Red Dead Redemption 2

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 paired with the Intel Core i3-12100F produces a distinctive performance profile in Red Dead Redemption 2, where the GPU's raw capability is consistently modulated by the CPU's four-core architecture. The measured frame rates across resolutions and settings reveal a system that is capable of high refresh rates at 1080p but becomes increasingly GPU-bound as resolution climbs. Benchmark results indicate that at 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 142.9 FPS, which drops to 89.8 FPS at High settings — a 37% reduction that highlights the cost of graphical fidelity at this resolution. Moving to 2560x1440, the same settings yield 107.7 FPS and 67.0 FPS respectively, showing a proportional scaling pattern. At 3840x2160, the frame rates fall to 71.7 FPS (Low) and 43.9 FPS (High), demonstrating that 4K resolution imposes a significant load that the RX 9070 handles with decreasing headroom.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear and predictable relationship between resolution and frame rate, with the most dramatic shifts occurring between 1080p and 4K. At Low settings, the transition from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 reduces average FPS from 142.9 to 107.7, a 24.6% decline, while the jump to 3840x2160 further drops performance to 71.7 FPS — a 49.8% reduction from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern suggests that at lower resolutions, the system is partially limited by the CPU's single-thread performance, as the RX 9070 is capable of far higher output than the i3-12100F can feed. At High settings, the same resolution progression yields 89.8 FPS at 1080p, 67.0 FPS at 1440p, and 43.9 FPS at 4K, with the 1080p-to-4K drop being 51.1%. The Ultra preset amplifies this effect: 62.5 FPS at 1080p falls to 48.8 FPS at 1440p and 29.9 FPS at 4K, a cumulative 52.2% reduction. These numbers indicate that the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor at 4K, where the RX 9070's 16 GB memory and 644.6 GB/s bandwidth are taxed heavily, but at 1080p, the i3-12100F's 4 cores and 8 threads create a bottleneck that prevents the GPU from reaching its full potential.

The intermediate resolution of 2560x1440 represents a balanced zone where the combination of CPU and GPU yields playable frame rates across all settings. At Medium settings, the system produces 78.6 FPS at 1440p, which is 27.5% lower than the 1080p result of 108.4 FPS but still comfortably above 60 FPS. The scaling from Medium to High at each resolution shows a consistent 15-18% performance penalty, while the jump from High to Ultra costs between 27% and 33% depending on resolution. This suggests that the game's Ultra preset includes effects that disproportionately impact the RX 9070's RDNA 4.0 architecture, particularly at higher resolutions where memory bandwidth becomes more critical. The 4K Ultra result of 29.9 FPS is the only configuration that falls below 30 FPS, indicating that this preset is only viable at lower resolutions for this particular combo.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 brings substantial hardware to this pairing, with 3584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 128 render output units operating at a boost clock of 2520 MHz and a game clock of 2070 MHz. The 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves sufficient for Red Dead Redemption 2's open-world streaming demands at 1440p but becomes a limiting factor at 4K Ultra. The GPU's compute capabilities are reflected in its benchmark scores: a PassMark G3D score of 25381 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 165532, placing it in the 79th percentile of all GPUs. In the context of this game, the RX 9070's performance at 1080p Low (142.9 FPS) demonstrates its raw throughput, but the i3-12100F cannot sustain frame rates beyond this level, as evidenced by the CPU's single-thread benchmark score of 893 in 3DMark and 1681 in Cinebench R23.

The GPU's memory configuration becomes particularly relevant at 3840x2160, where the 4K High result of 43.9 FPS and 4K Medium result of 53.0 FPS show that the 16 GB frame buffer is adequate for texture loading but the 644.6 GB/s bandwidth struggles with the higher pixel throughput. The RX 9070's RDNA 4.0 architecture, built on TSMC's 4 nm process with 53,900 million transistors, delivers 36.13 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which translates to the observed frame rates. Compared to its nearest rivals, the RX 9070's average benchmark score of 34780 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA A2 (34866, -0.2% delta) and slightly above the NVIDIA Quadro GV100 (34677, 0.3% delta), indicating that its compute performance is well-matched to competing offerings, though the measured game results show how architecture-specific optimization plays a larger role.

Settings Recommendations

For this specific CPU-GPU combination, the measured data suggests that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, Medium produces 108.4 FPS, which is 23.9% higher than High (89.8 FPS) and only 24.2% lower than Low (142.9 FPS), making it the sweet spot for high refresh rate monitors. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers 78.6 FPS, which remains above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, while High drops to 67.0 FPS and Ultra falls to 48.8 FPS. For 4K gaming, the Low preset at 71.7 FPS is the only viable option for consistent performance, as Medium drops to 53.0 FPS and High to 43.9 FPS, both of which may introduce noticeable stutter on standard 60 Hz displays.

The Ultra preset is not recommended for this combo at any resolution, as it produces 62.5 FPS at 1080p, 48.8 FPS at 1440p, and 29.9 FPS at 4K — the latter being below playable thresholds. The performance gap between High and Ultra is consistently larger than the gap between Medium and High across all resolutions, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects (likely including advanced lighting and shadow quality) disproportionately tax the RX 9070's 128 ROPs. For users prioritizing frame rate over visual fidelity, the Low preset at 1440p (107.7 FPS) provides an excellent competitive advantage, while the Medium preset at 1080p offers the best combination of image quality and performance for this hardware pairing.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average FPS is 142.9 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At 2560x1440, the maximum is 107.7 FPS (Low), and at 3840x2160, the maximum is 71.7 FPS (Low).

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

A: No, the only 4K setting that exceeds 60 FPS is Low at 71.7 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K produces 53.0 FPS, High produces 43.9 FPS, and Ultra produces 29.9 FPS, all below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset produces 67.0 FPS while Ultra produces 48.8 FPS, representing a 27.2% performance loss for the visual upgrade. The same comparison at 1080p shows a 30.4% drop from 89.8 FPS to 62.5 FPS.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Medium settings at 1080p?

A: The Low preset at 1920x1080 delivers 142.9 FPS, while Medium delivers 108.4 FPS — a 24.1% reduction. The gap between Medium and High is 17.2% (108.4 to 89.8 FPS), showing diminishing returns as settings increase.

Q: Does this combo rank high among tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 566th out of 1687 tested combinations for Red Dead Redemption 2, placing it in the top 33.5% of all tested systems.

Q: What is the most demanding setting configuration in the data?

A: The Ultra preset at 3840x2160 produces the lowest average FPS at 29.9, which is the only measured result below 30 FPS. The 4K High preset (43.9 FPS) is the next most demanding configuration.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i3-12100F and AMD Radeon RX 9070 ranks 566th out of 1687 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2, placing it in the upper third of all configurations. This ranking is notably higher than what the CPU's individual percentile might suggest — the i3-12100F sits in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 13516, while the RX 9070 is in the 79th percentile of GPUs with an average score of 34780. The rank of 566 out of 1687 indicates that this pairing outperforms 66.5% of tested systems, which is respectable given the CPU's budget-oriented positioning. The CPU's nearest rivals, including the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (13534, -0.1% delta) and Intel Core i7-7700K (13280, 1.8% delta), show that the i3-12100F's average benchmark performance is competitive with much more expensive processors, though this does not fully translate to gaming performance due to its 4-core/8-thread limitation.

The GPU's nearest rivals tell a similar story, with the RX 9070's average score of 34780 being nearly identical to the NVIDIA A2 (34866, -0.2% delta) and slightly higher than the AMD Radeon PRO W6400 (34511, 0.8% delta). The ranking of 566 suggests that the combo performs better in Red Dead Redemption 2 than the raw benchmark averages would predict, likely because the game's engine is well-optimized for the RX 9070's RDNA 4.0 architecture. However, the data also reveals that this combo does not reach the top tier of performance, as the top 566-ranked systems likely feature more powerful CPUs that can better feed the GPU at lower resolutions. The 1080p results, where the CPU is the limiting factor, show frame rates that are lower than what the GPU alone could achieve, indicating that the i3-12100F's 4 cores constrain the overall system performance in CPU-bound scenarios.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 cache per core provide adequate data locality for Red Dead Redemption 2's world streaming, but the limited core count becomes apparent in frame rate consistency. The CPU's benchmark scores paint a clear picture: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11912 and single-core score of 1681, with a 3DMark single-thread score of 893 and 4-thread score of 2859. These numbers place the i3-12100F in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13516 — nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (13534) and slightly ahead of the Intel Core i7-7700K (13280).

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p resolution, where the frame rates plateau at 142.9 FPS on Low settings despite the GPU's ability to render faster. The 4K results tell a different story, as the GPU becomes the bottleneck and the CPU's influence diminishes — the difference between Low and High at 4K is 27.8 FPS (71.7 to 43.9), which is driven primarily by GPU load. The data suggests that at 1080p, the i3-12100F's single-thread performance (893 in 3DMark single-thread) is sufficient to maintain high frame rates but cannot push beyond the 140 FPS range, while at 4K, the CPU's 4 cores are adequate to feed the GPU without becoming the primary limiter. The 8 threads provide enough parallelism for the game's background tasks, but the lack of additional cores means that any CPU-intensive scenes may cause frame rate dips that are not captured in the average FPS data. For users seeking higher frame rates at 1080p, a CPU with more cores would be necessary, as the RX 9070's PassMark G3D score of 25381 indicates it can handle significantly more throughput.