Red Dead Redemption 2

The Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 combination in Red Dead Redemption 2 demonstrates a clear performance ceiling dictated by the GPU, with resolution scaling showing predictable and steep declines as pixel count increases. The measured data reveals that the transition from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings reduces the average frame rate from 69 FPS to 51 FPS, a drop of 26.1 percent. Pushing further to 3840x2160 at High settings yields only 34 FPS average, representing a 50.7 percent decrease from the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern is consistent across all quality presets; for instance, at Low settings the average FPS falls from 110 at 1080p to 82 at 1440p (down 25.5 percent) and then to 54 at 4K (down 50.9 percent from 1080p). The near-linear relationship between resolution and performance suggests that the RTX 4060's memory bandwidth and raw throughput are the primary limiting factors, not the CPU, which remains underutilized at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The data indicates that the RTX 4060 is the definitive bottleneck across all resolution and settings combinations in this game. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combination achieves 110 FPS average, but this figure drops by roughly a quarter at 1440p and by half at 4K, following the expected pattern of pixel-count scaling. The Medium preset shows the same trend: 82 FPS at 1080p, 61 FPS at 1440p, and 41 FPS at 4K, with the 4K result including a minimum of 35 FPS and maximum of 47 FPS. High settings follow suit with 69, 51, and 34 FPS respectively, while Ultra settings produce 49 FPS at 1080p, 37 FPS at 1440p, and just 24 FPS at 4K.

The consistency of these drops—roughly 25 percent from 1080p to 1440p and another 33 percent from 1440p to 4K—is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. The i7-14700F, with its 20 cores and 28 threads, has ample headroom to feed the graphics card at all resolutions, but the RTX 4060's 128-bit memory bus and 272.0 GB/s bandwidth become saturated as the pixel workload grows. At 1080p, the GPU can still deliver playable frame rates even at High settings, but the 4K results at Medium (41 FPS) and High (34 FPS) fall below the 60 FPS threshold that many players consider smooth. The Ultra preset at 4K, at 24 FPS average, is effectively unplayable for most users. This scaling behavior strongly implies that upgrading the GPU would yield substantial frame rate improvements, while the CPU would not constrain such an upgrade in this title.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

Within the benchmark database, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 ranks 2013 out of 3714 tested combinations for Red Dead Redemption 2, placing it in the 54.2 percentile of all combos. This mid-pack ranking reflects a significant imbalance: the CPU is a high-end part with a 91st percentile score against all CPUs in the database, while the GPU sits at the 61st percentile among all GPUs. The combination's rank is therefore dragged down by the graphics card, which cannot fully exploit the processor's capabilities in this demanding title. The data shows that many combinations with slower CPUs but faster GPUs achieve higher frame rates in this game, confirming that GPU selection matters more for this particular workload.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 53,620 places it near several server-grade and high-end desktop parts; its nearest rivals include the Intel Xeon 6505P (53,701, 0.2 percent faster), the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 (53,469, 0.3 percent slower), the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X (53,288, 0.6 percent slower), and the AMD EPYC 7313P (53,206, 0.8 percent slower). These small deltas indicate that the i7-14700F is competitively positioned in raw compute, but none of that matters when the RTX 4060 is the limiting factor. In contrast, the GPU's average benchmark score of 17,639 pits it against far weaker parts: the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (17,666, 0.2 percent faster), AMD Radeon 780M (17,588, 0.3 percent slower), AMD Radeon Pro 560 (17,551, 0.5 percent slower), and AMD Radeon Pro 460 (17,509, 0.7 percent slower). This comparison underscores that the GPU is a mid-tier component that cannot push the i7-14700F's potential in Red Dead Redemption 2.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth, with a base clock of 1830 MHz and a boost clock of 2460 MHz. The GPU's memory configuration is the primary constraint at higher resolutions; 8 GB of VRAM is sufficient for 1080p and even 1440p in most scenes, but the 4K results suggest that the capacity and bandwidth become stressed, particularly at Ultra settings where the average FPS drops to 24. The 128-bit bus width is notably narrow for a modern GPU, and this limits the data throughput that the card can sustain when rendering complex scenes with high-resolution textures.

The boost clock of 2460 MHz helps mitigate the bandwidth limitation by allowing the AD107 chip to process instructions quickly, but raw clock speed cannot compensate for insufficient memory bandwidth in a title as demanding as Red Dead Redemption 2. The GPU's 272.0 GB/s bandwidth is adequate for 1080p Medium (82 FPS average) and High (69 FPS average) settings, but the gap between Low and Ultra presets at the same resolution reveals how much the memory subsystem is taxed by higher-quality textures and effects. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 61 FPS (110 vs 49), which is a 55.5 percent reduction; this is a far larger relative drop than what is seen in less memory-intensive titles. The RTX 4060's 15.11 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 236.2 GTexel/s texture rate are respectable for the price class, but they are not enough to overcome the memory constraints at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the combination delivers 110 FPS average on Low settings, 82 FPS average on Medium (with a minimum of 70 FPS and maximum of 95 FPS), 69 FPS average on High, and 49 FPS average on Ultra. These figures show that 1080p is well within the RTX 4060's comfort zone for all but the most demanding preset. The Medium setting's minimum of 70 FPS indicates that even during heavy scenes, the frame rate stays above the 60 FPS threshold, providing a smooth experience. High settings at 69 FPS average are also playable, though the margin for error is smaller, and Ultra at 49 FPS average may cause noticeable stutter on 144 Hz displays.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance degrades consistently: Low settings produce 82 FPS average, Medium produces 61 FPS average (minimum 52 FPS, maximum 71 FPS), High produces 51 FPS average, and Ultra drops to 37 FPS average. The Medium preset at 1440p remains playable, but the High and Ultra presets fall below the 60 FPS target. At 3840x2160, the results are as follows: Low settings yield 54 FPS average, Medium yields 41 FPS average (minimum 35 FPS, maximum 47 FPS), High yields 34 FPS average, and Ultra yields just 24 FPS average. None of the 4K presets achieve 60 FPS, and even the Low setting barely crosses the 30 FPS playability floor. The minimum frame rate data for 4K Medium (35 FPS) suggests that the experience would be inconsistent, with dips below the average during intense action sequences. Overall, the measured FPS data shows a clear hierarchy: 1080p is capable, 1440p is borderline, and 4K is only suitable for the Low preset.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

For players targeting 60 FPS average, the only viable options are 1080p High (69 FPS) or 1080p Medium (82 FPS), as well as 1440p Low (82 FPS). The 1080p Medium preset offers a strong balance, with an average of 82 FPS and a minimum of 70 FPS, ensuring consistent frame delivery without the visual compromises of Low settings. Alternatively, 1080p High at 69 FPS is nearly as smooth and provides better image quality, though the minimum frame rate is not recorded in the data, leaving some uncertainty about worst-case performance. For those who prioritize visual fidelity over raw frame rate, 1440p Medium at 61 FPS is a reasonable choice, with the minimum of 52 FPS still above the 30 FPS playability floor, but it will not sustain a locked 60 FPS on all displays.

The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution, as even at 1080p it produces only 49 FPS average, and at 1440p it drops to 37 FPS. The performance cost of Ultra over High is substantial: at 1080p, the average FPS falls from 69 to 49, a 29 percent reduction, while at 1440p it falls from 51 to 37, a 27.5 percent reduction. The visual improvements from High to Ultra in Red Dead Redemption 2 are typically modest, so the frame rate sacrifice is not justified. At 4K, only the Low preset (54 FPS average) approaches playability, but even that is marginal; the Medium preset at 41 FPS and High at 34 FPS will feel sluggish, and Ultra at 24 FPS is effectively a slideshow. The data strongly suggests that 1080p High is the sweet spot for this combination, offering a 69 FPS average that balances quality and smoothness. If 60 FPS is a hard requirement, 1440p Low is the highest resolution that meets it, but the visual downgrade from High to Low may not be worth the extra pixels for many users.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i7-14700F is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. Its 33 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support for DDR4 and DDR5 provide ample compute resources for gaming, but in Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU. The benchmark data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution, as evidenced by the consistent frame rate scaling with resolution changes. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would remain relatively flat across resolutions, but instead it drops by roughly half from 1080p to 4K, indicating that the GPU is fully saturated.

The CPU's strong single-thread performance, as reflected in its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4,958 and Geekbench single-core score of 2,429, ensures that it can feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations without stalling. The multi-threaded capabilities, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35,122 and a Passmark multithread score of 41,317, are far beyond what this game requires, as Red Dead Redemption 2 is not heavily threaded beyond a few cores. The 5.40 GHz boost clock is particularly relevant for gaming, as it provides low-latency response in CPU-bound scenarios, but the measured FPS data shows that even at 1080p Low (110 FPS), the CPU is not the constraint. The nearest CPU rivals—the Xeon 6505P, Xeon Phi 7290, Ryzen 9 7900X, and EPYC 7313P—all have similar average benchmark scores within 0.8 percent, yet none of them would change the outcome here because the GPU is the determining factor. In essence, the i7-14700F has far more processing power than the RTX 4060 can utilize in this title, making the GPU the clear upgrade path for higher frame rates.