Red Dead Redemption 2

The data for Red Dead Redemption 2 with the Intel Core i5-11400F and AMD Radeon RX 7600 shows a clear performance hierarchy across its four settings presets. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers an average of 97.1 FPS, which is the highest measured in the entire dataset for this combo. Moving up to Medium yields 71.6 FPS, while High drops to 58.7 FPS. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, producing just 42.7 FPS at the same resolution. At 1440p, the pattern holds: Low achieves 71.9 FPS, Medium 49.6 FPS, High 42.7 FPS, and Ultra falls to 32.3 FPS. At 4K, the situation becomes more constrained, with Low producing 47.3 FPS, Medium 37 FPS, High 29 FPS, and Ultra a marginal 18.9 FPS.

Given these measured rows, the optimal experience depends heavily on the target resolution. For 1080p gaming, the High preset at 58.7 FPS represents the best balance of visual fidelity and smoothness, as it remains above the 60 FPS threshold only at Low, but High offers a substantial graphical upgrade over Low for a 38.4 FPS cost. If a higher frame rate is the priority, Medium at 71.6 FPS is a strong alternative. At 1440p, the Low preset at 71.9 FPS is the only setting that clears 60 FPS, making it the recommended choice for competitive or high-refresh-rate play. For 4K, no preset reaches 60 FPS; the Low preset at 47.3 FPS is the most playable, while Medium at 37 FPS and High at 29 FPS require significant compromises. The Ultra preset is not viable at any resolution, as it produces sub-60 FPS even at 1080p and drops to 18.9 FPS at 4K, making it unsuitable for practical gameplay.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 is the primary driver of frame rates in this pairing, and its specifications explain the measured scaling. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its boost clock is rated at 2655 MHz, with a game clock of 2250 MHz and a base clock of 1720 MHz. These clocks, combined with 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, yield a pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is 21.75 TFLOPS, which is substantial for a card in this class.

The benchmark results for this GPU place it in the 63rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20258. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT, which scores 20146 (a delta of 0.6%), and the AMD Radeon RX 460, which scores 20088 (a delta of 0.8%). On the other side, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile scores 20534 (a delta of -1.3%), and the Intel Arc B570 scores 20556 (a delta of -1.5%). This indicates that the RX 7600 is essentially performance-equivalent to these cards in synthetic benchmarks, with differences of less than 1.5% in either direction.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the GPU's role becomes evident when comparing resolution scaling. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 97.1 FPS, but at 4K Low, it drops to 47.3 FPS—a reduction of 49.8 FPS, or roughly half the frame rate. This dramatic falloff is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the rasterization load increases with pixel count. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is also a factor; at 4K with High or Ultra settings, the memory bandwidth and capacity may become strained, contributing to the low averages of 29 FPS and 18.9 FPS respectively. The card's 288.0 GB/s bandwidth is a limitation at higher resolutions, as the data shows a consistent trend of diminishing returns as settings increase.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F provides the processing backbone for this combo, and its specifications indicate it is well-matched to the GPU in most scenarios. This CPU features 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. It has 12 MB of shared L3 cache, with 80 KB of L1 cache per core and 512 KB of L2 cache per core. The processor is built on Intel's 14 nm Rocket Lake architecture, with a TDP of 65 W, and it supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-11400F performs solidly. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 14372, and the single-core score is 2029. The Geekbench multicore score is 7579, with a single-core score of 1979. The PassMark multithread score is 16908, and the single-thread score is 2981. The CPU's percentile ranking is 75th among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17181. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U, which scores 17189 (a delta of 0%), and the Intel Core i7-1260P, which scores 17212 (a delta of -0.2%). The Intel Core Ultra 7 164U also scores 17215 (a delta of -0.2%), while the Intel Core i5-1240U scores 17141 (a delta of 0.2%). These near-identical scores suggest that the i5-11400F is competitive with these processors in general compute tasks.

Within the game, the CPU's role is less dominant than the GPU, but it still matters at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 97.1 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold and indicates that the CPU can feed the GPU adequately. However, at 1080p Ultra, the frame rate drops to 42.7 FPS—a 54.4 FPS decrease from Low. This drop is larger than what would be expected from GPU load alone, suggesting that the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads may become a bottleneck when handling the game's complex simulation tasks at higher settings. The boost clock of 4.40 GHz helps mitigate this, but the 14 nm process and 12 MB L3 cache are limiting factors compared to newer architectures. At 4K, the CPU is less stressed because the GPU becomes the primary constraint, as evidenced by the smaller relative drops from 1080p to 4K at Low settings (97.1 to 47.3 FPS) versus the larger absolute drops at Ultra (42.7 to 18.9 FPS).

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i5-11400F and AMD Radeon RX 7600 ranks 1146th out of 1687 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2. This places it in the lower-middle portion of the overall distribution, indicating that it is not a top-tier configuration for this game. The comboRankInGame field shows a rank of 1146 out of 1687, which translates to being in roughly the 68th percentile of all combos—meaning about 68% of tested systems perform better, and 32% perform worse.

The ranking reflects the balance between the CPU and GPU. The CPU sits in the 75th percentile globally, while the GPU is in the 63rd percentile, suggesting that the GPU is the weaker link in this pairing. This is consistent with the measured FPS data: at 1080p, the combo only achieves 58.7 FPS on High settings, which is below the 60 FPS target for many gamers. The fact that the combo ranks lower than the individual component percentiles would suggest indicates that the game is particularly demanding on the GPU, and the RX 7600's 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit bus are not ideal for Red Dead Redemption 2's open-world rendering. Compared to other combos, this system is better suited for 1080p Medium or High play, but it struggles at higher resolutions and settings, which is why its overall rank is not higher.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling data provides clear insight into which component is limiting performance. From 1080p to 4K, the average FPS drops significantly across all settings. At Low settings, the frame rate falls from 97.1 FPS at 1080p to 71.9 FPS at 1440p and then to 47.3 FPS at 4K. This represents a 49.8 FPS drop from 1080p to 4K, or a 51.3% reduction. At Medium settings, the drop is from 71.6 FPS at 1080p to 49.6 FPS at 1440p to 37 FPS at 4K—a 34.6 FPS drop from 1080p to 4K, or a 48.3% reduction. At High settings, the values go from 58.7 FPS at 1080p to 42.7 FPS at 1440p to 29 FPS at 4K—a 29.7 FPS drop, or 50.6%. Finally, at Ultra settings, the frame rate decreases from 42.7 FPS at 1080p to 32.3 FPS at 1440p to 18.9 FPS at 4K—a 23.8 FPS drop, or 55.7%.

The pattern of roughly halving the frame rate when moving from 1080p to 4K is a classic sign of GPU-bound performance. The pixel count increases fourfold from 1080p to 4K, and the GPU's work scales accordingly. However, the drop is not exactly proportional, which indicates that the CPU is also contributing to the bottleneck at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 97.1 FPS result suggests the CPU can push beyond this, but the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K. The data shows that the largest percentage drop occurs at Ultra settings (55.7%), which is expected because the GPU is under maximum load. Conversely, the smallest percentage drop is at Medium settings (48.3%), suggesting that this preset offers the most consistent scaling. For this combo, the limiting component is clearly the GPU, as the frame rate drops align more closely with pixel count than with CPU workload. The CPU's 12 threads and 4.40 GHz boost clock are sufficient for the game's logic, but the RX 7600's 8 GB VRAM and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for 4K Ultra, where the 18.9 FPS average is unplayable. Overall, this combo is best suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming, with 4K requiring significant settings reductions to achieve playable frame rates.