Red Dead Redemption 2

# Red Dead Redemption 2 with AMD Ryzen 7 5700 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

The pairing of an 8-core AMD Ryzen 7 5700 with the flagship NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 produces a dramatic spread of frame rates in Red Dead Redemption 2, ranging from 49 FPS at 4K Ultra to 197 FPS at 1080p Low. This combination ranks 121st out of 3,714 tested combos in this game, placing it in the top 3.3% of all configurations tested. The data shows a system that scales predictably with resolution and settings, though the relationship between CPU and GPU workload shifts noticeably as pixel count increases.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how this combo behaves across three resolutions. At 1080p High, the system delivers 137 FPS average. Moving to 1440p High drops performance to 102 FPS, a 25.5% reduction. At 4K High, the average falls to 68 FPS, which is 33.3% lower than 1440p and 50.4% lower than 1080p. This scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 5090 remains the dominant performance driver even at 1080p, though the CPU's influence becomes more apparent at lower resolutions.

The Low preset shows a similar trajectory: 197 FPS at 1080p, 164 FPS at 1440p (a 16.8% drop), and 108 FPS at 4K (a 34.1% drop from 1440p). Medium settings produce 164 FPS at 1080p, 123 FPS at 1440p, and 81 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings are the most demanding, yielding 99 FPS at 1080p, 74 FPS at 1440p, and 49 FPS at 4K.

The resolution scaling percentages tell an important story about system balance. Between 1080p and 1440p, the average FPS drop across all settings is roughly 25-31%. Between 1440p and 4K, the drop ranges from 33-38%. This consistent degradation suggests the GPU is the primary bottleneck throughout, as the Ryzen 7 5700's 8 cores and 16 threads provide enough headroom to avoid severe CPU limitation even at 1080p where frame rates exceed 197 FPS.

However, the gap between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution hints at where the CPU matters. At 1080p, the spread between Low and Ultra is 98 FPS (197 vs 99). At 4K, that spread narrows to 59 FPS (108 vs 49). The larger spread at 1080p indicates that CPU-bound scenarios become more frequent at lower pixel counts, even with this strong 8-core processor. The Ryzen 7 5700's single-thread score of 901 in 3DMark and 2,916 in Cinebench R23 suggests adequate per-core performance, but the data shows it cannot fully feed the RTX 5090's massive 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 throughput in the most CPU-intensive moments.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide clear guidance for different display targets. For 4K displays, High settings at 68 FPS average represents the best balance of visual quality and playability. Ultra at 4K drops to 49 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold many players prefer for this action-adventure title. Medium at 4K offers 81 FPS, providing a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while sacrificing some visual fidelity. Low at 4K reaches 108 FPS, but the visual compromise is substantial for a game known for its detailed open world.

At 1440p, High settings deliver 102 FPS, which is excellent for smooth gameplay on high-refresh-rate monitors. Medium pushes to 123 FPS, and Low reaches 164 FPS. Ultra at 1440p produces 74 FPS, which is playable but represents a significant performance cost for the highest quality settings. The data suggests that 1440p High is the sweet spot for this resolution, offering nearly double the frame rate of 4K Ultra while maintaining most of the visual enhancements.

For 1080p displays, all settings exceed 99 FPS. Medium at 164 FPS and High at 137 FPS both provide excellent experiences. Low reaches 197 FPS, which would benefit 180Hz or 200Hz monitors. Ultra at 99 FPS is the only setting that dips below 100 FPS, but it remains highly playable. The 1080p Medium row shows a minimum FPS of 140 and maximum of 189, indicating frame times are consistent enough for competitive play if desired.

The most practical recommendation combines resolution and settings based on the measured data. For 60 FPS targets, 4K High (68 FPS) works, while 4K Medium (81 FPS) provides more headroom. For 100+ FPS targets, 1440p High (102 FPS) is the minimum, with 1440p Medium (123 FPS) offering additional buffer. For 144+ FPS targets, 1080p Medium (164 FPS) or High (137 FPS) are the viable options. Ultra settings should only be used at 1080p where 99 FPS remains above 60 FPS targets.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090's specifications explain much of its performance in Red Dead Redemption 2. With 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, the card provides 1.79 TB/s of memory bandwidth. This massive bandwidth is relevant for a game that streams large textures and open-world geometry, though the measured data shows that even this GPU cannot maintain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra (49 FPS). The GPU's boost clock of 2407 MHz and base clock of 2017 MHz drive 21,760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79,842. Its nearest rivals in synthetic tests include the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (0.3% higher), AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (1.1% lower), and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X (1.4% lower). These rivals are not gaming-focused cards, which underscores that the RTX 5090's synthetic scores are less relevant than its real-world gaming measurements in this title.

The measured FPS data shows the RTX 5090's raw capability: 197 FPS at 1080p Low and 108 FPS at 4K Low. The 89 FPS difference between those two points (a 45.2% reduction) reflects the pixel-count increase from 2.07 million to 8.29 million pixels. The GPU's 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate and 1,636.8 GTexel/s texture rate are clearly sufficient for this game's demands, as even the most demanding measured configuration (4K Ultra at 49 FPS) is GPU-bound rather than CPU-bound.

Memory capacity is not a limiting factor here. The 32 GB frame buffer exceeds what Red Dead Redemption 2 requires at any resolution in the measured data, and the game's release date of 2018-10-25 predates the GPU's 2025-01-29 launch by over six years. The 1.79 TB/s bandwidth ensures texture streaming at 4K Ultra does not cause the frame rate to collapse below the 49 FPS average, though the min FPS data is only available for Medium settings (69 FPS at 4K, 104 FPS at 1440p, 140 FPS at 1080p).

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Red Dead Redemption 2 at 4K 60 FPS?

A: Yes, but only at Medium or High settings. The measured data shows 81 FPS average at 4K Medium and 68 FPS at 4K High. At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 49 FPS, which falls short of 60 FPS.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1440p gaming?

A: High settings at 1440p produce 102 FPS average, which is the most balanced option. Medium reaches 123 FPS, while Ultra drops to 74 FPS. Low reaches 164 FPS, but the visual quality loss is significant for this open-world title.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 compare to its synthetic benchmark rivals in this game?

A: The RTX 5090's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (0.3% higher avg score), AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (1.1% lower), and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X (1.4% lower). These delta percentages reflect synthetic test scores, not in-game performance.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 5700 bottlenecking the RTX 5090 at 1080p?

A: The data suggests partial CPU limitation at 1080p. The spread between Low (197 FPS) and Ultra (99 FPS) at 1080p is 98 FPS, which is larger than at 4K (59 FPS spread). This indicates the CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads with a 4.60 GHz boost clock cannot fully utilize the GPU at the lowest settings.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 4K with Medium settings?

A: The measured 4K Medium row shows 81 FPS average, with a minimum of 69 FPS and maximum of 93 FPS. This provides a stable experience above 60 FPS with only minor frame time variance.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to all tested configurations?

A: This AMD Ryzen 7 5700 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination ranks 121st out of 3,714 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2, placing it in the top 3.3% of all configurations tested.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranking of 121st out of 3,714 tested configurations places this system firmly in the upper echelon for Red Dead Redemption 2. This top 3.3% position reflects the RTX 5090's dominant GPU performance combined with the Ryzen 7 5700's adequate CPU throughput. The ranking implies that 3,593 other CPU+GPU combinations produced lower average frame rates across the tested settings, while 120 combinations achieved higher scores.

The CPU's own ranking context helps interpret this combo rank. The Ryzen 7 5700 sits in the 78th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25,517. Its nearest CPU rivals include the Intel Xeon D-2752TER (0.1% lower score), AMD Ryzen 5 7640U (0.1% higher), AMD Ryzen 5 6600H (0.1% lower), and AMD Ryzen 7 5825U (0.3% higher). These rivals span mobile and server segments, indicating the Ryzen 7 5700's desktop-focused performance is competitive with a wide range of processors.

The GPU's 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79,842, is notably higher than the CPU's 78th percentile. This imbalance suggests the combo rank of 121 is driven more by GPU capability than CPU strength. In a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, which is heavily GPU-dependent at higher resolutions, the RTX 5090's performance dominates the results. The 4K Ultra score of 49 FPS is particularly telling: this is a GPU-limited scenario where the CPU's 8 cores are sufficient, and the frame rate is determined almost entirely by the graphics card's pixel throughput.

Compared to other tested combos, this system's ranking benefits from the GPU's enormous memory bandwidth (1.79 TB/s) and pixel rate (423.6 GPixel/s). The 32 GB VRAM also ensures no texture-related stuttering at 4K Ultra, even in a game from 2018 that was not designed with such extreme hardware in mind. The ranking would likely be lower if the CPU were weaker, but the Ryzen 7 5700's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 20,655 and PassMark multithread score of 24,303 indicate sufficient computational headroom to avoid crippling bottlenecks at most settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 brings 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 4.60 GHz. This 65W TDP processor uses the AMD Socket AM4 platform with DDR4 memory support and a dual-channel memory bus providing 51.2 GB/s bandwidth. The 7nm process node from TSMC houses 10,700 million transistors on a 180 mm² die, with 16 MB of L3 cache shared across the 8 cores.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU's role varies by resolution and settings. The measured FPS data shows that at 4K Ultra (49 FPS), the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, as the CPU would need to be severely underpowered to bottleneck at such low frame rates. However, at 1080p Low (197 FPS), the CPU's performance ceiling becomes apparent. The Ryzen 7 5700's single-thread scores (901 in 3DMark, 2,916 in Cinebench R23, 1,907 in Geekbench) suggest adequate per-core performance, but the 197 FPS ceiling at 1080p Low indicates the CPU cannot push frame rates higher even when the GPU has headroom.

The CPU's multicore capabilities contribute to consistent frame delivery in open-world scenarios. PassMark physics score of 984 and integer math score of 90,091 indicate strong computational throughput for game logic and physics calculations. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 6,628 and max-thread score of 6,617 show that the CPU scales well with thread utilization, which matters in Red Dead Redemption 2's busy towns and crowded areas where NPC AI and simulation load can spike.

The 16 MB L3 cache is relevant for this game's data access patterns. Red Dead Redemption 2 streams large world data, and the CPU must handle asset decompression and entity updates. The Ryzen 7 5700's PassMark data compression score of 316,699 and random string sorting score of 33,138 indicate solid memory subsystem performance for these tasks. The 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth, while modest by modern standards, does not appear to be a bottleneck in the measured results, as the game's performance scales primarily with GPU settings.

The CPU's boost clock of 4.60 GHz provides the single-thread responsiveness needed for frame pacing. At 1440p High (102 FPS) and 4K High (68 FPS), the CPU has ample time between frames to process game logic, so the measured averages likely reflect GPU-bound performance. The absence of min FPS data for most settings limits analysis of frame dips, but the Medium settings rows show minimums of 69 FPS at 4K, 104 FPS at 1440p, and 140 FPS at 1080p, all of which are within 15% of their respective averages, indicating stable frame delivery.

In summary, the Ryzen 7 5700 serves as a capable partner for the RTX 5090 in Red Dead Redemption 2, though it does impose a ceiling at extremely high frame rates on 1080p Low settings. For the most common gaming scenarios — 1440p High and 4K Medium or High — the CPU provides sufficient performance to let the GPU deliver its full measured potential. The combo's 121st ranking out of 3,714 reflects this balanced performance, with the GPU contributing more to the ranking than the CPU due to its higher percentile standing.