Red Dead Redemption 2

The Intel Core i7-14700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 delivers a highly scalable experience in Red Dead Redemption 2, with results that hinge entirely on the graphics preset. The data shows a clear hierarchy across all resolutions: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra, in that order of performance. For players targeting a smooth 60 FPS experience, the Medium preset at 1920x1080 is the most sensible starting point, yielding an average of 84.3 FPS. This represents a substantial 65% improvement over the High preset’s 71 FPS while still maintaining visual fidelity that is a significant step up from the Low preset's 111.3 FPS. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset drops to 61.9 FPS, which is still playable, but the High preset falls to 51.2 FPS, making Medium the clear choice for maintaining a consistent frame rate above 60. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, and its performance cost is steep; it delivers only 51.5 FPS at 1080p, making it unsuitable for high-refresh-rate displays and a poor trade-off for the visual gains it provides. At 4K, the situation is more constrained, with the Medium preset producing 42.4 FPS, meaning that only the Low preset, at 53.1 FPS, approaches a playable frame rate. For the best balance of visual quality and performance, the Medium preset is the recommended choice, offering a playable experience at 1080p and 1440p, while the High preset is a viable option only for those with 60 Hz displays at 1080p who prioritize image quality over frame rate headroom.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Core i7-14700K and RTX 4060 is positioned in the 957th spot out of 1687 combos for Red Dead Redemption 2. This ranking places it in the lower-middle portion of the performance spectrum, indicating that while it is not a top-tier configuration for this title, it is by no means an outlier. The CPU itself is a high-end part, holding the 96th percentile against all CPUs in the database, which shows that the processor is not the limiting factor in this pairing. Conversely, the GPU sits in the 66th percentile against all GPUs, revealing a significant imbalance; the processor has far more compute headroom than the graphics card can utilize in this specific game. This is reflected in the GPU's nearest rivals, which include the AMD Radeon RX 6600M and the Intel Arc B580, with the RTX 4060 showing a negligible 0.6% and 0.7% performance delta against them, respectively. The benchmark results indicate that this combo is entirely GPU-bound, and its overall rank is a direct consequence of the RTX 4060's performance class rather than any deficiency in the 14700K. The CPU's own benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44534, are already factored into its percentile, but in this game's measured FPS, the CPU's contribution is minimal, as the frame rates are consistently dictated by the graphics settings and resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is the decisive component in this configuration, and its specifications align with the measured performance data. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s. In a demanding open-world title like Red Dead Redemption 2, this memory configuration is a critical factor, especially at higher resolutions and settings where texture data and geometry require significant memory capacity. The card’s boost clock of 2460 MHz, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, allows it to deliver a peak FP32 performance of 15.11 TFLOPS, which is a modest figure for a modern GPU. The data shows that the GPU's performance is its primary constraint; at 4K Ultra, the average FPS collapses to 22.9, which is a clear indication that the 8 GB frame buffer and the chip's compute resources are overwhelmed by the game's highest visual demands. The GPU's own benchmark scores, such as a Passmark G3D score of 19545, place it in the 66th percentile, confirming that it is a mid-range part. The 115 W TDP and the 300 W suggested PSU are consistent with its performance class, but they do not change the fact that this GPU is the bottleneck in this pairing. The data suggests that the RTX 4060 is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming with moderate settings, and its performance characteristics are the reason why the combo's rank is not higher.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo's performance across four resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the frame rates are the highest, with the Low preset achieving 111.3 FPS, Medium at 84.3 FPS, High at 71 FPS, and Ultra at 51.5 FPS. This shows a performance degradation pattern where moving from Low to Medium incurs a 24% drop, from Medium to High a 16% drop, and from High to Ultra a 27% drop. The jump from High to Ultra is particularly steep, indicating that the Ultra preset includes effects that heavily tax the GPU. At 2560x1440, the same pattern holds but with lower absolute numbers: Low is at 79.5 FPS, Medium at 61.9 FPS, High at 51.2 FPS, and Ultra at 37.7 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings, averaging around 28-29%, which is expected as pixel count increases. At 3840x2160, the performance becomes marginal for smooth gameplay. The Low preset achieves 53.1 FPS, Medium drops to 42.4 FPS, High to 32.2 FPS, and Ultra to a nearly unplayable 22.9 FPS. The gap between the presets widens at 4K, with the difference between Low and Ultra being a 57% reduction in frame rate. This data points to a system that can handle 1080p and 1440p gaming with settings up to High, but at 4K, only the Low preset offers a playable frame rate, and even then, it is below the 60 FPS threshold.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior of this combo is a textbook example of a GPU-limited scenario. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, the average FPS across all presets drops by approximately 28%. This is a direct result of the increase in pixel count from approximately 2.1 million to 3.7 million, a 77% increase in workload. The fact that the frame rate does not drop by the same percentage but by a smaller amount suggests that the CPU is providing enough headroom to partially mask the GPU's increased workload. However, the scaling from 1440p to 4K is more telling. The pixel count increases by another 125%, but the average FPS drop is only about 32% across settings. This is a common phenomenon where the GPU becomes so oversaturated with work that other bottlenecks, such as memory bandwidth or draw call submission, start to limit performance, preventing a linear scaling of frame rate with resolution. The data indicates that the 8 GB VRAM and the 272.0 GB/s bandwidth are the likely culprits, as they become saturated at 4K, causing the GPU to spend more time managing memory resources than rendering frames. The most significant takeaway is that the limiting component in this combo is unequivocally the GPU. The Intel Core i7-14700K, with its 20 cores and 28 threads, is a high-end processor that is not stressed by this game. The benchmark results show that the CPU’s performance is far beyond what is needed to feed the RTX 4060, and the frame rate drops are entirely attributable to the GPU's inability to keep up with the increasing resolution and settings demands. For users of this combo, the data suggests that 1080p is the sweet spot, with 1440p being a viable alternative if settings are moderated, and 4K being reserved only for the lowest settings.