Outriders

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for Outriders with this combination of Intel Core i7-13700K and Intel Arc B390 shows a clear and consistent pattern across all three resolutions: the Low preset delivers the only playable experience, while Medium, High, and Ultra progressively degrade performance to levels that fall below acceptable thresholds for an action-oriented looter shooter.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset produces an average of 115 FPS, which is more than double the 45 FPS achieved at Ultra. The Medium preset at 1080p yields 83 FPS, still comfortably playable, while High drops to 63 FPS. Given that the genre demands rapid target acquisition and responsiveness, the data suggests that Low at 1080p is the optimal choice for maintaining high frame rates, though Medium remains viable if visual fidelity is prioritized over the extra headroom.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern intensifies. Low produces 72 FPS, which is adequate for smooth gameplay, but Medium falls to 53 FPS, High to 40 FPS, and Ultra plummets to 29 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at this resolution is 19 FPS, indicating that the GPU's limited resources are heavily taxed by even moderate settings increases. For 1440p users, the Low preset is the only setting that maintains a frame rate above the 60 FPS threshold commonly associated with fluid action gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the situation becomes dire. Low averages 38 FPS, Medium 28 FPS, High 21 FPS, and Ultra just 15 FPS. None of these reach playable levels for a fast-paced shooter, and even the Low preset's 38 FPS would likely result in noticeable input lag and stuttering during combat sequences. The data indicates that 4K resolution is not a viable option for this hardware combination in Outriders, regardless of settings.

The measured rows provide only average FPS values for most presets, with min and max values recorded exclusively for Medium settings. At 1080p Medium, the min FPS of 71 and max of 96 show a 25 FPS spread, suggesting some scene-to-scene variability. At 1440p Medium, the spread narrows to 16 FPS (45 to 61), while at 4K Medium it widens again to 9 FPS (23 to 32). This variability data reinforces that Medium settings introduce frame time inconsistency, which can be more detrimental to perceived smoothness than a lower but stable frame rate.

For the best balance of playability and visual quality, the benchmark results indicate that 1080p Low is the recommended preset. It provides the highest average FPS of any measured configuration at 115 FPS, and the substantial margin over the 60 FPS threshold gives headroom for demanding combat scenarios. If users insist on higher visual settings, 1080p Medium at 83 FPS is the only other configuration that clears 60 FPS, though the min FPS of 71 indicates it remains above that threshold even in demanding scenes.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, fabricated on a 3 nm process node. Its role in Outriders is defined by severe performance limitations that become apparent across all measured resolutions. The GPU's benchmark score in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 is 1482, placing it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs — a figure that contextualizes the FPS results as being near the bottom of the hardware spectrum.

The Arc B390 operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz. While the boost clock is respectable for an integrated part, the GPU's memory configuration is "System Shared" with bandwidth described as "System Dependent." This means the GPU relies on the host system's memory bandwidth, which for the Core i7-13700K with dual-channel DDR4 or DDR5 support creates a bottleneck that directly impacts texture streaming and frame buffer operations in a game like Outriders that has substantial asset streaming demands.

The GPU's shading resources include 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster output units. The pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s and texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 7.680 TFLOPS. When applied to Outriders' rendering workload, these specifications translate to the measured FPS figures: at 1080p Ultra the GPU manages only 45 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it falls to 15 FPS. The linear scaling of performance degradation from Low to Ultra at each resolution indicates that the GPU is the primary constraint, with no evidence of CPU-side limitations emerging in the data.

The nearest rivals for the Arc B390 in benchmark scores are NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463, deltaPct 1.3), GeForce 800M (1460, deltaPct 1.5), GT 625 OEM (1446, deltaPct 2.5), and GT 710 (1443, deltaPct 2.7). These are all entry-level or legacy parts, and the Arc B390's 1.3% to 2.7% advantage over them is marginal. In Outriders, this places the GPU in a performance tier where even the Low preset at 1080p — the most favorable measured configuration — produces frame rates that are playable but nowhere near what modern discrete GPUs would achieve.

The GPU's 80 W TDP and IGP slot width indicate it is designed for power efficiency rather than raw performance. With 12 ray tracing cores but no tensor cores, the architecture is not optimized for the kind of compute-heavy workloads that modern game engines increasingly leverage. Outriders' rendering pipeline, while not pushing the boundaries of ray tracing, still requires consistent fill rate and memory bandwidth that the System Shared configuration cannot reliably provide at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this hardware combination in Outriders?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 is the only resolution where playable frame rates are achievable. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 115, while at 1440p Low it drops to 72, and at 4K Low it falls to 38. For any settings above Low, only 1080p Medium (83 FPS) maintains an average above 60 FPS.

Q: How does the Arc B390 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B390's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 places it 1.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463), 1.5% ahead of the GeForce 800M (1460), 2.5% ahead of the GT 625 OEM (1446), and 2.7% ahead of the GT 710 (1443). These deltas are small, indicating the Arc B390 is in the same performance tier as these legacy entry-level GPUs.

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-13700K bottlenecking the Arc B390 in Outriders?

A: The FPS data shows performance scaling that is consistent with GPU limitation rather than CPU bottleneck. At 1080p, the difference between Low (115 FPS) and Ultra (45 FPS) is 70 FPS, which indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. The i7-13700K's benchmark scores — including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 30745 and single-core of 2116 — are far above what Outriders requires, so the CPU is not the constraint.

Q: What average FPS can I expect at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The measured data shows an average of 53 FPS at 2560x1440 with Medium settings, with a minimum of 45 FPS and maximum of 61 FPS. This frame rate is below the 60 FPS threshold and may result in noticeable stuttering during intense combat sequences.

Q: Does increasing resolution from 1080p to 4K have a linear effect on performance?

A: No, the effect is more severe than linear. At Low settings, 1080p produces 115 FPS, 1440p produces 72 FPS (a 37.4% drop), and 4K produces 38 FPS (a 47.2% drop from 1440p). The percentage decline accelerates as resolution increases, which is consistent with the GPU's limited memory bandwidth and fill rate capabilities.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested combinations for Outriders?

A: The combination of Intel Core i7-13700K and Intel Arc B390 ranks 2582 out of 2913 tested combinations in Outriders. This places it in the bottom 11.4% of all tested hardware configurations, reflecting the GPU's severe performance limitations in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core i7-13700K and Intel Arc B390 ranks 2582 out of 2913 tested combos in Outriders. This places the configuration in the bottom 11.4% of all tested hardware pairings, a position that reflects the GPU's extreme performance deficit relative to the CPU's capabilities.

To contextualize this rank, consider the CPU's standing: the i7-13700K is in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, with nearest rivals including the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 (avgScore 46971, deltaPct -0.2), AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 (47022, deltaPct -0.3), AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX (46654, deltaPct 0.5), and Intel Xeon w3-2535 (46653, deltaPct 0.5). These deltas are all within 0.5%, indicating the CPU is competitive with top-tier processors.

In contrast, the GPU sits in the 9th percentile, with nearest rivals being legacy NVIDIA parts that are 1.3% to 2.7% slower. The enormous gap between the CPU's high percentile ranking and the GPU's low percentile ranking creates a severely imbalanced system. In Outriders, this imbalance manifests as the GPU being the sole determinant of performance, with the CPU's substantial compute resources going largely underutilized.

The rank of 2582 out of 2913 means that 331 tested combinations performed worse than this setup. Given that the GPU's nearest rivals are all legacy entry-level parts from over a decade ago, the combos ranked below this one likely feature even older or more limited GPUs. The data indicates that while the i7-13700K is capable of feeding a much more powerful GPU, the Arc B390's integrated nature and System Shared memory configuration cap performance at levels that are barely playable at 1080p.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data across 1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160 resolutions reveals a scaling pattern that clearly identifies the GPU as the limiting component. At Low settings, the progression from 1080p to 1440p to 4K shows average FPS of 115, 72, and 38 respectively. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 43 FPS (a 37.4% reduction), while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 34 FPS (a 47.2% reduction). The accelerating percentage decline as resolution increases is characteristic of a GPU that is running out of fill rate and memory bandwidth.

At Medium settings, the same pattern emerges with 83 FPS at 1080p, 53 FPS at 1440p, and 28 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 30 FPS (36.1%), and the 1440p to 4K drop is 25 FPS (47.2%). Notably, the percentage drops are nearly identical to those at Low settings, suggesting that the GPU's scaling behavior is consistent regardless of the rendering load per pixel.

High settings show 63 FPS at 1080p, 40 FPS at 1440p, and 21 FPS at 4K. The drops are 23 FPS (36.5%) and 19 FPS (47.5%) respectively. Ultra settings follow the same trend: 45 FPS at 1080p, 29 FPS at 1440p, and 15 FPS at 4K, with drops of 16 FPS (35.6%) and 14 FPS (48.3%).

The consistency of these percentage drops across all four settings presets is striking. In every case, moving from 1080p to 1440p reduces FPS by approximately 35-37%, and moving from 1440p to 4K reduces FPS by approximately 47-48%. This uniform scaling behavior indicates that the GPU's performance is dominated by pixel throughput limitations — the number of pixels that must be shaded and rasterized — rather than by any specific setting's computational demands.

This scaling pattern has a clear implication for identifying the limiting component: the CPU. If the i7-13700K were the bottleneck, we would expect to see FPS plateau at lower resolutions, with 1080p and 1440p producing similar results. Instead, the FPS continues to climb as resolution decreases, with 1080p Low reaching 115 FPS — a figure that is not CPU-limited but rather represents the GPU's maximum achievable frame rate at that resolution. The CPU's 16 cores and 24 threads, with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, are more than sufficient for Outriders' threading model, leaving the GPU as the sole performance limiter.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for Outriders with the Intel Core i7-13700K and Intel Arc B390 is as follows:

At 1920x1080, four settings presets were measured. Low settings produced an average of 115 FPS with no min or max values recorded. Medium settings averaged 83 FPS, with a minimum of 71 FPS and maximum of 96 FPS. High settings averaged 63 FPS, and Ultra settings averaged 45 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 70 FPS, representing a 60.9% reduction in average frame rate when moving from the lowest to highest quality preset.

At 2560x1440, Low settings averaged 72 FPS. Medium settings averaged 53 FPS, with a minimum of 45 FPS and maximum of 61 FPS. High settings averaged 40 FPS, and Ultra settings averaged 29 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 43 FPS, a 59.7% reduction. Compared to 1080p, every setting at 1440p is roughly 35-37% slower, consistent with the resolution scaling analysis.

At 3840x2160, Low settings averaged 38 FPS. Medium settings averaged 28 FPS, with a minimum of 23 FPS and maximum of 32 FPS. High settings averaged 21 FPS, and Ultra settings averaged 15 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 23 FPS, a 60.5% reduction. The 4K results are uniformly below playable thresholds, with even the best setting (Low at 38 FPS) falling short of the 60 FPS target.

The min and max FPS values, recorded only for Medium settings, show the following ranges: at 1080p, 71 to 96 FPS (a 25 FPS spread); at 1440p, 45 to 61 FPS (a 16 FPS spread); and at 4K, 23 to 32 FPS (a 9 FPS spread). The narrowing spread at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU becomes more consistently bottlenecked as pixel count increases, reducing the variability that scene complexity might otherwise introduce.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K plays a supporting but critical role in this configuration, providing computational headroom that the Arc B390 cannot utilize. The CPU features 16 cores and 24 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.40 GHz. Its architecture is Raptor Lake-S, fabricated on a 10 nm process with a die size of 257 mm². The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 30 MB of shared L3 cache.

In benchmark terms, the i7-13700K demonstrates strong multi-threaded performance with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 30745 and single-core score of 2116. Geekbench results show 19429 multi-core and 2529 single-core. The CPU's percentile ranking of 89th among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 46881, places it in the upper tier of processors. Its nearest rivals — AMD Ryzen 9 5900, AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375, AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX, and Intel Xeon w3-2535 — are all within 0.5% of its average score, indicating tight competition at this performance level.

For Outriders, a looter shooter that relies on physics simulation, particle effects, and AI for enemy encounters, the CPU's 16 cores and 24 threads provide ample parallel processing capability. The 30 MB of shared L3 cache helps maintain high hit rates for game data that is frequently accessed, and the 5.40 GHz boost clock ensures strong single-threaded performance for game logic that is not well parallelized.

However, the measured FPS data shows that the CPU's capabilities are not the limiting factor. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 115 FPS, which is a frame rate that would typically require a mid-range discrete GPU. The fact that the Arc B390 can only reach this level at the lowest settings and lowest resolution indicates that the GPU is the bottleneck. If the CPU were limiting performance, we would expect to see similar FPS across different resolutions, as the CPU's workload does not scale with pixel count. Instead, FPS drops by roughly 35% moving from 1080p to 1440p and another 47% moving from 1440p to 4K, clearly demonstrating that the GPU's pixel processing capabilities are the constraining factor.

The i7-13700K's support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration is relevant to the Arc B390's System Shared memory architecture. Since the GPU relies on system memory for its frame buffer and texture storage, the CPU's memory bandwidth directly affects GPU performance. With dual-channel memory, the available bandwidth is sufficient for the GPU's modest needs at 1080p, but at higher resolutions, the System Shared memory becomes a bottleneck, contributing to the severe FPS drops observed at 1440p and 4K. The CPU's integrated UHD Graphics 770 is not utilized in this configuration, as the Arc B390 is the active display adapter, but the CPU's memory controller and PCIe Gen 5 interface (20 lanes) provide the data path for the GPU's memory access.