Red Dead Redemption 2

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data for Red Dead Redemption 2 with the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 reveals a classic pattern of GPU-bound scaling as resolution increases. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo delivers 134 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 drops that to 100 FPS — a 25% reduction. At 3840x2160, the average falls further to 66 FPS, which represents a 51% drop from the 1080p baseline. The scaling is consistent and steep, indicating that the RTX 4090 is the primary limiter as pixel count rises.

The Low preset tells a similar story with higher absolute numbers. At 1080p Low, the system pushes 214 FPS average. At 1440p Low, it drops to 160 FPS — a 25% decline. At 4K Low, it reaches 106 FPS, which is a 50% reduction from 1080p. The consistency of these percentage drops across different settings strongly suggests the GPU is the bottleneck, not the CPU. If the Ryzen 7 7700 were limiting performance, we would expect the FPS gap between resolutions to narrow at lower settings where the CPU has more headroom to matter.

Ultra settings amplify the trend. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 96 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 72 FPS — a 25% reduction. At 4K Ultra, the average plummets to 48 FPS, which is exactly half of the 1080p Ultra number. The doubling of pixel count from 1080p to 4K consistently halves the frame rate, which is the hallmark of a GPU-limited scenario. The RTX 4090's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth are being taxed heavily at 4K Ultra, where the game's demanding visuals push the graphics card to its limits.

The Medium preset provides the only rows with min and max FPS data. At 1080p Medium, the average is 161 FPS with a min of 136 FPS and max of 185 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average is 120 FPS with a min of 102 FPS and max of 138 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 79 FPS with a min of 67 FPS and max of 91 FPS. The min-to-max spread narrows as resolution increases — from a 49 FPS range at 1080p to a 24 FPS range at 4K. This suggests that at higher resolutions, the frame pacing becomes more consistent because the GPU is consistently saturated, whereas at 1080p there is more variance, possibly due to CPU-driven frame time spikes.

The data implies that at 1080p, the Ryzen 7 7700's 8 cores and 16 threads are sufficient to feed the RTX 4090, but the GPU still dominates the scaling curve. The 5.30 GHz boost clock of the CPU helps maintain high minimums at lower resolutions, as evidenced by the 136 FPS minimum at 1080p Medium. However, the overall pattern is unambiguous: this is a GPU-bound title at all tested settings, with the RTX 4090's raw compute power being the deciding factor in FPS across every resolution.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 4K Ultra settings for this combo?

A: The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 48 FPS. This is the lowest average across all tested configurations, indicating that 4K Ultra pushes the RTX 4090 to its limits in Red Dead Redemption 2.

Q: How does the 1080p Low preset compare to the 4K Ultra preset?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 214 FPS average. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, it drops to 48 FPS average. This represents a 78% reduction in frame rate when moving from the lightest to the heaviest configuration.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The benchmark data indicates the GPU is the primary limiter. The FPS drops by roughly 25% from 1080p to 1440p and another 33% from 1440p to 4K across all settings presets. This consistent scaling pattern is characteristic of a GPU-bound workload, not a CPU-bound one.

Q: What are the minimum and maximum FPS at 1440p Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 120, with a minimum of 102 FPS and a maximum of 138 FPS. The 36 FPS spread indicates some frame time variability, but the overall experience remains smooth.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested combinations in this game?

A: The combo ranks 134th out of 3,714 tested combinations in Red Dead Redemption 2. This places it in the top 4% of all tested systems, reflecting the high performance of the Ryzen 7 7700 and RTX 4090 pairing.

Q: Does the RTX 4090's 24 GB of VRAM matter for this game's results?

A: Given that the RTX 4090 has 24 GB of GDDR6X memory, the data suggests that VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor at any tested resolution or settings preset. The FPS drops are driven by compute and memory bandwidth demands, not by running out of video memory.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the undisputed performance driver in this pairing. Its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for a game like Red Dead Redemption 2 that features expansive open-world environments with high-resolution textures. The measured FPS data shows that even at 4K Ultra, the GPU maintains a playable 48 FPS average, which speaks to the raw power of the Ada Lovelace architecture.

The RTX 4090's clock speeds are notable: a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz. These high frequencies, combined with 16,384 shading units, allow the card to process the game's complex lighting and shadow calculations efficiently. The 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is evident in the scaling data — at 1080p Low, the card achieves 214 FPS, which is only limited by the game's engine and the CPU's ability to issue draw calls.

The GPU's 128 ray tracing cores and 512 tensor cores are present in the architecture, though Red Dead Redemption 2's benchmark rows do not isolate ray tracing performance. The measured results reflect traditional rasterization performance, which is where the RTX 4090's 443.5 GPixel/s pixel rate and 1,290.2 GTexel/s texture rate shine. These metrics directly translate to the FPS numbers seen across all four settings presets.

The RTX 4090's memory clock of 1313 MHz, running at 21 Gbps effective, provides the bandwidth needed to feed 176 ROPs. At 4K Ultra, the 48 FPS average suggests that the memory subsystem is being heavily utilized, but the 24 GB capacity ensures there is no VRAM spillover. The GPU's 450 W TDP and 850 W suggested PSU rating indicate this is a power-hungry component, but the benchmark data focuses on performance output rather than power draw.

Looking at the nearest rivals for the RTX 4090, the data shows it sits close to the Intel Arc Pro A60 (0% delta) and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (0.3% delta) in aggregate benchmark scores. However, these are professional workstation cards, and the RTX 4090's 88th percentile ranking among all GPUs underscores its position as a top-tier consumer part. In Red Dead Redemption 2 specifically, the GPU's performance is the deciding factor in the measured FPS, as evidenced by the steep resolution scaling curve.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce 214 FPS average, which is the fastest measured result across all configurations. Medium settings yield 161 FPS average with a minimum of 136 FPS and maximum of 185 FPS. High settings drop to 134 FPS average, while Ultra settings produce 96 FPS average. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 55% reduction in FPS, from 214 down to 96.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally. Low settings achieve 160 FPS average, Medium settings hit 120 FPS average with a minimum of 102 FPS and maximum of 138 FPS, High settings deliver 100 FPS average, and Ultra settings drop to 72 FPS average. The 1440p results are consistently 25% lower than their 1080p counterparts across all settings, reinforcing the GPU-bound nature of the workload.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates become more demanding. Low settings produce 106 FPS average, Medium settings yield 79 FPS average with a minimum of 67 FPS and maximum of 91 FPS, High settings drop to 66 FPS average, and Ultra settings fall to 48 FPS average. The 4K results represent a 50% reduction from 1080p across all settings, which aligns with the fourfold increase in pixel count being partially offset by the RTX 4090's brute-force rendering capability.

The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data across all three resolutions. This allows for analysis of frame time consistency. At 1080p, the range is 49 FPS (136 to 185); at 1440p, the range is 36 FPS (102 to 138); at 4K, the range is 24 FPS (67 to 91). The narrowing range at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU becomes more consistently saturated as pixel count increases, reducing the impact of any single-frame spikes or drops.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 134th out of 3,714 tested combinations in Red Dead Redemption 2. This places the combo in the 96.4th percentile of all tested systems, meaning it outperforms the vast majority of configurations. The ranking reflects the cumulative performance of both components working together in this specific game.

The rank of 134 out of 3,714 is particularly telling given the RTX 4090's status as one of the most powerful consumer GPUs available. The data suggests that while the combo is in the top tier, there are 133 other combinations that achieve higher performance in Red Dead Redemption 2. These higher-ranked combos likely include even more powerful CPU-GPU pairings, though the fact pack does not specify which combinations rank higher.

The Ryzen 7 7700's own benchmark performance places it in the 87th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 40,081. Its nearest rivals — the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 (0.1% delta), Intel Core 5 221E (-0.2% delta), AMD Ryzen 9 270 (-0.4% delta), and Intel Core i9-13905H (-0.6% delta) — all sit within 1% of its aggregate score. This indicates the CPU is in a tightly contested performance tier, but its 8 cores and 16 threads provide ample processing power for this game.

The RTX 4090's 88th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 60,347, places it near the top of the GPU hierarchy. Its nearest rivals in aggregate benchmarks are the Intel Arc Pro A60 (0% delta) and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (0.3% delta), though these professional cards are not typically compared to consumer gaming GPUs. The combo's 134th rank out of 3,714 in RDR2 shows that the pairing is well-matched, with neither component significantly holding back the other in this title.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 brings 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture, running at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. This CPU is built on TSMC's 5 nm process with 6,570 million transistors on a 71 mm² die. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB of L2 cache per core provide the low-latency memory access that open-world games like Red Dead Redemption 2 benefit from when streaming in new areas.

The CPU's memory support for DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and 83.2 GB/s bandwidth ensures that the RTX 4090 has a steady stream of data to process. The PCIe Gen 5 interface with 24 lanes (CPU only) provides ample bandwidth for the GPU, though the RTX 4090 itself uses PCIe 4.0 x16. In terms of the measured FPS, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p Low, where the combo reaches 214 FPS average — a frame rate that requires the CPU to issue draw calls and update game state at a very high rate.

The Ryzen 7 7700's single-thread performance, as measured by benchmarks like Cinebench R23 single-core (1,930) and Geekbench single-core (2,525), is critical for maintaining frame pacing in a game that has significant CPU overhead for AI, physics, and world simulation. The 5.30 GHz boost clock provides the raw single-thread speed needed to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 4090 at lower resolutions where the GPU has headroom.

Looking at the CPU's multithreaded capabilities, the Cinebench R23 multicore score of 18,760 and Geekbench multicore score of 15,371 indicate strong parallel performance. However, the resolution scaling data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this game — the consistent 25% and 33% FPS drops from 1080p to 1440p to 4K are entirely consistent with GPU-bound scaling, not CPU-bound scaling. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would see smaller FPS drops at higher resolutions where the GPU's workload increases but the CPU's workload stays relatively constant.

The CPU's 65 W TDP is notably low for an 8-core part, but the benchmark data shows it performs well above its power envelope suggests. The 3,047 Cinebench R15 multicore score and 34470 Passmark multithread score confirm that the Ryzen 7 7700 is a capable performer, even if it is not the absolute fastest CPU available. In Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU provides enough headroom to keep the RTX 4090 fed at 1080p and 1440p, while at 4K the GPU's compute limits become the clear constraint.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. At 1440p Medium, the combo achieves 120 FPS average with a minimum of 102 FPS and maximum of 138 FPS. This provides a smooth, high-refresh-rate experience that is comfortable for most gaming monitors, while the Medium settings still deliver respectable visual fidelity for Red Dead Redemption 2's detailed world.

For players prioritizing maximum frame rate, the 1080p Low preset delivers 214 FPS average, which is ideal for competitive play or high-refresh-rate displays (240 Hz or higher). The 1080p Medium preset at 161 FPS average is also a strong option, offering better visuals than Low while still maintaining frame rates above 144 FPS for high-refresh monitors. The minimum of 136 FPS at 1080p Medium ensures that even the most demanding scenes stay above 120 FPS.

At 4K, the Medium preset provides the most playable experience with 79 FPS average and a minimum of 67 FPS. This is above the 60 FPS threshold that most players consider the baseline for smooth gameplay, making 4K Medium a viable choice for those with 4K displays. The 4K High preset at 66 FPS average is also playable, but the 4K Ultra preset at 48 FPS average dips below 60 FPS, which may be too low for players sensitive to frame rate drops.

For players with 1440p displays who want higher visual fidelity, the High preset at 100 FPS average is a strong choice, sacrificing 20 FPS compared to Medium but gaining improved textures and effects. The Ultra preset at 72 FPS average at 1440p is still playable, but the 28 FPS drop from High to Ultra may not justify the visual improvements for most users. The data suggests that Medium at 1440p or 4K provides the best overall experience, balancing frame rate stability with visual quality.