Red Dead Redemption 2

# Red Dead Redemption 2 with AMD Ryzen 5 8400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 delivers a mid-pack performance tier for Red Dead Redemption 2, ranking 1066th out of 3714 tested combos, placing it in the 71st percentile of all configurations. This combination of a 6-core, 12-thread Zen 4 processor with a high-bandwidth Ampere GPU produces a system that is clearly GPU-limited at higher resolutions, yet shows strong CPU headroom at 1080p. The measured frame rates across four quality presets and three resolutions reveal a consistent pattern: the RTX 3080's 10 GB of GDDR6X memory and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth become the primary constraint as pixel count rises, while the Ryzen 5 8400F's 4.70 GHz boost clock and 16 MB shared L3 cache provide sufficient throughput to keep frame pacing stable at lower settings.

How This Combo Ranks

At rank 1066 out of 3714 combos, this configuration sits in the upper third of tested systems for Red Dead Redemption 2, but it is not a top-tier performer. The combo's position reflects a balanced pairing where neither component dramatically bottlenecks the other across the full range of tested settings, though the data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor in most scenarios. The RTX 3080's average benchmark score of 23172 places it at the 68th percentile among all GPUs, while the Ryzen 5 8400F's average score of 25005 puts it at the 77th percentile among all CPUs. This slight CPU advantage in relative standing helps explain why the combo performs better at 1080p, where the processor can push higher frame rates, than at 4K, where the GPU's raw throughput caps performance.

The CPU's nearest rivals in average benchmark score 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 score within 0.4% of the 8400F. The AMD EPYC 9474F trails by -0.4%. This clustering shows the 8400F is competitively positioned in synthetic multi-threaded workloads, but the gaming data reveals that its real-world advantage comes from single-thread performance — its 3DMark single-thread score of 951 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2943 are strong indicators for a game like Red Dead Redemption 2 that relies on a few heavily loaded threads.

The GPU's nearest rivals in average benchmark score are NVIDIA P106-100 (deltaPct -0.3), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (deltaPct -0.3), AMD Radeon RX 6600M (deltaPct -0.4), and AMD Radeon R9 M290X (deltaPct -0.4). These rivals are all within 0.4% of the RTX 3080's score, which is noteworthy — the RTX 3080's percentile ranking (68th) is lower than its raw score might suggest, indicating a crowded field of similar-performing GPUs. In actual gaming, however, the RTX 3080's 8704 shading units and 68 RT cores provide capabilities that synthetic benchmarks may not fully capture.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain 60+ FPS?

A: At 1080p, the combo achieves 91 FPS on High settings and 109 FPS on Medium, both comfortably above 60 FPS. At 1440p, High settings yield 68 FPS, which remains playable, but Medium drops to 81 FPS. At 4K, no preset reaches 60 FPS — the highest is Low at 72 FPS.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 8400F's multi-threaded performance compare to its rivals?

A: The 8400F scores 20851 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 24389 in PassMark multithread. Its nearest rival, the Ryzen 5 7500F, has an average score of 24964 (deltaPct 0.2), meaning the 8400F is essentially tied with it. The Intel Core i7-13620H is 0.4% ahead, while the EPYC 9474F is 0.4% behind.

Q: Is the RTX 3080's 10 GB VRAM sufficient for Red Dead Redemption 2 at 4K?

A: The data shows 4K performance is lackluster regardless of settings — 32 FPS on Ultra, 45 FPS on High, 54 FPS on Medium. While VRAM capacity is not directly measured here, the GPU's 760.3 GB/s bandwidth and 320-bit bus width are clearly stressed at 3840x2160, where even Low settings only reach 72 FPS.

Q: What settings preset provides the smoothest experience at 1440p?

A: Medium settings at 2560x1440 deliver 81 FPS average with a minimum of 69 FPS and maximum of 93 FPS, making it the only 1440p preset with both an average above 60 FPS and a minimum above 60 FPS. High settings drop to 68 FPS average, which is still smooth but lacks the same headroom.

Q: How does this combo's ranking compare to its component percentiles?

A: The combo ranks 1066th out of 3714 (71st percentile), while the CPU sits at the 77th percentile and the GPU at the 68th percentile. This suggests the GPU is the limiting factor in most scenarios, pulling the combo's overall rank below what the CPU alone would achieve.

Q: Does the CPU's 6-core/12-thread configuration hold back performance?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 145 FPS, which is the highest measured average across all settings. This indicates the CPU can drive high frame rates when GPU load is reduced. The 8400F's 3DMark max-threads score of 6165 and 2-thread score of 1874 show strong scaling, but Red Dead Redemption 2 appears to benefit more from single-thread performance (951 in 3DMark single-thread) than raw core count.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and consistent across all settings, revealing a clear GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 91 at 1080p to 68 at 1440p (a 25% reduction) and then to 45 at 4K (a 50% reduction from 1440p). At Low settings, the progression is 145 to 108 to 72, showing a similar pattern — the 4K figure is exactly half the 1080p figure. This linear scaling with pixel count (1080p has 2.07 million pixels, 1440p has 3.69 million, 4K has 8.29 million) indicates the RTX 3080's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the dominant constraints.

The Medium preset, which is the only one with min/max FPS data, shows the scaling most clearly: 109 FPS at 1080p (min 92, max 125), 81 FPS at 1440p (min 69, max 93), and 54 FPS at 4K (min 46, max 62). The minimum FPS values at 1440p (69) and 4K (46) are both below their respective averages by roughly 15%, suggesting occasional frame dips that could be felt in gameplay. The CPU's role in this scaling is minimal — at 1080p Low, where the CPU is most likely to be a factor, the 145 FPS average demonstrates the 8400F can far exceed what the GPU delivers at higher resolutions. The 4K Low result of 72 FPS, despite being the highest 4K score, still represents a 50% drop from 1080p Low, confirming that the GPU, not the CPU, is the bottleneck above 1080p.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results. Low settings produce 145 FPS average, making it the only preset across all resolutions to exceed 140 FPS. Medium settings yield 109 FPS with a minimum of 92 and maximum of 125, providing a solid 60+ FPS experience with headroom. High settings drop to 91 FPS, still comfortably above 60 FPS. Ultra settings fall to 65 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS threshold but leaves little margin for demanding scenes. The spread from Low to Ultra is 80 FPS (145 to 65), indicating that GPU load scales significantly with quality settings even at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, performance remains playable but with tighter margins. Low settings achieve 108 FPS, nearly matching the 1080p Medium result. Medium settings deliver 81 FPS with a minimum of 69 FPS, making it the safest choice for consistent frame pacing. High settings reach 68 FPS, which is above 60 but with no headroom for drops. Ultra settings fall to 49 FPS, dipping below the 60 FPS threshold and showing the GPU's limits at this resolution. The drop from Low to Ultra is 59 FPS (108 to 49), a smaller absolute spread than at 1080p but a larger percentage reduction (54%).

At 3840x2160, all presets struggle to maintain high frame rates. Low settings achieve 72 FPS, the only 4K preset above 60 FPS. Medium settings yield 54 FPS with a minimum of 46 FPS and maximum of 62 FPS, showing significant variance that could cause noticeable stutter. High settings drop to 45 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 32 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra (72 to 32) represents a 55% reduction, and even the best 4K result (72 FPS on Low) is below the 1080p Ultra score of 65 FPS — highlighting how resolution affects this GPU more than quality settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on Zen 4 architecture, manufactured on a 4 nm process by TSMC. Its base clock of 4.20 GHz and boost clock of 4.70 GHz provide strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by a 3DMark single-thread score of 951 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2943. The CPU's cache hierarchy — 64 KB L1 per core, 1 MB L2 per core, and 16 MB shared L3 — is modest for a modern desktop processor, but the 8400F compensates with high clock speeds and efficient Zen 4 architecture.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU's performance is most visible at 1080p Low settings, where the combo achieves 145 FPS. This high frame rate suggests the CPU is not a limiting factor at this resolution and settings combination, as the GPU can render frames quickly enough to exercise the CPU's full potential. The 8400F's multi-threaded scores — 20851 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 6165 in 3DMark max-threads — indicate it can handle multiple threads effectively, but the game's engine appears to favor single-thread performance, given the strong correlation between 3DMark single-thread score (951) and the high 1080p frame rates.

The CPU's nearest rivals in average benchmark score are all within 0.4% of the 8400F, which means in synthetic tests there is no meaningful difference. However, the 8400F's 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs suggests it is a well-above-average processor overall. In gaming, the 8400F's advantage likely comes from its boost clock — at 4.70 GHz, it is competitive with much more expensive processors in lightly-threaded workloads. The CPU's 65 W TDP and 4 nm process node also mean it runs efficiently, though this does not directly impact gaming performance.

Settings Recommendations

For a balanced experience at 1920x1080, the Medium preset is the recommended choice. It delivers 109 FPS average with a minimum of 92 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay even in demanding scenes. The High preset at 91 FPS is also viable, but the gap to Medium (18 FPS) is significant, and the minimum FPS for High is not recorded, leaving uncertainty about frame dips. Ultra at 65 FPS is playable but offers little margin, making it a risky choice for users sensitive to frame rate fluctuations.

At 2560x1440, Medium is the clear winner. It achieves 81 FPS average with a minimum of 69 FPS, providing both a high average and a safe minimum. High at 68 FPS is technically above 60, but the lack of min/max data for this preset introduces risk — the Medium preset's recorded minimum of 69 FPS suggests that High could dip below 60 in similar scenes. Low at 108 FPS is an option for users prioritizing frame rate over visual quality, but the jump from Low to Medium (108 to 81) is substantial, and Medium likely offers a better visual-to-performance trade-off.

At 3840x2160, no preset provides both a high average and confirmed minimum above 60 FPS. Low at 72 FPS is the only preset above 60 FPS average, but its minimum is not recorded. Medium at 54 FPS with a minimum of 46 FPS shows that the GPU cannot maintain smooth frame pacing at 4K with this quality level. For users who must play at 4K, Low settings are the only recommendation, and even then, the 72 FPS average may not hold in all scenes. The 4K Ultra result of 32 FPS is effectively unplayable for most users.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA102 chip, manufactured on an 8 nm process by Samsung. Its 10 GB of GDDR6X memory runs at 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective) across a 320-bit bus, providing 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's 8704 shading units, 272 TMUs, and 96 ROPs deliver strong raw throughput, with a boost clock of 1710 MHz and a 1440 MHz base clock. The RTX 3080's 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores add ray tracing and AI acceleration capabilities, though these are not directly measured in the Red Dead Redemption 2 data.

In this game, the GPU is the primary bottleneck at all resolutions above 1080p. The 4K results — 32 FPS on Ultra, 45 FPS on High, 54 FPS on Medium — show that even the GPU's 760.3 GB/s bandwidth is insufficient for 8.3 million pixels at high quality settings. The 1080p results are stronger, but the drop from 145 FPS at Low to 65 FPS at Ultra (a 55% reduction) indicates that the GPU's shading and texture units are heavily taxed by Ultra quality settings. The RTX 3080's percentile ranking of 68th among all GPUs, combined with its average benchmark score of 23172, places it in the upper-mid tier of graphics cards — capable but not top-tier.

The GPU's nearest rivals in average benchmark score (NVIDIA P106-100, AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16, AMD Radeon RX 6600M, AMD Radeon R9 M290X) are all within 0.4% of the RTX 3080's score, which is surprising given the architectural differences. This clustering suggests that synthetic benchmarks may not fully differentiate GPUs in the same performance class. In actual Red Dead Redemption 2 testing, the RTX 3080's performance is more meaningful — its 10 GB VRAM and high bandwidth are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the 4K results show that users seeking 60+ FPS at 3840x2160 would need to reduce settings to Low or consider a more powerful GPU.