Red Dead Redemption 2

Red Dead Redemption 2 presents a demanding open-world workload, and the combination of the Intel Core i7-14700K with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 produces a wide spread of performance across resolutions and presets. The measured data reveals that this pairing is capable of high frame rates at 1440p and 1080p, while 4K Ultra remains a challenging target. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS results to understand the scaling behavior, the balance between CPU and GPU, and how this specific combo ranks among the 3,714 tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial and clearly indicates a shift in the bottleneck. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 220 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low reduces that to 164 FPS, a 25% decrease, and then to 4K Low, the average falls to 108 FPS, which is a 51% reduction from the 1080p figure. This steep decline as resolution increases is the classic signature of a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions; the RTX 5090 is being tasked with rendering more pixels, and its performance ceiling becomes the limiting factor.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings presets. For High settings, the average FPS drops from 137 at 1080p to 102 at 1440p, and then to 68 at 4K. This represents a 26% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 50% drop from 1080p to 4K. The Ultra preset shows the same trend, with averages of 99, 74, and 49 FPS at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively. The proportional consistency of these drops—roughly a 25% reduction at 1440p and a 50% reduction at 4K from the 1080p baseline—strongly suggests that the CPU is not a limiting factor in these scenarios. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rate would plateau or drop much less sharply as resolution increases.

At 1080p, the differences between presets are more pronounced, indicating that the CPU has enough headroom to feed the GPU. The spread from Low (220 FPS) to Ultra (99 FPS) is 121 FPS. This gap narrows at 4K, where the spread from Low (108 FPS) to Ultra (49 FPS) is 59 FPS. The shrinking delta between presets at higher resolutions is another indicator of GPU limitation, as the GPU's raw pixel throughput becomes the primary constraint, making the computational cost of higher settings relatively less impactful on the final frame rate. The data shows a system that is well-balanced at 1440p, where the CPU can still push high frame rates but the GPU is working hard enough to justify its high-end status.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the most compelling experience for this hardware combination is found at 1440p with High settings, yielding an average of 102 FPS. This provides a fluid frame rate that is well above the threshold for smooth gameplay, while still leveraging the visual fidelity of the High preset. The 1440p Medium preset, at 123 FPS average, is also a strong option for those prioritizing higher refresh rates, but the jump to High is relatively small in cost (a 17% performance hit) for a significant visual upgrade.

For users with a 4K display, the data suggests that High settings at 3840x2160, averaging 68 FPS, is the most sensible target. This is a playable frame rate for a story-driven title like Red Dead Redemption 2. The 4K Medium preset, at 81 FPS, is also viable, but the 4K Ultra preset, at 49 FPS, dips below the 60 FPS threshold and is likely to feel less smooth. The 4K Low preset, at 108 FPS, is technically the fastest at that resolution, but it sacrifices almost all visual quality to achieve that number.

At 1080p, the Ultra preset, at 99 FPS, is the clear recommendation. The system has ample performance headroom at this resolution, allowing users to maximize graphical settings while still maintaining a near-100 FPS average. The 1080p High preset, at 137 FPS, is also excellent for high-refresh-rate monitors, but the Ultra preset offers the most complete visual package without a significant performance penalty. The Low and Medium presets at 1080p are largely unnecessary given the hardware's capability, as they push frame rates to 220 and 164 FPS respectively, which are well beyond what most displays can show.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for a smooth 4K experience?

A: The data shows that 4K with High settings achieves an average of 68 FPS, while 4K Medium reaches 81 FPS. The 4K Ultra preset drops to 49 FPS, making High the recommended choice for a 4K display.

Q: Can this system handle 1080p gaming at maximum settings?

A: Yes. The measured results show that 1080p with Ultra settings produces an average of 99 FPS, confirming that the combo has more than enough power for high-refresh-rate 1080p gaming.

Q: How much of a performance difference is there between 1440p and 4K on this setup?

A: At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 102 FPS at 2560x1440 to 68 FPS at 3840x2160, a 33% reduction. At Medium settings, the average drops from 123 FPS to 81 FPS, a 34% reduction.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K. The consistent frame rate drops as resolution increases, and the narrowing performance gap between presets at 4K, point to the RTX 5090's rendering limits being the constraint, not the CPU.

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this combo?

A: The highest measured average is 220 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 88th out of 3,714 tested combinations in Red Dead Redemption 2, placing it in the top 2.4% of all tested systems.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo shows a wide range of performance. With Low settings, the average FPS is 220. Moving to Medium, the average drops to 164 FPS, with a minimum of 140 and a maximum of 189 FPS. The High preset yields an average of 137 FPS. At the top end, the Ultra preset produces an average of 99 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is a 55% reduction in average frame rate.

At 2560x1440, the results are more moderate. Low settings deliver an average of 164 FPS. The Medium preset averages 123 FPS, with a minimum of 104 and a maximum of 141 FPS. High settings average 102 FPS, and Ultra settings bring the average down to 74 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at this resolution is a 55% reduction in average frame rate, mirroring the 1080p scaling.

At 3840x2160, the performance is heavily GPU-bound. Low settings average 108 FPS. The Medium preset averages 81 FPS, with a minimum of 69 and a maximum of 93 FPS. High settings average 68 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 49 FPS. The reduction from Low to Ultra at 4K is 55% of the average frame rate, showing that the relative performance penalty of Ultra is consistent across all resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination holds the 88th position out of 3,714 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2. This places it in the top 2.4% of all configurations in the database, indicating that this pairing is exceptionally powerful for this specific game. The high rank is expected given the top-tier nature of both components, but the data confirms that there are still 87 other combinations that perform better, likely featuring even more specialized or higher-clocked hardware.

Given the GPU's 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs and the CPU's 94th percentile ranking among all CPUs, a top-100 finish in the game's combo ranking is a logical outcome. The data shows that the system is not bottlenecked by one component, as both the CPU and GPU are in the upper echelon of their respective benchmarks. The 88th rank suggests that while the combo is near the top, there is a small group of even more powerful pairings that edge it out in this particular title's workload.

The nearest rivals for the CPU, such as the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, show a negligible average score difference of -0.2%, which means the i7-14700K is effectively at parity with the best consumer CPUs for this type of workload. This parity, combined with the RTX 5090's massive performance headroom, is what allows the combo to achieve such a high standing in the game's ranking table.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. In the context of Red Dead Redemption 2, the data suggests that the CPU's role is to provide enough processing power to avoid becoming a bottleneck, especially at lower resolutions. The high boost clock of 5.60 GHz is critical for maintaining high frame rates in a game that is often sensitive to single-thread performance.

The CPU's performance is demonstrated by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 33440.5 and a single-core score of 2160. The multi-core score is relevant for background tasks and overall system responsiveness, but the single-core score is more indicative of gaming performance. The CPU's 94th percentile ranking among all CPUs confirms that it is a high-performance part, but its nearest rivals, like the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, are within a 0.2% average score delta, showing that the field is extremely competitive.

The 20 cores and 28 threads are more than sufficient for a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, which was released in 2018 and does not heavily utilize many threads. The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU is not the limiting factor, as the frame rate scales predictably with GPU settings. The CPU's high single-thread performance, evidenced by a Passmark single-thread score of 4472, ensures that the game's main simulation thread is not starved, allowing the RTX 5090 to work at its full potential.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant component in this pairing, with its massive 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus providing 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. The GPU has a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz. In Red Dead Redemption 2, the GPU's role is to render the vast, detailed environments at high resolutions, and the data shows it is the primary bottleneck at 4K.

The GPU's 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79842, confirms its top-tier status. However, its nearest rivals, like the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB, show a delta of only 0.3%, which is surprising given the architectural differences. This suggests that in the aggregate benchmark, the RTX 5090's performance is closely matched by other high-end parts, but in a specific game like Red Dead Redemption 2, its massive memory bandwidth and 32 GB VRAM are key advantages.

The 32 GB of VRAM is more than enough for this game, even at 4K Ultra, preventing any texture-related stuttering. The GPU's raw compute power, as shown by its 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 performance, is what drives the high frame rates at 1440p. The data shows that the RTX 5090 can deliver 102 FPS at 1440p High, a demanding load, which indicates that the GPU has plenty of headroom for most gaming scenarios. Its performance at 4K, with an average of 68 FPS on High, is the primary limitation of the combo, but it remains a playable experience, and the GPU's capabilities are fully utilized.