Outriders

Outriders pairs the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, a combination that lands at rank 920 out of 2913 tested combos in this game. The data set includes measured frame rates across three resolutions and four quality presets, offering a clear picture of how this hardware handles the looter shooter’s demands.

FAQ

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

A: This specific CPU-GPU pairing ranks 920th out of 2913 tested combinations, placing it in the upper third of all tested systems for this title.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 scores 46062 on average across all benchmarks. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375, scores 46030 (0.1% slower), while the Intel Core i9-13900HX scores 46098 (0.1% faster). The gap is negligible in both directions.

Q: What is the best 4K performance available with this setup?

A: At 3840x2160, the highest average frame rate is 92 FPS on Low settings. High settings yield 50 FPS, Medium delivers 67 FPS, and Ultra drops to 36 FPS.

Q: Does the RTX 3070 outperform its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 3070 has an average benchmark score of 17208. The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT scores 17083 (0.7% slower), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 scores 17037 (1.0% slower). The NVIDIA Tesla K40c scores 17468, which is 1.5% higher.

Q: How many cores and threads does the CPU have?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 has 14 cores and 14 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. It uses 24 MB of shared L3 cache.

Q: What is the GPU’s memory configuration?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 1500 MHz with a boost clock of 1725 MHz.

How This Combo Ranks

The benchmark database places this Intel Core Ultra 5 235 + RTX 3070 combination at position 920 out of 2913 tested combos for Outriders. That is roughly the 68th percentile of all tested systems, meaning it sits ahead of the majority but behind the top-tier configurations. The ranking reflects the balance between the CPU’s strong synthetic showing and the GPU’s mid-range standing.

The CPU itself scores in the 89th percentile against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 46062. Its nearest rivals are tightly clustered: the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 trails by just 0.1%, while the Intel Core i9-13900HX leads by 0.1%. The AMD EPYC 4364P and EPYC 7303 both sit 0.2% ahead. These sub-1% differences suggest the Ultra 5 235 delivers performance essentially identical to those four alternatives in general compute tasks.

On the GPU side, the RTX 3070 holds the 61st percentile among all GPUs, with an average score of 17208. Its closest competitors are the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (0.7% slower), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (1.0% slower), and the AMD Radeon HD 7970M (1.1% slower). Only the Tesla K40c tops it, by 1.5%. In Outriders specifically, the combo’s rank of 920 suggests the game’s engine leans on the GPU more heavily than the CPU, as the GPU’s lower percentile relative to the CPU’s higher percentile pulls the overall standing down.

The measured FPS data reinforces this. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 278 FPS, which is far beyond what most displays can show. At 4K Ultra, it falls to 36 FPS, clearly below the 60 FPS threshold. The spread between Low and Ultra at each resolution is substantial: at 1080p, the gap is 169 FPS; at 1440p, it is 106 FPS; at 4K, it is 56 FPS. This scaling pattern indicates the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution and settings increase, while the CPU has enough headroom to avoid bottlenecks at lower loads.

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 no hyperthreading, so core count equals thread count. The base clock of 3.40 GHz can boost up to 5.00 GHz, which is a substantial single-core capability. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache.

In Outriders, the CPU’s role appears secondary to the GPU. The game’s measured frame rates show diminishing returns from CPU headroom at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system produces 278 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s practical limit for this title. However, the jump to 1080p Medium yields 202 FPS, and 1080p High yields 152 FPS. These drops are almost certainly GPU-bound, as the CPU’s single-thread performance remains constant.

The CPU’s average benchmark score of 46062 places it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 14769, while the single-core score is 2085. The PassMark single-thread score is 4516, and the multithread score is 37816. These numbers indicate strong per-core performance, which matters for games that rely on a few heavily loaded threads. Outriders is not a heavily threaded title, so the 14 cores may be underutilized, but the high boost clock ensures the primary game thread runs fast.

The CPU’s memory bandwidth is 102.4 GB/s over a dual-channel DDR5 interface. That bandwidth is ample for feeding the RTX 3070, which itself has 448.0 GB/s of VRAM bandwidth. The PCIe Gen 5 interface with 20 CPU lanes provides plenty of bandwidth for the GPU, though the RTX 3070 uses PCIe 4.0 x16.

Comparing to its nearest rivals in CPU benchmarks, the Ultra 5 235 is statistically tied with the Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 and Core i9-13900HX. This means swapping among these CPUs would likely produce nearly identical frame rates in Outriders, assuming the GPU remains the same. The CPU’s 89th percentile ranking suggests it is not the weak link in this combo; the GPU’s 61st percentile is more likely to constrain performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) and four settings (Low, Medium, High, Ultra). Not all rows include min and max FPS; only Medium presets at each resolution report those figures.

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest raw performance. Low settings produce an average of 278 FPS. Medium yields 202 FPS, with a minimum of 172 and maximum of 232. High drops to 152 FPS. Ultra is the most demanding, averaging 109 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 169 FPS, indicating a wide performance envelope. Even at Ultra, 109 FPS exceeds the 60 FPS standard for smooth gameplay, and it clears 144 Hz monitors with room to spare.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong but scales down noticeably. Low settings average 175 FPS. Medium averages 128 FPS, with a range of 108 to 147. High averages 96 FPS. Ultra drops to 69 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 106 FPS. For 1440p gaming, Medium and High both stay above 90 FPS, which is comfortable for most players. Ultra at 69 FPS is still playable but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes.

At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to struggle. Low settings average 92 FPS, which is playable. Medium averages 67 FPS, with a minimum of 57 and maximum of 77. High averages 50 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. Ultra averages 36 FPS, which is not smooth for a looter shooter that benefits from quick target acquisition. The spread from Low to Ultra is 56 FPS, showing how much the RTX 3070’s 8 GB VRAM and 256-bit bus are taxed at 4K.

The Medium preset at each resolution is the only one with min/max data. At 1080p, the 172-232 FPS range shows consistent frame pacing. At 1440p, 108-147 FPS indicates slight dips but still solid performance. At 4K, 57-77 FPS reveals occasional drops below 60, which could cause noticeable stutter in combat-heavy encounters.

The scaling from 1080p to 4K is steep. At Low settings, the drop from 278 to 92 FPS is a 67% reduction. At Medium, it goes from 202 to 67 FPS, a 67% reduction. At High, from 152 to 50 FPS, a 67% reduction. At Ultra, from 109 to 36 FPS, a 67% reduction. This consistent scaling suggests the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints as pixel count increases.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA104 chip, manufactured on Samsung’s 8 nm process. It has 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 96 raster operation units. The chip includes 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores. Its FP32 performance is 20.31 TFLOPS, with matching FP16 throughput at a 1:1 ratio.

The GPU’s memory subsystem is 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The base clock is 1500 MHz, boosting to 1725 MHz. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, effectively 14 Gbps. The 8 GB capacity is a critical factor in Outriders at higher resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the game likely exceeds the VRAM buffer, causing the frame rate to plummet to 36 FPS. Even at 4K High, 50 FPS suggests the GPU is near its limit.

The RTX 3070’s average benchmark score is 17208, placing it in the 61st percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are within 1.5% in either direction. The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is 0.7% slower, and the GTX 690 is 1.0% slower. The Tesla K40c is 1.5% faster. These small deltas mean the RTX 3070 is competitive with those cards, but none of them would produce dramatically different results in Outriders.

The GPU’s 220 W TDP and dual-slot design are standard for this class. It draws power from a single 12-pin connector, and NVIDIA suggests a 550 W power supply. The card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6, which covers Outriders’ requirements. The display outputs include one HDMI 2.1 and three DisplayPort 1.4a connections.

In Outriders, the GPU is the dominant factor in frame rate scaling. The measured data shows that reducing settings from Ultra to Low at the same resolution yields massive gains: at 1080p, from 109 to 278 FPS; at 1440p, from 69 to 175 FPS; at 4K, from 36 to 92 FPS. These improvements are far larger than any CPU-related variation, confirming the RTX 3070’s role as the performance bottleneck.

The GPU’s 8 GB VRAM is likely the reason 4K Ultra falls below 40 FPS. Outriders at 4K with maxed textures and effects can exceed 8 GB, forcing the card to swap data through the PCIe bus, which is far slower than VRAM. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth helps at lower settings but cannot compensate for insufficient capacity at the highest presets.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and refresh rate. The system offers a wide range of performance, from 278 FPS at 1080p Low to 36 FPS at 4K Ultra.

For 1920x1080 displays, every preset provides playable frame rates. Ultra averages 109 FPS, which is smooth for most players and exceeds the 60 FPS standard. High at 152 FPS is better for 144 Hz monitors, while Medium at 202 FPS suits 240 Hz panels. Low at 278 FPS is excessive for any current display, so there is no reason to drop below Medium unless chasing maximum frame rates. The Medium preset’s min/max of 172-232 FPS shows tight frame pacing, making it the best balance between visual quality and performance for 1080p.

For 2560x1440, the recommendation is High or Medium. High averages 96 FPS, which is above 60 and suitable for most 1440p monitors. Medium averages 128 FPS, with a range of 108-147, which is better for 144 Hz displays. Ultra at 69 FPS is playable but leaves little margin for demanding scenes, so it is only advisable for players who prioritize visuals over smoothness. Low at 175 FPS is unnecessary unless using a very high refresh rate panel.

For 3840x2160, the options are more constrained. Low averages 92 FPS, which is the only preset that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS. Medium averages 67 FPS, with a minimum of 57, meaning it will occasionally dip below 60. High at 50 FPS is borderline, and Ultra at 36 FPS is not recommended for action-oriented gameplay. The best experience at 4K is Low, which keeps the frame rate high enough to maintain playability, though visual fidelity suffers. Medium is acceptable for players who can tolerate occasional dips below 60.

The data suggests that the Medium preset offers the best overall experience across all resolutions. It consistently provides a meaningful jump over High and Ultra while maintaining higher frame rates. At 1080p, Medium’s 202 FPS is 50 FPS higher than High and 93 FPS higher than Ultra. At 1440p, Medium’s 128 FPS beats High by 32 FPS and Ultra by 59 FPS. At 4K, Medium’s 67 FPS beats High by 17 FPS and Ultra by 31 FPS, while staying near the 60 FPS threshold.

For players targeting 60 FPS as a minimum, the following presets work: 1080p Ultra (109 FPS), 1440p High (96 FPS), and 4K Low (92 FPS) or Medium (67 FPS). For 144 Hz displays, 1080p High (152 FPS) or 1440p Medium (128 FPS) are the choices. For 240 Hz displays, only 1080p Low (278 FPS) or Medium (202 FPS) suffice.

The Medium preset’s availability of min/max data also shows it is the most stable. The 172-232 FPS range at 1080p and 108-147 at 1440p indicate fewer frame time spikes compared to what the average-only rows suggest for other presets. This stability is valuable in a looter shooter where combat can trigger sudden particle effects and physics calculations.