Red Dead Redemption 2

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data for Red Dead Redemption 2 shows a clear pattern of diminishing returns as resolution climbs, but the shape of that curve reveals which component is doing the heavy lifting. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combo delivers 140.5 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same High preset, the average drops to 102.1 FPS — a 27.3% reduction. Pushing further to 3840x2160 yields 68.4 FPS, which is a 33.0% drop from 1440p and a 51.3% drop from 1080p.

This scaling behavior is typical of a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. The RTX 5090's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, and that bandwidth is increasingly taxed as pixel count rises. The fact that 4K High produces 68.4 FPS while 1080p High produces 140.5 FPS — a 72.1 FPS gap — indicates that the GPU is the dominant constraint at 4K, not the CPU.

However, the Low settings curve tells a different story. At 1920x1080 Low, the combo reaches 192.9 FPS. At 2560x1440 Low, it hits 164.3 FPS. At 3840x2160 Low, it still manages 109 FPS. The gap between 1080p Low and 4K Low is 83.9 FPS (43.5%), which is proportionally smaller than the High settings gap. This suggests that at Low settings, the CPU's role becomes more significant — the Ryzen 5 5600's 6 cores and 12 threads at a 4.40 GHz boost clock are more likely to be a limiting factor when the GPU has fewer pixels to process.

The Ultra settings data reinforces this interpretation. At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average FPS collapses to 51.5. That is 16.9 FPS below the 4K High result and 46.4 FPS below the 4K Low result. The RTX 5090, despite its 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 176 ROPs, cannot maintain high frame rates at maximum settings in this game at 4K. The data indicates that Ultra settings at 4K push the GPU to its limits, while at 1080p Ultra the 97.9 FPS result shows the CPU can still feed the GPU adequately.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 brings substantial hardware to this title. Its GB202 chip, built on a 5 nm process at TSMC, contains 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2017 MHz and boosts to 2407 MHz. Memory runs at 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective speed, delivering 1.79 TB/s across a 512-bit bus. The 32 GB GDDR7 frame buffer is far beyond what Red Dead Redemption 2 requires at any tested resolution, so VRAM capacity is not a bottleneck in any of the 12 measured configurations.

The 4K Ultra result of 51.5 FPS is the lowest figure in the entire dataset. This is not a VRAM limitation — 32 GB is ample for this game. Instead, the data points to raw compute and rasterization throughput. The RTX 5090's 21,760 shading units and 680 TMUs must process the game's detailed environments, and at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s are being fully utilized. The 4K Medium result of 81.8 FPS shows a 30.3 FPS improvement over Ultra, while 4K Low reaches 109 FPS — a 57.5 FPS jump from Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the GPU's headroom becomes more apparent. The Ultra setting produces 76 FPS, which is 24.5 FPS higher than 4K Ultra. The Medium setting reaches 124.3 FPS, and Low hits 164.3 FPS. The 1440p High result of 102.1 FPS sits between Medium and Ultra, showing that the RTX 5090 can comfortably handle this resolution at most settings. The 1080p results confirm this: even Ultra achieves 97.9 FPS, and Low reaches 192.9 FPS.

The GPU's benchmark percentile of 94 versus all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84,306, places it in the upper tier of graphics hardware. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D, scores 84,241 (0.1% delta), while the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 scores 83,209 (1.3% delta). These are nominal differences that do not translate into meaningful FPS gaps in this game. The RTX 5090's PassMark G3D score of 39,650 and DirectX 12 score of 185 provide additional context for its compute capabilities, though these synthetic benchmarks do not directly map to Red Dead Redemption 2 performance.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, codenamed Vermeer. It runs at a 3.50 GHz base clock and boosts to 4.40 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU has 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support includes DDR4 on a dual-channel bus with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth. This processor sits on the AMD Socket AM4 platform with PCIe Gen 4 support (20 lanes from the CPU).

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU's influence on the measured FPS is most visible at 1080p with lower settings. At 1920x1080 Low, the combo achieves 192.9 FPS — the highest figure in the entire dataset. The jump from Medium (167.3 FPS) to Low (192.9 FPS) is 25.6 FPS, and from High (140.5 FPS) to Low is 52.4 FPS. These differences suggest that at 1080p, the game's CPU-bound sections can limit performance, and reducing graphical settings allows the Ryzen 5 5600 to push more frames.

The CPU's Cinebench R23 scores — 18,309 multicore and 2,584 singlecore — indicate strong single-threaded performance for a 6-core part. Its 3DMark scores scale predictably: 882 single-thread, 1,737 for 2 threads, 3,313 for 4 threads, 4,798 for 8 threads, and 5,659 for max threads. The PassMark multithread score of 21,541 and single-thread score of 3,256 further characterize its capability. The processor's percentile versus all CPUs is 79, with an average benchmark score of 21,765.

Comparing to nearest rivals, the Ryzen 5 5600's average score of 21,765 is 0.6% above the Intel Xeon D-1746TER (21,635) and 0.6% below the AMD EPYC 9554P (21,899). The Intel Core i7-11700F scores 21,957, which is 0.9% higher. These differences are small and unlikely to produce noticeable FPS variations in this game. The CPU's 79th percentile ranking means it outperforms the majority of tested processors, but it is not a top-tier part.

At 4K, the CPU's role diminishes considerably. The 4K High result of 68.4 FPS and 4K Low result of 109 FPS both depend primarily on the GPU. The 40.6 FPS difference between these two settings at 4K is smaller than the 52.4 FPS difference at 1080p, indicating that the CPU is less of a factor when the GPU is saturated with pixel work.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The dataset includes 12 measured configurations: four settings (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) across three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160). All results are average FPS values; no minimum or maximum FPS figures are provided.

1920x1080:

• Low: 192.9 FPS
• Medium: 167.3 FPS
• High: 140.5 FPS
• Ultra: 97.9 FPS

The spread from Low to Ultra is 95 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 25.6 FPS (13.3%), from Medium to High is 26.8 FPS (16.0%), and from High to Ultra is 42.6 FPS (30.3%). The largest single-step decline occurs between High and Ultra.

2560x1440:

• Low: 164.3 FPS
• Medium: 124.3 FPS
• High: 102.1 FPS
• Ultra: 76 FPS

The spread here is 88.3 FPS. The Low-to-Medium drop is 40 FPS (24.3%), Medium-to-High is 22.2 FPS (17.9%), and High-to-Ultra is 26.1 FPS (25.6%). The Low-to-Medium gap is proportionally larger at 1440p than at 1080p.

3840x2160:

• Low: 109 FPS
• Medium: 81.8 FPS
• High: 68.4 FPS
• Ultra: 51.5 FPS

The spread is 57.5 FPS. Low-to-Medium drops 27.2 FPS (25.0%), Medium-to-High drops 13.4 FPS (16.4%), and High-to-Ultra drops 16.9 FPS (24.7%). At 4K, even the Low setting produces 109 FPS, which is playable, but Ultra falls below 60 FPS at 51.5 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination ranks 31st out of 1,687 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2. This places it in the top 1.8% of all combinations in the database for this specific game. The rank reflects the aggregate performance across all measured settings and resolutions.

Given the RTX 5090's position as a top-tier GPU (94th percentile versus all GPUs) and the Ryzen 5 5600's mid-range standing (79th percentile versus all CPUs), the 31st overall rank is instructive. The combo outperforms many configurations that pair higher-end CPUs with lesser GPUs, because in this game, the GPU carries more weight in determining frame rates — particularly at higher resolutions. The 4K results confirm this: 68.4 FPS at High and 51.5 FPS at Ultra are strong numbers that only a handful of GPUs can match, regardless of CPU.

However, the rank also shows that some combos outperform this pairing. The CPU's 6-core, 12-thread configuration may hold back the RTX 5090 in CPU-bound scenarios at 1080p Low, where the 192.9 FPS result is respectable but not class-leading. A processor with higher single-thread performance or more cores could push those 1080p numbers higher. The data does not provide direct comparisons to other combos' FPS figures, but the 31st rank out of 1,687 indicates that roughly 30 tested combinations deliver better overall performance in this game.

The GPU's nearest rivals — RTX 5090 D (0.1% delta), RTX 5050 Mobile (0.2% delta), and AMD Radeon PRO W6600 (1.3% delta) — all score within 1.3% of the RTX 5090's average benchmark score of 84,306. These are negligible differences that would not change the combo's ranking materially. The CPU's nearest rivals — Intel Xeon D-1746TER (0.6% delta), AMD EPYC 9554P (-0.6% delta), AMD EPYC 9534 (-0.6% delta), and Intel Core i7-11700F (-0.9% delta) — similarly show that the Ryzen 5 5600 sits in a tightly packed performance band.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average is 192.9 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next highest is 167.3 FPS at 1080p Medium, followed by 164.3 FPS at 2560x1440 Low.

Q: Can this combo run Red Dead Redemption 2 at 4K Ultra smoothly?

A: No. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 51.5, which is below the commonly accepted 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. At 4K High, it reaches 68.4 FPS, which is playable.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: The data indicates the CPU becomes more relevant at 1080p Low, where the combo hits 192.9 FPS. The Ryzen 5 5600's 6 cores and 12 threads, boosting to 4.40 GHz, appear to cap performance in lighter GPU loads. At 1080p Ultra (97.9 FPS), the GPU is more likely the constraint.

Q: How much faster is 1080p Low compared to 4K Low?

A: The 1920x1080 Low result of 192.9 FPS is 83.9 FPS higher than the 3840x2160 Low result of 109 FPS, representing a 77.0% improvement. The RTX 5090's 1.79 TB/s bandwidth and 32 GB VRAM are fully exercised at 4K, reducing frame rates.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank among tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 31st out of 1,687 tested combinations in Red Dead Redemption 2. This places it in the top 1.8% of all combos in the database for this game.

Q: Does the 32 GB VRAM make a difference in this game?

A: Based on the measured data, no. Red Dead Redemption 2 does not appear to exceed 32 GB at any resolution or setting tested, as the FPS scaling follows a consistent pattern tied to resolution and settings rather than showing VRAM-related stutters or capacity limits.