Red Dead Redemption 2

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 pairing delivers a playable but demanding experience in Red Dead Redemption 2, landing at rank 1760 out of 2902 tested combos. This places it in the lower-middle tier of the database, meaning you will need to make deliberate settings choices to hit smooth framerates, particularly at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The performance delta between 1080p and 4K is steep, clearly illustrating where the bottleneck lies. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 98 FPS at 1920x1080 to 73 FPS at 2560x1440, and finally to 48 FPS at 3840x2160. That is a 51% reduction in average FPS from 1080p to 4K, which is a significant hit that points directly at the GPU struggling to fill those extra pixels.

The scaling pattern holds across other settings presets. With High settings, the average goes from 61 FPS at 1080p down to 46 FPS at 1440p, and then to 30 FPS at 4K. The jump from 1440p to 4K alone costs roughly 35% of the performance. This indicates that the RTX 5050 is the primary limiting factor as resolution climbs; the Ryzen 5 7500F has enough headroom to feed the GPU at lower resolutions, but the graphics card cannot maintain throughput when pixel count quadruples.

Looking at the Ultra preset, the situation becomes more pronounced. The average frame rate at 1080p is 44 FPS, which drops to 33 FPS at 1440p and a mere 22 FPS at 4K. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 26 FPS, showing that the GPU is completely saturated by the highest settings. For a smooth experience, the data suggests sticking to 1080p or 1440p with Medium or High settings, as the 4K numbers consistently fall below the 60 FPS threshold, even on Low.

GPU Role

The RTX 5050 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process and packs 2,560 shading units. Its boost clock of 2572 MHz and base clock of 2317 MHz are respectable, but the 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus is a constraint in a game as demanding as Red Dead Redemption 2. The memory bandwidth sits at 320.0 GB/s, which is adequate but not exceptional for a game that loads large textures and open-world geometry.

The GPU’s compute capabilities are modest, with an FP32 rating of 13.17 TFLOPS and a texture rate of 205.8 GTexel/s. These figures explain why the card lands in the 66th percentile among all GPUs in the database. Its average benchmark score of 21,035 places it in close competition with the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, which scores 20,713 and trails by 1.6%. It also sits near the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL (21,153, ahead by 0.6%) and the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile (21,379, behind by 1.6%). This is a mid-range part, and the measured FPS reflects that positioning.

The pixel rate of 82.30 GPixel/s and 32 ROPs are the key numbers to consider for 4K performance. At 3840x2160, the card simply runs out of pixel throughput, which is why Ultra settings produce an average of just 22 FPS. The 8 GB VRAM is also a concern; while the data does not show a hard crash, the steep drop from Medium (36 FPS) to Ultra (22 FPS) at 4K suggests that memory capacity and bandwidth are being taxed heavily. For this game, the RTX 5050 is best treated as a 1080p or 1440p card, with 4K reserved for Low or Medium presets if visual fidelity is not the priority.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 7500F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 7000 series, built on Zen 4 architecture. Its base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 5.00 GHz give it solid single-thread performance, which is crucial for a game like Red Dead Redemption 2 that relies on a few heavily loaded threads. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB per-core L2 cache help with data locality, reducing the latency penalty when the game streams in new areas.

In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU shows strong results. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 22,799, with a single-core score of 3,218. The Geekbench multicore result is 12,362, and the single-core is 2,374. These scores place the 7500F in the 77th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 24,964. Its nearest rivals are the Intel Core i7-11850H (24,935, 0.1% behind), AMD Ryzen 5 8400F (25,005, 0.2% ahead), Intel Core i7-13620H (24,911, 0.2% behind), and Intel Core 5 210H (24,872, 0.4% behind). The 7500F is effectively on par with these parts, showing that it is not a bottleneck in this configuration.

The data supports this conclusion. At 1080p Low settings, the average FPS is 98, which climbs from the 61 FPS at High settings. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see smaller gains from lowering settings. Instead, the FPS scales significantly with resolution and settings, indicating that the GPU is the binding constraint. The 7500F has enough headroom to drive the RTX 5050 to its limits, and its 65 W TDP makes it an efficient partner that does not introduce thermal throttling issues in a typical build. For this game, the CPU role is to stay out of the way, and the data shows it does exactly that.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 5 7500F and RTX 5050 holds a rank of 1760 out of 2902 tested combinations in Red Dead Redemption 2. This puts it in the bottom 40% of all systems tested, which is a sobering statistic for a modern pairing. The percentile ranking of the GPU (66th) and CPU (77th) individually are decent, but the in-game result is lower than those numbers suggest, indicating that the specific demands of this game do not favor this hardware configuration.

The rank is heavily influenced by the GPU’s performance at higher resolutions. While the combo can achieve 98 FPS at 1080p Low, the average across all tested settings and resolutions is dragged down by the 4K results, where the card struggles to maintain playable framerates. The 1760th position means that most other combos in the database can produce higher average FPS, likely due to stronger GPUs with more memory bandwidth or VRAM capacity. For a builder looking at this combo, the rank is a warning that Red Dead Redemption 2 will require compromises, especially if targeting 1440p or 4K displays.

However, the rank should be viewed in context. The combo is not a failure; it delivers smooth performance at 1080p with High settings (61 FPS) and is very playable at Medium (73 FPS). The issue is that the game’s Ultra preset is too demanding, and the 4K resolution is beyond the card’s capabilities. If the goal is 1080p gaming, this combo ranks higher in practice than the overall number suggests, but for higher resolutions, the data is clear that other combinations would be more suitable.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of what to expect across all common resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers an average of 98 FPS on Low, 73 FPS on Medium, 61 FPS on High, and 44 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 62 FPS and a maximum of 84 FPS, indicating decent frame pacing with no severe dips. The Ultra preset has no min/max data, but the average of 44 FPS is below the 60 FPS target, so expect some stutter in busy scenes.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages drop to 73 FPS on Low, 55 FPS on Medium, 46 FPS on High, and 33 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset here shows a minimum of 46 FPS and a maximum of 63 FPS, which is a wider range than at 1080p, suggesting the GPU is working harder. The High preset at 46 FPS is borderline, and the Ultra at 33 FPS is not smooth for a game with this much movement and detail.

At 3840x2160, the performance falls off a cliff. The averages are 48 FPS on Low, 36 FPS on Medium, 30 FPS on High, and 22 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset has the only min/max data at 4K: a minimum of 31 FPS and a maximum of 41 FPS. This shows that even the best-case scenario at 4K is a sub-60 FPS experience. The Low preset at 48 FPS is the only playable option at 4K, and even that is a compromise for a game with this visual fidelity.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1080p gaming with this combo?

A: The data shows that Medium settings provide an average of 73 FPS with a minimum of 62 FPS, which is the sweet spot for smooth play. High settings drop to 61 FPS, which is still playable but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K resolution in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, which yields an average of 48 FPS. Medium settings drop to 36 FPS, and High falls to 30 FPS, both of which are below the smoothness threshold. Ultra is effectively unplayable at 22 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. The Ryzen 5 7500F scores in the 77th percentile, and its nearest rivals are within 0.4% of its average benchmark score, showing it has ample compute headroom. The GPU’s performance drops sharply with resolution, confirming it as the bottleneck.

Q: How does the RTX 5050 compare to its nearest rivals in this game?

A: The RTX 5050 has an average benchmark score of 21,035. It is 1.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (20,713) and 0.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL (21,153), but it trails the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile (21,379) by 1.6%.

Q: What is the expected frame rate at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average is 46 FPS. This is below the 60 FPS target, so you may need to drop to Medium settings, which produces an average of 55 FPS, for a more consistent experience.

Q: Does this combo rank well among all tested systems?

A: It ranks 1760 out of 2902 combos, placing it in the lower-middle tier. The individual components are above average, but the game’s demands, particularly at higher resolutions, pull the overall in-game rank down.