Outriders

The Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT combination delivers a playable experience across most of Outriders' settings, but the data shows clear thresholds where performance degrades sharply. The most balanced experience is found at 2560x1440 with the High preset, which produces an average of 86.6 FPS. This configuration provides a significant margin above the 60 FPS baseline while maintaining visual fidelity. Dropping to Medium at the same resolution yields 100.6 FPS, a 16% improvement, but the visual trade-off is noticeable. At 1920x1080, the High preset achieves 99.5 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh monitors, while Ultra at that resolution still holds at 94.1 FPS. The data indicates that the Ultra preset is where the GPU begins to struggle; at 2560x1440 it falls to 65.2 FPS, and at 3840x2160 it drops to a marginal 36 FPS. For users prioritizing frame rate over fidelity, the Low preset at 1920x1080 delivers 129.1 FPS, but the Medium preset at 115.5 FPS is a better compromise. The 3840x2160 resolution is only truly viable on Low settings, which produces 83.6 FPS; Medium and High at 4K produce 60.2 and 46.4 FPS respectively, the latter being below the threshold for smooth gameplay.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process. Its base clock is 2.90 GHz with a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. This is a processor without hyper-threading, which means it relies on its physical cores for all workloads. In Outriders, a looter shooter that typically involves numerous on-screen enemies and particle effects, the CPU must manage game logic and draw calls. The benchmark results for this chip show a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 7969 and a single-core score of 1125. The single-core performance is crucial for frame pacing, and the 4.10 GHz boost clock helps maintain consistent frame times. The processor's 9 MB of shared L3 cache is moderate by modern standards, which can affect how quickly data is fed to the GPU. The data indicates that this CPU is not a bottleneck at lower resolutions; at 1920x1080, the frame rates scale consistently with settings, from 94.1 FPS on Ultra to 129.1 FPS on Low. This scaling suggests the GPU is the primary limiting factor at this resolution. However, the CPU's 6-thread limit may become a constraint in the most demanding scenes with many AI enemies, though the measured average FPS does not show a dramatic drop that would indicate a hard CPU limit at the tested settings. The processor's avgBenchmarkScore of 2305 places it in the 50th percentile of all CPUs, and it sits within 0.6% of its nearest rivals, including the Intel Core i3-10305 and the Intel Xeon E-2134. This indicates that the i5-9400 provides a mid-pack baseline for gaming performance.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT is the dominant component in this pairing, built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a 7 nm process. It features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s. The GPU has a base clock of 2150 MHz, a game clock of 2495 MHz, and a boost clock of 2600 MHz. This memory capacity is ample for Outriders at high resolutions, as the game's textures and world data can be stored locally without relying on slower system memory. The GPU's compute capabilities are substantial, with 2560 shading units and 160 texture mapping units, contributing to a texture rate of 416.0 GTexel/s and an FP32 throughput of 13.31 TFLOPS. In the measured results, the GPU's strength is evident in the scaling between settings. At 2560x1440, the difference between Low and High is 22 FPS (108.6 vs 86.6), which shows that the GPU has headroom even at higher fidelity. The Ultra preset at 2560x1440 drops to 65.2 FPS, which suggests that the specific effects in the Ultra preset, such as increased shadow resolution and post-processing, are particularly demanding on the ROPs and shader units. The 4K results highlight the GPU's limitations; the difference between Low (83.6 FPS) and High (46.4 FPS) is a massive 37.2 FPS drop, indicating that the 64 ROPs are saturated by the pixel fill rate required at 3840x2160. The GPU's percentileVsAllGpus of 79 indicates it performs better than the majority of GPUs in the database, and its avgBenchmarkScore of 35327 places it in close competition with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, which is only 1.3% faster in aggregate benchmarks. This suggests that the RX 6750 XT is a high-end part that can handle Outriders well at 1440p, but 4K requires significant settings compromises.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Outriders, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT ranks 1317 out of 1693 combos, placing it in the bottom 22% of all tested configurations. This ranking might seem low given the GPU's individual performance, but it reflects the overall system balance. The comboRankInGame field indicates that there are 376 other combinations that achieve better average FPS across the tested resolutions and settings. The data suggests that the CPU is the limiting factor in this pairing. The i5-9400's 6-thread configuration and moderate clock speeds may prevent the RX 6750 XT from reaching its full potential, particularly in scenarios where the CPU must process game logic. This is supported by the GPU's own benchmark scores, which show it trading blows with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, a card that typically pairs with higher-end CPUs. The measured FPS at 1920x1080 Ultra (94.1 FPS) is respectable, but it is far below what the GPU is theoretically capable of, as indicated by its 79th percentile ranking among all GPUs. The ranking also implies that users with this combo are likely to see better performance in GPU-bound scenarios at higher resolutions, where the CPU's limitations are less pronounced. For example, the 4K Low result of 83.6 FPS is closer to the GPU's performance ceiling than the 1080p Low result of 129.1 FPS, which is likely constrained by the CPU. The deltaPct values for the CPU's nearest rivals are all within 0.6%, meaning that swapping the i5-9400 for a similar chip would not significantly alter the ranking, but moving to a higher-core-count CPU would likely improve the combo's standing.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for this combo at 2560x1440?

A: The High preset at 2560x1440 provides the best balance, achieving 86.6 FPS. Ultra drops to 65.2 FPS, and while still playable, the frame rate loss of 21.4 FPS is substantial for the visual gains.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Outriders?

A: Yes, but only on lower presets. The Low preset at 3840x2160 achieves 83.6 FPS, while Medium drops to 60.2 FPS. High and Ultra at 4K produce 46.4 and 36 FPS respectively, which are below the smooth gameplay threshold.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this system?

A: The data suggests the CPU is the primary bottleneck. The GPU's individual benchmarks show it is capable of competing with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, yet the frame rates at 1080p are not exceptionally high, indicating the 6-core i5-9400 limits performance.

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-9400 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2305, which is within 0.6% of its nearest rivals, including the Intel Core i3-10305 and the Intel Xeon E-2134. Its performance is effectively tied with these chips.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1920x1080?

A: The Low preset achieves 129.1 FPS, while Ultra achieves 94.1 FPS. This is a 35 FPS difference, or a 27% reduction in frame rate for maximum visual quality.

Q: Does the 12 GB VRAM on the RX 6750 XT provide enough memory for Outriders?

A: Yes, the 12 GB of GDDR6 memory with a 432.0 GB/s bandwidth is more than sufficient for Outriders. The measured frame rates do not show any signs of texture streaming or memory bandwidth limitations at any tested resolution.