Red Dead Redemption 2

# How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 820th out of 3714 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2. That places this configuration in the top 22% of all tested system pairings, a strong result for a mobile processor paired with a flagship desktop GPU. The ranking reflects a combination that delivers playable frame rates across most settings, though the data reveals a system that is more constrained by graphics load than by CPU throughput.

The combo's position in the overall hierarchy is interesting because the individual components are both high-percentile performers. The Ryzen 9 8945HX sits in the 95th percentile among all CPUs, while the RTX 5090 lands in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs. Yet the in-game rank of 820/3714 suggests that Red Dead Redemption 2's engine does not fully reward the extreme end of either component's capability. The game's 2018 release date means its rendering paths and CPU utilization patterns were designed for an earlier hardware generation, which explains why this modern flagship combination does not crack the top 500.

What matters more than the raw rank is the distribution of results across resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, this combo produces 159 FPS, which is a very high refresh rate experience. At 4K Ultra, it drops to 35 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target most players would want. The data shows a system that can dominate at lower resolutions but struggles to maintain high frame rates at the absolute maximum settings in 4K. The combination is versatile, but it is not a universal 4K Ultra solution for this specific title.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant component in this pairing for Red Dead Redemption 2. Its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus delivers 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, which is far more than this game requires. The GPU's 21760 shading units and 176 ROPs provide massive raw rasterization throughput, with a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s. The boost clock of 2407 MHz and base clock of 2017 MHz are the operating frequencies that translate into the measured frame rates.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its position. The Passmark G3D score of 39650 places it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, and the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18355 is a strong indicator of modern API performance. However, the nearest rival data shows an interesting pattern: the RTX 5090's average benchmark score of 79842 is only 0.3% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (score 79605) and 0.6% higher than the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (score 79396). The AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT trails by 1.1%, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X is actually 1.4% ahead. This suggests that in synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 5090's lead over older workstation and mobile parts is surprisingly narrow, despite the generational gap in architecture and memory technology.

In Red Dead Redemption 2 specifically, the GPU's role is decisive. The frame rate scaling from Low to Ultra settings at any given resolution is steep, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound title. The 32 GB VRAM capacity means there is no risk of running out of memory at any settings level, even at 4K Ultra. The 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores are present but not heavily utilized in this game, as Red Dead Redemption 2 does not feature ray tracing or DLSS-specific workloads that would engage those units.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and consistent pattern of resolution scaling. From 1080p to 4K, the average frame rate drops dramatically at every settings level. At Low settings, the combo delivers 159 FPS at 1080p, 119 FPS at 1440p, and 79 FPS at 4K. That is a 50% reduction from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the numbers are 100 FPS at 1080p, 74 FPS at 1440p, and 49 FPS at 4K — a 51% drop from 1080p to 4K. At Medium settings, the progression is 119 FPS at 1080p, 89 FPS at 1440p, and 59 FPS at 4K, a 50% reduction. At Ultra settings, the drop is 72 FPS at 1080p to 53 FPS at 1440p to 35 FPS at 4K, a 51% decrease from 1080p to 4K.

The consistency of this ~50% reduction across all four settings levels is a strong signal that the system is GPU-limited at every configuration. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the scaling from 1080p to 4K would be much less severe at lower settings, where the GPU has less work to do. Instead, the uniform halving of frame rates from 1080p to 4K indicates that the RTX 5090's fill rate and shading capacity are the determining factors. The 4K pixel count is 4 times that of 1080p, but the frame rate does not drop to one-quarter — it drops to roughly half. This suggests that at 1080p, the system is partially limited by other factors (likely CPU or driver overhead), while at 4K, the GPU is fully saturated.

The 1440p results sit almost exactly midway between the 1080p and 4K numbers, which reinforces the linear scaling behavior. The Ryzen 9 8945HX has enough single-thread performance to feed the GPU at 1080p, but the GPU's workload at 4K overwhelms the rendering pipeline. For players targeting 60 FPS, the data shows that 1440p High (74 FPS) and 1440p Medium (89 FPS) are comfortable, while 4K Medium (59 FPS) is just short of the target and 4K High (49 FPS) falls further behind.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results. Low settings produce an average of 159 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate displays. Medium settings average 119 FPS, with a minimum of 101 FPS and a maximum of 137 FPS — a tight range that indicates consistent frame pacing. High settings average 100 FPS, still well above the 60 FPS threshold. Ultra settings drop to 72 FPS on average, which remains playable but shows a significant 45% reduction from Low to Ultra. The 1080p results are uniformly strong, with no configuration falling below 72 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but start to show the GPU's workload. Low settings average 119 FPS, matching the 1080p Medium result. Medium settings average 89 FPS, with a minimum of 76 FPS and a maximum of 102 FPS. High settings produce 74 FPS on average, which is still above 60 FPS. Ultra settings fall to 53 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target but not unplayable. The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 25-30% of performance at each settings level, consistent with the pixel count increase of 78%.

At 3840x2160, the limitations of this combo become evident. Low settings average 79 FPS, which is still respectable for 4K. Medium settings average 59 FPS, with a minimum of 50 FPS and a maximum of 68 FPS — the variance here is notable, suggesting some scenes push the GPU harder than others. High settings drop to 49 FPS, and Ultra falls to 35 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the weakest in the entire dataset, representing a 78% reduction from 1080p Low. For 4K gaming, the data indicates that Medium settings are the practical ceiling for maintaining near-60 FPS, and even that is marginal.

The Medium settings measurements are the only ones with full min/max data across all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the range is 101-137 FPS. At 1440p Medium, it narrows to 76-102 FPS. At 4K Medium, it tightens further to 50-68 FPS. This pattern shows that as resolution increases, the frame time variance decreases relative to the average, because the GPU becomes the consistent bottleneck rather than fluctuating CPU load.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is a 16-core, 32-thread mobile processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, codenamed Dragon Range. It operates from a 2.50 GHz base clock to a 5.40 GHz boost clock, with a 55 W TDP. The CPU has 64 MB of L3 cache, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 64 KB of L1 per core. It supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus with 83.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The 5 nm process node from TSMC packs 13,140 million transistors across a dual-chiplet design with a 2x 71 mm² die size.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU's role is secondary but not negligible. The game's engine scales reasonably well across multiple cores, and the 16-core/32-thread configuration ensures there is no CPU-side bottleneck at any resolution or settings level. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42713 and single-core score of 6030 confirm that this processor has both strong multi-threaded throughput and excellent single-thread performance. The Passmark multi-thread score of 51405 and single-thread score of 3907 reinforce this assessment.

The CPU's nearest rivals show how tightly grouped the top mobile and workstation processors are. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX has an average benchmark score of 76155, which is just 0.1% behind the Ryzen 9 8945HX's 76212. The AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P (score 76492) and AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX (score 76513) are both 0.4% ahead, while the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D (score 75779) is 0.6% behind. These deltas are negligible in real-world gaming terms, meaning the choice among these top processors would not meaningfully change frame rates in Red Dead Redemption 2.

The data indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combo. At 1080p Low, where CPU overhead is most likely to surface, the system achieves 159 FPS — a very high frame rate that suggests the CPU can feed the GPU effectively. If the Ryzen 9 8945HX were a bottleneck, we would expect to see frame rates plateau at a lower value regardless of resolution, but the linear scaling from 1080p to 4K disproves that hypothesis. The 5.40 GHz boost clock provides the single-thread speed needed for the game's main thread, while the 16 cores handle background tasks and draw call submission without contention.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for 60 FPS gameplay?

A: The data shows that 1440p High settings deliver an average of 74 FPS, which comfortably exceeds 60 FPS. At 4K, Medium settings produce 59 FPS, which is just short of the 60 FPS target. For a locked 60 FPS experience, 1440p High is the safest choice, while 4K Medium is borderline.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: Across all settings levels, the average frame rate drops by approximately 50% from 1080p to 4K. For example, at High settings, 100 FPS at 1080p becomes 49 FPS at 4K, a 51% reduction. At Low settings, 159 FPS drops to 79 FPS, a 50% reduction.

Q: Does the RTX 5090's 32 GB VRAM matter for this game?

A: Red Dead Redemption 2 does not require anywhere near 32 GB of VRAM, even at 4K Ultra. The memory capacity is not a limiting factor in any measured configuration. The GPU's 1.79 TB/s bandwidth and 512-bit bus are far more relevant to performance than the total VRAM size.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 8945HX a bottleneck for the RTX 5090 in this game?

A: The data suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck. The consistent ~50% frame rate reduction from 1080p to 4K across all settings indicates GPU limitation. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 159 FPS, which demonstrates the CPU can keep the GPU well-fed. The CPU's 95th percentile ranking and strong Cinebench scores support this conclusion.

Q: How does this combo compare to the nearest rival GPUs?

A: The RTX 5090's average benchmark score of 79842 is 0.3% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB and 0.6% higher than the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB. It is 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, but 1.4% behind the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X. These differences are minor in synthetic tests.

Q: What is the weakest performance scenario for this combo?

A: The weakest result is at 4K Ultra settings, where the average frame rate drops to 35 FPS. This is the only measured configuration that falls below 40 FPS. The minimum frame rate recorded at 4K Medium is 50 FPS, which is the lowest minimum in the dataset.