Outriders

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 paired with the Intel Arc B570 lands at rank 2329 out of 2913 tested combos in Outriders. That places this pairing in the lower third of all configurations, suggesting it is not built for pushing maximum frame rates in this looter shooter. The percentile positioning is telling: the CPU sits at the 89th percentile among all processors, while the GPU rests at the 65th percentile among all graphics cards, yet the combined result is far less impressive than either component’s individual standing would imply.

This discrepancy hints at a significant bottleneck, and the data supports that interpretation. When comparing the Arc B570 to its nearest rivals, the GPU’s average benchmark score of 20556 is within 0.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534) and just 0.1% behind the Intel Arc A750 (20582). These are essentially identical scores, yet the measured FPS in Outriders tells a more nuanced story. The gap between component potential and in-game results suggests that Outriders is particularly demanding in ways that generic benchmarks do not capture.

The rank becomes more meaningful when viewed against the resolution and settings breakdown. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 176 FPS, which is respectable, but at 4K Ultra it falls to 23 FPS, a catastrophic drop that places it firmly in unplayable territory. The rank of 2329 reflects this wide performance arc — the combo can handle light loads but crumbles under heavy ones. For context, the CPU’s nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375, scores 46030 versus the Core Ultra 5 235’s 46062, a negligible 0.1% difference, so processor headroom is not the limiting factor at lower resolutions. The bottleneck emerges as resolution and settings climb, pointing squarely at the GPU.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 brings 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, delivering 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 2375 MHz, translating to 19 Gbps effective. These specifications are adequate for 1080p and even 1440p gaming, but the 4K results suggest the memory subsystem becomes a constraint at higher pixel counts. The GPU’s base and boost clocks are both pinned at 2500 MHz, which is a relatively modest clock speed for a modern graphics card, and the 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is the raw muscle behind the measured frames.

The pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s are the metrics that directly impact how Outriders renders its environments. At 4K Ultra, the combo manages only 23 FPS, which indicates that the GPU is overwhelmed by the combination of high resolution and demanding settings. The 80 ROPs and 144 TMUs are simply not enough to sustain the fill rate required at 3840x2160 with Ultra presets. The data shows a clear progression: at 4K High, the average FPS is 32; at 4K Medium, it climbs to 42; at 4K Low, it reaches 58. This 26-FPS swing between Ultra and Low at 4K demonstrates that the GPU is the primary driver of performance in this title, with settings having an outsized impact on the outcome.

The GPU’s nearest rival comparison is instructive. The Arc B570 scores 20556 on average, while the RTX 3070 Mobile scores 20534 (0.1% higher) and the Arc A750 scores 20582 (0.1% lower). These near-identical scores mean that in Outriders, the B570 should perform similarly to those cards, but the measured FPS tells us the real story. The 4K Medium result of 42 FPS with a minimum of 36 and maximum of 49 shows frame pacing that is playable but far from smooth, while the 1440p Medium result of 81 FPS (min 69, max 93) is much more consistent. The GPU’s VRAM allocation of 10 GB appears sufficient for the textures used in Outriders, as the bottleneck is more about raw compute and bandwidth than memory capacity.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Outriders with this combo?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 at Medium settings delivers 128 FPS average (min 109, max 148), which is the highest frame rate with a full set of measured minimum and maximum values. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 81 FPS, and at 4K Medium it falls to 42 FPS, so 1080p is clearly the sweet spot for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the combo perform at Ultra settings across resolutions?

A: At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 70. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 44 FPS. At 4K Ultra, it falls to 23 FPS. The progression shows a roughly 30-FPS penalty when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and another 21-FPS penalty when moving from 1440p to 4K.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in Outriders?

A: Benchmark results indicate the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The CPU sits at the 89th percentile among all processors, while the GPU is at the 65th percentile. The FPS drops from 176 at 1080p Low to 58 at 4K Low — a 118-FPS decline that cannot be explained by CPU limitations, since the processor’s performance is consistent across resolutions.

Q: How does the Arc B570 compare to its nearest rival, the Arc A750?

A: The Arc B570 has an average benchmark score of 20556, while the Arc A750 scores 20582, a difference of 0.1% in favor of the A750. In practical terms, this means the two cards should perform nearly identically in Outriders, with any variation falling within measurement noise.

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

A: The measured data shows an average of 61 FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings. This is a playable frame rate for most gamers, though it is below the 96 FPS achieved at 1080p High, indicating a significant performance cost for the resolution upgrade.

Q: Does the combo have enough VRAM for Outriders at 4K?

A: The GPU has 10 GB of GDDR6 memory, which is the amount the game is using at 4K settings. The measured FPS at 4K ranges from 23 (Ultra) to 58 (Low), and since the game runs without apparent memory-related crashes or stutters, the 10 GB allocation appears sufficient, though the compute performance is the limiting factor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive picture across three resolutions and four settings levels. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest performance. Low settings yield an average of 176 FPS, Medium produces 128 FPS (min 109, max 148), High reaches 96 FPS, and Ultra drops to 70 FPS. The range from 176 to 70 FPS across settings shows that Outriders is highly sensitive to graphical presets at this resolution, with a 106-FPS difference between the lowest and highest settings.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance degrades noticeably. Low settings average 111 FPS, Medium averages 81 FPS (min 69, max 93), High averages 61 FPS, and Ultra averages 44 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings is 65 FPS, which is a substantial penalty. At Medium settings, the drop is 47 FPS, and at Ultra settings, the drop is 26 FPS. This pattern suggests that the GPU is being pushed harder at 1440p, and the gap between settings narrows as resolution increases because the GPU becomes the limiting factor.

At 3840x2160, the performance is largely unplayable except at Low settings. Low averages 58 FPS, Medium averages 42 FPS (min 36, max 49), High averages 32 FPS, and Ultra averages 23 FPS. The 4K results show a stark contrast: the difference between Low and Ultra is 35 FPS, but even the best case at Low is barely above 60 FPS. The minimum FPS of 36 at 4K Medium indicates significant frame drops, making this resolution unsuitable for competitive play. The progression from 1080p to 4K at any given setting shows a clear pattern of diminishing returns, with the GPU unable to maintain playable frame rates at the highest resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The data suggests that the best experience for this combo is at 1080p with Medium settings, which delivers 128 FPS average with a minimum of 109 FPS and maximum of 148 FPS. This configuration provides a smooth frame rate that stays well above the 60 FPS threshold even during demanding scenes, as evidenced by the minimum FPS of 109. The Medium preset at 1080p offers a balance between visual quality and performance that the other settings do not match.

If a player prefers higher visual fidelity, 1080p High at 96 FPS is a viable alternative, though the minimum FPS is not measured, making it harder to assess frame consistency. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 70 FPS, which is still playable but leaves less headroom for sudden frame drops. For players who prioritize frame rate above all else, 1080p Low at 176 FPS is the maximum achievable, but the visual compromise may not be worth the extra 48 FPS over Medium.

At 1440p, the Medium preset yields 81 FPS (min 69, max 93), which is acceptable for casual play but not ideal for fast-paced action. The High preset at 61 FPS is borderline, and Ultra at 44 FPS is too low for smooth gameplay. The 4K resolution is not recommended with this combo, as even Low settings only achieve 58 FPS, and the Medium preset’s minimum of 36 FPS indicates frequent stuttering. The measured rows clearly indicate that 1080p Medium is the optimal configuration, providing the best combination of average FPS and frame consistency.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with 24 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU’s benchmark scores are strong: it achieves 14769 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2085 in single-core, placing it at the 89th percentile among all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 46062 is within 0.1% of the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (46030) and the Intel Core i9-13900HX (46098), indicating that this processor is competitive with high-end mobile and desktop parts.

In Outriders, the CPU’s role is less critical than the GPU’s, as evidenced by the FPS scaling. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 176 FPS, which suggests the CPU can feed frames to the GPU at a high rate. However, the 14 threads (matching the 14 cores, with no hyperthreading) may limit performance in heavily threaded scenarios, though the data does not show this being a problem at lower resolutions. The CPU’s memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s over a dual-channel DDR5 interface is sufficient for the game’s requirements, and the 24 MB L3 cache helps with data locality.

The CPU’s nearest rivals show that it is not a bottleneck at 1080p, but the question is whether it becomes one at higher resolutions. The FPS drop from 1080p Low (176 FPS) to 4K Low (58 FPS) is 118 FPS, which is a 67% reduction. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the FPS would remain more consistent across resolutions. Instead, the data shows that the GPU is the constraint, as the FPS scales inversely with resolution and settings. The CPU’s benchmark percentile of 89 versus the GPU’s 65 further supports this conclusion, indicating that the processor has more headroom than the graphics card.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear pattern of GPU limitation. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 176 at 1080p to 111 at 1440p (a 37% reduction) and then to 58 at 4K (a 48% reduction from 1440p). At Medium settings, the progression is 128 FPS at 1080p, 81 FPS at 1440p (a 37% drop), and 42 FPS at 4K (a 48% drop). At High settings, the numbers are 96 FPS, 61 FPS (a 36% drop), and 32 FPS (a 48% drop). At Ultra settings, the pattern is 70 FPS, 44 FPS (a 37% drop), and 23 FPS (a 48% drop).

The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings is striking. The reduction from 1080p to 1440p is consistently around 36-37%, and from 1440p to 4K it is consistently around 48%. This uniformity indicates that the scaling is driven by the GPU’s compute and memory bandwidth, which are the components that must process the increasing pixel count. The CPU’s workload does not scale with resolution in the same way, so the consistent percentage drops confirm that the GPU is the limiting component.

The absolute FPS numbers tell a more sobering story. At 4K, even Low settings barely reach 58 FPS, and the Medium preset’s minimum of 36 FPS shows that the GPU struggles to maintain consistent frame times. The transition from 1440p to 4K is particularly punishing, with a 48% FPS reduction across all settings. This suggests that the Arc B570’s 380.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth and 11.52 TFLOPS of compute are simply insufficient for 4K gaming in Outriders. The data implies that players should stick to 1080p or 1440p at most, with 1080p Medium being the only configuration that provides a consistently smooth experience above 100 FPS.