Red Dead Redemption 2

# Red Dead Redemption 2: Intel Core i5-14600KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080

The pairing of Intel's Core i5-14600KF with NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4080 produces a compelling 1440p and 4K experience in Red Dead Redemption 2, with measured results showing a clear GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. Across all twelve measured configurations, the system delivers a wide performance envelope from 43 FPS at 4K Ultra to 194 FPS at 1080p Low, indicating that the combination is capable of both high-refresh-rate gaming and visually demanding play. The data shows a consistent pattern: as resolution scales upward, the RTX 4080 becomes the primary performance limiter, while the i5-14600KF's strong multi-threaded capabilities ensure the CPU never bottlenecks the frame rate, even at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep performance gradient as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 121 FPS at 1080p to 90 FPS at 1440p, then further to 60 FPS at 4K—a 50% reduction from 1080p to 4K. The scaling pattern is consistent across all four quality presets, with the Low preset showing the largest absolute drop: from 194 FPS at 1080p down to 96 FPS at 4K, a 98 FPS difference. This steep decline indicates that the RTX 4080's rendering workload grows substantially with pixel count, which is expected for a game like Red Dead Redemption 2 with its detailed open-world environments.

The Medium preset exhibits the most telling behavior for understanding the system's limiting component. At 4K Medium, the average is 72 FPS with a minimum of 61 FPS and maximum of 82 FPS, while at 1080p Medium the average jumps to 145 FPS with a minimum of 123 FPS and maximum of 167 FPS. The 73 FPS gap between these resolutions suggests that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth—not the CPU—are dictating performance at higher pixel counts. Notably, the RTX 4080's memory bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s and 16 GB of GDDR6X memory provide ample headroom, yet the 4K Ultra preset still drops to just 43 FPS, which is a 44 FPS deficit compared to 1080p Ultra at 87 FPS.

This resolution scaling behavior strongly implies that the RTX 4080 is the bottleneck at 4K, especially at Ultra settings where the GPU's 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is fully taxed. At 1080p, the system's frame rates of 87-194 FPS indicate that the i5-14600KF with its 14 cores and 20 threads is sufficient to keep the GPU fed, as the CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32544 and Passmark multithread score of 38697 demonstrate substantial headroom. The 1440p results—ranging from 65 FPS at Ultra to 145 FPS at Low—represent the sweet spot where the balance between CPU and GPU workload is most favorable, with the GPU still doing the heavy lifting but the CPU providing enough throughput to avoid frame pacing issues.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080's specifications directly explain its measured performance in Red Dead Redemption 2. Built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, the GPU houses 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die. Its base clock of 2205 MHz boosts to 2505 MHz, and the memory runs at 1400 MHz with 22.4 Gbps effective speed. The 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for the game's large open-world textures and streaming assets. The GPU's 9728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs provide the raw compute necessary for the game's lighting and shadow effects, with a pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s.

The measured FPS data shows that the RTX 4080's performance scales predictably with preset quality. At 4K, the GPU delivers 60 FPS on High, 72 FPS on Medium, and 96 FPS on Low, while Ultra drops to 43 FPS. This pattern indicates that the Ultra preset imposes a compute load that exceeds the GPU's comfortable operating range at 4K, likely due to the combination of advanced rendering features and the game's 2018 release date predating some optimizations for newer architectures. The GPU's Passmark G3D score of 34457 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6567 place it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, with its average benchmark score of 54247 sitting 0.1% above the RTX 4080 SUPER's score of 54209.

The RTX 4080's memory configuration proves particularly relevant for this game. With 16 GB of VRAM, the card avoids capacity-related stuttering even at 4K Ultra, where the game's texture streaming demands are highest. The 716.8 GB/s bandwidth ensures that texture data transfers efficiently between VRAM and the GPU core, which is reflected in the relatively stable minimum frame rates on the Medium preset—61 FPS at 4K and 92 FPS at 1440p. However, the Ultra preset's 43 FPS at 4K suggests that beyond memory capacity, the GPU's compute resources become saturated, as the 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is insufficient for the combined effects workload at that resolution and quality level.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU combination in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A: Based on the measured FPS data, 2560x1440 offers the best balance. At High settings, the system averages 90 FPS, while Medium delivers 108 FPS. These results provide smooth gameplay without the significant frame rate drops seen at 4K Ultra (43 FPS).

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080's average benchmark score of 54247 is only 0.1% higher than the RTX 4080 SUPER's score of 54209. It trails the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X by 1.1% (54828 score) and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB by 2.6% (55698 score).

Q: Is the i5-14600KF a bottleneck at 1080p in this game?

A: No. The measured FPS at 1080p ranges from 87 FPS at Ultra to 194 FPS at Low, indicating the CPU's 14 cores and 20 threads are sufficient. The processor's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32544 and Passmark multithread score of 38697 provide ample compute headroom.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 4K with Medium settings?

A: The measured data shows an average of 72 FPS at 3840x2160 with Medium settings, with minimum and maximum values of 61 FPS and 82 FPS respectively. This provides a playable experience without needing to drop to Low settings.

Q: How does the game's performance scale between Low and Ultra presets?

A: At 1440p, the average FPS drops from 145 on Low to 108 on Medium, then to 90 on High and 65 on Ultra. At 4K, the progression is 96 FPS on Low to 72 FPS on Medium, 60 FPS on High, and 43 FPS on Ultra.

Q: What is the system's overall rank for this game?

A: The combination ranks 260th out of 3714 tested configurations for Red Dead Redemption 2, placing it in the top 7% of all CPU-GPU pairings tested for this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The benchmark data provides twelve distinct measured configurations, each representing a combination of resolution and quality preset. At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates: Low settings produce an average of 194 FPS, Medium produces 145 FPS with a minimum of 123 FPS and maximum of 167 FPS, High produces 121 FPS, and Ultra produces 87 FPS. These numbers demonstrate that at 1080p, the RTX 4080 is rarely the limiting factor, and the i5-14600KF's strong single-thread performance—evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4594 and Geekbench single-core score of 2445—allows the CPU to stay ahead of the GPU's demands.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales down predictably. Low settings average 145 FPS, Medium averages 108 FPS with a range of 92 to 125 FPS, High averages 90 FPS, and Ultra averages 65 FPS. The 1440p results show a more balanced workload distribution, with the GPU's compute becoming more relevant but the CPU still providing sufficient throughput. The Medium preset's minimum of 92 FPS indicates that even in demanding scenes, the system maintains a smooth experience above 90 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 4080's limits become apparent. Low settings average 96 FPS, which is a respectable result for 4K gaming. Medium settings average 72 FPS with a minimum of 61 FPS and maximum of 82 FPS, providing a playable experience with some headroom. High settings drop to 60 FPS, which is borderline for smooth gameplay, and Ultra settings fall to 43 FPS, which is below the threshold for comfortable gaming. The 4K data reveals a clear pattern: the GPU's compute resources scale linearly with preset quality, and the 43 FPS Ultra result suggests that this combination is best suited for High settings or below at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF plays a crucial supporting role in this system's Red Dead Redemption 2 performance. With 14 cores and 20 threads operating at a base clock of 3.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz, the processor provides substantial multi-threaded compute capacity. Its Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process with a 257 mm² die size, includes 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB of L2 cache per core. The CPU's benchmark results confirm its capability: Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32544 and single-core score of 4594, Geekbench multi-core of 17085 and single-core of 2445, and Passmark multithread score of 38697.

The measured FPS data indicates that the CPU is not a bottleneck in this game across any tested resolution. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 194 FPS, which would require substantial CPU throughput to maintain—the i5-14600KF's Passmark single-thread score of 4273 and Cinebench R15 single-core score of 462 show it has the per-core performance necessary for high frame rate gaming. The CPU's 90th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49394, places it 0.3% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (49228 score) and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (49196 score), while trailing the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388 by 0.8% (49796 score).

In Red Dead Redemption 2, which features a large open world with dynamic NPCs and physics, the CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are exercised during scene transitions and when many entities are on screen. The i5-14600KF's Passmark physics score of 2449 and Passmark floating point math score of 93048 indicate strong performance in these workloads. The data shows that even at 1080p Ultra with 87 FPS, the CPU maintains frame delivery, as the GPU's 48.74 TFLOPS is the limiting factor at that preset. The processor's 125 W TDP and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory provide flexibility for system builders, though the measured results were achieved with the configuration as tested.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For players prioritizing smooth gameplay at 1080p, the High preset at 121 FPS offers an excellent balance between visual quality and performance, while the Ultra preset at 87 FPS is still playable for those who want maximum fidelity. The Medium preset at 145 FPS is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors, providing well above 144 Hz capability with a minimum of 123 FPS.

At 1440p, the data suggests that High settings at 90 FPS provide the best overall experience, delivering a frame rate that is smooth on most displays while maintaining substantial visual quality. The Medium preset at 108 FPS is an excellent alternative for players with 144 Hz monitors, as the minimum of 92 FPS stays comfortably within the refresh window. The Ultra preset at 65 FPS is playable but may feel less responsive in fast-paced scenes, while Low at 145 FPS is suitable for competitive play where frame rate takes priority over visuals.

For 4K gaming, the measured results indicate that Medium settings at 72 FPS is the recommended choice, as it provides a playable frame rate with a minimum of 61 FPS that avoids major stuttering. The High preset at 60 FPS is borderline, but users with VRR displays may find it acceptable. The Low preset at 96 FPS offers a high-frame-rate 4K experience for those who prioritize smoothness, while Ultra at 43 FPS is not recommended for most players due to the risk of noticeable frame pacing issues. Across all resolutions, the data shows that the Medium preset consistently provides the best minimum frame rates, making it the safest choice for maintaining a consistent experience in Red Dead Redemption 2's demanding open-world environments.