Red Dead Redemption 2

The Intel Core i7-14700K and Intel Arc B580 combination delivers a highly variable experience in Red Dead Redemption 2, with performance scaling that clearly identifies the GPU as the primary constraint at higher resolutions and settings. The measured frame rates show a system that is capable of smooth 1080p play at medium settings but struggles to maintain playable frame rates at 4K Ultra. This analysis breaks down the measured data to explain the relationship between the CPU, GPU, and the game's demands.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling data for this combo reveals a steep performance cliff as pixel count increases, a hallmark of GPU-bound rendering. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 89 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 64.4 FPS, a 27.6% reduction, and at 4K Low, the average falls further to 43.7 FPS, representing a 50.9% decrease from the 1080p baseline. This pattern is consistent across all settings presets, indicating that the Intel Arc B580's rendering throughput is the limiting factor.

The scaling from 1080p to 4K at High settings is particularly telling. The 54.8 FPS average at 1080p falls to 41.5 FPS at 1440p and then plummets to 26.6 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K is a 35.9% reduction, which is larger than the 24.3% drop from 1080p to 1440p. This non-linear scaling suggests that the GPU is exhausting its memory bandwidth and raw compute resources as the resolution increases, with the 4K High result falling below the threshold generally considered acceptable for smooth gameplay.

At Ultra settings, the situation is more severe. The 37.9 FPS at 1080p is already marginal, but the 29 FPS at 1440p and the 20.2 FPS at 4K are firmly in unplayable territory. The data shows that this combination is best suited for 1080p gaming, with acceptable performance at Medium (67.2 FPS) and High (54.8 FPS) presets. The scaling behavior confirms that the Arc B580's 456.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 13.67 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are insufficient for the demands of 4K rendering in Red Dead Redemption 2, regardless of the quality preset.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K provides a robust foundation for this game, though its role is largely secondary to the GPU in this configuration. With 20 cores and 28 threads, the CPU offers substantial parallel processing capability, and its boost clock of 5.60 GHz ensures strong single-thread performance. The benchmark data shows the CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44534 and single-core score of 6287, placing it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, which indicates it is more than capable of feeding frames to the GPU.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, which is known for its CPU-intensive open-world simulation, the 14700K's 33 MB of shared L3 cache helps maintain smooth frame pacing. The CPU's performance relative to its nearest rivals is essentially negligible, with a delta of 0% compared to the Intel Core i7-14700KF and only -0.5% versus the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X. This suggests that the 14700K is not a bottleneck in this pairing, as its compute headroom far exceeds what the Arc B580 can utilize.

The measured FPS data supports this conclusion. At 1080p Low, where the CPU would have the most influence, the 89 FPS average is the highest recorded for this combo. However, the fact that frame rates drop so dramatically with resolution increases indicates that the GPU is the limiting component. The 14700K's 125 W TDP and Raptor Lake architecture provide ample performance headroom, and the data shows that the CPU is not preventing the GPU from reaching its maximum potential at any resolution or settings preset.

How This Combo Ranks

In the broader context of all tested combinations, this pairing of the Core i7-14700K and Arc B580 ranks 1345 out of 1687 combos for Red Dead Redemption 2. This places it in the bottom 20% of all tested systems, which is a surprisingly low ranking given the CPU's high percentile standing. The combo rank reflects the overall system performance, and the Arc B580's position in the 66th percentile of all GPUs drags the combined score down significantly.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 23021 puts it in close competition with the AMD Radeon 760M (delta 0.1%) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 (delta -0.7%). This rivalry data is instructive: the Arc B580 is performing essentially at parity with the RTX 4060 in synthetic benchmarks, yet in Red Dead Redemption 2, the measured frame rates suggest the game's specific rendering paths may not be optimally utilizing the Intel architecture. The rank of 1345 out of 1687 indicates that most other CPU-GPU pairings deliver better results in this title, even those with less powerful CPUs but more established GPUs.

The data suggests that the combination's low rank is not due to the CPU, which is among the top 4% of all processors, but rather due to the GPU's modest performance in this specific game. The 20.2 FPS at 4K Ultra and 26.6 FPS at 4K High are the kind of results that pull the overall ranking down, as most other combos in the database would show better 4K performance, even if their 1080p results are similar.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates provide a complete picture of this combo's capabilities across all resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the system achieves its best results: 89 FPS on Low, 67.2 FPS on Medium, 54.8 FPS on High, and 37.9 FPS on Ultra. The gap between Low and Medium is 21.8 FPS (24.5%), while the gap between Medium and High is 12.4 FPS (18.5%). The drop from High to Ultra is the most severe at 16.9 FPS (30.8%), highlighting how the Ultra preset's additional effects tax the GPU heavily.

At 2560x1440, the performance profile shifts downward. Low settings yield 64.4 FPS, which is still playable, but Medium drops to 52 FPS and High falls to 41.5 FPS. Ultra at 1440p produces only 29 FPS, which is below the 30 FPS threshold often cited as a minimum for playability. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at each preset is roughly 28-30% lower, showing a consistent resolution penalty.

The 3840x2160 results are largely disappointing. Low settings manage 43.7 FPS, which is borderline playable, but Medium drops to 32 FPS and High falls to 26.6 FPS. Ultra at 4K produces only 20.2 FPS, making it unsuitable for anything but static scenes. The data shows that the Arc B580's 12 GB of GDDR6 memory is sufficient in capacity, but the 192-bit memory bus and 456.0 GB/s bandwidth are not fast enough to sustain high frame rates at 4K with demanding settings.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 is the decisive component in this pairing, and its specifications explain the measured results. Built on the Xe2-HPG architecture with 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, the GPU is designed for mainstream 1080p and 1440p gaming. Its 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 456.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is adequate for 1080p but becomes a constraint at 4K. The boost clock of 2670 MHz and 13.67 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are competitive for the mid-range segment, as evidenced by its 66th percentile ranking among all GPUs.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 23021 places it within 1% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 (delta -0.7%), which suggests similar raw performance. However, in Red Dead Redemption 2, the measured frame rates at 4K are notably weak. The 26.6 FPS at 4K High is a clear indication that the game's rendering load exceeds what the Arc B580 can handle, likely due to the GPU's 20 ray tracing cores and the game's use of advanced shading techniques that may not be fully optimized for Intel's architecture.

The GPU's memory configuration is a mixed factor. The 12 GB capacity is ample for this game at all resolutions, but the bandwidth of 456.0 GB/s becomes a bottleneck at 4K. The pixel rate of 213.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 427.2 GTexel/s are sufficient for 1080p, but at 4K, the fill rate requirements double, and the data shows the GPU cannot keep up. The 190 W TDP and dual-slot design indicate a mid-range power profile, and the PCIe 4.0 x8 interface provides adequate bandwidth for the GPU's needs. Overall, the Arc B580 is a capable 1080p card, but its performance in Red Dead Redemption 2 at higher resolutions is the primary reason for this combo's low ranking.