Red Dead Redemption 2

The data for Red Dead Redemption 2 on the Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination shows a classic GPU-bound progression as resolution climbs. At 1080p, the system delivers 214.7 FPS on Low, but this drops to 133.2 FPS on High, representing a 61% reduction. Moving to 1440p, the High preset yields 97.4 FPS, and at 4K, it falls further to 64.7 FPS. This scaling pattern indicates that even the flagship RTX 4090 becomes the primary limiting component at higher resolutions, as the frame rate decline from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings. The delta between Low and Ultra at 4K is particularly telling: 107.6 FPS versus 47.5 FPS, a gap of 60.1 FPS that underscores how much headroom the GPU has at lower quality settings.

At 1080p, the Low preset's 214.7 FPS suggests that the CPU can feed the GPU adequately, but the 118.1 FPS drop from Low to Ultra (214.7 to 96.6) shows that the GPU's rendering load is still the dominant factor. The 1440p results reinforce this: Low hits 160.8 FPS, while Ultra manages only 72.9 FPS. The pattern is clear—Red Dead Redemption 2's engine scales its workload heavily with resolution, and the RTX 4090's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth are sufficient to avoid any VRAM bottleneck, but the sheer pixel throughput required at 4K Ultra forces the frame rate down to 47.5 FPS. This is not a CPU limitation; the i9-14900K's 24 cores and 32 threads are more than capable of handling the game's logic, as evidenced by the 1080p Low result exceeding 200 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a linear relationship between pixel count and performance. At 1080p, the average frame rate across all settings is roughly 151.2 FPS, but this drops to 113.0 FPS at 1440p and 75.0 FPS at 4K. The most dramatic scaling occurs from 1440p to 4K, where the High preset falls from 97.4 FPS to 64.7 FPS, a 33.6% reduction. This indicates that the RTX 4090's rendering pipeline, with its 16,384 shading units and 176 ROPs, is being saturated by the 4K pixel count. The 4K Ultra result of 47.5 FPS is particularly noteworthy because it shows that even the most powerful consumer GPU available cannot maintain 60 FPS at maximum settings in this title. The bottleneck is unequivocally the GPU's rasterization throughput, not the CPU or memory subsystem.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 60 FPS, the data suggests that High settings at 4K (64.7 FPS) are the optimal balance, as they deliver playable performance without sacrificing visual fidelity. At 1440p, High (97.4 FPS) and Medium (120.6 FPS) both offer smooth experiences, but Ultra (72.9 FPS) remains viable for those prioritizing image quality. At 1080p, even Ultra (96.6 FPS) exceeds 60 FPS, so players can max out the settings without concern. The Low preset is only recommended for competitive play or high-refresh-rate monitors, as it yields 214.7 FPS at 1080p and 160.8 FPS at 1440p, but it sacrifices the game's detailed lighting and shadow effects. The Medium preset at 4K (80.1 FPS) is a strong middle ground, offering a 23.8% improvement over High while retaining most of the visual quality.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Red Dead Redemption 2 at 4K with maximum settings?

A: No. The Ultra preset at 3840x2160 averages 47.5 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold. High settings at 4K (64.7 FPS) are required for a smooth experience.

Q: What is the best resolution for high-refresh-rate monitors?

A: At 1080p, the Low preset hits 214.7 FPS, and Medium achieves 160.3 FPS, both suitable for 144Hz or 165Hz displays. At 1440p, Low (160.8 FPS) and Medium (120.6 FPS) are also viable options.

Q: Is the CPU holding back performance in this game?

A: The data indicates no. The Intel Core i9-14900K's 24 cores and 32 threads, with a boost clock of 6.00 GHz, allow the GPU to reach 214.7 FPS at 1080p Low, suggesting that the CPU is not a limiting factor at any resolution.

Q: How much performance is lost by moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: On the High preset, the drop is from 133.2 FPS to 64.7 FPS, a 51.4% reduction. On the Low preset, the drop is from 214.7 FPS to 107.6 FPS, a 49.9% reduction.

Q: Does the RTX 4090's 24 GB VRAM matter for this game?

A: The 24 GB of GDDR6X memory, combined with a 384-bit bus and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth, ensures no VRAM capacity issues at any resolution. The performance differences are driven by compute throughput, not memory limits.

Q: What is the best setting for 1440p gaming?

A: High (97.4 FPS) offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. Ultra (72.9 FPS) is acceptable, but the 25.1% frame rate penalty over High makes it less appealing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the settings scale from Low to Ultra as follows: Low averages 214.7 FPS, Medium 160.3 FPS, High 133.2 FPS, and Ultra 96.6 FPS. The transition from Low to Medium costs 54.4 FPS, while High to Ultra costs 36.6 FPS, showing diminishing returns at higher presets. At 2560x1440, Low hits 160.8 FPS, Medium 120.6 FPS, High 97.4 FPS, and Ultra 72.9 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 87.9 FPS, which is proportionally larger than at 1080p, indicating increased GPU stress. At 3840x2160, Low averages 107.6 FPS, Medium 80.1 FPS, High 64.7 FPS, and Ultra 47.5 FPS. The Ultra result is the only one below 60 FPS across all tested configurations. Across all resolutions, the Low preset consistently delivers roughly 2.2x the frame rate of Ultra, highlighting the significant performance headroom available from lowering quality settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, based on the AD102 chip and Ada Lovelace architecture, is the dominant component in this benchmark. Its 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs provide the raw compute power needed for Red Dead Redemption 2's demanding rendering. The boost clock of 2520 MHz, up from a base of 2235 MHz, allows the GPU to maintain high utilization under load, as evidenced by the 214.7 FPS result at 1080p Low. The 24 GB of GDDR6X memory, running at 21 Gbps effective, delivers 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for the game's texture streaming at 4K. However, the data shows that even this GPU struggles at 4K Ultra (47.5 FPS), indicating that the game's draw calls and shading complexity are extreme. The GPU's 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is the key metric driving these frame rates, and the 5 nm TSMC process node allows for this high throughput while maintaining a 450 W TDP.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K plays a supporting role in this title, but its capabilities ensure that the GPU is never starved of data. With 24 cores (8 performance and 16 efficiency) and 32 threads, the CPU can handle the game's simulation and physics threads with ease. The boost clock of 6.00 GHz is critical for maintaining high single-thread performance, which Red Dead Redemption 2 relies on for game logic and draw call submission. The 36 MB of shared L3 cache helps reduce memory latency, while the dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 memory support ensures adequate bandwidth. The benchmark results show that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 214.7 FPS, which is close to the CPU's practical limit for this game engine. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 49,872 and single-core score of 7,040 indicate that it ranks in the 97th percentile of all CPUs, placing it well above the AMD EPYC 7413 by 0.3% in average benchmark score. This headroom means that the CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution tested, as the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is entirely attributable to GPU load.