Outriders

The Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 delivers a broad performance envelope in Outriders, ranging from highly playable 4K Ultra to extremely high refresh rate 1080p. The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern: the game's frame rate scales significantly with both resolution and graphical presets, with the gap between Low and Ultra widening dramatically as resolution decreases.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial, but the magnitude depends heavily on the selected settings preset. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 246 at 1920x1080 to 119.9 at 3840x2160, a reduction of roughly 51%. This indicates that even at the lowest graphical fidelity, the GPU is still the primary limiting factor at 4K, as the resolution increase directly impacts pixel throughput.

At Medium settings, the scaling is similar in percentage terms: average FPS drops from 216.4 at 1080p to 84.9 at 4K, a 61% decrease. The High preset shows a comparable trend, with average FPS falling from 195 at 1080p to 65.3 at 4K, a 67% reduction. This progressive increase in the performance hit as settings rise suggests that the RTX 5070's rendering workload grows faster than linear with resolution when more complex effects are enabled.

The Ultra preset exhibits the most severe scaling, with average FPS plummeting from 141.3 at 1080p to just 48.1 at 4K, a 66% drop. The absolute delta between Low and Ultra at each resolution is telling: at 1080p, the difference is 104.7 FPS (246 vs 141.3), while at 4K it narrows to 71.8 FPS (119.9 vs 48.1). This pattern indicates that at 1080p, the CPU has more headroom to feed the GPU, allowing the preset choice to fully express the rendering load. At 4K, the GPU becomes so saturated that even dropping to Low settings cannot avoid the resolution penalty, confirming that the RTX 5070 is the bottleneck in this configuration regardless of settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combo?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 246, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This suggests the CPU is capable of driving very high frame rates when the GPU load is minimal.

Q: Is this CPU-GPU combination capable of 4K gaming?

A: Yes, the data shows playable frame rates at 3840x2160. The High preset yields an average of 65.3 FPS, while Medium reaches 84.9 FPS. However, the Ultra preset drops to 48.1 FPS, which may be below the threshold for smooth gameplay on high refresh rate displays.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset averages 127.5 FPS, while Ultra averages 90 FPS. The 37.5 FPS difference represents a 29% performance cost for the additional visual fidelity.

Q: Which resolution provides the best balance for 144Hz displays?

A: At 2560x1440, both High (127.5 FPS) and Medium (165.8 FPS) presets can exceed or approach 144Hz. At 1920x1080, all four presets exceed 141 FPS, with Low reaching 246 FPS.

Q: What is the performance gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: The difference is 104.7 FPS, with Low averaging 246 and Ultra averaging 141.3. This indicates that the Ultra preset imposes a 42.5% performance penalty compared to Low at this resolution.

Q: Does the GPU scale better with resolution at lower settings?

A: The data shows the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is 51% at Low, 61% at Medium, 67% at High, and 66% at Ultra. Lower settings scale slightly better, but the GPU remains the limiting factor across all presets.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 features 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is a key factor in the game's performance at high resolutions, as Outriders appears to be bandwidth-sensitive given the substantial FPS drops when moving to 4K. The GPU's base clock is 2325 MHz with a boost clock of 2512 MHz, and it contains 6144 shading units alongside 192 texture mapping units and 80 ROPs.

The GPU's compute capabilities include 30.87 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which directly influences the frame rates at higher presets. The measured results show that at 4K Ultra, the RTX 5070 produces 48.1 FPS, indicating that the combination of pixel count and shader complexity overwhelms the GPU's throughput. The GPU also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), which is relevant for a modern title like Outriders.

The RTX 5070's 48 RT cores and 192 Tensor cores are present in the specification, though the measured FPS data does not isolate ray tracing effects. The pixel rate of 201.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 482.3 GTexel/s provide context for the GPU's raw fill capabilities. At 1080p Low, the GPU sustains 246 FPS, demonstrating that its raw geometry and pixel processing power is ample for lower resolutions, but the 4K Ultra result of 48.1 FPS shows a clear ceiling when all effects are enabled.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core i7-12700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 ranks 208th out of 1693 tested combos in Outriders, placing it in the top 12.3% of all configurations. The ranking reflects the overall performance across the measured settings, which includes the strong 1080p results and the more moderate 4K performance.

The CPU component, the Intel Core i7-12700KF, has an average benchmark score of 35355 and sits at the 89th percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-14400 with a deltaPct of 0.1, the Intel Core i7-13800H at -0.2, the Intel Core i9-12900HX at 0.2, and the Intel Core i5-13600T at 0.3. These deltas are all within 0.3%, indicating that the i7-12700KF delivers essentially identical CPU-bound performance to its closest competitors.

The GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070, has an average benchmark score of 41687 and sits at the 83rd percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals show more variance: the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 has a deltaPct of 0.2, the NVIDIA Tesla M40 is at -0.5, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 is at 0.6, and the AMD Radeon Pro 580X is at -0.7. The RTX 5070's position relative to the RTX 3090, a previous generation flagship, is notable given the newer architecture and 12 GB memory size.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimizing the experience. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 195 FPS, which is sufficient for most high refresh rate monitors. The Ultra preset at 1080p yields 141.3 FPS, still above 140 FPS, making it viable for 144Hz displays, but the 53.7 FPS cost over High may not justify the visual gains for competitive play.

For 2560x1440, the High preset at 127.5 FPS is the recommended choice for 144Hz displays, as it stays above the refresh rate threshold. The Medium preset at 165.8 FPS offers a buffer for frame time spikes, while Ultra at 90 FPS is better suited for 60Hz or 75Hz monitors. The Low preset at 213.1 FPS is excessive for most displays and sacrifices too much visual quality.

At 3840x2160, the Medium preset at 84.9 FPS provides the best balance, as it exceeds 60 FPS with room to spare. The High preset at 65.3 FPS is acceptable for 60Hz displays but leaves little headroom. The Ultra preset at 48.1 FPS is not recommended for smooth gameplay unless the display supports adaptive sync and the user prioritizes visual fidelity over frame rate. The Low preset at 119.9 FPS is viable for high refresh rate 4K panels but significantly reduces graphical quality.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings produces playable frame rates. Low averages 246 FPS, Medium averages 216.4 FPS, High averages 195 FPS, and Ultra averages 141.3 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a consistent step-down of approximately 30 FPS per tier, with the largest single drop being the 53.7 FPS difference between High and Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the results show a similar pattern but with lower absolute values. Low averages 213.1 FPS, Medium averages 165.8 FPS, High averages 127.5 FPS, and Ultra averages 90 FPS. The step-down from Medium to High is 38.3 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 37.5 FPS, indicating a more linear scaling than at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates drop substantially. Low averages 119.9 FPS, Medium averages 84.9 FPS, High averages 65.3 FPS, and Ultra averages 48.1 FPS. The percentage differences between settings are larger at this resolution: Medium is 29.2% slower than Low, High is 23.1% slower than Medium, and Ultra is 26.3% slower than High. The Ultra preset falls below 50 FPS, which is the only measured configuration in this dataset that does not achieve at least 48 FPS.