Red Dead Redemption 2

# Red Dead Redemption 2: Intel Core i5-14400F + Intel Arc B390

The Intel Core i5-14400F paired with the Intel Arc B390 delivers a fundamentally GPU-limited experience in Red Dead Redemption 2, with frame rates that never exceed 51 FPS even at the lowest settings and 1080p resolution. The benchmark data shows this combination ranks 2568th out of 2902 tested configurations, placing it in the bottom 12% of all system pairings for this title. The Arc B390, scoring in the 9th percentile of all GPUs and trailing its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, by only 1.3% in synthetic benchmarks, is the dominant bottleneck across every resolution and settings preset tested. The CPU, by contrast, ranks in the 83rd percentile among all processors, indicating substantial headroom that the integrated graphics cannot utilize.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate collapse from 1080p to 4K reveals a GPU that is overwhelmed by pixel count before any quality settings are even considered. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 51 FPS at 1920x1080 to 38 FPS at 2560x1440 (a 25.5% reduction), and then to 25 FPS at 3840x2160 (a 34.2% reduction from 1440p). This scaling pattern — where each resolution step costs roughly a quarter to a third of the remaining performance — is characteristic of a GPU operating at its absolute memory and compute limits, not a system constrained by CPU throughput.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens dramatically as resolution increases, which further confirms the GPU-bound nature of this pairing. At 1080p, the difference between Low (51 FPS) and Ultra (23 FPS) is 28 FPS. At 1440p, that spread narrows to 21 FPS (38 vs 17), and at 4K, the spread is just 14 FPS (25 vs 11). This convergence at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is so saturated at 4K that even reducing settings to their minimum offers only marginal relief — the pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth constraints dominate regardless of shader complexity.

From a playability standpoint, the data shows that 4K is effectively unusable for this configuration. Even at Low settings, the 25 FPS average falls below the threshold for smooth action gameplay, and Ultra settings at 4K produce just 11 FPS — a slideshow. The 1440p results are marginal at best: Low settings achieve 38 FPS, which is playable but not smooth, while Medium drops to 29 FPS and High to 24 FPS. The only resolution where this system approaches acceptable performance is 1080p, where Low settings hit 51 FPS and Medium reaches 39 FPS, though High and Ultra still fall to 32 and 23 FPS respectively.

The limiting component is unequivocally the Intel Arc B390. Its 3nm Panther Lake chip, with 1536 shading units and just 24 ROPs, produces a pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s — figures that are simply insufficient for a game as demanding as Red Dead Redemption 2 at any resolution above 1080p with quality settings enabled. The GPU's 9th percentile ranking among all GPUs, alongside rivals like the GeForce GT 710 (which it beats by only 2.7%), underscores that this is entry-level silicon from a bygone era of mobile-class graphics.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Red Dead Redemption 2 at 60 FPS in any configuration?

A: No. The highest recorded average frame rate across all tested settings and resolutions is 51 FPS, achieved only at 1920x1080 with Low settings. Every other configuration falls below 40 FPS, with most presets landing in the 16-39 FPS range.

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU combination?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 as the only viable resolution for acceptable gameplay. At 1080p, Low settings deliver 51 FPS and Medium delivers 39 FPS. At 1440p, the best result is 38 FPS on Low, and at 4K, even Low settings only manage 25 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Arc B390 scores 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, which is 1.3% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463), 1.5% higher than the GeForce 800M (1460), 2.5% higher than the GeForce GT 625 OEM (1446), and 2.7% higher than the GeForce GT 710 (1443).

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-14400F a bottleneck in this game?

A: No. The CPU ranks in the 83rd percentile of all processors with an average benchmark score of 32279, placing it within 0.2% of the Intel Core i9-11900 and 0.5% of the Intel Core i7-12800H. Its 10 cores and 16 threads with a 4.70 GHz boost clock provide far more processing capability than the integrated GPU can utilize.

Q: What frame rates can be expected at Medium settings across resolutions?

A: At Medium settings, the system achieves 39 FPS at 1080p, 29 FPS at 1440p, and 19 FPS at 4K. The minimum frame rates recorded at Medium settings are 33 FPS at 1080p, 24 FPS at 1440p, and 16 FPS at 4K.

Q: How does the system's overall ranking in this game compare to its component percentiles?

A: The combination ranks 2568th out of 2902 tested configurations (bottom 12%), which is far worse than the CPU's 83rd percentile ranking. This discrepancy confirms that the GPU's 9th percentile performance is the sole determining factor in the system's poor game-specific standing.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is the decisive factor in every benchmark result for this game. Its specifications paint a picture of a low-power integrated graphics solution masquerading as a discrete GPU replacement. With a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz, the chip's 1536 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 24 ROPs are tasked with rendering one of the most graphically demanding open-world games of its era. The 12 ray tracing cores and support for DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4 suggest modern feature compatibility, but raw throughput is severely lacking.

The memory configuration is particularly problematic. The Arc B390 uses "System Shared" memory with "System Dependent" bandwidth, meaning it relies on the host system's DDR4 or DDR5 RAM rather than dedicated VRAM. This architecture is standard for integrated graphics but severely limits performance in a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, which features vast draw distances, detailed textures, and complex lighting that demand high memory bandwidth. The 7.680 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 15.36 TFLOPS of FP16 (2:1) are theoretical maximums that the shared memory subsystem cannot sustain in practice.

The GPU's 9th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of just 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, places it in the company of legacy discrete GPUs from over a decade ago. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, is a 2011-era mobile chip, and the Arc B390 only beats it by 1.3%. The GeForce GT 710, a card famously used for basic display output rather than gaming, trails by just 2.7%. These comparisons underscore that the Arc B390's performance class is fundamentally inadequate for a game of Red Dead Redemption 2's graphical ambition.

The measured FPS data reflects this GPU limitation directly. At 1080p High settings, the system produces 32 FPS; at 1440p High, 24 FPS; and at 4K High, just 16 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at any resolution shows a consistent 50-60% performance penalty for maximum quality settings, but even the best-case Low settings at 1080p (51 FPS) barely reaches playable territory. The GPU's 80W TDP and IGP slot width indicate a power-efficient design, but efficiency cannot compensate for a fundamental lack of shading units, texture units, and rasterization hardware.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its only playable results. Low settings produce an average of 51 FPS, which is the single highest frame rate recorded in the entire benchmark suite. Medium settings drop to 39 FPS with a minimum of 33 FPS and a maximum of 44 FPS, providing a marginally playable experience with occasional stutter. High settings fall to 32 FPS, and Ultra settings bottom out at 23 FPS — both below the threshold for smooth action gameplay.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance degradation is steep. Low settings achieve 38 FPS, which is playable but noticeably less smooth than the 1080p result. Medium settings produce 29 FPS (minimum 24, maximum 33), High settings drop to 24 FPS, and Ultra settings plummet to 17 FPS. The 1440p results show a consistent 25-30% performance penalty compared to 1080p at equivalent settings, reflecting the increased pixel count that the GPU cannot handle.

At 3840x2160, the system becomes effectively unplayable across all settings. Low settings manage 25 FPS, which is below the minimum for acceptable gameplay. Medium settings drop to 19 FPS (minimum 16, maximum 22), High settings fall to 16 FPS, and Ultra settings produce just 11 FPS. The 4K results demonstrate that the Arc B390's 24 ROPs and shared memory bandwidth are completely overwhelmed by the 8.3 million pixels required per frame, regardless of visual quality settings.

The frame rate deltas between settings presets are informative. At 1080p, the jump from Low to Medium costs 12 FPS (23.5%), from Medium to High costs 7 FPS (17.9%), and from High to Ultra costs 9 FPS (28.1%). At 1440p, the corresponding drops are 9 FPS (23.7%), 5 FPS (17.2%), and 7 FPS (29.2%). At 4K, the drops are 6 FPS (24.0%), 3 FPS (15.8%), and 5 FPS (31.3%). These consistent percentage losses across resolutions indicate that the GPU's shader and texture processing capabilities scale linearly with settings, but the absolute frame rates are too low at higher resolutions for any preset to feel responsive.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F is an exceptionally capable processor that is completely underutilized in this configuration. With 10 cores and 16 threads, a base clock of 2.50 GHz, and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, the CPU provides more than enough compute power for Red Dead Redemption 2's game logic, physics, and AI systems. Its 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache ensure that frequently accessed data remains close to the cores, reducing memory latency and improving frame pacing in CPU-bound scenarios.

The CPU's benchmark results confirm its strength. In Cinebench R23, it scores 21645 in multi-core and 3055 in single-core tests. Geekbench results show 11268 multi-core and 2058 single-core scores. PassMark tests reveal strong integer math performance (81524) and floating-point math (61319), with multithread performance at 25470. The 83rd percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 32279, places it in the upper tier of desktop processors, within 0.1% of the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U and 0.2% of the Intel Core i9-11900.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls, manage the open-world streaming, and handle character and physics simulations. The data shows no evidence of CPU bottlenecking: at no point does the frame rate improve when resolution is lowered in a way that would indicate CPU limitation. Instead, the consistent frame rate drops from 1080p to 1440p to 4K at every settings preset confirm that the GPU is the sole constraint. The CPU's 65W TDP and 10nm Raptor Lake architecture provide efficient, sustained performance that never becomes a limiting factor.

The nearest rival comparisons further illustrate the CPU's capability. The i5-14400F outperforms the AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS by 0.2% and the Intel Core i7-12800H by 0.5%, while trailing the Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U by just 0.1% and the i9-11900 by 0.2%. These differences are within noise margins, placing the i5-14400F in the same performance class as these higher-tier mobile and older desktop chips. For a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, which is well-optimized for multi-core processors, the i5-14400F's 16 threads provide ample parallelism for the game's background tasks.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data provides a clear hierarchy of playable configurations for this system. At 1920x1080, Low settings deliver 51 FPS — the only preset across all resolutions that achieves a smooth, consistent frame rate. Medium settings at 1080p produce 39 FPS with a 33 FPS minimum, which is acceptable for a slower-paced game like Red Dead Redemption 2, where precise timing is less critical than in competitive shooters. For players prioritizing visual quality over frame rate, High settings at 1080p (32 FPS) is the highest preset that remains technically playable.

For 1440p, the recommendation is restricted to Low settings, which achieve 38 FPS. This is a marginal experience — playable but with noticeable frame pacing issues during intense scenes. Medium settings at 1440p (29 FPS) and above are not recommended, as the frame rate dips into the 20s where the game's controls feel sluggish and the open-world rendering becomes visibly choppy. The 4K resolution should be avoided entirely; even Low settings at 25 FPS fail to provide a responsive experience, and the 11 FPS Ultra result is effectively a static slideshow.

The optimal configuration based on the measured data is 1080p with Medium settings. This preset balances the 39 FPS average with the 33 FPS minimum, providing a stable enough frame rate for immersive gameplay while retaining moderate visual fidelity. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 12 FPS (23.5%), but the visual improvement in texture detail and shadow quality is substantial in a game as visually rich as Red Dead Redemption 2. For players who prioritize frame rate above all else, 1080p Low at 51 FPS is the only configuration that approaches the 60 FPS ideal, though the visual compromises are significant.

The data does not support using High or Ultra settings at any resolution. High settings at 1080p (32 FPS) and 1440p (24 FPS) fall below the 30 FPS threshold that most players consider the minimum for acceptable console-style gameplay. Ultra settings are categorically non-functional, with results ranging from 23 FPS at 1080p to 11 FPS at 4K. Given the GPU's 9th percentile ranking and its proximity to decade-old discrete GPUs, players should treat this system as a 1080p Low-to-Medium configuration and plan their visual expectations accordingly.