Red Dead Redemption 2

# Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data for Red Dead Redemption 2 with the Intel Core i5-14400F and Intel Arc B580 reveals a steep performance curve as resolution climbs. At 1080p Low, the combo delivers 90 FPS average, but dropping to 4K Low cuts that to 44 FPS — a 51% reduction. This pattern intensifies at higher settings. Moving from 1080p High (56 FPS) to 4K High (28 FPS) halves the frame rate exactly, while the Ultra preset falls from 40 FPS at 1080p to just 20 FPS at 4K — a 50% loss. The Medium preset shows a similar trajectory: 67 FPS at 1080p, 50 FPS at 1440p, and 33 FPS at 4K.

The scaling between 1080p and 1440p is more moderate. High settings drop from 56 to 42 FPS (25% reduction), Low from 90 to 67 FPS (26% reduction), and Medium from 67 to 50 FPS (25% reduction). This consistent proportional drop across presets suggests the GPU is the primary constraint as resolution increases. At 4K, the Arc B580's 13.67 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 456.0 GB/s memory bandwidth are simply stretched too thin for demanding presets. The 4K Medium result of 33 FPS with a minimum of 28 FPS shows the frame pacing becomes erratic under load, indicating the graphics card is saturated.

Notably, the gap between Low and High settings at each resolution reveals how much headroom the GPU has. At 1080p, Low (90 FPS) versus High (56 FPS) is a 38% performance gap. At 4K, the same comparison shows Low (44 FPS) versus High (28 FPS) — also a 36% gap. This consistent delta implies the GPU's workload scaling with settings is proportional, and the CPU is not intervening to bottleneck at lower resolutions. The i5-14400F's 10 cores and 16 threads, with a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, are evidently keeping pace even at 90 FPS in 1080p Low, where CPU overhead would be most pronounced.

The Ultra preset at 4K (20 FPS) is particularly telling. This is below playable thresholds, and the data suggests that any resolution above 1440p with Ultra settings will be a slideshow. The 1440p Ultra result of 30 FPS barely crosses the 30 FPS line, while 1080p Ultra (40 FPS) is the only Ultra configuration that approaches a smooth experience. For 4K gaming, the Arc B580 requires Low settings (44 FPS) to hit acceptable frame rates, and even that falls short of 60 FPS. The data clearly shows a GPU-bound scenario across all measured points, with the CPU's role diminishing as pixel count rises.

# GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Arc B580's 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 456.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is a substantial allocation for Red Dead Redemption 2, a game from 2018 with demanding texture workloads. The 4K Ultra result of 20 FPS suggests that memory bandwidth is not the primary limiter — the GPU's compute throughput is. The card's 2560 shading units and 80 ROPs produce a pixel rate of 213.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 427.2 GTexel/s. These figures indicate the card can process geometry and textures at a fixed rate, but the 4K resolution demands more pixel fill than the ROPs can deliver at high settings.

The base and boost clocks are both 2670 MHz, meaning the card runs at a locked frequency with no dynamic boost headroom. This is unusual and suggests thermal or power constraints are not the issue — the card is simply capped at that clock. The 190 W TDP and 450 W suggested PSU indicate the card has a fixed power envelope. In Red Dead Redemption 2's open-world rendering, with its draw distances and volumetric lighting, the FP32 throughput of 13.67 TFLOPS becomes the defining metric. Comparing to the GPU's benchmark percentile of 68, the card sits above the median but below high-end parts. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (avg score 22895, deltaPct 0.6) and the RTX 3080 (avg score 23172, deltaPct -0.7), meaning the Arc B580's 23021 average benchmark score is within 1% of both. This places it in the upper-midrange tier, which aligns with the measured FPS results — capable at 1080p and 1440p, struggling at 4K.

The 12 GB VRAM is never exhausted in the measured rows, as even 4K Ultra with its heavy texture streaming would likely fit within that allocation for a 2018 title. The memory clock of 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective) is modest, but the 192-bit bus compensates partially. The fact that 4K Low (44 FPS) is only 34% faster than 4K High (28 FPS) suggests that the GPU is not VRAM-bandwidth-starved but rather shader-bound — reducing settings lowers the computational load, but the memory subsystem still feeds data at a similar rate. The 5 nm process node from TSMC with 19,600 million transistors on a 272 mm² die gives the card a transistor density of 72.1M / mm², which is efficient but not exceptional for 2024 hardware.

# CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-14400F brings 10 cores (with 16 threads via hyperthreading) based on Raptor Lake architecture on a 10 nm process. Its base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.70 GHz provide strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3055 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2058. The 20 MB of shared L3 cache and per-core L2 of 1.25 MB help with game logic and draw call processing. In Red Dead Redemption 2, which is known for CPU-intensive NPC simulations and physics, this processor's multi-core capability — a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21645 and a Passmark multithread score of 25470 — suggests it can handle the game's thread scheduling.

The data shows that at 1080p Low, where the GPU has the least work, the CPU still delivers 90 FPS. There is no measured row where the CPU appears to bottleneck, as the FPS scales consistently with GPU load. The CPU's percentile of 83 among all CPUs places it in the top quartile, and its average benchmark score of 32279 is within 0.5% of rivals like the Intel Core i7-12800H (32121, deltaPct 0.5) and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U (32233, deltaPct 0.1). This means the i5-14400F is performing as expected for its class.

The 65 W TDP is modest, and the processor supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory with dual-channel access. For a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, which benefits from memory bandwidth, the lack of a specified memory bandwidth value in the data means we cannot quantify that impact. The lack of integrated graphics (N/A) means the Arc B580 is the sole display output, which is fine for a gaming rig. The PCIe Gen 5 interface with 16 lanes provides ample bandwidth for the GPU, though the Arc B580 itself uses PCIe 4.0 x8. The CPU's boost behavior is not documented beyond the 4.70 GHz figure, but the benchmark scores indicate it sustains high clocks under load. The 83rd percentile ranking suggests that in most gaming scenarios, this CPU will not be the limiting factor — a conclusion supported by the measured FPS data showing consistent scaling with GPU settings.

# How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The Intel Core i5-14400F and Intel Arc B580 combination ranks 2812 out of 3714 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2. This places it in the 24th percentile of all combinations, meaning roughly three-quarters of tested systems perform better. This ranking is lower than the individual component percentiles might suggest — the CPU is in the 83rd percentile and the GPU in the 68th percentile. The discrepancy implies that the Arc B580's driver or architectural quirks may be hindering performance in this specific title, or that the combo is being compared against systems with higher-end GPUs paired with midrange CPUs.

The rank of 2812 out of 3714 means the combo is in the lower-middle tier. For context, this is a game from 2018 with a well-established performance profile. The GPU's nearest rivals include the RTX 2080 and RTX 3080, which are older but more mature architectures. The fact that the Arc B580 matches their average benchmark scores (within 1%) but ranks lower in this game suggests that Red Dead Redemption 2 may not be optimized for Intel's Xe2-HPG architecture. The 4K results (20-44 FPS across settings) and 1440p results (30-67 FPS) are consistent with a midrange card, but the rank indicates that many other combos with similar or slightly better GPUs achieve higher frame rates.

The combo rank also reflects the CPU-GPU pairing efficiency. The i5-14400F is a strong processor, but the Arc B580's 68th percentile GPU performance holds the combo back. Had the CPU been paired with a higher-tier GPU, the rank would likely improve, but the data does not include such configurations. The 3714 total combos tested gives a broad comparison base, and the 2812 rank is a clear signal that this is not a high-performance pairing for this game. The measured FPS values corroborate this: even at 1080p Low (90 FPS), the combo does not reach the 100+ FPS territory that top-tier combos would achieve. The user should temper expectations for high-refresh-rate monitors at 1440p or above.

# Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

1080p (1920x1080): The Low preset delivers an average of 90 FPS, with no minimum or maximum recorded. Medium averages 67 FPS, with a minimum of 57 and a maximum of 77. High averages 56 FPS, and Ultra averages 40 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 56% drop in performance (90 to 40 FPS). The Medium preset's frame time variance (57-77 FPS) indicates some instability, but the average is solid for 60 Hz displays. High at 56 FPS is just below the 60 FPS threshold, and Ultra at 40 FPS is playable but not smooth.

1440p (2560x1440): Low averages 67 FPS, which is a 26% reduction from 1080p Low. Medium averages 50 FPS (min 43, max 58). High averages 42 FPS, and Ultra averages 30 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 43 FPS suggests occasional dips below 45 FPS, which could be noticeable. High at 42 FPS is borderline for action sequences, and Ultra at 30 FPS is exactly at the console-standard minimum but may feel choppy. The 1440p Low result of 67 FPS is the only preset that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS at this resolution.

4K (3840x2160): Low averages 44 FPS, which is a 51% reduction from 1080p Low. Medium averages 33 FPS (min 28, max 38). High averages 28 FPS, and Ultra averages 20 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 28 FPS shows significant frame drops, making gameplay unpredictable. High at 28 FPS is below the 30 FPS playability threshold, and Ultra at 20 FPS is effectively a slideshow. The 4K Low result of 44 FPS is the only 4K configuration that approaches playable, but it still falls short of 60 FPS.

The data shows a consistent pattern: each doubling of resolution (1080p to 4K is 4x pixels) results in roughly a 50% FPS drop, which is less than proportional to the pixel count increase. This suggests the GPU has some headroom at lower resolutions that gets consumed as resolution rises. The Medium preset at each resolution is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum values, providing insight into frame pacing — at 1080p Medium the spread is 57-77 FPS (20 FPS range), at 1440p Medium it's 43-58 FPS (15 FPS range), and at 4K Medium it's 28-38 FPS (10 FPS range). The narrowing range at higher resolutions indicates the GPU is becoming more consistently saturated, with less variance because it's always near its limit.

# FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A: Based on the measured data, 1080p is the only resolution where all presets achieve at least 40 FPS, with Low reaching 90 FPS and Medium at 67 FPS. At 1440p, only Low (67 FPS) and Medium (50 FPS) exceed 45 FPS, while 4K results are all below 45 FPS.

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

A: Yes, but only at 1080p Low (90 FPS) or 1080p Medium (67 FPS). At 1440p, only Low (67 FPS) achieves 60 FPS, and at 4K, no preset reaches 60 FPS — the highest is Low at 44 FPS.

Q: How does the Arc B580 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in this game?

A: The Arc B580's average benchmark score (23021) is within 1% of the RTX 2080 (22895, deltaPct 0.6) and RTX 3080 (23172, deltaPct -0.7). This suggests similar overall performance, though the combo rank in this specific game (2812 of 3714) indicates Red Dead Redemption 2 may favor those rival architectures.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this configuration?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. The FPS scales consistently with resolution and settings changes, and the CPU's 83rd percentile ranking with strong multi-core scores (Cinebench R23 multi-core of 21645) shows it has ample headroom. The 4K Medium minimum of 28 FPS reflects GPU saturation, not CPU limitations.

Q: What is the Ultra preset experience like?

A: Ultra is only playable at 1080p (40 FPS). At 1440p it drops to 30 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 20 FPS. The data suggests Ultra is best reserved for 1080p if visual fidelity is prioritized over frame rate.

Q: How much performance is lost between Low and Ultra at each resolution?

A: At 1080p, the drop is from 90 to 40 FPS (56% reduction). At 1440p, it's from 67 to 30 FPS (55% reduction). At 4K, it's from 44 to 20 FPS (55% reduction). The consistent ~55% loss across resolutions indicates the settings scaling is uniform.

# Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal experience depends on the target display. For 1080p displays, the Medium preset at 67 FPS (min 57, max 77) offers the best balance of visual quality and smoothness, staying above 60 FPS with only occasional dips. High at 56 FPS is also viable if the user prefers better visuals and can tolerate sub-60 FPS averages. Ultra at 40 FPS is only recommended for users who prioritize image quality over frame rate and are comfortable with 40 FPS gameplay.

For 1440p displays, the Low preset at 67 FPS is the only option that consistently exceeds 60 FPS, making it the recommendation for competitive or smooth gameplay. Medium at 50 FPS (min 43) is acceptable for slower-paced exploration, but the minimum of 43 FPS may cause noticeable stuttering in action sequences. High at 42 FPS and Ultra at 30 FPS are not recommended unless the user is willing to accept significant compromises in responsiveness.

For 4K displays, the data shows that no preset achieves a fully smooth experience. Low at 44 FPS is the highest achievable, and it is playable but not ideal. Medium at 33 FPS (min 28) is borderline, and High at 28 FPS or Ultra at 20 FPS should be avoided. The recommendation is to use 1440p with Low or Medium settings on a 4K monitor, or accept 4K Low as a cinematic experience rather than a competitive one.

The Medium preset at 1080p (67 FPS) is the overall best experience in the measured data, offering a 10 FPS headroom above 60 FPS while maintaining mid-range visual quality. For users with 1440p monitors, the Low preset (67 FPS) provides identical average FPS to 1080p Medium, suggesting that resolution scaling is more impactful than settings changes for this combo. The data indicates that this system is best suited for 1080p gaming with medium-to-high settings, with 1440p viable only at low settings.