Red Dead Redemption 2

# Red Dead Redemption 2 with AMD Ryzen 7 7700 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D

This combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D delivers exceptional performance in Red Dead Redemption 2, ranking first out of 2,902 tested combos. The data reveals a system that excels across all resolutions, though the scaling patterns hint at interesting dynamics between the CPU and GPU as settings and pixel counts shift.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear progression as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 234 FPS, which drops to 175 FPS at 1440p and further to 115 FPS at 4K. This represents a 51% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at Low settings. The pattern suggests that at lower resolutions, the system has substantial headroom, but the GPU becomes increasingly stressed as pixel count rises.

At Medium settings, the scaling is similar but slightly less steep: 175 FPS at 1080p, 131 FPS at 1440p, and 86 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K is 51% here as well, indicating consistent scaling behavior across these settings. High settings show 146 FPS at 1080p, 109 FPS at 1440p, and 72 FPS at 4K—a 51% reduction from 1080p to 4K, maintaining the same proportional decline.

Ultra settings tell a slightly different story, with 105 FPS at 1080p, 79 FPS at 1440p, and 52 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 4K drop here is 50%, nearly identical to the other presets. This consistent ~50% reduction across all settings suggests that resolution scaling is primarily GPU-bound, as the frame rate penalty remains proportional regardless of the graphical load.

The 4K data reveals that even at Ultra settings, the combo maintains 52 FPS, which is playable for a demanding title like Red Dead Redemption 2. At High settings, 4K reaches 72 FPS, showing that the RTX 5090 D has enough headroom to handle the game's most demanding resolution while maintaining smooth frame rates. The fact that 4K Ultra only drops to 52 FPS—still above 30 FPS—indicates the GPU is the limiting factor at this resolution, but it is a highly capable one.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows show that Medium settings offer the best balance of performance and visual quality across all resolutions. At 4K, Medium delivers 86 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS and a maximum of 99 FPS. This frame rate is well above the threshold for smooth gameplay, and the minimum FPS suggests the system maintains consistent performance without significant dips.

At 1440p, Medium settings reach 131 FPS with minimums of 111 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate monitors. The 1080p Medium result of 175 FPS (minimum 149 FPS) further reinforces that this preset provides a strong experience without pushing the GPU to its limits.

High settings are also viable, particularly at 1440p and 1080p where the combo achieves 109 FPS and 146 FPS respectively. At 4K, High drops to 72 FPS, which is still smooth but requires a display that supports 60Hz or higher to fully benefit. The jump from Medium to High costs roughly 16-19% performance at each resolution, which may be worth it for visual fidelity in a game known for its detailed environments.

Ultra settings are only recommended for 1080p, where 105 FPS remains high. At 1440p, Ultra yields 79 FPS, and at 4K it drops to 52 FPS—both are playable but may feel less fluid on high-refresh-rate displays. The data indicates that Medium is the sweet spot for this combo, as it provides the largest performance margin while still offering a substantial visual upgrade over Low settings. Low settings, while achieving 234 FPS at 1080p, sacrifice too much visual quality for the modest gains at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD 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. This Zen 4 architecture processor, built on a 5 nm process, delivers strong multi-threaded performance as shown by its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 18,760 and single-core score of 1,930. In a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, which is known for CPU-intensive open-world simulations, the 8-core design provides ample headroom.

The CPU's benchmark scores place it in the 87th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 40,081. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 (0.1% higher average score), Intel Core 5 221E (-0.2%), and AMD Ryzen 9 270 (-0.4%). This tight grouping shows the Ryzen 7 7700 sits in a highly competitive performance tier, with negligible differences from its closest competitors.

In the measured FPS data, the CPU's role becomes evident at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 234 FPS, a figure that likely approaches the CPU's frame rate limit. The 3DMark single-thread score of 1,049 and 2-thread score of 2,043 indicate strong per-core performance, which is crucial for games that rely on a few heavily utilized threads. The boost clock of 5.30 GHz provides the high-frequency response needed for such workloads.

The L3 cache of 32 MB shared across 8 cores helps reduce memory latency, and the dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth ensures the CPU can feed the GPU efficiently. The PassMark data shows strong integer math (110,295) and floating-point performance (66,246), which are relevant for game logic and physics calculations. The CPU's 65W TDP suggests efficient power delivery, though this is not a direct performance factor.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average FPS is 234, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This drops to 175 FPS at 1440p Low and 115 FPS at 4K Low.

Q: Does this combo maintain playable frame rates at 4K Ultra settings?

A: Yes, at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo achieves an average of 52 FPS. While not ideal for high-refresh-rate displays, it remains above the 30 FPS threshold for playability.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 146 at 1080p to 109 at 1440p and 72 at 4K. The 1080p to 4K reduction is 51%, which is consistent across all settings presets.

Q: What is the average FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, Low settings achieve 175 FPS while Ultra settings achieve 79 FPS, representing a 55% performance reduction from Low to Ultra at this resolution.

Q: How does the CPU's single-thread performance compare to its multi-thread performance?

A: The CPU scores 1,930 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 18,760 in multicore, giving a multicore-to-single-core ratio of approximately 9.7x. The 3DMark single-thread score of 1,049 versus max-threads score of 8,479 shows similar scaling.

Q: Is the combo's frame rate more stable at Medium settings than Ultra?

A: The data shows Medium settings have recorded minimum and maximum values, such as 74-99 FPS at 4K, while Ultra settings only list average FPS. This suggests Medium may have more consistent frame pacing, though exact stability metrics are not provided.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is a Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU with 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output units. It operates at a base clock of 2017 MHz and boosts to 2407 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). The 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus delivers 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, providing exceptional throughput for high-resolution textures and detailed scenes.

The GPU's benchmark scores show strong performance, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14,326 and a PassMark G3D score of 44,065. Its percentile ranking of 92 among all GPUs indicates it sits near the top of the performance hierarchy. The nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (1.1% higher average score), AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (-1.6%), NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (-2.1%), and NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (-2.4%).

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the GPU's role is most apparent at higher resolutions. The 4K results show significant scaling with settings: 115 FPS at Low, 86 FPS at Medium, 72 FPS at High, and 52 FPS at Ultra. This 55% reduction from Low to Ultra at 4K demonstrates how the GPU becomes the dominant bottleneck as both resolution and graphical complexity increase.

The 32 GB VRAM capacity is particularly relevant for a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, which features expansive open-world environments with high-resolution textures. The 1.79 TB/s bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and geometry processing do not become limiting factors. The GPU's FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS provides substantial compute capability for the game's rendering pipeline, while the 170 ray tracing cores offer additional features, though the measured data does not isolate ray tracing performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings achieve 234 FPS average, Medium reaches 175 FPS with a minimum of 149 and maximum of 202, High produces 146 FPS, and Ultra yields 105 FPS. The 1080p data shows a clear hierarchy: each step up in settings costs roughly 20-30% performance, with the largest jump from Medium to High being 29 FPS (17% reduction).

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show the expected reduction. Low settings hit 175 FPS, Medium achieves 131 FPS (minimum 111, maximum 150), High delivers 109 FPS, and Ultra produces 79 FPS. The 1440p results indicate the GPU is still not fully saturated, as even Ultra settings maintain above 60 FPS with substantial headroom.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's workload becomes more demanding. Low settings still achieve 115 FPS, which is remarkable for 4K. Medium settings reach 86 FPS with a minimum of 74 and maximum of 99, providing a stable experience. High settings drop to 72 FPS, and Ultra falls to 52 FPS. The 4K data shows that even at the most demanding settings, the combo remains playable, though the Ultra preset approaches the lower boundary of smooth performance.

The minimum FPS values are only recorded for Medium settings across all resolutions: 74 FPS at 4K, 111 FPS at 1440p, and 149 FPS at 1080p. These minimums suggest that Medium settings provide consistent frame delivery without major dips, which is valuable for gameplay smoothness.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks first out of 2,902 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2. This top ranking is supported by the measured performance data, which shows exceptional frame rates even at 4K Ultra settings. The rank of 1 indicates that no other tested combination of CPU and GPU achieves higher average FPS in this game.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 87 among all CPUs and the GPU's percentile of 92 among all GPUs both contribute to this top-tier result. The CPU's nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365, has a nearly identical average benchmark score (40,048 vs 40,081), yet the combo still achieves the top ranking in this game, suggesting that the RTX 5090 D's performance is the primary driver.

The GPU's benchmark scores, while placing it in the 92nd percentile, show it is closely matched with several other GPUs in synthetic tests. However, in Red Dead Redemption 2 specifically, the RTX 5090 D's combination of 32 GB VRAM, high bandwidth, and compute capabilities clearly delivers superior real-world performance. The ranking of 1 out of 2,902 combos demonstrates that this pairing is exceptionally well-suited for this game, potentially due to the CPU's strong single-thread performance enabling the GPU to reach its full potential, particularly at lower resolutions where the CPU could otherwise become a bottleneck.