Outriders

# Outriders with Intel Core i5-12400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060

The combination of Intel's Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5060 produces a decidedly mixed experience in Outriders, with performance that swings dramatically based on resolution and quality preset. The data shows a system that can deliver high-refresh 1080p gameplay at lower settings but struggles to maintain playable frame rates at 4K Ultra, placing it in the 1640th position out of 3710 tested combinations. This pairing sits in the 44th percentile of all tested combos, indicating a mid-pack result that leans toward esports-style responsiveness rather than maxed-out visual fidelity.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and telling. At Low settings, the system produces 214 FPS at 1920x1080, which drops to 165 FPS at 2560x1440 (a 23% reduction), and further to 86 FPS at 3840x2160 (a 60% reduction from 1080p). This scaling pattern reveals that the RTX 5060's 8 GB of GDDR7 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth become increasingly strained as pixel count rises. The 4K Low result of 86 FPS shows the GPU can still deliver smooth gameplay when graphical complexity is minimized, but the headroom evaporates quickly.

Moving to High settings amplifies the resolution penalty. The system achieves 143 FPS at 1080p, falls to 90 FPS at 1440p (37% drop), and tumbles to 47 FPS at 4K (67% drop from 1080p). This aggressive falloff indicates that the GPU's 19.18 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 299.6 GTexel/s texture rate are sufficient for 1080p High but simply cannot sustain 4K High at acceptable levels. The 4K High result of 47 FPS sits below the 60 FPS threshold that most players consider the baseline for smooth action, and the lack of minimum frame data for this setting suggests potential instability.

The Ultra preset tells an even more cautionary tale. At 1080p Ultra, the system manages 103 FPS, which drops to 65 FPS at 1440p and collapses to 34 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra figure is barely playable and would result in noticeable stutter during intense combat sequences. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at Ultra shows a 48% performance loss, confirming that the RTX 5060's 128-bit memory bus and 8 GB capacity are the primary bottlenecks at high resolutions with maxed settings.

GPU Role

The RTX 5060's specifications explain much of this behavior. Built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, the GPU packs 21,900 million transistors into a 181 mm² die. Its 3840 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs provide the raw compute foundation, while 30 RT cores and 120 tensor cores handle ray tracing and AI workloads. The boost clock of 2497 MHz and base clock of 2280 MHz are modest for the 50-series, but the memory subsystem is where the limitations emerge.

The 8 GB GDDR7 memory operates at 1750 MHz with a 28 Gbps effective rate, delivering 448.0 GB/s bandwidth across a 128-bit bus. This configuration is adequate for 1080p and even 1440p gaming, but the 4K results show the memory capacity becoming a constraint. Outriders' detailed environments and particle effects at Ultra settings likely exceed the 8 GB frame buffer, causing the GPU to rely on slower memory spillover. The pixel rate of 119.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 299.6 GTexel/s are respectable, yet the 4K Ultra average of 34 FPS demonstrates that the card is overextended.

Benchmark scores reinforce this positioning. The GPU achieves 20891 in Passmark G3D and 3628 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, placing it in the 72nd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon 860M (26401, within 0.3%) and NVIDIA GeForce MX550 (26421, within 0.3%), which is notable given the architectural differences. The RTX 5060 also sits close to the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary (26553, 0.8% higher) and AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT (26011, 1.2% lower), suggesting that in synthetic workloads, the card performs similarly to older, higher-tier GPUs despite its modern architecture.

How This Combo Ranks

Among all 3710 tested CPU-GPU combinations in Outriders, this pairing holds the 1640th position. That places it just inside the top 44% of all configurations, which is a middling result for a system combining a 2022-era CPU with a 2025-era GPU. The ranking suggests that while the individual components are competent, the combination does not excel in this specific game, likely due to the GPU's memory constraints at higher resolutions and the CPU's 6-core design limiting performance in certain scenarios.

The i5-12400's individual benchmark scores provide context. With a Passmark multithread score of 18747 and an average benchmark score of 18683, the CPU sits in the 72nd percentile of all processors. Its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7643 (18697, 0.1% lower), Intel Core i7-1355U (18730, 0.3% lower), AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 (18811, 0.7% lower), and Intel Core i3-14100F (18519, 0.9% higher). These margins are all within 1%, indicating that the i5-12400 performs comparably to a range of server, mobile, and desktop chips in synthetic benchmarks, though its real-world gaming performance depends heavily on the workload.

The combo ranking of 1640 out of 3710 is lower than the individual component percentiles might suggest, implying that Outriders does not scale perfectly with this pairing. The game's engine appears to favor higher core counts or more memory bandwidth than this configuration provides, particularly at 1440p and 4K resolutions where the GPU becomes the limiting factor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its strongest results across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 214 FPS, which is well beyond what most 1080p monitors can display. Medium settings yield 190 FPS with a minimum of 161 FPS and maximum of 218 FPS, showing excellent consistency. High settings drop to 143 FPS, still comfortably above 120 FPS for smooth gameplay. Ultra settings reduce performance to 103 FPS, which remains playable but indicates that the GPU's limitations start to emerge even at 1080p.

The 2560x1440 results show a clear step down. Low settings achieve 165 FPS, which is still excellent for competitive play. Medium settings produce 120 FPS with a minimum of 102 FPS and maximum of 138 FPS, providing a solid balance of visual quality and responsiveness. High settings fall to 90 FPS, which is adequate but begins to feel less fluid during fast-paced combat. Ultra settings drop to 65 FPS, which is playable but sits below the 72 FPS minimum that many players target for high-refresh displays.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain playable frame rates at higher settings. Low settings produce 86 FPS, which is acceptable for 4K gaming, though the lack of minimum frame data suggests possible dips. Medium settings average 63 FPS with a minimum of 53 FPS and maximum of 72 FPS, putting the system right at the edge of playability. High settings drop to 47 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold and would be noticeable during intense sequences. Ultra settings collapse to 34 FPS, which is effectively unplayable for an action-oriented looter shooter.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 provides six cores and twelve threads based on the Alder Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process with a die size of 163 mm². Its base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz, combined with 18 MB of shared L3 cache, deliver solid single-thread performance. The CPU's benchmark results show a single-core score of 910 in 3DMark, 2257 in Cinebench R23, and 3456 in Passmark single-thread tests, while multi-thread scores reach 5890 in 3DMark max-threads, 15989 in Cinebench R23, and 18747 in Passmark multithread.

In Outriders, the CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the bottleneck. At 1080p Low with 214 FPS, the i5-12400's six cores are sufficient to feed the RTX 5060, but the 90 FPS result at 1440p High suggests the CPU is still keeping pace. The 47 FPS at 4K High is clearly GPU-limited, as the CPU has more headroom available. The CPU's 65 W TDP and dual-channel memory support (DDR4 or DDR5) indicate a mainstream design that prioritizes efficiency over raw throughput.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are all within 1% of its average score, which means that swapping to an AMD EPYC 7643, Intel Core i7-1355U, AMD Ryzen AI 5 330, or Intel Core i3-14100F would produce negligible differences in Outriders performance. The 3DMark scores tell a similar story: 5873 for 16 threads, 1692 for 2 threads, and 3012 for 4 threads. These numbers suggest the CPU's performance scales well with thread count but does not exhibit any exceptional characteristics that would unseat it from its mid-range positioning.

Settings Recommendations

For players prioritizing high frame rates at 1080p, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. The 190 FPS average with a 161 FPS minimum ensures smooth gameplay even during chaotic firefights, and the 218 FPS maximum shows there is headroom for future content. High settings at 1080p provide 143 FPS, which is still excellent, but the 47 FPS drop from Medium to High suggests diminishing returns in visual fidelity for the performance cost.

At 1440p, Medium settings again emerge as the sweet spot. The 120 FPS average with 102 FPS minimum provides a consistently smooth experience that takes advantage of high-refresh monitors. High settings at 90 FPS are acceptable but may cause perceptible stutter in the game's most demanding moments, particularly when multiple enemies trigger particle effects simultaneously. Low settings at 165 FPS are ideal for competitive play but sacrifice too much visual detail for most players.

For 4K gaming, the data indicates that Medium settings are the highest viable option. The 63 FPS average with a 53 FPS minimum is borderline playable, but players should expect occasional dips below 60 FPS during intense sequences. Low settings at 86 FPS provide a more stable experience and are recommended for those who prioritize smoothness over visual fidelity. High and Ultra settings at 4K produce 47 FPS and 34 FPS respectively, which are below acceptable thresholds for a fast-paced looter shooter.

The overall recommendation is to run Outriders at 1440p Medium for the best combination of visual quality and performance, or 1080p Medium for players with high-refresh monitors seeking maximum smoothness. The system's 8 GB VRAM capacity and 128-bit memory bus make 4K gaming a compromise at best, so players with 4K displays should accept reduced settings rather than pushing for maximum quality.