Outriders

The Intel Core i5-14600K paired with the Intel Arc B390 produces a highly constrained gaming experience in Outriders, with performance limited almost entirely by the integrated graphics solution. The data shows a functional but severely bottlenecked configuration where the CPU’s substantial processing power is rendered largely irrelevant by the GPU’s output. This analysis examines the measured frames per second (FPS) data to determine optimal settings, component roles, and the combo’s standing among tested configurations.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data indicates that the Low preset provides the only consistently playable experience across all tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 115 FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded for this configuration and represents a 37.8% improvement over the Medium preset’s 83 FPS at the same resolution. At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers 72 FPS, which remains above the generally accepted 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Even at 3840x2160, the Low preset produces 38 FPS, which is the only 4K setting that approaches playability.

The Medium preset is the highest quality setting that maintains a playable frame rate, but only at 1080p. The data shows 83 FPS average at 1920x1080 with Medium settings, with a minimum of 71 FPS and maximum of 96 FPS, indicating acceptable frame pacing for most players. However, at 1440p, the Medium preset drops to 53 FPS, which falls below the ideal smoothness threshold, and at 4K it degrades further to 28 FPS. The High preset is only viable at 1080p, yielding 63 FPS, while dropping to 40 FPS at 1440p and 21 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution, as it produces 45 FPS at 1080p, 29 FPS at 1440p, and a nearly unplayable 15 FPS at 4K.

For the best balance of visual quality and performance, the data suggests using Medium settings at 1920x1080 as the primary recommendation, as it provides a 31.7% improvement over High settings while maintaining a stable frame rate above 70 FPS. For players prioritizing smoothness over fidelity, the Low preset at 1080p offers the highest headroom, with a 38.6% advantage over Medium at the same resolution. The measured data shows a clear pattern: each step up in quality costs approximately 20-30% of the frame rate, making the Medium preset at 1080p the sensible compromise.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, fabricated on a 3 nm process with a 2500 MHz boost clock and a base clock of 300 MHz. The GPU operates with system-shared memory, meaning its memory bandwidth is system-dependent rather than fixed. This architectural choice has profound implications for gaming performance, as the GPU must compete with the CPU for memory access.

The GPU’s benchmark results place it in the 9th percentile of all tested GPUs, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482. The nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, which scores 1463 (1.3% faster), the NVIDIA GeForce 800M at 1460 (1.5% faster), the NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM at 1446 (2.5% faster), and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 at 1443 (2.7% faster). This places the Arc B390 at the very bottom of the GPU performance hierarchy, which is consistent with its integrated nature and 80 W TDP.

The GPU’s specifications include 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, 24 raster output units, and 12 ray tracing cores, with a pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is rated at 7.680 TFLOPS, with FP16 at 15.36 TFLOPS (2:1). Despite these seemingly modest specifications, the data shows that the GPU is the primary limiting factor in Outriders, as frame rates drop dramatically with increased resolution and quality settings. The system-shared memory configuration means that at higher resolutions, the GPU must access larger portions of system memory, which likely contributes to the steep performance penalties observed at 1440p and 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent and steep performance drop as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, confirming that the GPU is the bottleneck in this configuration. At the Low preset, the average frame rate falls from 115 FPS at 1080p to 72 FPS at 1440p, a 37.4% decrease, and further to 38 FPS at 4K, a 47.2% decrease from 1440p and a 67.0% decrease from 1080p. This pattern indicates that the Arc B390’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are insufficient for higher pixel counts.

The Medium preset shows a similar trend: 83 FPS at 1080p drops to 53 FPS at 1440p (a 36.1% decrease) and then to 28 FPS at 4K (a 47.2% decrease from 1440p). The High preset follows the same trajectory: 63 FPS at 1080p, 40 FPS at 1440p (a 36.5% decrease), and 21 FPS at 4K (a 47.5% decrease from 1440p). The Ultra preset exhibits the most severe scaling: 45 FPS at 1080p, 29 FPS at 1440p (a 35.6% decrease), and 15 FPS at 4K (a 48.3% decrease from 1440p).

The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings presets is striking. The transition from 1080p to 1440p consistently costs approximately 36-37% of the frame rate, while the jump from 1440p to 4K costs approximately 47-48%. This linear scaling pattern is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the CPU’s performance headroom is not a factor. The data strongly indicates that the Arc B390’s compute and memory resources are fully saturated at 1080p, and any increase in resolution directly translates to proportional frame rate losses.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest playable frame rate achievable with this configuration in Outriders?*

A: The highest recorded average frame rate is 115 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low preset. This is the only setting combination that exceeds 100 FPS, and it represents the absolute ceiling for this hardware pairing.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with the Intel Core i5-14600K and Intel Arc B390?

A: The data shows that 4K gaming is not practically viable. At 3840x2160, the Low preset produces 38 FPS, Medium produces 28 FPS, High produces 21 FPS, and Ultra produces 15 FPS. None of these meet the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay, and only the Low preset approaches a minimally acceptable frame rate.

Q: How does the Arc B390 compare to its closest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B390 scores 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, placing it in the 9th percentile. It outperforms the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX by 1.3%, the NVIDIA GeForce 800M by 1.5%, the NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM by 2.5%, and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 by 2.7%. These are all extremely low-end GPUs, confirming the Arc B390’s entry-level positioning.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 115 FPS while the Ultra preset averages 45 FPS. This represents a 60.9% performance reduction when moving from the lowest to the highest quality settings, highlighting the significant cost of visual fidelity on this GPU.

Q: Does the CPU show any signs of bottlenecking in this configuration?

A: No. The consistent frame rate drops across resolution changes and settings presets indicate that the GPU is the sole limiting factor. The Intel Core i5-14600K’s high multi-core and single-core benchmark scores are not reflected in the gaming results, as the Arc B390 cannot utilize the available CPU performance.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a balance of quality and frame rate?

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 offers the best compromise, with an average of 83 FPS and a minimum of 71 FPS. This provides a 31.7% improvement over High settings while maintaining a frame rate that exceeds the 60 FPS target, making it the recommended choice for this configuration.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, fabricated on Intel’s 10 nm process. It features a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, with a 125 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. The processor supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration and offers PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes.

The CPU’s benchmark results are exceptional, placing it in the 90th percentile of all tested CPUs with an average benchmark score of 48618. Its Cinebench R23 scores are 24491 for multi-core and 2064 for single-core, while Geekbench scores are 16673 for multi-core and 2491 for single-core. The nearest rivals include the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H, which scores 48698 (0.2% faster), the AMD EPYC 4345P at 48470 (0.3% slower), the Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX at 48287 (0.7% slower), and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 at 48995 (0.8% faster). These results demonstrate that the i5-14600K is a high-performance desktop processor capable of handling demanding workloads.

However, in Outriders, the CPU’s capabilities are entirely untapped. The measured FPS data shows no evidence of CPU limitation; instead, the frame rates are dictated by the GPU’s rendering capabilities. The data suggests that the i5-14600K could easily drive a much more powerful discrete GPU, as its processing headroom is far beyond what the Arc B390 requires. The CPU’s role in this configuration is to feed the GPU with data, but it does so without any observable performance ceiling, as evidenced by the smooth frame rate scaling patterns.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for Outriders with the Intel Core i5-14600K and Intel Arc B390 is as follows:

1920x1080:

• Low: 115 FPS average
• Medium: 83 FPS average, 71 FPS minimum, 96 FPS maximum
• High: 63 FPS average
• Ultra: 45 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 72 FPS average
• Medium: 53 FPS average, 45 FPS minimum, 61 FPS maximum
• High: 40 FPS average
• Ultra: 29 FPS average

3840x2160:

• Low: 38 FPS average
• Medium: 28 FPS average, 23 FPS minimum, 32 FPS maximum
• High: 21 FPS average
• Ultra: 15 FPS average

The data reveals a consistent hierarchy across all resolutions, with the Low preset always delivering approximately 38-39% higher frame rates than Medium, Medium delivering approximately 32-33% higher frame rates than High, and High delivering approximately 29-30% higher frame rates than Ultra. The Medium preset is the only one with measured minimum and maximum FPS values, indicating that the benchmark captured a frame range of 71-96 FPS at 1080p, 45-61 FPS at 1440p, and 23-32 FPS at 4K. This variance data suggests that frame pacing is relatively stable at Medium settings, with the minimum FPS staying within 85% of the average at 1080p and 82% at 1440p.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-14600K and Intel Arc B390 combination ranks 2582nd out of 2913 tested combos in Outriders, placing it in the bottom 11.3% of all configurations. This ranking is consistent with the GPU’s low percentile standing, as the Arc B390’s 9th percentile performance among all GPUs effectively determines the combo’s overall position. The CPU’s 90th percentile ranking has no meaningful impact on the gaming performance ranking, as the GPU bottleneck dominates the results.

The ranking indicates that this combo is positioned near the bottom of the performance hierarchy, with only 331 tested combinations performing worse. The data suggests that the i5-14600K is severely mismatched with the Arc B390 for gaming purposes, as the CPU’s high-end processing capabilities are wasted on a GPU that cannot deliver competitive frame rates. The measured FPS values at all resolutions and settings presets confirm this assessment, with even the best-case scenario (Low preset at 1080p) only achieving a frame rate that would be considered average for lower-end discrete GPUs. The combo’s ranking reflects the fundamental limitation imposed by the integrated graphics solution, which prevents the configuration from reaching the playable performance levels that the CPU alone would suggest.