Outriders

# Outriders with Intel Core Ultra 9 185H + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a broad range of performance across Outriders, from a highly playable 61 FPS at 4K High to a brisk 227 FPS at 1080p Low. This combination ranks in the 79th percentile of tested configurations, indicating strong but not top-tier performance for this looter shooter.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combo for this hardware in Outriders?

A: The data shows that 1440p High delivers 117 FPS, offering an excellent balance of visual fidelity and smooth gameplay. For maximum performance, 1080p Low achieves 227 FPS, while 4K Ultra is the most demanding, producing only 44 FPS.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 4090 compared to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4090's average benchmark score is 60,347, which is essentially tied with the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60,326, 0% difference). It is 2.5% slower than the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M and 2.9% faster than the AMD Radeon PRO V710.

Q: What is the CPU's multi-threaded performance relative to its nearest competitors?

A: The Core Ultra 9 185H has an average benchmark score of 35,670, placing it just 0.1% behind the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 and 0.2% behind the Intel Core 7 250H. It is 0.4% slower than the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 and 0.7% slower than the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X.

Q: Does the RTX 4090's massive 24 GB VRAM show an advantage in this game?

A: The benchmark data for Outriders does not indicate that the 24 GB VRAM pool is a limiting factor. The performance scaling from Low to Ultra at each resolution suggests that GPU compute and memory bandwidth, not capacity, are the primary drivers of frame rate differences.

Q: How does the frame rate drop from 1080p to 1440p at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 181 at 1080p to 117 at 1440p, a reduction of 64 FPS or approximately 35%. This indicates a significant scaling cost as pixel count increases.

Q: What is the lowest playable frame rate recorded in the data?

A: The lowest average FPS recorded is 44 at 4K Ultra settings. The minimum FPS observed in any measured row was 69, which occurred at 4K Medium settings, suggesting that even the demanding 4K Medium preset maintains playable frame rates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this configuration for Outriders. With a massive 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, it offers a memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s, which is critical for handling high-resolution textures and complex scenes in a looter shooter. The GPU's base clock is 2235 MHz, boosting to 2520 MHz, providing substantial raw processing power.

The RTX 4090's benchmark results show a percentile rank of 88 among all GPUs, with an average score of 60,347. This places it in a peculiar position relative to its nearest rivals: it is exactly tied with the Intel Arc Pro A60, 0.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48, 2.5% behind the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M, and 2.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO V710. These deltas are minimal, indicating that in synthetic tests, the RTX 4090 is not isolated at the top but rather clustered with professional-grade workstation cards.

In the context of Outriders, the GPU's role is evident in the measured FPS data. At 1080p Low, the card produces 227 FPS, indicating that the CPU is not a bottleneck at lower settings. As settings increase to Ultra, the frame rate drops to 134 FPS, showing the GPU's workload scaling with graphical complexity. The 24 GB VRAM ensures that texture loading and asset streaming remain smooth even at 4K Ultra, though the average FPS of 44 at that setting shows the compute limits of the card for this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 602nd out of 2,913 tested combinations for Outriders. This places the combo in the top 20.7% of all configurations, which is strong but not exceptional given the high-end components involved. The rank suggests that while these are top-tier parts, the specific pairing and driver optimizations for this game yield a performance level that is outclassed by roughly 600 other setups.

This ranking is somewhat surprising given the GPU's high percentile (88) and the CPU's solid 85th percentile. The discrepancy between the component-level percentiles and the combo's in-game rank suggests that Outriders may be more sensitive to other factors such as memory configuration, storage speed, or specific CPU-GPU communication overhead. The data indicates that this pairing provides a very capable experience, but it does not represent the absolute peak of performance for this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for Outriders provides a clear picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1080p, the RTX 4090 delivers exceptional frame rates: Low settings yield 227 FPS, Medium provides 202 FPS (with a min of 171 and max of 232), High reaches 181 FPS, and Ultra still maintains a smooth 134 FPS. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the GPU is rarely stressed, and the experience is consistently fluid.

Moving to 1440p, the frame rates remain very high but show a noticeable step down. Low settings produce 195 FPS, Medium averages 156 FPS (min 133, max 179), High hits 117 FPS, and Ultra drops to 85 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 110 FPS, highlighting the significant impact of graphical presets at this resolution. The minimum FPS of 133 at Medium suggests that even in demanding scenes, the system maintains playable performance.

At 4K, the performance becomes more constrained. Low settings still deliver a respectable 112 FPS, but Medium drops to 82 FPS (min 69, max 94), High falls to 61 FPS, and Ultra plummets to 44 FPS. The 4K Medium row is the only one in the entire dataset with a recorded minimum FPS, at 69, which is still above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The 4K Ultra preset, with an average of 44 FPS, is the only configuration that would be considered marginal for a fast-paced action game.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this hardware depend on the user's resolution and refresh rate priorities. For 1080p displays, the High preset at 181 FPS is an excellent choice, providing a significant visual upgrade over Medium while maintaining a frame rate well above 144 Hz. The Ultra preset at 134 FPS is also viable for 1080p, offering the best visual fidelity without dropping below common high-refresh-rate thresholds.

For 1440p, the High preset at 117 FPS is the recommended balance. It delivers a substantial improvement over Medium's 156 FPS in visual quality while still offering a smooth experience on 120 Hz displays. The Ultra preset at 85 FPS is playable but may not fully utilize higher refresh rate monitors. The Medium preset at 156 FPS is ideal for competitive play, ensuring maximum fluidity.

At 4K, users must compromise. The Medium preset at 82 FPS provides the best combination of visual quality and performance, with a minimum FPS of 69 ensuring consistent smoothness. The High preset at 61 FPS is still playable but approaches the edge of the 60 FPS standard. The Low preset at 112 FPS is recommended for those prioritizing frame rate over visual fidelity, but the Ultra preset at 44 FPS should be avoided for serious gameplay.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H is a 16-core, 22-thread processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, built on a 7 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with a 24 MB shared L3 cache. The CPU's benchmark scores show a single-thread performance of 1,810.5 in Cinebench R23 and 1,794 in Geekbench, with multi-thread scores of 17,984.5 and 11,657 respectively.

In Outriders, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions, but it becomes increasingly relevant at 1080p. The fact that 1080p Low achieves 227 FPS suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with data at very high frame rates. The CPU's 85th percentile ranking among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 35,670, places it just behind the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 (35,719, -0.1%) and Intel Core 7 250H (35,728, -0.2%).

The processor's 22 threads are likely sufficient for Outriders' multi-threaded engine, but the data does not show a scenario where the CPU becomes a limiting factor. At 4K Ultra, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, given the 44 FPS result. The CPU's high boost clock of 5.10 GHz ensures that single-threaded game logic and physics calculations are handled efficiently, though this is not explicitly quantified in the game's FPS data.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data from 1080p to 4K reveals how the system scales with increasing resolution and how the balance between CPU and GPU shifts. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 181 at 1080p to 117 at 1440p, a 35% reduction, and then to 61 at 4K, a further 48% reduction. This steep decline indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor as resolution increases.

At Low settings, the scaling is similar: 227 FPS at 1080p, 195 FPS at 1440p (14% drop), and 112 FPS at 4K (43% drop from 1440p). The fact that 1080p Low does not reach much higher than 227 FPS suggests that the CPU may be imposing a ceiling on performance at the lowest graphical settings. If the GPU were the only constraint, one might expect even higher frame rates at 1080p Low, but the CPU's processing capabilities likely cap the output.

The scaling from Medium to Ultra at each resolution shows consistent behavior. At 1080p, the drop from Medium (202 FPS) to Ultra (134 FPS) is 34%; at 1440p, it is 46% (156 to 85 FPS); and at 4K, it is 46% (82 to 44 FPS). This consistency suggests that the GPU's compute and memory bandwidth are the dominant factors in determining frame rates across these settings, with the CPU maintaining a constant level of support. The data indicates a classic GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions, with the CPU's influence diminishing as pixel count increases.