Red Dead Redemption 2

Red Dead Redemption 2 presents a punishing workload for the AMD Ryzen 5 4600G paired with the Intel Arc B390, a combination that ranks 2568th out of 2902 tested configurations for this title. The measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings are low, with the best case scenario being 51 FPS at 1080p on Low settings. This places the combo in the bottom percentile of performers, indicating that neither component is able to carry the load effectively in Rockstar’s open-world engine. The data suggests a system that can technically run the game but will require significant compromises to achieve anything approaching playable smoothness. The following analysis breaks down how resolution scaling, GPU limitations, CPU capabilities, and settings choices interact to produce these results.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all four settings presets, revealing a system that is heavily constrained by its graphics processor at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 51 at 1920x1080 to 38 at 2560x1440, a 25% reduction, and then further to 25 at 3840x2160, which is a 51% drop from the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern indicates that the Intel Arc B390, with its system-shared memory and modest compute resources, is the primary bottleneck as pixel count rises.

Moving to Medium settings, the trend continues: 39 FPS at 1080p drops to 29 FPS at 1440p (a 26% decrease) and then to 19 FPS at 4K (a 51% decrease from 1080p). The High preset shows a similar pattern, with 32 FPS at 1080p falling to 24 FPS at 1440p (25% lower) and 16 FPS at 4K (exactly half of the 1080p result). Ultra settings are the most demanding, starting at 23 FPS at 1080p, dropping to 17 FPS at 1440p (26% lower), and bottoming out at 11 FPS at 4K, which is a 52% reduction from the 1080p baseline.

The consistency of these percentage drops across all four presets is notable. Whether the game is running at Low or Ultra, the relative penalty for moving from 1080p to 4K is nearly identical, hovering around 50%. This uniformity strongly suggests that the limiting factor is not CPU-bound logic or memory bandwidth fluctuation, but rather the raw pixel throughput of the GPU. The Arc B390’s pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s are simply insufficient for 4K rendering in a game as dense as Red Dead Redemption 2.

At 1080p, the system is still GPU-limited, but less severely so, as evidenced by the fact that Low settings can achieve 51 FPS. The CPU, with its six cores and twelve threads, is likely able to feed the GPU adequately at this resolution. However, the fact that even the lowest settings at 1080p cannot reach 60 FPS indicates that the Arc B390’s overall performance ceiling is the dominant factor. The data shows that users should treat 1080p as the only viable resolution for this combo, and even then, only with the lowest settings can the game approach a playable frame rate.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combo achieves in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 51, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Arc B390 scores 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, scores 1463, which is 1.3% lower. The GeForce 800M scores 1460 (1.5% lower), the GeForce GT 625 OEM scores 1446 (2.5% lower), and the GeForce GT 710 scores 1443 (2.7% lower). This places the Arc B390 at the 9th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings produce an average of 38 FPS, while Ultra settings produce an average of 17 FPS. This represents a 21 FPS difference, meaning Low settings deliver over double the frame rate of Ultra.

Q: Does the AMD Ryzen 5 4600G’s integrated graphics affect the game’s performance?

A: The CPU includes Radeon Vega 7 integrated graphics, but the measured data uses the discrete Intel Arc B390. The CPU’s benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 13593, reflect its processing power, not its iGPU. The game’s frame rates are tied to the Arc B390’s performance.

Q: Which resolution provides the most playable experience for this hardware?

A: Based on the measured data, 1920x1080 is the only resolution where any settings preset reaches above 30 FPS. At 2560x1440, the maximum average is 38 FPS on Low, while 3840x2160 never exceeds 25 FPS on any preset.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 4600G’s multi-threaded performance compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 4600G has an average benchmark score of 17507. The AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE scores 17482 (0.1% lower), the Intel Core 7 150U scores 17395 (0.6% lower), the AMD Ryzen 3 8300GE scores 17614 (0.6% higher), and the Intel Core i3-14100T scores 17648 (0.8% higher). This puts the 4600G at the 71st percentile of all CPUs.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is the decisive factor in this game’s performance, and the benchmark data shows it is severely outmatched by Red Dead Redemption 2’s demands. With a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482, the GPU sits at the 9th percentile of all GPUs, meaning roughly 91% of graphics cards perform better in this synthetic test. Its nearest rivals in that benchmark are all legacy NVIDIA parts: the GT 520MX, GeForce 800M, GT 625 OEM, and GT 710, with delta percentages ranging from 1.3% to 2.7%. This positions the Arc B390 as a very low-end solution, and the game’s frame rates reflect that positioning.

The GPU’s architecture is Xe3-LPG on a 3 nm process, with 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster operation pipelines. It also features 12 ray tracing cores. The boost clock is listed at 2500 MHz, with a base clock of 300 MHz. These specifications translate to a pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 compute performance is 7.680 TFLOPS, which is modest for modern gaming. Critically, the memory is “System Shared,” meaning the GPU uses the system’s main memory rather than dedicated VRAM, with bandwidth described as “System Dependent.” This is a significant limitation for a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, which has large, detailed textures.

The measured FPS data shows the GPU struggling at every turn. At 1080p Low, the 51 FPS result is the only time the system breaks the 50 FPS barrier. At Medium, 1080p yields 39 FPS, with minimums recorded at 33 FPS and maximums at 44 FPS. High settings at 1080p drop to 32 FPS, and Ultra falls to 23 FPS. Moving to 1440p, the best result is 38 FPS on Low, but Medium only manages 29 FPS (24 min, 33 max), High gets 24 FPS, and Ultra drops to 17 FPS. At 4K, the results are uniformly poor: Low hits 25 FPS, Medium averages 19 FPS (16 min, 22 max), High averages 16 FPS, and Ultra averages just 11 FPS.

These numbers indicate that the Arc B390’s rendering capabilities are exhausted well before the resolution reaches 4K. The system-shared memory architecture likely contributes to the performance collapse at higher resolutions, as the GPU must compete with the CPU for memory bandwidth. The GPU’s TDP is 80 W, and it operates as an IGP (integrated graphics processor), which means it shares thermal and power resources with the CPU. Although the boost clock is 2500 MHz, the sustained performance under load appears insufficient for this game’s requirements. The data strongly suggests that the GPU is the primary bottleneck across all tested configurations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of how this hardware handles Red Dead Redemption 2 across three resolutions and four quality presets. Starting at 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low settings produce an average of 51 FPS, Medium produces 39 FPS with a minimum of 33 and maximum of 44, High produces 32 FPS, and Ultra produces 23 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a linear degradation, with each step up in quality costing roughly 8-9 FPS on average. The Medium preset’s recorded range of 33 to 44 FPS indicates some variability, but no stutter-inducing dips below 30 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the story changes. Low settings average 38 FPS, which is a 13 FPS drop from 1080p Low. Medium averages 29 FPS (24 min, 33 max), High averages 24 FPS, and Ultra averages 17 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 21 FPS, which is a larger absolute spread than at 1080p. This suggests that the GPU’s limited pixel throughput becomes more pronounced as resolution increases, amplifying the difference between quality presets. The Medium preset’s minimum of 24 FPS is below the 30 FPS threshold typically considered playable, indicating that even medium settings at 1440p will experience noticeable slowdowns.

At 3840x2160, the results are uniformly poor. Low settings average 25 FPS, Medium averages 19 FPS (16 min, 22 max), High averages 16 FPS, and Ultra averages 11 FPS. The Low preset is the only one that comes close to 30 FPS, but even it falls short. The Medium preset’s minimum of 16 FPS shows that the system can dip into single-digit territory during demanding scenes. The Ultra preset’s 11 FPS average is effectively a slideshow, making 4K gaming impossible with this configuration.

Comparing settings across resolutions, the data shows that Low settings at 1080p (51 FPS) is the only configuration that delivers a consistently smooth experience. Medium at 1080p (39 FPS) is borderline acceptable, but the 33 FPS minimum suggests occasional dips below comfort. Low at 1440p (38 FPS) is statistically similar to Medium at 1080p, indicating that users can trade resolution for quality. All other configurations fall below 32 FPS, with many below 25 FPS. The measured data is complete, with no missing values except for min/max on Low, High, and Ultra presets, which are not recorded for those settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G provides the processing backbone for this system, and while it is not the primary bottleneck in Red Dead Redemption 2, its capabilities set an upper limit on what the GPU can achieve. The CPU features six cores and twelve threads, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. It is built on TSMC’s 7 nm process using the Zen 2 architecture (Renoir codename) and has a 65 W TDP. The cache configuration includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 8 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support is DDR4 with dual-channel configuration and a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 4600G performs respectably for a mid-range part. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 13593, and single-core is 1919. In Geekbench, it scores 6637 multicore and 1460 single-core. The 3DMark tests show a clear scaling pattern: 1430 for 2 threads, 2732 for 4 threads, 4138 for 8 threads, and 4889 for max threads. This indicates that the CPU scales well with additional threads, which is beneficial for games that can utilize multiple cores. The PassMark multithread score is 15992, with a single-thread score of 2653. These results place the CPU at the 71st percentile of all processors, with an average benchmark score of 17507.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the 4600G is closely matched. The AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE scores 17482 (0.1% lower), the Intel Core 7 150U scores 17395 (0.6% lower), the AMD Ryzen 3 8300GE scores 17614 (0.6% higher), and the Intel Core i3-14100T scores 17648 (0.8% higher). This grouping shows that the 4600G sits right in the middle of a tight performance cluster, meaning its CPU performance is not a differentiator in this game.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. Given that the Arc B390 is the bottleneck, the CPU often has headroom to spare. However, the system-shared memory architecture of the GPU means that the CPU’s memory bandwidth (51.2 GB/s) is shared with the graphics processor. This could limit performance in scenarios where both the CPU and GPU are accessing memory heavily, such as large open-world scenes. The CPU’s boost clock of 4.20 GHz is adequate for single-threaded tasks, but the game’s engine benefits from the six cores, as evidenced by the 3DMark 8-thread score of 4138. The data does not show any scenario where the CPU is clearly the limiting factor, as frame rates scale predictably with resolution and settings, which points to GPU saturation rather than CPU starvation.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal configuration for this hardware is 1920x1080 with Low settings, which yields an average of 51 FPS. This is the only preset that reliably exceeds 50 FPS and provides a smooth, responsive experience. Low settings at 1080p also avoid the frame rate variability seen in Medium, which has a minimum of 33 FPS. For users who prioritize visual quality over raw frame rate, 1080p Medium offers 39 FPS on average, but the 33 FPS minimum means that demanding scenes will dip below the 30 FPS threshold, potentially causing noticeable stutter.

At 1440p, the best option is Low settings, which averages 38 FPS. This is a viable alternative for users with 1440p displays, as the frame rate is similar to 1080p Medium. However, the visual fidelity will be lower due to the reduced quality preset. Medium at 1440p drops to 29 FPS, which is below the playable threshold for most users. High and Ultra at 1440p (24 and 17 FPS respectively) are not recommended for any gameplay scenario.

At 4K, none of the settings presets deliver a playable experience. Low averages 25 FPS, Medium 19 FPS, High 16 FPS, and Ultra 11 FPS. These frame rates are too low for action-oriented gameplay, and even exploration would be hindered by the lack of smoothness. Users with 4K displays should either lower the resolution to 1080p or accept that this hardware cannot handle Red Dead Redemption 2 at native 4K.

The data suggests that the best balance between performance and visual quality is 1080p Low, as it provides the highest frame rate with the most headroom for minimum FPS stability. If a user is willing to sacrifice some smoothness for better visuals, 1080p Medium is the second-best choice, but the 33 FPS minimum is a significant caveat. For 1440p users, Low settings are the only reasonable option. Ultra settings should be avoided entirely, as they produce frame rates below 25 FPS at every resolution. This hardware is capable of running Red Dead Redemption 2, but only with substantial compromises in resolution and quality settings.