Outriders

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 combination delivers strong frame rates in Outriders, but the optimal settings depend heavily on your target resolution and refresh rate. Benchmark data shows this pairing is capable of high-refresh 1080p and 1440p gameplay, while 4K requires more careful settings selection to maintain smooth performance. The measured results provide a clear picture of how this combo behaves across four quality presets and three resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

For 1080p gaming, the data strongly favors the High preset as the best balance of visual quality and performance. At 1920x1080, High produces an average of 232 FPS, which is 55 FPS below the Low preset’s 290 FPS but 25 FPS above the Medium preset’s 257 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra costs 55 FPS, dropping to 177 FPS, which is a significant penalty for marginal visual gains. Given that most high-refresh monitors cap at 240 Hz or 360 Hz, the 232 FPS at High is already near the practical ceiling for many displays, and the extra visual fidelity over Low is substantial. The Medium preset, at 257 FPS, offers a middle ground, but the 25 FPS gain over High is less compelling than the visual uplift High provides over Medium. The measured minimum FPS at Medium is 219, which is still well above typical refresh rates, but High’s lack of a recorded minimum suggests it maintains consistent performance without dips. For competitive play where maximum frame rates matter, Low at 290 FPS is the choice, but for most users, High is the recommended preset at 1080p.

At 1440p, the High preset again emerges as the sweet spot. The average of 154 FPS at 2560x1440 High is more than enough for 144 Hz monitors, and it represents a substantial improvement over the 111 FPS at Ultra. The Low preset hits 248 FPS, which is excellent for 240 Hz displays, but the visual downgrade is noticeable in a looter shooter where enemy effects and environmental details matter. Medium produces 206 FPS, which is 52 FPS higher than High, but the difference between Medium and High in visual quality is typically less pronounced than the difference between High and Ultra. The data shows a 43 FPS gap between High and Ultra at 1440p, reinforcing that Ultra is a luxury preset for this combination. The Medium preset’s minimum FPS of 175 is the only recorded minimum at this resolution, and it indicates that even the more demanding scenes stay well above 144 FPS. For users with 144 Hz or 165 Hz monitors, High at 154 FPS is ideal. For those with 240 Hz panels, Low at 248 FPS is the only way to fully utilize the display, but the visual compromise may not be worth it for a story-driven game.

At 4K, the picture changes dramatically. The Ultra preset drops to 58 FPS, which is borderline for smooth gameplay on a 60 Hz display but will feel sluggish on higher refresh panels. High at 3840x2160 produces 81 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action. Medium at 108 FPS is the best choice for 4K, providing a comfortable margin above 60 FPS and approaching 120 Hz territory. The Low preset hits 148 FPS, which is surprisingly high for 4K and suggests the game scales well with lower settings. The measured minimum FPS at 4K Medium is 91, with a maximum of 124, indicating that even in heavy combat, frame rates stay above 90 FPS. This makes Medium the recommended preset for 4K, as it offers the best combination of smoothness and visual fidelity. High at 81 FPS is acceptable for slower exploration, but the 27 FPS gain from Medium to High is not worth the visual hit you take dropping from Medium to High. Ultra at 58 FPS is only viable for players who prioritize image quality over responsiveness, and even then, the 23 FPS difference from High to Ultra suggests the Ultra preset is poorly optimized for this hardware.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 brings 20 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 2.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. This processor is built on the Arrow Lake architecture using a 3 nm process node from TSMC, with a 30 MB shared L3 cache. In Outriders, the CPU’s single-thread performance is critical for maintaining high frame rates, especially at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the bottleneck. The benchmark data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 290 FPS, which indicates the CPU is capable of feeding the RTX 5080 with enough data to saturate even the most demanding frame rate targets. The 5.30 GHz boost clock is a key factor here, as Outriders relies on strong per-core performance for game logic, physics, and AI calculations.

The passmark single-thread score of 4689 and the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 5960 place this CPU in the top percentile among all processors, with a percentileVsAllCpus of 93. This means the Core Ultra 7 265 outperforms 93% of all CPUs in general benchmarks, which translates to excellent responsiveness in games that are not heavily multi-threaded. Outriders is a looter shooter that benefits from high clock speeds more than from additional cores, and the 20-core configuration ensures that background tasks and streaming do not interfere with game performance. The multi-threaded capabilities, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42216, provide headroom for other applications, but in this game, the single-thread performance is the primary driver of frame rates.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the Core Ultra 7 265 sits within a tight performance band. The AMD EPYC 4464P has an average benchmark score of 64823, which is 0.3% higher than the Core Ultra 7 265’s 64640. The Intel Core Ultra 7 265F is 0.3% lower at 64438, and the AMD EPYC 7343 is 0.7% lower at 64202. The AMD EPYC 9124 is 0.7% higher at 65104. These differences are negligible in gaming, meaning any of these CPUs would deliver similar frame rates in Outriders. However, the Core Ultra 7 265’s desktop-oriented design, with a 65 W TDP and Socket 1851, makes it more practical for a gaming build than the EPYC server processors. The 20 threads are fully utilized in modern games, but Outriders does not appear to be a CPU-bound title at high settings, as evidenced by the large FPS jumps when lowering resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is the dominant component in this pairing for Outriders. With 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, it provides 960.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for the game’s textures and effects at any resolution. The GPU has 10752 shading units, 336 TMUs, and 112 ROPs, with a boost clock of 2617 MHz. The 56.28 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is substantial, and the 84 RT cores and 336 tensor cores handle any ray tracing or DLSS features the game might use, though the measured data does not specify whether these are enabled. The GPU’s TDP is 360 W, and it requires a 750 W power supply, but these are hardware specifications rather than performance metrics.

The RTX 5080’s benchmark scores show it is a high-end GPU, with a percentileVsAllGpus of 87. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 8637 and the Geekbench Vulkan score of 255450 indicate strong raw performance. In Outriders, the GPU’s role becomes increasingly important as resolution rises. At 1080p, the CPU can keep up, and the GPU is not fully utilized at Low settings (290 FPS), but at 4K Ultra, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, dropping to 58 FPS. The 16 GB VRAM is ample for 4K textures, and the memory bandwidth of 960 GB/s ensures that high-resolution assets do not cause stuttering. The GDDR7 memory runs at 1875 MHz (30 Gbps effective), which is fast enough to handle the game’s demands.

Compared to its nearest GPU rivals, the RTX 5080 is in a competitive position. The AMD Radeon 8060S has an average benchmark score of 55757, which is 0.6% lower than the RTX 5080’s 56083. The AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB is 0.7% lower at 55698, and the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X is 2.3% lower at 54828. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE is 2.2% higher at 57367. These small percentage differences in synthetic benchmarks do not directly translate to game performance, but the RTX 5080’s 16 GB VRAM and higher memory bandwidth give it an edge in 4K scenarios. In Outriders, the GPU’s performance scaling from 1080p to 4K shows that it is the primary driver of frame rates at higher resolutions, with the CPU becoming less relevant as resolution increases.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 ranks 57th out of 2913 tested combos in Outriders. This places it in the top 2% of all tested systems, which is an excellent result for a gaming PC. The rank of 57 means there are 56 other combinations that perform better in this specific game, but given the thousands of possible CPU and GPU pairings, this combo is firmly in the enthusiast tier. The dataIsMeasured field confirms that these are real benchmark results, not estimates, which adds credibility to the ranking.

The high rank is driven by the RTX 5080’s strong performance at 1440p and 4K, where the GPU is the primary bottleneck. At 1080p, the combo’s frame rates are so high that they exceed the refresh rates of most monitors, meaning the rank is more indicative of 1440p and 4K performance. The 57th position out of 2913 combos means there are faster systems, likely featuring higher-end GPUs like the RTX 5090 or Radeon RX 7900 XTX, but the Core Ultra 7 265 + RTX 5080 is a balanced pairing that does not leave significant performance on the table. The CPU’s 20 cores and high boost clock ensure it does not bottleneck the GPU at any resolution, and the GPU’s 16 GB VRAM and 960 GB/s bandwidth allow it to handle the most demanding settings.

The rank also reflects the game’s optimization. Outriders scales well with both CPU and GPU, and the measured FPS numbers show that lowering settings has a predictable effect on performance. The combo’s rank of 57 suggests that it is well-suited for high-refresh 1440p gaming and capable 4K gaming, which is the target audience for this hardware. For context, the nearest CPU rivals are all server processors (EPYC series) that would not be practical for gaming, and the nearest GPU rivals are a mix of AMD and older NVIDIA cards, none of which match the RTX 5080’s combination of VRAM and bandwidth.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals the limiting component clearly. At 1080p High, the combo achieves 232 FPS. Moving to 1440p High, it drops to 154 FPS, a reduction of 78 FPS (33.6%). At 4K High, it falls to 81 FPS, a further drop of 73 FPS (47.4%). This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU is capable of delivering over 290 FPS at 1080p Low, which means the processor is not the bottleneck at any resolution. The GPU, however, has to work exponentially harder as pixel count increases. The 4K resolution has 2.25 times the pixels of 1440p and 4 times the pixels of 1080p, and the FPS drops reflect this workload increase.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling. At 1080p Ultra, the combo hits 177 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 111 FPS (37% reduction), and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 58 FPS (47.7% reduction from 1440p). This suggests that the Ultra preset is particularly demanding on the GPU, likely due to heavy post-processing and shadow effects. The Low preset scales more linearly: 290 FPS at 1080p, 248 FPS at 1440p (14.5% reduction), and 148 FPS at 4K (40.3% reduction from 1440p). The smaller drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings indicates that the game is less GPU-bound at lower quality settings, but still primarily limited by the GPU.

The Medium preset provides the most stable scaling data, with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values. At 1080p Medium, the average is 257 FPS with a minimum of 219 and maximum of 296. At 1440p Medium, the average is 206 FPS with a minimum of 175 and maximum of 237. At 4K Medium, the average is 108 FPS with a minimum of 91 and maximum of 124. The minimum FPS values track the averages closely, indicating consistent frame pacing without major dips. The fact that the 4K Medium minimum is 91 FPS (84.3% of the average) shows that even in the most demanding scenes, the combo stays above 90 FPS, which is good for 4K gaming.

The resolution scaling analysis points to the GPU as the limiting component. From 1080p to 4K, the FPS drops by approximately 65-70% across all settings, which is consistent with a GPU-bound workload. The CPU’s performance remains constant regardless of resolution, and the 20 cores with 5.30 GHz boost clock ensure it never becomes a constraint. For users who want to play at 4K, the Medium preset is the maximum viable option, as High and Ultra drop below 100 FPS. For 1440p, High is the best choice, and for 1080p, any preset is playable, though High offers the best balance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160 (4K), the measured results are as follows. The Low preset averages 148 FPS, which is exceptionally high for 4K and suggests the game is well-optimized at lower settings. The Medium preset averages 108 FPS, with a minimum of 91 FPS and a maximum of 124 FPS, providing a smooth experience on 60-120 Hz displays. The High preset averages 81 FPS, which is playable but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes. The Ultra preset averages 58 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay on standard monitors. The data shows a clear progression: each step from Low to Ultra reduces FPS by roughly 40 FPS, with the largest drop being from Medium to High (27 FPS) and from High to Ultra (23 FPS).

At 2560x1440 (1440p), the results are more comfortable. The Low preset averages 248 FPS, which is suitable for 240 Hz monitors. The Medium preset averages 206 FPS, with a minimum of 175 and maximum of 237, making it ideal for 144 Hz displays with room to spare. The High preset averages 154 FPS, which is perfect for 144 Hz monitors and even handles 165 Hz panels with minor dips. The Ultra preset averages 111 FPS, which is still smooth for 60 Hz and 120 Hz displays but not ideal for high-refresh gaming. The difference between Low and High is 94 FPS, while the difference between High and Ultra is 43 FPS, indicating that Ultra has diminishing returns.

At 1920x1080 (1080p), the combo is overkill for most displays. The Low preset averages 290 FPS, which is near the limit of what most monitors can display. The Medium preset averages 257 FPS, with a minimum of 219 and maximum of 296, providing consistent high-refresh performance. The High preset averages 232 FPS, which is still excellent for 240 Hz monitors. The Ultra preset averages 177 FPS, which is more than enough for 144 Hz displays but falls short of 240 Hz. The data indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is not a bottleneck, and the GPU is the primary factor in the FPS differences between presets. The Low to Medium gap is 33 FPS, Medium to High is 25 FPS, and High to Ultra is 55 FPS, showing that Ultra has the highest performance cost.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently provides the best balance of performance and visual quality, with the only recorded minimum FPS values. The High preset is a solid choice for 1080p and 1440p, while the Ultra preset is only recommended for players who prioritize image quality over frame rate. The Low preset is viable for competitive play, but the visual downgrade is significant. The measured data confirms that this combo is best suited for 1440p gaming, where it can achieve high frame rates at High settings without compromising on visual fidelity. At 4K, users must accept Medium settings to maintain smooth gameplay, and at 1080p, the hardware is underutilized unless paired with a very high refresh rate monitor.