Outriders

# Outriders with Intel Core i7-14700F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

The pairing of Intel's Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4090 in Outriders produces a fascinating dataset that reveals how a top-tier GPU interacts with a high-core-count CPU across resolution and settings gradients. The measured frames per second range from a demanding 62 FPS at 4K Ultra to a fluid 263 FPS at 1080p Low, and the shape of that curve tells a clear story about where the bottlenecks lie. With the combo ranking 107th out of 3,710 tested combinations, this is an elite-level setup, but the data shows that the RTX 4090 is often waiting on the CPU, especially at lower resolutions and in lighter settings presets.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep, but the pattern is not uniform across settings presets, which is the first clue about the system's limiting components. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 210 FPS at 1920x1080 to 165 FPS at 2560x1440, and then to 86 FPS at 3840x2160. That represents a 21.4% drop from 1080p to 1440p, followed by a much larger 47.9% drop from 1440p to 4K — the classic signature of a GPU that is becoming increasingly saturated as pixel count climbs.

Looking at Low settings, the scaling is even more revealing: 263 FPS at 1080p, 225 FPS at 1440p, and 158 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 14.4% and 29.8% respectively, which are smaller relative drops than at High settings. This suggests that at Low settings, the CPU is doing more of the heavy lifting at 1080p and 1440p, capping performance before the GPU can be fully utilized. The fact that 1080p Low yields 263 FPS while 1080p High yields 210 FPS — a 25.2% difference — indicates that the CPU has headroom to push higher, but the GPU workload at High settings is already substantial.

Ultra settings provide the clearest evidence of GPU limitation: 186 FPS at 1080p, 119 FPS at 1440p, and a much lower 62 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K is a massive 47.9%, almost identical to the High settings drop, which strongly implies that at Ultra and High, the RTX 4090's rendering pipeline is the binding constraint at 4K. The Medium settings row, which has the only complete min/max data, shows 234 FPS at 1080p (min 199, max 269), 200 FPS at 1440p (min 170, max 230), and 115 FPS at 4K (min 97, max 132). The min FPS values at Medium are particularly informative, showing that even at 4K, the frame time variance is relatively contained, with the minimum staying within 15.7% of the average.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 brings a massive amount of hardware to bear on Outriders, and the benchmark results reflect that. With 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, the card has a memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s, which is more than sufficient for Outriders' texture-heavy environments. The GPU's 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs are complemented by 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores, though the game's DirectX 12 Ultimate support means ray tracing features could be invoked, but the measured data does not specify whether RT was enabled.

The clock behavior is telling: a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz, with memory running at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). In a game like Outriders, which is a looter shooter with dense particle effects and large enemy counts, the GPU's raw compute throughput — 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 — is the primary driver of the high frame rates seen at 1080p and 1440p. The fact that 1080p High reaches 210 FPS and 1440p High reaches 165 FPS indicates the GPU is not breaking a sweat at these resolutions, leaving headroom that the CPU cannot always fill.

At 4K, the GPU's role becomes dominant. The RTX 4090's pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s are being pushed hard when rendering 3840x2160 at Ultra settings, where the average drops to 62 FPS. The VRAM capacity of 24 GB is unlikely to be a limiting factor in Outriders, as the game's asset sizes are not extreme for a 2021 release, but the sheer fill rate requirements at 4K Ultra are what drag performance down. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 38,194 and its 88th percentile ranking among all GPUs confirm that this is a top-tier part, yet the 4K Ultra result shows that even this hardware has limits.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy for the best experience based on the trade-off between visual quality and frame rate. At 4K, the jump from Ultra to High is dramatic: 62 FPS to 86 FPS, a 38.7% improvement. That moves the experience from borderline playable to comfortably smooth for most displays. Medium at 4K pushes further to 115 FPS, which is excellent for a 4K panel, but the visual compromise from High to Medium is noticeable in a game with detailed environments and particle effects.

For 1440p, High settings at 165 FPS is the sweet spot for high-refresh-rate monitors, as it clears the 144 Hz threshold with margin. Ultra at 1440p still delivers 119 FPS, which is playable but leaves less headroom for frame time spikes. At 1080p, the data shows that High settings at 210 FPS is the best balance — Ultra at 186 FPS is only 11.4% lower, but the visual gain is marginal for the frame rate cost. Low and Medium at 1080p exceed 234 FPS, but those presets sacrifice too much visual fidelity for a game that is already running well above refresh rate capabilities.

The most compelling recommendation based on the measured rows is to run High settings at 1440p or 4K, depending on the display. At 4K, High's 86 FPS is a solid baseline for a cinematic experience, while 1440p High's 165 FPS is ideal for competitive play. The Medium preset at 4K, with its min FPS of 97 and max of 132, offers the most stable frame pacing of any 4K option, which could be preferable for players sensitive to stutter, but the average of 115 FPS is not far from High's 86 FPS, making High the better visual choice.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 4090 paired with the i7-14700F delivers exceptional performance across all presets. Low settings average 263 FPS, Medium averages 234 FPS with a min of 199 and max of 269, High averages 210 FPS, and Ultra averages 186 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 77 FPS, or 29.3% of the Low value, indicating that the GPU has enough headroom at this resolution that even the heaviest preset does not cripple performance. The Medium min of 199 FPS is notably close to the High average of 210 FPS, suggesting that High settings may occasionally dip below Medium's floor in demanding scenes.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but begin to show more differentiation. Low averages 225 FPS, Medium averages 200 FPS with a min of 170 and max of 230, High averages 165 FPS, and Ultra averages 119 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is 35 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 46 FPS, showing that Ultra is disproportionately more demanding at this resolution. The Medium min of 170 FPS is still well above 144 Hz, making this a strong option for high-refresh 1440p displays.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is pushed much harder. Low averages 158 FPS, Medium averages 115 FPS with a min of 97 and max of 132, High averages 86 FPS, and Ultra averages 62 FPS. The Medium min of 97 FPS is the only sub-100 FPS minimum in the entire dataset, and it confirms that 4K is where the RTX 4090's limits are reached. The progression from Low to Ultra at 4K is steep — each preset jump costs roughly 25-30% of the previous frame rate — which is the hallmark of a GPU-bound scenario.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 achieves a rank of 107 out of 3,710 tested combos in Outriders, placing it in the top 2.9% of all configurations. That ranking is unsurprising given the individual components' standings: the CPU is in the 91st percentile among all CPUs, and the GPU is in the 88th percentile among all GPUs. The fact that the combo ranks higher than either component's individual percentile suggests that this pairing is particularly well-matched for Outriders' workload, avoiding significant bottlenecking.

The CPU's nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score include the Intel Xeon 6505P (delta of -0.2%), the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 (delta of +0.3%), the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X (delta of +0.6%), and the AMD EPYC 7313P (delta of +0.8%). These are all high-core-count server or desktop parts, and the i7-14700F's 20 cores and 28 threads position it competitively against them, with only sub-1% differences. The GPU's nearest rivals are the Intel Arc Pro A60 (delta of 0%), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (delta of +0.3%), the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (delta of -2.5%), and the AMD Radeon PRO V710 (delta of +2.9%), showing that the RTX 4090's average benchmark score of 60,347 is closely matched by some workstation cards, though none of those rivals would replicate the gaming performance seen here.

The rank of 107 out of 3,710 is a strong indicator that this combo delivers near-top-tier performance in Outriders, but it is not the absolute best — there are 106 combos that outperform it, likely with more extreme CPUs or overclocked variants. The data suggests that for this game, the combination is well-balanced, with neither component dragging the other down to a significant degree.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. Its 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample storage for game data, and the 10 nm process node (Intel's own foundry) keeps power at a 65 W TDP, which is modest for a CPU with this core count. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel mode, and its PCIe Gen 5 interface with 16 lanes ensures no bandwidth bottleneck for the RTX 4090.

In Outriders, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the 263 FPS average is likely near the CPU's maximum frame generation capability for this title, as the GPU is not heavily taxed at that preset. The fact that 1080p Medium (234 FPS) and 1080p High (210 FPS) are lower than Low suggests that the GPU is increasingly involved, but the CPU is still keeping pace. The single-core performance, as measured by Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4,958, is strong for gaming, and the multi-core score of 35,122 indicates that the CPU can handle the game's background threads without issue.

The CPU's PassMark multithread score of 41,317 and its 91st percentile ranking place it well above average, but its nearest rivals (the Xeon 6505P and EPYC 7313P) are server parts with different power envelopes. The i7-14700F's ability to boost to 5.40 GHz on a single core is crucial for Outriders' main thread, which often dictates frame pacing in looter shooters with many on-screen entities. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, where the GPU is clearly the bottleneck (62 FPS), the CPU is still delivering enough throughput to feed the GPU, as the frame rate is not artificially capped by CPU limitations.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to run Outriders with this combo for a 144 Hz monitor?

A: At 2560x1440 with High settings, the combo averages 165 FPS, which exceeds 144 Hz. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the average drops to 86 FPS, which is below 144 Hz. For a 144 Hz display, 1440p High is the recommended choice.

Q: How much performance is lost when going from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings?

A: At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 186. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 62. This represents a 66.7% reduction in frame rate, indicating that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at 4K Ultra.

Q: Does the RTX 4090's 24 GB VRAM ever become a bottleneck in Outriders?

A: The measured data does not show any VRAM-related stuttering or performance anomalies. The 24 GB capacity is well above what Outriders requires, and the 1.01 TB/s bandwidth supports smooth texture streaming even at 4K.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested configurations?

A: This combo ranks 107th out of 3,710 tested combos in Outriders, placing it in the top 2.9% of all configurations. The CPU is in the 91st percentile and the GPU is in the 88th percentile individually.

Q: What is the frame time variance like at 4K Medium settings?

A: At 4K Medium, the average FPS is 115 with a minimum of 97 and a maximum of 132. The spread of 35 FPS between min and max indicates moderate frame pacing variance, but the min remains above 90 FPS for a playable experience.

Q: Which is more demanding, going from High to Ultra at 1440p or at 4K?

A: At 1440p, High averages 165 FPS and Ultra averages 119 FPS, a 27.9% reduction. At 4K, High averages 86 FPS and Ultra averages 62 FPS, a 27.9% reduction as well. The relative cost of Ultra is identical at both resolutions, though the absolute FPS loss is different (46 vs 24 FPS).