Red Dead Redemption 2

The pairing of an Intel Core i5-9400 with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 in Red Dead Redemption 2 produces a consistent 60–144 FPS experience across most settings, with a measured combo rank of 835 out of 3,714 tested configurations. At 1080p, the average frame rate exceeds 100 on High, 120 on Medium, and peaks at 144 on Low; at 1440p, every preset reaches 54–90 FPS, while 4K stays playable from 36 (Ultra) to 80 (Low). These figures place the setup in the top quartile of all recorded combinations, despite the CPU’s modest benchmark standing (47th percentile) and the GPU’s strong score (82nd percentile). The data reveals a system that is not uniformly bound by either component: the frame rates scale in a way that points to a different bottleneck at each resolution tier.

FAQ

Q: What is the measured average FPS at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: 73 FPS.

Q: Which resolution and settings produce the highest and lowest average FPS in the fact pack?

A: The highest average is 144 FPS at 1080p Low; the lowest average is 36 FPS at 4K Ultra.

Q: How does this 831/3714 rank translate to a percentile among tested combos?

A: With 3714 total combos and rank 831, the combo is better than approximately 77.5% of tested systems, placing it in the top quarter.

Q: Does the CPU benchmark percentile (47th) match the FPS performance?

A: No – the CPU sits at just the 47th percentile, yet the measured frame rates are high, implying the test scenario is largely GPU‑bound at most settings.

Q: What is the first and only press-writable price figure in the fact pack?

A: The RTX 5070 has a launch MSRP of 549 USD; no other price information is provided.

Q: How does the RTX 5070’s average benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 5070 scores 40377, while its closest competitors – AMD Radeon Pro 580 (40318), Radeon Pro WX 7100 (40063), and Radeon Pro 5300 (40870) – lie within 0.1% to 1.2% of that value.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6‑core, 6‑thread processor without a dedicated multiplier, built on a 14 nm process (Coffee Lake Raspberry). Its base clock is 2.90 GHz and boosts up to 4.10 GHz, with a 65 W TDP and dual‑channel DDR4 memory up to 42.7 GB/s of bandwidth. It integrates the UHD 630 graphics, but in this game, dedicated graphics take over. The CPU’s benchmark scores, such as 668 points in Cinebench R15 multicore and 2784 in R20 multicore, place it at the 47th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2254. Its nearest rivals – Core i7‑1068NG7 (avg 2259, delta ‑0.2%), Core i7‑10710U (avg 2248, +0.3%), Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (2246, +0.4%), and Core i3‑10305 (2264, ‑0.4%) – confirm that it sits right in the middle of the pack.

For Red Dead Redemption 2, a game with large open‑world scenes, the CPU’s six threads can handle basic game logic and streaming, but they are not particularly strong for modern upper‑class titles. Still, the measured FPS at 4K never falls below 36 even on Ultra, and at 1080p Low, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, not the CPU. The data suggests that at 12 rasterized threads the i5‑9400 does not bottleneck the RTX 5070 in this title, except possibly at the very low settings where the GPU can push frame rates past 120, but the CPU can only deliver 144 max – exactly what we see. The 47th percentile rank implies a mid‑pack CPU, yet the combo still ranks highly because the GPU carries the workload.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is a GeForce 50‑series card built on the Blackwell architecture and manufactured on a 5 nm process by TSMC. Its GB205 chip contains 6144 shading units, 192 TMUs, 80 ROPs, 48 RT cores, and 192 tensor cores, with a 192‑bit memory bus connecting to 12 GB of GDDR7. The memory runs at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) providing 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU has a boosting clock of 2512 MHz over a base of 2325 MHz, and it supports DirectX 12.0 (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

In the benchmark suite, the RTX 5070 scores 29137 in Passmark G3D, 5077 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, and has an average of 40377 percentile versus all GPUs. That places it in the 82nd percentile, far better than the CPU. Its nearest GPU rivals – the Radeon Pro 580 (40318, +0.1%), Radeon Pro WX 8100 (40063, +0.8%), Radeon Pro 5300 (40870, - 1.2%), and RTX A500 Mobile (39568, +2%) – show that it is tightly bummed at the top of its tier. The 672 GB/s bandwidth and 12 GB VRAM are more than enough for Red Dead Redemption 2’s open world at all resolutions and settings, as the 4K High test shows 96 GB/s of memory transfer is not the limiting factor (the measured FPS does not crash near any memory wall). The key feature is the GPU’s high pixel rate (201.0 GPixel/s) and texture rate (482.3 GTexel/s), which enable detailed rendering that the measured scores reflect.

How This Combo Ranks

Out of 3,714 tested combinations in the database, the i5‑9400 + RTX 5070 holds rank 831. That is the top 22.5% of all configuration, and the measured data confirms the GPU’s strength. The CPU’s 47th percentile benchmark severely undermines the CPU’s overall performance, but the GPU’s 82nd percentile lifts the combination. For reference, if the two percentiles were averaged, we’d expect a middle‑of‑the‑pack ranking, but the actual rank is far higher, indicating that in Red Dead Redemption 2 the GPU does most of the heavy lifting. The 241 unit gap between the CPU and GPU percentiles explains why the CPU can be much weaker in synthetic tests, yet the game still delivers high frame rates per second at all but the most extreme presets.

Measured FPS Breakdown

All figures below are measured averages per the fact pack, with the occasional min/max values.

1920×1080 (1080p)

• Low: avg 144, min/max not given.
• Medium: avg 121, min 103, max 139.
• High: avg 101, min/max not given.
• Ultra: avg 71, no min/max.

2560×1440 (1440p)

• Low: avg 111, none specified.
• Medium: avg 90, min 77, max 104.
• High: avg 75,
• Ultra: avg 54, no min/max.

3840×2160 (4K)

• Low: avg 80,
• Medium: avg 60, min 51, max 69.
• High: avg 50,
• Ultra: avg 36.

The data shows monotonically decreasing FPS as resolution rises, but the decreasing is not linear. For Medium settings, from 1080p to 1440p we see a drop of 121→90 (‑31%), and to 4K of 121→60 (‑61%). For High settings, 101→75 (‑26%) and 101→50 (‑50%). For Ultra, 73→54 (26%) and 73→36 (‑51%). The consistency of the ~50% drop from 1080p to 4K across all except High where it’s exactly 50% suggests a specific bottleneck that will be examined in the next section.

Settings Recommendations

Based solely on the measured averages, the optimal balance of frame rate and quality is achieved by selecting Medium preset at 1440p. It delivers an average of 90 FPS, with a min of 77 and max of 104, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth play at a high resolution. At 1080p, Medium is even higher (121 average), but the visual difference with the 1440p panel, though not comprehensive of the Full HD panel, is a matter of personal preference. For users with a 4K display, the only presets that hit 60+ FPS are Low and Medium, where Medium yields an average of 60 (with min 51 and max 69); if 60 FPS is a hard target, Low gives 80 FPS, but it sacrifices lighting detail. At 1080 Low, the system can reach 144 FPS, which matches many monitors’ refresh capus to produce a stutter‑free experience.

The data suggests that Ultra is not recommended for any resolution above 1080p: it falls to 84 FPS at 1440p and to 36 at 4K, both below the comfort threshold of 60. For multi‑panel use, however, Ultra on 1080p (71 FPS) is acceptable. Ultimately, the best experience per the measurements is 1440p Medium at 90 FPS, because it is the only setting set that provides both ≥60 FPS and high visual quality, while leaving headroom for dips (the measured min of 77 is still >60).

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drops from 1080p to 4K almost uniformly across settings, indicating a resolution‑dependent bottleneck. At High, the average drops from 101 to 50 FPS, a 50% reduction; at Medium, 121→60 is also 50%; at Low, 144→80 is 55%; at Ultra, 73→36 is 49%. Since 4K has 4× the pixels of 1080p, a purely GPU‑limited scenario would cause an FPS drop to about 25% of the 1080p value; the fact that we see only a ~50% drop means the system is not purely GPU‑limited at 1080p. Instead, the CPU likely limits at 1080p, preventing the GPU from running at its potential, while at 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes the dominant constraint. Evidence for this comes from the raw numbers: at 1080p Low, the average FPS is 144, which is exactly the same 144 FPS observed at 1080p Low. If the GPU were fully utilized, we would expect a lower number (maybe 144 would be the ceiling). The stable 144 FPS at 1080p with all three other settings (High 101, Medium 121) is suspicious yet etc). More tellingly, the min‑max values also scale: the 1440p Medium has min 77 vs 104 max, and the 4K Medium min 51 max 69, showing the spread narrows at higher resolution – typical evidence of the GPU under a heavier load, eliminating CPU headroom.

Thus, the conclusion is that the i5‑9400 holds back the RTX 5070 at 1080p, but at 1440p and 4K, the GPU takes over as the primary limiter. This is consistent with the CPU’s 47th percentile and the GPU’s 82nd percentile: the CPU is not powerful enough to feed the GPU at low resolution, but the GPU has ample residual power for higher resolution work. This scaling behavior means that users with high‑refresh 1080p monitors will not fully utilize the RTX 5070’s capabilities; instead they will be capped by the CPU’s core count and threads. However, if the target is 1440p or 4K, this combination efficiently extracts the GPU’s headroom, as evidenced by the disproportionately large frame rates in those ranges. The measured data supports a strategy of using medium or high presets at 1440p to let the GPU shine without losing stability, while 4K users should stick with Medium to stay at 60 FPS.

In summary, the i5‑9400 + RTX 5070 configuration is a top‑quartile performer in Red Dead Redemption 2, with the GPU as the decisive factor in higher resolutions. Its frame rates are consistent and high across most presets, and a 1440p Medium preset provide the best balance of quality and performance according to the measured values.