Red Dead Redemption 2

The Intel Core i5-14600K paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a playable experience in Red Dead Redemption 2, but the data clearly indicates that settings and resolution must be managed carefully to achieve smooth framerates. The measured results show a steep performance curve, with the card’s 10 GB VRAM and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth acting as significant constraints at higher presets. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS data to identify the optimal configuration and the role each component plays.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the Medium preset provides the best balance of visual fidelity and performance for this combination. At 1920x1080, Medium yields an average of 59 FPS with a minimum of 50 FPS and a maximum of 68 FPS, which is comfortably within the range for smooth gameplay. The Low preset at the same resolution achieves 79 FPS, but the jump from Low to Medium is only a 20 FPS drop, while the visual quality improvement is substantial. High at 1080p drops to 49 FPS, and Ultra falls to 36 FPS, making both less attractive for consistent frame pacing.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset is the only viable option for a smooth experience, producing 44 FPS on average with a minimum of 38 FPS. Low at 1440p hits 59 FPS, but this requires sacrificing most visual detail. High at 1440p drops to 37 FPS, and Ultra sinks to 27 FPS, both of which are below the threshold for fluid gameplay on typical displays. The data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot for 1440p, as it maintains a playable frame rate while retaining a reasonable level of graphical quality.

For 4K (3840x2160), no preset achieves a fully playable frame rate. The best result is Low at 39 FPS, followed by Medium at 29 FPS, High at 24 FPS, and Ultra at 18 FPS. While Low at 4K is technically the fastest, the visual compromise is severe, and the average FPS is still below 40. Users targeting 4K would need to accept significant compromises, and the measured data suggests that 1440p Medium is the practical ceiling for this setup. The recommendation is to prioritize Medium at 1080p or 1440p, as it offers the best compromise between frame rate and visual quality.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-14600K with the Intel Arc B570 ranks 2990 out of 3714 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2. This places the pair in the lower half of all tested configurations, indicating that while the hardware is capable, it is not a top-tier performer for this specific title. The percentile data for the CPU shows it ranks in the 90th percentile among all CPUs, but the GPU’s 65th percentile ranking drags the overall combo down. This discrepancy suggests the GPU is the limiting factor in this pairing.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (0.2% slower), the AMD EPYC 4345P (0.3% faster), and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX (0.7% faster). These differences are negligible, confirming that the i5-14600K’s processing power is not the bottleneck. On the GPU side, the Arc B570’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (0.1% slower), the Intel Arc A750 (0.1% faster), and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X (0.5% slower). The close margins here indicate that the Arc B570 is competitive with these cards, but none of them are high-end solutions.

The combo rank of 2990 out of 3714 means that approximately 80% of tested combinations deliver better performance in this game. This is not a reflection of poor hardware, but rather the demanding nature of Red Dead Redemption 2’s engine, which heavily taxes GPU resources. The data indicates that users with this setup should expect to run the game at Medium settings, as higher presets push the GPU beyond its effective limits.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture with a 5 nm process and features 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus. The memory clock runs at 2375 MHz, yielding an effective data rate of 19 Gbps and a total bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s. The GPU’s base and boost clocks are both fixed at 2500 MHz, which is unusual but consistent across the board. The card has 2304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, along with 18 ray tracing cores.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the GPU’s VRAM capacity and bandwidth are critical. The game’s High and Ultra presets are known to consume significant memory, and the 10 GB allocation is likely a bottleneck at 4K resolutions. The measured FPS drops from 39 at Low to 29 at Medium, then to 24 at High and 18 at Ultra at 4K, illustrating how quickly performance degrades as settings increase. This pattern suggests that the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute resources are insufficient for the highest presets, particularly at higher resolutions.

The GPU’s synthetic benchmarks show a Passmark G3D score of 14195 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2649, placing it in the 65th percentile among all GPUs. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 96844 is notably higher than the OpenCL score of 83514, indicating that the card performs better in driver-optimized APIs. However, in this game, the data shows that the GPU is the primary constraint, as even the CPU-heavy scenes do not appear to be limiting frame rates (see CPU Role below).

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1080p on this combo?

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 delivers an average of 59 FPS with a minimum of 50 FPS and a maximum of 68 FPS. This offers a good balance between visual quality and performance, as High drops to 49 FPS and Ultra falls to 36 FPS.

Q: Can this system run Red Dead Redemption 2 at 4K?

A: The data shows that no preset achieves a fully playable frame rate at 3840x2160. The best result is Low at 39 FPS, with Medium at 29 FPS, High at 24 FPS, and Ultra at 18 FPS. 4K is not recommended for this pairing.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU is the primary bottleneck. The CPU ranks in the 90th percentile among all processors, while the GPU ranks in the 65th percentile. The measured FPS scales linearly with resolution and settings, indicating GPU-bound performance.

Q: How does the Arc B570 compare to its nearest GPU rival?

A: The Intel Arc A750 scores 20582 in average benchmarks, which is 0.1% faster than the B570’s 20556. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile is 0.1% slower, and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X is 0.5% slower.

Q: What is the highest playable resolution for this setup?

A: Based on the measured data, 2560x1440 at Medium settings (44 FPS average, 38 FPS minimum) is the highest resolution with a playable frame rate. 1080p Medium offers better performance at 59 FPS average.

Q: Does the Arc B570 have enough VRAM for this game?

A: The 10 GB of GDDR6 memory is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p at Medium settings, but it appears to be a constraint at 4K, where even Low settings only reach 39 FPS. The bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s is also a limiting factor at higher presets.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 79 at 1080p to 59 at 1440p (a 25% reduction) and then to 39 at 4K (a 34% reduction from 1440p). This scaling is typical for a GPU-bound scenario, where the number of pixels rendered directly impacts the workload.

At Medium settings, the drop is steeper: 59 FPS at 1080p drops to 44 FPS at 1440p (a 25% reduction) and then to 29 FPS at 4K (a 34% reduction). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings indicates that the GPU is the dominant constraint. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the FPS to remain relatively constant across resolutions, but that is not the case here.

The High preset shows a similar trend: 49 FPS at 1080p, 37 FPS at 1440p, and 24 FPS at 4K. Ultra follows suit with 36, 27, and 18 FPS respectively. The fact that the FPS scales almost linearly with pixel count suggests that the game’s rendering pipeline is heavily dependent on the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth. The Arc B570’s 200.0 GPixel/s pixel rate and 360.0 GTexel/s texture rate are the key specifications driving this behavior.

The data indicates that users should stick to 1080p or 1440p for any meaningful gameplay, as the 4K results are consistently below 40 FPS even at the lowest settings. The resolution scaling analysis confirms that this combo is best suited for 1080p Medium or 1440p Medium, where the GPU can maintain a playable frame rate.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory and features 24 MB of shared L3 cache. Its synthetic benchmarks are strong, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 24491 and a single-core score of 2064, placing it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU’s role appears to be secondary to the GPU. The measured FPS scales almost entirely with resolution and graphics settings, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound workload. The CPU’s nearest rivals, such as the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H and the AMD EPYC 4345P, show negligible performance differences (0.2% and 0.3% respectively), further indicating that the processor is not a limiting factor.

The CPU’s high single-thread performance, evidenced by a Geekbench single-core score of 2491 and a Passmark single-thread score of 4270, ensures that the game’s main thread is well-served. However, the data shows no evidence of CPU bottlenecking, as the FPS does not plateau at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 79 FPS, which is likely the ceiling for this GPU, not the CPU. If the CPU were the constraint, we would expect similar FPS across all resolutions at a given setting, but that is not observed.

The CPU’s 14 cores and 20 threads are more than sufficient for this game’s multi-threaded engine, which typically scales well with core count. The Passmark multi-thread score of 38682 confirms strong parallel performance. Overall, the CPU is a capable partner for the Arc B570, but it is not the determining factor in this game’s performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured FPS values for Red Dead Redemption 2 is as follows:

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 79 FPS average
• Medium: 59 FPS average, 50 FPS minimum, 68 FPS maximum
• High: 49 FPS average
• Ultra: 36 FPS average

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 59 FPS average
• Medium: 44 FPS average, 38 FPS minimum, 51 FPS maximum
• High: 37 FPS average
• Ultra: 27 FPS average

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 39 FPS average
• Medium: 29 FPS average, 25 FPS minimum, 34 FPS maximum
• High: 24 FPS average
• Ultra: 18 FPS average

At 1080p, the jump from Low to Medium costs 20 FPS, while the jump from Medium to High costs 10 FPS, and from High to Ultra costs 13 FPS. The Medium preset offers the best frame pacing, with a minimum of 50 FPS ensuring no significant drops below playable levels. At 1440p, the Medium preset maintains a minimum of 38 FPS, which is borderline but acceptable for slower-paced gameplay. The 4K results are uniformly poor, with no preset reaching 40 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is effectively unplayable at 18 FPS.

The data clearly shows that Medium is the highest preset that maintains a minimum FPS above 30 at 1440p, and it is the only preset at 1080p that offers both a high average (59 FPS) and a safe minimum (50 FPS). The High and Ultra presets, while visually superior, push the GPU beyond its comfortable operating range, resulting in sub-40 FPS averages at 1440p and above. For users prioritizing smooth gameplay, the Medium preset at 1080p or 1440p is the recommended configuration based on the measured results.