Red Dead Redemption 2

FAQ

Q: How does the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X + Intel Arc B390 combo rank in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A: The combo ranks 2568th out of 2902 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 12% of all tested setups for this game. This rank reflects the severe GPU bottleneck observed in the measured results.

Q: What is the best average frame rate this combo achieves in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 51, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At the same resolution, Medium yields 39 FPS, High yields 32 FPS, and Ultra drops to 23 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B390 scores 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. It is 1.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, 1.5% ahead of the GeForce 800M, 2.5% ahead of the GT 625 OEM, and 2.7% ahead of the GT 710. The GPU sits in the 9th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: What is the CPU's multi-threaded performance relative to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 9600X averages 29,713 in benchmark scores. It is 0.2% ahead of the Ryzen 7 PRO 5755GE, but 0.5% behind the Ryzen 7 7840H, 0.6% behind the Ryzen 7 5800XT, and 0.8% behind the Ryzen 7 8845HS. The CPU sits in the 81st percentile of all CPUs.

Q: Does the resolution significantly affect performance for this combo?

A: Yes. At Low settings, average FPS drops from 51 at 1920x1080 to 38 at 2560x1440, and further to 25 at 3840x2160. The delta between Low and Ultra at each resolution is substantial: 28 FPS at 1080p, 21 FPS at 1440p, and 14 FPS at 4K.

Q: What is the measured frame pacing at Medium settings across resolutions?

A: At Medium, the combo shows min/max ranges of 33-44 FPS at 1920x1080, 24-33 FPS at 2560x1440, and 16-22 FPS at 3840x2160. The narrowing range at higher resolutions indicates the GPU saturates more consistently.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, built on Intel's 3nm process. It operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz, with a TDP of 80 W. The GPU features 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster operation pipelines, along with 12 ray tracing cores. Its compute capabilities include 7.680 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 15.36 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1 ratio). Pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s and texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s.

Critically, the Arc B390 uses system shared memory with system dependent bandwidth, meaning its performance is heavily influenced by the host platform's memory configuration. The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 1482, which places it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are all entry-level NVIDIA parts from previous generations, with the Arc B390 leading them by margins between 1.3% and 2.7%.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the GPU's limitations are immediately apparent. At 3840x2160, even Low settings yield just 25 FPS average, and Ultra drops to 11 FPS. The GPU is the clear performance bottleneck in this combo, as evidenced by the steep scaling from Low to Ultra at every resolution. The data shows that the Arc B390 is simply not designed for high-resolution gaming, with performance collapsing as pixel count increases. The system shared memory architecture further compounds the issue, as bandwidth constraints likely exacerbate the GPU's already limited fill rate.

How This Combo Ranks

The Ryzen 5 9600X + Arc B390 combination ranks 2568th out of 2902 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2, placing it in the bottom 11.5% of all configurations. This ranking is almost entirely attributable to the GPU, which sits in the 9th percentile among all GPUs, while the CPU sits in the 81st percentile among all CPUs. The massive gap between CPU and GPU percentile scores highlights a severely imbalanced pairing.

The measured FPS data reinforces this imbalance. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 51 FPS average, which is the only setting/resolution combination that approaches playable territory. Dropping to Medium at the same resolution reduces average FPS to 39, and High produces 32 FPS. At 2560x1440, the best result is 38 FPS at Low settings, while Ultra produces only 17 FPS. At 3840x2160, the best result is 25 FPS at Low, with Ultra falling to 11 FPS.

Relative to other combos in the database, this setup sits in the lower quartile of measured configurations. The GPU's nearest rivals — the GT 520MX, GeForce 800M, GT 625 OEM, and GT 710 — are all legacy parts that predate modern gaming workloads. While the Arc B390 edges past them in synthetic benchmarks, the delta is small (under 3%), and the real-world gaming results reflect this marginal advantage. The combo's rank suggests that for Red Dead Redemption 2, this configuration is only suitable for low-resolution, low-detail gaming.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the recommended settings depend heavily on the target resolution and acceptable frame rate floor. For 1920x1080, Low settings deliver 51 FPS average, which is the only configuration that clears the 50 FPS threshold. Medium at 1080p provides 39 FPS, which may be acceptable for less demanding players, but the 33 FPS minimum could cause noticeable stutter in action sequences. High at 1080p yields 32 FPS, and Ultra drops to 23 FPS — both are difficult to recommend for a smooth experience.

At 2560x1440, Low settings produce 38 FPS average, which is borderline but potentially playable for those who prioritize resolution over detail. Medium at 1440p drops to 29 FPS, with a 24 FPS minimum that will likely feel choppy. High and Ultra at 1440p produce 24 FPS and 17 FPS respectively, which are not recommended for serious play.

At 3840x2160, all settings produce unplayable results. Low yields 25 FPS, Medium yields 19 FPS (16-22 FPS range), High yields 16 FPS, and Ultra yields 11 FPS. None of these are viable for a playable experience, and the data suggests avoiding 4K entirely with this combo.

The optimal experience, based purely on measured numbers, is 1920x1080 with Low settings, providing 51 FPS average. If visual fidelity is prioritized, Medium at 1080p (39 FPS) is the highest quality setting that maintains a minimum above 30 FPS. The 44 FPS maximum at Medium suggests there is headroom in less demanding scenes, but the 33 FPS minimum indicates that dense areas will strain the GPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data across all resolutions and settings shows a clear pattern of performance degradation as both resolution and quality increase. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 51 at Low to 23 at Ultra, a drop of 55%. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 33 FPS and maximum of 44 FPS, indicating some frame-time variance but generally consistent performance.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS ranges from 38 at Low to 17 at Ultra, a drop of 55.3%. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 24 FPS and maximum of 33 FPS, with the range narrowing compared to 1080p. This suggests that at higher resolutions, the GPU becomes more consistently saturated, reducing frame-time spikes but also lowering the ceiling.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 25 at Low to 11 at Ultra, a drop of 56%. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 16 FPS and maximum of 22 FPS, with the tightest range of any resolution. This indicates that at 4K, the GPU is fully constrained, and there is little variation in performance regardless of scene complexity.

The scaling between resolutions at the same settings is also revealing. At Low settings, moving from 1080p to 1440p reduces FPS by 25.5% (51 to 38), and from 1440p to 4K reduces FPS by 34.2% (38 to 25). At High settings, the drops are 25% (32 to 24) and 33.3% (24 to 16) respectively. At Ultra settings, the drops are 26.1% (23 to 17) and 35.3% (17 to 11). The larger relative drops at higher resolutions confirm that the GPU's memory bandwidth and fill rate are the primary limiting factors.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge codename), manufactured on TSMC's 4nm process. It has a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with a 65W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB L1 per core, 1 MB L2 per core, and 32 MB shared L3. Memory support is DDR5 with dual-channel configuration, providing 89.6 GB/s bandwidth. The CPU uses the AMD Socket AM5 platform and supports PCIe Gen 5 with 24 lanes.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 9600X shows strong single-thread performance with a 3DMark single-thread score of 1253 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2183.5. Multi-threaded performance is also solid, with Cinebench R23 multicore scoring 17528.5 and Geekbench multicore scoring 14438. The CPU's average benchmark score of 29,713 places it in the 81st percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rivals being the Ryzen 7 PRO 5755GE (0.2% ahead), Ryzen 7 7840H (0.5% behind), Ryzen 7 5800XT (0.6% behind), and Ryzen 7 8845HS (0.8% behind).

In the context of Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU is not the limiting factor. The measured FPS data shows consistent scaling with GPU load, and the CPU's 12 threads are more than sufficient for the game's demands. The 9600X's 5.40 GHz boost clock provides strong single-thread performance, which is important for game logic and physics. However, the Arc B390's 9th percentile GPU performance means that the CPU's capabilities are largely wasted in this pairing. The data suggests that the 9600X could drive significantly higher FPS if paired with a more capable GPU, as evidenced by the 81st percentile CPU ranking versus the 9th percentile GPU ranking.

The CPU's 32 MB L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support (89.6 GB/s bandwidth) are additional strengths that benefit gaming workloads. However, the GPU's system shared memory architecture means that the CPU's memory bandwidth is shared with the GPU, potentially creating contention. This is a notable consideration, as the 9600X's memory bandwidth is rated at 89.6 GB/s, but the GPU's performance is "System Dependent" per the specifications. In practice, the measured FPS results indicate that the GPU is the dominant constraint, and the CPU's role is to feed it frames without becoming a bottleneck itself.