Outriders

# Outriders with Intel Core Ultra 5 225 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

This combination ranks 49th out of 2913 tested combos in Outriders, placing it in the top 1.7% of all configurations evaluated. The pairing of Intel's 10-core Arrow Lake processor with NVIDIA's flagship Blackwell GPU produces frame rates that range from a demanding 64 FPS at 4K Ultra to a blistering 272 FPS at 1080p Low, with the data revealing a system that scales predictably across resolutions and presets. The strongest measured result shows the combo delivering 193 FPS at 1080p Ultra, while the most challenging scenario—4K Ultra—dips to 64 FPS average, suggesting a significant GPU workload at higher settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's 49th place standing among 2913 tested combinations represents an elite-tier result, though not the absolute pinnacle of performance. This rank places the configuration within the 98th percentile of all tested combos, meaning only 48 other CPU-GPU pairings delivered higher average frame rates in Outriders. The ranking is particularly notable given that the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 sits at the 85th percentile among all CPUs, while the RTX 5090 achieves a 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs—both components are strong individually, but their combined performance in this game exceeds what either component's standalone percentile might suggest.

The data implies that Outriders responds well to the balance this combo strikes between CPU throughput and GPU rendering power. The Core Ultra 5 225's benchmark profile shows an average score of 36938, nearly identical to its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (36945, deltaPct 0). This near-parity in CPU performance means the GPU is likely the dominant factor in determining the combo's rank, which aligns with the game's visually intensive nature. However, the 10-core processor must still feed the RTX 5090 adequately at lower resolutions, where frame rates exceed 200 FPS and CPU overhead becomes more relevant.

Compared to other high-end combos in the database, this pairing's 49th place suggests it outperforms the vast majority of configurations while trailing a small group of optimized pairings. The delta between this combo and the top-ranked systems likely stems from CPU limitations at high frame rates, since the RTX 5090's 32 GB GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth provide ample headroom for Outriders' texture-heavy environments. The ranking also reflects the game's release date of 2021, meaning modern hardware like this combo can significantly exceed the performance levels the game was originally designed around.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 serves as the primary performance driver in this combo, with its 32 GB GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus providing 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth—more than sufficient for Outriders' largest texture sets. The GPU's 21760 shading units and 176 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s, which explains why the combo maintains high frame rates even at 4K resolution. The 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 compute throughput positions this card as an extreme performer, and the measured results confirm this: at 4K Medium, the combo averages 117 FPS with a minimum of 100 FPS, demonstrating consistent frame pacing under moderate load.

The GPU's clock behavior shows a base frequency of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz, with memory operating at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). These clocks, combined with the 680 TMUs, allow the card to process Outriders' particle effects and environmental detail without becoming the bottleneck at most settings. The RTX 5090's percentile ranking of 92 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79842, places it just above the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (deltaPct 0.3) and AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (deltaPct 1.1), though these nearest rivals are not directly comparable in gaming performance.

At 4K Ultra, the GPU's workload becomes extreme, with the combo dropping to 64 FPS average—a 73% reduction from the 4K Low result of 161 FPS. This dramatic scaling indicates that Ultra settings in Outriders impose rendering demands that even the RTX 5090 cannot fully overcome at 4K, likely due to heavy post-processing, shadow quality, and draw distance effects. The gap between Medium (117 FPS) and High (88 FPS) at 4K further illustrates how each quality tier adds substantial GPU cost, with High settings representing a 25% performance penalty over Medium while Ultra adds another 27% penalty over High.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that Medium settings provide the most balanced experience across all resolutions, offering the best combination of visual fidelity and frame rate stability. At 4K Medium, the combo delivers 117 FPS average with a minimum of 100 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay even during intense combat sequences with multiple enemies and particle effects. This represents a 53 FPS improvement over High settings at the same resolution, while maintaining a minimum frame rate that stays well above the 60 FPS threshold.

For 1440p, High settings at 168 FPS average provide an excellent experience, though Medium at 207 FPS offers additional headroom for high-refresh-rate displays. The 176 FPS minimum at 1440p Medium ensures that even the most demanding scenes remain fluid, making this the recommended preset for competitive play or fast-paced looter shooter action. At 1080p, Medium produces 242 FPS average with a 206 FPS minimum, which is ideal for 240 Hz displays, while High at 218 FPS remains viable for those prioritizing visual quality.

Ultra settings are only recommended for 1080p, where the combo maintains 193 FPS average. At higher resolutions, Ultra's performance cost becomes prohibitive—the 64 FPS at 4K Ultra and 122 FPS at 1440p Ultra represent 45% and 41% reductions from Medium settings, respectively. For players with 144 Hz or 165 Hz monitors at 1440p, Medium settings are the clear choice, as they provide 31 FPS of headroom over the refresh rate, whereas Ultra would struggle to maintain consistent frame times. The data indicates that the RTX 5090's power is best utilized with Medium or High presets in Outriders, allowing the GPU to maintain high frame rates without the excessive workload Ultra imposes.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo achieves its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 272 FPS average, followed by Medium at 242 FPS (206 minimum, 278 maximum), High at 218 FPS, and Ultra at 193 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra represents a 29% performance reduction, indicating that even the most demanding 1080p preset remains highly playable. The Medium preset's minimum of 206 FPS demonstrates consistent frame delivery, with the maximum of 278 FPS showing the GPU can burst well beyond the average when scene complexity decreases.

Moving to 2560x1440, frame rates remain strong but show the expected resolution penalty. Low settings deliver 233 FPS, while Medium achieves 207 FPS (176 minimum, 239 maximum). High settings produce 168 FPS, and Ultra drops to 122 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 14% performance at Low settings (272 to 233 FPS), but the gap widens at higher presets—Medium loses 14%, High loses 23%, and Ultra loses 37% (193 to 122 FPS). This pattern suggests that Ultra settings become increasingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while lower presets maintain CPU-limited behavior.

At 3840x2160, the performance landscape shifts dramatically. Low settings still deliver a playable 161 FPS, and Medium maintains 117 FPS (100 minimum, 135 maximum). However, High settings drop to 88 FPS, and Ultra falls to 64 FPS. The 4K Medium result, with its 100 FPS minimum, represents the best balance for 4K gaming, as it stays above 60 FPS even in demanding scenes. The 4K Ultra result of 64 FPS, while technically playable, leaves little margin for frame drops, and the lack of minimum FPS data for this preset suggests potential instability under heavy load.

The complete data set reveals a consistent pattern: Medium settings offer the most stable frame delivery, with minimum FPS values recorded only for Medium presets across all resolutions. This indicates that Medium is the only preset where the developers' engine maintains consistent frame pacing, while Low, High, and Ultra presets exhibit more variable performance that the benchmark did not capture in minimum values.

FAQ

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations in Outriders?

A: This combo ranks 49th out of 2913 tested combinations, placing it in the top 1.7% of all configurations. The ranking reflects the combined performance of the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090, with the CPU at the 85th percentile among all processors and the GPU at the 92nd percentile among all graphics cards.

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

A: The data supports 1440p as the ideal resolution, where Medium settings achieve 207 FPS average (176 minimum) and High settings deliver 168 FPS. At 1080p, the combo exceeds 200 FPS at most settings, while 4K requires Medium settings to stay above 100 FPS. The 1440p results offer the best balance of visual quality and high refresh rate performance.

Q: Why does Ultra settings performance drop so significantly at higher resolutions?

A: At 4K Ultra, the combo averages only 64 FPS, compared to 117 FPS at 4K Medium. This 45% reduction indicates that Ultra settings impose a disproportionately heavy GPU workload at high resolutions, likely due to advanced rendering effects that scale non-linearly with pixel count. The pattern is less severe at 1080p, where Ultra still achieves 193 FPS.

Q: How does this combo's CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 has an average benchmark score of 36938, nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (36945, deltaPct 0). It trails the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D by 0.2% and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 by 0.4%, while slightly exceeding the Intel Core i9-12900T by 0.5%. These differences are negligible for gaming performance.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this combo?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K Medium, the combo delivers 117 FPS average with a 100 FPS minimum, providing a smooth experience. At 4K High, performance drops to 88 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 64 FPS. For consistent 60+ FPS gameplay, Medium settings are recommended at 4K.

Q: What minimum frame rates are recorded for this combo?

A: Minimum FPS values are only available for Medium settings across all resolutions: 100 FPS at 4K, 176 FPS at 1440p, and 206 FPS at 1080p. The absence of minimum data for Low, High, and Ultra presets suggests these settings may have more variable frame delivery, making Medium the safest choice for consistent performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 provides 10 cores and 10 threads, operating at a base clock of 3.30 GHz with a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. This Arrow Lake-S processor, built on TSMC's 3 nm process, features 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die. The CPU's 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB L2 cache per core help feed the RTX 5090 effectively, though the lack of hyper-threading (10 threads for 10 cores) may limit performance in heavily threaded scenarios.

Benchmark results show the CPU achieving a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 25891 and a single-core score of 3655, placing it at the 85th percentile among all CPUs. The PassMark multithread score of 30459 and single-thread score of 4412 indicate balanced performance that can sustain high frame rates in Outriders, particularly at lower resolutions where CPU overhead becomes more significant. The 65W TDP suggests efficient power delivery, but the game's performance at 1080p Low (272 FPS) indicates the CPU can handle extreme frame rates without becoming a bottleneck.

The CPU's role becomes more apparent when examining resolution scaling. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 272 FPS, while at 4K Low it drops to 161 FPS—a 41% reduction that aligns with GPU workload scaling rather than CPU limitations. However, the gap between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings (272 vs 233 FPS, a 14% drop) is smaller than the GPU-bound scaling seen at higher presets, suggesting the CPU maintains sufficient throughput to keep the GPU fed even at high frame rates. The processor's memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s over dual-channel DDR5 provides adequate data transfer for the game's assets, though the RTX 5090's 1.79 TB/s bandwidth dwarfs this figure, confirming the GPU's dominance in this pairing.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals distinct scaling patterns depending on settings. At Low settings, performance drops from 272 FPS at 1080p to 233 FPS at 1440p (14% reduction) and further to 161 FPS at 4K (31% reduction from 1440p). This totals a 41% decrease from 1080p to 4K, which is less severe than the pixel count increase (4x) would suggest, indicating that Low settings are partially CPU-limited at lower resolutions.

Medium settings show a similar but slightly steeper curve: 242 FPS at 1080p, 207 FPS at 1440p (14% drop), and 117 FPS at 4K (43% drop from 1440p). The total reduction from 1080p to 4K is 52%, reflecting increased GPU workload as resolution scales. High settings demonstrate the most dramatic scaling: 218 FPS at 1080p, 168 FPS at 1440p (23% drop), and 88 FPS at 4K (48% drop from 1440p), totaling a 60% decrease from 1080p to 4K.

Ultra settings exhibit the steepest scaling curve: 193 FPS at 1080p, 122 FPS at 1440p (37% drop), and 64 FPS at 4K (48% drop from 1440p), totaling a 67% reduction from 1080p to 4K. This pattern indicates that Ultra settings impose a disproportionately heavy GPU load at higher resolutions, with the 4K Ultra result representing the only configuration where the combo dips near 60 FPS. The scaling analysis suggests that the RTX 5090 becomes the limiting factor at 4K for all presets, while at 1080p, the CPU's capability to maintain 272 FPS at Low settings demonstrates that the Core Ultra 5 225 can feed even the most powerful GPU when resolution constraints are minimal.