Red Dead Redemption 2

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Red Dead Redemption 2 with the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 shows a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases. At 1080p with High settings, the combo delivers 67 FPS. Moving to 1440p drops that to 51.7 FPS, a reduction of roughly 23%. At 4K, the same High preset falls to 36.3 FPS, which is about 46% lower than the 1080p result. This pattern indicates that the RTX 4060 is the primary limiting component at higher resolutions, as the frame rate penalty scales nearly linearly with pixel count.

The Low preset tells a similar story but with more headroom. At 1080p Low, the system pushes 110.4 FPS. At 1440p Low, it drops to 84.3 FPS. At 4K Low, it still manages 55.4 FPS. The gap between 1080p and 4K at Low is roughly 50%, which again points to GPU-bound behavior. The Medium preset shows 83.9 FPS at 1080p, 63 FPS at 1440p, and 43.3 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, with 46.5 FPS at 1080p, 39.4 FPS at 1440p, and just 26.2 FPS at 4K.

What this scaling reveals is that the Ryzen 5 5500 is not holding the system back at any resolution. If the CPU were the bottleneck, you would expect to see smaller FPS differences between 1080p and 4K, because the CPU workload stays constant while the GPU workload increases. Instead, the FPS drops are consistent with a GPU that is being pushed harder at each higher resolution. The 6-core, 12-thread processor with a 3.60 GHz base and 4.20 GHz boost clock provides enough throughput to keep the RTX 4060 fed, even at 1080p where CPU demands are proportionally higher.

The data also suggests that 4K is only viable with the Low preset, which yields 55.4 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K falls below the 45 FPS mark, and High and Ultra are not playable at 4K by any reasonable standard. For users targeting 1440p, the Medium preset at 63 FPS is the sweet spot, while 1080p users can comfortably use High at 67 FPS or Medium at 83.9 FPS.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU/GPU combo in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A: The data shows 1080p as the most versatile resolution. With High settings, it delivers 67 FPS, and with Medium settings, it reaches 83.9 FPS. At 1440p, only the Low preset (84.3 FPS) and Medium preset (63 FPS) provide smooth gameplay. 4K is limited to the Low preset at 55.4 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its nearest rivals in raw benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 4060 has an average benchmark score of 23181. It trails the AMD Radeon RX 6600M by 0.6% and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti by 0.7%. It is ahead of the Intel Arc B580 by 0.7% and the AMD Radeon 760M by 0.8%. These are all very close margins, indicating the 4060 sits in a tight competitive cluster.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 5500 a good match for the RTX 4060 in this game?

A: Yes. The measured FPS data shows consistent scaling from 1080p to 4K, which indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. The Ryzen 5 5500's 6 cores and 12 threads with a 4.20 GHz boost clock are sufficient to avoid CPU bottlenecks, as evidenced by the large FPS gains when lowering resolution.

Q: What is the CPU's average benchmark score and how does it compare to rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 5500 has an average benchmark score of 20875. It is essentially tied with the Intel Core i5-12500 (20897, deltaPct -0.1) and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE (20900, deltaPct -0.1). It slightly edges out the AMD EPYC 7J13 (20845, deltaPct 0.1) and trails the Intel Core i5-12600T (20917, deltaPct -0.2).

Q: Does the RTX 4060 have enough VRAM for Red Dead Redemption 2 at 4K?

A: The RTX 4060 has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 272.0 GB/s bandwidth. The measured data shows 4K performance ranges from 26.2 FPS at Ultra to 55.4 FPS at Low. The 8 GB capacity is sufficient for this game at these settings, as the bottleneck appears to be raw compute rather than memory capacity, given the consistent scaling pattern.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested CPU/GPU combinations for this game?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 combination ranks 925 out of 1687 tested combos. This places it in the middle of the pack, which is consistent with the mid-range positioning of both components.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC. It features 3072 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The boost clock is 2460 MHz, with a base clock of 1830 MHz. Memory is 8 GB of GDDR6 running at 2125 MHz, effective 17 Gbps, on a 128-bit bus. The memory bandwidth is 272.0 GB/s. The GPU has a TDP of 115 W and supports PCIe 4.0 x8.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the RTX 4060's role is clearly dominant. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows the GPU being pushed progressively harder. At 1080p, the GPU has enough headroom to deliver 110.4 FPS on Low settings, but this drops to 46.5 FPS on Ultra. The difference between Low and Ultra at any given resolution is substantial: at 1080p, that's a 63.9 FPS gap; at 1440p, it's 44.9 FPS; at 4K, it's 29.2 FPS.

The 8 GB VRAM is adequate for this game, as the data does not show any abnormal performance collapses that would indicate memory swapping. The 128-bit bus and 272.0 GB/s bandwidth are modest by modern standards, but they are sufficient for Red Dead Redemption 2's engine, which was released in 2018. The GPU's percentile ranking is 66, meaning it outperforms 66% of all GPUs in the database. Its average benchmark score of 23181 places it in a tight cluster with rivals like the RX 6600M and GTX 780 Ti, with deltas under 1%.

The RTX 4060's ray tracing capabilities (24 RT cores) and tensor cores (96) are not directly tested in the measured FPS data, but they are part of the architecture. The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6. For this game, the rasterization performance is what matters, and the data shows a capable mid-range card that handles 1080p and 1440p well but struggles at 4K with higher presets.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the best experience depends on your resolution target. For 1080p, the High preset at 67 FPS is a solid choice, but the Medium preset at 83.9 FPS offers a smoother experience with only a modest visual downgrade. If you want to maximize frame rate, Low at 110.4 FPS is available, but that sacrifices too much visual quality for most users. Ultra at 46.5 FPS is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action.

For 1440p, the Medium preset at 63 FPS is the recommended starting point. It provides a good balance between visual fidelity and smoothness. The High preset at 51.7 FPS is still playable, but the 11.3 FPS drop from Medium may not be worth the visual gain for all users. Low at 84.3 FPS is excellent for competitive play, while Ultra at 39.4 FPS is borderline.

For 4K, the data is clear: only the Low preset at 55.4 FPS is truly playable. Medium at 43.3 FPS is marginal, and High at 36.3 FPS and Ultra at 26.2 FPS are not recommended for a smooth experience. If you own a 4K display, you should plan to run this game at Low settings or consider lowering the resolution to 1440p and using a higher preset.

The measured data also shows that the gap between Medium and High is relatively small at 1080p (16.9 FPS) and 1440p (11.3 FPS), but larger at 4K (7 FPS). This suggests that the GPU's compute resources are the limiting factor at higher resolutions, not the visual complexity added by the High preset. For most users, the Medium preset is the best balance of visual quality and performance across all resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are as follows: Low preset delivers 110.4 FPS, Medium delivers 83.9 FPS, High delivers 67 FPS, and Ultra delivers 46.5 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 63.9 FPS. The Low preset is the only one that breaks the 100 FPS mark, while Ultra falls below 50 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low at 84.3 FPS, Medium at 63 FPS, High at 51.7 FPS, and Ultra at 39.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 44.9 FPS. Notably, the 1440p Low result is very close to the 1080p High result (84.3 vs 67 FPS), which indicates that the GPU has enough headroom to run a higher resolution at lower settings without a massive penalty.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low at 55.4 FPS, Medium at 43.3 FPS, High at 36.3 FPS, and Ultra at 26.2 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 29.2 FPS. This is the tightest spread of the three resolutions, which further confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor—at 4K, even the Low preset cannot push frame rates above 60 FPS.

The data shows that moving from 1080p to 1440p at the same preset costs roughly 20-25% of performance. Moving from 1440p to 4K costs another 45-50%. This is consistent with the pixel count increases: 1440p has about 1.78 times the pixels of 1080p, and 4K has about 2.25 times the pixels of 1440p. The FPS drops are slightly less severe than the pixel count increases, which suggests the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute scaling are efficient.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 Cezanne architecture, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. The L3 cache is 16 MB, with 512 KB L2 per core and 64 KB L1 per core. It supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel bus and 51.2 GB/s bandwidth. The CPU uses PCIe Gen 3 and has a TDP of 65 W.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU, but it still matters. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 110.4 FPS. This is a high frame rate that requires the CPU to process game logic and draw calls quickly enough. The Ryzen 5 5500's single-thread performance, as measured by Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2319, is sufficient for this task. Its multi-core score of 16429 in Cinebench R23 shows that it can handle the game's background threads without issue.

The CPU's average benchmark score is 20875, which places it in the 79th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals are all within 0.2% in performance: the Intel Core i5-12500 (20897), AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE (20900), AMD EPYC 7J13 (20845), and Intel Core i5-12600T (20917). This means the Ryzen 5 5500 is in a very tight performance bracket, and any of these CPUs would deliver similar results in this game.

The fact that the FPS scales consistently with resolution, rather than plateauing at lower resolutions, proves that the CPU is not a bottleneck. If the CPU were limiting, we would expect to see similar FPS at 1080p and 1440p, because the CPU workload is roughly the same regardless of resolution. Instead, we see a 23% drop from 1080p to 1440p at High settings, which indicates the GPU is doing more work. The CPU's 16 MB L3 cache and 12 threads provide enough headroom for the game's demands, even at the highest preset where draw calls are more numerous.