Outriders

The Intel Core i7-14700K paired with the Intel Arc B390 delivers a playable experience in Outriders, but only under specific conditions. This combination ranks 2582nd out of 2913 tested combinations, placing it in the lower percentile of systems. The data shows a clear pattern: the GPU is the dominant bottleneck at every resolution, with the CPU’s substantial multi-core capabilities largely untapped by this looter shooter.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep performance cliff as resolution increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces 115 FPS average. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 72 FPS, a 37% reduction. At 4K Low, the average falls further to 38 FPS, which is a 67% drop from the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern indicates that the Intel Arc B390 is the limiting component, as the workload shifts from CPU-bound at lower resolutions to heavily GPU-bound at higher pixel counts.

The High settings row tells a similar story. At 1080p High, the average is 63 FPS. At 1440p High, it drops to 40 FPS, a 36% decline. At 4K High, the average bottoms out at 21 FPS, a 67% reduction from 1080p. The consistency of these percentage drops across settings tiers—roughly one-third lost from 1080p to 1440p, and another third lost from 1440p to 4K—points to a GPU that simply cannot keep up with pixel throughput demands beyond 1080p.

The Medium settings row provides the only min/max FPS data in the pack, offering a glimpse into frame time consistency. At 1080p Medium, the average is 83 FPS with a minimum of 71 and maximum of 96. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 53 FPS with a range of 45 to 61. At 4K Medium, the average is 28 FPS with a minimum of 23 and maximum of 32. The frame ranges remain relatively tight at each resolution, suggesting that while the GPU is slow, it is at least consistent in its output.

What does this say about the limiting component? The Arc B390’s 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 1482, placing it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463, 1.3% faster), the GeForce 800M (1460, 1.5% faster), and the GT 625 OEM (1446, 2.5% faster). These are entry-level parts from previous generations, confirming that the B390 is not designed for high-resolution gaming. The CPU, by contrast, sits in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 69355. The performance delta between the two components is enormous, and the resolution scaling data reflects that imbalance.

Settings Recommendations

Given the measured rows, the best experience for this system is at 1080p with Low settings, where the average FPS reaches 115. This is the only configuration that approaches high-refresh-rate territory. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 32 FPS (from 115 to 83), which is a 28% reduction. Moving from Medium to High costs another 20 FPS (from 83 to 63), a 24% reduction. The step from High to Ultra is even more punishing, dropping from 63 to 45 FPS, a 29% loss.

For players who prioritize visual fidelity, 1080p Medium at 83 FPS is acceptable, especially given the min/max range of 71–96 FPS, which suggests stable frame pacing. High settings at 1080p (63 FPS) are borderline playable, but the data indicates that this is where the GPU starts to struggle. Ultra settings at any resolution are not recommended. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 45 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay in a fast-paced looter shooter.

At 1440p, the situation worsens. Low settings produce 72 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. Medium settings drop to 53 FPS, and High falls to 40 FPS. At 4K, no settings tier achieves 60 FPS. Even Low settings only reach 38 FPS, and Medium drops to 28 FPS. The data strongly suggests that 4K is not viable for this combination, and 1440p should be reserved for Low or Medium settings at best.

The best experience per the measured rows is unambiguously 1080p Low, offering the highest average FPS (115) with no reported frame drops. For a balanced approach, 1080p Medium provides 83 FPS with the only recorded min/max data in the pack, indicating a stable frame window of 71–96 FPS. Anything above Medium at 1080p, or any setting above Low at 1440p, results in averages below 60 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 33 MB of shared L3. These specifications place it firmly in the high-end desktop segment, with a 94th percentile ranking among all CPUs.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i7-14700K shows strong results. Cinebench R23 multi-core scores 33440.5, while single-core scores 2160. Geekbench multi-core is 20767, and single-core is 2569. PassMark multi-thread scores 52392, and single-thread scores 4472. The nearest rivals in the CPU benchmark database include the AMD EPYC 9115 (0.1% faster), AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (0.2% slower), AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (0.7% slower), and AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (0.9% slower). These deltas are all within 1%, meaning the i7-14700K trades blows with top-tier server and desktop parts.

How does this relate to Outriders? The game’s measured FPS shows that even at 1080p Low, where the CPU should be most relevant, the system only reaches 115 FPS. The i7-14700K is capable of far higher frame rates in CPU-limited scenarios, as evidenced by its PassMark single-thread score of 4472. The fact that the system cannot exceed 115 FPS even at the lowest settings indicates that the Arc B390 is the ceiling. The CPU’s 20 cores and 28 threads are largely irrelevant to Outriders’ performance here, as the GPU saturates well before the CPU can be pushed.

The CPU’s 125 W TDP and 33 MB L3 cache are notable, but the benchmark results show that the bottleneck is not compute capacity. With the Arc B390’s 3DMark score placing it in the 9th percentile, the CPU is effectively waiting for the GPU at every frame. In a system with a faster GPU, the i7-14700K would likely show much higher FPS in Outriders, but with the B390, its role is reduced to feeding frames to a GPU that cannot process them quickly enough.

FAQ

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

A: The highest recorded average FPS is 115, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with the Intel Core i7-14700K and Intel Arc B390?

A: No. At 3840x2160, the best average FPS is 38 with Low settings. Medium settings drop to 28 FPS, High to 21, and Ultra to 15. None of these reach 60 FPS.

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

A: The Arc B390 scores 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. The NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX scores 1463 (1.3% faster), the GeForce 800M scores 1460 (1.5% faster), and the GT 625 OEM scores 1446 (2.5% faster).

Q: What is the CPU’s percentile ranking among all CPUs?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700K is in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 69355.

Q: Which settings tier provides the most stable frame pacing at 1080p?

A: Medium settings at 1920x1080 show an average of 83 FPS with a minimum of 71 and maximum of 96 FPS. This is the only settings tier with recorded min/max data.

Q: How much FPS is lost when moving from 1080p Low to 1440p Low?

A: The average FPS drops from 115 at 1920x1080 Low to 72 at 2560x1440 Low, a reduction of 43 FPS.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, manufactured on Intel’s 3 nm process. It features 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster output pipelines. The GPU has 12 ray tracing cores and a base clock of 300 MHz with a boost clock of 2500 MHz. Its FP32 performance is rated at 7.680 TFLOPS, with FP16 at 15.36 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio). The memory configuration is System Shared, meaning it uses system RAM rather than dedicated VRAM, with bandwidth described as System Dependent.

The pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s. The TDP is 80 W, and it has no power connectors, as it is an IGP (integrated graphics processor) with a slot width of "IGP" and a bus interface of "IGP." Its display outputs are listed as Portable Device Dependent, which is consistent with a mobile-oriented design. The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark, the Arc B390 scores 1482, placing it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are all NVIDIA parts from the GT 500M and GT 600M era, with the GT 520MX being 1.3% faster, the GeForce 800M 1.5% faster, and the GT 625 OEM 2.5% faster. This places the B390 at the very bottom of the GPU performance hierarchy, which is consistent with its integrated nature.

How does this relate to Outriders? The measured FPS data shows that the GPU is the limiting factor at every resolution. At 1080p Low, the system produces 115 FPS, but this drops to 72 FPS at 1440p Low and 38 FPS at 4K Low. The scaling pattern—roughly one-third loss per resolution step—is typical of a GPU that is bandwidth or fill-rate limited. The System Shared memory and System Dependent bandwidth mean that the GPU competes with the CPU for memory access, further constraining performance.

The 12 ray tracing cores are present, but Outriders does not appear to benefit from them based on the measured results, as even at 1080p Low, the average FPS is only 115. The GPU’s 7.680 TFLOPS FP32 rating is modest, and its 60.00 GPixel/s pixel rate is insufficient for 4K workloads. The boost clock of 2500 MHz is respectable, but the low shading unit count and shared memory architecture cap its real-world performance.

The GPU’s 9th percentile ranking is stark. When paired with a CPU in the 94th percentile, the mismatch is extreme. The data shows that the Arc B390 cannot deliver playable frame rates above 1080p Medium in Outriders, and even at 1080p, it struggles with High and Ultra settings. This is a clear case where the GPU is the sole bottleneck, and any performance improvements would require a more capable graphics solution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080 (1080p)

• Low settings: 115 FPS average
• Medium settings: 83 FPS average, 71 FPS minimum, 96 FPS maximum
• High settings: 63 FPS average
• Ultra settings: 45 FPS average

At 1080p, the system ranges from 115 FPS at Low to 45 FPS at Ultra. The Medium tier is the only one with recorded min/max data, showing a 25 FPS spread between minimum and maximum. The drop from Low to Medium is 32 FPS (28%), from Medium to High is 20 FPS (24%), and from High to Ultra is 18 FPS (29%). This progressive decline indicates that each settings tier adds significant GPU load, with Ultra nearly halving the Low setting performance.

2560x1440 (1440p)

• Low settings: 72 FPS average
• Medium settings: 53 FPS average, 45 FPS minimum, 61 FPS maximum
• High settings: 40 FPS average
• Ultra settings: 29 FPS average

At 1440p, the system drops to a maximum of 72 FPS at Low settings. Medium settings produce 53 FPS with a minimum of 45 and maximum of 61, a 16 FPS spread. High settings fall to 40 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 29 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 43 FPS (60% reduction). Compared to 1080p, each settings tier loses roughly 37% of its FPS at 1440p, confirming that the GPU is resolution-limited.

3840x2160 (4K)

• Low settings: 38 FPS average
• Medium settings: 28 FPS average, 23 FPS minimum, 32 FPS maximum
• High settings: 21 FPS average
• Ultra settings: 15 FPS average

At 4K, the system cannot reach 60 FPS at any setting. Low settings average 38 FPS, Medium averages 28 FPS with a 23–32 FPS range, High drops to 21 FPS, and Ultra falls to 15 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 23 FPS (61% reduction). The Medium tier’s min/max data shows a 9 FPS spread, which is tighter than at lower resolutions, but the absolute values are too low for smooth gameplay. The 4K results are consistent with a GPU that has insufficient fill rate and memory bandwidth, as the System Shared memory configuration cannot handle the pixel throughput demands of 4K rendering.

The overall pattern across all resolutions is that the Arc B390’s performance degrades predictably with pixel count, while the i7-14700K’s capabilities remain untapped. The system ranks 2582nd out of 2913 combinations, and the measured data supports that low ranking. For Outriders, this hardware pairing is only suitable for 1080p gaming at Low or Medium settings, with 1440p reserved for Low settings and 4K effectively unplayable.