Outriders

# Outriders with Intel Core i7-12700KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER

The Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER delivers a thoroughly mid-table experience in Outriders, ranking 2514 out of 3710 tested combinations. This places the combo in the 32nd percentile of all tested systems, reflecting a setup that can handle the looter shooter at 1080p with high refresh rates but begins to show its limits as resolution climbs. The RTX 2060 SUPER, with its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, sits in the 62nd percentile among all GPUs, while the 12-core, 20-thread i7-12700KF ranks in the 85th percentile among CPUs, suggesting that the graphics card will be the primary constraint in most scenarios. The data reveals a system whose CPU headroom far exceeds what the GPU can exploit, particularly at higher resolutions where pixel throughput becomes the bottleneck.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a steep and consistent decline as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, a pattern that clearly indicts the GPU as the limiting component. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 207 FPS at 1080p to 131 FPS at 1440p, a 36.7% reduction, and then falls further to 68 FPS at 4K, representing a 67.1% drop from the 1080p baseline. This scaling behavior is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the RTX 2060 SUPER's shading units and memory bandwidth determine the ceiling rather than the CPU's processing capabilities.

The Medium settings row reinforces this interpretation. At 1080p, the average sits at 150 FPS; at 1440p it falls to 95 FPS (a 36.7% decrease), and at 4K it reaches 50 FPS (a 66.7% decrease from 1080p). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings levels—roughly 37% from 1080p to 1440p and 67% from 1080p to 4K—indicates that the rendering load scales predictably with pixel count, a hallmark of GPU-limited performance. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see diminishing returns at lower resolutions, where frame rates would plateau regardless of pixel count; the data shows no such plateau, with even 1080p Low exceeding 200 FPS.

At High settings, the pattern continues with 113 FPS at 1080p, 71 FPS at 1440p, and 37 FPS at 4K. The 4K High result of 37 FPS is notable because it falls below the 60 FPS threshold commonly associated with smooth gameplay, suggesting that this resolution and settings combination is not viable for a responsive experience. The Ultra preset demonstrates the most severe scaling, with 81 FPS at 1080p dropping to 51 FPS at 1440p and a marginal 27 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result of 27 FPS represents a 66.7% reduction from the 1080p Ultra figure, again confirming the GPU-bound nature of the workload. The i7-12700KF's substantial compute resources, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28838, are simply not the constraining factor; the RTX 2060 SUPER's 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 performance dictates the outcome.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 1920x1080 as the most viable resolution, with all four settings presets delivering above 81 FPS on average. At 2560x1440, only Low and Medium settings exceed 90 FPS, while High produces 71 FPS and Ultra falls to 51 FPS. At 3840x2160, even the Low preset only reaches 68 FPS, and Ultra drops to 27 FPS.

Q: Does the RTX 2060 SUPER's 8 GB VRAM cause issues in this game?

A: The measured data does not indicate VRAM capacity as a limiting factor. The RTX 2060 SUPER has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory with a 256-bit bus and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. The performance scaling across settings at each resolution follows a consistent pattern, with no anomalous drops that would suggest memory capacity paging or bandwidth starvation.

Q: How does the i7-12700KF's CPU performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The i7-12700KF has an average benchmark score of 35365, placing it 0.1% behind the Intel Core i7-13700T (35403) and 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core i5-13600T (35305). It also sits 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core i7-12700K (35287). These deltas are within noise, indicating nearly identical CPU performance among these four processors.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The measured data shows an average of 95 FPS at 2560x1440 with Medium settings, with a minimum of 81 FPS and a maximum of 109 FPS. This suggests consistent performance above 80 FPS, which is suitable for most gaming scenarios.

Q: Is the RTX 2060 SUPER significantly weaker than its GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 2060 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 18093, which is 0.4% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile (18159), 0.5% lower than the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 (18189), 1.5% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 460 (18373), and 1.6% lower than the Intel Arc A770M (18383). These differences are minimal, indicating the RTX 2060 SUPER performs at parity with these alternatives.

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

A: At 3840x2160, the measured results are 68 FPS on Low, 50 FPS on Medium, 37 FPS on High, and 27 FPS on Ultra. Only the Low preset approaches playable frame rates, and even then, it falls short of 60 FPS. The data suggests 4K is only viable with significant settings compromises.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is the defining component in this combo's Outriders performance, and the measured FPS data consistently reflects its capabilities. Built on the Turing architecture with a TU106 chip manufactured on TSMC's 12 nm process, this GPU operates at a base clock of 1470 MHz and a boost clock of 1650 MHz. Its 2176 shading units, 136 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs provide the raw compute throughput, rated at 7.181 TFLOPS for FP32 operations. The memory subsystem consists of 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, with memory clocks at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective).

The GPU's percentile ranking of 62 among all tested GPUs places it in the lower-middle tier, and this positioning is evident in the game's performance. At 1080p Low, the RTX 2060 SUPER achieves 207 FPS, indicating that it can exploit the i7-12700KF's headroom when pixel load is light. However, as resolution increases, the GPU's limitations become apparent. The drop from 207 FPS at 1080p Low to 68 FPS at 4K Low represents a 67.1% reduction, consistent with the pixel count increase from approximately 2.07 million to 8.29 million pixels. This near-linear relationship between pixel count and frame rate confirms that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints.

The RTX 2060 SUPER's texture rate of 224.4 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 105.6 GPixel/s provide theoretical ceilings that align with the measured results. At 4K Ultra, the 27 FPS average suggests the GPU is heavily saturated, with ray tracing cores (34 RT cores) and tensor cores (272) offering no meaningful benefit in this title's standard rendering path. The GPU's nearest rivals—the RTX 3060 Mobile (0.4% higher average score), AMD Radeon Pro 5700 (0.5% higher), AMD Radeon RX 460 (1.5% higher), and Intel Arc A770M (1.6% higher)—all fall within a narrow performance band, meaning the RTX 2060 SUPER's behavior in Outriders is representative of its class. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for the measured settings, as no data suggests memory allocation failures or bandwidth saturation at any resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for Outriders with this combo spans four resolutions and four settings presets, providing a comprehensive view of performance scaling. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 207 FPS, the highest figure recorded across all configurations. The Medium preset averages 150 FPS, with a minimum of 128 FPS and maximum of 173 FPS, indicating stable performance with minor variance. The High preset averages 113 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 81 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 60.9% reduction in frame rate, from 207 to 81 FPS, reflecting the increasing shading and texture demands of each preset.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 131 FPS, a 36.7% decrease from the 1080p Low result. The Medium preset averages 95 FPS, with a minimum of 81 FPS and maximum of 109 FPS, demonstrating a narrower range than at 1080p Medium. The High preset averages 71 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 51 FPS. The 1440p Ultra result of 51 FPS is particularly notable because it falls below the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting that this configuration is marginal for smooth gameplay. The relative performance across settings at 1440p maintains the same ordering as 1080p, with Low outperforming Medium by 37.9%, Medium outperforming High by 33.8%, and High outperforming Ultra by 39.2%.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 68 FPS, the only 4K configuration to exceed 60 FPS. The Medium preset averages 50 FPS, with a minimum of 42 FPS and maximum of 57 FPS, indicating that even the peak frame rate stays below 60 FPS. The High preset averages 37 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 27 FPS. The 4K results show a 60.3% reduction from Low to Ultra, from 68 to 27 FPS, which is similar to the 1080p scaling but at a much lower absolute performance level. Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently shows the most detailed min-max data, with the 1080p Medium range of 128-173 FPS, 1440p Medium range of 81-109 FPS, and 4K Medium range of 42-57 FPS, providing a reliable indication of frame time consistency.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF is a 12-core, 20-thread processor from the Alder Lake-S architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. Its cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 25 MB of shared L3 cache. This CPU ranks in the 85th percentile among all tested processors, with an average benchmark score of 35365. Its nearest rivals—the Intel Core i7-13700T (35403, 0.1% higher), Intel Core i5-13600T (35305, 0.2% lower), Intel Core 5 213PE (35428, 0.2% higher), and Intel Core i7-12700K (35287, 0.2% lower)—all perform within 0.2% of the i7-12700KF, confirming that this processor is a top-tier performer.

In Outriders, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU, as evidenced by the resolution scaling data. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 207 FPS, which approaches the limits of what the GPU can render at that pixel count. The i7-12700KF's single-thread performance, reflected in a PassMark single-thread score of 3984 and a 3DMark single-thread score of 1043, is more than sufficient to feed the GPU at this level. The multi-threaded capabilities, demonstrated by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28838 and a PassMark multithread score of 34092, provide ample headroom for the game's background threads and any additional system processes.

The CPU's 12 cores and 20 threads, combined with a 25 MB L3 cache, ensure that Outriders' engine can schedule work efficiently without introducing frame time spikes. The data shows no evidence of CPU bottlenecking: at 1080p, frame rates scale linearly with settings changes (from 207 FPS at Low to 81 FPS at Ultra), which would not occur if the CPU were limiting performance. The i7-12700KF's memory support for DDR4 and DDR5, with a dual-channel bus, provides flexible bandwidth options, though the game's performance is not sensitive to this aspect given the GPU-bound nature of the workload. The CPU's 125 W TDP and 10 nm process node indicate a high-power design, but the benchmark results show this power translates into exceptional compute capability that goes largely underutilized in this game at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the target resolution and frame rate preference. For 1080p gaming, all four presets deliver playable performance, with Low at 207 FPS, Medium at 150 FPS, High at 113 FPS, and Ultra at 81 FPS. The Ultra preset at 81 FPS remains above the 60 FPS threshold, making it the recommended choice for users with 60 Hz displays who prioritize visual fidelity. For users with high refresh rate monitors (144 Hz or higher), the High preset at 113 FPS offers a better balance, while the Medium preset at 150 FPS approaches the refresh rate ceiling of many monitors.

At 1440p, the recommendation narrows. The Low preset at 131 FPS is the only configuration that comfortably exceeds 120 FPS, making it suitable for high refresh rate displays. The Medium preset at 95 FPS, with a minimum of 81 FPS, provides a good balance of visual quality and performance, keeping the average above 90 FPS. The High preset at 71 FPS is acceptable for 60 Hz displays but may feel less smooth on higher refresh rate panels. The Ultra preset at 51 FPS falls below the 60 FPS threshold, and while it is playable, the frame rate drops suggest a compromised experience. For most 1440p users, the Medium preset offers the best trade-off between visual fidelity and performance.

At 4K, the options are limited. The Low preset at 68 FPS is the only configuration that achieves an average above 60 FPS, though it does so with reduced visual quality. The Medium preset at 50 FPS, with a minimum of 42 FPS, is playable but may exhibit noticeable frame rate dips during intense combat sequences. The High preset at 37 FPS and Ultra at 27 FPS are below the threshold for smooth gameplay and are not recommended for a responsive experience. The data suggests that 4K gaming with this combo requires accepting either Low settings for acceptable frame rates or Medium settings with the understanding that performance will be inconsistent. The Medium preset's min-max range of 42-57 FPS at 4K indicates significant frame time variance, which could detract from the gameplay experience.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-12700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER combination ranks 2514 out of 3710 tested combos in Outriders, placing it in the 32nd percentile of all systems. This ranking reflects the GPU's mid-tier status (62nd percentile among GPUs) weighed against the CPU's high-end performance (85th percentile among CPUs). The result is a system that performs well at 1080p but struggles to maintain playable frame rates at higher resolutions, a profile consistent with a GPU-limited configuration.

The combo's ranking of 2514 out of 3710 indicates that a significant majority of tested systems outperform it, likely due to more powerful graphics cards. However, the data shows that the RTX 2060 SUPER's performance is tightly clustered with its nearest rivals—all within 1.6% in average benchmark score—meaning that many systems with similar-tier GPUs will deliver comparable results in Outriders. The i7-12700KF's superior CPU performance provides a substantial buffer, ensuring that the system is never CPU-limited in this game, but this advantage does not translate into higher frame rates once the GPU becomes the bottleneck.

The 32nd percentile ranking is a direct consequence of the GPU's 62nd percentile standing; the CPU's 85th percentile ranking does not boost the combo's position because the game's performance is dictated by the graphics card at all measured settings and resolutions. The measured FPS data confirms this: at 1080p, the system achieves frame rates that would rank it higher, but at 4K, the performance falls to levels that pull the overall ranking down. For users considering this combo, the data indicates that it is best suited for 1080p gaming with high settings or 1440p gaming with medium settings, with the understanding that the RTX 2060 SUPER represents the limiting factor that cannot be overcome by the i7-12700KF's substantial processing power.