Red Dead Redemption 2

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 580 delivers a playable experience in Red Dead Redemption 2, but only when expectations are carefully managed. The data shows a combination that is heavily constrained by the graphics card at higher resolutions, yet reveals a surprisingly capable pairing at 1080p with tuned settings. This benchmark page focuses on measured results, and the numbers paint a clear picture of a system that requires specific compromises to enjoy Rockstar’s open world.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is severe, indicating a hard bottleneck at the GPU. At High settings, the system produces 33.5 FPS at 1920x1080, which falls to 20.9 FPS at 2560x1440, and finally to 16.1 FPS at 3840x2160. That represents a 37.6% performance loss when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 23% loss stepping up to 4K. The scaling is not linear; the gap between 1440p and 4K is proportionally smaller than the jump from 1080p, suggesting the RX 580 is already so saturated at 2560x1440 that adding more pixels yields diminishing returns relative to the initial hit.

The pattern is consistent across all settings. With Low presets, the frame rate goes from 50.2 FPS at 1080p to 36.0 FPS at 1440p (a 28.3% drop), then to 26.9 FPS at 4K (a 25.3% drop). Even at the lowest fidelity, the card cannot maintain a smooth 60 FPS at any resolution above 1080p. The data strongly suggests that the RX 580’s 256-bit memory bus and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for the high-resolution textures and draw distances of Red Dead Redemption 2. The GPU’s 8 GB of GDDR5 memory is not the limiting factor at these settings; rather, the raw compute throughput of 6.175 TFLOPS is overwhelmed.

The CPU, a 4-core/8-thread Alder Lake part with a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, appears to have headroom left on the table. The frame rate differences between 1440p and 4K are modest, which is a classic sign of a GPU-bound scenario. If the processor were the bottleneck, we would expect the FPS to remain relatively flat as resolution increases. Instead, the consistent drops indicate that the workload shifts entirely to the graphics card. At 1080p Low, the 50.2 FPS result is the only data point where the system approaches a playable threshold, and even then, it is not hitting a locked 60.

Settings Recommendations

For a smooth experience, the measured data points to 1080p Low as the only viable preset. The 50.2 FPS average at 1920x1080 with Low settings is the single highest score in the entire set. While this is not ideal for a visually demanding title, it is the only configuration that stays above the 30 FPS console-style baseline, let alone approaching 60. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs exactly 10.6 FPS, dropping the average to 39.6 FPS. That is a substantial 21.1% performance hit for what is typically a moderate visual upgrade.

The High preset at 1080p yields 33.5 FPS, which is still technically playable but suffers from noticeable stutter in busy scenes. The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution; at 1080p it produces only 19.6 FPS, and at 4K it falls to a slideshow-like 9.9 FPS. The data indicates that Medium settings at 1080p are the sweet spot for a balance between visual fidelity and performance, but only if the user can tolerate occasional dips below 30 FPS. The 39.6 FPS average is acceptable for a slow-paced exploration game, but the 33.5 FPS High result is too close to the edge.

At 1440p, the situation is dire. Even Low settings only manage 36.0 FPS, which is below the ideal threshold for a title with this much camera movement. The 25.5 FPS Medium result is borderline unplayable, and the 20.9 FPS High and 18.3 FPS Ultra scores are strictly for screenshots. The data suggests that users with a 1440p monitor should either drop to 1080p rendering or accept a sub-30 FPS experience. There is no measured configuration at 4K that exceeds 26.9 FPS, making that resolution effectively a non-starter for this combination.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the comprehensive database of tested processor and graphics card combinations, this pairing lands in the lower quartile. The combo ranks 1558 out of 1687 tested setups, placing it in the bottom 7.6% of all configurations. This is a low ranking, but it is not unexpected given the age of the RX 580, which was released in 2017 and is now marked as end-of-life. The i3-12100F, by contrast, is a modern entry-level part with a 72nd percentile ranking among all CPUs.

The CPU itself is not the drag on this pairing. Its average benchmark score of 13516 puts it neck-and-neck with the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX, which scores 13534. The i3-12100F is actually 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i7-1250U and 0.6% ahead of the Intel Core i3-10105. This indicates that the processor has enough single-thread and multi-thread capability to feed a more powerful GPU than the RX 580. The bottleneck is overwhelmingly on the graphics side, as the GPU’s average score of 13559 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 and the GTX 950, both of which are much older architectures.

The combination rank of 1558 is a reflection of the GPU’s limitations, not the CPU’s. In fact, the data suggests that this CPU is wasted on this GPU for a title like Red Dead Redemption 2, which is heavily dependent on pixel throughput. The 4-core/8-thread configuration with 12 MB of L3 cache is sufficient for the game’s AI and physics, but the RX 580’s 32 ROPs and 144 TMUs cannot keep up with the rendering demands of the game’s vast, detailed environments.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full dataset provides a clear matrix of performance across resolutions and presets. At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low settings deliver an average of 50.2 FPS, Medium drops to 39.6 FPS, High falls to 33.5 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 19.6 FPS. This shows a steep curve where the cost of going from Low to Medium is 10.6 FPS, and from Medium to High is another 6.1 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra is the most punishing, costing 13.9 FPS and halving the already low High preset score.

Moving to 2560x1440, the numbers compress and shift downward: Low averages 36.0 FPS, Medium 25.5 FPS, High 20.9 FPS, and Ultra 18.3 FPS. The gap between Medium and High at this resolution is only 4.6 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra narrows to just 2.6 FPS. This compression indicates that the GPU is so strained that the difference between presets has less impact on the final frame rate, as the shader and texture work becomes secondary to the raw pixel fill rate.

At 3840x2160, the results are uniformly poor: Low yields 26.9 FPS, Medium 18.9 FPS, High 16.1 FPS, and Ultra 9.9 FPS. The Low preset is the only one that breaks the 20 FPS barrier, and even that is a marginal result. The data shows that the RX 580 is not a 4K card for this game, regardless of settings. The 8 GB VRAM is not the issue here, as the texture budgets at Low are likely well within that limit; the issue is the 42.88 GPixel/s pixel fill rate, which is simply too low for the 8.3 million pixels on a 4K display.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is the defining component in this pairing, and its specifications explain the measured results. The card runs at a base clock of 1257 MHz and a boost clock of 1340 MHz, which are modest frequencies for a 14 nm Polaris 20 chip. Its 2304 shading units produce a theoretical FP32 performance of 6.175 TFLOPS, a figure that was competitive in 2017 but is now dwarfed by modern mid-range cards. The 256-bit memory interface and 8 GB of GDDR5 memory running at 2000 MHz provide 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for 1080p but becomes a limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The GPU’s benchmark results show it sits in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 13559. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570, which scores 13564, and the GTX 950 at 13549. This places the RX 580 in a performance tier that is roughly a decade old, which aligns with its end-of-life production status. The card’s 8 GB of VRAM is the only modern concession, but it does not help when the compute units are saturated.

The data indicates that the GPU’s role in this game is strictly limiting. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 50.2 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s maximum frame delivery for this title, but the GPU cannot maintain that pace at higher settings. The 185 W TDP and dual-slot cooler suggest a card that was designed for mainstream 1080p gaming, not for the punishing demands of Red Dead Redemption 2’s Ultra preset. The benchmark results confirm that the RX 580 is best utilized at 1080p with conservative settings, and any attempt to push higher resolutions results in a rapid, quantifiable collapse in frame rate.