Red Dead Redemption 2

Settings Recommendations

For Red Dead Redemption 2, the measured data shows a clear trade-off between visual quality and playable frame rates. The standout configuration is Medium at 1920x1080, delivering an average of 67 FPS with a minimum of 57 FPS and a maximum of 77 FPS. This is the only preset at 1080p that stays comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining the minimum above 60 FPS, making it the sweet spot for smooth gameplay without sacrificing too much visual fidelity.

The Low preset at 1920x1080 pushes performance to 90 FPS average, which is the highest measured result across all configurations. However, this comes at the cost of significant visual downgrades. Given that Medium achieves a 67 FPS average, the extra 23 FPS from dropping to Low is unlikely to justify the visual hit for most users, unless competitive responsiveness is paramount.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset yields a 50 FPS average with a minimum of 43 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action sequences. The High preset at 1440p drops to 42 FPS, while Low reaches 67 FPS and Ultra falls to 30 FPS. None of the 1440p settings maintain a consistent 60 FPS experience, so users at this resolution should expect to make compromises either in settings or in frame rate expectations.

At 3840x2160, all presets struggle to maintain playable performance. The best result is Low at 44 FPS average, followed by Medium at 33 FPS (with a minimum of 28 FPS), High at 28 FPS, and Ultra at just 20 FPS. For 4K gaming, the data suggests that even Low settings cannot sustain a 60 FPS target, making this resolution impractical for this hardware combination in Red Dead Redemption 2.

The verdict is clear: Medium at 1080p provides the best balance of visual quality and performance, with a 67 FPS average and a 57 FPS minimum that keeps the experience fluid. If users prioritize maximum frame rates, Low at 1080p offers 90 FPS, but the Medium preset's combination of a 57 FPS floor and 77 FPS ceiling makes it the most consistent choice for general play.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-14600KF and Intel Arc B580 ranks 2812 out of 3714 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2, placing it in the lower half of the database. This percentile ranking is noteworthy because the individual components perform better in isolation than this in-game result suggests.

The Intel Core i5-14600KF sits in the 90th percentile among all CPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 49,394. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (0.3% higher score), AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (0.4% higher), and Intel Core Ultra 5 245 (0.8% higher), while the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388 trails by 0.8%. This places the CPU in strong company, suggesting the processor is not the primary bottleneck in this game.

The Intel Arc B580, meanwhile, ranks in the 68th percentile among all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 23,021. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (0.2% lower), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (0.6% higher), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (0.7% lower), and NVIDIA P106-100 (1% lower). The GPU's performance is competitive with these mid-range to upper-mid-range cards, yet the in-game ranking suggests that Red Dead Redemption 2's specific demands do not favor this architecture.

The gap between the component-level percentiles (90th for CPU, 68th for GPU) and the combo's in-game rank (75th percentile from the bottom, or roughly 24th percentile from the top) indicates that the game's engine places heavier demands on the GPU than the CPU, and the Arc B580's 68th percentile standing drags the overall result down. The data suggests the combo is CPU-capable but GPU-limited in this title, with the 2812 rank reflecting the GPU's mid-pack positioning rather than any CPU deficiency.

FAQ

Q: What is the best 1080p setting for a consistent 60 FPS experience?

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 delivers a 67 FPS average with a 57 FPS minimum and 77 FPS maximum, making it the only 1080p configuration where the minimum frame rate stays above 60 FPS. The Low preset reaches 90 FPS average but has no published minimum, while High drops to 56 FPS average and Ultra falls to 40 FPS.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A: No preset at 3840x2160 achieves a playable 60 FPS. The best 4K result is Low at 44 FPS average, followed by Medium at 33 FPS (with a 28 FPS minimum), High at 28 FPS, and Ultra at 20 FPS. Even the lowest quality settings at 4K fall well below the 60 FPS target.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i5-14600KF scores 49,394 on average, which is 0.3% above the AMD Ryzen 9 7900, 0.4% above the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G, and 0.8% above the Intel Core Ultra 5 245, while trailing the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388 by 0.8%. These are marginal differences, placing the CPU in a tight competitive cluster.

Q: What is the GPU's benchmark position relative to older NVIDIA cards?

A: The Intel Arc B580's average benchmark score of 23,021 places it 0.6% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 and 0.7% above the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, while being 0.2% above the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP and 1% above the NVIDIA P106-100.

Q: Does the Medium preset at 1440p maintain a stable frame rate?

A: At 2560x1440, Medium averages 50 FPS with a minimum of 43 FPS and a maximum of 58 FPS. The 43 FPS minimum indicates noticeable dips during demanding scenes, so while the average is respectable, the experience will not be uniformly smooth.

Q: How much performance headroom does the Low preset provide at 1080p?

A: The Low preset at 1920x1080 achieves a 90 FPS average, which is 23 FPS higher than the Medium preset's 67 FPS average. This represents a 34% performance uplift, but it comes with the visual compromises inherent to the Low quality settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results show a clear progression across quality presets. The Low preset delivers an average of 90 FPS, which is the highest recorded frame rate in the entire dataset. Medium follows at 67 FPS average, with a minimum of 57 FPS and a maximum of 77 FPS, providing the most balanced performance envelope. High drops to 56 FPS average, which is just below the 60 FPS target, while Ultra falls to 40 FPS average, representing a 55% reduction from Low.

At 2560x1440, the performance tiers compress significantly. Low achieves 67 FPS average, which matches the 1080p Medium result, indicating that the resolution increase from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings costs roughly the same performance as moving from Low to Medium at 1080p. Medium at 1440p delivers 50 FPS average (43 minimum, 58 maximum), High provides 42 FPS average, and Ultra drops to 30 FPS average. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 37 FPS, compared to 50 FPS at 1080p, suggesting diminishing returns from quality settings at higher resolutions.

At 3840x2160, the results are consistently sub-60 FPS across all presets. Low leads with 44 FPS average, Medium follows at 33 FPS (28 minimum, 38 maximum), High trails at 28 FPS average, and Ultra bottoms out at 20 FPS average. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is only 24 FPS, indicating that the GPU is the limiting factor at this resolution regardless of quality settings. The Medium preset's 28 FPS minimum is particularly notable, as it represents a 15% drop from the average, suggesting significant frame-time variance at 4K.

Comparing across resolutions at the same preset, the Medium settings show the most consistent scaling behavior: 67 FPS at 1080p, 50 FPS at 1440p, and 33 FPS at 4K. This represents a 25% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 34% drop from 1440p to 4K, with the total 1080p-to-4K reduction reaching 51%.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data reveals a clear pattern in how frame rates scale with resolution. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at Medium settings reduces the average FPS from 67 to 50, a 25% decrease. From 1440p to 4K at Medium, the average drops from 50 to 33 FPS, a 34% decrease. The cumulative effect from 1080p to 4K is a 51% reduction in average frame rate.

At Low settings, the scaling is less severe in absolute terms but similar in percentage: 90 FPS at 1080p drops to 67 FPS at 1440p (26% decrease) and further to 44 FPS at 4K (34% decrease from 1440p). The total 1080p-to-4K reduction at Low is 51%, identical to Medium.

High settings show a steeper relative decline: 56 FPS at 1080p, 42 FPS at 1440p (25% decrease), and 28 FPS at 4K (33% decrease), totaling a 50% reduction. Ultra settings follow the same pattern: 40 FPS at 1080p, 30 FPS at 1440p (25% decrease), and 20 FPS at 4K (33% decrease), also totaling 50%.

The consistency of these percentage drops across all quality presets is telling. Whether at Low, Medium, High, or Ultra, the resolution scaling penalty is roughly 25% from 1080p to 1440p and another 33% from 1440p to 4K. This uniformity suggests that the scaling behavior is primarily determined by the GPU's rendering throughput rather than by specific quality settings. The Intel Arc B580's 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus with 456.0 GB/s bandwidth appears sufficient for the memory demands of all presets, as the consistent scaling indicates no memory capacity or bandwidth cliff is being hit.

The data points to the GPU as the limiting component at higher resolutions. Since the CPU's synthetic benchmarks place it in the 90th percentile, and the frame rate drops follow a predictable pixel-count-driven pattern, the evidence indicates that Red Dead Redemption 2 becomes increasingly GPU-bound as resolution increases. At 1080p, the 90 FPS Low result suggests the CPU can feed the GPU adequately, but at 4K, the 20 FPS Ultra result shows the GPU's 13.67 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 213.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are insufficient for this game's demands at high quality.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF brings substantial processing resources to this combo: 14 cores, 20 threads, a base clock of 3.50 GHz, and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache, with support for both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration.

In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU demonstrates strong single-threaded and multi-threaded performance. The Cinebench R23 scores are 32,544 multi-core and 4,594 single-core, while Geekbench results show 17,085 multi-core and 2,445 single-core. PassMark tests reveal 38,697 multi-thread and 4,273 single-thread scores, with floating-point math at 93,048 and integer math at 125,982. The 90th percentile ranking among all CPUs confirms that this processor is well above average for general computing workloads.

For Red Dead Redemption 2 specifically, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU. The combo's in-game rank of 2812 out of 3714 is substantially lower than the CPU's standalone percentile, which strongly suggests the game is not CPU-bound with this processor. The consistent resolution scaling pattern, where frame rates drop by roughly 25% from 1080p to 1440p and another 33% from 1440p to 4K regardless of quality preset, is characteristic of GPU-limited scenarios rather than CPU-limited ones.

The CPU's 14 cores and 20 threads provide ample parallelism for the game's engine, and the 5.30 GHz boost clock ensures strong single-threaded performance for game logic and physics. The 24 MB of shared L3 cache helps with data locality, while the dual-channel memory controller supporting DDR4 and DDR5 offers flexibility for system builders. The 125 W TDP indicates this is a high-power desktop part, consistent with its performance-class positioning.

The evidence from the measured FPS data indicates that at 1080p Low, the CPU can drive the GPU to 90 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, the frame rate collapses to 20 FPS, a 78% reduction. This dramatic drop at higher resolutions and quality settings points squarely at the GPU as the limiting factor. The CPU's benchmark scores, particularly the 32,544 Cinebench R23 multi-core result and the 90th percentile standing, indicate it has ample headroom for this game's computational demands. Users pairing this CPU with a more powerful GPU would likely see significantly better results in Red Dead Redemption 2, as the processor demonstrates it is not the bottleneck in this configuration.