Red Dead Redemption 2

# Red Dead Redemption 2 with AMD Ryzen 7 9700X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060

The data set for this combination covers twelve measured FPS scenarios across three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) and four quality presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra). The combo ranks 1673rd out of 3714 tested combinations in this game, placing it in the upper-middle portion of the field, with the CPU sitting at the 86th percentile among all processors and the GPU at the 72nd percentile among all graphics cards. This pairing of an 8-core Zen 5 desktop processor with a Blackwell 2.0 entry-level GPU produces a distinct performance curve that warrants close examination.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and reveals the GPU as the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 73 FPS at 1080p to 55 FPS at 1440p—a 24.7% reduction—and then to 36 FPS at 4K, which is another 34.5% drop from the 1440p figure. The total scaling from 1080p to 4K at High settings is a 50.7% decrease in average FPS, which is substantial but not catastrophic.

Low settings shows a similar pattern with different magnitudes. The 1080p Low average of 117 FPS drops to 87 FPS at 1440p, a 25.6% decline, and then to 58 FPS at 4K, a 33.3% drop from 1440p. The cumulative loss from 1080p to 4K at Low is 50.4%, nearly identical to the High settings percentage. This consistency across presets suggests that the resolution scaling is driven by the GPU's raw rendering limits rather than by any particular setting configuration.

Medium settings provides the most complete data with min and max FPS values. At 1080p Medium, the average is 88 FPS with a range of 75 to 101 FPS. Moving to 1440p Medium, the average falls to 65 FPS (26.1% lower) with a range of 56 to 75 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 43 FPS (33.8% lower than 1440p) with a range of 37 to 50 FPS. The frame time consistency also degrades with resolution, as the gap between min and max FPS widens from 26 FPS at 1080p to 19 FPS at 1440p to 13 FPS at 4K—though the relative spread actually tightens.

Ultra settings yields the lowest frame rates across all resolutions. The 1080p Ultra average is 53 FPS, which drops to 39 FPS at 1440p (26.4% reduction) and to 26 FPS at 4K (33.3% reduction from 1440p). The 1080p-to-4K loss at Ultra is 50.9%, again matching the pattern of roughly half the performance disappearing when moving from the lowest to the highest tested resolution.

The data implies that at 1080p, the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU adequately—the 117 FPS Low result shows headroom—but as resolution increases, the GPU's rendering workload grows faster than the CPU's preparation work, shifting the bottleneck firmly to the graphics card. The RTX 5060's 8 GB of GDDR7 memory and 128-bit bus appear to be the limiting factors at 4K, where even Low settings cannot maintain 60 FPS.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X brings 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture, built on a 4 nm process at TSMC. Its base clock is 3.80 GHz with a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, and it carries 32 MB of shared L3 cache plus 1 MB of L2 per core. The processor's benchmark results show strong multi-threaded performance: Cinebench R23 multicore scores 20,485, while the single-core score is 2,211. Geekbench results show 17,906 multicore and 3,023 single-core.

In the context of Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU's role is primarily to maintain consistent frame delivery, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU is less stressed. The 1080p Low result of 117 FPS average indicates that the CPU can drive high frame rates when the GPU is not the limiting factor. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 9,824 and max-thread score of 9,771 show that scaling from 16 to maximum threads yields minimal gains, suggesting the chip is well-utilized at its full thread count.

The nearest rival data places this CPU in a tight cluster. The Intel Core i9-14901E scores 37,911 average (0.1% ahead), the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 scores 37,904 (0.1% ahead), the Intel Core 5 211E scores 37,829 (0.3% ahead), and the AMD Ryzen AI Embedded P132 scores 37,804 (0.4% ahead). The 9700X's average benchmark score is 37,943, meaning it leads this group by the narrowest of margins—between 0.1% and 0.4% over each rival. This indicates that in CPU-bound scenarios, this processor performs essentially identically to its closest competitors.

PassMark results reinforce the multi-threaded strength: multithread score is 37,161, integer math scores 120,142, floating-point math scores 78,999, and data compression scores 437,140. The single-thread score of 4,654 shows that per-core performance remains robust for this architecture. With a 65 W TDP and dual-channel DDR5 memory support at 89.6 GB/s bandwidth, the CPU has ample memory throughput for feeding the GPU in this game.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 7 9700X and RTX 5060 ranks 1673rd out of 3714 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2, which places it in the 55th percentile of all tested configurations. This is a middling rank that reflects the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions rather than any CPU deficiency. The CPU's own percentile rank of 86th among all processors is far higher than the GPU's 72nd percentile, confirming that the graphics card is the weaker link in this pairing.

The 1080p results show this combo can deliver playable frame rates across all settings, with even Ultra averaging 53 FPS. At 1440p, the combo remains viable for High (55 FPS) and Medium (65 FPS), but Ultra dips to 39 FPS, approaching the edge of smooth gameplay. At 4K, only Low settings (58 FPS) approach playability, with Medium at 43 FPS and High at 36 FPS—both below the 60 FPS threshold that many players prefer.

The rank of 1673 out of 3714 suggests that while this combo is not at the bottom, it also does not shine in this particular game. The GPU's performance relative to its nearest rivals—the AMD Radeon 860M is 0.3% faster, the NVIDIA GeForce MX550 is 0.3% faster, the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary is 0.8% faster, and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT is 1.2% slower—shows that the RTX 5060 sits in a competitive but not dominant position. These small deltas indicate that the GPU's performance is well within the expected range for its class.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 provides the most consistent experience, with all four settings presets averaging above 50 FPS. At 2560x1440, High and Medium remain playable at 55 FPS and 65 FPS respectively, while 4K only reaches playable levels at Low settings (58 FPS).

Q: Can this combo achieve 60 FPS at 4K?

A: No, based on the measured data. The highest 4K result is 58 FPS at Low settings, followed by 43 FPS at Medium, 36 FPS at High, and 26 FPS at Ultra. None of the 4K presets reach the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does this combo compare to similar configurations?

A: The combo ranks 1673rd out of 3714 tested combinations. The CPU's closest rivals are within 0.1% to 0.4% in average benchmark score, and the GPU's nearest rivals range from 1.2% faster to 0.8% slower, indicating a well-balanced but not exceptional pairing.

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

A: The 1080p Low setting produces 117 FPS average, suggesting the CPU has headroom to drive even higher frame rates if the GPU could keep up. At 1080p Ultra, the 53 FPS result indicates the GPU is the constraint, as a more powerful graphics card would likely improve this figure.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra at each resolution?

A: At 1080p, Low averages 117 FPS versus Ultra at 53 FPS, a 54.7% reduction. At 1440p, Low averages 87 FPS versus Ultra at 39 FPS, a 55.2% reduction. At 4K, Low averages 58 FPS versus Ultra at 26 FPS, a 55.2% reduction.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM capacity affect 4K performance?

A: The data cannot directly prove VRAM limitation, but the steep FPS drops at 4K across all settings, combined with the GPU's 8 GB GDDR7 memory and 128-bit bus, suggest the memory subsystem may contribute to the performance ceiling at that resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture using a 5 nm process, featuring 3840 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. Its base clock is 2280 MHz with a boost clock of 2497 MHz, and it carries 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. The GPU's compute capabilities include 19.18 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 30 RT cores, with 120 tensor cores for AI workloads.

The GPU's benchmark results position it as a mid-range performer. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 3,628, Geekbench OpenCL scores 112,787, and Vulkan scores 113,321. PassMark G3D scores 20,891 with a GPU compute score of 10,899. The average benchmark score of 26,331 places it at the 72nd percentile among all GPUs.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. At 1080p, the GPU still allows for high frame rates, but the gap between Low (117 FPS) and Ultra (53 FPS) shows that even at this resolution, the graphics card's processing power limits the highest quality settings. The 1440p results show a similar pattern with a 55.2% reduction from Low to Ultra, and 4K results demonstrate the GPU's inability to maintain high frame rates at any setting above Low.

The RTX 5060's nearest rivals show it is competitively positioned. The AMD Radeon 860M averages 26,401 (0.3% higher), the NVIDIA GeForce MX550 averages 26,421 (0.3% higher), the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary averages 26,553 (0.8% higher), and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT averages 26,011 (1.2% lower). These small differences suggest the GPU's performance in this game is representative of its class.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 60 FPS as a baseline, the data shows that 1080p with High settings (73 FPS) or Medium settings (88 FPS) delivers a comfortable margin above the target. At 1440p, Medium (65 FPS) is the only preset that reliably exceeds 60 FPS, with High (55 FPS) falling short. At 4K, no preset reaches 60 FPS, and Low (58 FPS) is the only option that comes close.

For players prioritizing visual quality over frame rate, 1440p High (55 FPS) offers a strong balance, while 1080p Ultra (53 FPS) provides the highest quality at a playable frame rate. The 4K Ultra setting (26 FPS) is not recommended for active gameplay, as the frame rate drops below 30 FPS.

The Medium preset at 1440p provides the best measured experience when considering both frame rate and visual fidelity. The min FPS of 56 at this setting indicates acceptable frame pacing, while the 75 FPS max shows headroom for occasional spikes. At 1080p, Medium (88 FPS average, 75 min, 101 max) offers a similar stable experience with significantly higher overall performance.

For those who must play at 4K, Low settings (58 FPS) is the only viable option, but the reduced visual quality may not justify the resolution increase over 1440p Medium. The data suggests that 1440p Medium or High provides a better balance of visual quality and performance than 4K Low.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 117 FPS, the highest result in the entire data set. Medium averages 88 FPS with a range of 75 to 101 FPS. High averages 73 FPS, and Ultra averages 53 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a consistent decline of roughly 15-20 FPS per step, with the largest single drop being 20 FPS from Low to Medium.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 87 FPS, Medium averages 65 FPS with a range of 56 to 75 FPS, High averages 55 FPS, and Ultra averages 39 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is 22 FPS, from Medium to High is 10 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 16 FPS. The Medium preset's frame range of 56-75 FPS shows the widest spread at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, Low averages 58 FPS, Medium averages 43 FPS with a range of 37 to 50 FPS, High averages 36 FPS, and Ultra averages 26 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is 15 FPS, from Medium to High is 7 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 10 FPS. The 4K Medium range of 37-50 FPS shows a tighter spread than at lower resolutions, indicating more consistent frame delivery at the cost of absolute performance.

Across all resolutions, the Low preset shows the smallest percentage drop from 1080p to 4K at 50.4%, while Ultra shows the largest at 50.9%. The Medium preset falls between at 51.1% when comparing the 1080p average of 88 FPS to the 4K average of 43 FPS. High settings show a 50.7% reduction from 73 FPS to 36 FPS. These consistent percentages across all settings strongly suggest that the GPU's resolution scaling is uniform and independent of the quality preset chosen.