Outriders

The Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a commanding performance profile in Outriders, characterized by exceptional headroom at lower resolutions and a predictable transition to GPU-bound territory at higher settings. The data shows that this combination is capable of maintaining high frame rates across all tested configurations, positioning it as a top-tier contender among the 1,693 tested combos, where it holds the 48th position.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling across resolutions reveals a clear shift in system bottleneck. At 1080p, the combo produces exceptionally high frame rates, with the Low preset reaching 247.1 FPS. This figure suggests that the CPU is doing substantial work to feed the GPU, as the RTX 4090 is not being fully taxed at this resolution. Moving to 1440p, the performance remains robust, with the Low preset dropping to 211 FPS, a reduction of 36.1 FPS from 1080p. This decline indicates that the GPU is beginning to become more of a limiting factor, though the overall performance is still far from any playability concern.

The most significant scaling occurs when transitioning from 1440p to 4K. At 4K with Low settings, the average frame rate falls to 154.4 FPS, a 56.6 FPS drop from the 1440p Low result. This substantial decrease clearly demonstrates that the RTX 4090 is now the primary constraint, as the pixel throughput demands far exceed what the CPU needs to supply. The gap between 1080p and 4K Low is 92.7 FPS, which is a substantial margin that underscores the GPU's workload scaling with resolution.

Analyzing the Ultra preset provides a similar narrative. At 1080p Ultra, the combo achieves 176.5 FPS, which drops to 119.8 FPS at 1440p and further to 59.7 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 32%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is approximately 50%. This non-linear scaling is typical for a high-end GPU, where the 4K resolution with maximum settings represents a pure GPU workload. The data indicates that at 4K Ultra, the system is firmly GPU-bound, while at 1080p Low, the CPU's performance is more influential in achieving those high frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy for settings optimization. For players targeting the highest possible frame rates, the Low preset at 1080p offers the peak performance at 247.1 FPS. However, this comes with a significant visual compromise. The Medium preset at 1080p provides a more balanced experience, delivering 220.4 FPS, which is only 26.7 FPS behind Low but likely offers a substantial visual upgrade.

At 1440p, the Medium preset stands out as the optimal choice for high-refresh-rate gaming. It achieves 190.3 FPS, which is 20.7 FPS higher than the High preset's 165.8 FPS and only 20.7 FPS below the Low preset's 211 FPS. This suggests that Medium settings at 1440p offer the best balance between visual fidelity and performance, easily surpassing the 144Hz refresh rate threshold that many gamers target. The Ultra preset at 1440p, while visually impressive at 119.8 FPS, falls below the 144Hz mark, making it less ideal for competitive play.

For 4K gaming, the choices become more constrained. The High preset at 86.5 FPS is a solid option for a smooth experience on a 60Hz display. However, the Ultra preset at 59.7 FPS is just below the 60 FPS target, potentially causing noticeable frame pacing issues on standard monitors. The Medium preset at 114.1 FPS provides a strong middle ground, offering a significant performance boost over High while maintaining decent visual quality. The data suggests that for 4K, Medium settings are the sweet spot, providing a comfortable margin above 60 FPS without the substantial performance penalty of Ultra.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-12700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination ranks 48th out of 1,693 tested combos in Outriders. This places it in the top 3% of all configurations, evidence of its high-end hardware pairing. The CPU itself holds an 89th percentile ranking among all CPUs, while the GPU sits in the 91st percentile among all GPUs, indicating that both components are elite performers in their respective categories.

The CPU's nearest rivals provide context for its processing power. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 has an average score that is 0.3% lower than the Core i7-12700K, making them nearly equivalent in general compute tasks. The Intel Core i7-13700T is 0.6% ahead, while the Intel Core i5-14500HX and Intel Core i7-13800H are 0.7% and 0.8% behind, respectively. These negligible differences suggest that the 12700K's performance is well-established and competitive, though it does not have a decisive advantage over its closest rivals.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals are all professional or workstation-class cards, which highlights the RTX 4090's position at the top of the consumer market. The NVIDIA Tesla T4 is 0.4% behind, while the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 is 1.3% behind. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 trails by 0.9%. These comparisons show that the RTX 4090's raw compute and graphics performance is closely matched only by specialized prosumer hardware, reinforcing its dominance in gaming workloads like Outriders.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured frame rates provides a detailed view of the combo's capabilities. At 1920x1080, the average FPS values are as follows: Low (247.1), Medium (220.4), High (196.7), and Ultra (176.5). The performance delta from Low to Ultra is 70.6 FPS, which is a substantial range that gives users significant control over the visual-to-performance trade-off. The scaling from Low to Medium is a 26.7 FPS drop, while Medium to High is a 23.7 FPS drop, and High to Ultra is a 20.2 FPS drop. This relatively consistent scaling suggests that the game's settings have a predictable impact on performance at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low (211), Medium (190.3), High (165.8), and Ultra (119.8). The gap between Low and Ultra is 91.2 FPS, which is larger than at 1080p. The drop from High to Ultra is particularly steep at 46 FPS, indicating that Ultra settings at 1440p impose a significantly higher GPU load. The Medium preset at 190.3 FPS is notably close to the Low preset, with only a 20.7 FPS difference, making it an attractive option for users seeking better visuals without sacrificing much speed.

At 3840x2160, the data shows: Low (154.4), Medium (114.1), High (86.5), and Ultra (59.7). The performance degradation is most pronounced here, with a 94.7 FPS difference between Low and Ultra. The drop from Medium to High is 27.6 FPS, and the drop from High to Ultra is 26.8 FPS. This consistent decline underscores the GPU's struggle with the 4K pixel count, especially at higher settings. The Low preset at 154.4 FPS is the only 4K configuration that provides a frame rate suitable for high-refresh-rate displays, while all other presets are best suited for 60Hz panels.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 plays a pivotal role in this combo's performance, particularly as resolution and settings increase. The GPU features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. This massive memory pool ensures that the card is never constrained by VRAM capacity, even at 4K with maximum textures, which is a critical factor for a game like Outriders that may load large texture sets.

The GPU's clock speeds are also noteworthy. The base clock is 2235 MHz, with a boost clock of 2520 MHz. These high frequencies allow the card to maintain excellent throughput in compute-heavy scenes. With 16,384 shading units and 512 texture mapping units, the RTX 4090 has a raw fill rate that is more than capable of handling the demands of Outriders. The pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s provide the necessary bandwidth for high-resolution rendering.

The performance data confirms that the RTX 4090 is the primary driver of frame rates at higher resolutions. While the CPU is capable of producing frame rates over 200 FPS at 1080p, the GPU's workload becomes the deciding factor at 4K, where even the Low preset demands substantial pixel processing. The card's FP32 performance of 82.58 TFLOPS indicates that it has the compute power to handle the game's effects and lighting calculations, even at Ultra settings. However, the measured results show that at 4K Ultra, the card is still limited to 59.7 FPS, suggesting that Outriders has a heavy rendering workload that can challenge even the most powerful consumer GPU.