Red Dead Redemption 2

Resolution Scaling

Red Dead Redemption 2 presents a demanding rendering workload, and the measured frame rates for the Intel Core i5-12400 with the Intel Arc B580 show a clear, predictable decline as resolution increases. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo delivers 87 FPS. Stepping up to 2560x1440 at Low settings drops the average to 68.7 FPS, a reduction of roughly 21%. Moving to 3840x2160 at Low settings yields 41.9 FPS, which is a further 39% decline from the 1440p result. This scaling pattern is typical of a system where the graphics card is the primary limiting factor as pixel count rises.

The data indicates that the GPU's rendering throughput is heavily taxed at higher resolutions. At 4K with Ultra settings, the average frame rate collapses to just 19.2 FPS, making the game effectively unplayable at that configuration. The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens dramatically as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference between Low (87 FPS) and Ultra (38.3 FPS) is 48.7 FPS. At 1440p, that gap narrows to 39.5 FPS (68.7 vs 29.2). At 4K, the spread is 22.7 FPS (41.9 vs 19.2). This compression of the settings range at higher resolutions is a classic sign that the GPU is saturated; the extra work from higher quality presets cannot be fully absorbed when the pixel fill rate is already the bottleneck.

The 1080p results show that the combo has headroom for high refresh rate play only at lower settings. The 87 FPS at Low is the only configuration that approaches or exceeds typical 60 FPS targets. Medium settings at 1080p produce 70.1 FPS, which is still smooth, but High settings drop to 54.4 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p is particularly punishing for this pairing, with even Medium settings falling to 52.6 FPS. This suggests that users targeting 1440p will need to make significant compromises on visual fidelity to maintain playable frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and Intel Arc B580 ranks at position 1334 out of 1687 tested combos for Red Dead Redemption 2. This places the pairing in the bottom 21% of all tested configurations, which is a stark indicator of its performance tier in this particular title. The rank reflects the measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings, and the data shows that while the CPU is capable, the GPU holds this combo back from higher standings.

The combo's rank is influenced by the fact that the Arc B580's average benchmark score places it at the 66th percentile among all GPUs, while the i5-12400 sits at the 77th percentile among all CPUs. This imbalance suggests that the GPU is the weaker link in the pairing. In practical terms, the measured FPS numbers confirm this: the 4K Ultra result of 19.2 FPS is a severe outlier that drags down the combo's overall standing. The i5-12400's nearest rivals in CPU benchmarks include the Intel Core i7-9700 (0.1% ahead), the Intel Core i7-8700 (0.2% behind), and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX (0.4% behind), all of which have similar average scores. This indicates that the CPU is not the differentiator in this combo's ranking; instead, the GPU's performance ceiling is what limits the overall position.

The rank of 1334 out of 1687 is a sobering data point. It means that a substantial majority of tested combinations deliver better frame rates in Red Dead Redemption 2. The Arc B580's nearest GPU rivals include the AMD Radeon 760M (0.1% ahead), the NVIDIA P106-100 (0.3% ahead), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 (0.7% ahead in average score), which shows that the B580 is competitive with these parts in synthetic benchmarks, but the in-game results reveal that it struggles with the specific demands of this title.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture using a 5 nm process from TSMC, featuring 19,600 million transistors on a 272 mm² die. It operates at a base and boost clock of 2670 MHz, with memory running at 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective). The GPU has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 456.0 GB/s. These specifications position the card as a mid-range offering, but the measured FPS data reveals that it struggles with Red Dead Redemption 2's heavy graphical load.

The 12 GB VRAM capacity is adequate for this game, as the memory size is not the primary constraint; rather, the raw compute throughput is the limiting factor. The GPU's FP32 performance is rated at 13.67 TFLOPS, and it has 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 80 ROPs. The pixel rate of 213.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 427.2 GTexel/s are moderate figures that explain the performance drop at 4K. At 3840x2160, the GPU must process over 8 million pixels per frame, and the 19.2 FPS Ultra result indicates that the ROPs and shading units are overwhelmed.

The GPU's benchmark scores show a mixed picture. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 3068, and its Geekbench Vulkan score is 109672. The PassMark G3D score is 15748, which places it at the 66th percentile of all GPUs. However, these synthetic results do not translate into stellar gaming performance in this title. The data suggests that the Arc B580's architecture, while capable in compute tasks, does not excel in the specific rendering paths used by Red Dead Redemption 2. The 4K results are particularly poor, with even Low settings only reaching 41.9 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of how this combo performs across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low settings achieve 87 FPS, Medium settings achieve 70.1 FPS, High settings achieve 54.4 FPS, and Ultra settings achieve 38.3 FPS. This shows a clear linear degradation as quality increases, with a 48.7 FPS drop from Low to Ultra. The 1080p Low result of 87 FPS is the only configuration in the entire dataset that approaches high refresh rate territory, and even then, it falls short of 100 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the performance drops significantly. Low settings yield 68.7 FPS, Medium settings yield 52.6 FPS, High settings yield 38.6 FPS, and Ultra settings yield 29.2 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 39.5 FPS, which is narrower than at 1080p due to the GPU becoming more saturated. The 68.7 FPS Low result is the only playable configuration at this resolution, while High and Ultra settings fall below 40 FPS, indicating a compromised experience.

At 3840x2160, the results are marginal. Low settings produce 41.9 FPS, Medium settings produce 34.5 FPS, High settings produce 29.1 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 19.2 FPS. None of these configurations reach the 60 FPS standard, and even the Low setting result is below 45 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 19.2 FPS is the lowest in the entire dataset, demonstrating that this combo is not suited for 4K gaming in this title. The data shows a consistent pattern: the Arc B580 can handle 1080p at medium-to-high settings, but any attempt to push higher resolutions or maximum quality results in sub-60 FPS performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. The CPU features 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. This is a capable mid-range processor that should not bottleneck a mid-range GPU in most scenarios, and the benchmark data supports this assessment.

The CPU's benchmark results show strong single-thread and multi-thread performance. Its Cinebench R23 scores are 15935 for multi-core and 2249 for single-core. The PassMark multithread score is 18747, and the single-thread score is 3456. These figures place the i5-12400 at the 77th percentile among all CPUs, indicating that it is a solid performer. In the context of Red Dead Redemption 2, which is known to be sensitive to CPU performance, the i5-12400's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient to feed the Arc B580 without becoming the primary bottleneck.

The data suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combo. The measured FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a GPU-bound behavior, as frame rates drop consistently with resolution increases. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see similar frame rates across different resolutions at the same settings. Instead, the 1080p Low result of 87 FPS drops to 41.9 FPS at 4K Low, a 52% reduction that is clearly GPU-driven. The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-9700 (0.1% ahead), the Intel Core i7-8700 (0.2% behind), and the Intel Core i5-11600K (0.4% ahead), all of which have similar average scores. This indicates that the i5-12400 is well-matched with these CPUs in general compute tasks, and its performance in this game is unlikely to be a weak point.

The CPU's 3DMark scores further confirm its capability: 5873 for 16 threads, 5890 for max threads, and 910 for single thread. These numbers show that the processor can handle both lightly-threaded and heavily-threaded workloads effectively. In Red Dead Redemption 2, which utilizes multiple cores, the i5-12400's 12 threads provide ample headroom. The measured FPS data does not show any anomalies that would indicate CPU stalls, such as frame rate plateaus across resolutions. Instead, the consistent decline in FPS with increasing resolution points squarely at the GPU as the performance limiter, making the CPU a non-factor in this pairing's overall ranking.