Red Dead Redemption 2

# Red Dead Redemption 2: Intel Core i5-9400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER

This pairing combines a six-core Coffee Lake CPU from 2018 with an Ada Lovelace GPU that sits at the 84th percentile of all GPUs, creating a system where the RTX 4070 SUPER is clearly the dominant component in Red Dead Redemption 2. The measured frame rates reveal a setup that can handle 1440p very well but struggles to maintain playable performance at 4K with higher presets, and the data shows the CPU holding back the GPU less than one might expect given the generational gap.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, signaling that resolution scaling in Red Dead Redemption 2 heavily taxes the GPU. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 108.6 FPS at 1920x1080 to 81.9 FPS at 2560x1440 — a 24.6% reduction — and then to 50.5 FPS at 3840x2160, which is 53.5% lower than the 1080p result. The pattern intensifies with Ultra settings, where the 1080p average of 78.6 FPS drops to 53.4 FPS at 1440p and then to 39.4 FPS at 4K, a total decline of nearly 50% from the starting point.

The scaling behavior indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor as resolution climbs. At Low settings, the 1080p result of 141.3 FPS falls to 128.2 FPS at 1440p (a mild 9.3% drop) and then to 81.6 FPS at 4K (a 42.2% drop from 1080p). This non-linear scaling — small penalty moving to 1440p, then a massive penalty at 4K — is typical of a GPU that has enough headroom at lower resolutions but becomes fully saturated when pixel count quadruples. The i5-9400, with its six cores and six threads, appears to keep up at 1080p and 1440p Low, but the dramatic 4K drop across all presets confirms that the RTX 4070 SUPER is the component that determines the ceiling here.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 brings six cores and six threads, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. These specifications place it at exactly the 50th percentile of all CPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 2305. Its nearest rivals in aggregate performance are the Intel Core i3-10305 (2300, 0.2% ahead) and the Intel Core i3-1125G4 (2299, 0.2% ahead), while the Intel Xeon E-2134 trails at 2295 (0.4% behind) and the Intel Core i7-8809G leads at 2319 (0.6% ahead). This is a mid-pack processor by modern standards, but in Red Dead Redemption 2, the data suggests it is not the bottleneck at most settings.

The evidence for CPU adequacy lies in the frame rate scaling. At 1080p Low, the system produces 141.3 FPS, which is a high enough figure that a weaker CPU would likely cap it lower. The fact that the 1440p Low result (128.2 FPS) is only 9.3% lower than 1080p, while the 4K Low result (81.6 FPS) is 42.2% lower, indicates the GPU is the limiting factor even at the least demanding preset. The 4.10 GHz boost clock helps the i5-9400 maintain consistent performance in a game that is not heavily multithreaded, and the 9 MB of shared L3 cache provides reasonable data locality for the six threads. However, the 6-thread design means there is no headroom for background tasks or highly threaded game engines, and the 50th percentile CPU rank suggests this chip is adequate but unremarkable for a 2024-era GPU pairing.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the clear performance driver in this configuration. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory runs at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) across a 192-bit bus, delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU clocks at 1980 MHz base and 2475 MHz boost, with 7168 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units. These specs place the card at the 84th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 42576. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (42653, 0.2% ahead), the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE (42723, 0.3% ahead), the AMD Radeon Pro 580X (41991, 1.4% behind), and the NVIDIA Tesla M40 (41897, 1.6% behind).

The GPU's memory configuration is particularly relevant to Red Dead Redemption 2, a game known for large open-world textures. The 12 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for 1440p High and Ultra, as evidenced by the 81.9 FPS and 53.4 FPS results respectively. At 4K Ultra, the 39.4 FPS average suggests the GPU is both bandwidth-limited and compute-limited — the 504.2 GB/s bandwidth is the likely culprit when pushing 3840x2160 with high-detail textures. The 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is substantial, but the 192-bit memory bus is narrow for 4K workloads. The 84th percentile GPU ranking versus the 50th percentile CPU ranking makes it clear which component is doing the heavy lifting.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Red Dead Redemption 2, this pairing ranks 313th out of 1687 total combos, placing it in the top 18.5% of all tested systems. This ranking reflects the strength of the RTX 4070 SUPER more than the i5-9400, as the GPU's 84th percentile standing lifts the overall combo despite the CPU's median position. The measured FPS data supports this interpretation: the system delivers playable 1440p performance at High settings (81.9 FPS) and even 4K at Medium (60.9 FPS), which are results that would be unattainable with a weaker GPU regardless of CPU choice.

The rank of 313 suggests that this combo outperforms the majority of tested systems, but it is not near the top of the list. Systems with newer, higher-core-count CPUs paired with similarly strong GPUs would likely rank higher, as the i5-9400's 6-thread limitation could become a factor in CPU-bound scenarios that this game's data does not fully expose. The gap to the top is not due to the GPU, which scores within 0.3% of the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE and 0.2% of the RTX A6000 in aggregate benchmarks — it is the CPU that holds this combo back from elite standing.

Settings Recommendations

For a 1080p display, the data shows that High settings (108.6 FPS) and Medium (126.9 FPS) both provide excellent frame rates, while Ultra (78.6 FPS) is still smooth but meaningfully slower. The sweet spot is High, as it balances visual quality with a frame rate that comfortably exceeds 100 FPS. At 1440p, High (81.9 FPS) is the recommended choice for a 60 Hz or 75 Hz monitor, while Medium (96.6 FPS) is better for high-refresh displays; Ultra (53.4 FPS) is playable but dips below the ideal range for competitive smoothness. At 4K, the choice narrows to Medium (60.9 FPS) or Low (81.6 FPS) — High (50.5 FPS) is borderline, and Ultra (39.4 FPS) should be avoided unless frame rate is not a priority.

The measured data suggests that the best experience across all resolutions is achieved by selecting Medium or High, not Ultra. The FPS penalty for Ultra over High is substantial at every resolution: at 1080p, the drop is 30.0 FPS (from 108.6 to 78.6); at 1440p, it is 28.5 FPS (from 81.9 to 53.4); and at 4K, it is 11.1 FPS (from 50.5 to 39.4). These deltas indicate that Ultra settings in this game impose a heavy cost on the GPU with diminishing visual returns, making High the practical ceiling for this combo.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the average frame rates across settings are: Low at 141.3 FPS, Medium at 126.9 FPS, High at 108.6 FPS, and Ultra at 78.6 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 62.7 FPS total reduction, with the largest single drop between High and Ultra (30.0 FPS). This resolution is clearly GPU-bound at higher settings, as the 141.3 FPS Low result demonstrates the CPU can feed the GPU adequately.

At 2560x1440, the measured averages are: Low at 128.2 FPS, Medium at 96.6 FPS, High at 81.9 FPS, and Ultra at 53.4 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low is only 13.1 FPS (9.3%), but at Medium it is 30.3 FPS (23.9%), at High it is 26.7 FPS (24.6%), and at Ultra it is 25.2 FPS (32.1%). This shows that the GPU becomes progressively more strained as both resolution and settings increase, with Ultra suffering the largest relative penalty.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 81.6 FPS, Medium at 60.9 FPS, High at 50.5 FPS, and Ultra at 39.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 42.2 FPS, and even the Low preset cannot maintain a 60 FPS minimum guarantee given the average is only 81.6. The 4K results confirm that this combo is not designed for maxing out Red Dead Redemption 2 at native 4K — Medium is the only preset that comfortably clears 60 FPS, and it does so by a narrow margin. The data indicates that a 4K monitor with this pairing will require either Low or Medium settings for a consistent experience, while 1440p offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance.