Red Dead Redemption 2

The data for Red Dead Redemption 2 with the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 shows a system that scales predictably with resolution, but with distinct characteristics that define its performance envelope. The measured FPS figures reveal a title that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s substantial headroom becomes more apparent at 1080p.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K produces a steep decline in frame rates, indicating that the graphics card is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 100.6 at 1920x1080 to 77.9 at 2560x1440, a reduction that accelerates further to 48.6 at 3840x2160. This represents a cumulative drop of over 50% from the 1080p baseline when moving to 4K.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all quality presets. At Low settings, the system delivers 164.5 FPS at 1080p, which falls to 125 at 1440p and 83.2 at 4K. The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic decline, with 76.6 FPS at 1080p dropping to 53.5 at 1440p and reaching just 35.4 at 4K. These figures suggest that the RTX 5070’s 12 GB of GDDR7 memory and 192-bit bus are adequate for the game, but the raw compute requirements of 4K rendering push the GPU to its limits.

The performance delta between Medium and High settings is relatively small across all resolutions. At 1440p, the gap is 15.1 FPS, while at 4K it narrows to 13.7 FPS. This indicates that the game’s High preset does not introduce a disproportionate load compared to Medium, allowing players to gain visual quality without a major FPS penalty. Conversely, the jump from High to Ultra is severe, with a 24.4 FPS drop at 1080p and a 13.2 FPS drop at 4K, suggesting that Ultra settings carry a significant rendering overhead.

How This Combo Ranks

In the broader context of tested combinations, this pairing sits at rank 315 out of 1687 combos in Red Dead Redemption 2. This places it in the top 19% of all tested systems, which is a strong showing for a mid-generation pairing. The rank reflects the balance between the Ryzen 9 7900X’s multi-threaded capabilities and the RTX 5070’s rasterization performance.

The CPU’s benchmark scores support this ranking. With a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 43695 and a single-core score of 6168, the processor provides ample computational headroom. The GPU, with a Passmark G3D score of 29137, contributes the graphical muscle. The combination’s rank of 315 suggests that while it outperforms the majority of setups, it does not reach the top tier where more powerful GPUs paired with flagship CPUs reside.

The data indicates that the system is well-matched for this title, as the CPU does not bottleneck the GPU at any tested resolution. The measured FPS figures show consistent scaling that would be expected from a balanced platform. The rank of 315 out of 1687 represents a solid position, placing the combo ahead of many older or less balanced configurations.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 operates with a base clock of 2325 MHz and a boost clock of 2512 MHz, built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with 6144 shading units. Its 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus delivers a bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s. These specifications directly correlate with the measured performance in Red Dead Redemption 2.

The GPU’s memory configuration proves sufficient for the game’s demands at 1080p and 1440p, where the average FPS remains playable even at Ultra settings. However, at 4K Ultra, the 35.4 FPS average suggests that both memory bandwidth and compute resources are stretched. The 80 ROPs and 192 TMUs handle the game’s texture-heavy scenes adequately, but the pixel rate of 201.0 GPixel/s is a limiting factor at 4K.

In benchmark comparisons, the RTX 5070 shows a 0.6% advantage over the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 in average benchmark score, with a deltaPct of 0.6. This indicates that the newer architecture provides performance parity with a previous flagship, though the 5070’s 12 GB memory capacity is smaller than the 3090’s. The GPU’s percentile ranking of 83 against all GPUs places it in the upper tier, which aligns with its measured FPS results in this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system demonstrates its peak capabilities. The Low preset achieves an average of 164.5 FPS, which drops to 125.5 at Medium and 100.6 at High. The Ultra preset brings the average down to 76.6 FPS. These figures show that at 1080p, the system can comfortably exceed 100 FPS on High settings, providing a smooth experience for high-refresh-rate displays.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows the expected decline. Low settings deliver 125 FPS, Medium produces 93 FPS, and High maintains 77.9 FPS. The Ultra preset falls to 53.5 FPS, which is still playable but begins to show the GPU’s limits. At this resolution, the system is clearly GPU-bound, as the CPU’s 12 cores and 24 threads are unlikely to be the constraint.

At 3840x2160, the system’s performance drops significantly. Low settings yield 83.2 FPS, Medium delivers 62.3 FPS, and High drops to 48.6 FPS. The Ultra preset only manages 35.4 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. These numbers indicate that 4K gaming with this combo requires lowering settings to Medium or below to maintain acceptable frame rates.

The difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p is 87.9 FPS, while at 4K it is 47.8 FPS. This shows that the absolute performance gap between presets narrows at higher resolutions, as the GPU becomes the bottleneck regardless of quality settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X brings 12 cores and 24 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. Its 64 MB of shared L3 cache and 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth provide substantial headroom for gaming workloads. In Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU’s role is largely supportive, as the game’s engine is not particularly demanding on multi-threaded performance.

The CPU’s benchmark scores show its strength. A Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 43695 and a single-core score of 6168 indicate strong performance in both threaded and single-threaded workloads. The Passmark multi-thread score of 51406 and single-thread score of 4238 further confirm its capabilities. However, the game’s FPS data suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution, as the scaling from 1080p to 4K follows a GPU-bound pattern.

Comparing to its nearest rivals, the Ryzen 9 7900X shows a deltaPct of -0.1% against the Intel Core Ultra 5 235, and -0.4% against the AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT. These minimal differences indicate that the CPU’s performance is well within the expected range for its class. The processor’s percentile ranking of 93 against all CPUs places it in the top tier, which is reflected in its ability to feed the RTX 5070 without bottlenecking.

The CPU’s 5 nm process node and 13,140 million transistors contribute to its efficiency, though the 170 W TDP requires adequate cooling. In this game, the CPU’s 12 cores provide more than enough processing power, and the measured FPS figures show no signs of CPU limitation even at 1080p Low where the frame rate reaches 164.5 FPS. The system’s overall balance ensures that the GPU is the primary determinant of performance across all tested configurations.