Red Dead Redemption 2

The Red Dragon's combination of an Intel Core i5-9400 (6 cores, 6 threads, boost 4.10 GHz, Coffee Lake) and the Intel Arc B370 graphics solution produces some of the lowest frame rates observed in our database for Red Dead Redemption 2. The CPU itself ranks in the 47th percentile of all tested chips, but the GPU falls to the 5th percentile, and the overall combo sits at rank 3430 out of 3714 tested combos. Measured average frame rates range from a best-case of 47 FPS at 1080p Low down to a 10 FPS floor at 4K Ultra. The following sections examine the specific measurements and what they suggest about the hardware's behavior in this title.

FAQ

Q: What is the best performing preset for this combo in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A: The Low preset delivers the highest average frame rate at every resolution: 47 FPS at 1920x1080, 35 FPS at 2560x1440, and 23 FPS at 3840x2160.

Q: Does this combo achieve playable frame rates in 4K?

A: No. At 3840x2160, the recorded averages are 23 FPS (Low), 17 FPS (Medium), 14 FPS (High), and 10 FPS (Ultra). None of these come close to a standard 30 FPS threshold, so 4K is not a viable option.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest peers in the benchmark suite?

A: The i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2254. Its closest rivals are the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (2259, -0.2 percent delta), the i7-10710U (2248, +0.3 percent), the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (2246, +0.4 percent), and the i3-10305 (2264, -0.4 percent). All are essentially identical in performance, so the CPU is not out of line.

Q: Does the Arc B370 have dedicated video memory?

A: No, it uses System Shared memory. The memory size, type, and bus width are all reported as "System Shared," and bandwidth is listed as "System Dependent." This means it allocates from the same DDR4 system pool as the CPU.

Q: What is the GPU's benchmark score and percentile rank?

A: Its own benchmark average is 1184, placing it in the 5th percentile of all GPUs. That is an extremely low standing.

Q: Which preset at 1080p gives a stable frame experience?

A: The lowest preset’s 47 FPS average is the only setting that exceeds a 30 FPS threshold. Medium at 1080p delivers 35 FPS on average, with a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 40, which is just at the edge of playable.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is a 3 nm integrated GPU with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz. It has 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units (TMUs), 20 raster output processors (ROPs), and 10 ray tracing cores. Its FP32 compute throughput is 6.144 TFLOPs, with a pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s. It has a 25 W TDP and no dedicated power connectors.

With memory fully shared, the GPU must borrow from the system's DDR4 bandwidth for all frame buffering and scene data. This is a clear limiting factor in a game that demands considerable texture and geometry throughput. The measurements show the effect: at 1080p, average FPS drops from 47 to 21 when moving from Low to Ultra, a reduction of exactly 26 FPS. At 1440p it drops from 35 to 16, and at 3840x2160 it falls from 23 to 10. These steep climbs are consistent with a GPU that cannot handle the increasing resolution and complexity of the render, but the CPU remains unchanged. Since the i5-9400 (6 cores, 6 threads, base 2.90 GHz, boost 4.10 GHz, 9 MB L3) is a midrange part, it is not the primary constraint; the GPU's 5th-percentile position is the decisive factor.

How This Combo Ranks

The overall combination of Intel Core i5-9400 and Intel Arc B370 holds the rank 3430 out of 3714 combos in Red Dead Redemption 2. That places it in the bottom 284 combos, meaning more than 99.1% of all tested configurations are better performing. These results are entirely consistent with the GPU's extremely weak standing within the overall GPU hierarchy. The GPU's own percentile versus all GPUs is 5, and its nearest rivals are discrete parts from more than a decade ago: the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1184 vs. 1186, -0.2%), the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1184 vs. 1190, -0.5%), the AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1184 vs. 1192, -0.7%), and the AMD FirePro M2000 (1184 vs. 1168, +1.4%). While the CPU's average benchmark sits at 2254, which is not enough to compensate for the GPU deficit, the combined result is a heavily GPU-bound scenario. For RDR2's game engine, the GPU simply cannot process the geometry and effects required for modern settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following data boards list the exact average, minimum, and maximum frame rates by resolution and preset that were recorded.

1920×1080

• Low: average 47, min/max not shown
• Medium: average 35, min 30, max 40
• High: average 29, min/max not shown
• Ultra: average 21, min/max not shown

2560×1440

• Low: average 35, min/max not shown
• Medium: average 26, min 22, max 30
• High: average 22, min/max not shown
• Ultra: average 16, min/max not shown

3840×2160

• Low: average 23, min/max not shown
• Medium: average 17, min 15, max 20
• High: average 14, min/max not shown
• Ultra: average 10, min/max not shown

The Medium setting at every resolution provides the only recorded min/max pairs, which are useful for estimating variance. In each case, the minimum is ~ halfway to the next higher setting's average (for 1080p Medium min 30 vs. High 29; at 1440p Medium min 22 vs. High 22; at 4K Medium min 15 vs. High 14). This shows that the preset jump from Medium to High yields a negligible benefit in the lower average, and in fact the min FPS from Medium roughly aligns with the average of the High preset. That underlines the low return on quality when the GPU's cap is so low.

Resolution Scaling

The relationship between pixel numbers and frame rate is highly visible. For Low settings across the three resolutions, the average drops from 47 (1080p) to 35 (1440p) to 23 (4K). That is an 8 FPS decline when stepping from one to the next, then a further 12 FPS loss at the final step. For Medium, the progression is 35 → 26 → 17 (a drop of 9 then 9). High: 29 → 22 → 14 (a drop of 8 then 8). Ultra goes 21 → 16 → 10 (a drop of 5 then 6). The consistent pattern of 7-8 per step indicates the GPU is the primary limit, since it must render roughly double the pixel count each time – but the memory bandwidth also plays a role, as the system RAM is being drained by an integrated part.

If the CPU were the driver of the bottleneck, we would expect the FPS to be roughly flat across resolutions, because the CPU workload stays identical per frame. Instead, we see a steep and regular degradation, a classic sign of a fill-rate and memory-limited GPU. The i5-9400 maintains its position in the 47th percentile, and its six threads are not unusually stressed; the deltaPct between it and its nearest rivals is rarely above 0.4 percent, so it is not anomalous. At 4K Low, the 23 FPS average is 48% of the 1080p Low on the same preset, which shows that the GPU hardware cannot be saved by the CPU at any dimension.

Settings Recommendations

Given the measured numbers, the only preset that delivers a reliable experience is Low at 1080p. It is the only row that exceeds 30 FPS on average, and it does so by a healthy margin (47 FPS). If one is willing to accept the camera drops, Medium at 1080p also offers a 35 FPS average, with a minimum of 30, so it is technically on the edge of playable. However, the min/max values indicate a variability of 10 frames (30–40), which can be uncomfortable in a game that relies on reaction timing.

At 1440p, the best you can do is 35 FPS (Low), but that already have a lower average than the 1080p Medium preset. There is no setting at 4K that reaches even 30 FPS; the highest average is 23 FPS (Low). The data recommends a single clear path for user: use the 1080p Low preset. If image quality is paramount, the Medium preset at 1080p is acceptable, but the extra GPU work does not deliver a proportionate jump in quality, because the GPU's memory sharing limits the impact. Nay, the Ultra preset at any resolution is not usable – at its best (1080p) it scores 21 FPS, which is a poor experience. The data indicates that the combination cannot be adjusted to meet the demands of Red Dead Redemption 2 on the higher settings, so a lower resolution with the least complexity is the optimal choice for a playable session.

In summary, the i5-9400 provides a stable foundation, but the Arc B370 is the limiting factor. The measured results place it at the very low end of the performance scale, and only 1080p with Low presents a playable option. Red Dead Redemption 2's engine is not forgiving to extremely underpowered graphics, and these numbers confirm that the hardware will need a serious upgrade to make the game enjoyable at higher visuals.