Outriders

# Outriders Performance Analysis: Intel Core i5-12600KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070

The measured frame rates for this combination reveal a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions but shows surprising headroom at 1080p, where the CPU begins to exert its influence. With the RTX 4070 delivering a 29.15 TFLOPS FP32 compute throughput and the i5-12600KF offering 10 cores across Alder Lake's hybrid architecture, the data suggests a pairing that scales predictably with increasing graphical load, though the 4K Ultra results indicate where the GPU's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 192-bit bus start to feel constrained.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and tells a clear story about which component dominates. At High settings, the transition from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 sees average FPS fall from 181.6 to 118.0, a reduction of roughly 35%. Pushing further to 3840x2160 yields 60.8 FPS, meaning 4K High delivers just one-third of the 1080p High throughput. This steep decline indicates the RTX 4070's 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth becomes the limiting factor as pixel count quadruples.

The Low preset scaling is even more revealing. At 1080p Low, the system hits 245.1 FPS, but 1440p Low drops to 204.4 FPS—only a 17% reduction—while 4K Low still manages 109.2 FPS. This relatively modest drop at lower settings suggests the CPU's 4.90 GHz boost clock and 20 MB of shared L3 cache are keeping up even as resolution increases, allowing the GPU to remain the primary bottleneck. The gap between 1440p and 4K at Low (from 204.4 to 109.2, a 47% decline) confirms that pixel throughput, not scene complexity, is what stresses this GPU.

Ultra settings exacerbate the scaling issue. The jump from 130.1 FPS at 1080p Ultra to 87.1 FPS at 1440p Ultra represents a 33% loss, while 4K Ultra collapses to 46.6 FPS—a 64% reduction from 1080p. This nonlinear drop at Ultra suggests that the combination of higher-resolution textures and increased shading complexity exceeds what the 192-bit memory interface can efficiently feed, particularly given the 35,800 million transistors on the AD104 chip.

CPU Role

The Core i5-12600KF brings 10 cores and 16 threads to Outriders, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost reaching 4.90 GHz. Its benchmark scores show strong single-thread performance—3,309 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 2,529 in Geekbench single-core—which matters for a looter shooter that must handle numerous enemy AI routines and projectile calculations. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 1,995 and 4-thread score of 3,806 indicate that even lightly threaded workloads see solid scaling.

At 1080p Low, the 245.1 FPS result suggests the CPU is nearing its limit, as lower graphical settings remove GPU constraints and expose processor throughput. The PassMark single-thread score of 3,925 and multithread score of 27,575 paint a picture of a balanced performer, but the data shows that at 1080p Low, the system cannot exceed 245 FPS regardless of GPU headroom. This ceiling aligns with the CPU's 84th percentile ranking among all processors, indicating it sits comfortably in the upper tier without being elite.

The 125 W TDP and Alder Lake's 10 nm process node from Intel suggest thermal headroom for sustained boosts, though the measured results cannot confirm clock behavior during extended sessions. What the numbers do show is that the i5-12600KF is never the primary bottleneck above 1080p, since frame rates scale consistently with resolution and settings changes—a hallmark of GPU-limited scenarios.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Medium settings as the optimal balance for this combination. At 1080p Medium, the system delivers 215.0 FPS, which is only 12% below the Low preset's 245.1 FPS while presumably offering substantially better visual fidelity. Moving to High at 1080p drops performance to 181.6 FPS—a 16% reduction from Medium—which still exceeds the refresh rate of most displays, but the diminishing returns become apparent.

At 1440p, Medium produces 151.7 FPS, comfortably above the 144 Hz threshold for high-refresh monitors. High at 1440p delivers 118.0 FPS, which remains playable but requires a 120 Hz display to fully utilize. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 87.1 FPS, which is smooth but not ideal for competitive play. For 4K users, Medium's 79.1 FPS is the highest playable option, as High falls to 60.8 FPS and Ultra becomes marginal at 46.6 FPS.

The data suggests that Medium settings provide the best experience per measured row across all resolutions, as it maintains frame rates that are 70-80% of Low while likely offering significantly improved textures and effects. High settings offer diminishing returns at 4K specifically, where the 60.8 FPS average is just above the 60 FPS baseline but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination ranks 314th out of 1,693 tested combos in Outriders, placing it in the 81st percentile of all configurations. This is a strong showing that reflects both components' capabilities, though the GPU's average benchmark score of 37,283 and 81st percentile ranking among all GPUs suggests the RTX 4070 is the more influential contributor to this position.

Comparing to the CPU's nearest rivals, the i5-12600KF scores 27,827 on average benchmarks, essentially tied with the Intel Core i9-10900K at 27,829 (0% delta) and the Core i5-12600K at 27,851 (-0.1%). The Core Ultra 5 125H trails by 0.2%, while the Core i7-13700H is 0.4% ahead. These near-identical scores indicate that the CPU choice has minimal impact on this game's performance relative to the GPU, which aligns with the resolution scaling data showing GPU-bound behavior.

The GPU's nearest rivals tell a different story. The RTX 4070's average score of 37,283 is 0.6% below the Radeon RX Vega 56's 37,507, 1.9% below the MX570 A's 38,008, and 2.2% below the RTX 4080 Mobile's 38,135. However, it beats the RX 5300M's 36,371 by 2.5%. These small deltas suggest that the RTX 4070 is tightly clustered with several competing GPUs in synthetic benchmarks, yet its real-world Outriders performance benefits from features that these synthetic tests may not fully capture.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus provides 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves adequate for 1080p and 1440p but becomes a constraint at 4K Ultra. The 4K Ultra result of 46.6 FPS—the lowest measured—shows that the memory subsystem cannot sustain the data demands of ultra-high-resolution textures. The 35,800 million transistors and 294 mm² die size on TSMC's 5 nm process give this GPU substantial compute resources, with 5,888 shading units and 184 tensor cores, but memory bandwidth is the limiting factor.

The clock behavior is notable: a base of 1920 MHz boosting to 2475 MHz, with memory running at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). These clocks, combined with the 158.4 GPixel/s pixel rate and 455.4 GTexel/s texture rate, explain why the GPU excels at lower resolutions. At 1080p, even Ultra settings hit 130.1 FPS, which is 2.8 times the 4K Ultra result. The 64 ROPs and 184 TMUs handle pixel and texture work efficiently at lower resolutions, but the 192-bit bus limits how much data can be moved at 4K.

The GPU's 200 W TDP and 550 W suggested PSU indicate this is a power-efficient design, but the measured FPS data shows that efficiency comes at the cost of 4K Ultra performance. The 16-pin power connector and dual-slot design suggest a compact card, yet the AD104 chip clearly prioritizes mid-range resolution performance over extreme 4K capabilities.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Outriders?

A: Based on measured data, 2560x1440 offers the best balance, with High settings delivering 118.0 FPS and Medium reaching 151.7 FPS, both well above the 60 FPS baseline.

Q: How does 4K Ultra perform?

A: The 4K Ultra result is 46.6 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold and represents a 64% reduction from 1080p Ultra's 130.1 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor?

A: The data shows GPU-bound behavior at most settings, but the 1080p Low result of 245.1 FPS suggests the CPU's 10 cores and 4.90 GHz boost clock become the limiting factor at very high frame rates.

Q: What settings should I use for 1440p gaming?

A: Medium settings at 1440p deliver 151.7 FPS, which is the best balance of performance and visual quality in the measured rows. High drops to 118.0 FPS, and Ultra falls to 87.1 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: It ranks 314th out of 1,693 combos, placing it in the top 20% of all tested systems for Outriders.

Q: Does the RTX 4070's 12 GB VRAM cause issues?

A: The memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s appears sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K Ultra result of 46.6 FPS indicates the 192-bit bus and 12 GB capacity become limiting at extreme resolutions and settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080:

• Low: 245.1 FPS
• Medium: 215.0 FPS
• High: 181.6 FPS
• Ultra: 130.1 FPS

2560x1440:

• Low: 204.4 FPS
• Medium: 151.7 FPS
• High: 118.0 FPS
• Ultra: 87.1 FPS

3840x2160:

• Low: 109.2 FPS
• Medium: 79.1 FPS
• High: 60.8 FPS
• Ultra: 46.6 FPS

The complete table shows a consistent pattern: each settings tier at a given resolution reduces FPS by roughly 15-25% from the previous tier, while each resolution increase at a given settings level reduces FPS by 40-50%. The exception is 1080p Low to Medium, where the drop is only 12%, suggesting the CPU maintains throughput even as GPU load increases. The 4K Ultra result stands out as the only measurement below 60 FPS, confirming that this combination is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming with medium-to-high settings, while 4K gaming requires a reduction to Medium or Low presets for playable frame rates.