Red Dead Redemption 2

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 combination delivers playable performance at 1080p in Red Dead Redemption 2, but the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck as resolution increases. The measured frame rates show a clear pattern: at 1080p Low, the combo averages 85 FPS, which drops to 63 FPS at Medium, 53 FPS at High, and 38 FPS at Ultra. Moving to 1440p, the same settings yield 63, 47, 39, and 28 FPS respectively, while 4K sees the averages fall to 42, 31, 26, and 19 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at High settings represents a 51% reduction in frame rate, indicating that the RTX 2060's memory bandwidth and compute resources are heavily taxed at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate deltas between resolutions reveal a GPU-limited scenario across all quality presets. At Low settings, the transition from 1080p (85 FPS) to 1440p (63 FPS) costs 22 FPS, and the further drop to 4K (42 FPS) costs another 21 FPS — a nearly linear scaling pattern that suggests the CPU is not the limiting factor. The Medium preset shows similar behavior: 63 FPS at 1080p, 47 FPS at 1440p, and 31 FPS at 4K. The High preset, which is the most demanding of the measured configurations, drops from 53 FPS at 1080p to 39 FPS at 1440p and finally to 26 FPS at 4K. These results indicate that the RTX 2060's 6 GB GDDR6 memory and 336.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient to maintain smooth gameplay at 4K, where even the Low preset only manages 42 FPS.

The Ultra preset is the most punishing, with 1080p delivering 38 FPS, 1440p dropping to 28 FPS, and 4K falling to 19 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 19 FPS is below the threshold for comfortable gameplay, confirming that this combination is not viable at that resolution with maximum settings. Interestingly, the scaling from 1440p to 4K at Ultra (28 to 19 FPS) represents a 32% drop, which is proportionally smaller than the 1080p to 1440p drop at the same preset (38 to 28 FPS, a 26% reduction), suggesting that the game's rendering workload becomes increasingly pixel-bound at higher resolutions. The data strongly suggests that 1080p is the intended resolution for this combo, with 1440p playable only at Low and Medium settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 2933 out of 3714 tested combinations in Red Dead Redemption 2, placing it in the bottom 21% of all tested systems. This percentile ranking reflects the RTX 2060's age and the demanding nature of the game's open-world rendering. The CPU component, however, performs much better in isolation: the Ryzen 5 8400F sits at the 77th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25005. This disparity between CPU and GPU capability explains why the combo's ranking is driven primarily by graphics performance. The nearest rival combos in the database are not listed for this specific game, but the CPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F (deltaPct 0.2), Intel Core i7-11850H (deltaPct 0.3), and Intel Core i7-13620H (deltaPct 0.4), all of which have nearly identical average scores, indicating that the 8400F is not the source of any bottleneck.

The GPU's standalone ranking is more modest: the RTX 2060 sits at the 58th percentile among all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 15290. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (deltaPct 0), AMD Radeon 680M (deltaPct 0.1), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM (deltaPct 0.6), and AMD Radeon RX 7600 (deltaPct 0.8). These deltas are remarkably small, meaning the RTX 2060 performs almost identically to these alternatives in synthetic benchmarks, yet the in-game ranking of 2933 out of 3714 suggests that Red Dead Redemption 2 specifically stresses the GPU in ways that the aggregate scores do not capture. In practical terms, this combo will struggle to compete with systems featuring newer GPUs, even if their synthetic scores are similar.

GPU Role

The RTX 2060 is the clear limiting component in this pairing. Its 6 GB VRAM capacity is the most likely constraint at 4K, where the measured FPS drops to 26 at High settings. The GPU's memory configuration includes a 192-bit bus width and 336.0 GB/s bandwidth, which is adequate for 1080p but insufficient for 4K textures and geometry. The 1,920 shading units and 48 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 80.64 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 201.6 GTexel/s, figures that explain why the card can handle 1080p Ultra at 38 FPS but cannot scale to 4K. The boost clock of 1680 MHz provides the computational headroom for moderate overclocking, but the fundamental limitations are the VRAM capacity and memory bandwidth.

The GPU's Turing architecture, fabricated on a 12 nm process at TSMC, includes 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores, though Red Dead Redemption 2 does not leverage ray tracing in a way that would benefit from these components. The 6.451 TFLOPS FP32 performance is the raw compute ceiling, and the measured 1080p results indicate that this is sufficient for playable frame rates at Medium and High presets. The 4K results, however, show that the card is overwhelmed: even at Low settings, the 42 FPS average at 4K is below the 60 FPS target that most gamers prefer. The GPU's 58th percentile ranking and its close proximity to the GTX 580 and Radeon 680M in average score suggest that it is a mid-range part from its generation, and Red Dead Redemption 2's demanding rendering pipeline exposes its age.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Red Dead Redemption 2 with this combo?

A: 1080p is the only resolution that provides consistently playable frame rates. At 1080p Medium, the combo averages 63 FPS, and at High it averages 53 FPS. At 1440p, only the Low preset (63 FPS) and Medium preset (47 FPS) are playable, while 4K is only acceptable at Low settings (42 FPS).

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

A: No, not at acceptable quality levels. At 4K High, the average FPS is 26, and at 4K Ultra it drops to 19 FPS. Even at 4K Low, the average of 42 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, making 4K impractical for this game.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 2060 has an average benchmark score of 15290, which is nearly identical to the GTX 580 (15283, deltaPct 0), Radeon 680M (15270, deltaPct 0.1), and RTX 3050 OEM (15199, deltaPct 0.6). The Radeon RX 7600 is just 0.8% behind, meaning all five GPUs perform within 1% of each other in aggregate tests.

Q: What is the CPU's performance percentile and how does it affect the combo?

A: The Ryzen 5 8400F sits at the 77th percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 25005. Its nearest rival, the Ryzen 5 7500F, scores 24964 with a deltaPct of 0.2, indicating that the CPU is not a bottleneck in this pairing.

Q: Which settings preset provides the best experience at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the High preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance with 53 FPS average. The Medium preset delivers 63 FPS, which is smoother but with reduced visual fidelity, while Ultra drops to 38 FPS and Low reaches 85 FPS but with significant visual compromises.

Q: How does the combo's in-game ranking compare to its component rankings?

A: The combo ranks 2933 out of 3714 tested combinations (bottom 21%), while the CPU ranks in the 77th percentile and the GPU in the 58th percentile. This indicates that the GPU's relatively lower ranking is dragging the overall combo down, as the CPU is capable of much better performance with a stronger graphics card.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience at 1080p, the High preset (53 FPS) provides a good balance between visual quality and playability, while the Medium preset (63 FPS) offers smoother gameplay for those prioritizing frame rate over fidelity. The Ultra preset at 1080p (38 FPS) is playable but will feel less responsive in action sequences, and the Low preset (85 FPS) is only recommended for competitive play or if the user prefers maximum responsiveness over visual quality. At 1440p, the Medium preset (47 FPS) is the best option, as the High preset (39 FPS) is borderline and Ultra (28 FPS) is too demanding. The Low preset at 1440p (63 FPS) is the only configuration that consistently maintains 60+ FPS at this resolution.

For 4K, none of the presets deliver a satisfactory experience: Low (42 FPS) is the only playable option, but it requires significant visual compromises. The Medium preset at 4K (31 FPS) and High (26 FPS) are below the 30 FPS minimum for most players, and Ultra (19 FPS) is essentially unplayable. The data suggests that users with this combo should stick to 1080p High or Medium, or 1440p Medium if they have a monitor that supports it. The measured minimum FPS values, which are only available for the Medium preset at each resolution (54 FPS at 1080p, 40 FPS at 1440p, 27 FPS at 4K), indicate that the Medium preset provides more consistent frame pacing than the other settings, making it the safest choice for maintaining smooth gameplay.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 8400F provides more than enough processing power for Red Dead Redemption 2, as evidenced by the CPU's benchmark results and the fact that frame rates scale almost entirely with resolution and GPU load. The CPU has 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, built on the Zen 4 architecture with a 4 nm process at TSMC. Its 16 MB shared L3 cache and 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth with DDR5 support are more than sufficient for this game's requirements. The CPU's multi-threaded performance is strong, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 20851 and a single-core score of 2943, which explains why the combo shows no signs of CPU bottlenecking even at 1080p Low where the GPU is least stressed.

The CPU's 77th percentile ranking puts it well above the GPU's 58th percentile, and its average benchmark score of 25005 is nearly identical to the Ryzen 5 7500F (24964), Intel Core i7-11850H (24935), and Intel Core i7-13620H (24911). This means that swapping the CPU for any of these rivals would have no measurable impact on Red Dead Redemption 2's performance, as the GPU is the clear limiting factor. The CPU's 65 W TDP and 4 nm process node ensure that it runs cool and efficiently, but this does not translate into higher frame rates in this game. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Ultra (38 FPS) and 4K Low (42 FPS), the CPU is not holding back the GPU, as these are GPU-limited scenarios. Upgrading the GPU would yield significant performance gains, while upgrading the CPU would provide no benefit for this specific game with this graphics card.