Outriders

# CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process at TSMC. It operates with a base clock of 2.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, drawing 65 W TDP. This CPU features a 30 MB shared L3 cache, with 192 KB L1 and 3 MB L2 per core. The processor supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus, delivering 102.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth. It sits in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs tested, with an average benchmark score of 64,640.

In Outriders, the CPU's role is best understood by examining how frame rates scale with resolution. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 278 FPS, while at 4K with Low settings, it drops to 92 FPS. This 3x reduction in frame rate as resolution increases suggests that at lower resolutions, the CPU is adequately feeding the GPU, but the GPU becomes progressively more limiting as pixel count rises. The processor's 20 cores and 20 threads are substantial for a game like Outriders, which is a looter shooter with many simultaneous on-screen effects and enemy AI calculations. The high boost clock of 5.30 GHz contributes to the strong single-thread performance needed for game logic, while the multi-core design helps with background tasks and streaming.

Compared to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks, the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 scores 0.3% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F, 0.7% higher than the AMD EPYC 7343, and 0.3% lower than the AMD EPYC 4464P. These are all server-class processors, which indicates that the Ultra 7 265 is competitive with much more expensive enterprise silicon in raw compute throughput. In the context of Outriders, this means the CPU is unlikely to be a bottleneck at any resolution, as even the most demanding scenarios in the game are not heavily threaded beyond what a modern 20-core part can handle.

# Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured data provides four settings presets across three resolutions: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. For the best experience, the Medium preset stands out as the most balanced option. At 1080p, Medium delivers an average of 202 FPS with a minimum of 172 and maximum of 232. At 1440p, Medium produces 128 FPS average with a minimum of 108 and maximum of 147. At 4K, Medium yields 67 FPS average with a minimum of 57 and maximum of 77.

The High preset offers a noticeable visual upgrade over Medium while still maintaining playable frame rates. At 1080p, High achieves 152 FPS; at 1440p, it reaches 96 FPS; and at 4K, it drops to 50 FPS. The Ultra preset, while visually superior, incurs a significant performance cost: 109 FPS at 1080p, 69 FPS at 1440p, and 36 FPS at 4K.

For competitive play or high-refresh-rate monitors, Low settings at 1080p provide 278 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any display. However, Low settings sacrifice visual fidelity considerably. The data suggests that Medium at 1440p is the sweet spot for most users, offering 128 FPS with a minimum of 108, which stays well above the 60 FPS threshold even in demanding scenes. For 4K users, Medium at 67 FPS is the only preset that maintains a comfortable playable experience, as High drops to 50 FPS and Ultra falls to 36 FPS. The minimum FPS values recorded for Medium settings across all resolutions indicate consistent frame pacing, with the 1080p minimum of 172 FPS being particularly strong.

# FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combo at 1080p?

A: The highest average FPS at 1080p is 278, achieved with Low settings. Medium settings produce 202 FPS, High produces 152 FPS, and Ultra produces 109 FPS.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this CPU/GPU combination?

A: Yes, but only at Medium settings, which average 67 FPS with a minimum of 57 and maximum of 77. High settings at 4K average 50 FPS, and Ultra averages 36 FPS, both of which may feel less smooth for fast-paced action.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 3070 scores 0.7% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT, 1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690, 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon HD 7970M, and 1.5% lower than the NVIDIA Tesla K40c.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking among tested system combinations?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 + RTX 3070 combination ranks 920 out of 2,913 tested combos in Outriders, placing it in the top third of all systems evaluated.

Q: Does the CPU have integrated graphics that could be used as a fallback?

A: Yes, the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 includes Arc Xe-LPG Graphics with 32 execution units. However, all measured FPS data in this analysis uses the discrete RTX 3070.

Q: What memory bandwidth does the CPU provide for the GPU to work with?

A: The CPU supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. This is separate from the GPU's own 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth.

# How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 ranks 920 out of 2,913 tested combos in Outriders. This places the system in the 68.4th percentile — meaning it outperforms roughly 68% of all tested configurations while being outperformed by about 32%. This rank is notable because the RTX 3070 is an end-of-life product from the GeForce 30-series, yet it still positions this combo in the upper third of all systems tested for this game.

The rank of 920 suggests that while this combo is capable, there are many systems with more powerful GPUs that achieve higher frame rates. The CPU itself ranks in the 93rd percentile among all CPUs, which indicates that the processor is not the limiting factor in most scenarios. Rather, the RTX 3070, which ranks in the 61st percentile among all GPUs, is the component that holds the combo back from a higher overall rank. In Outriders, which is a GPU-intensive title at higher resolutions, this is expected. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 278 FPS, which is exceptionally high, but at 4K Ultra, it drops to 36 FPS. This wide range reflects the GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, which are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming but become strained at 4K with maximum settings.

# GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is built on the GA104 chip using the Ampere architecture, manufactured on an 8 nm process at Samsung. It features 5,888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output units, along with 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1500 MHz and a boost clock of 1725 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). It has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The card delivers 20.31 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and consumes 220 W TDP, requiring a 550 W suggested PSU. It occupies a dual-slot form factor measuring 242 mm in length and 112 mm in height, with a single 12-pin power connector.

In Outriders, the GPU's role is clearly demonstrated by the frame rate scaling across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 278 FPS, which suggests the GPU is not the primary limiter at this resolution. However, at 4K Low, the frame rate drops to 92 FPS, a 67% reduction. This scaling indicates that the GPU becomes increasingly bottlenecked as resolution rises, primarily due to the 8 GB VRAM capacity and the memory bandwidth. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but at 4K, the higher pixel count demands more memory throughput, and the GPU's 8 GB capacity may be a limiting factor when textures are set to High or Ultra.

The RTX 3070 ranks in the 61st percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17,208. Compared to its nearest rivals, it scores 0.7% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT and 1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690, but 1.5% lower than the NVIDIA Tesla K40c. These are relatively small deltas, indicating that the RTX 3070 sits in a competitive performance tier. In Outriders, the GPU's performance at Medium settings is particularly noteworthy: at 1080p Medium, it achieves 202 FPS with a minimum of 172; at 1440p Medium, 128 FPS with a minimum of 108; and at 4K Medium, 67 FPS with a minimum of 57. The minimum FPS values being consistently above 57 FPS across all resolutions at Medium settings suggests that the GPU has adequate headroom for this game's typical load.

# Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

1920x1080:

• Low: 278 average FPS
• Medium: 202 average FPS, 172 minimum, 232 maximum
• High: 152 average FPS
• Ultra: 109 average FPS

2560x1440:

• Low: 175 average FPS
• Medium: 128 average FPS, 108 minimum, 147 maximum
• High: 96 average FPS
• Ultra: 69 average FPS

3840x2160:

• Low: 92 average FPS
• Medium: 67 average FPS, 57 minimum, 77 maximum
• High: 50 average FPS
• Ultra: 36 average FPS

The data reveals a consistent pattern across all resolutions: moving from Low to Medium incurs a performance penalty of roughly 27-28% (from 278 to 202 at 1080p, 175 to 128 at 1440p, and 92 to 67 at 4K). Moving from Medium to High incurs a further 25% penalty (202 to 152 at 1080p, 128 to 96 at 1440p, and 67 to 50 at 4K). The jump from High to Ultra is the most expensive, with penalties of 28% (152 to 109 at 1080p), 28% (96 to 69 at 1440p), and 28% (50 to 36 at 4K). This consistent ~28% penalty for each settings tier indicates that the game's rendering workload scales linearly with visual quality, and the GPU's performance headroom determines which tier is playable.

At 1080p, all settings are playable, with even Ultra achieving 109 FPS. At 1440p, Ultra drops to 69 FPS, which is still playable but may not be ideal for competitive play. At 4K, only Low and Medium are playable above 60 FPS, with High at 50 FPS and Ultra at 36 FPS falling below the desired threshold.

# Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

Examining the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the relative contributions of CPU and GPU. At Low settings, the drop from 278 FPS at 1080p to 92 FPS at 4K represents a 67% reduction. At Medium settings, the drop is from 202 to 67 FPS, a 67% reduction. At High settings, the drop is from 152 to 50 FPS, a 67% reduction. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 109 to 36 FPS, also a 67% reduction.

This consistent 67% reduction across all settings tiers is a strong indicator that the GPU is the limiting component at higher resolutions. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the frame rate to remain relatively flat at higher resolutions when the GPU is under less load per pixel. Instead, the frame rate scales almost perfectly with the pixel count increase from 1080p (2.07 million pixels) to 4K (8.29 million pixels), which is a 4x increase. The 67% reduction in FPS corresponds to a 3x increase in rendering time per frame, which is less than the 4x pixel increase, suggesting that some GPU resources (such as fixed-function units) do not scale linearly with resolution.

The transition from 1080p to 1440p (a 1.78x pixel increase) results in FPS drops of 37% at Low (278 to 175), 37% at Medium (202 to 128), 37% at High (152 to 96), and 37% at Ultra (109 to 69). Again, the consistency across settings is striking. The transition from 1440p to 4K (a 2.25x pixel increase) results in FPS drops of 47% at Low (175 to 92), 48% at Medium (128 to 67), 48% at High (96 to 50), and 48% at Ultra (69 to 36). The slightly higher percentage drop at higher resolutions suggests that memory bandwidth becomes more critical as resolution increases, which aligns with the RTX 3070's 448.0 GB/s bandwidth being a limiting factor at 4K.

The data clearly shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this combo for Outriders. Even at 1080p Low, where the CPU would be most stressed due to high frame rates, the system achieves 278 FPS, indicating that the 20-core, 5.30 GHz boost processor has ample headroom. The GPU, with its 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, is the component that determines playability at each resolution and settings tier.