Red Dead Redemption 2

# Red Dead Redemption 2 — Intel Core i5-10400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

This combination pairs a 6-core, 12-thread Comet Lake CPU from 2020 with NVIDIA's flagship Blackwell 2.0 GPU from early 2025. The benchmark data shows a system that is clearly GPU-bound at higher resolutions but increasingly CPU-limited as resolution drops, with the measured FPS spread across four settings tiers revealing a consistent pattern of scaling that favors the GPU's raw throughput at 4K while exposing the older processor's ceiling at 1080p.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep and consistent drop as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, but the magnitude of that drop varies significantly by settings preset. At High settings, the system delivers 125.7 FPS at 1080p, 105.5 FPS at 1440p, and 70.1 FPS at 4K — a 44.2% reduction from 1080p to 4K. At Low settings, the same resolution step yields 150.7 FPS at 1080p, 137.7 FPS at 1440p, and 110.1 FPS at 4K, a gentler 26.9% decline.

The scaling pattern changes character when comparing Medium and Ultra. Medium settings produce 136.7 FPS at 1080p, 123.9 FPS at 1440p, and 82.0 FPS at 4K, while Ultra drops from 102.9 FPS at 1080p to 75.9 FPS at 1440p and finally 47.1 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset shows the largest absolute penalty: a 55.8 FPS gap between 1080p and 4K, suggesting that the most demanding settings push the GPU to its limits while the CPU still has headroom.

The fact that Low settings at 1080p reach 150.7 FPS while Ultra at the same resolution only manages 102.9 FPS indicates that this game's Ultra preset imposes a substantial GPU workload even at lower pixel counts. Conversely, the 4K Low figure of 110.1 FPS versus 4K High at 70.1 FPS shows that the GPU's 32 GB frame buffer and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are not the bottleneck at Low settings — the rendering pipeline itself is the limiter. The data suggests a system where the RTX 5090's compute resources dominate at 4K, while the i5-10400F's 6 cores begin to constrain frame rates at 1080p, particularly at Low and Medium settings where the GPU can produce frames faster than the CPU can feed it.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific CPU-GPU pairing ranks 101st out of 1,687 tested combinations in Red Dead Redemption 2, placing it in the top 6% of all tested configs. The rank reflects a substantial GPU advantage: the RTX 5090 sits in the 94th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84,306. Its nearest rivals include the RTX 5090 D (0.1% ahead), RTX 5050 Mobile (0.2% ahead), and AMD Radeon PRO W6600 (1.3% ahead), while the NVIDIA CMP 40HX trails by 1.6%.

The CPU side tells a different story. The Core i5-10400F ranks in the 73rd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 14,168. Its nearest rivals are the AMD EPYC 7552 (0.4% ahead), AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (0.8% behind), Intel Core i5-8500 (1.1% behind), and AMD Ryzen Embedded V2546 (1.2% behind). This places the processor in a competitive but not elite tier — it is a solid mid-range part from 2020, not a high-end chip by 2025 standards.

The combination's 101st rank out of 1,687 indicates that the GPU's top-tier positioning partially compensates for the CPU's mid-pack standing. However, the rank also implies that many other tested combos — likely those pairing the RTX 5090 with newer, faster CPUs — achieve better overall results. The data shows a system where the GPU contributes the majority of the performance potential, but the CPU's 12 threads and 4.30 GHz boost clock set an upper bound that prevents this combo from climbing higher in the rankings.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average FPS is 150.7 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At the same resolution, Medium reaches 136.7 FPS, High 125.7 FPS, and Ultra 102.9 FPS.

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

A: At High settings, the system drops from 125.7 FPS at 1080p to 105.5 FPS at 1440p, then to 70.1 FPS at 4K. This represents a 44.2% reduction from 1080p to 4K.

Q: Is the RTX 5090 the limiting factor at 4K Ultra?

A: At 4K Ultra, the combo produces 47.1 FPS, the lowest measured result. The GPU's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 throughput are being fully exercised at this preset, indicating the GPU is the primary bottleneck at this resolution and settings combination.

Q: Does the Core i5-10400F bottleneck the RTX 5090 at 1080p?

A: The data suggests yes. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 150.7 FPS, but this is only 36.9% higher than the 4K Low result of 110.1 FPS. The relatively modest gain from 4K to 1080p at Low settings indicates the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads limit frame rates when the GPU is not heavily stressed.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: This combo ranks 101st out of 1,687 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2, placing it in the top 6% of all configurations tested.

Q: What is the performance gap between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings produce 137.7 FPS while Ultra produces 75.9 FPS, a difference of 61.8 FPS. Medium sits between at 123.9 FPS, and High reaches 105.5 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results. Low settings average 150.7 FPS, Medium 136.7 FPS, High 125.7 FPS, and Ultra 102.9 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 47.8 FPS, and the step from Medium to High (11.0 FPS) is smaller than the step from High to Ultra (22.8 FPS), indicating that the Ultra preset imposes a disproportionately heavy load.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong but with a tighter band. Low averages 137.7 FPS, Medium 123.9 FPS, High 105.5 FPS, and Ultra 75.9 FPS. The gap from High to Ultra widens to 29.6 FPS, and the total spread from Low to Ultra reaches 61.8 FPS. The 1440p results show a 8.6% drop from 1080p at Low settings, but a 26.2% drop at Ultra, reflecting the GPU's increasing workload at higher pixel counts.

At 3840x2160, the system still delivers playable frame rates but with a much larger settings spread. Low averages 110.1 FPS, Medium 82.0 FPS, High 70.1 FPS, and Ultra 47.1 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra gap is 63.0 FPS, the largest of any resolution. The step from Medium to High is 11.9 FPS, and from High to Ultra it is 23.0 FPS. The 4K Low result of 110.1 FPS is notable — it exceeds the 1440p Ultra figure of 75.9 FPS, demonstrating that settings selection matters more than pixel count in this title.

Across all resolutions, the data shows a consistent pattern: Low settings yield roughly 1.4x the frame rate of Ultra at the same resolution. At 1080p, the ratio is 1.46x; at 1440p, it is 1.81x; at 4K, it is 2.34x. This widening ratio at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU becomes the dominant bottleneck as pixel count rises, while the CPU's influence is most pronounced at 1080p where the GPU can produce frames more quickly.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a 5 nm Blackwell 2.0 part built on the GB202 chip with 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die. Its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory across a 512-bit bus provides 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, and the GPU operates at a base clock of 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz. The memory runs at 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective speed.

These specifications directly inform the measured results. At 4K Ultra, the 47.1 FPS result reflects the GPU's 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 throughput being fully committed to rendering the most demanding preset. The 32 GB frame buffer prevents any memory capacity-related drops, and the 1.79 TB/s bandwidth supports the high texture and geometry loads of Ultra settings. The GPU's 176 ROPs and 680 TMUs deliver a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s, which scale appropriately as resolution increases.

The RTX 5090's 94th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84,306, places it in the top tier of graphics hardware. Its nearest rival, the RTX 5090 D, scores only 0.1% higher, while the RTX 5050 Mobile is 0.2% ahead and the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 is 1.3% ahead. The NVIDIA CMP 40HX trails by 1.6%. These margins are small, indicating that the 5090's performance is well-established.

In the context of Red Dead Redemption 2, the GPU's role is decisive at 4K, where the 70.1 FPS High result and 47.1 FPS Ultra result show the card's limits. At 1080p, the GPU's power is partially wasted, as the 150.7 FPS Low result suggests the CPU cannot feed the GPU fast enough to reach higher frame rates. The GPU's 575 W TDP and dual-slot cooling design indicate a high-power part, but the benchmark data shows that its performance in this game is constrained by the paired CPU at lower resolutions, while at 4K it operates closer to its full potential.