Red Dead Redemption 2

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 combination delivers a playable but demanding experience in Red Dead Redemption 2, with performance that scales predictably across resolutions and presets. Measured data shows the combo achieving its best frame rates at 1080p, where the Low preset reaches 98 FPS, while the Ultra preset at 4K drops to just 22 FPS. This pairing sits at rank 1760 out of 2902 tested combinations in this specific game, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database. The following analysis breaks down how each component contributes to these results, which settings offer the most balanced experience, and what the performance scaling reveals about system bottlenecks.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor built on the Zen 4 architecture, specifically the Phoenix codename, and manufactured on a 4 nm process at TSMC. It operates with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, which is a modest frequency range for a modern desktop chip. The processor’s cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and a shared 16 MB of L3 cache, totaling 16 MB across the chip. Memory support is limited to DDR5, with dual-channel configuration and a bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s. The CPU connects via PCIe Gen 4 with 20 lanes, and it fits the AMD Socket AM5. Its TDP is rated at 65 watts, making it a relatively efficient part. The launch MSRP for this processor was $170, and it was released on March 31, 2024.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls, physics calculations, and AI routines. The 6-core, 12-thread configuration is sufficient for this game’s engine, which tends to scale well with multiple threads but does not heavily depend on extreme single-thread performance. Benchmark data for the CPU shows a 3DMark single-thread score of 951 and a 3DMark max-threads score of 6165, indicating that the chip provides balanced performance across both lightly and heavily threaded workloads. In Cinebench R23, the multicore score reaches 20851, while the single-core score is 2943. These numbers suggest that the processor can handle the game’s background tasks without becoming a severe limiting factor, especially at lower resolutions where the GPU is less stressed.

The CPU’s percentile ranking against all CPUs is 77, meaning it outperforms 77% of processors in the database. Its average benchmark score is 25005, which places it near several rivals. The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F scores 24964, a 0.2% difference, while the Intel Core i7-11850H scores 24935, a 0.3% difference. The Intel Core i7-13620H is 0.4% behind at 24911, and the AMD EPYC 9474F is 0.4% ahead at 25103. These deltas are negligible in real-world gaming, meaning the 8400F performs on par with these alternatives in synthetic tests. For Red Dead Redemption 2, the 8400F’s multi-threaded capability is likely sufficient to maintain stable frame pacing at 1080p, but as resolution drops, the CPU’s influence on final FPS becomes more pronounced.

At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 98 FPS, which is a high frame rate that suggests the CPU is not holding back the GPU significantly. However, moving to 4K Low, the FPS falls to 48, indicating that the GPU becomes the dominant constraint at higher resolutions. The 8400F’s boost clock of 4.70 GHz provides adequate single-thread responsiveness for the game’s open-world traversal, where sudden NPC spawns and dynamic weather can cause frame time spikes. The 16 MB L3 cache is modest for a modern gaming CPU, but it is sufficient for this title’s asset streaming. Overall, the CPU contributes a stable foundation, and the data shows it is not the primary bottleneck in most tested configurations.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, using the GB207 chip, and is manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features 2560 shading units, 80 texture mapping units, and 32 raster output units, with 20 ray tracing cores and 80 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2317 MHz and a boost clock of 2572 MHz, with memory clocked at 2500 MHz, effectively 20 Gbps. It is equipped with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 320.0 GB/s. The card’s pixel rate is 82.30 GPixel/s, and its texture rate is 205.8 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance rated at 13.17 TFLOPS. The TDP is 130 watts, requiring a 300-watt suggested PSU and a single 8-pin power connector. It uses a PCIe 5.0 x8 interface and offers display outputs of 1x HDMI 2.1b and 3x DisplayPort 2.1b. The launch MSRP was 249 USD, and it was released on June 30, 2025.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the GPU is clearly the limiting component in most scenarios, especially at higher resolutions and presets. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is a potential concern for this game, as the title’s high-resolution textures can consume significant memory, but the measured data shows that the card still delivers playable frame rates at 1080p. The GPU’s percentile ranking against all GPUs is 66, indicating it outperforms 66% of graphics cards in the database. Its average benchmark score is 21035, with rivals such as the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL scoring 21153 (0.6% ahead), the AMD Radeon HD 8970M scoring 21237 (1% ahead), the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT scoring 20713 (1.6% behind), and the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile scoring 21379 (1.6% ahead). These deltas are small, suggesting that the RTX 5050 performs similarly to these cards in synthetic benchmarks, though real-world gaming can vary.

The measured FPS data for Red Dead Redemption 2 shows the GPU’s capabilities and limitations. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 98 FPS, which is a smooth experience, but this drops to 61 FPS at High settings and 44 FPS at Ultra. At 1440p, the Low preset yields 73 FPS, while High drops to 46 FPS and Ultra falls to 33 FPS. At 4K, the GPU struggles more: Low yields 48 FPS, Medium 36 FPS, High 30 FPS, and Ultra only 22 FPS. These numbers indicate that the RTX 5050 is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it can handle most presets, but it cannot maintain high frame rates at 1440p with Ultra settings or at 4K with anything above Low. The 8 GB VRAM may also contribute to performance degradation at higher resolutions, as the game’s texture quality demands exceed available memory, leading to lower FPS.

The GPU’s boost clock of 2572 MHz is respectable, but the 128-bit memory bus and 8 GB capacity limit its performance in memory-intensive scenes, such as the dense towns or forested areas of Red Dead Redemption 2. The 320.0 GB/s bandwidth is modest compared to higher-tier cards, which explains why the frame rates drop significantly as resolution increases. The GPU’s FP32 throughput of 13.17 TFLOPS is adequate for this game’s DirectX 12 rendering, but the card lacks the raw compute power to handle Ultra presets at high resolutions. Overall, the RTX 5050 provides a baseline experience that is playable at 1080p and 1440p with lower settings, but users seeking higher fidelity should expect to compromise.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal balance between visual quality and performance for this combo is the Medium preset at 1080p. At this setting, the game runs at 73 FPS average, with a minimum of 62 FPS and a maximum of 84 FPS. This provides a smooth, responsive experience that is well above the 60 FPS threshold for most players, while still offering better visual fidelity than the Low preset. The Low preset at 1080p achieves 98 FPS, which is the highest frame rate in the dataset, but it sacrifices significant visual quality, including shadows, textures, and draw distances. The High preset at 1080p drops to 61 FPS, which is still playable but leaves little headroom for frame time spikes during intense action sequences. The Ultra preset at 1080p yields only 44 FPS, which is below the ideal range for a fast-paced game.

At 1440p, the Medium preset offers 55 FPS, with a minimum of 46 and maximum of 63, which is borderline acceptable for this title, but the Low preset at 73 FPS is a safer choice for maintaining fluid gameplay. The High and Ultra presets at 1440p fall to 46 FPS and 33 FPS, respectively, which are both below the smooth threshold. For users with a 4K display, the Low preset at 48 FPS is the only viable option, as Medium drops to 36 FPS, High to 30 FPS, and Ultra to 22 FPS. These numbers indicate that the combo is not well-suited for 4K gaming, and users should either reduce resolution or drastically lower settings.

The data suggests that the Medium preset at 1080p is the sweet spot, providing 73 FPS average, which is 73% higher than the Ultra preset at the same resolution (44 FPS). It also offers a minimum FPS of 62, which ensures that the game remains fluid even in demanding scenes. Compared to the High preset, Medium sacrifices some visual fidelity but gains 12 FPS, which is a significant improvement for a small visual hit. The Low preset, while faster, lacks the texture and lighting detail that makes Red Dead Redemption 2 visually appealing. Therefore, the recommendation is to use Medium at 1080p for the best overall experience, and if a higher resolution is necessary, use Low at 1440p or 4K to maintain playable frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 ranks 1760 out of 2902 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2. This places it in the 60th percentile of all tested systems, meaning it outperforms roughly 60% of configurations but is beaten by the top 40%. This ranking reflects the GPU’s mid-range positioning, as the CPU is not a significant differentiator in this game. The combo’s performance is consistent with the GPU’s overall percentile ranking of 66, suggesting that the RTX 5050 is the primary driver of the system’s gaming performance, while the CPU contributes a secondary role.

Within the database, this combo is positioned below systems with higher-end GPUs, such as those with the RTX 5060 or RTX 5070, which would deliver higher frame rates at all resolutions. However, it is likely above systems with older or lower-tier GPUs, such as the GTX 16-series or RX 5000-series cards. The rank of 1760 indicates that this combo is not a top performer, but it is not a low-end option either. It occupies a space where users can expect playable performance at 1080p and 1440p with adjusted settings, but not high refresh rates at 4K.

The deltaPct values for the CPU’s nearest rivals show that the 8400F performs nearly identically to the Ryzen 5 7500F and Intel Core i7-13620H, so swapping to those CPUs would likely not change the combo’s rank significantly. Similarly, the GPU’s rivals, such as the RX 5600 XT, have a 1.6% lower average score, meaning the RTX 5050 is slightly faster in synthetic tests, which could translate to a marginally better rank. The combo’s rank is thus a reflection of the GPU’s mid-tier status, and the data shows that it is a balanced pairing for 1080p gaming, but it lacks the headroom for higher resolutions or maximum settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 98 FPS, which drops to 73 FPS at 1440p Low (a 25.5% decrease) and further to 48 FPS at 4K Low (a 51% decrease from 1080p). This scaling is typical of a GPU-bound scenario, where the RTX 5050’s rendering capabilities are the limiting factor. The CPU’s performance is sufficient to maintain frame rates at lower resolutions, but as the pixel count increases, the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth become the bottleneck.

At Medium settings, the FPS drops from 73 at 1080p to 55 at 1440p (a 24.7% decrease) and to 36 at 4K (a 50.7% decrease from 1080p). The High preset follows a similar pattern: 61 FPS at 1080p, 46 FPS at 1440p (a 24.6% decrease), and 30 FPS at 4K (a 50.8% decrease). The Ultra preset shows the steepest absolute drop: 44 FPS at 1080p, 33 FPS at 1440p (a 25% decrease), and 22 FPS at 4K (a 50% decrease). This consistent scaling across all presets indicates that the GPU is the dominant constraint, as the percentage drops are nearly identical regardless of settings.

The resolution scaling also reveals that the combo is not well-suited for 4K gaming, as even the Low preset cannot maintain 60 FPS. The 50% drop from 1080p to 4K is expected for a mid-range GPU like the RTX 5050, which has a 128-bit memory bus and 8 GB VRAM. The 320.0 GB/s bandwidth is insufficient for the high pixel throughput required at 4K, and the 13.17 TFLOPS FP32 performance is not enough to process the increased geometry and shading work. The CPU’s role in this scaling is minimal, as the 8400F’s multi-threaded performance is more than adequate to feed the GPU at all resolutions, but the GPU’s limitations become increasingly apparent as resolution rises.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for Red Dead Redemption 2 with this combo is structured across three resolutions and four settings presets, with some rows including average, minimum, and maximum FPS values.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 98 FPS. The Medium preset averages 73 FPS, with a minimum of 62 FPS and a maximum of 84 FPS. The High preset averages 61 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 44 FPS. This resolution provides the best performance, with Low and Medium both exceeding 60 FPS, and even High is playable. The Ultra preset is below the ideal threshold but still playable for some users.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 73 FPS. The Medium preset averages 55 FPS, with a minimum of 46 FPS and a maximum of 63 FPS. The High preset averages 46 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 33 FPS. At this resolution, only the Low preset maintains a comfortable frame rate, while Medium is borderline, and High and Ultra are below 60 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 48 FPS. The Medium preset averages 36 FPS, with a minimum of 31 FPS and a maximum of 41 FPS. The High preset averages 30 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 22 FPS. At 4K, all presets fall below 60 FPS, and even Low cannot reach 50 FPS, making this resolution unsuitable for smooth gameplay.

The data shows that the combo’s performance is heavily dependent on both resolution and settings, with a range from 98 FPS at 1080p Low to 22 FPS at 4K Ultra. The minimum FPS values, where available, indicate that frame pacing is generally stable, as the minimum for Medium at 1080p is 62 FPS, which is close to the average. At 1440p Medium, the minimum of 46 FPS shows some variance, but it remains playable. At 4K Medium, the minimum of 31 FPS is the lowest in the dataset, indicating that the game can stutter in demanding scenes, such as during firefights or when traversing dense vegetation.

Overall, the measured FPS breakdown confirms that this combo is optimized for 1080p gaming, with Medium settings providing the best balance, while higher resolutions require significant sacrifices in visual quality to maintain playable frame rates. The GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute power are the primary constraints, and the CPU’s performance is adequate for supporting the GPU across all tested configurations.