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 shows a steep and consistent decline as resolution climbs from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At High settings, the frame rate drops from 72.6 FPS at 1080p to 55.3 FPS at 1440p, then to 37.7 FPS at 4K. That is a 48% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which is a substantial hit that points directly at the GPU as the primary bottleneck in this configuration.

The pattern repeats across all settings presets. At Low settings, the drop is from 115.4 FPS at 1080p to 86.6 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 57.3 FPS at 4K. At Medium, the numbers go from 85.5 to 65.7 to 41.6. The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling: 52.7 FPS at 1080p, 37.5 at 1440p, and 28.8 at 4K. The fact that even the lowest settings cannot maintain 60 FPS at 4K is telling — this is not a CPU-limited scenario where resolution scaling would flatten out.

When a system is CPU-bound, lowering resolution often yields little FPS improvement because the processor is the ceiling. Here, the opposite is true: dropping from 4K to 1080p at Low settings nearly doubles the frame rate, from 57.3 to 115.4. That kind of scaling indicates the RTX 5060's rendering throughput is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The 8 GB GDDR7 memory and 128-bit bus width likely contribute to this, though the exact mechanism requires deeper analysis of the GPU role section.

The 1440p data is particularly interesting for mid-range analysis. At High settings, 55.3 FPS is playable but not smooth; at Medium, 65.7 FPS crosses the 60 FPS threshold. The jump from 1440p High to 1440p Medium is only 10.4 FPS, whereas the jump from 4K High to 4K Medium is 3.9 FPS. This suggests diminishing returns as resolution increases — the GPU is struggling more at 4K, and preset changes have less impact there.

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

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. Its boost clock of 2497 MHz and base clock of 2280 MHz are paired with 3840 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The memory configuration is an 8 GB GDDR7 array on a 128-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The pixel rate is 119.9 GPixel/s and texture rate is 299.6 GTexel/s.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is known for its heavy texture and shading workloads, and the data here suggests the 8 GB VRAM capacity is a practical constraint at higher resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS falls to 28.8 — below the 30 FPS threshold that many consider the absolute minimum for playability. Even at 4K High, the card only manages 37.7 FPS. The 128-bit memory bus, while paired with fast GDDR7, may struggle to feed the 3840 shading units at 4K resolutions where memory bandwidth demands spike.

The RTX 5060's average benchmark score is 30109, placing it in the 73rd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, scores 30097 with a deltaPct of 0 — essentially identical performance in synthetic benchmarks. Yet the measured game data shows the RTX 5060 cannot maintain 60 FPS at 1440p High, which is a meaningful real-world indicator of its mid-range positioning. The GPU's FP32 throughput of 19.18 TFLOPS is respectable, but the game's performance at 4K suggests the memory subsystem and VRAM size are the limiting factors rather than raw compute.

The fact that the RTX 5060's predecessor is the GeForce 40 series, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6, means it has the API feature set for modern titles. But the measured data shows that at Ultra settings across all resolutions, the card consistently falls below 60 FPS — at 1080p Ultra it only reaches 52.7 FPS. This indicates that the Ultra preset in Red Dead Redemption 2 demands more than this GPU can deliver, regardless of the architecture's efficiency.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 115.4, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Can this system run the game at 60 FPS on 1440p?

A: Yes, but only at Medium settings where it reaches 65.7 FPS. At High settings it drops to 55.3 FPS, and at Ultra it falls to 37.5 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 5060 compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT scores 30097 versus the RTX 5060's 30109, a deltaPct of 0, meaning they are statistically tied in average benchmark score.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings produce 115.4 FPS while Ultra produces 52.7 FPS, a difference of 62.7 FPS.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this combo?

A: At 4K, the highest average FPS is 57.3 at Low settings. At High it drops to 37.7, and at Ultra it is 28.8. This suggests 4K is only viable at Low settings for acceptable smoothness.

Q: How does the CPU's benchmark performance compare to its nearest rival?

A: The Intel Core i5-14600K scores 49166 on average, while the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X scores 49062, a deltaPct of 0.2 — meaning the i5 is marginally ahead.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal balance between visual quality and performance depends heavily on the target resolution. For 1080p, the Medium preset at 85.5 FPS offers a smooth experience well above the 60 FPS threshold, while High at 72.6 FPS is also playable. Ultra at 52.7 FPS is borderline — playable but not consistently smooth for fast-paced action.

At 1440p, the Medium preset at 65.7 FPS is the clear recommendation for most players, as it crosses the 60 FPS mark. High at 55.3 FPS is acceptable for those who prioritize visuals over smoothness, but the drop below 60 FPS may be noticeable. Ultra at 37.5 FPS is not recommended for anything beyond screenshots.

For 4K, the data is stark: Low settings at 57.3 FPS is the only preset that approaches playable frame rates, and even that is below 60. Medium at 41.6 FPS and High at 37.7 FPS are both below the smoothness threshold, and Ultra at 28.8 FPS dips below 30 FPS, which is generally considered the minimum for playability. Users targeting 4K should consider lowering resolution or accepting Low settings.

The pattern across all resolutions is that Medium settings provide the best compromise — it consistently delivers the highest FPS above the 60 FPS target at 1080p and 1440p, and is the second-best option at 4K. The jump from Medium to High costs roughly 10-15% of frame rate, while the jump from High to Ultra costs another 20-30%, making Ultra the least efficient preset.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings ladder shows a wide spread. Low settings deliver 115.4 FPS, which is the highest measured value in the entire dataset. Medium brings 85.5 FPS, a 26% reduction from Low. High drops further to 72.6 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 52.7 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is a substantial 62.7 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset imposes heavy rendering costs that this GPU cannot fully absorb.

Moving to 2560x1440, the numbers compress somewhat. Low settings produce 86.6 FPS, still above 60. Medium at 65.7 FPS is the last preset to cross the 60 FPS mark. High falls to 55.3 FPS, and Ultra drops to 37.5 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 49.1 FPS, smaller than at 1080p but still significant. The step from Medium to High costs 10.4 FPS, while the step from High to Ultra costs 17.8 FPS — the latter being a more severe penalty.

At 3840x2160, the performance envelope narrows considerably. Low settings yield 57.3 FPS, barely above 30 but well below 60. Medium produces 41.6 FPS, High manages 37.7 FPS, and Ultra falls to 28.8 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 28.5 FPS, which is less than half the spread seen at 1080p. This compression indicates that at 4K, the GPU is the bottleneck across all settings — lowering quality from Ultra to Low only recovers 28.5 FPS, whereas at 1080p the same settings change recovers 62.7 FPS.

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

The Intel Core i5-14600K is a 14-core, 20-thread processor from the Core 14th Gen series, based on the Raptor Lake architecture. It runs at a base clock of 3.50 GHz and boosts to 5.30 GHz, with a 125 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3. It supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration, and features PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-14600K scores 49166 on average, placing it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. Its closest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, scores 49062 with a deltaPct of 0.2, meaning the Intel chip is effectively tied with a 16-core, 32-thread processor from the previous generation. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 32881 and single-core score of 4642 highlight its strength in both multi-threaded and lightly-threaded workloads.

For Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU based on the resolution scaling data. At 1080p Low settings, the system achieves 115.4 FPS, which is high enough that the CPU must be keeping up with the GPU's output. However, the fact that frame rates scale so dramatically with resolution — from 115.4 at 1080p Low to 57.3 at 4K Low — confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The CPU's 14 cores and 20 threads are more than sufficient for this game's typical thread usage, and the high boost clock of 5.30 GHz helps maintain consistent frame pacing in CPU-bound scenes.

The CPU's nearest rival comparison is interesting because the Ryzen 9 5950X has more cores but a lower boost clock. The deltaPct of 0.2 in favor of the i5-14600K suggests that for this workload, the higher clock speed and Raptor Lake architecture's IPC advantage offset the core count disadvantage. In a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, which is not heavily multi-threaded, the i5's single-core performance is likely more relevant than its 14-core count.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 ranks 838 out of 1687 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2. This places it in the 50th percentile of all measured combinations — exactly at the median. The rank of 838 out of 1687 means that roughly half of all tested CPU-GPU pairings perform better in this game, and half perform worse.

This mid-pack ranking is consistent with the component-level data. The CPU sits in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, which is strong, but the GPU is in the 73rd percentile, which is above average but not exceptional. The combination's overall rank being near the median suggests that the GPU is the weaker link in this pairing for this specific game. A higher-ranked GPU would likely push this combo significantly up the list, given that the CPU has plenty of headroom based on its percentile ranking.

The rank of 838 out of 1687 also implies that there are 849 combos ranked below this one. Given the CPU's high percentile (93), those lower-ranked combos likely feature weaker GPUs or CPUs. The fact that this combo lands at the median despite a top-tier CPU indicates that the RTX 5060's mid-range positioning (73rd percentile) drags the overall result down. For users considering this combo, the data suggests that the CPU is not the bottleneck in Red Dead Redemption 2 — the GPU's performance ceiling at higher resolutions is what limits the experience.