Red Dead Redemption 2

The Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the Intel Arc B570 presents a specific performance profile in Red Dead Redemption 2, with results heavily dictated by the graphics preset selected. Across all tested resolutions, the Low preset delivers the highest frame rates, while the Ultra preset produces the lowest. The data indicates that the most balanced experience is found at the Medium preset, which provides a substantial improvement over Low visual quality while maintaining playable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p. At 4K, however, only the Low preset yields an average FPS above 30, making it the sole viable option for smooth gameplay at that resolution. The High preset offers a middle ground but consistently falls short of the frame rates achieved by Medium, suggesting that the visual fidelity increase does not translate to a proportional performance cost when compared to the jump from Medium to Ultra.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for this configuration shows a clear hierarchy across the four available presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 79 FPS, which is the highest score recorded for this combo. Medium follows at 59 FPS, High at 49 FPS, and Ultra drops significantly to 36 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 20 FPS, while the step from Medium to High costs 10 FPS, and the step from High to Ultra costs 13 FPS. This pattern suggests diminishing returns as settings increase, but the Medium preset provides the best balance of visual quality and performance for most users.

At 2560x1440, the same hierarchy persists, with Low averaging 59 FPS, Medium at 44 FPS, High at 37 FPS, and Ultra at 27 FPS. The 15 FPS drop from Low to Medium is notable, but Medium remains above the 30 FPS threshold typically considered acceptable for this genre. The High preset at 37 FPS is still playable, though the gap between Medium and High is only 7 FPS, indicating that High offers a modest visual upgrade for a relatively small performance hit. Ultra, however, falls below 30 FPS, making it less suitable for sustained gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the situation becomes more constrained. Low averages 39 FPS, Medium drops to 29 FPS, High to 24 FPS, and Ultra to 18 FPS. Only Low maintains a frame rate above 30 FPS, making it the only preset that provides a smooth experience at 4K. Medium at 29 FPS is borderline, but the 10 FPS difference between Low and Medium is significant enough to recommend Low for 4K play. For the best experience per the measured data, Medium at 1080p or 1440p offers the optimal combination of visual fidelity and frame rate, while Low is the recommended preset for 4K.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 features 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s. The GPU operates at a base and boost clock of 2500 MHz, with memory clocked at 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective). The card is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture using a 5 nm process from TSMC, with a transistor count of 19,600 million on a 272 mm² die. The GPU has 2304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, along with 18 ray tracing cores. Its pixel rate is 200.0 GPixel/s, texture rate is 360.0 GTexel/s, and FP32 performance is rated at 11.52 TFLOPS.

In this game, the GPU’s memory configuration plays a critical role in the performance scaling observed across resolutions. The 10 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for the Low and Medium presets at all tested resolutions, but the Ultra preset likely stresses memory capacity and bandwidth more heavily, contributing to the significant FPS drops. The data shows that at 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 43 FPS (79 vs 36), which is a 54% reduction. At 1440p, the same comparison shows a 32 FPS difference (59 vs 27), a 54% reduction. At 4K, the difference is 21 FPS (39 vs 18), also a 54% reduction, indicating a consistent scaling pattern tied to GPU load.

The Arc B570’s benchmark scores place it in the 65th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20556. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (avg score 20534, deltaPct 0.1), the Intel Arc A750 (avg score 20582, deltaPct -0.1), the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (avg score 20480, deltaPct 0.4), and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X (avg score 20662, deltaPct -0.5). These deltas are minimal, indicating that the Arc B570 performs nearly identically to these GPUs in synthetic benchmarks. However, in Red Dead Redemption 2, the performance is heavily influenced by the preset, with the GPU appearing to be the primary bottleneck at higher settings and resolutions, as evidenced by the steep FPS drops when moving from Medium to Ultra.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a 12-core, 20-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, manufactured on a 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. The CPU features 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core, and 25 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration and has 20 PCIe Gen 4 lanes. The processor’s benchmark scores include a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 19784 and a single-core score of 1850.5, placing it in the 84th percentile among all CPUs.

For this game, the CPU’s role is less impactful than the GPU, as the FPS scaling across resolutions follows a pattern consistent with GPU-bound workloads. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 79 FPS, which is the maximum recorded. When the resolution increases to 1440p, the Low preset drops to 59 FPS, a 25% reduction. At 4K, it drops further to 39 FPS, a 34% reduction from 1440p. This scaling suggests that the CPU is capable of driving higher frame rates, but the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases.

The i7-12700K’s nearest rivals in CPU benchmarks include the Intel Core i5-13600T (avg score 35305, deltaPct -0.1), the Intel Core i7-12700KF (avg score 35365, deltaPct -0.2), the Intel Core i7-13700T (avg score 35403, deltaPct -0.3), and the Intel Core 5 213PE (avg score 35428, deltaPct -0.4). The i7-12700K’s average benchmark score is 35287, placing it slightly below these rivals. In the context of Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU’s 20 threads and high boost clock ensure that it does not bottleneck the GPU at 1080p, where the frame rate is highest. The data indicates that the CPU is more than adequate for this title, as the performance drops are primarily attributable to GPU load rather than CPU limitations.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-12700K and Intel Arc B570 ranks 2335 out of 2902 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2. This places the combo in the bottom 20% of all configurations tested, indicating that while the individual components are competent, their pairing does not yield top-tier performance in this specific game. The rank reflects the GPU’s mid-range positioning (65th percentile) and the CPU’s higher standing (84th percentile), suggesting that the GPU is the primary constraint on overall performance.

When compared to other combos in the database, this pairing’s rank is influenced by the Arc B570’s performance relative to its rivals. The GPU’s nearest rivals, such as the Intel Arc A750 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, have nearly identical average benchmark scores, but their real-world performance in Red Dead Redemption 2 may vary. The combo’s rank of 2335 indicates that there are 567 other tested combinations that perform worse, but a significant majority (2334) perform better. This positioning is consistent with the measured FPS data, which shows the combo struggling to maintain high frame rates at 4K and only achieving strong performance at 1080p with Low settings.

The rank also reflects the fact that the i7-12700K is a high-end CPU, but the Arc B570 is a mid-range GPU. In a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, which is GPU-intensive at higher settings, the GPU becomes the bottleneck, preventing the CPU from showcasing its full potential. The data suggests that pairing the i7-12700K with a more powerful GPU would result in a significantly better rank, but as configured, the combo sits in the lower quartile of tested systems.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights about the limiting component in this system. At the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 79 at 1080p to 59 at 1440p (a 25% reduction) and then to 39 at 4K (a 34% reduction from 1440p). This scaling is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario, as the CPU is capable of maintaining higher frame rates, but the GPU’s rendering load increases with pixel count.

At the Medium preset, the FPS drops from 59 at 1080p to 44 at 1440p (a 25% reduction) and then to 29 at 4K (a 34% reduction from 1440p). The percentage reductions are identical to those seen at Low, indicating that resolution scaling is independent of the preset. This suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor across all settings, as the relative performance drop is consistent regardless of the workload.

At the High preset, the FPS drops from 49 at 1080p to 37 at 1440p (a 24% reduction) and then to 24 at 4K (a 35% reduction from 1440p). The Ultra preset shows a similar pattern, with FPS dropping from 36 at 1080p to 27 at 1440p (a 25% reduction) and then to 18 at 4K (a 33% reduction from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage reductions across all presets strongly indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as the CPU’s performance is not affected by resolution. The data shows that the Arc B570’s 10 GB of VRAM and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient to maintain playable frame rates at 4K with higher settings, forcing users to rely on the Low preset for a smooth experience.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured FPS across presets is as follows: Low averages 79 FPS, Medium averages 59 FPS with a minimum of 50 and maximum of 68, High averages 49 FPS, and Ultra averages 36 FPS. The Medium preset shows the only recorded variance data at this resolution, with a 18 FPS spread between minimum and maximum. The 20 FPS gap between Low and Medium is the largest single-step drop, while the 13 FPS drop from High to Ultra is the second largest.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS figures are: Low at 59, Medium at 44 (minimum 38, maximum 51), High at 37, and Ultra at 27. The Medium preset again shows variance data, with a 13 FPS spread. The drop from Low to Medium is 15 FPS, from Medium to High is 7 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 10 FPS. This resolution sees the High preset fall below 40 FPS, making it less ideal for smooth gameplay, while Ultra falls below 30 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS figures are: Low at 39, Medium at 29 (minimum 25, maximum 34), High at 24, and Ultra at 18. The Medium preset shows variance data with a 9 FPS spread. The drop from Low to Medium is 10 FPS, from Medium to High is 5 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 6 FPS. At this resolution, only Low maintains an average above 30 FPS, and even it shows a 10 FPS deficit compared to the 1440p Low result. The Ultra preset at 18 FPS is barely playable, and the High preset at 24 FPS is similarly constrained.

The data across all resolutions shows a consistent pattern: the i7-12700K and Arc B570 combo delivers its best performance at 1080p with Low settings, and performance degrades predictably as resolution and settings increase. The Medium preset offers the most balanced experience, but only at 1080p and 1440p, while 4K requires Low settings for acceptable frame rates. The minimum FPS data for Medium at each resolution (50 at 1080p, 38 at 1440p, 25 at 4K) indicates that frame pacing is relatively stable, with no severe drops below the average. This suggests that the combo, while not high-end, provides a consistent experience within its performance envelope.