Outriders

The Intel Core i9-14900K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER lands at rank 960 out of 1693 tested combos in Outriders. That places this pairing in the lower-middle portion of the database, meaning a significant majority of tested systems deliver higher average frame rates. The ranking reflects a fundamental imbalance: a top-tier 24-core processor is held back by a GPU that sits at the 65th percentile among all tested graphics cards. While the CPU is in the 97th percentile of all processors, the combo’s overall position shows that Outriders is far more dependent on the graphics solution than the processor.

How This Combo Ranks

The data places this configuration at 960th of 1693 tested combinations, which is roughly the 43rd percentile of all pairings. This is a mediocre result for a system built around a flagship-class CPU. The bottleneck is clear: the RTX 2070 SUPER, with an average benchmark score of 22206, trails its nearest rivals by small margins—it is 0.5% behind the NVIDIA RTX A400 and 2.3% behind the RTX 4060 Mobile, while leading the GTX TITAN Z by 0.9% and the RX 5700 by 2.5%. These narrow deltas show the GPU is competitive with its immediate peers, but none of those cards are top-tier performers. Consequently, the combo’s rank is dragged down by the graphics component, regardless of the CPU’s standing.

The i9-14900K itself sits at a 97th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79824. Its nearest rivals are the AMD EPYC 7413 (0.3% higher), the Core i9-14900KF (0.7% lower), the Core Ultra 7 265KF (0.7% lower), and the Core Ultra 7 265K (0.9% lower). In synthetic CPU tests, the i9-14900K is essentially tied with those chips. Yet in Outriders, the measured FPS shows that this processing power is underutilized. At 1080p Low settings, the combo hits 229.5 FPS, which is high, but as resolution and settings increase, the frame rate collapses in a way that points squarely at the GPU. The rank of 960 is a direct consequence of that GPU ceiling.

GPU Role

The RTX 2070 SUPER is built on the TU104 chip with a 12 nm process and packs 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. It operates at a base clock of 1605 MHz and a boost clock of 1770 MHz, with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The card’s FP32 throughput is 9.062 TFLOPS, and it has 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores, supporting DirectX 12 Ultimate. In the database, its average benchmark score of 22206 places it at the 65th percentile, with a PassMark G3D score of 18169 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1651.

In Outriders, the GPU’s role is decisive. At 4K Ultra, the combo manages only 28.3 FPS, which is below playable thresholds. Dropping to 4K High raises that to 42.2 FPS, while 4K Medium gives 54.8 FPS, and 4K Low reaches 77.9 FPS. The pattern is consistent: lowering settings recovers frame rate, but the card’s 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are not enough to sustain high framerates at 4K with demanding settings. The GPU’s 65th percentile ranking relative to all GPUs means it is outclassed by a third of the tested cards, which explains why this combo cannot climb higher in the rankings. The RTX 2070 SUPER’s end-of-life production status and its predecessor/successor lineage further underscore its age relative to the CPU.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data shows a steep drop as resolution increases, which is the signature of a GPU-bound scenario. At 1080p Low, the combo delivers 229.5 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low reduces that to 140.9 FPS, a 38.6% decrease. At 4K Low, the average falls to 77.9 FPS, which is 66.1% lower than the 1080p Low figure. For High settings, the progression is 123.4 FPS at 1080p, 76.0 FPS at 1440p (a 38.4% drop), and 42.2 FPS at 4K (a 65.8% drop from 1080p). These percentage losses are nearly identical across Low and High, indicating that the resolution scaling is consistent regardless of visual fidelity.

This behavior reveals that the limiting component is the GPU. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rate would not degrade so sharply with resolution. At 1080p Low, the i9-14900K can feed the GPU enough data to hit 229.5 FPS, but the RTX 2070 SUPER simply cannot maintain that throughput as pixel count rises. The gap between 1080p and 4K is about 151.6 FPS on Low settings, which is a massive absolute loss. The data also shows that settings matter more at 4K: Ultra yields 28.3 FPS while Low yields 77.9 FPS, a 175.3% improvement from lowering settings. At 1080p, the same settings change goes from 90.8 FPS to 229.5 FPS, a 152.8% gain. The GPU’s VRAM capacity and bandwidth are the likely culprits for the 4K Ultra performance, where the card’s 256-bit bus and 448.0 GB/s throughput are insufficient for high-resolution textures.

FAQ

Q: What is the combo’s overall rank in Outriders?

A: The Intel Core i9-14900K with the RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 960th out of 1693 tested combos, placing it in the lower half of the database.

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

A: The RTX 2070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 22206, which is 0.5% lower than the NVIDIA RTX A400, 2.3% lower than the RTX 4060 Mobile, 0.9% higher than the GTX TITAN Z, and 2.5% higher than the AMD RX 5700.

Q: What FPS can I expect at 1440p High settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with High settings, the combo achieves an average of 76.0 FPS, which is a 38.4% drop from the 1080p High result of 123.4 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The data shows the GPU is the limiting factor. The i9-14900K ranks in the 97th percentile of CPUs, but the RTX 2070 SUPER ranks in the 65th percentile of GPUs. The FPS drops sharply with resolution, which is typical of a GPU-bound workload.

Q: How much does lowering settings help at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, moving from Ultra (28.3 FPS) to Low (77.9 FPS) provides a 175.3% increase in average frame rate, indicating the GPU’s performance is highly sensitive to settings at that resolution.

Q: What are the CPU’s closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i9-14900K’s average score of 79824 is nearly identical to the AMD EPYC 7413 (80041, 0.3% higher) and the Core i9-14900KF (79245, 0.7% lower), with the Core Ultra 7 265KF and 265K also within 0.9% lower.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor from the Core 14th Gen series, based on the Raptor Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz, with a 125 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3. It supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus, and it features PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes. Its integrated graphics are UHD Graphics 770, and it has a launch MSRP of $589.

In synthetic tests, the CPU is a powerhouse. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 49872, and single-core is 7040. Geekbench results show 20370 multi-core and 3064 single-core. PassMark multi-thread scores are 58674, with single-thread at 4697. These numbers put it at the 97th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79824. Its nearest rival, the AMD EPYC 7413, scores 80041, just 0.3% higher, which is a negligible difference.

However, in Outriders, the CPU’s role is diminished. The game’s measured FPS at various resolutions shows that even a 24-core processor cannot overcome the GPU’s limitations. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 229.5 FPS, which suggests the CPU can handle high frame rates. But the drop to 140.9 FPS at 1440p Low and 77.9 FPS at 4K Low is not due to CPU cores or clocks—it is the RTX 2070 SUPER’s inability to render more pixels. The CPU’s high single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core of 7040) and boost clock of 6.00 GHz ensure it is not a bottleneck at any tested setting. Yet the combo rank of 960 indicates that raw CPU power is irrelevant when the GPU sits at the 65th percentile. In this pairing, the i9-14900K is overqualified, and the RTX 2070 SUPER is the definitive constraint on performance in Outriders.