Red Dead Redemption 2

# Red Dead Redemption 2 with AMD Ryzen 9 7900X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

Red Dead Redemption 2 remains a demanding title, and this pairing of AMD's 12-core Ryzen 9 7900X with NVIDIA's flagship RTX 5090 produces a wide spread of frame rates depending on resolution and quality preset. The measured data shows a system that can push well past 200 FPS at 1080p on Low settings, yet drops to 49 FPS at 4K Ultra, indicating that the RTX 5090's immense rasterization power is the primary driver at higher resolutions while the CPU becomes more relevant at lower settings.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound scaling pattern, though the magnitude of the drop varies significantly by settings preset. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 220 FPS at 1920x1080 to 164 FPS at 2560x1440, then to 108 FPS at 3840x2160. That represents a 26% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a further 34% drop from 1440p to 4K, totaling a 51% decrease across the full resolution range. These steep declines indicate that even at Low quality, the RTX 5090 is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the pixel count increase from roughly 2 million to 8.3 million pixels overwhelms the GPU's shading units.

For Medium settings, the pattern is similar but with slightly different percentages. The average FPS goes from 164 at 1080p to 123 at 1440p (a 25% drop) and then to 81 at 4K (a 34% drop from 1440p). The High preset shows 137 FPS at 1080p, 102 FPS at 1440p (26% lower), and 68 FPS at 4K (33% lower than 1440p). Ultra settings follow the same trajectory: 99 FPS at 1080p, 74 FPS at 1440p (25% lower), and 49 FPS at 4K (34% lower). The consistency of these percentage drops across all four presets—hovering around 25-26% for the first step and 33-34% for the second—strongly suggests that resolution scaling is purely GPU-bound, with the Ryzen 9 7900X providing ample headroom even at 1080p.

The fact that Ultra at 4K yields just 49 FPS while Low at 4K reaches 108 FPS highlights how much headroom exists in the settings slider. The RTX 5090's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are clearly sufficient even at 4K, but the sheer compute load of Ultra settings—with its advanced lighting and shadow effects—pushes the GPU to its limits. At 1080p Low, the 220 FPS result approaches what might be a CPU ceiling, though the Ryzen 9 7900X's 5.60 GHz boost clock and 24 threads keep it from bottlenecking the frame rate.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average is 220 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next best is 164 FPS, achieved at both 1080p Medium and 1440p Low, showing how resolution and settings trade off evenly.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K?

A: Yes, but only at Medium or lower settings. At 4K Medium, the average is 81 FPS with minimums of 69 FPS, while 4K High averages 68 FPS. At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 49 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold.

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

A: The average FPS falls from 137 at 1080p to 102 at 1440p and then to 68 at 4K. This represents a 50% reduction from 1080p to 4K, consistent with the doubling of pixel count and the GPU-bound nature of the workload.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 7900X bottlenecking the RTX 5090 at any resolution?

A: The data does not indicate a significant CPU bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the 220 FPS average suggests the CPU can feed the GPU at very high frame rates. The consistent 25-34% FPS drops across resolution steps indicate that the GPU is the limiting component even at 1080p.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The lowest minimum FPS in the measured data is 69 FPS, recorded at 4K Medium settings. This is the only preset with both minimum and maximum values provided, showing a range of 69 to 93 FPS at that configuration.

Q: How does the RTX 5090's average benchmark score compare to its nearest rival?

A: The RTX 5090 has an average benchmark score of 79,842, which puts it 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79,605) and 0.6% ahead of the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79,396). It trails the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X by 1.4% (80,959).

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Ryzen 9 7900X and RTX 5090 ranks 88th out of 3,714 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2, placing it in the top 2.4% of all configurations tested. That percentile placement is consistent with both components' overall benchmark standings—the CPU ranks in the 91st percentile against all CPUs, and the GPU sits in the 92nd percentile against all GPUs. The combo's rank suggests that the RTX 5090's massive compute resources are being effectively utilized by the Ryzen 9 7900X, without any obvious pairing inefficiencies.

Looking at the CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks, the Ryzen 9 7900X scores an average of 53,288, which is 0.2% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7313P (53,206) and 0.6% ahead of the Intel Xeon 634 (52,974). It trails the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 by 0.3% (53,469) and the Intel Core i7-14700F by 0.6% (53,620). These are extremely tight margins, meaning the 7900X's performance class is well-established, and its 12 cores and 24 threads are more than adequate for Red Dead Redemption 2's threading model.

The GPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database include a mix of workstation and mobile parts, but the RTX 5090's deltaPct values are all within 1.4% of these competitors. This is notable because the RTX 5090 is a consumer gaming card, yet it trades blows with professional-grade Tesla parts in synthetic tests. In actual game performance, the 49 FPS at 4K Ultra is a strong result for a game released in 2018, showing that the RTX 5090's architecture scales well with older titles that push heavy rasterization loads.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results span a wide range depending on settings. Low settings produce an average of 220 FPS, while Medium averages 164 FPS with a minimum of 140 and maximum of 189. High settings yield 137 FPS on average, and Ultra drops to 99 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 121 FPS, or 55% of the Low figure, demonstrating how much performance is traded for visual fidelity at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 164 FPS at Low, 123 FPS at Medium (with a range of 104 to 141), 102 FPS at High, and 74 FPS at Ultra. The spread between Low and Ultra narrows to 90 FPS at this resolution, reflecting the added pixel load on the GPU. At 1440p, even Ultra settings remain playable, with the average of 74 FPS sitting comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the numbers become more demanding. Low settings average 108 FPS, Medium averages 81 FPS (with a minimum of 69 and maximum of 93), High averages 68 FPS, and Ultra drops to 49 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only measured configuration that falls below 60 FPS on average, making it the sole scenario where the RTX 5090 cannot maintain a consistent high-refresh experience. The 4K Medium settings, with a minimum of 69 FPS, offer the best balance of visual quality and frame rate stability at that resolution.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset shows the tightest FPS ranges when minimum and maximum values are provided. At 1080p, the range is 49 FPS (140 to 189), at 1440p it is 37 FPS (104 to 141), and at 4K it is 24 FPS (69 to 93). This tightening range at higher resolutions further confirms that the GPU is the bottleneck—as resolution increases, the variance in frame times decreases because the GPU is consistently saturated.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 4K, the data clearly supports Medium settings as the sweet spot. The 81 FPS average with a 69 FPS minimum provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS, whereas High settings average 68 FPS with no guaranteed minimum, and Ultra falls to 49 FPS. Medium at 4K delivers 65% more average FPS than Ultra while still offering a substantial visual upgrade over Low settings. Given the game's age, Medium settings at 4K will still look excellent on a high-resolution display.

At 1440p, Ultra settings become viable with a 74 FPS average, though High at 102 FPS offers a smoother experience for fast-paced gameplay. Players with 144 Hz monitors might prefer High or Medium (123 FPS) to fully utilize their display's refresh rate, while those prioritizing visual fidelity can run Ultra without dropping below 60 FPS. The 1440p Medium result of 123 FPS is particularly compelling, as it clears 120 FPS for high-refresh gaming while retaining a respectable level of detail.

For 1080p, the situation is more nuanced. Low settings at 220 FPS are well beyond what most displays can show, making Medium at 164 FPS or High at 137 FPS more practical choices. Ultra at 1080p averages 99 FPS, which is smooth but leaves significant performance on the table for a resolution that does not tax the RTX 5090 heavily. Given the GPU's capabilities, High settings at 1080p (137 FPS) represent the best combination of visual quality and frame rate, with Medium (164 FPS) as the choice for competitive play or high-refresh displays.

The overall recommendation is to use Medium settings at 4K, High at 1440p, and High or Ultra at 1080p depending on display refresh rate. The measured data shows that the RTX 5090 has enough headroom at lower resolutions to run higher presets without sacrificing playability, making the choice largely dependent on whether the user prioritizes frame rate or visual fidelity.

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 dual-channel DDR5 memory support provide 83.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for feeding the RTX 5090's data demands. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a single-thread score of 2,016.5 in Cinebench R23 and 2,617 in Geekbench, while multi-thread scores reach 29,300 in Cinebench R23 and 19,267 in Geekbench. These figures place it in the 91st percentile of all CPUs.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU's role is primarily to maintain high frame rates at lower resolutions where the GPU is not saturated. The 220 FPS result at 1080p Low demonstrates that the 7900X can sustain very high instruction throughput without becoming a bottleneck. The 3DMark single-thread score of 1,093 and 2-thread score of 2,137 indicate strong per-core performance, which is crucial for a game that likely relies on a few heavily threaded tasks for its simulation and AI systems.

The 12-core configuration is more than sufficient for this title, as evidenced by the consistent FPS scaling across resolutions. If the CPU were limiting performance, we would expect to see smaller FPS differences between 1080p and 1440p, since the GPU would be waiting on the CPU at both resolutions. Instead, the data shows steady 25-26% drops from 1080p to 1440p across all presets, confirming that the GPU is the limiting component in every measured scenario. The Ryzen 9 7900X's nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-14700F, scores within 0.6% in average benchmark score, suggesting that either CPU would perform similarly in this game. However, the 7900X's higher boost clock and larger cache may provide slight advantages in CPU-bound sections of the game, though the measured FPS data does not isolate these effects.