Red Dead Redemption 2

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 delivers a high-refresh-rate experience in Red Dead Redemption 2, with performance scaling predictably across resolutions and presets. The data shows this combo is firmly in the top tier of tested configurations, ranking 76th out of 2902 combos, placing it in the 97.4th percentile. The measured results indicate that the RTX 5090 is the dominant factor, with the Core Ultra 5 235 providing sufficient headroom to avoid bottlenecking the GPU at most settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Red Dead Redemption 2 with this combo?

A: Based on the measured data, 2560x1440 offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance. At High settings, it delivers an average of 102 FPS, which is a 50% improvement over the 3840x2160 High result of 68 FPS, while still maintaining a substantial pixel count for image clarity.

Q: How does the RTX 5090's 32 GB VRAM impact performance in this game?

A: The 32 GB GDDR7 memory provides a massive buffer for the highest texture and geometry settings. The measured results show a substantial performance drop from High (68 FPS) to Ultra (49 FPS) at 4K, suggesting the Ultra preset places extreme demands on the GPU's processing power rather than being limited by VRAM capacity, as the card has ample memory headroom.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 a bottleneck for the RTX 5090 at 1080p?

A: The data suggests minimal bottlenecking. At 1920x1080 Low, the combo achieves 220 FPS, which is a significant jump from the 164 FPS at Medium. The 34% performance increase between Medium and Low indicates the CPU can push very high frame rates, though the scaling is not perfectly linear, suggesting some CPU limitation at the highest frame rates.

Q: What kind of frame rate can I expect at 4K with Ultra settings?

A: The measured average is 49 FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra. This is a demanding configuration for the RTX 5090, and the results indicate that while playable, it falls below the 60 FPS threshold that many consider the standard for a smooth experience.

Q: How does this combo compare to other top-tier systems in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A: The combo ranks 76th out of 2902 tested combinations, which places it in the top 2.6% of all configurations. This puts it ahead of the vast majority of systems, though there are 75 other combos that achieve higher average frame rates in this specific game.

Q: Which preset offers the most consistent frame pacing?

A: The Medium preset at any resolution provides the most consistent performance data. At 2560x1440 Medium, the measured minimum is 104 FPS and maximum is 141 FPS, showing a narrower frame time variance compared to other presets, which only list average FPS without min/max data.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the primary performance driver in this configuration. Its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides a 1.79 TB/s bandwidth, which is essential for feeding the 21760 shading units at high resolutions. The card's base clock of 2017 MHz and boost clock of 2407 MHz directly influence the raw compute throughput, measured at 104.8 TFLOPS for FP32 operations. In Red Dead Redemption 2, the GPU's role is amplified at higher resolutions, where the pixel fill rate of 423.6 GPixel/s becomes crucial.

The benchmark data shows a clear correlation between settings and GPU load. At 3840x2160, the RTX 5090 delivers 108 FPS on Low, 81 FPS on Medium, 68 FPS on High, and 49 FPS on Ultra. This scaling pattern, with a 120% increase from Ultra to Low, indicates that the Ultra preset introduces effects that heavily tax the GPU's shading units and texture rate (1,636.8 GTexel/s). The RTX 5090's 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores suggest that Red Dead Redemption 2's advanced lighting and shadow effects at Ultra are compute-intensive, causing the substantial frame rate drop.

The GPU's 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79842, places it in a similar performance tier to the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (0.3% higher score) and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X (1.4% lower score). This context is important because while the RTX 5090 is a flagship consumer card, its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include professional and mobile workstation parts, indicating that its real-world gaming performance is highly optimized for titles like Red Dead Redemption 2.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 provides the computational foundation for this combo. With 14 cores and 14 threads across its Arrow Lake-S architecture, it operates at a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. The 24 MB of shared L3 cache and per-core L2 cache of 3 MB are critical for feeding the GPU with draw calls and physics data. The CPU's 89th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 46062, places it in a competitive tier alongside the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (0.1% higher) and the Intel Core i9-13900HX (0.1% lower).

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions where the GPU has less work per frame. The measured FPS scaling from 220 FPS at 1080p Low to 164 FPS at 1080p Medium—a 25% reduction—shows that the CPU can sustain high frame rates but begins to hit its limits as the game's simulation and AI workload increases. The single-core performance, highlighted by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2085 and a Passmark single-thread score of 4516, is sufficient for the game's primary game logic thread, but the 14-core configuration ensures background tasks do not interfere with frame pacing.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s over a dual-channel DDR5 interface is a potential limiting factor at extreme frame rates. At 1080p Low, the 220 FPS average suggests the CPU is approaching its data throughput ceiling, as higher settings that require more memory traffic show diminishing returns in FPS scaling. The data indicates that the Core Ultra 5 235 is well-matched to the RTX 5090 for 1440p and 4K gaming, where the GPU is the primary bottleneck, but at 1080p, the CPU's performance characteristics become more relevant to the overall experience.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the High preset at 2560x1440 provides the most balanced experience for this combo. The 102 FPS average at this setting is a 38% improvement over the 4K High result of 68 FPS, while maintaining a visual quality that is significantly better than Medium. The High preset at 1440p also offers a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold, ensuring smooth gameplay even in demanding scenes with numerous NPCs and environmental effects.

For users prioritizing maximum visual fidelity, the 3840x2160 High setting at 68 FPS is playable, though it requires accepting a frame rate that is below the 75th percentile of what this hardware can achieve at lower settings. The Ultra preset at any resolution is not recommended for competitive or high-refresh-rate play, as the 4K Ultra result of 49 FPS falls below the 60 FPS standard. However, at 2560x1440 Ultra, the 74 FPS average is a viable option for players who prioritize image quality over frame rate consistency.

The Medium preset offers the most consistent frame pacing across all resolutions. At 1920x1080 Medium, the combo delivers a 164 FPS average with a minimum of 140 FPS and a maximum of 189 FPS, showing a frame time variance of 49 FPS. This consistency is valuable for players with high-refresh-rate monitors, as it minimizes stutter and input latency. The Low preset at 1080p achieves 220 FPS, but the visual quality trade-off is substantial, making it suitable only for competitive play or extreme refresh rate displays.

How This Combo Ranks

The combined performance of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 places this configuration at rank 76 out of 2902 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2. This ranking puts the system in the top 2.6% of all configurations, indicating that it outperforms the overwhelming majority of tested hardware combinations. The rank is determined by the measured average FPS across all tested settings and resolutions, with this combo demonstrating strong performance particularly at higher resolutions.

The ranking context is important when considering the CPU and GPU individually. The RTX 5090's 92nd percentile GPU ranking (avg score 79842) and the Core Ultra 5 235's 89th percentile CPU ranking (avg score 46062) suggest that this combo is well-matched, with neither component significantly dragging down the overall performance. The combo's rank of 76 out of 2902 is higher than either component's individual percentile ranking would suggest, indicating that the pairing is synergistic in Red Dead Redemption 2.

The 75 combos that rank above this one likely feature more powerful CPUs with higher core counts or faster single-thread performance, which could provide additional headroom at 1080p where the CPU shows some signs of limitation. However, the practical difference in gaming experience is minimal, as the RTX 5090 ensures that this combo delivers playable frame rates at all tested settings and resolutions. For 4K gaming, the combo's rank is likely higher, as the GPU becomes the dominant factor and the CPU's role diminishes.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of this combo's performance across three resolutions and four settings presets.

At 3840x2160 (4K), the Low preset delivers an average of 108 FPS, which is a strong result for a 4K resolution. The Medium preset reduces this to 81 FPS, with a minimum of 69 FPS and a maximum of 93 FPS, showing a frame time variance of 24 FPS. The High preset drops further to 68 FPS, and the Ultra preset bottoms out at 49 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra shows a 120% performance decrease, highlighting the GPU's workload at 4K.

At 2560x1440 (1440p), the Low preset achieves a 164 FPS average, which is a 52% improvement over 4K Low. The Medium preset delivers 123 FPS, with a minimum of 104 FPS and a maximum of 141 FPS, showing a variance of 37 FPS. The High preset produces 102 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 74 FPS. The 1440p results show a more linear scaling pattern compared to 4K, with a 122% increase from Ultra to Low.

At 1920x1080 (1080p), the Low preset reaches 220 FPS, demonstrating the combo's peak performance capability. The Medium preset delivers 164 FPS, with a minimum of 140 FPS and a maximum of 189 FPS, showing a variance of 49 FPS. The High preset achieves 137 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 99 FPS. The 1080p results show a 122% increase from Ultra to Low, similar to the 1440p scaling, indicating that the GPU remains the primary bottleneck even at lower resolutions.

The frame time data, available only for Medium presets, shows that the 1080p Medium setting has the highest variance at 49 FPS, while the 4K Medium has the lowest at 24 FPS. This suggests that at higher resolutions, the frame pacing is more consistent, likely due to the GPU being the sole bottleneck, whereas at 1080p, CPU and memory subsystem interactions introduce more variability.