Outriders

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT lands at rank 1277 out of 1693 tested combinations in Outriders. That places this combo in the lower half of the database, around the 25th percentile of all tested systems. The ranking reflects a pairing where the CPU’s six-core, six-thread Coffee Lake design, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost of 4.10 GHz, appears to constrain the GPU in a game that favors higher thread counts. The i5-9400 sits at the 50th percentile against all CPUs in our synthetic benchmarks, with an average score of 2305, while the RX 7700 XT ranks at the 73rd percentile among all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 30097. That gap between CPU and GPU percentiles is the key signal: this is not a balanced configuration for Outriders, and the rank reflects a system where the graphics card is waiting on the processor in many scenes.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s position at 1277 of 1693 is a direct consequence of the i5-9400’s modest standing relative to its graphics partner. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 2305 places it within 0.6% of the Intel Core i7-8809G, which scores 2319, and just 0.2% above the Intel Core i3-10305 at 2300. These are close competitors, but none of them are modern high-core-count parts. In Outriders, where the measured FPS data shows the GPU scaling heavily with resolution, the CPU’s six threads become a bottleneck at lower resolutions. The RX 7700 XT, by contrast, is a much stronger component: its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, scores 30109, a delta of 0%, while the AMD Radeon RX 570 scores 30158, which is 0.2% higher. The GPU is capable of pushing well over 100 FPS at 1080p, but the CPU cannot feed it consistently, dragging the overall combo rank down. The data indicates that this pairing would perform significantly better with a higher-tier processor, but as configured, it sits in the lower quartile of all tested systems.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT brings 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 1435 MHz, with a boost clock of 2544 MHz and a game clock of 2171 MHz, and memory runs at 2250 MHz, or 18 Gbps effective. These specifications are substantial for a looter shooter like Outriders, which relies on rapid texture streaming and particle effects. The GPU’s FP32 throughput of 35.17 TFLOPS and texture rate of 549.5 GTexel/s are ample for this title, and the 96 ROPs handle pixel fill at 244.2 GPixel/s. However, the measured results show that the GPU’s role shifts dramatically depending on the resolution and settings. At 4K Ultra, the card is clearly the limiting factor, dropping to 39.5 FPS, while at 1080p Low, it reaches 129.1 FPS. The GPU’s 73rd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 30097, indicates it is a mid-to-high-tier part, but its performance in Outriders is capped by the CPU at lower resolutions. The 12 GB frame buffer is not a constraint in this game, as even at 4K Ultra, the average FPS is determined by compute and shading rather than memory capacity.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of which preset offers the best experience. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 129.1 FPS, Medium drops to 112, High yields 101.1, and Ultra is 93.4. The difference between Low and Ultra is only 35.7 FPS, but the visual quality gain from High to Ultra is typically minimal in Outriders. The data suggests that the High preset at 1080p, at 101.1 FPS, is the most balanced choice, as it stays above the 100 FPS threshold while providing significantly better visuals than Medium. At 1440p, the High preset delivers 86.9 FPS, which is still smooth for most displays, while Ultra drops to 68.8 FPS, which may be acceptable but is closer to the edge of playability. At 4K, the High preset yields 52.7 FPS, and Ultra falls to 39.5 FPS, making either a marginal experience. The recommendation is to prioritize the High preset across all resolutions, as it offers the best ratio of visual fidelity to frame rate in the measured data. The Low preset at 4K, at 91.1 FPS, is an outlier that suggests the GPU can handle the resolution if graphical effects are reduced, but the quality loss is substantial. The data indicates that High is the sweet spot, with Medium being a viable fallback at 4K, delivering 64.9 FPS versus 52.7.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Starting at 1920x1080, the combo produces its highest averages. Low settings reach 129.1 FPS, Medium drops to 112, High yields 101.1, and Ultra is 93.4. The spread from Low to Ultra is 35.7 FPS, showing that settings have a moderate impact at this resolution. Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 112.5 FPS on Low, 99.1 on Medium, 86.9 on High, and 68.8 on Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra widens to 43.7 FPS, indicating that the GPU is more stressed as resolution increases. At 3840x2160, the numbers fall further: Low is 91.1 FPS, Medium is 64.9, High is 52.7, and Ultra is 39.5. The Low-to-Ultra spread is now 51.6 FPS, which is nearly double the 1080p spread. This pattern shows that the GPU becomes the dominant factor at 4K, while at 1080p, the CPU limits the maximum frame rate. Notably, the 1080p Low result of 129.1 FPS is only 16.6% higher than the 1440p Low result of 112.5 FPS, which is a smaller gain than expected, suggesting the CPU is capping performance even at lower resolutions. The 4K Low result of 91.1 FPS is surprisingly high, indicating that the GPU can handle the resolution when settings are reduced, but the CPU still prevents it from reaching the frame rates seen in other titles.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear story about the limiting component. At Low settings, the FPS drops from 129.1 at 1080p to 112.5 at 1440p, a decrease of 12.9%, and then to 91.1 at 4K, another 19% drop. This scaling is relatively mild, which is a sign of CPU limitation: if the GPU were the bottleneck, the drop from 1080p to 4K would be much steeper, often exceeding 50%. At High settings, the drop is more pronounced: 101.1 FPS at 1080p falls to 86.9 at 1440p (14% decrease) and then to 52.7 at 4K (39% decrease). The 4K High result is less than 60% of the 1080p High result, indicating that the GPU is now the primary constraint. At Ultra settings, the scaling is even steeper: 93.4 FPS at 1080p, 68.8 at 1440p (26% decrease), and 39.5 at 4K (43% decrease). The data shows that at Low and Medium settings, the CPU i5-9400 is the limiting factor, keeping frame rates from scaling linearly with resolution. At High and Ultra, the GPU RX 7700 XT takes over as the bottleneck, especially at 4K. This dual-bottleneck behavior is typical of a CPU that is underpowered relative to the GPU, and it explains why the combo rank is low: the system cannot deliver consistent high frame rates across all settings, and the CPU prevents the GPU from showing its full potential at lower resolutions. The 4K Medium result of 64.9 FPS versus the 4K High result of 52.7 FPS shows that a single settings step can produce a 23% gain, which is substantial for 4K gaming. The measured data suggests that for this pairing, the best experience is at 1440p High, where 86.9 FPS is achievable without the CPU bottleneck being as severe as at 1080p, and without the GPU struggle seen at 4K.