Red Dead Redemption 2

The combination of the Intel Core i7-14700K and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a top-tier experience in Red Dead Redemption 2, with benchmark results placing this specific pairing at rank 134 out of 3714 tested combos. This places the system in the 96th percentile of all tested configurations, a position that reflects the substantial headroom both components bring to this 2018 title. The data shows a system capable of high refresh rate play at 1440p and solid 4K performance, though the game’s demanding Ultra preset exposes the limits of even this flagship hardware.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 134 out of 3714 tested combinations places this pairing firmly in the upper echelon of systems tested for Red Dead Redemption 2. This position is not merely a function of the RTX 4090’s raw rasterization power; it also reflects the i7-14700K’s ability to feed the GPU with enough data to keep frame rates high. The ranking places this combo ahead of the vast majority of tested systems, with only a small fraction of pairings achieving higher average frame rates in this game.

The CPU itself holds a percentile rank of 94 against all tested CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 69355. Its nearest rivals in the synthetic benchmark suite include the AMD EPYC 9115, which scores 69288 (a delta of 0.1%), the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X at 69515 (delta of -0.2%), the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX at 69875 (delta of -0.7%), and the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F at 69996 (delta of -0.9%). These figures show the i7-14700K trading blows with some of the strongest processors on the market, with all four rivals within a single percentage point of its average score. This tight clustering indicates that, for this game, the CPU is operating at a performance level where the differences between top-tier processors are negligible in practice.

The GPU’s percentile rank is 88 against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 60347. Its nearest rivals in the synthetic suite are the Intel Arc Pro A60 at 60326 (delta of 0%), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 at 60140 (delta of 0.3%), the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M at 61896 (delta of -2.5%), and the AMD Radeon PRO V710 at 58657 (delta of 2.9%). While the RTX 4090’s synthetic score is only slightly above some of these professional-grade cards, the measured FPS in Red Dead Redemption 2 tells a different story, as the game’s specific rendering paths favor the 4090’s architecture.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant force in this pairing, and its specifications explain why it performs so strongly in Red Dead Redemption 2. The GPU is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process at TSMC, featuring a chip designated AD102 with 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die. The card’s base clock is 2235 MHz, boosting up to 2520 MHz, while the memory runs at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective speed. The 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s, which is critical for a game that streams large open-world environments.

The GPU’s compute resources are enormous: 16384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, 176 raster operation units, 128 ray tracing cores, and 512 tensor cores. These translate to a pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s, a texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s, and a FP32 performance of 82.58 TFLOPS. For Red Dead Redemption 2, a game that relies heavily on draw calls, shadow rendering, and volumetric effects, this raw throughput ensures that even the most demanding scenes are processed without bottlenecking the CPU.

The measured FPS data shows the GPU scaling predictably with resolution and settings. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 214 FPS on average, which is well beyond the refresh rate of most displays. At 1080p Ultra, the average drops to 96 FPS, still highly playable but demonstrating that the Ultra preset’s heavy post-processing and shadow quality take a significant toll. The GPU’s memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s is particularly relevant at 4K, where texture streaming and high-resolution assets demand rapid data access; the 24 GB capacity ensures that the game never runs out of VRAM even at 3840x2160 Ultra.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K provides the computational backbone for this combo, and its specifications are well-suited to Red Dead Redemption 2’s mixed workload of physics, AI, and game logic. The CPU features 20 cores and 28 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. Built on the Raptor Lake architecture (specifically Raptor Lake-R) using a 10 nm process at Intel, the chip has a 125 W TDP and supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 33 MB of shared L3 cache.

The CPU’s synthetic benchmarks indicate strong multi-threaded performance, which matters for a game that runs background simulation tasks. In Cinebench R23, the i7-14700K scores 33440.5 in multi-core and 2160 in single-core. Geekbench scores are 20767 multi-core and 2569 single-core. The Passmark multi-thread score is 52392, with a single-thread score of 4472. These numbers show a processor that excels in both lightly-threaded and heavily-threaded workloads, which is ideal for a game that may use multiple cores for streaming and physics while still depending on a few fast cores for the main game loop.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU’s role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 214 FPS, which is a scenario where the GPU is not the limiting factor. The CPU’s single-thread performance, as demonstrated by a 2160 score in Cinebench R23 single-core, ensures that the game’s main thread does not become a bottleneck even at these high frame rates. The 33 MB of L3 cache helps reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for the game’s frequent asset loading and entity updates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of how this combo performs across three resolutions and four settings presets. Beginning with 1920x1080, the Low preset yields an average of 214 FPS, which is the highest average recorded in the entire dataset. The Medium preset at 1080p produces 161 FPS on average, with a minimum of 136 FPS and a maximum of 185 FPS, indicating some frame time variance but still a smooth experience. The High preset at 1080p averages 134 FPS, a substantial drop from Low but still well above the 60 FPS threshold. The Ultra preset at 1080p averages 96 FPS, showing that even at the lowest resolution, the Ultra preset’s demands are significant.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 160 FPS, which is 54 FPS lower than the 1080p Low result, reflecting the increased pixel count. The Medium preset at 1440p averages 120 FPS, with a minimum of 102 FPS and a maximum of 138 FPS, a 41 FPS drop from 1080p Medium. The High preset at 1440p averages 100 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 72 FPS. At 1440p, the combo remains highly playable across all presets, with even Ultra staying above the 60 FPS mark.

The 3840x2160 resolution shows the most significant scaling. The Low preset at 4K averages 106 FPS, which is surprisingly strong and indicates that the RTX 4090’s raw power can handle 4K with minimal settings. The Medium preset at 4K averages 79 FPS, with a minimum of 67 FPS and a maximum of 91 FPS, placing it in the playable range but with some dips near the 60 FPS boundary. The High preset at 4K averages 66 FPS, which is close to the 60 FPS target but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes. The Ultra preset at 4K averages 48 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold and indicates that this setting is not ideal for a 60 FPS experience at this resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling data reveals how the system’s workload shifts between CPU and GPU. From 1080p Low to 4K Low, the average FPS drops from 214 to 106, a reduction of 108 FPS or roughly 50%. This scaling is expected, as the GPU must render four times the pixels at 4K compared to 1080p. However, the fact that the Low preset at 4K still achieves 106 FPS suggests that the GPU has substantial headroom even at high pixel counts, and the CPU is not limiting performance at this setting.

The scaling from 1080p Medium to 4K Medium shows a drop from 161 to 79 FPS, a reduction of 82 FPS. The minimum FPS at 1080p Medium is 136, while at 4K Medium it is 67, indicating that the minimum frame rates scale similarly to the averages. For the High preset, the drop from 1080p to 4K is from 134 to 66 FPS, a reduction of 68 FPS. The Ultra preset shows the steepest relative drop: from 96 FPS at 1080p to 48 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 48 FPS or exactly 50%.

These scaling patterns indicate that the GPU becomes the primary limiting component as resolution increases, which is typical for a game like Red Dead Redemption 2 that is heavily GPU-bound. At 1080p, particularly on Low and Medium settings, the CPU’s performance is sufficient to push frame rates beyond what most displays can show, and the data suggests that the i7-14700K is not a bottleneck even at the highest frame rates measured. At 4K, the GPU’s workload dominates, and the scaling from 1440p to 4K shows a consistent drop of roughly 34-40% across all settings, which is consistent with the increased pixel count.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and refresh rate. For 1920x1080, the High preset at 134 FPS is an excellent choice for gamers with 144 Hz displays, as it provides a smooth experience with good visual fidelity. The Medium preset at 161 FPS is also viable for 165 Hz or 170 Hz displays, though the visual difference between Medium and High in this game is noticeable in shadow quality and draw distance. The Ultra preset at 96 FPS is playable but does not fully leverage high refresh rate monitors, so it is only recommended if visual fidelity takes priority over frame rate.

For 2560x1440, the High preset at 100 FPS is the sweet spot, offering a balance between visual quality and performance that suits most 144 Hz monitors. The Medium preset at 120 FPS is also strong, particularly for gamers who prefer higher frame rates, and the minimum FPS of 102 ensures that the experience remains smooth. The Ultra preset at 72 FPS is playable but sits close to the 60 FPS boundary, so it may produce occasional dips in heavy scenes; it is best reserved for gamers with 75 Hz or 60 Hz displays who want maximum visual quality.

For 3840x2160, the data shows that the Medium preset at 79 FPS is the best experience for most users, as it stays comfortably above the 60 FPS target with a minimum of 67 FPS. The High preset at 66 FPS is also viable for 60 Hz displays, but the average is close enough to the minimum that any demanding scene could cause a noticeable stutter. The Low preset at 106 FPS is an option for gamers with high refresh rate 4K monitors, though the visual compromise is significant. The Ultra preset at 48 FPS is not recommended for a smooth experience, as it falls below the 60 FPS threshold and the minimum FPS data is not available to assess frame pacing.

In summary, the i7-14700K and RTX 4090 combo excels in Red Dead Redemption 2, with the GPU providing the bulk of the performance headroom at higher resolutions. The measured data shows that the High preset at 1440p is the most balanced configuration, while 4K users should opt for Medium or High depending on their tolerance for frame rate dips. The system’s ranking at 134 out of 3714 combos underscores its position as one of the most powerful configurations tested, and the benchmark results confirm that this pairing delivers a premium experience across all settings and resolutions.