Red Dead Redemption 2

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate for this combo at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER combination delivers an average of 46 FPS at 1920x1080 on Ultra settings.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER's benchmark score compare to its closest rival?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 20282 places it within 1% of the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M, which scores 20480. The RTX 2070 SUPER trails that rival by 1%.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded across all tested resolutions and settings?

A: The highest average frame rate is 102 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: Does the RTX 2070 SUPER support modern graphics APIs required for this game?

A: Yes, the GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, all of which are compatible with Red Dead Redemption 2's rendering requirements.

Q: How does the CPU's single-thread performance compare to its multicore performance in synthetic tests?

A: In Cinebench R23, the CPU scores 2160 in single-core and 33440.5 in multi-core, showing a roughly 15.5x scaling advantage when all cores are utilized.

Q: What is the GPU's memory bandwidth and how might it affect high-resolution gameplay?

A: The RTX 2070 SUPER has 448.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth across a 256-bit bus with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, which supports the frame rates seen at 3840x2160 where bandwidth becomes a limiting factor.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture with a TU104 chip fabricated on a 12 nm process. It features 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operations pipelines. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1605 MHz and boosts up to 1770 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). This configuration yields a pixel rate of 113.3 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 283.2 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance rated at 9.062 TFLOPS.

For Red Dead Redemption 2, the GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This capacity proves adequate for 1920x1080 and 2560x1440 gameplay, but at 3840x2160, the frame rates drop noticeably. At 4K with Medium settings, the combo averages 38 FPS with a minimum of 32 FPS and maximum of 43 FPS. The UItra preset at 4K falls to 23 FPS average, indicating that the memory bandwidth and compute resources are strained at that resolution.

The GPU's percentile ranking against all GPUs is 65, placing it above the median but not in the top tier. Its average benchmark score of 20282 sits just below the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480, delta -1%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534, delta -1.2%), and the Intel Arc B570 (20556, delta -1.3%). This close grouping suggests the RTX 2070 SUPER competes directly with mid-range mobile and entry-level desktop parts from newer generations.

In this game, the GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) allows for modern rendering features, though the game itself does not heavily rely on ray tracing. The 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are present but not fully utilized in Red Dead Redemption 2's traditional rasterization pipeline. The 12 nm process node and 215 W TDP indicate this is a power-hungry part by modern standards, but the performance data shows it remains viable for 1080p and 1440p play.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 2154 out of 3714 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2. This places it in the lower-middle portion of the database, meaning approximately 58% of tested system configurations deliver better performance in this specific title.

The ranking reflects a mismatch between the CPU and GPU. The i7-14700K is a high-end desktop processor with a 94th percentile ranking among all CPUs, while the RTX 2070 SUPER sits at the 65th percentile among GPUs. In a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, which is GPU-bound at higher resolutions, the graphics card becomes the limiting factor. The CPU's headroom is not fully utilized, as evidenced by the frame rates at 1080p versus 4K.

At 1920x1080, the combo achieves 64 FPS on High, 77 FPS on Medium, and 102 FPS on Low. These numbers suggest the CPU can push the GPU to its limits at lower resolutions. However, at 3840x2160, the average FPS drops to 31 on High and 23 on Ultra, clearly showing the GPU's compute and memory constraints. The rank of 2154 indicates that many combos with less powerful CPUs but stronger GPUs outperform this pairing in this title.

The data shows that the CPU's nearest rivals — the AMD EPYC 9115 (delta +0.1%), AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (delta -0.2%), AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (delta -0.7%), and AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (delta -0.9%) — all have nearly identical average benchmark scores. This means swapping the CPU for any of these would have a negligible impact on in-game performance. The bottleneck is firmly with the GPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results. Low settings produce an average of 102 FPS, which is smooth for any display. Medium settings yield 77 FPS with a minimum of 65 and maximum of 88 FPS. High settings drop to 64 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 46 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium costs 25 FPS, while the jump from High to Ultra costs 18 FPS. This suggests that Medium offers a good balance between visual quality and frame rate at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally. Low settings average 76 FPS, which remains playable. Medium settings produce 57 FPS with a minimum of 49 and maximum of 66 FPS. High settings drop to 48 FPS, and Ultra falls to 34 FPS. The delta between Low and Medium is 19 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 14 FPS. At this resolution, Medium still maintains a playable frame rate, but High and Ultra require compromises.

At 3840x2160, the GPU struggles. Low settings average 50 FPS, which is the only playable option. Medium settings drop to 38 FPS with a minimum of 32 and maximum of 43 FPS. High settings fall to 31 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 23 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 12 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 8 FPS. At 4K, only Low settings provide a consistently smooth experience, while Medium is borderline for players who tolerate occasional dips below 35 FPS.

The data reveals a consistent pattern: the RTX 2070 SUPER delivers roughly 1.6x the frame rate at 1080p compared to 4K for the same settings. For example, High at 1080p is 64 FPS versus 31 FPS at 4K. This aligns with the 4x pixel count difference, indicating the GPU is scaling as expected with resolution.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 1920x1080, the Medium preset at 77 FPS average is the optimal choice. It provides a substantial improvement over Low (102 FPS) in visual fidelity while maintaining a frame rate well above 60 FPS. The minimum of 65 FPS ensures no significant stutters. High at 64 FPS is also viable, but the 13 FPS drop from Medium may not justify the visual gains. Ultra at 46 FPS is not recommended for smooth gameplay, though some players may accept it for maximum visuals.

At 2560x1440, Medium settings at 57 FPS is the recommended preset. The minimum of 49 FPS is still playable, and the average stays above 55 FPS for most of the gameplay. Low at 76 FPS offers a higher refresh rate experience but sacrifices too much visual quality for a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, which relies heavily on atmosphere. High at 48 FPS is borderline, and Ultra at 34 FPS is not recommended for action sequences.

At 3840x2160, the only viable option is Low settings at 50 FPS average. Medium at 38 FPS is playable for slower exploration but will struggle during combat or crowded scenes. High at 31 FPS and Ultra at 23 FPS are not suitable for gameplay, as they fall below the threshold for consistent motion fluidity. Players with 4K displays should consider lowering resolution or accepting Low settings.

Across all resolutions, the data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot for this GPU, offering a balance between visual quality and performance. The RTX 2070 SUPER's 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for Medium presets at all resolutions, but Ultra presets may exceed the memory capacity or the GPU's compute ability, leading to the sharp frame rate drops observed.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, specifically the Raptor Lake-R refresh. It operates with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. The CPU features a robust cache hierarchy: 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 33 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i7-14700K demonstrates strong performance. Cinebench R23 scores are 2160 single-core and 33440.5 multi-core. Geekbench scores are 2569 single-core and 20767 multi-core. The Passmark multithread score is 52392, with a single-thread score of 4472. These numbers place the CPU at the 94th percentile among all CPUs, indicating it is a top-tier processor for compute-intensive tasks.

For Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU's role is less critical than the GPU's, as the game is primarily GPU-bound at the resolutions tested. The 20 cores and 28 threads provide ample processing power for the game's simulation and AI systems, but the frame rates are limited by the RTX 2070 SUPER. The CPU's high boost clock of 5.60 GHz ensures that single-threaded game logic runs efficiently, avoiding any CPU-side bottlenecks at 1080p where frame rates are highest.

The CPU's nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score include the AMD EPYC 9115 (69288, delta +0.1%), AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69515, delta -0.2%), AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875, delta -0.7%), and AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (69996, delta -0.9%). All of these processors score within 1% of the i7-14700K's 69355 average. In gaming, this means that choosing any of these CPUs would produce nearly identical frame rates when paired with the same GPU.

The i7-14700K's 33 MB of L3 cache is beneficial for the game's open-world streaming, as it reduces memory latency when accessing frequently used assets. The CPU's support for DDR5 memory, if paired with high-speed modules, could further reduce load times and improve minimum frame rates. However, the measured FPS data does not show any CPU-induced stutters, indicating the processor is more than sufficient for this title. The bottleneck at all resolutions is the GPU, and the CPU's 94th percentile ranking suggests it will remain relevant for several more GPU generations.