Red Dead Redemption 2

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Red Dead Redemption 2 with the Intel Core i7-12700K and Intel Arc B580 reveals a pronounced sensitivity to resolution changes, particularly as the pixel count climbs toward 4K. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo produces 57.9 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same settings drops that figure to 44 FPS, a reduction of roughly 24%. The subsequent jump to 3840x2160 yields 26.5 FPS, which represents a 54% decline from the 1440p result and a 54% drop from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern shows the GPU becoming the dominant constraint as resolution increases.

The behavior under Low settings reinforces this interpretation. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 90.7 FPS, which is the highest average recorded across all configurations in this dataset. At 1440p Low, the average falls to 68.2 FPS, and at 4K Low it settles at 42.3 FPS. The frame rate does not halve at each step, which indicates that while the graphics card is under heavy load, the CPU is still contributing enough headroom to sustain moderate scaling. However, the gap between 1080p and 4K at Low settings (90.7 vs 42.3 FPS) demonstrates that the Arc B580 cannot maintain high refresh rates at 4K even when visual demands are minimized.

The Medium and Ultra presets follow a similar trajectory. At Medium, the averages are 65.7 FPS at 1080p, 49 FPS at 1440p, and 35.4 FPS at 4K. At Ultra, the numbers drop to 38.2 FPS, 29.3 FPS, and 22 FPS respectively. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration in the dataset that falls below 30 FPS, sitting at exactly 22 FPS, which is likely below the threshold for smooth gameplay in this action-adventure title. The data suggests that the limiting component at 4K is the GPU, as even the substantial CPU resources of the i7-12700K cannot compensate for the rendering load placed on the Arc B580.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a 12-core, 20-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. It features a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with 25 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's benchmark results show strong multithreaded performance, with a 3DMark max threads score of 9979 and a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 29241. Single-thread performance is also robust, as evidenced by a Geekbench single-core score of 2561 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4128.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU across most tested settings, but it still provides a necessary foundation. The percentileVsAllCpus rating of 89 places this processor in the upper tier of all CPUs tested. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845, which scores 35802 on average (a delta of -0.3% relative to the i7-12700K's avgBenchmarkScore of 35684), and the Intel Core i7-13700T, which scores 35468 (a delta of 0.6%). These close margins indicate that the i7-12700K is well within the performance envelope of comparable desktop processors.

The fact that frame rates scale down significantly at 4K Ultra (22 FPS) versus 1080p Low (90.7 FPS) suggests that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in this game. If the CPU were limiting, the resolution scaling would be much flatter. Instead, the data shows that the Arc B580's rendering capacity is the key constraint at higher resolutions and quality presets. The CPU's 20 threads and high boost clock likely prevent CPU-side stalls at lower resolutions, where the GPU can push higher frame rates, but the measured figures do not indicate any specific CPU-related limitation in this dataset.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture (Battlemage generation) using TSMC's 5 nm process, with a transistor count of 19,600 million. It features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 456.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The GPU's base and boost clocks are both 2670 MHz, with memory clocked at 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective). The card has 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, along with 20 ray tracing cores. Its FP32 performance is rated at 13.67 TFLOPS.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 66th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23021. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon 760M (avgScore 22999, delta 0.1%), the NVIDIA P106-100 (avgScore 22950, delta 0.3%), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 (avgScore 23181, delta -0.7%). The Arc B580 sits nearly on par with the RTX 4060, trailing by just 0.7%, which is a notable result for a card in this segment.

The measured FPS in Red Dead Redemption 2 reflects this mid-range positioning. At 1080p High, the card delivers 57.9 FPS, which is playable but not high-refresh territory. At 1440p High, it drops to 44 FPS, and at 4K High, it falls to 26.5 FPS. The GPU's 12 GB VRAM is sufficient for the tested presets, as none of the configurations show signs of memory-related stutter in the average FPS data. However, the card's 192-bit memory bus and 456.0 GB/s bandwidth likely contribute to the steep decline at 4K, where pixel throughput demands are highest. The GPU's pixel rate of 213.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 427.2 GTexel/s are adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the 4K Ultra result of 22 FPS indicates that the card is overwhelmed by the highest settings at that resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset includes twelve measured configurations, spanning three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the averages are 90.7 FPS (Low), 65.7 FPS (Medium), 57.9 FPS (High), and 38.2 FPS (Ultra). The jump from Low to Medium costs 25 FPS, while the jump from High to Ultra costs nearly 20 FPS, suggesting a steep performance penalty for the highest quality settings.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 68.2 FPS (Low), 49 FPS (Medium), 44 FPS (High), and 29.3 FPS (Ultra). The drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings is 22.5 FPS, while at Ultra it is 8.9 FPS. This narrowing gap at higher presets indicates that the GPU is already near its limit at 1440p Ultra, leaving less headroom for resolution scaling to have an effect.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 42.3 FPS (Low), 35.4 FPS (Medium), 26.5 FPS (High), and 22 FPS (Ultra). The 4K Low result is still above 30 FPS, which could be considered playable for some users, but the 4K Ultra result of 22 FPS is clearly below that threshold. The spread between the lowest and highest presets at 4K is 20.3 FPS, compared to a spread of 52.5 FPS at 1080p. This compression at higher resolutions reinforces that the GPU, not the CPU, governs performance in this game.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-12700K and Intel Arc B580 ranks 1318 out of 1687 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2, placing it in the lower-mid portion of the database. This ranking reflects the GPU's modest position relative to the full range of graphics cards tested, rather than any deficiency in the CPU. The i7-12700K's percentileVsAllCpus of 89 is strong, but the Arc B580's percentileVsAllGpus of 66 pulls the overall combo ranking down.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database are all within a 1% delta of its average score, which suggests that swapping the i7-12700K for a comparable processor would have minimal impact on this game's frame rates. The GPU's nearest rival, the RTX 4060, is only 0.7% faster on average, indicating that the Arc B580 is competitive in its class. However, the measured FPS data shows that this class of GPU is not designed for 4K Ultra gaming in a demanding title like Red Dead Redemption 2.

The combo's ranking implies that the i7-12700K is not the constraining factor; the data shows that the CPU could handle a more powerful GPU without bottlenecking at 1080p or 1440p. The 1318th position out of 1687 is entirely attributable to the Arc B580's performance ceiling, which remains a mid-range offering despite its 12 GB VRAM and modern architecture. For users targeting 1080p High or Medium settings, this combo delivers acceptable frame rates, but the 4K Ultra target of 60 FPS is far outside its reach based on the measured data.