Red Dead Redemption 2

The benchmark data for Red Dead Redemption 2 with the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 presents a clear picture of how resolution dictates performance scaling. The measured average frame rates across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K reveal a system where the GPU’s raw power is progressively constrained by the CPU as resolution drops, and where the GPU becomes the absolute bottleneck as resolution climbs.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K is the defining characteristic of this configuration. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces 132.9 FPS. When the resolution increases to 1440p, that figure drops to 101.7 FPS, a reduction of roughly 31 FPS. Moving to 4K High yields 67.7 FPS, which is a further drop of 34 FPS from the 1440p result. This pattern indicates that the scaling penalty is not linear; the jump from 1440p to 4K is slightly more punishing in absolute terms than the jump from 1080p to 1440p.

The scaling behavior becomes more telling when examining the Low preset. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 157.9 FPS. At 1440p Low, it reaches 143.2 FPS, a relatively modest decline of 14.7 FPS. However, at 4K Low, the average plummets to 104.5 FPS, a 38.7 FPS drop from the 1440p figure. This suggests that even at the lowest settings, the 4K pixel count overwhelms the GPU’s ability to maintain the high frame rates seen at lower resolutions.

The Ultra preset shows the most extreme sensitivity to resolution. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 98.7 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it falls to 74.2 FPS, a 24.5 FPS decline. At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 45.8 FPS, which is a 28.4 FPS reduction from 1440p. The fact that 4K Ultra produces less than half the frame rate of 1080p Ultra (45.8 vs 98.7) indicates that the game’s highest settings scale geometrically with pixel count, placing an enormous load on the RTX 4090.

This scaling data reveals that the limiting component shifts with resolution. At 1080p, the frame rate ceiling appears to be set by CPU throughput, as the difference between Low (157.9 FPS) and High (132.9 FPS) is only 25 FPS. At 4K, the GPU is the clear limiter, as the difference between Low (104.5 FPS) and Ultra (45.8 FPS) is a massive 58.7 FPS, demonstrating that the RTX 4090’s rendering pipeline is saturated by the 3840x2160 resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain the frame rate behavior observed. The GPU features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. This memory configuration is more than sufficient for Red Dead Redemption 2’s texture and geometry data, even at 4K Ultra, where the 45.8 FPS result indicates the bottleneck lies in the shader and rasterization workload rather than memory capacity.

The RTX 4090’s clock speeds are relatively modest for its class, with a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz. These clocks, combined with 16,384 shading units and 176 ROPs, produce a pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s. The data suggests that these compute resources are the primary driver of the 4K performance deltas. For instance, the jump from 4K Medium (82.2 FPS) to 4K High (67.7 FPS) represents a 14.5 FPS loss, which aligns with the increased shading and texture sampling demands of the High preset.

The GPU’s raw compute capability is further evidenced by its FP32 throughput of 82.58 TFLOPS. This figure, combined with the 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores, allows the card to handle the game’s lighting and post-processing effects efficiently. However, the measured results show that even this level of performance cannot overcome the 4K Ultra preset’s demands, which include the most aggressive draw distances and shadow quality settings. The 45.8 FPS average at 4K Ultra is the lowest measured in the entire dataset, confirming that the RTX 4090, while powerful, is not immune to the combined pressure of high resolution and maximum settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X serves as the system’s processor, and its specifications indicate a potential bottleneck at lower resolutions. The CPU has 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. It is built on the Zen 2 architecture with a 7 nm process, featuring 32 MB of L3 cache. These specs are adequate for modern gaming, but the benchmark results suggest they limit frame rates when the GPU is not fully stressed.

At 1080p, the CPU’s influence is apparent in the narrow frame rate spread across settings. The difference between 1080p Low (157.9 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (98.7 FPS) is 59.2 FPS, but the more telling comparison is between Low and Medium: 157.9 FPS versus 144.2 FPS, a gap of only 13.7 FPS. This relatively small delta implies that the CPU is unable to feed the RTX 4090 enough data to fully utilize its rendering capabilities at 1080p, even when the settings are lowered. The Ryzen 7 3700X’s passmark single-thread score of 2656 and multi-thread score of 22458 provide context for this behavior, as Red Dead Redemption 2’s engine relies heavily on single-thread performance for game logic and draw call submission.

The CPU’s limitation becomes less pronounced at higher resolutions. At 1440p, the frame rates drop to 143.2 FPS (Low) and 74.2 FPS (Ultra), with the gap between Low and Medium being 24.4 FPS (143.2 vs 118.8). This larger delta indicates that the GPU is starting to become the limiting factor, as its workload increases with pixel count. At 4K, the CPU’s role is largely diminished, as the GPU’s rendering time dominates the frame time budget. The Ryzen 7 3700X’s 8 cores and 16 threads are sufficient to keep up with the GPU’s output at 4K, as evidenced by the smooth scaling from Low (104.5 FPS) to Medium (82.2 FPS) to High (67.7 FPS).

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this pairing of the Ryzen 7 3700X and RTX 4090 achieves a combo rank of 100 out of 1,687 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2. This places it in the top 6% of all configurations tested for this game, which is a strong result given the CPU’s age relative to the GPU. The rank reflects the raw FPS capabilities of the RTX 4090, but the data also shows that the CPU holds back the combo from reaching even higher positions.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in the overall benchmark database provide context for its performance. The Intel Core i5-12600 has an average score of 28,654, which is 0.1% higher than the Ryzen 7 3700X’s average score of 28,631. Similarly, the Intel Core i5-12600H scores 28,666, also 0.1% higher. On the other side, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT scores 28,591, which is 0.1% lower, and the AMD EPYC 7203P scores 28,583, 0.2% lower. These tiny deltas indicate that the Ryzen 7 3700X is positioned in a very tight performance band, and its 85th percentile ranking among all CPUs underscores that it is a mid-to-upper tier processor.

The RTX 4090’s nearest rivals show a similar clustering. The NVIDIA Tesla T4 averages 66,733, which is 0.4% higher than the RTX 4090’s 66,473. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 scores 67,097, 0.9% higher, while the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 scores 67,320, 1.3% higher. These comparisons are based on synthetic benchmarks, not the game-specific FPS data, but they highlight that the RTX 4090’s raw compute power is among the highest available, even if its percentile rank of 91 places it just below the very top tier.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A: The highest measured average is 157.9 FPS, which occurs at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How much does the frame rate drop when moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At 1080p High, the average is 132.9 FPS, while at 4K High, it drops to 67.7 FPS. This represents a reduction of 65.2 FPS, or roughly half the frame rate.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck at 4K resolution?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K. The frame rate varies significantly with settings at 4K (from 104.5 FPS at Low to 45.8 FPS at Ultra), which shows the GPU’s workload is the primary constraint.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested configurations for this game?

A: This combo ranks 100 out of 1,687 tested combos, placing it in the top tier of configurations for Red Dead Redemption 2.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 3700X compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The Intel Core i5-12600 is 0.1% faster in average benchmark score, while the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT is 0.1% slower. The differences are minimal, indicating the CPUs are closely matched.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The lowest average is 45.8 FPS, measured at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy for optimizing the experience in Red Dead Redemption 2 with this hardware. For players targeting 60 FPS as a baseline, 4K Ultra is not viable, as it produces an average of 45.8 FPS. Stepping down to 4K High yields 67.7 FPS, which exceeds the 60 FPS threshold and offers a substantial visual improvement over Medium. At 4K Medium, the average rises to 82.2 FPS, which provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS and may be preferable for those seeking smoother motion over maximum fidelity.

At 1440p, the situation is more flexible. The Ultra preset achieves 74.2 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS target and represents the best visual quality available at this resolution. For players with high-refresh-rate displays, 1440p High offers 101.7 FPS, and 1440p Medium reaches 118.8 FPS. The 1440p Low preset at 143.2 FPS is only marginally faster than 1080p High (132.9 FPS), suggesting that the Low preset is not worth the visual compromise at this resolution.

At 1080p, the CPU becomes the limiting factor, and the frame rate differences between presets are less pronounced. The Ultra preset delivers 98.7 FPS, which is above 60 FPS but below the 1440p Ultra result of 74.2 FPS, indicating that 1080p Ultra is a poor choice compared to 1440p Ultra. The best overall balance for 1080p is the High preset at 132.9 FPS, which provides a smooth experience without the diminishing returns of the Low preset’s 157.9 FPS. Based on the data, the recommended path is 4K High for a standard 60 FPS experience, or 1440p High/Ultra for those prioritizing frame rate over resolution.