Outriders

# How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 ranks 1431 out of 3710 tested combos in Outriders, placing it in the 38th percentile of all tested systems. This is a solidly mid-pack result, though the ranking reflects a combination that is clearly capable of handling the game at most settings, with the primary constraint emerging at the highest graphical presets. The combo sits in the upper-middle tier, meaning it outperforms roughly 61% of tested configurations, yet it is not among the elite performers that dominate the top of the leaderboard.

When contextualized against the individual component rankings, the CPU and GPU both hold percentile positions of 72 and 61 respectively among all tested parts. The combined system rank of 1431 out of 3710 indicates that the pairing does not amplify either component's relative standing significantly — the result is roughly what one would expect from a mainstream six-core processor with a high-end Ampere GPU. The nearest CPU rivals in aggregate benchmark scores include the AMD EPYC 7643 (with a delta of -0.1%) and the Intel Core i7-1355U (delta of -0.3%), showing that the i5-12400's overall compute performance is tightly clustered with these very different processors. On the GPU side, the RTX 3070's nearest rival is the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (delta of 0.7%), indicating near-parity in raw benchmark terms, though in-game results can differ substantially from synthetic metrics.

# Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for Outriders reveals a clear hierarchy of playable settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 214 FPS, which is exceptionally high and suitable for competitive play on high-refresh displays. The Medium preset at this resolution yields 190 FPS average with a minimum of 161 FPS, ensuring smooth performance even in demanding scenes. High settings at 1080p produce 152 FPS, still far above the 60 FPS threshold for comfortable play. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 109 FPS, which remains entirely playable and offers the best visual fidelity without sacrificing responsiveness.

For the optimal balance of visual quality and performance, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 stands out as the sweet spot. It averages 128 FPS with a minimum of 108 FPS, providing a consistently smooth experience that takes advantage of the GPU's capability while remaining well within the V-sync envelope of most 144Hz monitors. The High preset at 1440p achieves 96 FPS, which is still excellent, but the Medium preset's tighter minimum frame rate (108 FPS vs. no reported minimum for High) suggests more consistent frame pacing. At 4K, the Medium preset at 3840x2160 averages 67 FPS with a minimum of 57 FPS, making it the only 4K setting that reliably stays above the 60 FPS threshold for most of the session, though dips below 60 do occur.

# Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a predictable pattern of diminishing returns as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the drop reveals important information about the limiting component. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 152 at 1080p to 96 at 1440p (a 37% reduction) and then to 50 at 4K (a 67% reduction from 1080p). This steep decline is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the RTX 3070's rasterization throughput becomes the primary bottleneck as pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K.

The Low preset exhibits a different scaling pattern: 214 FPS at 1080p, 175 FPS at 1440p (an 18% drop), and 92 FPS at 4K (a 57% drop from 1080p). The relatively smaller reduction from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings suggests that at these lower graphical loads, the CPU begins to play a more significant role, and the i5-12400's six cores with twelve threads — running at a base of 2.50 GHz and boost of 4.40 GHz — are sufficient to keep the data flowing. However, the larger drop from 1440p to 4K at Low (from 175 to 92 FPS, a 47% reduction) indicates that even with minimal graphical settings, the GPU's memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s and its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory become limiting factors at 4K.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings range is covered with all four presets measured. Low averages 214 FPS, Medium averages 190 FPS (minimum 161, maximum 218), High averages 152 FPS, and Ultra averages 109 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 105 FPS, representing a 49% performance penalty for the highest preset. The Medium preset's minimum of 161 FPS is notably high, suggesting that the game's engine is well-optimized for this resolution and the i5-12400's 3DMark scores — 1692 in the 2-thread test and 5873 in the 16-thread test — are more than adequate for frame generation at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the results show a similar gradient but with compressed values. Low produces 175 FPS, Medium 128 FPS (minimum 108, maximum 147), High 96 FPS, and Ultra 69 FPS. The reduction from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings: approximately 18-27% fewer frames, with Ultra showing the smallest absolute drop (from 109 to 69 FPS, a 37% reduction) but the largest relative penalty. At 1440p Ultra, the 69 FPS average is still playable but approaches the threshold where frame drops become noticeable on standard 60Hz displays.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limitations become evident. Low averages 92 FPS, Medium 67 FPS (minimum 57, maximum 77), High 50 FPS, and Ultra 36 FPS. The Medium preset is the only 4K option that maintains an average above 60 FPS, though its minimum of 57 FPS indicates occasional dips. The Ultra preset at 36 FPS is essentially unplayable for smooth action, and even High at 50 FPS falls short of the 60 FPS target. The transition from 1440p to 4K at High settings (96 to 50 FPS, a 48% drop) is the steepest single-resolution penalty observed, underscoring the RTX 3070's 8 GB VRAM and 256-bit memory bus as the primary constraints at 4K.

# GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is built on the GA104 chip using Samsung's 8 nm process, with 17,400 million transistors packed into a 392 mm² die. Its base clock of 1500 MHz and boost clock of 1725 MHz drive 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output units. The memory subsystem comprises 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth — a figure that becomes critical when analyzing the 4K performance degradation. The GPU's 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores are present but not explicitly exercised in this benchmark data, which focuses on traditional rasterization performance.

The benchmark results show that the RTX 3070's compute capabilities are strong, with a Passmark G3D score of 22214 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 112821. The GPU's percentile rank of 61 among all tested GPUs places it in the upper tier, with its nearest rival being the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (delta of 0.7%). However, the in-game data reveals that Outriders is particularly demanding on memory bandwidth: the 4K Low preset (92 FPS) is only 43% faster than the 4K High preset (50 FPS), suggesting that the 8 GB VRAM capacity is not the sole constraint — the 448.0 GB/s bandwidth becomes saturated at higher settings. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3162 and Passmark DirectX 12 score of 85 indicate that the GPU scales well with API-level optimizations, but the game's engine appears to place heavy emphasis on texture bandwidth, which is the RTX 3070's relative weakness compared to its raw compute throughput.

# FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain a consistent 60+ FPS?

A: The data shows that at 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 128 with a minimum of 108, ensuring consistent performance above 60 FPS. At 4K, only the Low preset (92 FPS average) and Medium preset (67 FPS average, 57 FPS minimum) achieve near-60 FPS performance, with Medium occasionally dipping below the threshold.

Q: How does the Ultra preset perform across different resolutions?

A: At 1080p Ultra, the average is 109 FPS; at 1440p Ultra, it drops to 69 FPS; and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 36 FPS. The Ultra preset is only recommended for 1080p or 1440p gaming, as the 4K result is below playable standards.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The resolution scaling data indicates that the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, particularly at 4K where FPS drops sharply. At 1080p Low settings (214 FPS), the CPU's 3DMark 2-thread score of 1692 and single-thread score of 910 suggest it is handling frame generation adequately, but the GPU's 8 GB memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth limit 4K performance.

Q: What is the frame time consistency at Medium settings?

A: The Medium preset is the only one with reported minimum and maximum FPS values. At 1080p, the range is 161 to 218 FPS (average 190); at 1440p, it is 108 to 147 FPS (average 128); and at 4K, it is 57 to 77 FPS (average 67). The narrowing range at higher resolutions indicates increasingly variable frame pacing as the GPU approaches its limits.

Q: How does this combo compare to other tested systems in Outriders?

A: The combo ranks 1431 out of 3710 tested configurations, placing it in the 38th percentile overall. This means it outperforms approximately 61% of tested systems, though it is not in the top tier. The individual component percentiles (CPU at 72, GPU at 61) suggest the pairing is well-balanced for this game.

Q: What graphical settings provide the best experience at 1440p?

A: The Medium preset at 2560x1440 (128 FPS average, 108 FPS minimum) offers the most consistent experience, combining a high average frame rate with a tight minimum. The High preset at 96 FPS is also viable, but the lack of reported minimum FPS data makes it harder to guarantee consistency.

# CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a six-core, twelve-thread processor from the Alder Lake generation, built on Intel's 10 nm process with a die size of 163 mm². It operates at a base clock of 2.50 GHz and boosts up to 4.40 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. The processor supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration, though the benchmark data does not specify which memory type was used in the test system.

In Outriders, the CPU's performance is adequate to feed the RTX 3070 at 1080p and 1440p, as evidenced by the high frame rates at Low and Medium settings. The 3DMark scores show strong multi-threaded scaling: 3012 in the 4-thread test, 4745 in the 8-thread test, and 5890 in the 16-thread test, indicating that the processor's thread utilization is efficient. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15989 and single-core score of 2257 further confirm that the i5-12400 provides robust compute performance for a six-core part. The Passmark multi-thread score of 18747 and single-thread score of 3456 place it in the 72nd percentile among all tested CPUs, with its nearest rival being the AMD EPYC 7643 (delta of -0.1%).

The game's engine appears to be well-optimized for mid-range processors, as the i5-12400 does not create a noticeable bottleneck at 1080p even at Low settings where the GPU is least stressed (214 FPS). However, the CPU's 3DMark single-thread score of 910 and Cinebench R15 single-core score of 227 suggest that its per-core performance is not exceptional, which could become a limiting factor in scenes with heavy physics or AI workloads — though the measured data does not indicate such a scenario in this game. The 65 W TDP and 12 threads provide sufficient headroom for background tasks while gaming, and the processor's 72nd percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates it is a competent pairing for the RTX 3070 in this title.