: 101.7 FPS at 1080p falls to 61.5 FPS at 1440p, and then crashes to 31.8 FPS at 4K. That final step represents a 48.3% loss from 1440p to 4K, the steepest single-resolution drop in the entire dataset.

The pattern across all settings tells a consistent story: Outriders is heavily GPU-bound for this configuration. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, are sufficient to feed the RTX 3060 Ti at every resolution tested. The GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth becomes the decisive factor as pixel count rises. At 4K Ultra, the 31.8 FPS average suggests the combination of memory bandwidth pressure and shading load from the GA104 chip's 4864 shading units simply cannot sustain higher throughput.

Interestingly, the Medium preset shows a different scaling pattern than High or Ultra. At 1080p Medium, the system achieves 183.4 FPS, which is 31.5% higher than High at the same resolution. The 1440p Medium figure of 115.4 FPS sits 28.5% above High's 89.8 FPS. But at 4K, Medium (61.5 FPS) pulls ahead of High (48.5 FPS) by 26.8%, and the gap between Medium and Ultra at 4K is a massive 48.3% — from 61.5 down to 31.8 FPS. This suggests that Ultra preset introduces effects that disproportionately tax the memory subsystem at high resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Medium as the optimal balance for the RTX 3060 Ti in Outriders, particularly for users targeting higher resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the 183.4 FPS average is well above the refresh ceiling of most mainstream monitors, while 1440p Medium's 115.4 FPS comfortably exceeds 100 FPS for high-refresh displays. Even at 4K, Medium delivers 61.5 FPS, which is playable and only 13 FPS shy of the High preset's 4K figure despite requiring less visual fidelity.

The Low preset offers the highest frame rates across the board — 211.2 FPS at 1080p, 158.8 FPS at 1440p, and 86.5 FPS at 4K — but the visual compromise is significant for a looter shooter where environmental detail and particle effects matter. The Ultra preset, by contrast, is strictly for 1080p usage, where it achieves 101.7 FPS. At 1440p Ultra (61.5 FPS) and 4K Ultra (31.8 FPS), the experience degrades below what most players would consider smooth.

For 1440p users, High at 89.8 FPS is a viable alternative to Medium's 115.4 FPS if visual quality takes priority, but the 28.5% frame rate penalty is steep. The data shows that High at 4K (48.5 FPS) is the weakest recommendation — it lacks the smoothness of Medium and the visual polish of Ultra while delivering neither. A practical approach would be to run Medium at 1440p for 115.4 FPS or High at 1080p for 139.5 FPS if image quality is paramount. The Ultra preset's 31.8 FPS at 4K falls below the 60 FPS threshold that most action games require, making it unsuitable for serious play at that resolution.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Outriders at 4K smoothly?

A: Only at Medium settings, where it achieves 61.5 FPS average. Low settings reach 86.5 FPS, but High drops to 48.5 FPS and Ultra falls to 31.8 FPS, both below the typical 60 FPS target.

Q: What is the best preset for 1440p gaming?

A: Medium provides 115.4 FPS average, which is the highest frame rate above 100 FPS at this resolution. High delivers 89.8 FPS and Ultra 61.5 FPS, while Low reaches 158.8 FPS.

Q: How much performance does the Ultra preset cost compared to High?

A: At 1080p, Ultra is 27.1% slower than High (101.7 vs 139.5 FPS). At 1440p, the gap widens to 31.5% (61.5 vs 89.8 FPS). At 4K, Ultra is 34.4% slower than High (31.8 vs 48.5 FPS).

Q: Is the RTX 3060 Ti the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data suggests yes. Even at Low settings with 211.2 FPS, the scaling from 1080p to 4K (a 58.9% drop) indicates the GPU is the limiting component. The i5-12400's 3DMark max threads score of 5890 and single-thread score of 910 are sufficient for this workload.

Q: Does the memory configuration affect high-resolution performance?

A: The GPU's 8 GB GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth appears to be a factor in the steep 4K scaling. The 48.3% drop from 1440p to 4K on Ultra settings suggests memory bandwidth pressure, as the shading load alone would not explain such a steep decline.

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

A: The system averages 139.5 FPS at 1080p High, which is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate that many competitive monitors use. This makes High a strong choice for 1080p users who want visual quality without sacrificing smoothness.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 3060 Ti delivers a wide performance envelope across presets. Low settings produce 211.2 FPS average, which is the highest measured figure in the entire dataset. Medium follows at 183.4 FPS, representing a 13.2% reduction from Low. High drops further to 139.5 FPS, a 24% loss from Medium. Ultra bottoms out at 101.7 FPS, which is 45.3% below the Low preset figure. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 109.5 FPS, demonstrating the significant cost of the Ultra preset's additional effects.

At 2560x1440, the scaling becomes more pronounced. Low settings yield 158.8 FPS, which is still remarkably high for a 1440p resolution. Medium achieves 115.4 FPS, a 27.3% drop from Low. High falls to 89.8 FPS, a 22.2% reduction from Medium. Ultra delivers 61.5 FPS, which is 31.5% below High and 61.3% below Low. The total spread at 1440p is 97.3 FPS, slightly narrower than at 1080p but with a steeper percentage-based penalty for the higher presets.

At 3840x2160, the performance picture changes dramatically. Low settings still manage 86.5 FPS, which is playable and close to the 60 FPS target. Medium drops to 61.5 FPS, a 28.9% reduction from Low. High falls to 48.5 FPS, a 21.1% drop from Medium. Ultra is nearly unplayable at 31.8 FPS, which is 34.4% below High and 63.2% below Low. The spread at 4K is 54.7 FPS, the narrowest of the three resolutions, but the absolute values are much lower, reinforcing the GPU-bound nature of the workload.

The complete dataset shows a consistent ordering: Low > Medium > High > Ultra at every resolution. The ratios between presets shift slightly with resolution, with the Low-to-Ultra ratio worsening from 2.08x at 1080p to 2.72x at 4K. This indicates that the Ultra preset's additional visual features — likely including higher-resolution textures, more complex shadows, and additional post-processing — scale more aggressively with pixel count than the features disabled in the Medium and Low presets.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is the clear performance driver in this configuration, with its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth proving decisive at higher resolutions. The GA104 chip, built on Samsung's 8 nm process with 17,400 million transistors, contains 4864 shading units, 152 texture mapping units, and 80 ROPs. The GPU's boost clock of 1665 MHz, supported by a base clock of 1410 MHz, determines the raw processing throughput, which is rated at 16.20 TFLOPS for FP32 operations.

The memory subsystem plays an outsized role in Outriders' performance scaling. The 256-bit bus and 14 Gbps effective memory speed deliver the 448.0 GB/s bandwidth that the game's high-resolution textures and particle effects demand. The data shows that moving from 1440p to 4K at Ultra settings costs 48.3% of the frame rate (from 61.5 to 31.8 FPS), a steeper decline than the 2.25x pixel count increase would suggest if the GPU were purely compute-bound. This indicates memory bandwidth saturation is a contributing factor.

The RTX 3060 Ti's 38 RT cores and 152 tensor cores are present for DirectX 12 Ultimate features, which Outriders can utilize, but the measured FPS data does not separate ray tracing or DLSS workloads from the standard rasterization path. The GPU's passmark G3D score of 20349 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2626 place it in the 69th percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the AMD Radeon RX 6700M and RX 6600.

The 200 W TDP and 550 W suggested PSU indicate this is a mid-range power envelope, and the dual-slot cooler with a 242 mm length is manageable for most cases. The PCIe 4.0 x16 interface provides adequate bandwidth for the 8 GB frame buffer, and the 1x 12-pin power connector requires the appropriate adapter. The GPU's end-of-life production status and launch MSRP of 399 USD position it as a previous-generation product, but the measured performance in Outriders shows it still capable of delivering 211.2 FPS at 1080p Low and 61.5 FPS at 4K Medium.

The GPU's 69th percentile ranking against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25120, places it slightly below the AMD Radeon RX 6700M (25180, -0.2%) and RX 6600 (25235, -0.5%). This competitive positioning is reflected in the Outriders results, where the card's strengths in raw throughput are balanced by its memory bandwidth limitations at extreme resolutions. The 133.2 GPixel/s pixel rate and 253.1 GTexel/s texture rate provide context for the game's fill-rate demands, with the 4K Ultra result of 31.8 FPS suggesting the card is operating at its practical limit for this title's most demanding configuration.