Outriders

The Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 delivers a high-refresh-rate 1440p experience in Outriders, but the path to the best experience depends heavily on your tolerance for visual fidelity versus frame rate headroom. The measured data shows that the Medium preset at 2560x1440 is the sweet spot for most players, offering an average of 149 FPS with a recorded minimum of 126 FPS and a maximum of 171 FPS. This combination provides a smooth, responsive feel that is well above the 100 FPS threshold for competitive play, while still maintaining a level of visual quality that is a significant step up from Low. At 1080p, the Medium preset pushes even higher, averaging 218 FPS with a minimum of 186 FPS, which is ideal for esports-grade monitors. For 4K gaming, the High preset at 3840x2160 yields an average of 58 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action, while the Ultra preset at that resolution drops to an average of 42 FPS, which is likely too demanding for consistent smoothness. The data clearly indicates that the Medium preset is the most balanced choice, providing a substantial FPS boost over High and Ultra while avoiding the visual compromises of Low settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows present a clear hierarchy in performance scaling. At 1920x1080, the jump from High to Medium is substantial, with average FPS rising from 177 to 218, a 41 FPS increase. Moving from Medium to Low yields an additional 28 FPS, reaching an average of 246 FPS. However, the visual cost of Low is typically significant in a looter shooter like Outriders, where environmental detail and particle effects contribute to the atmosphere. The Ultra preset at 1080p, while still playable at an average of 128 FPS, represents a steep 90 FPS drop from Medium, indicating that the GPU is being pushed hard by the highest settings. At 2560x1440, the pattern is similar but the stakes are higher. The Medium preset’s 149 FPS average is excellent, and the 126 FPS minimum ensures that even intense combat sequences with many enemies on screen will not cause noticeable stutter. The High preset at 1440p, averaging 112 FPS, is also viable, but the 37 FPS drop from Medium suggests that the extra visual effects are taxing the GPU more than the CPU. For 4K, the situation is more constrained. The Low preset at 3840x2160 averages 107 FPS, which is surprisingly high and shows the CPU’s capability to feed the GPU even at high resolutions, but the visual quality is likely too compromised for a modern title. The Medium preset at 4K averages 78 FPS, which is a good target for a 60Hz display, but the High preset at 58 FPS and Ultra at 42 FPS are not recommended for a smooth experience. The recommendation is to use Medium settings at 1440p for the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, or Medium at 1080p if you prioritize a very high frame rate. For 4K, Medium is the only sensible option if you want to stay above 60 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Core i7-12700KF and RTX 3080 is placed at rank 818 out of 3710 tested combos in this specific game, placing it in the top 22% of all configurations. This is a strong result, indicating that this pairing is well-suited for Outriders. The combo rank reflects the synergy between the CPU and GPU, and the data suggests that the RTX 3080 is the primary driver of this score. The CPU, with its 12 cores and 20 threads, is capable of high throughput, but the game’s engine appears to scale more with GPU performance at higher resolutions. The percentile for the CPU alone is 85, meaning it performs better than 85% of all CPUs in the database, and the GPU’s percentile is 68, meaning it outperforms 68% of all GPUs. The combination of a top-quartile CPU with a solidly above-average GPU results in a system that is not bottlenecked by the processor, allowing the GPU to work to its full potential. The fact that the combo is ranked 818 out of 3710 suggests that there are many more powerful configurations, likely with newer generation GPUs, but this pairing still represents a highly capable setup for 1440p and even entry-level 4K gaming. The benchmark scores for the CPU, such as a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 28838 and a Passmark multithread score of 34092, indicate a very strong processor that will not hold back the GPU in most scenarios.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is the primary performance driver in this system, and its 10 GB of GDDR6X memory is a critical factor for Outriders. The game’s textures and geometry at High and Ultra settings can consume significant VRAM, and the 10 GB capacity is sufficient for 1440p and even 4K at Medium settings, but it may be a limiting factor at 4K Ultra. The GPU’s memory bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s, paired with a 320-bit bus, provides the throughput needed to feed the GA102 chip’s 8704 shading units. The boost clock of 1710 MHz is the key to its performance, and the data shows that the GPU scales well with resolution. At 1080p, the GPU is often not the bottleneck, as the FPS at Low settings reaches 246, which is likely CPU-limited. However, as resolution increases to 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The measured FPS at 4K High (58 FPS) versus 4K Low (107 FPS) demonstrates how much the GPU’s workload increases with settings. The RTX 3080’s raw FP32 performance of 29.77 TFLOPS is evident in its ability to push 149 FPS at 1440p Medium, but the Ultra preset at 4K brings it to its knees at 42 FPS, showing that the game’s most demanding settings are too much for this card at that resolution. The GPU’s Passmark G3D score of 25086 and its percentile of 68 versus all GPUs indicate it is a strong performer, but its nearest rivals in the database, such as the AMD Radeon RX 6600M, are significantly less capable, highlighting the RTX 3080’s position in the mid-to-high tier of graphics cards.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive look at how this combo performs across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the results are: Low averages 246 FPS, Medium averages 218 FPS with a minimum of 186 FPS and a maximum of 251 FPS, High averages 177 FPS, and Ultra averages 128 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 28 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 41 FPS, and the gap between High and Ultra is 49 FPS. This shows that each step up in settings has a significant cost, but the game remains highly playable at all settings at this resolution. At 2560x1440, the performance drops are more pronounced: Low averages 204 FPS, Medium averages 149 FPS with a minimum of 126 FPS and a maximum of 171 FPS, High averages 112 FPS, and Ultra averages 81 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p is the standout, offering a 37 FPS advantage over High and a 68 FPS advantage over Ultra, making it the clear choice for high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors. At 3840x2160, the data shows: Low averages 107 FPS, Medium averages 78 FPS with a minimum of 66 FPS and a maximum of 89 FPS, High averages 58 FPS, and Ultra averages 42 FPS. The 4K Low setting is surprisingly playable, but the visual quality is likely poor. The Medium preset at 4K is the only one that consistently stays above 60 FPS, making it the recommended choice for 4K displays. The minimum FPS data for Medium settings shows that the game is stable, with no significant frame time spikes, which is crucial for a smooth experience in a game with heavy combat effects.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear picture of the system’s bottleneck. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 218 at 1080p to 149 at 1440p (a 31.7% decrease) and then to 78 at 4K (a 47.7% decrease from 1440p). This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor as resolution increases. At 1080p, the CPU has enough headroom to push the GPU to its limits, but the GPU is still capable of generating very high frame rates. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is significant, suggesting that the GPU’s pixel processing and memory bandwidth are heavily taxed. The further drop from 1440p to 4K is even steeper, which is typical for a GPU with 10 GB of VRAM and a 320-bit bus, as the memory bandwidth and capacity become strained. At Low settings, the scaling is different: 246 FPS at 1080p, 204 FPS at 1440p (a 17.1% drop), and 107 FPS at 4K (a 47.5% drop from 1440p). The smaller drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings suggests that the CPU is still a significant factor at 1080p Low, but the GPU becomes more dominant at 4K. The data clearly shows that the RTX 3080 is the limiting component for 4K gaming, as the CPU’s performance is more than sufficient to handle the game’s logic and physics at lower resolutions)Skip the 1080p High and Ultra scaling; the pattern is consistent. The FPS drops from 1440p High (112 FPS) to 4K High (58 FPS) represent a 48.2% decrease, which is in line with the Medium settings. This confirms that the GPU’s workload is scaling nearly linearly with pixel count, and the CPU is not the bottleneck at these higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF plays a supporting role in this configuration, but it is a very capable one. With 12 cores and 20 threads, it provides ample processing power for Outriders’ game logic, AI, and physics. The CPU’s base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 5.00 GHz are high, and its benchmark scores are impressive. A Cinebench R23 multicore score of 28838 and a Passmark multithread score of 34092 indicate that it can handle heavy multi-threaded workloads, which is important for a modern game that can use multiple cores. However, the measured FPS data suggests that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in this system. At 1080p Low settings, the average FPS is 246, which is very high, but it is likely that the CPU is reaching its limit here, as the GPU is not being fully utilized. The single-thread performance, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4071 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2255, is also strong, which is crucial for games that rely on a single primary thread for game logic. The CPU’s percentile of 85 versus all CPUs shows that it is a top-tier processor, and its nearest rivals in the database, such as the Intel Core i7-13700T and Intel Core i5-13600T, have very similar average scores, with a delta of around 0.1-0.2%. This indicates that the 12700KF is well-positioned in the performance hierarchy. In practice, the CPU can easily keep up with the RTX 3080 at 1440p and 4K, as the FPS drops are primarily due to the GPU’s rendering load. The 3dmark scores, such as 9983 for max threads and 1043 for single thread, further confirm the CPU’s balanced performance profile. For Outriders, the CPU’s role is to ensure that frame times are consistent and that there are no stutters, and the data suggests it performs this role admirably, allowing the GPU to be the sole determinant of final FPS at higher resolutions.