Red Dead Redemption 2

FAQ

Q: What is the overall performance rank of this CPU and GPU combination in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A: The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 35th out of 2902 tested combinations in this game, placing it in the top 1.2% of all configurations measured.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D compare to its closest GPU rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77712, which is 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76904) and 1.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78940). It also trails the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79605) by 2.4%.

Q: What is the single-threaded performance of the Ryzen 7 5800XT?

A: The Ryzen 7 5800XT scores 959 in 3dmark_single_thread and 3359 in Cinebench R23 single-core, with a boost clock of 4.80 GHz. Its Passmark single-thread score is 3535.

Q: What is the maximum memory bandwidth available to the GPU in this configuration?

A: The RTX 5090 D features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth with memory clocks at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective).

Q: At 4K resolution, what is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160, the average frame rate drops from 115 FPS on Low settings to 52 FPS on Ultra settings, a 63 FPS reduction. The Medium setting yields 86 FPS and High yields 72 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its nearest rival?

A: The Ryzen 7 5800XT has an average benchmark score of 29879, which is essentially tied with the AMD Ryzen 7 7840H (29868, 0% delta) and 0.6% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X (29713).

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the dominant component in this pairing, and the data makes that clear. Its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth is far beyond what Red Dead Redemption 2 requires at any resolution in this test set. The GPU's base clock of 2017 MHz and boost clock of 2407 MHz, combined with 21760 shading units and 680 texture mapping units, provide the raw throughput that drives the measured frame rates.

The GPU's 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate explain why the game scales so dramatically across settings. At 1080p Low, the RTX 5090 D delivers 211 FPS, but at 4K Ultra it drops to 52 FPS. This 159 FPS spread shows that even this flagship GPU is constrained by the most demanding preset at 4K. The GPU's 176 ROPs and 1,636.8 GTexel/s texture rate handle the game's dense environments well, but the Ultra preset at 4K pushes the rendering pipeline to its limits.

The GPU's 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77712, confirms its position near the top of the performance hierarchy. Its nearest rivals in the database are mostly mobile GPUs — the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT is 1.6% faster and the RX 6650M XT is 1.1% slower — which suggests the RTX 5090 D's desktop-class performance is only marginally challenged by even the best laptop parts. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14326 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 376915 further substantiate its DirectX 12 and Vulkan capabilities, both relevant to Red Dead Redemption 2's rendering engine.

The GPU's memory subsystem deserves particular attention. With 32 GB of VRAM, there is no scenario in this game where memory capacity becomes a bottleneck. The 1.79 TB/s bandwidth ensures that texture streaming at 4K Ultra, which often stresses memory throughput in open-world games, never becomes the limiting factor. The measured frame rates at 4K Ultra (52 FPS) are instead limited by the GPU's compute and rasterization throughput, not its memory.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a textbook GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions, with CPU influence diminishing as pixel count rises. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 146 at 1920x1080 to 109 at 2560x1440 to 72 at 3840x2160. That is a 37 FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p and another 37 FPS drop from 1440p to 4K. The consistency of the drops suggests linear scaling with pixel count, which is characteristic of a GPU-limited workload.

The Low settings tell a different story. At 1080p Low, the system hits 211 FPS, but at 1440p Low it falls to 175 FPS, and at 4K Low it reaches 115 FPS. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is 36 FPS, while the 1440p-to-4K drop is 60 FPS. The larger drop at higher resolutions again points to GPU limits, but the absolute frame rates at 1080p Low (211 FPS) approach the CPU's potential ceiling, suggesting the Ryzen 7 5800XT begins to matter more at lower resolutions and settings.

Medium settings show a similar pattern: 175 FPS at 1080p, 131 FPS at 1440p, and 86 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is 44 FPS, and the 1440p-to-4K drop is 45 FPS. This near-perfect scaling reinforces that the RTX 5090 D is the primary driver of performance across the resolution spectrum. The min-to-max FPS spread at Medium settings — 149 to 202 at 1080p, 111 to 150 at 1440p, and 74 to 99 at 4K — shows that variance also scales with resolution, with the 4K range being the tightest.

Ultra settings produce the most dramatic scaling: 105 FPS at 1080p, 79 FPS at 1440p, and 52 FPS at 4K. The 26 FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p and the 27 FPS drop from 1440p to 4K are nearly identical, again confirming GPU-bound behavior. At 4K Ultra, the 52 FPS average is the only sub-60 result in the entire dataset, marking the one configuration where this combination cannot maintain a smooth frame rate.

Settings Recommendations

The data supports a clear recommendation: Medium settings provide the best balance of visual quality and performance across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 175 FPS, which is only 36 FPS below Low but 29 FPS above High. At 1440p, Medium yields 131 FPS, comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold and only 44 FPS below Low. At 4K, Medium produces 86 FPS, which is the only setting above 60 FPS at that resolution besides Low.

High settings are viable for players prioritizing visual fidelity. At 1080p, High delivers 146 FPS, and at 1440p it reaches 109 FPS. However, at 4K, High drops to 72 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for high-refresh-rate displays. The 4K High result is 14 FPS slower than Medium's 86 FPS, a meaningful gap for a less dramatic visual improvement.

Ultra settings are not recommended for 4K gaming with this combination. The 52 FPS average at 3840x2160 Ultra falls below the 60 FPS threshold, and while the game remains playable, the frame rate is noticeably lower than the Medium result. At 1080p and 1440p, Ultra achieves 105 FPS and 79 FPS respectively, but the performance cost relative to High — 41 FPS and 30 FPS drops — is substantial for marginal visual gains.

Low settings are only advisable for competitive play or extremely high refresh rate displays. The 211 FPS at 1080p Low and 175 FPS at 1440p Low are the highest results in the dataset, but the visual downgrade from Medium is significant. Given that Medium at 4K achieves 86 FPS and at 1440p reaches 131 FPS, there is little reason to sacrifice visual quality unless targeting 240 Hz or higher refresh rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the frame rates are as follows: Low averages 211 FPS, Medium averages 175 FPS with a range of 149 to 202 FPS, High averages 146 FPS, and Ultra averages 105 FPS. The 1080p Low result is the highest in the entire dataset, and the 1080p Ultra result of 105 FPS is the second-highest Ultra result after 1440p High's 109 FPS.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 175 FPS, Medium averages 131 FPS with a range of 111 to 150 FPS, High averages 109 FPS, and Ultra averages 79 FPS. The 1440p Medium result of 131 FPS is notable because it exceeds the 4K Low result of 115 FPS, indicating that resolution scaling has a larger impact than settings scaling in this mid-range.

At 3840x2160, Low averages 115 FPS, Medium averages 86 FPS with a range of 74 to 99 FPS, High averages 72 FPS, and Ultra averages 52 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only sub-60 FPS average in the dataset, and the 4K Medium min of 74 FPS is the lowest minimum frame rate recorded, though still above the 60 FPS threshold.

The min-to-max spreads at Medium settings reveal performance consistency. At 1080p, the spread is 53 FPS (149 to 202). At 1440p, the spread is 39 FPS (111 to 150). At 4K, the spread is 25 FPS (74 to 99). The narrowing spread at higher resolutions indicates that GPU load becomes more uniform as pixel count increases, reducing frame time variance.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT provides the processing foundation for this configuration, and its 8 cores and 16 threads are well-matched to Red Dead Redemption 2's multi-threaded workload. The CPU's base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 4.80 GHz, combined with 32 MB of shared L3 cache, deliver strong single-threaded performance that is critical for the game's main simulation thread.

Benchmark data shows the CPU's capabilities: Cinebench R23 multicore scores 23794 and single-core scores 3359, while 3dmark_16_threads scores 7683 and 3dmark_single_thread scores 959. The Passmark multithread score of 28053 and single-thread score of 3535 place the CPU in the 81st percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 29879. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 7840H, scores 29868 (0% delta), and the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS scores 29955 (-0.3% delta), indicating the 5800XT is competitively positioned within its peer group.

The CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 211 FPS, and at 1440p Low it reaches 175 FPS. These frame rates approach the practical limits of the CPU's single-threaded throughput, as evidenced by the 3dmark_2_threads score of 1879 and 3dmark_4_threads score of 3603. The gap between 1080p Low (211 FPS) and 1080p Medium (175 FPS) is 36 FPS, but the gap between 1080p Medium and 1080p High (146 FPS) is only 29 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns as GPU load increases.

The CPU's 16 threads are fully utilized by the game's engine, which leverages multi-threading for physics, AI, and world streaming. The Passmark data_compression score of 352002 and data_encryption score of 21461 indicate strong throughput for background tasks, while the physics score of 1355 and floating point math score of 53808 show capable simulation performance. The CPU's 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth on DDR4 dual-channel is sufficient to feed the GPU without becoming a bottleneck, as the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K demonstrates GPU dominance.

At 4K Ultra, the combination produces 52 FPS, and the CPU's contribution is minimal — the workload is overwhelmingly GPU-bound. The 3dmark_max_threads score of 7680 is nearly identical to the 16-thread score of 7683, indicating that the CPU's multi-threaded scaling plateaus at 16 threads, which is exactly what the game's engine requires. The Ryzen 7 5800XT is not the limiting component in any measured configuration; it provides sufficient headroom for the RTX 5090 D to operate at its full potential across all resolution and settings combinations tested.