Red Dead Redemption 2

The Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER delivers a highly variable experience in Red Dead Redemption 2, where the GPU becomes the primary constraint as resolution climbs. At 1080p, the RTX 2060 SUPER has enough headroom to push frame rates well above playable thresholds, but the transition to 4K exposes the card's limits, with even the most demanding preset dropping to figures that challenge playability.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data shows a steep performance penalty when moving from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, a pattern that clearly identifies the GPU as the limiting component. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 58.6 FPS at 1080p to 45 FPS at 1440p, a drop of 13.6 FPS, and then plunges to 30.2 FPS at 4K, representing a 48.5% reduction from the 1080p figure. This scaling curve is consistent with a graphics card that is being saturated by pixel throughput rather than a CPU bottleneck, as the i5-14600KF's high single-core performance is unlikely to be the limiting factor at these resolutions.

The Low preset tells a similar story but with larger absolute numbers. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 92.2 FPS, which drops to 70.9 FPS at 1440p and further to 47.9 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result is notably higher than the 4K High figure, indicating that reducing graphical load directly translates into meaningful frame rate gains, a hallmark of GPU-bound performance. The gap between Low and High at any given resolution is substantial—at 1080p it is 33.6 FPS, at 1440p it is 25.9 FPS, and at 4K it is 17.7 FPS—which suggests that the RTX 2060 SUPER's compute and memory resources are being taxed heavily by the game's visual effects.

Ultra settings exacerbate the issue dramatically. At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 41.5, which is already below the 60 FPS target many players prefer. At 1440p Ultra, the figure drops to 29.3 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it collapses to 17.4 FPS, making the game effectively unplayable at that configuration. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at Ultra shows a 11.9 FPS drop, which is a 40.6% reduction, highlighting how the GPU's 8 GB of VRAM and 448.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth are insufficient for the highest quality textures at high pixel counts.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal balance between visual fidelity and performance is achieved at Medium settings for most resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the combo delivers 67.8 FPS, which is a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold and only 9.2 FPS behind the Low preset. This suggests that Medium captures most of the game's visual enhancements without imposing the severe cost seen at High or Ultra. At 1440p Medium, the average FPS is 54.1, which is still playable for most users, though it falls short of a locked 60 FPS experience.

For users targeting 4K, the data indicates that only the Low preset is viable, producing 47.9 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K drops to 32.3 FPS, which is below the 30 FPS minimum that many consider the floor for playable frame rates, but the High preset at 30.2 FPS is nearly identical, suggesting that there is little benefit to dropping from High to Medium at this resolution. The Ultra preset at 4K is not recommended, as the 17.4 FPS result indicates a slideshow-like experience.

The High preset at 1080p, at 58.6 FPS, is a strong choice for users with 60 Hz displays who prioritize image quality over headroom. However, the jump from High to Ultra at 1080p costs 17.1 FPS, a 29.2% penalty, which is difficult to justify given the incremental visual improvements that Ultra typically provides. The data suggests that Medium at 1080p or High at 1080p are the sweet spots, with Medium offering a safety margin for demanding scenes and High providing a richer presentation for those with adaptive sync displays.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. Its benchmark results show exceptional single-thread performance, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4643 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2778, placing it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. This level of single-core capability is crucial for Red Dead Redemption 2, which is known to be sensitive to CPU performance in CPU-bound scenarios, though the measured FPS at 1080p High (58.6 FPS) suggests that the game is not entirely GPU-limited at that resolution.

The multi-core results are equally strong, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32889 and a Passmark multithread score of 38697, indicating that the 14 cores can handle the game's background tasks and any streaming requirements without issue. The CPU's 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample data locality for the game's world streaming, which is a common bottleneck in open-world titles. However, the fact that the 4K Low preset (47.9 FPS) is only 8.8 FPS higher than the 4K High preset (30.2 FPS) indicates that the GPU is the dominant constraint at higher resolutions, and the CPU's role diminishes as pixel count increases.

The i5-14600KF's nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-14600K, which has an average benchmark score of 49166 and is 0.4% faster, and the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, which has an average score of 49062 and is 0.6% slower. These deltas are negligible in gaming contexts, meaning the 14600KF provides essentially identical performance to its closest competitors for this workload. The CPU's 125 W TDP and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory make it a flexible choice, but the benchmark data shows that its role in this specific game is secondary to the GPU's capabilities.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this pairing of the i5-14600KF and RTX 2060 SUPER ranks 1239 out of 1687 combos, placing it in the bottom 26.6% of all tested configurations. This rank is a reflection of the GPU's mid-range positioning, as the CPU is a high-end part that would typically be paired with a more powerful graphics card. The combo's percentile of 63 for the GPU, compared to the CPU's 93rd percentile, indicates a significant imbalance where the RTX 2060 SUPER holds back the overall system performance.

The rank is consistent with the measured FPS data, which shows that the combo struggles to maintain high frame rates at 1440p and above in Red Dead Redemption 2. At 1080p, the combo performs adequately, but the 4K results are among the lowest in the database, suggesting that users with 4K displays would need to rely on the Low preset to achieve playable frame rates. The combo's position relative to other tested configurations is not surprising given the GPU's age and its end-of-life production status, which is confirmed by its release date of 2019-07-08.

The GPU's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN (0.3% faster), the RTX 2070 (0.5% faster), and the Quadro K5200 (0.8% faster), all of which have similar average benchmark scores around 19600-19700. This tight grouping indicates that the RTX 2060 SUPER is performance-wise indistinguishable from these older high-end cards, and the combo's ranking is determined more by the CPU's strength than the GPU's capabilities. For users considering this combination, the data suggests that the CPU has significant headroom for future GPU upgrades, as the 4K Ultra result of 17.4 FPS is clearly limited by the graphics card.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture with 2176 shading units, 136 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, along with 34 RT cores and 272 tensor cores. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a critical specification for Red Dead Redemption 2's large textures and open-world environments. The GPU's boost clock of 1650 MHz and base clock of 1470 MHz are modest by modern standards, but the 12 nm process node and 10,800 million transistors suggest a design that is efficient for its era.

The benchmark results show that the GPU has a Passmark G3D score of 16462 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2011, placing it in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rivals—the GTX TITAN, RTX 2070, and Quadro K5200—all have scores within 0.8% of the RTX 2060 SUPER, confirming that this card sits at a specific performance tier that is now several generations old. In Red Dead Redemption 2, the 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p at Medium settings, as evidenced by the 67.8 FPS and 54.1 FPS results, but the 4K Ultra preset's 17.4 FPS suggests that the card's memory bandwidth and compute power are overwhelmed by the game's highest quality settings.

The GPU's FP32 performance of 7.181 TFLOPS and texture rate of 224.4 GTexel/s are the key metrics that determine its ability to handle the game's shading and texture mapping workload. The data shows that the card can handle 1080p High at 58.6 FPS, which is a playable result, but the drop to 4K High at 30.2 FPS indicates that the GPU is rendering at less than half the frame rate when pixel count quadruples. This relationship is typical of a mid-range GPU that is being pushed beyond its intended resolution target, and users should expect to use the Low preset at 4K to maintain a consistent experience. The GPU's 175 W TDP and 450 W suggested PSU are reasonable for a system with this CPU, but the performance data makes it clear that this card is best suited for 1080p gaming in Red Dead Redemption 2, with 1440p possible only at lower settings.