Red Dead Redemption 2

# How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 lands at rank 220 out of 3,714 tested combinations in Red Dead Redemption 2. That places this combo in the top 6% of all tested systems, a strong showing for a game that is notoriously demanding on both CPU and GPU resources. The ranking reflects the synergy between a high-end 2024 CPU and a flagship 2025 GPU, both of which are near the top of their respective benchmark percentile charts.

The CPU's percentileVsAllCpus of 86 and the GPU's percentileVsAllGpus of 87 indicate that both components sit comfortably above the vast majority of alternatives. What's particularly telling is the closeness of the CPU's nearest rivals — the Intel Core i9-14901E is only 0.1% ahead in average benchmark score, while the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 matches it at 0.1%. This suggests that the 9700X is not dramatically outpacing its immediate competition, yet the overall combo still achieves a high rank, implying the GPU is doing substantial lifting in this title.

The 220th position out of 3,714 combos is not merely a function of raw component strength; it also reflects how well these two parts work together in a game that scales with both thread count and memory bandwidth. The data indicates that this is a top-tier configuration, but not the absolute best — there are 219 other combos that extract more performance, likely featuring even higher-end GPUs or CPUs with more cache. For a 65W TDP CPU paired with a 360W GPU, the balance here is noteworthy.

GPU Role

The RTX 5080 brings 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. In Red Dead Redemption 2, which is known for large open-world textures, this memory capacity and bandwidth are critical. The benchmark data shows that at 4K Ultra, the combo drops to 45 FPS, which is playable but not smooth; at 4K High, it climbs to 62 FPS. The difference between these settings indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth is a limiting factor at the highest preset.

The GPU's clock speeds — 2295 MHz base and 2617 MHz boost — are relatively modest for a flagship, but the architecture compensates with 10,752 shading units and 112 ROPs. The pixel rate of 293.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 879.3 GTexel/s suggest that the card can push geometry and fill-rate-heavy scenes effectively. In this game, the 4K Medium preset yields 74 FPS with a minimum of 63 FPS, which is a tighter frame pacing than the 4K High preset's average of 62 FPS with no reported minimum — the Medium data includes min/max figures, implying more consistent performance.

The GPU's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE, is 2.2% ahead in average benchmark score, yet the RTX 5080's 16 GB of VRAM gives it an edge in high-resolution scenarios. The data shows that at 1440p Ultra, the combo hits 67 FPS, while at 1080p Ultra it reaches 90 FPS. This scaling suggests that the GPU is the primary driver of performance at lower resolutions, where CPU overhead is less pronounced. The 960.0 GB/s bandwidth is double what many previous-generation cards offered, and this directly translates to the 4K Medium result of 74 FPS — a figure that indicates the memory subsystem is keeping pace with the rendering load.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 1440p High delivers 94 FPS average, which is smooth for most displays. At 4K High, the average drops to 62 FPS, which is borderline for 60Hz monitors. The sweet spot appears to be 1440p Medium at 112 FPS or 1440p High at 94 FPS, both offering a balance of visual quality and frame rate.

Q: How does the RTX 5080's VRAM affect 4K performance?

A: With 16 GB of GDDR7 memory and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth, the 4K Medium preset achieves 74 FPS with a minimum of 63 FPS. The 4K Ultra preset drops to 45 FPS, indicating that the VRAM capacity is sufficient but the GPU's compute units are strained at the highest settings.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 201 FPS, while at 1080p Ultra it drops to 90 FPS. The 1080p Low figure is 55% higher than the 4K Low result of 99 FPS, suggesting the GPU becomes more limiting as resolution increases. At 1080p, the CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU.

Q: How does the 9700X compare to its closest rival?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X has an average benchmark score of 37,943, while the Intel Core i9-14901E scores 37,911, a delta of just 0.1%. This means the 9700X is effectively tied with its nearest competitor in synthetic benchmarks, but the real-world game performance depends on the GPU pairing.

Q: What is the frame time consistency like at 1440p Medium?

A: The 1440p Medium preset reports a minimum FPS of 95 and a maximum of 129, with an average of 112. The spread of 34 FPS indicates some variance, but the minimum stays above 90 FPS, which is good for maintaining smooth gameplay.

Q: Does the combo support high refresh rate gaming at 1080p?

A: Yes, at 1080p Low the average FPS is 201, which exceeds 144Hz and approaches 240Hz. At 1080p High, the average is 126 FPS, still above 120Hz. However, at 1080p Ultra, the average drops to 90 FPS, which is below 120Hz but still smooth for most users.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers four presets across three resolutions, providing a comprehensive view of performance scaling. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 201 FPS average, Medium 151 FPS (min 128, max 173), High 126 FPS, and Ultra 90 FPS. The Medium preset's min/max range of 128-173 FPS shows a 45 FPS spread, indicating some frame pacing variability but generally consistent performance.

Moving to 1440p, the Low preset hits 150 FPS, Medium 112 FPS (min 95, max 129), High 94 FPS, and Ultra 67 FPS. The 1440p Medium data shows a narrower 34 FPS spread (95-129), suggesting better frame consistency than the 1080p Medium result. The drop from 1080p Low (201 FPS) to 1440p Low (150 FPS) represents a 25% reduction, while the drop from 1080p Ultra (90 FPS) to 1440p Ultra (67 FPS) is a 26% reduction — both proportional.

At 4K, the Low preset achieves 99 FPS, Medium 74 FPS (min 63, max 85), High 62 FPS, and Ultra 45 FPS. The 4K Medium min/max range of 63-85 FPS shows a 22 FPS spread, which is the tightest of any resolution at Medium settings. The 4K Ultra result of 45 FPS is the only sub-60 FPS average in the entire dataset, indicating that this preset pushes the GPU to its limits. The progression from 4K Low (99 FPS) to 4K Ultra (45 FPS) is a 55% reduction, showing how much headroom the Ultra preset demands.

Settings Recommendations

The data suggests that the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance across all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the 151 FPS average is well above the 144Hz refresh rate, while the 128 FPS minimum ensures no drops below 120Hz. At 1440p Medium, the 112 FPS average is still above 100 FPS, and the 95 FPS minimum keeps gameplay smooth on 100Hz displays. At 4K Medium, the 74 FPS average is above 60 FPS, with a 63 FPS minimum that just barely dips below 60 FPS — this is the only resolution where Medium dips below 60.

For users with 60Hz displays, 4K High at 62 FPS is viable, though the lack of a reported minimum makes it difficult to assess frame consistency. The 4K Medium preset with its 63 FPS minimum is a safer choice for maintaining a locked 60 FPS. The Ultra preset is only recommended for 1080p displays, where the 90 FPS average is acceptable, though the 1440p Ultra at 67 FPS is also playable on 60Hz monitors.

The Low preset is not recommended for any resolution above 1080p, as the visual quality loss is significant. However, at 1080p Low, the 201 FPS average makes this an option for competitive players with 240Hz monitors, though the game is not typically played in such a stripped-down mode. The High preset is a middle ground, providing 126 FPS at 1080p, 94 FPS at 1440p, and 62 FPS at 4K — all playable but not optimal for high refresh rate displays.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X features 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. Its 32 MB of shared L3 cache is substantial for a desktop processor, and the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge) on a 4 nm process node delivers strong single-threaded performance. The CPU's single-thread benchmark scores — 1,280 in 3DMark, 2,211 in Cinebench R23, and 3,023 in Geekbench — are all above average, which is crucial for a game like Red Dead Redemption 2 that has a heavy single-threaded component.

The CPU's 3DMark 16-thread score of 9,824 and max-thread score of 9,771 indicate that scaling beyond 8 threads yields minimal gains, as the 8-thread score of 8,184 is only 17% lower than the 16-thread result. This suggests that the game's threading model is efficiently using the available cores, but the 9700X's 8 cores are sufficient — adding more cores would not significantly improve performance.

The CPU's 65W TDP is remarkably low for a desktop processor with these performance levels, and the DDR5 memory support with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth ensures the GPU is fed with data. The passmark multi-thread score of 37,161 and single-thread score of 4,654 place the CPU in the 86th percentile, meaning it outperforms 86% of all CPUs. However, the nearest rivals are within 0.4% in average score, so the CPU is not a differentiator — the GPU is the star of this combo.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals how the system scales from 1080p to 4K. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 201 at 1080p to 150 at 1440p (a 25% reduction) to 99 at 4K (a 34% reduction from 1440p, 51% from 1080p). This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU becomes increasingly stressed as resolution increases, but the CPU keeps up at all resolutions.

At Medium settings, the progression is 151 FPS at 1080p, 112 FPS at 1440p (26% drop), and 74 FPS at 4K (34% drop from 1440p, 51% from 1080p). The consistent percentage drops across Low and Medium suggest that the GPU's compute throughput is scaling linearly with pixel count, and the CPU is not introducing any bottlenecks.

At High settings, the drops are 126 FPS at 1080p to 94 FPS at 1440p (25% drop) to 62 FPS at 4K (34% drop from 1440p, 51% from 1080p). This pattern holds across all presets, indicating that the limiting component is the GPU at every resolution. The 4K Ultra result of 45 FPS breaks this trend, showing a 33% drop from 1440p Ultra's 67 FPS, but this is expected as the Ultra preset pushes the GPU's shading units and ROPs to their limits.

The fact that the drop from 1080p to 4K is consistently around 51% across all presets suggests that the GPU is the primary bottleneck. If the CPU were limiting, we would expect to see a smaller percentage drop at lower resolutions where the CPU has more headroom. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system can push 201 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's maximum frame rate capability, but the GPU is still the limiting factor at higher settings. This combo is well-balanced, but the RTX 5080 is clearly the component that determines the system's performance ceiling in Red Dead Redemption 2.