Red Dead Redemption 2

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows for Red Dead Redemption 2 with the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 reveal a clear hierarchy across presets. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 151.9 FPS average, while Medium drops to 116.8 FPS, High to 93.8 FPS, and Ultra to 68.2 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium costs roughly 35 FPS, but the jump from Medium to High is a smaller 23 FPS loss, and High to Ultra costs another 25.6 FPS. This suggests the High preset occupies a sweet spot: it retains most of the visual fidelity of Ultra while maintaining an average above 90 FPS at 1080p.

At 1440p, the pattern shifts. High produces 68.7 FPS average, which is still playable, while Medium hits 87.3 FPS. Low reaches 112.4 FPS, but the visual compromise is steep. Ultra falls to 52 FPS, which begins to feel sluggish for an action-adventure title. The data indicates that Medium at 1440p is the most balanced option, offering a 27% improvement over High in average FPS while staying far above the 60 FPS threshold. However, for users prioritizing consistency, High at 1440p remains viable, as the 68.7 FPS average is only slightly below the ideal refresh rate target.

At 4K, the story changes dramatically. High produces 46.4 FPS, Medium drops to 56.3 FPS, and Low jumps to 76.5 FPS. Ultra falls to 33.1 FPS, which is nearly unplayable for a game requiring precise aiming and camera control. The Low preset at 4K is the only option that clears 60 FPS, but the visual downgrade is substantial. Medium at 4K offers a middle ground at 56.3 FPS, which is borderline acceptable for slower exploration but may struggle in combat. The measured data suggests that for a consistent 60+ FPS experience, 1440p Medium is the best overall preset, while 1080p High serves as the premium visual option without sacrificing frame rate integrity.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 7 7700 and RTX 4070 ranks 419th out of 1687 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2, placing it in the top 25% of all configurations. This percentile positioning indicates a robust pairing that outperforms the vast majority of systems tested for this title. The CPU itself sits in the 91st percentile among all processors, while the GPU ranks in the 81st percentile among all graphics cards, suggesting the combo leverages two above-average components without a significant bottleneck from either side.

Looking at the CPU's nearest rivals, the Ryzen 7 7700 scores 40468 on average, which is 0.1% above the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H and 0.5% above the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365. It trails the Intel Core i9-13905H by 0.6% and leads the Intel Core Ultra 5 235T by 1.2%. These deltas are tight, meaning the CPU's performance is well within the noise of its closest competitors. For the GPU, the RTX 4070 scores 37283 on average, sitting 0.6% below the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 and 1.9% below the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A. It also trails the RTX 4080 Mobile by 2.2% but leads the RX 5300M by 2.5%. The GPU's rival deltas are similarly small, indicating that the combo's rank is more influenced by the game's specific engine behavior than by raw component superiority.

The rank of 419 out of 1687 implies that the pairing is well-matched for Red Dead Redemption 2's open-world rendering demands. The game benefits from both strong multi-threaded CPU performance for NPC simulation and physics, as well as substantial GPU memory bandwidth for texture streaming. The combo's position in the upper quartile suggests it delivers a smooth experience at high settings across most resolutions, with the caveat that 4K Ultra remains outside its comfort zone based on the measured FPS.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, yielding 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The base clock runs at 1920 MHz with a boost clock of 2475 MHz, and the memory operates at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). These specifications directly influence the measured FPS in Red Dead Redemption 2, particularly at higher resolutions where texture uploads and geometry processing become memory-bound. The 12 GB capacity is sufficient for the game's open-world assets at 1440p, but the 4K Ultra preset's 33.1 FPS average suggests the memory subsystem or shading throughput becomes a limiting factor.

The GPU's 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs provide a theoretical peak of 29.15 TFLOPS FP32 performance. The 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores are present but likely underutilized in this title, as Red Dead Redemption 2 does not heavily leverage ray-traced effects in its standard rendering path. The pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s indicate that fill-rate-bound scenarios, such as dense foliage or smoke effects, could strain the card at 4K. The benchmark results show the GPU's PassMark G3D score of 26927 and DirectX 12 score of 103, which are moderate but not exceptional, aligning with the 81st percentile ranking.

The 200 W TDP and dual-slot design suggest the card can sustain boost clocks under load, but the 4K Ultra result of 33.1 FPS indicates thermal or power headroom is not the issue—raw compute capacity is. The 504.2 GB/s bandwidth becomes a bottleneck when the game streams high-resolution textures, explaining why Low at 4K (76.5 FPS) nearly doubles Ultra's frame rate. The GPU's 192-bit bus is narrower than higher-tier cards, and the data implies that memory bandwidth, not shading power, is the primary constraint at 4K Ultra.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for a consistent 60+ FPS experience?

A: The 1080p Medium preset achieves 116.8 FPS average, while 1440p Medium delivers 87.3 FPS. Both comfortably exceed 60 FPS, but 1440p Medium is the highest resolution with a measured result above 60 FPS, making it the recommended choice for visual fidelity without frame rate drops.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra preset compare to Low at the same resolution?

A: 4K Ultra averages 33.1 FPS, while 4K Low reaches 76.5 FPS. The difference of 43.4 FPS demonstrates that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources are heavily taxed by Ultra settings, whereas Low reduces texture and shading demands to a level the RTX 4070 can handle.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more limiting at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the FPS ranges from 68.2 (Ultra) to 151.9 (Low). The CPU's 8-core, 16-thread configuration with a 5.30 GHz boost clock is likely sufficient to feed the GPU, as the frame rate scales predictably with settings changes, indicating the GPU is the primary constraint.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations?

A: The Ryzen 7 7700 + RTX 4070 ranks 419th out of 1687 combos in Red Dead Redemption 2, placing it in the 75th percentile of tested systems. This rank reflects a strong but not top-tier pairing.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4070 scores 37283 on average, which is 0.6% below the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 and 1.9% below the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A. It leads the RX 5300M by 2.5%, showing that the card's performance is tightly clustered with these competitors.

Q: Does the 12 GB VRAM suffice for 4K play?

A: The 12 GB capacity is present, but the 4K Ultra result of 33.1 FPS suggests that either the capacity or the 504.2 GB/s bandwidth is insufficient. The Low preset at 4K achieves 76.5 FPS, indicating that reduced texture memory demands unlock much higher performance.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals how the RTX 4070 scales with pixel count. At High settings, 1080p yields 93.8 FPS, 1440p drops to 68.7 FPS, and 4K falls to 46.4 FPS. This represents a 26.8% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a further 32.5% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is roughly linear with pixel count, suggesting the GPU is the dominant bottleneck across all resolutions. At Low settings, the same progression shows 151.9 FPS at 1080p, 112.4 FPS at 1440p, and 76.5 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are similar, reinforcing that resolution scaling is consistent regardless of preset.

The Medium preset follows the same trend: 116.8 FPS at 1080p, 87.3 FPS at 1440p, and 56.3 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset is the most punishing, moving from 68.2 FPS at 1080p to 52 FPS at 1440p and 33.1 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1080p and 4K at Ultra is 35.1 FPS, which is a 51.5% reduction. This larger relative drop implies that Ultra settings amplify the GPU's memory bandwidth limitations as pixel count rises. The data suggests that the CPU's role diminishes as resolution increases, because the frame rate differences between settings remain consistent across resolutions, indicating a GPU-bound scenario throughout.

The limiting component is clearly the GPU at all resolutions, as the CPU's 16 threads and 5.30 GHz boost clock are capable of sustaining high frame rates. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the FPS to plateau at lower resolutions, but the continued scaling from 1080p to 4K indicates the GPU's shading and memory subsystems are the constraining factors.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 7 7700 features 8 cores and 16 threads with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. Its Zen 4 architecture on a 5 nm process includes 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 per core, with 64 KB L1 per core. The CPU's PassMark multithread score of 34470 and single-thread score of 4063 indicate strong overall performance, while its Cinebench R23 scores of 29302 multi-core and 4136 single-core place it in the 91st percentile of all CPUs. These specifications suggest the CPU can handle Red Dead Redemption 2's AI, physics, and draw call overhead without becoming a limiting factor.

The measured FPS data supports this interpretation. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 151.9 FPS, which is well above typical 60 Hz displays and demonstrates the CPU's ability to drive high frame rates. The 3DMark scores—8484 for 16 threads and 1049 for single-thread—show balanced multi-threading efficiency, which is crucial for the game's open-world simulation. The CPU's nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H, scores 40431, a mere 0.1% difference, indicating that the 7700 is competitively positioned.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and DDR5 memory support (83.2 GB/s bandwidth) ensure it can feed the GPU without stalling. The 5.30 GHz boost clock provides strong single-thread performance for game logic, while the 16 threads handle background tasks. In Red Dead Redemption 2, which uses multiple threads for streaming and physics, the 7700's 8-core/16-thread configuration is well-suited. The data shows no evidence of CPU bottlenecking, as the FPS scales smoothly with GPU settings changes, confirming the CPU's role as a capable partner to the RTX 4070.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the average FPS values are: Low 151.9, Medium 116.8, High 93.8, and Ultra 68.2. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a consistent degradation of 35.1 FPS between Low and Medium, 23 FPS between Medium and High, and 25.6 FPS between High and Ultra. The Low preset's 151.9 FPS is the highest measured value across all resolutions and settings, indicating that the combo can drive high-refresh-rate monitors when visual quality is sacrificed.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low 112.4, Medium 87.3, High 68.7, and Ultra 52. The drop from Low to Medium is 25.1 FPS, from Medium to High is 18.6 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 16.7 FPS. The 1440p results show a more gradual decline across presets compared to 1080p, suggesting the GPU's fill rate becomes more evenly stressed as pixel count increases.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low 76.5, Medium 56.3, High 46.4, and Ultra 33.1. The 4K data reveals the steepest setting penalties: Low to Medium drops 20.2 FPS, Medium to High drops 9.9 FPS, and High to Ultra drops 13.3 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 33.1 FPS is the lowest measured score, highlighting the GPU's limitations at extreme resolutions with maximum settings. The 4K Low result of 76.5 FPS is notable, as it demonstrates that the combo can achieve playable frame rates at 4K if visual fidelity is minimized. Overall, the measured FPS breakdown shows a system that excels at 1080p and 1440p with medium-to-high settings, while 4K requires significant settings compromises to maintain fluid gameplay.