Red Dead Redemption 2

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is a lopsided pairing for Red Dead Redemption 2, where a six-core Zen+ processor from 2018 feeds one of the fastest consumer GPUs of its generation. The measured results show a system that can hit playable framerates at 4K, but the performance scaling across resolutions reveals a clear CPU bottleneck that prevents the RTX 4080 from ever stretching its legs. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS data, settings behavior, and what the numbers say about where the limiting component sits in this specific game.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Red Dead Redemption 2 with this combo?

A: The data shows 2560x1440 on High settings delivers 90 FPS average, which is a solid balance. At 1920x1080, High settings reach 113 FPS, but the jump from 1440p to 1080p only adds 23 FPS, indicating diminishing returns due to the CPU limit.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested configurations?

A: This pairing ranks 610th out of 3714 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2, placing it in the top 16.4% of all tested systems for this game.

Q: Is the RTX 4080 being held back by the Ryzen 5 2600?

A: Yes. The scaling from 1440p to 1080p at High settings shows only a 25.6% FPS increase (90 to 113 FPS), which is far less than the resolution pixel count reduction of 44%. This indicates the CPU becomes the limiting factor at lower resolutions.

Q: What settings preset provides the most consistent framerate?

A: Medium settings at 1440p provides a 108 FPS average with a minimum of 92 FPS and maximum of 125 FPS, giving the tightest frame pacing relative to its average. This is the only preset at any resolution with both min and max FPS recorded.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming?

A: Yes, but only at Medium settings, which produces a 72 FPS average with a 61 FPS minimum. High settings drop to 60 FPS average, while Ultra falls to 43 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the CPU's synthetic performance compare to its game results?

A: The Ryzen 5 2600 scores 1,248 in Cinebench R15 multi-core and 157.3 in single-core, with a PassMark multi-thread score of 13,160. These scores place it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs, but the game's CPU-heavy scenes at 1080p still show a bottleneck.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 brings 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 2205 MHz with a boost clock of 2505 MHz, and memory runs at 1400 MHz with 22.4 Gbps effective speed. The GPU has 9,728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 render output units, with 76 ray tracing cores and 304 tensor cores.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the GPU's role shifts dramatically depending on resolution. At 4K Ultra, the RTX 4080 is the clear bottleneck, producing 43 FPS average. At 4K High, the GPU still dominates, hitting 60 FPS average. The 4K Medium row shows 72 FPS average with a 61 FPS minimum and 82 FPS maximum, indicating the GPU is still the primary constraint at this resolution.

However, the GPU's dominance fades as resolution drops. At 1440p High, the system reaches 90 FPS average. At 1080p High, it climbs to 113 FPS. The delta between these two is only 23 FPS, while the pixel count difference is 44%. This compression of gains means the RTX 4080 has more headroom than the Ryzen 5 2600 can feed it. The CPU's 12 threads and 16 MB of shared L3 cache are simply not enough to keep up with the GPU's 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 compute at lower resolutions.

The VRAM capacity is never a limiting factor in this game, as 16 GB is ample for Red Dead Redemption 2's textures even at 4K Ultra. The memory bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s also proves sufficient, since the framerate drops at 4K Ultra are tied to compute load rather than memory constraints.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides four presets at each of three resolutions. For a 60 FPS target, the safest choice is 1440p High, which delivers 90 FPS average. This gives a 50% margin above the target, allowing for dips during heavy scenes without dropping below 60 FPS.

At 4K, the choice is between High at 60 FPS average and Medium at 72 FPS average. The Medium preset is the better option because it provides a 12 FPS cushion over the 60 FPS threshold, while High sits exactly at 60 FPS with no recorded minimum to confirm frame stability. The 4K Medium row is the only one at 4K with both min and max values (61-82 FPS), showing a 21 FPS range that stays above 60 FPS.

For 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 120 FPS average with a 102 FPS minimum and 138 FPS maximum. This is the most consistent preset across all resolutions, with a 36 FPS range. High settings at 1080p reach 113 FPS average but lack recorded min/max values, making Medium the safer recommendation for competitive play.

Ultra settings are not recommended at any resolution. At 4K Ultra, the system drops to 43 FPS average, which is below playable thresholds. At 1440p Ultra, it reaches 65 FPS average, but this is only 5 FPS above the 60 FPS target with no min FPS data to confirm stability. The performance cost of Ultra over High at 1440p is a 27.8% framerate reduction (90 to 65 FPS), which is a steep price for marginal visual gains.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 610th out of 3,714 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2. This places it in the 83.6th percentile of all tested systems, meaning it outperforms the vast majority of configurations tested for this game.

The ranking is notable because the CPU is a significant weak link. The Ryzen 5 2600 has an average benchmark score of 21,484, which places it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V at 21,440 (0.2% behind), Intel Core i9-11900H at 21,367 (0.5% behind), Intel Xeon D-1746TER at 21,635 (0.7% ahead), and AMD EPYC 9454 at 21,223 (1.2% behind). This means the CPU is firmly in mid-pack territory.

The GPU, by contrast, is a top-tier performer. The RTX 4080 has an average benchmark score of 54,247, placing it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the RTX 4080 SUPER at 54,209 (0.1% behind), AMD Radeon Pro W5700X at 54,828 (1.1% ahead), AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB at 55,698 (2.6% ahead), and AMD Radeon 8060S at 55,757 (2.7% ahead). The GPU sits within 3% of its closest competitors, showing it is a well-balanced performer.

The gap between the CPU's 75th percentile and the GPU's 86th percentile explains why the combo ranks 610th rather than higher. The CPU limits the system's potential, preventing the GPU from achieving results closer to its standalone capability. A stronger CPU would likely push this combo into the top 500 or better, based on the scaling behavior observed in the measured FPS data.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows how the system behaves across three resolutions at each of the four settings presets. The scaling patterns reveal where the bottleneck shifts.

At High settings, the framerate progression is 113 FPS at 1080p, 90 FPS at 1440p, and 60 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 20.4%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 33.3%. The pixel count increases by 78% from 1080p to 1440p, but the FPS only drops by 20.4%. This indicates the CPU is limiting performance at 1080p, preventing the GPU from showing its full strength.

At Medium settings, the progression is 120 FPS at 1080p, 108 FPS at 1440p, and 72 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop is only 10%, while the 1440p to 4K drop is 33.3%. The smaller gap at lower resolutions again points to the CPU being the limiting factor. The Medium preset at 1080p hits 120 FPS, which is only 11% higher than the 1440p result, despite rendering 44% fewer pixels.

At Low settings, the progression is 133 FPS at 1080p, 121 FPS at 1440p, and 96 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 9%, while the 1440p to 4K drop is 20.7%. This shows the CPU bottleneck is most severe at Low settings, where the GPU has the least work to do and the CPU becomes the sole constraint.

At Ultra settings, the progression is 87 FPS at 1080p, 65 FPS at 1440p, and 43 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 25.3%, while the 1440p to 4K drop is 33.8%. This preset shows the most balanced scaling, suggesting that at Ultra settings, the GPU load is high enough to keep the CPU from being the sole bottleneck.

The overall pattern shows that the Ryzen 5 2600 caps the system at roughly 133 FPS maximum (at 1080p Low), and the RTX 4080 cannot push beyond this limit regardless of how light the workload becomes. The CPU is the limiting component at all resolutions below 4K Ultra, and only at 4K Ultra does the GPU become the primary constraint.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 133 FPS average
• Medium: 120 FPS average, 102 FPS minimum, 138 FPS maximum
• High: 113 FPS average
• Ultra: 87 FPS average

At 1080p, the spread from Low to Ultra is 46 FPS, from 133 down to 87. The Medium preset shows the most stable frame pacing with a 36 FPS range. The gap between Low and Medium is 13 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 26 FPS, showing that Ultra settings carry a disproportionate cost.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 121 FPS average
• Medium: 108 FPS average, 92 FPS minimum, 125 FPS maximum
• High: 90 FPS average
• Ultra: 65 FPS average

At 1440p, the spread from Low to Ultra is 56 FPS, from 121 down to 65. The Medium preset shows a 33 FPS range, which is tighter than at 1080p. The drop from High to Ultra is 25 FPS, a 27.8% reduction, making Ultra a poor trade for the visual uplift.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 96 FPS average
• Medium: 72 FPS average, 61 FPS minimum, 82 FPS maximum
• High: 60 FPS average
• Ultra: 43 FPS average

At 4K, the spread from Low to Ultra is 53 FPS, from 96 down to 43. The Medium preset is the only one with recorded min/max values, showing a 21 FPS range that stays above 60 FPS. High settings hit exactly 60 FPS average, which is borderline for smooth gameplay, while Ultra drops to 43 FPS, which is unplayable for most users.

The data shows that the Ryzen 5 2600 provides diminishing returns as resolution drops. The 1080p to 1440p scaling is much flatter than the 1440p to 4K scaling across all presets, confirming the CPU bottleneck. The RTX 4080 only reaches its full potential at 4K Ultra, where the CPU has enough headroom to feed it, but by then the GPU is overburdened, resulting in 43 FPS. The sweet spot for this pairing is 1440p Medium or High, where the combination of CPU and GPU produces 90-108 FPS with playable frame pacing.