Red Dead Redemption 2

# Red Dead Redemption 2 — Intel Core Ultra 5 225 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

Red Dead Redemption 2, the 2018 Action Adventure title, demonstrates distinct performance scaling characteristics when paired with the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090. The measured data reveals a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, yet shows signs of CPU limitation at lower settings. At 4K Ultra, the combo delivers 49 FPS average, which is playable but not fluid for a game of this genre. The Core Ultra 5 225 sits in the 85th percentile of all CPUs, while the RTX 5090 ranks in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, indicating a pairing where the processor is the weaker link in the chain.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lies. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 220 FPS, which drops to 164 FPS at 1440p Low and further to 108 FPS at 4K Low. This represents a 51% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that even at the lowest graphical preset, the GPU is still doing substantial work. The scaling is nearly linear with pixel count, suggesting the RTX 5090's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are being utilized fully.

At High settings, the drop is steeper proportionally: 137 FPS at 1080p falls to 102 FPS at 1440p (a 26% reduction) and then to 68 FPS at 4K (a 33% further reduction). The 4K High result is particularly notable because it sits below the 70 FPS threshold that many players consider the minimum for smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling, with 99 FPS at 1080p dropping to 74 FPS at 1440p and finally to 49 FPS at 4K — a total reduction of 50% from the starting point.

The Medium settings provide the most complete dataset with min/max FPS values. At 4K Medium, the average is 81 FPS with a minimum of 69 and maximum of 93. At 1440p Medium, the average rises to 123 FPS (min 104, max 141), and at 1080p Medium, it reaches 164 FPS (min 140, max 189). The spread between min and max FPS narrows as resolution increases: 49 FPS spread at 1080p Medium versus 24 FPS at 4K Medium. This tightening indicates that at higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the consistent limiting factor, while at lower resolutions, CPU variability introduces more frame-time fluctuation.

The data suggests that this combination is primarily GPU-limited across all tested configurations. Even at 1080p Low with 220 FPS, the Core Ultra 5 225's 10 cores and 10 threads are sufficient to feed the RTX 5090 without becoming the primary constraint. However, the fact that 1080p Low does not exceed 220 FPS — despite the RTX 5090's capability for far higher frame rates in less demanding titles — hints at some CPU headroom limitations.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable with this combo?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 220, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only configuration in the dataset that exceeds 200 FPS.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this setup?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K Medium, the system delivers 81 FPS average with a 69 FPS minimum, which is playable. At 4K High, it drops to 68 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 49 FPS. For consistent 60+ FPS at 4K, Medium settings are the practical ceiling.

Q: How does the RTX 5090's memory configuration affect performance?

A: The GPU features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, yielding 1.79 TB/s bandwidth. This ample capacity and bandwidth prevent memory-related stuttering even at 4K Ultra, where the 49 FPS average is likely compute-bound rather than memory-bound.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra at the same resolution?

A: At 1080p, Low produces 220 FPS versus 99 FPS on Ultra, a delta of 121 FPS. At 1440p, the gap is 90 FPS (164 vs 74). At 4K, the gap narrows to 59 FPS (108 vs 49), showing that higher resolutions compress the performance envelope.

Q: Does the Core Ultra 5 225 bottleneck the RTX 5090?

A: The data indicates some CPU constraint at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 220 FPS result is high but not exceptional for this GPU class. The CPU's 85th percentile ranking versus the GPU's 92nd percentile suggests the processor is the weaker component, though it remains sufficient for 60+ FPS at all tested settings except 4K Ultra.

Q: What are the minimum FPS values for Medium settings?

A: The dataset includes min FPS only for Medium presets: 140 at 1080p, 104 at 1440p, and 69 at 4K. These minimums are all above 60 FPS, indicating stable frame delivery at this preset level.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090's specifications are central to understanding the measured results. With 21,760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, the GPU has substantial raw throughput. Its 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 1,636.8 GTexel/s texture rate explain why the card can push 220 FPS at 1080p Low. The boost clock of 2407 MHz, running on a 5 nm TSMC process with 92,200 million transistors, provides the compute headroom for the demanding scenes in Red Dead Redemption 2.

The 32 GB memory capacity is noteworthy. At 4K Ultra, the game likely approaches but does not exceed this limit, as evidenced by the 49 FPS average being stable rather than collapsing due to memory swapping. The 1.79 TB/s bandwidth (from 1750 MHz memory clock at 28 Gbps effective on a 512-bit bus) ensures that texture streaming at 4K does not create frame hitches. The pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s are both well above what Red Dead Redemption 2 requires at any resolution, confirming that the GPU is not the limiting factor in any tested configuration.

The GPU's benchmark scores contextualize its gaming performance. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18,355 and PassMark G3D score of 39,650 place it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 376,728 indicates strong driver-level optimization for modern APIs. However, the PassMark DirectX 12 score of 185 is notably lower than the DirectX 11 score of 341, which may reflect driver overhead in certain workloads. For Red Dead Redemption 2, which uses an older engine, the strong DX11 performance (341 on PassMark) is more relevant than the DX12 numbers.

The GPU's 575 W TDP and dual-slot design suggest it is a power-hungry component, but the measured FPS data shows this power is translated into consistent performance. The RTX 5090's nearest rivals in the benchmark database — the Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB and 12 GB variants — have average scores of 79,605 and 79,396 respectively, putting the RTX 5090's 79,842 average just 0.3% and 0.6% ahead. This marginal lead over older compute-focused cards indicates that gaming-optimized drivers and features, not just raw compute, contribute to the measured gaming FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset provides 12 measured configurations: four settings (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) across three resolutions (1080p, 1440p, 4K). Starting at 1080p, the progression is: Low 220 FPS, Medium 164 FPS (min 140, max 189), High 137 FPS, and Ultra 99 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 56 FPS (25% reduction), while Medium to High costs 27 FPS (16% reduction), and High to Ultra costs 38 FPS (28% reduction). This non-linear scaling suggests that Ultra introduces disproportionately expensive effects compared to the step from Medium to High.

At 1440p, the same pattern holds but with lower absolute values: Low 164 FPS, Medium 123 FPS (min 104, max 141), High 102 FPS, and Ultra 74 FPS. The percentage drops are similar to 1080p: Low to Medium reduces by 25%, Medium to High by 17%, and High to Ultra by 27%. The consistency of these percentages across resolutions confirms that the settings impact is multiplicative rather than additive, and that the GPU handles the increased pixel count without changing the relative cost of each preset.

At 4K, the numbers compress further: Low 108 FPS, Medium 81 FPS (min 69, max 93), High 68 FPS, and Ultra 49 FPS. The Low to Medium drop is 25% (27 FPS), Medium to High is 16% (13 FPS), and High to Ultra is 28% (19 FPS). The 4K Medium result of 81 FPS is the highest 4K average above 60 FPS, making it the recommended resolution/preset combination for smooth play. The 4K Ultra result of 49 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold but remains playable for a story-driven game.

Comparing across resolutions at the same setting reveals the pixel-scaling cost. For Low, 1080p to 1440p costs 56 FPS (25% reduction), and 1440p to 4K costs another 56 FPS (34% reduction). For Medium, the costs are 41 FPS (25%) and 42 FPS (34%). For High, the costs are 35 FPS (26%) and 34 FPS (33%). For Ultra, the costs are 25 FPS (25%) and 25 FPS (34%). The consistent 25% and 34% reductions across all settings indicate that resolution scaling is independent of preset, with the GPU handling the additional pixels uniformly.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal configuration depends on the player's priority for frame rate versus visual fidelity. For 60+ FPS gameplay at 4K, Medium settings (81 FPS average, 69 FPS minimum) are the clear choice. This preset provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold, with minimum FPS still above 60. The High preset at 4K (68 FPS) is also viable but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes, as the minimum FPS was not measured but the average is only 8 FPS above the target.

For 1440p, the High preset (102 FPS) offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. The Ultra preset (74 FPS) is playable and provides the highest fidelity, but the 102 FPS of High is significantly smoother, particularly for a game with frequent horseback traversal and large open-world vistas. The Medium preset (123 FPS) is unnecessary at this resolution unless the player has a high-refresh-rate display and wants to minimize any frame drops.

At 1080p, the Ultra preset (99 FPS) is the recommended choice, as it delivers near-100 FPS while maximizing visual quality. The High preset (137 FPS) offers 38 additional FPS but with noticeably reduced graphical settings. Given that the RTX 5090 is powerful enough to maintain 99 FPS at Ultra, there is little reason to compromise. The Medium (164 FPS) and Low (220 FPS) presets are only useful for extreme refresh rate displays beyond 144 Hz.

For players with variable refresh rate monitors, the Medium presets provide the most stable frame delivery, as evidenced by the min/max data. At 4K Medium, the 69-93 FPS range (24 FPS spread) is well-controlled. At 1440p Medium, the 104-141 FPS range (37 FPS spread) is wider but still within G-Sync/FreeSync range. The absence of min/max data for other presets makes it difficult to assess their frame-time consistency, but the average FPS figures suggest all presets are stable enough for gameplay.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is a 10-core, 10-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm TSMC process. Its base clock of 3.30 GHz and boost clock of 4.90 GHz provide adequate single-thread performance, as evidenced by the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3,655. The 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache are sufficient for game workloads. The CPU's 85th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 36,938, places it in the upper-middle tier of processors.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU's role is to manage game logic, physics, and draw calls. The 220 FPS result at 1080p Low indicates that the CPU can handle the game's single-threaded bottlenecks at high frame rates. However, the fact that 1080p Low does not exceed 220 FPS suggests there is a ceiling, likely due to the game engine's reliance on fewer threads. The CPU's 10 threads are adequate for this workload, but the lack of hyperthreading (10 cores, 10 threads) means there is no extra thread headroom for background tasks.

The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 25,891 and PassMark multithread score of 30,459 demonstrate solid multi-threaded performance, but Red Dead Redemption 2 does not heavily utilize many cores. The PassMark physics score of 2,342 is more relevant, as game physics often scale with single-thread performance. The CPU's nearest rivals — the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, Ryzen 5 5500X3D, Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450, and Intel Core i9-12900T — all have average scores within 0.5% of the Ultra 5 225, indicating that this processor is performance-competitive with its immediate peers.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s (dual-channel DDR5) is sufficient for game data streaming, though the RTX 5090's 1.79 TB/s bandwidth is substantially higher. This asymmetry does not create a bottleneck in the measured results, as the game's asset streaming is handled by the GPU's memory pool. The CPU's 65 W TDP and 3 nm process node suggest efficient operation, but the benchmark data does not include power consumption during gaming, so this remains a qualitative observation.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 76th out of 2,902 tested combos for Red Dead Redemption 2. This places the system in the top 2.6% of all tested configurations, which is notable given the CPU is not a flagship model. The ranking reflects the RTX 5090's dominant role in determining gaming performance, as the GPU's 92nd percentile ranking contributes more to the overall result than the CPU's 85th percentile.

The combo rank of 76 out of 2,902 means there are 75 configurations that perform better in this specific game. These likely include pairings of the RTX 5090 with higher-end CPUs such as the Core Ultra 9 or Ryzen 9 series, which would provide marginal improvements at lower resolutions. The gap between this combo and the top-ranked systems is probably most pronounced at 1080p Low, where CPU limitations are most apparent. At 4K Ultra, the CPU's influence diminishes, and the RTX 5090 becomes the sole determinant of performance.

Relative to other RTX 5090 configurations, this combo's rank suggests that the Core Ultra 5 225 is a reasonable but not optimal pairing. The 220 FPS ceiling at 1080p Low is likely lower than what a faster CPU could achieve, but the practical difference is minimal for most players. The 49 FPS at 4K Ultra is likely identical to what any CPU would produce with this GPU, as the game becomes purely GPU-bound at that resolution and settings level.

The rank of 76 out of 2,902 also indicates that this combo outperforms the vast majority of tested systems, including those with older GPUs or lower-tier CPUs. For a game released in 2018, this modern hardware combination delivers exceptional performance, with only the highest-end CPU/GPU pairings exceeding it. The data shows that this combo is well-suited for 4K Medium gaming (81 FPS) and excellent for 1440p High (102 FPS), making it a versatile choice for players who prioritize resolution and visual quality.