Red Dead Redemption 2

Resolution Scaling

Red Dead Redemption 2 shows a heavy FPS cost as resolution climbs, but the shape of that drop reveals where the bottleneck sits. At High settings, the combo of the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers 136 FPS at 1920x1080, 97.6 FPS at 2560x1440, and 67.1 FPS at 3840x2160. Moving from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 28% of the frame rate, while the jump from 1440p to 4K costs another 31%. This is a classic GPU-bound progression — the RTX 4090 is doing progressively heavier lifting as pixel count rises, and the CPU has enough headroom at higher resolutions to stay out of the way.

The Low preset tells a similar story but with a different slope. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 183.1 FPS; at 1440p Low it drops to 158.9 FPS; at 4K Low it falls to 103.4 FPS. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is only about 13%, which is smaller than what we see on High. This suggests that at 1080p Low, the Ryzen 5 5500 is starting to limit the frame rate — the GPU is so fast that the CPU's six cores and twelve threads become the constraining factor. Once resolution rises to 1440p, the GPU workload increases enough to rebalance the system.

Ultra settings amplify the GPU load dramatically. The 1080p Ultra result is 98.4 FPS, which drops to 73.8 FPS at 1440p and 47.6 FPS at 4K. The percentage loss from 1080p to 4K on Ultra is about 52%, versus roughly 38% on Low. This widening gap indicates that Ultra presets push the RTX 4090's shading units, texture units, and memory bandwidth harder, making the GPU the dominant constraint at every resolution. The data shows a system that scales predictably: the higher the settings, the more GPU-bound the outcome, and the steeper the resolution penalty.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 brings six cores and twelve threads from the Zen 3 architecture, running at a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. Its 3DMark scores tell a nuanced story: single-thread performance is 836, while the max-threads score reaches 5411. The gap between the 8-thread score of 4593 and the max-threads score of 5411 indicates that scaling beyond eight threads still yields gains, which matters for a game like Red Dead Redemption 2 that can use multiple cores for world simulation and AI.

In this game's measured rows, the CPU's influence is most visible at 1080p with lower settings. The 183.1 FPS at 1080p Low is the highest result in the entire dataset, yet it falls short of what the RTX 4090 could theoretically produce if the CPU were not a factor. The 3DMark single-thread score of 836 places this CPU in the 79th percentile of all processors, meaning it is competent but not elite at single-threaded tasks. For a game that relies on a mix of single-threaded game logic and multi-threaded background tasks, this balance is adequate but not exceptional.

At 4K, the CPU's role diminishes. The 4K Ultra result of 47.6 FPS is almost certainly GPU-limited, as the RTX 4090 is rendering at a resolution where pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth dominate. The Ryzen 5 5500's 16 MB of L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are sufficient to feed the GPU at these settings without becoming a bottleneck. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16429 reinforces that this is a mid-range CPU by modern standards, but in Red Dead Redemption 2, it only becomes the limiting factor in the lightest load scenarios.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this pairing. Its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, which is crucial for a game with large open-world textures. The GPU's base clock of 2235 MHz and boost clock of 2520 MHz, combined with 16384 shading units, give it enormous raw compute. The passmark G3D score of 38194 and the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9223 confirm its position in the 91st percentile of all GPUs.

The GPU's role becomes apparent when comparing settings across resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the combo produces 160.2 FPS, which is higher than the 4K Low result of 103.4 FPS. This indicates that even at Low settings, 4K resolution demands more from the GPU than Medium settings at 1080p. The RTX 4090's 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are heavily utilized at 4K, where the pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s are pushed to their limits.

At Ultra settings, the GPU's VRAM capacity and bandwidth become critical. The 4K Ultra result of 47.6 FPS is the lowest in the dataset, and while that might seem low for the flagship GPU, it reflects the extreme demands of Ultra presets at 4K in this game. The transition from Medium to High at 4K costs about 12.5% of the frame rate (76.7 to 67.1 FPS), while High to Ultra costs about 29% (67.1 to 47.6 FPS). This non-linear scaling suggests that Ultra settings introduce rendering features that disproportionately tax the GPU's resources, likely related to shadows, reflections, and draw distances.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions and four settings presets, yielding twelve distinct data points. At 1920x1080, the results range from 183.1 FPS on Low to 98.4 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset produces 160.2 FPS, and High produces 136 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is roughly 46%, showing that settings have a substantial impact even at 1080p where the CPU is more involved.

At 2560x1440, the range narrows slightly. Low produces 158.9 FPS, Medium 117.5 FPS, High 97.6 FPS, and Ultra 73.8 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread is about 54%, slightly wider than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is becoming the primary driver of performance differences. The 1440p Medium result of 117.5 FPS is notable because it exceeds the 1080p Ultra result of 98.4 FPS — a clear demonstration that resolution scaling is less punishing than settings scaling in this game.

At 3840x2160, the results are 103.4 FPS on Low, 76.7 FPS on Medium, 67.1 FPS on High, and 47.6 FPS on Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra spread is 54%, similar to 1440p. The 4K Low result is particularly interesting: it is higher than the 1080p Ultra result, meaning that if a player wants the smoothest experience, dropping settings at 4K yields better frame rates than raising settings at 1080p. Across all resolutions, the Low preset consistently provides the highest frame rates, while Ultra consistently provides the lowest, with Medium and High falling in between in that order.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combos for Red Dead Redemption 2, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 66th out of 1687 combinations. That places it in the top 4% of all tested configurations, which is impressive given that the CPU is a mid-range part. The ranking reflects that the RTX 4090's raw power compensates for the Ryzen 5 5500's more modest specifications.

The CPU's nearest rivals provide context for its contribution. The Intel Core i5-12500 has an average benchmark score of 20897, which is just 0.1% higher than the Ryzen 5 5500's average score of 20875. The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE is similarly close at 20900, also 0.1% higher. On the other side, the AMD EPYC 7J13 scores 20845 (0.1% lower), and the Intel Core i5-12600T scores 20917 (0.2% higher). This tight clustering shows that the Ryzen 5 5500 performs in a narrow band with these rivals, meaning CPU choice among these options would have minimal impact on the game's frame rates.

The GPU's nearest rivals are less relevant to gaming performance. The NVIDIA Tesla T4, Tesla P40, AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56, and NVIDIA Quadro P6000 are all professional or workstation cards with average benchmark scores within 1.3% of the RTX 4090's 66473. These are not gaming-focused comparisons, and the RTX 4090's gaming performance is far superior to these workstation parts in real-world scenarios. The combo's rank of 66 suggests that while the CPU is not top-tier, the GPU's dominance boosts the overall configuration to near the top of the database.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy of performance across presets. At every resolution, the Low preset delivers the highest average FPS, followed by Medium, then High, with Ultra being the slowest. For players prioritizing smoothness over visual fidelity, the Low preset at 1440p delivers 158.9 FPS, which is more than sufficient for high-refresh-rate displays. Even at 4K, Low produces 103.4 FPS, which exceeds the 60 FPS threshold commonly considered playable.

The Medium preset offers a balanced experience. At 1080p it produces 160.2 FPS, at 1440p it produces 117.5 FPS, and at 4K it produces 76.7 FPS. This preset appears to be the sweet spot for most users, providing a meaningful visual upgrade over Low while maintaining frame rates well above 60 FPS at all tested resolutions. The data suggests that Medium at 4K is a viable option for those who want the resolution benefit without sacrificing playability.

The High preset is more demanding. At 1080p it delivers 136 FPS, at 1440p 97.6 FPS, and at 4K 67.1 FPS. The 4K High result is still above 60 FPS, making it playable, but the margin is thinner. The Ultra preset is only recommended for players with 1080p or 1440p displays who prioritize maximum visual quality. At 1080p Ultra, the 98.4 FPS result is acceptable, and at 1440p Ultra, 73.8 FPS is playable. However, at 4K Ultra, the 47.6 FPS result falls below the 60 FPS threshold, making it the only measured configuration that is not consistently smooth. Based on the data, the best overall experience is either Medium at 4K or High at 1440p, depending on whether resolution or settings quality is the higher priority.