Outriders

# Outriders with Intel Core i7-13700K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

This combination of the Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 17th out of 1,693 tested combos in Outriders, placing it in the top 1% of all systems measured. The pairing of a 16-core Raptor Lake processor with the AD102-based Ada Lovelace GPU produces frame rates that push well beyond display refresh rate territory at most settings, though the data reveals interesting bottlenecks at the highest quality presets.

How This Combo Ranks

The 17th position out of 1,693 combos is notable but not surprising given the hardware involved. The RTX 4090 sits in the 91st percentile among all GPUs, while the Core i7-13700K ranks in the 93rd percentile among all CPUs. When two components both land in the top decile of their respective categories, the resulting system should be expected to dominate most game benchmarks.

What makes this ranking more interesting is the competitive landscape around the CPU. The i7-13700K's average benchmark score of 47,282 places it within 0.5% of four nearby rivals. The Intel Core i7-13700KF scores 47,334 (0.1% higher), while the AMD EPYC 4364P scores 47,131 (0.3% lower), the Intel Core i9-12900F scores 47,081 (0.4% lower), and the AMD Ryzen 9 PRO 5945 scores 47,527 (0.5% higher). These deltas are so tight that they fall within typical measurement noise, suggesting that CPU choice at this performance tier matters little for Outriders specifically.

The GPU side shows a similar clustering. The RTX 4090's average benchmark score of 66,473 sits close to the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (66,733, 0.4% higher), Tesla P40 (66,127, 0.5% lower), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (67,097, 0.9% higher), and Quadro P6000 (67,320, 1.3% higher). These are professional workstation cards, not gaming GPUs, which indicates the RTX 4090's synthetic benchmark performance is competitive with enterprise-class compute hardware.

GPU Role

The RTX 4090 brings 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is substantial for Outriders, a looter shooter that benefits from fast texture streaming across large environments. The GPU's base clock runs at 2235 MHz with a boost clock of 2520 MHz, and memory operates at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective throughput.

The measured FPS data shows the RTX 4090 handles Outriders with considerable headroom at lower settings. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 267.5 FPS, which drops to 154.6 FPS at 4K Low. This scaling pattern suggests the GPU is not the limiting factor at lower resolutions and quality presets. Instead, the data implies that CPU limitations begin to surface at 1080p and 1440p when settings are reduced, as the frame rate gains from lowering resolution become less pronounced at the high end.

The GPU's 16384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs provide the raw compute necessary for high-refresh gaming. The 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 1,290.2 GTexel/s texture rate are more than sufficient for Outriders' visual effects, including particle-heavy combat sequences and environmental destruction.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Outriders?

A: The maximum measured average is 267.5 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra compared to 1080p Low?

A: At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average FPS drops to 60.2, while 1080p Low reaches 267.5 FPS — a difference of 207.3 FPS between the most demanding and least demanding tested configurations.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested systems in Outriders?

A: It ranks 17th out of 1,693 tested combos, placing it in the top 1% of all measured systems.

Q: Is the RTX 4090's 24 GB VRAM sufficient for Outriders at 4K?

A: The data shows the GPU maintains 86.7 FPS at 4K High and 60.2 FPS at 4K Ultra, indicating no VRAM-related performance collapse at any tested setting.

Q: How close is the i7-13700K to its nearest CPU rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i7-13700K scores 47,282, which is 0.1% lower than the i7-13700KF (47,334) and 0.5% higher than the Ryzen 9 PRO 5945 (47,527), showing extremely tight competition.

Q: What is the largest FPS jump between consecutive settings at any resolution?

A: At 4K, moving from Ultra (60.2 FPS) to High (86.7 FPS) yields a 26.5 FPS increase, while moving from Medium (114.9 FPS) to Low (154.6 FPS) yields a 39.7 FPS increase.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 267.5 FPS on Low, 235.7 FPS on Medium, 214.9 FPS on High, and 186.5 FPS on Ultra. The spread from Low to Ultra is 81 FPS, representing a 30.3% performance penalty for maximum quality settings.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high: 229.5 FPS on Low, 203.8 FPS on Medium, 167 FPS on High, and 121.7 FPS on Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra widens to 107.8 FPS, a 47% reduction from the lowest to highest settings.

At 3840x2160, the results show 154.6 FPS on Low, 114.9 FPS on Medium, 86.7 FPS on High, and 60.2 FPS on Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra penalty grows further to 94.4 FPS, a 61.1% reduction. Notably, 4K Ultra produces exactly the kind of frame rate that demands a high refresh rate display to feel smooth, while 4K Low remains well above 144 FPS.

The data reveals that Medium settings consistently offer the most balanced experience: at 1080p Medium, the combo hits 235.7 FPS; at 1440p Medium, it reaches 203.8 FPS; and at 4K Medium, it maintains 114.9 FPS. Each of these represents a significant step up from the corresponding Low setting without the steep performance cost of Ultra.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K shows how the RTX 4090 scales with resolution. At Low settings, 1080p produces 267.5 FPS, which drops to 229.5 FPS at 1440p and 154.6 FPS at 4K. This represents a 42.2% reduction from 1080p to 4K, indicating the GPU handles the resolution increase with relative ease.

At Medium settings, the scaling shows 235.7 FPS at 1080p, 203.8 FPS at 1440p, and 114.9 FPS at 4K — a 51.3% drop from 1080p to 4K. The High preset follows a similar pattern: 214.9 FPS at 1080p, 167 FPS at 1440p, and 86.7 FPS at 4K, for a 59.7% reduction.

Ultra settings exhibit the steepest scaling curve: 186.5 FPS at 1080p, 121.7 FPS at 1440p, and 60.2 FPS at 4K. The 67.7% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Ultra suggests the increased pixel count combined with the most demanding quality settings pushes the GPU to its limits.

The pattern across all settings shows diminishing returns as resolution increases, with the 1080p-to-1440p step costing less performance than the 1440p-to-4K step. This indicates the RTX 4090 remains compute-bound at 4K Ultra, while at 1080p Low, the frame rate ceiling appears to be influenced by the CPU's ability to feed the GPU.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 60 FPS as a baseline, every tested setting at every resolution exceeds this threshold, including the most demanding 4K Ultra configuration at 60.2 FPS. This makes the choice of settings primarily about refresh rate matching and visual fidelity preferences.

At 4K, Medium settings deliver 114.9 FPS, which comfortably drives high-refresh displays while maintaining solid visual quality. High settings at 4K produce 86.7 FPS, still above 60 FPS and suitable for most displays. Ultra at 4K barely hits 60 FPS, making it viable only for those who prioritize maximum visual quality over frame rate stability.

At 1440p, the data shows Medium (203.8 FPS) and High (167 FPS) both exceed the refresh rate of typical 144 Hz and 165 Hz monitors, while Ultra at 121.7 FPS remains highly playable. For 1080p users, all settings exceed 186 FPS, meaning the choice comes down to visual preference rather than performance necessity.

The most balanced recommendation based on measured results is Medium at any resolution, as it offers the largest frame rate headroom before the steep drop to Ultra begins. High settings provide a meaningful visual upgrade over Medium while maintaining frame rates that remain well above 60 FPS at 4K and above 144 FPS at 1440p.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K features 16 cores and 24 threads with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. Its 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB L2 cache per core provide substantial memory hierarchy for game logic and asset streaming. The CPU's 125 W TDP reflects its desktop-oriented design, and its Raptor Lake architecture on Intel's 10 nm process delivers strong single-threaded performance.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i7-13700K achieves a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 39,000 and a single-core score of 5,505. Its Geekbench scores are 17,731 multicore and 2,850 single-core. The PassMark multithread score of 45,887 and single-thread score of 4,333 further confirm the CPU's balanced capabilities.

The game's frame rate data suggests the CPU becomes relevant at lower resolutions and settings where the GPU is not saturated. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 267.5 FPS, while 4K Low produces 154.6 FPS — a 42.2% reduction that aligns with the increased pixel workload. However, at Ultra settings, the 1080p-to-4K reduction is 67.7%, showing the GPU's workload scales more dramatically with resolution when visual effects are maxed out.

The CPU's 16 cores and 24 threads appear more than adequate for Outriders' multithreaded workloads, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p where CPU overhead would typically manifest. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 10,717 and max-thread score of 12,412 indicate strong scaling across cores, which supports the game's ability to utilize the processor's resources effectively.