Red Dead Redemption 2

# How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D paired with the Intel Arc B370 ranks 2670th out of 2902 tested combinations in Red Dead Redemption 2. This places the combo in the bottom 8% of all tested systems, a position driven almost entirely by the graphics side of the equation. The CPU is a top-tier part — its 95th percentile ranking against all CPUs confirms that — but the Arc B370 sits at the 5th percentile against all GPUs, and that imbalance dominates the outcome.

The data shows a system caught between two extremes. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D delivers benchmark scores that rival the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755, AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755X3D, AMD EPYC 8224P, and Intel Core Ultra 9 285, all within 0.4% of each other. Meanwhile, the Arc B370's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184 places it alongside the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570, ATI Radeon HD 5770, AMD Radeon HD 7650M, and AMD FirePro M2000 — parts from a different era entirely. The deltaPct values among these GPU rivals range from -0.7% to 1.4%, meaning the Arc B370 is statistically indistinguishable from graphics hardware that predates this game's 2018 release.

The practical consequence is that this combo will struggle to reach playable frame rates at any resolution above 1080p with medium or higher settings. At 4K Ultra, the system averages 10 FPS. At 1440p High, it averages 22 FPS. Even at 1080p High, it only reaches 29 FPS. The ranking reflects this reality: being 2670th out of 2902 means there are only 232 tested combos that perform worse in this specific title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides four settings tiers at each resolution: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. The pattern is consistent across all three resolutions: Low is the only tier that approaches playable frame rates, and even then only at 1080p.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 47 FPS. This is the only measured configuration that clears the 30 FPS threshold by a comfortable margin. The Medium preset at 1080p drops to 35 FPS, which is technically above 30 but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes. High at 1080p falls to 29 FPS, and Ultra at 1080p averages just 21 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 35 FPS, which is playable but with noticeable compromises. Medium at 1440p averages 26 FPS, High averages 22 FPS, and Ultra averages 16 FPS. At 3840x2160, even Low only manages 23 FPS, with Medium at 17 FPS, High at 14 FPS, and Ultra at 10 FPS.

The benchmark results indicate that the 1080p Low preset is the only configuration that provides a consistently smooth experience, with 47 FPS average. The 1080p Medium preset at 35 FPS is the fallback option if visual fidelity matters more than frame rate stability. Users targeting higher resolutions should expect sub-30 FPS performance regardless of settings. The gap between Low and Medium at 1080p is 12 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 6 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 8 FPS. This suggests that the Low preset is where the hardware finds its natural operating point, and every step up in quality costs disproportionately more performance.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that is severely GPU-bound at every resolution. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 47 at 1080p to 35 at 1440p to 23 at 4K. That is a 25.5% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a 34.3% drop from 1440p to 4K. At High settings, the progression goes from 29 at 1080p to 22 at 1440p to 14 at 4K — drops of 24.1% and 36.4% respectively.

These scaling patterns are consistent with a graphics card that is overwhelmed by pixel throughput. The Arc B370 has 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 20 render output units. Its pixel rate is 48.00 GPixel/s and its texture rate is 96.00 GTexel/s. The FP32 compute is 6.144 TFLOPS. When resolution increases, the number of pixels that need to be shaded and rasterized grows quadratically, and this GPU simply does not have the throughput to keep pace.

The 4K Medium preset shows a minimum FPS of 15 and a maximum of 20, with an average of 17. The 1440p Medium preset shows a minimum of 22 and a maximum of 30, averaging 26. The 1080p Medium preset shows a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 40, averaging 35. The frame time consistency degrades as resolution increases, which is another indicator of GPU saturation.

The limiting component is unambiguously the Intel Arc B370. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D has 16 cores, 32 threads, and a boost clock of 5.70 GHz. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42018 and single-core score of 2259 place it far beyond what this game requires at these frame rates. Even the lowest measured FPS values — 10 at 4K Ultra — are so far below what the CPU is capable of feeding that the GPU is the only bottleneck worth discussing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results are as follows. Low averages 47 FPS. Medium averages 35 FPS, with a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 40. High averages 29 FPS. Ultra averages 21 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 26 FPS, meaning Ultra delivers less than half the frame rate of Low.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 35 FPS. Medium averages 26 FPS, with a minimum of 22 and a maximum of 30. High averages 22 FPS. Ultra averages 16 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 19 FPS, and the ratio between Low and Ultra is roughly 2.2:1.

At 3840x2160, Low averages 23 FPS. Medium averages 17 FPS, with a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 20. High averages 14 FPS. Ultra averages 10 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 13 FPS, and the ratio between Low and Ultra is 2.3:1.

The pattern across resolutions shows that the relative cost of Ultra versus Low stays consistent — about 2.2 to 2.3 times the performance cost — regardless of resolution. This indicates that the settings scaling is uniform across pixel counts, and the GPU's architecture responds predictably to both resolution and quality changes. The 1080p Low result of 47 FPS is the single best measured outcome, while the 4K Ultra result of 10 FPS is the worst.

The Medium presets are the only tier with min/max data provided. At 1080p Medium, the range is 30 to 40 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the range is 22 to 30 FPS. At 4K Medium, the range is 15 to 20 FPS. These ranges indicate that the frame pacing is relatively stable within each resolution, with a 10 FPS spread at 1080p, an 8 FPS spread at 1440p, and a 5 FPS spread at 4K. The narrowing range at higher resolutions suggests the GPU is consistently hitting its throughput ceiling rather than experiencing intermittent spikes.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is built on Intel's 3 nm process and uses the Xe3-LPG architecture with the Panther Lake chip. It operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz. The memory configuration is entirely system-shared, meaning there is no dedicated VRAM. Memory type, bus width, and bandwidth are all marked as system-dependent.

The GPU's specs explain its performance profile. With 1280 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 20 ROPs, along with 10 ray tracing cores, the B370 is designed for efficiency rather than raw throughput. Its FP32 performance of 6.144 TFLOPS and FP16 of 12.29 TFLOPS (2:1) place it in a class that struggles with modern AAA titles at high resolutions. The pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s are the concrete limits that show up in the measured frame rates.

The 25 W TDP and IGP slot width indicate this is an integrated-class part, despite carrying the Arc branding. It has no power connectors and relies on system memory for all graphics data. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark score of 1184 puts it at the 5th percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186, -0.2% delta), ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190, -0.5% delta), AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1192, -0.7% delta), and AMD FirePro M2000 (1168, 1.4% delta).

The game's results track this benchmark positioning closely. Red Dead Redemption 2 is a demanding title with heavy draw distances, complex lighting, and detailed textures. The B370's lack of dedicated VRAM means it must share bandwidth with the CPU, and at 4K resolutions the memory pressure becomes acute. The measured 10 FPS at 4K Ultra and 14 FPS at 4K High reflect a GPU that is both compute-limited and memory-bandwidth-limited.

The boost clock of 2400 MHz is the only clock speed specified, and the base of 300 MHz suggests aggressive power management. The 25 W TDP means the GPU cannot sustain high clocks under load, which further explains why the frame rates are so low. The API support includes DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so the hardware is capable of modern rendering features, but the throughput is insufficient to make use of them at playable frame rates.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a 16-core, 32-thread processor built on TSMC's 4 nm process with the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge. It has a base clock of 4.30 GHz and a boost clock of 5.70 GHz, with a 170 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 128 MB of L3 cache. Memory support is DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and 89.6 GB/s bandwidth.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU's role is minimal because the frame rates are so low. At 1080p Low, the game averages 47 FPS, which is still well below what this CPU could feed. The 3DMark benchmarks show the CPU's capability: 16374 on 16 threads, 17184 on max threads, and 1292 on single thread. The Cinebench R23 scores of 42018 multi-core and 2259 single-core place it among the fastest desktop processors available.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 95 versus all CPUs confirms its position at the top of the hierarchy. Its average benchmark score of 75779 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals: the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755 at 75738 (0.1% delta), AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755X3D at 75716 (0.1% delta), AMD EPYC 8224P at 75582 (0.3% delta), and Intel Core Ultra 9 285 at 75488 (0.4% delta). These deltas are within noise, meaning the 9950X3D is effectively tied with these parts in aggregate CPU performance.

The game itself is not CPU-bound at any measured configuration. The lowest CPU-relevant frame rate is 10 FPS at 4K Ultra, and even at 1080p Low with 47 FPS, the GPU is clearly the constraint. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D's 16 cores and 32 threads are far more than Red Dead Redemption 2 can utilize, even with its open-world simulation and AI systems. The 128 MB of L3 cache and 5.70 GHz boost clock provide more than enough single-thread and multi-thread headroom.

The launch MSRP for the CPU is $699, and it supports PCIe Gen 5 with 24 lanes, which is irrelevant here since the Arc B370 uses an IGP bus interface. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s is shared with the GPU, which may contribute to the performance issues at high resolutions, but the primary bottleneck remains the GPU's compute throughput.

FAQ

Q: What is the best frame rate this combo achieves in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A: The best measured result is 47 FPS average at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only configuration that exceeds 40 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested systems?

A: It ranks 2670th out of 2902 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 8% of all tested systems.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. The Intel Arc B370 scores at the 5th percentile of all GPUs, while the Ryzen 9 9950X3D scores at the 95th percentile of all CPUs. The frame rates scale with resolution in a way that indicates pure GPU saturation.

Q: What settings should be used for the best experience?

A: The 1080p Low preset at 47 FPS is the only measured configuration that provides smooth gameplay. The 1080p Medium preset at 35 FPS is viable if visual quality is prioritized.

Q: How does the Arc B370 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B370's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1184 is within 1.4% of the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186), ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190), AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1192), and AMD FirePro M2000 (1168).

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 4K?

A: At 4K, Low averages 23 FPS while Ultra averages 10 FPS, a difference of 13 FPS. The ratio is approximately 2.3:1 in favor of Low.