Red Dead Redemption 2

# Red Dead Redemption 2: Intel Core i5-10400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

This combination of Intel's 10th-generation six-core processor and NVIDIA's flagship Ada Lovelace GPU delivers a dramatic spread of performance across Red Dead Redemption 2's presets, ranging from 47.6 FPS at 4K Ultra to 150.7 FPS at 1080p Low. The measured data reveals a system where the RTX 4090's immense compute resources are frequently held back by the i5-10400F's Comet Lake architecture, particularly at lower resolutions and higher frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

The optimal preset depends heavily on the target resolution and refresh rate. At 3840x2160, High settings provide the best balance, delivering 68.7 FPS average. This sits comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, while Medium drops to 79.6 FPS and Ultra falls to a less desirable 47.6 FPS. The jump from Medium to High costs only 10.9 FPS, making High the clear choice for 4K users who want visual fidelity without sacrificing fluidity.

At 2560x1440, the picture changes. Low settings achieve 136.1 FPS, Medium hits 120.7 FPS, and High reaches 98.7 FPS. The Ultra preset trails at 71.5 FPS. For 1440p displays with 120Hz or higher refresh rates, Medium offers the best compromise—it maintains triple-digit frame rates while preserving more visual detail than Low. High remains viable for 60Hz panels, but the 22 FPS penalty versus Medium makes it harder to justify when the visual gains are incremental.

At 1920x1080, the data shows a system increasingly bound by CPU performance. Low settings produce 150.7 FPS, Medium 138.9 FPS, and High 126.6 FPS. Ultra drops to 95 FPS. The differences between presets narrow considerably—only 24.1 FPS separates Low from High—suggesting the i5-10400F's six cores are becoming the limiting factor. For 1080p esports-style play, Low or Medium is recommended to maximize frame rates. For single-player immersion, High delivers a solid 126.6 FPS that exceeds most 120Hz monitors' capabilities.

Across all resolutions, Ultra consistently underperforms relative to the step down. The 47.6 FPS at 4K Ultra and 71.5 FPS at 1440p Ultra indicate that this preset's demanding effects overwhelm the CPU's ability to feed the GPU adequately. The data suggests most users should avoid Ultra unless they prioritize absolute visual quality over frame rate stability.

FAQ

Q: Does the RTX 4090 achieve 4K 60 FPS in Red Dead Redemption 2 with this CPU?

A: Yes, at High settings the combination averages 68.7 FPS at 3840x2160. Medium also exceeds 60 FPS at 79.6 FPS, but Ultra falls short at 47.6 FPS.

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

A: At High settings, the drop is 58.1 FPS—from 126.6 FPS at 1920x1080 to 68.7 FPS at 3840x2160. At Low settings, the drop is 47.3 FPS, from 150.7 to 103.4 FPS.

Q: Is the i5-10400F a bottleneck for the RTX 4090 in this game?

A: The data suggests yes, particularly at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combination reaches 150.7 FPS, but the performance gap between presets shrinks compared to higher resolutions, indicating CPU limitations. At 4K, the GPU becomes more dominant, as evidenced by the wider FPS spread between Low and Ultra.

Q: What is the best preset for a 144Hz 1440p monitor?

A: Low settings at 136.1 FPS come closest to 144Hz, but Medium at 120.7 FPS may be preferable if you can tolerate a slightly lower frame rate for better visuals. High falls to 98.7 FPS, which is still smooth but leaves headroom unused.

Q: How does this combination rank among all tested CPU-GPU pairings in this game?

A: It ranks 106th out of 1687 tested combos, placing it in the top 6.3% of all configurations for Red Dead Redemption 2 performance.

Q: Does the CPU's 12-thread capability help at higher resolutions?

A: The i5-10400F has 6 cores and 12 threads. At 4K, the combination still delivers 68.7 FPS on High, suggesting that thread count is sufficient for the game's demands when the GPU is heavily loaded. The bottleneck becomes more apparent at 1080p where frame rates are higher and CPU overhead increases.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates reveal a predictable yet informative scaling pattern. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings reduces average FPS from 126.6 to 98.7, a 22% drop. The subsequent move to 3840x2160 at High brings the average down to 68.7 FPS, another 30.4% reduction. This progressive decline indicates that the RTX 4090's rendering load scales substantially with pixel count, as expected for a game with significant draw distances and detailed environments.

At Low settings, the scaling is less severe. The 1080p result of 150.7 FPS drops to 136.1 at 1440p (a 9.7% decline) and then to 103.4 at 4K (a 24% decline from 1440p). The smaller percentage drops at Low settings suggest that the CPU is more involved in limiting performance when graphical demands are reduced. The i5-10400F's 2.90 GHz base and 4.30 GHz boost clocks, combined with its 12 MB shared L3 cache, appear sufficient for moderate frame rates but struggle to push beyond 150 FPS consistently.

The scaling pattern from Medium settings shows intermediate behavior: 138.9 FPS at 1080p, 120.7 at 1440p (13.1% drop), and 79.6 at 4K (34% drop from 1440p). This steeper decline at 4K Medium versus Low indicates that the GPU's workload increases significantly with each preset tier, while the CPU's contribution becomes relatively less impactful at higher resolutions. The data strongly suggests that for this specific CPU-GPU pairing, 4K gaming is primarily GPU-limited, while 1080p gaming is increasingly CPU-limited.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Red Dead Redemption 2, this pairing achieves a rank of 106 out of 1687 total configurations. This places it in the top 6.3% of all systems, a strong showing that reflects the RTX 4090's dominant rasterization performance. The GPU alone sits in the 91st percentile among all graphics cards, with an average benchmark score of 66,473 and nearest rivals including the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (0.4% faster), Tesla P40 (0.5% slower), Radeon Pro Vega 56 (0.9% faster), and Quadro P6000 (1.3% faster).

The CPU's contribution to this ranking is more modest. The i5-10400F achieves a 73rd percentile placement among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 14,168. Its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7552 (0.4% faster), Ryzen 3 7320C (0.8% faster), Core i5-8500 (1.1% faster), and Ryzen Embedded V2546 (1.2% faster). These deltas are small, indicating that the CPU performs in line with expectations for its class.

The rank of 106 suggests that while the RTX 4090 boosts this system well above average, the i5-10400F prevents it from reaching the upper echelons of the ranking. Systems with faster processors paired with the same GPU would likely rank higher, as the 1080p results indicate CPU limitations. However, the combination still outperforms the vast majority of tested configurations, making it a high-performing setup for this title, particularly at 4K where GPU headroom matters most.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F brings six physical cores and twelve threads to the table, built on the 14 nm Comet Lake architecture with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost up to 4.30 GHz. Its 12 MB shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support provide a solid foundation for gaming, but the data indicates that this processor is the primary constraint in Red Dead Redemption 2 when paired with the RTX 4090.

Benchmark results show the CPU's capabilities: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 10,297 and single-core score of 1,453, alongside a Geekbench single-core score of 1,454 and multi-core score of 5,783. The 3DMark tests reveal scaling from 688 single-thread to 4,748 at 16 threads, indicating reasonable multi-threading efficiency but modest absolute performance. The PassMark single-thread score of 2,541 and multi-thread score of 12,115 further contextualize the processor's output.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU's role becomes evident when examining frame rate behavior across presets. At 1080p, the difference between Low (150.7 FPS) and Ultra (95 FPS) is 55.7 FPS, a substantial gap that reflects GPU workload scaling. However, the fact that Low settings cannot exceed 150.7 FPS suggests the CPU is hitting its practical ceiling around that range. At 4K, the same preset comparison shows a 55.8 FPS gap (103.4 to 47.6), but the absolute values are lower, indicating that the GPU's rendering demands dominate.

The processor's 65 W TDP and Intel Socket 1200 compatibility make it an accessible choice, but its Comet Lake architecture — now several generations old — lacks the higher IPC and core counts of newer designs. The data shows that the RTX 4090's 24 GB GDDR6X memory and 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 compute are often left waiting for the CPU to supply draw calls and physics calculations. For users prioritizing 1080p high-refresh-rate play, this combination leaves performance on the table. For 4K gaming, however, the CPU's limitations are largely masked by the GPU's heavy lifting.