Red Dead Redemption 2

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i7-13700K compare to its closest rival in raw CPU benchmarks?

A: The i7-13700K posts an average benchmark score of 47,282, placing it 0.1% behind the Intel Core i7-13700KF (47,334) and 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i9-12900F (47,081). It sits in the 93rd percentile among all CPUs tested.

Q: What is the strongest part of the RTX 4060's benchmark profile?

A: The GPU's Passmark G3D score of 19,545 is its standout result, while its Geekbench OpenCL score of 101,030 shows strong compute performance. The card's average benchmark score is 23,181, putting it in the 66th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 fare against the Intel Arc B580?

A: The RTX 4060 scores 0.7% higher than the Intel Arc B580 (23,021) in average GPU benchmarks. It also leads the AMD Radeon 760M (22,999) by 0.8%, but trails the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23,321) by 0.6%.

Q: What resolution and settings combination yields the highest frame rate in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 107.6 FPS average — the highest measured result. The same resolution at Medium drops to 79.9 FPS, while High produces 70.5 FPS.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A: Barely, and only at reduced quality. At 3840x2160, Low settings yield 54.6 FPS, Medium drops to 39.3 FPS, High falls to 33.8 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 24.4 FPS. The 4K experience is playable only on Low settings.

Q: Where does this CPU+GPU pairing rank among all tested combos for this game?

A: The combination ranks 988th out of 1,687 total tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database for Red Dead Redemption 2 performance.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows a clear sweet spot: High settings at 1920x1080 deliver 70.5 FPS, which balances visual fidelity with smooth gameplay. This is 11.7% faster than Medium (79.9 FPS) is actually slower, meaning High offers better visuals than Medium while only costing 11.8% performance — wait, the data shows High at 70.5 and Medium at 79.9, so Medium is 13.3% faster than High.

For players prioritizing smoothness, Low at 1080p delivers 107.6 FPS, a 52.6% improvement over High at the same resolution. This is the only setting that achieves triple-digit frame rates. However, the jump from Low to Medium costs 25.7% performance (107.6 to 79.9 FPS) while presumably adding substantial visual quality.

At 2560x1440, Medium settings produce 59.9 FPS, just shy of the 60 FPS target, while High drops to 51.4 FPS. The 1440p Low setting reaches 80.7 FPS, providing headroom for demanding scenes. For 4K displays, only Low settings (54.6 FPS) approach playability; Medium (39.3 FPS) and above fall below acceptable thresholds.

The optimal experience depends on the display: for 1080p panels, High settings offer the best quality-to-performance ratio at 70.5 FPS. For 1440p, Medium is the recommended preset since it stays near 60 FPS. For 4K, Low is the only viable option.

Resolution Scaling

Frame rate scaling across resolutions reveals a GPU-bound workload. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings reduces performance from 70.5 FPS to 51.4 FPS — a 27.1% drop. The further jump to 3840x2160 at High brings the average down to 33.8 FPS, another 34.2% decline.

This pattern holds across all settings. At Low, the progression is 107.6 → 80.7 → 54.6 FPS, representing drops of 25.0% and 32.3% respectively. Medium shows 79.9 → 59.9 → 39.3 FPS, with declines of 25.0% and 34.4%. Ultra settings degrade from 47.7 → 35.8 → 24.4 FPS, dropping 25.0% then 31.8%.

The consistent ~25% penalty from 1080p to 1440p and ~33% penalty from 1440p to 4K indicates the RTX 4060's 8 GB memory and 128-bit bus are the limiting factors. The GPU's 272.0 GB/s bandwidth and 8 GB GDDR6 capacity become strained as pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K. The RTX 4060's 15.11 TFLOPS compute is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but the memory subsystem cannot sustain high settings at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080: The combo delivers its best results here. Low settings average 107.6 FPS, Medium achieves 79.9 FPS, High reaches 70.5 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 47.7 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 59.9 FPS, indicating settings have a massive impact at this resolution.

2560x1440: Performance drops notably. Low averages 80.7 FPS — still smooth — while Medium hits 59.9 FPS, just at the 60 FPS threshold. High manages 51.4 FPS, and Ultra falls to 35.8 FPS. The 1440p results show the GPU starting to struggle with higher presets.

3840x2160: This resolution exposes the GPU's limits. Low averages 54.6 FPS, which is playable, but Medium drops to 39.3 FPS. High produces 33.8 FPS, and Ultra is effectively unplayable at 24.4 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is 77.3% below the 1080p Low figure.

The data indicates the RTX 4060 is a 1080p-class card for this game, capable at 1440p with reduced settings, and only marginal at 4K with Low presets.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is built on the AD107 chip using TSMC's 5 nm process, packing 18,900 million transistors into a 159 mm² die. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 272.0 GB/s bandwidth — a configuration that directly explains the 4K performance collapse observed in the measurements.

The GPU's boost clock of 2460 MHz and base clock of 1830 MHz drive 3,072 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The 15.11 TFLOPS FP32 throughput is respectable, but the memory bandwidth becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions. The 118.1 GPixel/s pixel rate and 236.2 GTexel/s texture rate are adequate for 1080p and 1440p, but insufficient for 4K with demanding settings.

The RTX 4060's Passmark G3D score of 19,545 places it in the 66th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6600M, scores 23,321 (0.6% higher), while the Intel Arc B580 at 23,021 is 0.7% lower. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p in this game, but the measured 4K results suggest texture-heavy scenes at Ultra settings would exceed this capacity, causing the steep frame rate drops.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K provides substantial headroom for this GPU-bound title. With 16 cores and 24 threads, the Raptor Lake architecture delivers strong multi-threaded performance: a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 39,000 and a Passmark multithread score of 45,887. Single-thread performance is equally robust, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 5,505 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2,850.

The CPU's boost clock of 5.40 GHz and base clock of 3.40 GHz, combined with 30 MB of shared L3 cache, ensure the RTX 4060 is never starved of data. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 10,717 and max-thread score of 12,412 indicate strong scaling across the 24 threads. This is critical because Red Dead Redemption 2's open-world simulation benefits from high single-thread performance, which the i7-13700K delivers with its 5.40 GHz boost.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 47,282 places it in the 93rd percentile, with nearest rivals including the i7-13700KF (-0.1%), AMD EPYC 4364P (+0.3%), and i9-12900F (+0.4%). The 125W TDP and dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 memory support provide ample bandwidth for feeding the GPU. Given that frame rates scale almost entirely with resolution rather than CPU load, the i7-13700K is clearly not the bottleneck in this configuration.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-13700K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 combination ranks 988th out of 1,687 tested combos for Red Dead Redemption 2, placing it in the 41st percentile of all configurations. This mid-pack ranking reflects the GPU's limitations rather than the CPU's capabilities.

The CPU alone sits in the 93rd percentile, while the GPU is in the 66th percentile — a significant gap. This disparity explains why the combo ranks lower than the CPU's individual standing: the RTX 4060 holds back the i7-13700K in this demanding title. The measured frame rates confirm this, as even at 1080p Low, the combo achieves only 107.6 FPS, suggesting the GPU is the limiting factor.

The combo's rank of 988 of 1,687 means roughly 41% of tested configurations perform worse, with 59% performing better. Given the RTX 4060's 8 GB memory capacity and 128-bit bus, this mid-pack position is expected for a game as graphically demanding as Red Dead Redemption 2. The i7-13700K provides excellent CPU headroom that would benefit from a more powerful GPU, but within this pairing, the measured results show a balanced 1080p experience with playable 1440p performance.