Red Dead Redemption 2

# How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-14700KF paired with the Intel Arc B370 ranks near the bottom of the tested field for Red Dead Redemption 2, landing at position 2670 out of 2902 tested combos. This places the combination in the 8th percentile of all tested systems, a result that underscores a severe performance imbalance between the two components. The CPU is a top-tier part, sitting in the 94th percentile among all CPUs tested, but the GPU holds the combo back dramatically. The Arc B370's own percentile rank is just 5th among all GPUs, meaning this pairing effectively squanders the processor's considerable headroom in this title.

What makes this ranking particularly striking is the delta between the components' capabilities. The i7-14700KF's average benchmark score of 70163 places it fractionally ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (69996, a 0.2% difference) and the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875, 0.4% ahead), while also edging out the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69515, 0.9% ahead). Yet none of that CPU potential translates into playable frame rates here because the Arc B370's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184 places it statistically tied with legacy parts like the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186, 0.2% behind) and the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190, 0.5% behind). The data indicates that this combo, for Red Dead Redemption 2, is effectively GPU-bound at every meaningful setting, and the ranking reflects that reality.

# GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is the limiting factor in this combination, and its specifications make the measured results unsurprising. The GPU operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz, but its memory configuration is the critical bottleneck: the Arc B370 uses "System Shared" memory, meaning it draws from the host system's RAM rather than dedicated VRAM. Memory bandwidth is listed as "System Dependent," which in practice means performance scales with whatever DDR4 or DDR5 memory the i7-14700KF platform provides. This shared-memory design explains why the GPU's pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s, while modest, are further constrained by memory subsystem contention with the CPU.

The GPU's compute resources are minimal for a modern title like Red Dead Redemption 2. With 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, 20 render output units, and 10 ray tracing cores, the Arc B370 delivers 6.144 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark score of 1184 confirms this is entry-level silicon, and its nearest rivals in that test — the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186), ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190), AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1192), and AMD FirePro M2000 (1168) — are all parts from a much older hardware generation. The Arc B370's 3 nm process node and Xe3-LPG architecture (Panther Lake chip) are modern, but the small chip size and 25 W TDP cap its performance ceiling. In Red Dead Redemption 2, this GPU cannot feed frames fast enough to utilize the i7-14700KF's 20 cores and 28 threads.

# Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling data shows a predictable but severe collapse in performance as pixel count rises, confirming the GPU as the primary constraint. At 1080p with High settings, the combo averages 29 FPS; dropping to 1440p High yields 22 FPS (a 24% reduction), and 4K High produces just 14 FPS (a 52% reduction from 1080p). This scaling pattern is steeper than what a balanced system would show, indicating that the Arc B370 is overwhelmed by the fill-rate demands of higher resolutions. The trend holds across all settings tiers: at Low settings, 1080p delivers 47 FPS, 1440p delivers 35 FPS (26% lower), and 4K delivers 23 FPS (51% lower). Medium settings show the same shape — 35 FPS at 1080p, 26 FPS at 1440p, 17 FPS at 4K — and Ultra is the most punishing, dropping from 21 FPS at 1080p to 16 FPS at 1440p and 10 FPS at 4K.

The consistency of these scaling ratios across all four settings levels is telling. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect frame rates to cluster more tightly at higher resolutions, since the same CPU work would be spread across fewer frames. Instead, the data shows near-linear drops with pixel count, which is the signature of a GPU that is saturating its memory bandwidth and shading capacity. The system-shared memory architecture amplifies this effect: at 4K, the GPU's need for memory bandwidth grows, and the shared pool becomes a further constraint. In practical terms, this combo is only marginally usable at 1080p Low (47 FPS), and every step up in resolution or settings pushes it further into unplayable territory.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

1080p (1920x1080): The best-case scenario for this combo is 1080p Low, where it averages 47 FPS. This is the only configuration that approaches playability, though it still falls short of smooth 60 FPS gameplay. At 1080p Medium, the average drops to 35 FPS with a minimum of 30 FPS and a maximum of 40 FPS, showing that the GPU has some headroom in lighter scenes but cannot sustain higher frame rates. High settings at 1080p yield 29 FPS, and Ultra drops to 21 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium (12 FPS) is larger than the gap between Medium and High (6 FPS), suggesting that the GPU's shading units and texture units are the first bottleneck, while the transition to High and Ultra adds more load on the render output units and memory system.

1440p (2560x1440): At 1440p, the combo becomes marginal even at the lowest settings. Low averages 35 FPS, which is 12 FPS lower than the same settings at 1080p. Medium drops to 26 FPS (minimum 22, maximum 30), High falls to 22 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 16 FPS. The 1440p Medium result is particularly interesting because it shows a narrower min-max range (22-30 FPS) than the 1080p Medium range (30-40 FPS), indicating that the GPU is more consistently saturated at this resolution, with less variance between light and heavy scenes. None of these 1440p results are suitable for competitive or immersive gameplay, as even the best case (Low) misses the 60 FPS target by a wide margin.

4K (3840x2160): The 4K results are uniformly poor, confirming that this combo is not viable at this resolution for Red Dead Redemption 2. Low settings average 23 FPS, Medium averages 17 FPS (minimum 15, maximum 20), High averages 14 FPS, and Ultra averages 10 FPS. The Medium setting at 4K shows the tightest min-max range of any measurement (15-20 FPS), which again points to the GPU running at its absolute limit regardless of scene complexity. The step from 1440p to 4K at Low settings (35 to 23 FPS) is a 34% drop, while the same resolution step at Ultra (16 to 10 FPS) is a 37% drop. This consistent percentage decline across settings reinforces that the Arc B370's memory subsystem and pixel throughput are the hard ceiling — no amount of CPU headroom from the i7-14700KF can compensate.

Settings Scaling Analysis: Across all three resolutions, the delta between Low and Ultra is roughly 2.2x to 2.3x (47 to 21 FPS at 1080p, 35 to 16 FPS at 1440p, 23 to 10 FPS at 4K). This ratio is consistent with a GPU that is fully utilized even at Low settings, meaning the additional work required by Medium, High, and Ultra settings directly translates into lower frame rates without any CPU-side relief. The i7-14700KF's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44167 and single-core score of 6235 indicate it can handle the game's simulation and draw-call overhead easily, but the data shows the GPU simply cannot keep pace.

# FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of running Red Dead Redemption 2 at 60 FPS?

A: No. The highest measured average frame rate across all tested configurations is 47 FPS at 1080p Low settings. Every other setting and resolution combination falls below 35 FPS, with 4K Ultra bottoming out at 10 FPS. The Arc B370's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1184 places it in the 5th percentile of GPUs, which is far below what this game requires for 60 FPS gameplay.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B370 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in this game's context?

A: The Arc B370's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184 is statistically tied with the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186, 0.2% lower), ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190, 0.5% lower), AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1192, 0.7% lower), and AMD FirePro M2000 (1168, 1.4% higher). These are all legacy or low-power parts, and the measured FPS results confirm that the Arc B370 performs in line with that tier, not with modern gaming GPUs.

Q: What is the best settings/resolution combination for this combo?

A: The data shows that 1080p Low is the only configuration that exceeds 40 FPS, averaging 47 FPS. If playability is the goal, 1080p Low is the recommended choice. At 1080p Medium, the average drops to 35 FPS with a minimum of 30 FPS, which may be acceptable for slower-paced exploration but will struggle in action sequences. No 1440p or 4K configuration exceeds 35 FPS.

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-14700KF the bottleneck in this combo?

A: No. The CPU is not the limiting factor. The i7-14700KF ranks in the 94th percentile of all CPUs and has an average benchmark score of 70163, placing it slightly ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (69996), AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875), and AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69515). Its 20 cores and 28 threads are far more than Red Dead Redemption 2 requires. The GPU's 5th percentile ranking and the resolution scaling pattern both point to the Arc B370 as the sole bottleneck.

Q: How does the i7-14700KF's CPU performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The i7-14700KF's average benchmark score of 70163 is 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (69996), 0.4% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875), and 0.9% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69515). However, it is 1% lower than the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K (70879). These differences are negligible in gaming, and the CPU's single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6235) is more than adequate for this title's engine.

Q: Does the Arc B370's shared memory architecture affect its performance in this game?

A: Yes. The GPU uses "System Shared" memory with "System Dependent" bandwidth, meaning it competes with the CPU for the same memory resources. This is particularly problematic in a large open-world game like Red Dead Redemption 2, where both the CPU (simulation, AI, world streaming) and GPU (textures, geometry, post-processing) require substantial memory bandwidth. The measured FPS drops at higher resolutions and settings are consistent with memory bandwidth saturation, not just raw compute limits.

# CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture (Raptor Lake-R refresh), fabricated on Intel's 10 nm process node. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, with a 125 W TDP. The cache hierarchy consists of 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 33 MB of shared L3 cache. This is a desktop-class CPU that supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, with PCIe Gen 5 (16 lanes from the CPU). Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44167 and single-core score of 6235 demonstrate exceptional throughput, and its Passmark multi-thread score of 52425 confirms strong parallel performance.

In the context of Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, NPC AI, physics, and draw-call submission. The data shows that the i7-14700KF is vastly overqualified for this task when paired with the Arc B370. The CPU's nearest rivals — AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (69996 avg score), AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875), AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69515), and Intel Core Ultra 7 265K (70879) — all sit within a 1% range, meaning any of these CPUs would produce nearly identical frame rates in this GPU-bound scenario. The i7-14700KF's 33 MB of shared L3 cache and high boost clock help with open-world streaming, but the game's engine is not demanding enough to differentiate among top-tier CPUs.

The measured FPS results reinforce that the CPU is not the constraint. If the CPU were limiting, we would see frame rates that improve significantly when lowering resolution (since the CPU must prepare the same number of frames regardless of pixel count). Instead, the FPS drops nearly proportionally with resolution, which is the classic GPU-bound signature. The i7-14700KF's 28 threads and 5.60 GHz boost clock are more than sufficient to feed the Arc B370's modest 6.144 TFLOPS of compute. In fact, the CPU's Passmark data compression score of 694963 and integer math score of 183056 indicate it can handle the game's streaming and decompression workloads with ease, leaving the GPU as the sole performance limiter.

The launch MSRP for the i7-14700KF is $384. Its production status is Active, and it was released on 2023-10-16. The CPU's 94th percentile ranking among all CPUs tested means it outperforms 94% of all processors in the database, yet the combo's 8th percentile ranking in this game (2670 out of 2902) shows how completely the GPU negates that advantage. For users with this specific pairing, the data suggests that upgrading the GPU would yield massive performance gains, while upgrading the CPU would produce no measurable improvement in Red Dead Redemption 2 specifically. The bottleneck is unambiguous, and the measured FPS table provides the evidence: even at 4K Ultra (10 FPS), the CPU is waiting on the GPU, not the other way around.