Red Dead Redemption 2

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 combination delivers a playable but constrained experience in Red Dead Redemption 2, with performance heavily dictated by the graphics card. The data shows a clear pattern where resolution scaling has an outsized impact on frame rates, pushing the combo from smooth 1080p gameplay to unplayable territory at 4K Ultra. The benchmark results indicate that the RTX 2060 is the primary limiting factor, while the modern 14-core processor provides ample headroom that is never fully utilized at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep performance curve as resolution increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 85 FPS, which drops to 53 FPS at High settings. Moving to 1440p, the Low preset yields 63 FPS, while High settings fall to 39 FPS. At 4K, the numbers become critical: Low settings produce 42 FPS, High settings drop to 26 FPS, and Ultra settings bottom out at 19 FPS.

This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the limiting component across all resolutions. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at High settings results in a 26% performance drop (from 53 to 39 FPS), while the jump from 1440p to 4K at High settings causes a 33% reduction (from 39 to 26 FPS). The RTX 2060's 6 GB GDDR6 memory and 192-bit bus width are clearly stretched at 4K, where even Low settings cannot maintain a consistent 60 FPS.

The CPU's role in this scaling is minimal. The Core Ultra 5 245, with its 14 cores and 5.10 GHz boost clock, does not appear to bottleneck the GPU at any resolution. The evidence lies in the frame rate drops: if the CPU were limiting, the percentage decrease from 1080p to 4K would be smaller, as the GPU would be waiting on the processor. Instead, the data shows near-linear scaling with pixel count, a classic GPU-bound signature.

For users targeting 60 FPS, the analysis is straightforward. At 1080p, only Low settings (85 FPS) and Medium settings (63 FPS) clear this threshold. At 1440p, only Low settings achieve 63 FPS, barely above the target. At 4K, no preset reaches 60 FPS, with the best result being 42 FPS at Low settings. This suggests that 4K gaming is not viable for this combo without significant compromises.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU/GPU combo in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A: 1080p is the only resolution where the combo can consistently achieve 60 FPS, and only at Low (85 FPS) or Medium (63 FPS) settings. At 1440p, only Low settings break 60 FPS, while 4K never exceeds 42 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 compare to its nearest rivals in general benchmarks?

A: The RTX 2060 has an average benchmark score of 15290, which is essentially tied with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (15283, 0% delta) and AMD Radeon 680M (15270, 0.1% delta). It is 0.6% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM and 0.8% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7600.

Q: Can this combo handle Ultra settings in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A: Ultra settings are only playable at 1080p, where the combo produces 38 FPS. At 1440p, Ultra drops to 28 FPS, and at 4K, it falls to 19 FPS, making the experience unplayable at higher resolutions.

Q: Does the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 bottleneck the RTX 2060?

A: The data suggests no significant CPU bottleneck. The Core Ultra 5 245 scores 32924 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 4648 in single-core, ranking in the 90th percentile of all CPUs. The frame rate scaling with resolution is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario.

Q: How much VRAM does the RTX 2060 have, and does it matter for this game?

A: The RTX 2060 has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus with 336.0 GB/s bandwidth. This capacity appears sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but the significant FPS drops at 4K suggest memory bandwidth and capacity are limiting factors at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the CPU's general performance ranking compared to other processors?

A: The Core Ultra 5 245 has an average benchmark score of 48995, placing it 0.4% behind the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G and 0.5% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 7900. It is 0.6% ahead of the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H and 0.8% ahead of the Intel Core i5-14600K.

Settings Recommendations

The optimal settings depend on the target resolution and performance priority. For 1080p gaming, Medium settings at 63 FPS provide the best balance between visual fidelity and smoothness, with a minimum FPS of 54 and maximum of 73. This preset offers a 15% improvement in average FPS over High settings (53 FPS) while maintaining a more stable frame time, as indicated by the recorded min/max range.

At 1440p, users face a difficult trade-off. Low settings achieve 63 FPS, which is suitable for fast-paced gameplay, but the visual degradation is noticeable. Medium settings drop to 47 FPS with a minimum of 40 and maximum of 54, which is acceptable for a story-driven game but not ideal for competitive play. High settings at 39 FPS are borderline, and Ultra at 28 FPS is not recommended.

For 4K, the data strongly suggests avoiding this resolution entirely. The highest average FPS is 42 at Low settings, which is below the 60 FPS target and provides a suboptimal experience. High settings at 26 FPS and Medium at 31 FPS are not viable, and Ultra at 19 FPS is unplayable. Users with 4K displays should consider lowering the resolution to 1440p for a playable experience.

The measured FPS values for Medium settings show the most consistent frame pacing across all resolutions, with the smallest gap between minimum and maximum FPS. At 1080p, the range is 54-73 FPS (19 FPS spread), while at 1440p, it is 40-54 FPS (14 FPS spread), and at 4K, it is 27-36 FPS (9 FPS spread). This consistency makes Medium the most predictable preset for frame rate stability.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for this combo in Red Dead Redemption 2 is as follows:

1920x1080:

• Low: 85 FPS average
• Medium: 63 FPS average, 54 FPS minimum, 73 FPS maximum
• High: 53 FPS average
• Ultra: 38 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 63 FPS average
• Medium: 47 FPS average, 40 FPS minimum, 54 FPS maximum
• High: 39 FPS average
• Ultra: 28 FPS average

3840x2160:

• Low: 42 FPS average
• Medium: 31 FPS average, 27 FPS minimum, 36 FPS maximum
• High: 26 FPS average
• Ultra: 19 FPS average

The data reveals a consistent pattern where each step up in settings costs approximately 20-30% performance at any given resolution. At 1080p, the transition from Low to Medium costs 22 FPS (26% drop), Medium to High costs 10 FPS (16% drop), and High to Ultra costs 15 FPS (28% drop). This suggests that the Ultra preset is particularly demanding, likely due to increased draw distances and shadow quality.

The minimum FPS values for Medium settings provide insight into worst-case scenarios. At 1080p, the minimum of 54 FPS indicates that even demanding scenes stay above the 50 FPS threshold. At 1440p, the minimum of 40 FPS shows occasional dips that may be noticeable during intense action sequences. At 4K, the minimum of 27 FPS confirms that the experience falls below playable standards.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is clearly the performance bottleneck in this configuration. With a base clock of 1365 MHz and boost clock of 1680 MHz, the Turing-based GPU delivers 6.451 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which is modest by modern standards. The 1920 shading units and 120 texture mapping units work in tandem, but the 48 ROPs appear insufficient for high-resolution rendering in this game.

The memory subsystem is a critical factor. The 6 GB GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is adequate for 1080p but strained at 4K. The 14 Gbps effective memory speed is standard for the GeForce 20-series, but the capacity limitation is evident in the steep FPS drops at 4K resolution. The 4K Ultra result of 19 FPS suggests the GPU is running out of memory bandwidth, causing texture thrashing and reduced frame rates.

The GPU's overall benchmark performance places it in the 58th percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 15290. This ranking aligns with its position relative to rivals: it is essentially tied with the GeForce GTX 580 (0% delta) and AMD Radeon 680M (0.1% delta), and only slightly ahead of the RTX 3050 OEM (0.6%) and Radeon RX 7600 (0.8%). These marginal differences suggest that the RTX 2060 offers nothing exceptional in raw compute, but its feature set, including 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores, may provide advantages in games that utilize these technologies.

The 160 W TDP and dual-slot design are consistent with its performance class. The pixel rate of 80.64 GPixel/s and texture rate of 201.6 GTexel/s provide theoretical maximums that the measured FPS data shows are not achievable in practice at higher resolutions. The GPU's end-of-life production status indicates that it is a mature product with well-established drivers, but its age is reflected in the benchmark results.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a modern processor that far exceeds the requirements of Red Dead Redemption 2. With 14 cores and 14 threads, the Arrow Lake-S architecture provides substantial parallel processing capability. The base clock of 3.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.10 GHz ensure strong single-threaded performance, which is crucial for game logic and physics calculations.

The CPU's benchmark results confirm its capability. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32924 and single-core score of 4648 place it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs. The PassMark multi-thread score of 38706 and single-thread score of 4394 further validate its performance. The 24 MB shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample data storage for game assets, reducing memory latency.

The memory support for DDR5 with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth is an advantage, though the dual-channel configuration may limit memory-intensive tasks. The 65 W TDP is modest for a 14-core processor, indicating efficient power management. The integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics 64EU provides a fallback for basic display tasks, but the discrete RTX 2060 handles all gaming workloads.

In the context of this game, the CPU is not a limiting factor. The measured FPS data shows GPU-bound behavior, and the CPU's performance headroom means it can easily feed the RTX 2060 with draw calls and physics calculations. The CPU's nearest rivals, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (-0.4% delta) and AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (-0.5% delta), are within 1% of its average score, indicating that any of these processors would yield similar results in this game. The CPU's high percentile ranking (90th) suggests that it will remain relevant for future games that demand more processing power.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 ranks 2290 out of 2902 tested combos for Red Dead Redemption 2. This places the combo in the bottom 21% of all configurations tested, reflecting the GPU's age and performance limitations. The ranking is primarily driven by the RTX 2060's modest performance, as the CPU is capable of much higher frame rates with a more powerful graphics card.

The combo's ranking suggests it is suitable for 1080p gaming at medium settings, where it achieves 63 FPS, but struggles at higher resolutions. The 1440p Medium result of 47 FPS and 4K Low result of 42 FPS demonstrate that the combo is not optimized for high-resolution gaming. The rank of 2290 indicates that a significant majority of tested combos outperform this setup in this game.

The ranking should be interpreted in context. The combo's percentile of 58 for the GPU and 90 for the CPU shows a significant mismatch in capability. Users with this combo are likely experiencing CPU-limited performance in other applications, but in Red Dead Redemption 2, the GPU is the clear bottleneck. The 2902 total combos tested provide a broad comparison, and the 2290 rank places this setup in the lower-middle portion of the field.

For users considering this combo, the data suggests that 1080p Medium is the sweet spot, delivering 63 FPS with acceptable visual quality. The 1440p Low setting at 63 FPS is an alternative for those with higher-resolution displays, but the visual compromises are substantial. The 4K performance is not viable for serious gaming, and users should either lower their resolution or consider a more powerful GPU to improve their ranking and gaming experience.