Outriders

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 delivers a highly playable Outriders experience at 1080p, with the data indicating that the Medium preset provides the optimal balance of smoothness and visual fidelity. While the combo ranks in the 22nd percentile of tested configurations, the measured frame rates show this pairing is more than capable of handling the looter shooter's demands at lower resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

Benchmark results for this specific CPU-GPU combination show a clear hierarchy of performance across the four available presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 189 FPS, which is exceptionally high and well beyond the refresh rate of most monitors. The Medium preset delivers 137 FPS on average, with a minimum of 117 FPS and a maximum of 158 FPS, indicating a consistent and smooth experience. High settings produce 103 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 74 FPS average.

The data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot for this resolution. It offers a substantial 34 FPS advantage over High settings while still providing the visual improvements that come from moving off the bare minimum Low preset. The minimum FPS of 117 on Medium ensures that even in intense combat scenarios with multiple enemies and particle effects, the frame rate remains comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

At 2560x1440, the same pattern emerges but with tighter margins. Medium settings yield an average of 87 FPS, with a minimum of 74 FPS, which remains playable on standard 60Hz monitors and even some 144Hz displays. High settings drop to 65 FPS average, which is still acceptable but leaves less headroom for dips. The Low preset at this resolution hits 119 FPS average, while Ultra falls to 47 FPS average, which begins to feel less fluid.

For 3840x2160, the RTX 2060's limitations become apparent. The Medium preset produces an average of 45 FPS with a minimum of 38 FPS, which is below the ideal threshold for a fast-paced shooter. Low settings at this resolution achieve 62 FPS average, making it the only viable option for 4K gaming with this combo. High and Ultra presets at 4K produce 34 FPS and 24 FPS averages respectively, which are not recommended for active play.

The recommendation is clear: for the best overall experience, use the Medium preset at 1920x1080 or 2560x1440. At 4K, the Low preset is the only configuration that approaches acceptable frame rates, sacrificing visual quality for playability.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is the primary performance limiter in this pairing, particularly at higher resolutions. The GPU features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming in Outriders, but the data shows it struggles to maintain high frame rates at 4K resolution.

The GPU's clock speeds are listed with a base of 1365 MHz and a boost of 1680 MHz. The memory operates at 1750 MHz, which translates to 14 Gbps effective. These clocks, combined with the 1920 shading units and 120 texture mapping units, produce a pixel rate of 80.64 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 201.6 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is rated at 6.451 TFLOPS.

Examining the measured FPS data across resolutions reveals the GPU's scaling behavior. Moving from 1080p Medium (137 FPS) to 1440p Medium (87 FPS) represents a 36% performance drop, while moving from 1440p Medium to 4K Medium (45 FPS) represents a 48% drop. This non-linear scaling is typical of a GPU where memory bandwidth becomes increasingly constrained at higher resolutions.

The 6 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for the Medium preset at all tested resolutions, as the data shows playable frame rates through 1440p. However, the Ultra preset at 4K yields only 24 FPS average, suggesting that the combination of higher texture detail and increased resolution exceeds what the VRAM and memory bandwidth can efficiently handle. The RTX 2060's percentile ranking of 58 places it in the mid-range of all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 15290 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (15283) and AMD Radeon 680M (15270).

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Outriders at 1080p with high settings?

A: Yes. The measured data shows an average of 103 FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings. This is well above the 60 FPS target and provides a smooth experience, though the Medium preset offers 137 FPS average for those who prefer higher frame rates.

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU combination?

A: Based on the data, 2560x1440 with Medium settings provides the best balance of image quality and performance, achieving an average of 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS. At 1080p, all presets except Ultra are comfortable, but 4K gaming is only viable on Low settings (62 FPS average).

Q: How does the RTX 2060 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 2060's average benchmark score of 15290 is essentially tied with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (15283, 0% delta) and the AMD Radeon 680M (15270, 0.1% delta). It is 0.6% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM (15199) and 0.8% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 7600 (15171).

Q: Is the Ultra preset worth using at any resolution?

A: The data suggests no. At 1080p Ultra, the combo achieves 74 FPS average, which is playable but a significant drop from Medium's 137 FPS. At 1440p Ultra drops to 47 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it falls to 24 FPS. The visual gains from Ultra over High or Medium do not justify the substantial frame rate losses.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 has an average benchmark score of 46062. This is 0.1% higher than the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (46030) and 0.2% higher than both the AMD EPYC 4364P (45970) and AMD EPYC 7303 (45960). It is 0.1% lower than the Intel Core i9-13900HX (46098).

Q: Does the combo maintain consistent frame rates or are there noticeable dips?

A: The available data for Medium settings shows frame rate ranges. At 1080p Medium, the range is 117-158 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the range is 74-99 FPS. At 4K Medium, the range is 38-52 FPS. This indicates that frame pacing is consistent, with the minimum values staying reasonably close to the averages.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 ranks 2881 out of 3710 tested combos in Outriders. This places the pairing in the lower 22.3% of all tested configurations, indicating that while it can run the game, many other hardware combinations deliver higher performance.

This ranking is primarily driven by the GPU's mid-range position in the overall hardware landscape. The RTX 2060 holds a percentile rank of 58 among all GPUs, meaning it outperforms a slight majority of graphics cards but is far from the top tier. The CPU, by contrast, is stronger relative to its peers, holding a percentile rank of 89 among all CPUs.

The discrepancy between the CPU and GPU rankings explains the combo's overall position. The Ultra 5 235 has the headroom to push much higher frame rates, but the RTX 2060 becomes the bottleneck as resolution and settings increase. This is evident when comparing the 1080p Low result of 189 FPS to the 4K Ultra result of 24 FPS—a 165 FPS swing that is entirely attributable to the GPU's limits.

In practical terms, this rank means the combo sits below the median of tested systems. Players using this setup will experience performance that is typical of mid-range 2019-era GPU technology, but the modern CPU ensures that frame rates remain stable and that the system is not held back by processor limitations, even in CPU-intensive scenes common in looter shooters with many enemies on screen.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, manufactured 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 a TDP of 65 W. The CPU features 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB of L2 cache per core, with 192 KB of L1 cache per core.

In Outriders, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and handle game logic, AI, and physics. The data shows that this processor is more than capable of keeping up with the RTX 2060 in most scenarios. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 189 FPS, which suggests the CPU can handle very high frame rates when the GPU is not the limiting factor.

The CPU's benchmark results reinforce this capability. In Cinebench R23, it scores 14769 in multi-core and 2085 in single-core tests. Its Passmark single-thread score is 4516, and its multi-thread score is 37816. These figures place it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, indicating strong performance across both lightly-threaded and heavily-threaded workloads.

Given that Outriders is a game that benefits from strong single-thread performance for game logic and draw call submission, the Ultra 5 235's single-core performance is sufficient to avoid becoming a bottleneck. The boost clock of 5.00 GHz is high, and the 14 cores provide ample multi-threading headroom for background tasks and streaming.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are all within a 0.2% performance delta. The AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 scores 46030, the Intel Core i9-13900HX scores 46098, and the AMD EPYC 4364P and EPYC 7303 score 45970 and 45960 respectively. This tight grouping suggests that the Ultra 5 235 delivers performance that is competitive with a range of high-end mobile and workstation processors.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo spans three resolutions and four quality presets, providing a complete picture of performance scaling.

1920x1080:

• Low: 189 FPS average
• Medium: 137 FPS average (minimum 117, maximum 158)
• High: 103 FPS average
• Ultra: 74 FPS average

At 1080p, all presets are playable. The jump from Low to Medium costs 52 FPS, while the jump from Medium to High costs 34 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 29 FPS. The Medium preset offers the best balance, with a minimum frame rate that stays above 117 FPS.

2560x1440:

• Low: 119 FPS average
• Medium: 87 FPS average (minimum 74, maximum 99)
• High: 65 FPS average
• Ultra: 47 FPS average

At 1440p, the Low preset remains highly responsive at 119 FPS. Medium drops to 87 FPS, which is still smooth on most displays. High at 65 FPS is borderline for fast-paced action, and Ultra at 47 FPS is noticeably less fluid.

3840x2160:

• Low: 62 FPS average
• Medium: 45 FPS average (minimum 38, maximum 52)
• High: 34 FPS average
• Ultra: 24 FPS average

At 4K, only the Low preset provides a playable experience at 62 FPS. Medium dips to 45 FPS with minimums as low as 38 FPS, which can feel stuttery during combat. High and Ultra are not recommended for active gameplay.

Comparing across resolutions, the performance penalty for each step up is consistent. At Medium settings, 1080p to 1440p costs 50 FPS (137 to 87), and 1440p to 4K costs 42 FPS (87 to 45). At Low settings, the drops are 70 FPS (189 to 119) and 57 FPS (119 to 62). These numbers indicate that the RTX 2060's memory bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the GPU struggles to feed the framebuffer as pixel count increases.