Red Dead Redemption 2

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a dominant performance profile in Red Dead Redemption 2, placing the combination in the 96th percentile of all tested configurations. The data reveals a system where the GPU is the clear primary driver at higher resolutions, while the CPU's capabilities become more apparent at 1080p. This analysis breaks down the measured framerates, scaling behavior, and component-specific contributions to provide a clear picture of what this hardware combination achieves in Rockstar's open world.

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

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the undisputed centerpiece of this configuration. Built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process, this GPU ships with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, yielding 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. The memory operates at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective), while the core runs at a base of 2235 MHz and boosts to 2520 MHz. With 16384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, the RTX 4090 has the raw throughput to handle Red Dead Redemption 2's demanding rendering load at any resolution.

The benchmark data shows that the RTX 4090's massive memory pool and bandwidth are not limiting factors in this game. At 4K Ultra settings, the average framerate drops to 48 FPS, which indicates the GPU is heavily taxed by the highest preset. However, the 24 GB VRAM buffer is more than sufficient for the game's textures and geometry, meaning the performance ceiling is dictated by compute throughput rather than memory capacity. The GPU's 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 1,290.2 GTexel/s texture rate are the specifications that correlate most strongly with the measured results.

The RTX 4090's percentile rank of 88 among all GPUs reflects its position as a top-tier part, though interestingly, its nearest rivals in the database include the Intel Arc Pro A60 and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48, which are professional-oriented cards with similar average scores (60326, 60140, and 61896 respectively). These comparisons are based on synthetic benchmarks, not gaming performance, so the RTX 4090's real-world advantage in Red Dead Redemption 2 is more pronounced than those deltaPct values of 0% to -2.5% suggest.

Looking at the measured FPS across all tested settings, the RTX 4090 demonstrates its strength by maintaining playable framerates even at the most demanding 4K Ultra preset. The progression from Low to Ultra at each resolution shows a consistent pattern of the GPU being the bottleneck as settings increase. At 4K, the jump from Low to Medium costs 27 FPS (106 to 79), and from Medium to High another 13 FPS (79 to 66), before Ultra demands a further 18 FPS reduction (66 to 48). This scaling indicates that the RTX 4090's compute resources are being fully utilized at these higher settings.

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

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F provides the processing foundation for this system, and its specifications are well-suited to Red Dead Redemption 2's CPU demands. This 8-core, 16-thread processor from the 9000 series uses the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge) on a 4 nm TSMC process. It operates with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and boosts up to 5.50 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU's 32 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support (89.6 GB/s bandwidth) ensure that game data can be fed to the cores without stalling.

The Ryzen 7 9700F achieves a PassMark multithread score of 36470 and a single-thread score of 4691, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals in the database show how tightly contested this performance tier is: the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX scores 69875 (0.2% higher), the Intel Core i7-14700KF scores 70163 (0.2% lower), and the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X scores 69515 (0.7% higher). These deltaPct values are all within 1%, meaning the 9700F is essentially performance-equivalent to those parts in synthetic workloads.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU's role becomes most evident at 1080p resolutions where the GPU has more headroom. At 1080p Low, the system produces 214 FPS average, which is the highest measured framerate in the entire dataset. This figure suggests that the CPU's 5.50 GHz boost clock and 16 threads are capable of feeding the RTX 4090 enough draw calls to reach framerates well beyond typical display refresh rates. The 1080p Ultra result of 96 FPS still shows strong CPU performance, though the load shifts more toward the GPU at that setting.

The Ryzen 7 9700F's architecture with its 80 KB L1 cache per core and 1 MB L2 per core provides low-latency access to frequently used game data. The PassMark physics score of 2122 and integer math score of 120788 indicate solid computational throughput for game logic and physics calculations. Notably, the CPU's 65 W TDP is modest for the performance level, which means thermal throttling is unlikely to be a factor in sustained gameplay sessions.

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

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of how this combo performs across all three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the system delivers 214 FPS on Low, 161 FPS on Medium, 134 FPS on High, and 96 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a min FPS of 136 and max of 185, demonstrating a 49 FPS variance that indicates some scene-dependent fluctuation. At 2560x1440, the numbers are 160 FPS (Low), 120 FPS (Medium with min 102 and max 138), 100 FPS (High), and 72 FPS (Ultra). Moving to 3840x2160, the results are 106 FPS (Low), 79 FPS (Medium with min 67 and max 91), 66 FPS (High), and 48 FPS (Ultra).

The data shows that the gap between Low and Ultra settings widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference is 118 FPS (214 vs 96), while at 4K it narrows to 58 FPS (106 vs 48). This pattern indicates that at lower resolutions, the CPU can push framerates higher, but the GPU still handles the incremental load from higher settings. At 4K, both the resolution and settings tax the GPU more heavily, compressing the range between presets.

The Medium settings across all resolutions provide the only complete min/max data in the dataset. At 1080p Medium, the 136-185 FPS range shows that even at lower resolutions, there are moments where the framerate dips significantly, likely during busy scenes with many NPCs or complex particle effects. The 1440p Medium range of 102-138 FPS and 4K Medium range of 67-91 FPS both show similar proportional variance, suggesting that the game's performance consistency scales with resolution rather than changing character.

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

Analyzing the resolution scaling reveals which component becomes the bottleneck at each level. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings, the framerate drops from 214 to 160 FPS, a 25% reduction. From 1440p to 4K at Low, it drops from 160 to 106 FPS, another 34% reduction. The cumulative effect from 1080p to 4K at Low is a 50% framerate loss (214 to 106). This steep decline indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor even at Low settings, as the RTX 4090's rendering workload scales directly with pixel count.

At Medium settings, the scaling is slightly more gradual. From 1080p (161 FPS) to 1440p (120 FPS) is a 25% drop, and from 1440p to 4K (79 FPS) is a 34% drop. The total 51% reduction from 1080p to 4K is nearly identical to Low, reinforcing that the GPU's fill rate and shading capacity are being saturated. For High settings, 1080p (134 FPS) to 1440p (100 FPS) is a 25% drop, and 1440p to 4K (66 FPS) is 34%, totaling 51%. Ultra settings show the same pattern: 96 to 72 FPS (25%) from 1080p to 1440p, then 72 to 48 FPS (33%) from 1440p to 4K, for a 50% total reduction.

The consistent 25%/34% splits across all settings point to a GPU-bound scenario throughout. The CPU's performance headroom is sufficient at all resolutions, as evidenced by the fact that the proportional framerate loss scales almost exactly with pixel count. If the CPU were the bottleneck at lower resolutions, the 1080p to 1440p drop would be smaller than the 1440p to 4K drop. Instead, the uniform scaling confirms that the RTX 4090's rendering pipeline is the constraining factor, with the Ryzen 7 9700F providing enough throughput to keep the GPU fed.

The absolute numbers reinforce this interpretation. At 4K Low, the system still achieves 106 FPS, which is far above what a CPU-limited configuration would produce. The 4K Ultra result of 48 FPS is low enough to suggest the GPU is working at maximum capacity, but the fact that it maintains playable framerates at this extreme setting shows the RTX 4090's strength. The framerate data does not show any anomalous dips that would indicate CPU stalls, supporting the conclusion that the 9700F is never the limiting component in this game.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 achieves a rank of 112 out of 2902 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2. This places the system in the top 3.9% of all configurations in the database, which is an exceptional result. The ranking reflects the combined capability of both components, and given the RTX 4090's position as the fastest consumer GPU available, much of this rank is attributable to the graphics card.

However, the CPU choice matters for this ranking. The 9700F's 94th percentile standing among CPUs means it is not leaving significant performance on the table. The nearest rival comparisons show that the 9700F is within 1% of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and Intel Core i7-14700K in synthetic benchmarks, so swapping to those CPUs would not meaningfully change the combo's rank. The 0.9% deltaPct against the i7-14700K is within the margin of error for most gaming benchmarks.

The rank of 112 out of 2902 combos means there are 111 configurations that score higher, likely featuring even faster CPUs or slightly better-tuned systems. But given the RTX 4090's end-of-life status and the 9700F's recent release, this pairing represents a current-generation sweet spot. The data shows that the GPU's 88th percentile rank (which is lower than its gaming performance suggests, due to synthetic benchmark quirks) does not prevent the combo from reaching near the top of the gaming charts.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average framerate is 214 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The system also achieves 160 FPS at 1440p Low and 106 FPS at 4K Low.

Q: Can this system run Red Dead Redemption 2 at 4K Ultra settings?

A: Yes, the combo produces an average of 48 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. While this is below the 60 FPS threshold, it is playable, and dropping to High settings yields 66 FPS.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 9700F compare to its nearest CPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The 9700F scores 69996 on average, which is 0.2% lower than the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875), 0.2% lower than the Intel Core i7-14700KF (70163), 0.7% lower than the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69515), and 0.9% lower than the Intel Core i7-14700K (69355).

Q: What is the framerate difference between 1080p and 4K at Medium settings?

A: At Medium settings, the system delivers 161 FPS at 1080p, 120 FPS at 1440p, and 79 FPS at 4K. This represents a 51% total reduction from 1080p to 4K.

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

A: The GPU is the limiting factor at all resolutions and settings. This is evident from the uniform framerate scaling between resolutions (approximately 25% drop from 1080p to 1440p and 34% from 1440p to 4K across all presets), which indicates the RTX 4090's rendering workload is the bottleneck.

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

A: The combo ranks 112th out of 2902 tested combinations, placing it in the top 3.9% of all systems tested in Red Dead Redemption 2.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and desired framerate. For 1080p displays, the High preset at 134 FPS provides an excellent balance of visual quality and performance, easily exceeding 120 Hz refresh rates. The Ultra preset at 96 FPS is also viable for high-refresh displays, though the 38 FPS drop from High to Ultra may not justify the visual gains for most users.

At 1440p, the High preset delivers 100 FPS, which is ideal for 100 Hz or 120 Hz monitors. The Medium preset at 120 FPS offers a smoother experience for competitive play, but the visual compromise is noticeable. The Ultra preset at 72 FPS is acceptable for 60 Hz displays but leaves performance headroom unused.

For 4K, users face a meaningful tradeoff. The High preset produces 66 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for most displays and represents the best choice for a smooth experience. The Medium preset at 79 FPS provides additional headroom for frame pacing but sacrifices some visual fidelity. The Ultra preset at 48 FPS is only recommended for users who prioritize maximum visual quality over smoothness, as the sub-60 FPS framerate will be noticeable in fast-moving scenes.

The Low presets at any resolution (214 FPS at 1080p, 160 FPS at 1440p, 106 FPS at 4K) are not recommended for normal gameplay, as the visual degradation outweighs the framerate benefits. However, they serve as a useful reference for the system's ceiling performance. The data overall suggests that the High preset is the sweet spot for this combo across all resolutions, offering the best balance of image quality and measured performance.