Red Dead Redemption 2

Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus provides the computational foundation for Red Dead Redemption 2, with 24 cores and 24 threads operating at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz. This high core count is substantial for modern gaming, though the game itself, released in 2018, may not fully utilize all 24 threads; however, the high boost clock ensures that single-threaded tasks, which are often critical for game logic and physics, are handled with minimal latency. The CPU’s 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache help keep frequently accessed data close to the cores, reducing stalls during intensive gameplay scenes. In synthetic benchmarks, the processor posts strong results, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51,731 and a single-core score of 7,303, indicating that both multi-threaded and single-threaded performance are robust. Data from PassMark shows a multi-thread score of 60,860 and a single-thread score of 4,823, reinforcing the processor's capability to feed a high-end GPU like the RTX 3080 without becoming a limiting factor in most scenarios.

Benchmark results indicate that the Ultra 9 290K Plus sits in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84,003. Compared to its nearest rivals, it holds a marginal 0.2% lead over the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, which scores 83,807, and a 1.1% advantage over the AMD EPYC 4584PX, which scores 83,090. The gap widens slightly against the AMD EPYC 9135, where the Ultra 9 is 1.2% faster, but it trails the AMD EPYC 7F72 by 1.3%, which scores 85,072. These deltas are small, suggesting that in gaming, where frame rates are often GPU-bound, the CPU’s exact position among these rivals will have negligible impact on the measured FPS in Red Dead Redemption 2. The processor’s high memory bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s, supported by dual-channel DDR5 memory, further ensures that data transfer between the CPU and RAM is not a bottleneck, allowing the game’s large open world to stream assets efficiently.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for Red Dead Redemption 2 reveals a clear hierarchy across the four available presets, with the optimal choice depending on the user’s resolution and preference for visual fidelity versus frame rate smoothness. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 145 FPS, which is exceptionally high and suitable for competitive play or high-refresh-rate displays. The Medium preset drops to 109 FPS, while High yields 91 FPS, and Ultra falls to 65 FPS. For a 1080p display, the Medium preset appears to offer the best balance, as it maintains a frame rate well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay while still providing a significant visual upgrade over Low; the jump from Medium to High costs 18 FPS, which might be noticeable on a 144Hz monitor, but the jump from Medium to Low only gains 36 FPS, making Medium the sweet spot for most users.

Moving to 2560x1440, the same pattern emerges but with lower overall headroom. The Low preset averages 108 FPS, which is still very smooth, while Medium averages 81 FPS, and High averages 68 FPS. Ultra drops to 49 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target and may introduce stutter on some displays. At this resolution, the High preset is the recommended choice for a balanced experience, as it stays above 60 FPS while providing the richer detail that High settings offer compared to Medium; the difference between High and Medium is 13 FPS, which is acceptable, but the visual improvements in texture quality and shadow detail justify the trade-off. At 3840x2160, the situation becomes more demanding, with Low averaging 72 FPS, Medium at 54 FPS, High at 45 FPS, and Ultra at 32 FPS. For 4K gaming, the Low preset is the only option that consistently exceeds 60 FPS, but the Medium preset, with its average of 54 FPS and minimum of 46 FPS, provides a more visually pleasing experience for users who can tolerate frame rates in the 50s, especially on a 60Hz display where the difference between 54 and 60 FPS is less critical.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior of Red Dead Redemption 2 with this CPU-GPU combination clearly identifies the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 as the primary performance limiter as resolution increases. Starting at 1920x1080 with the High preset, the average FPS is 91. When moving to 2560x1440, the average drops to 68 FPS, representing a 25% reduction in frame rate. Further scaling to 3840x2160 brings the average down to 45 FPS, which is a 34% drop from the 1440p result and a 51% drop from the 1080p result. This steep decline with each resolution step is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the rendering workload increases exponentially with pixel count, and the CPU, which is highly capable, cannot compensate for the GPU’s limitations.

The pattern holds across other settings as well. At Low settings, the frame rates are 145 FPS at 1080p, 108 FPS at 1440p, and 72 FPS at 4K, showing a 26% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 33% drop from 1440p to 4K. At Medium, the numbers are 109, 81, and 54 FPS, with drops of 26% and 33% respectively. At Ultra, the frame rates are 65, 49, and 32 FPS, with drops of 25% and 35% respectively. The consistency of these percentage drops across all presets suggests that the RTX 3080’s rendering capacity is the bottleneck; the CPU’s performance headroom, evidenced by its high multi-core scores, does not manifest as higher frame rates at lower resolutions because the GPU is already stretched to its limits. The data shows that the RTX 3080’s 10 GB of GDDR6X memory and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, the memory capacity may also be a factor, as the game’s high-resolution textures can exceed 10 GB, leading to potential stuttering or reduced performance.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for a 1440p monitor to maintain a smooth 60 FPS experience?

A: Benchmark results show that at 2560x1440, the High preset averages 68 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS target. The Medium preset averages 81 FPS, offering more headroom, but the High preset provides better visual quality while still meeting the performance requirement.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rival in terms of average benchmark score?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has an average benchmark score of 84,003, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K’s score of 83,807. This indicates a negligible performance difference between the two processors.

Q: Is the RTX 3080 capable of running this game at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: At 3840x2160, the only preset that averages above 60 FPS is Low, with 72 FPS. The Medium preset averages 54 FPS, which may be playable on a 60Hz display, but higher presets like High and Ultra drop to 45 and 32 FPS respectively, which are not ideal for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 145 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 65 FPS. This represents an 80 FPS difference, showing that Ultra settings impose a significant performance penalty.

Q: Does the CPU’s high core count provide an advantage in this game?

A: The CPU has 24 cores and 24 threads, but Red Dead Redemption 2, released in 2018, likely does not scale perfectly across all cores. However, the high boost clock of 5.80 GHz ensures strong single-threaded performance, which is more critical for this game’s engine.

Q: How does the RTX 3080’s performance rank relative to other GPUs?

A: The RTX 3080 is in the 68th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23,172. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA P106-100, has a score of 23,249, which is 0.3% higher, indicating that the RTX 3080 is closely matched with these competitors in synthetic tests.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is the driving force behind the measured FPS in Red Dead Redemption 2, and its specifications directly explain the performance scaling observed across resolutions and settings. The GPU features 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s. This memory configuration is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but at 4K, the 10 GB capacity can become a limiting factor for high-resolution texture packs, potentially causing the GPU to fall back to slower memory management. The core clocks are set at a base of 1440 MHz and a boost of 1710 MHz, which, combined with 8,704 shading units, 272 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, allow for solid rasterization performance. The GPU’s FP32 compute power is rated at 29.77 TFLOPS, and it includes 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores, though Red Dead Redemption 2 does not heavily utilize ray tracing, making these features less relevant for this title.

Benchmark data places the RTX 3080 in the 68th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23,172. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA P106-100, which scores 23,249 (0.3% higher), and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16, which scores 23,250 (0.3% higher). The RTX 3080 also trails the AMD Radeon RX 6600M by 0.4% and the AMD Radeon R9 M290X by 0.4%, with scores of 23,273 and 23,276 respectively. These small deltas in synthetic benchmarks suggest that the RTX 3080 is positioned in a tight performance band, but in real-world gaming, its 10 GB memory and high bandwidth give it a distinct advantage over these rivals, especially at higher resolutions. The measured FPS data shows that the GPU is the bottleneck at 4K, where even at Low settings, the frame rate drops to 72 FPS from 145 FPS at 1080p, confirming that the rendering pipeline is saturated.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for Red Dead Redemption 2 with the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 provides a comprehensive view of performance across all resolution and settings combinations. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the highest average FPS at 145, followed by Medium at 109 FPS with a minimum of 92 and maximum of 125. The High preset averages 91 FPS, and Ultra drops to 65 FPS. This resolution shows that the CPU-GPU combo can easily exceed 60 FPS even at High settings, making 1080p the most accessible resolution for high-refresh-rate monitors.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset maintains an average of 108 FPS, which is still very smooth. The Medium preset averages 81 FPS, with a minimum of 69 and maximum of 93, indicating some frame time variance but generally stable performance. The High preset averages 68 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS target, while Ultra drops to 49 FPS, which may be too low for some users. This resolution represents a balanced point where the RTX 3080’s 10 GB memory is sufficient, and the visual quality is significantly improved over 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops considerably. The Low preset averages 72 FPS, making it the only viable option for 4K gaming at high refresh rates. The Medium preset averages 54 FPS, with a minimum of 46 and maximum of 62, which may cause noticeable stutter on 60Hz displays. The High preset averages 45 FPS, and Ultra falls to 32 FPS, both of which are below the ideal playable threshold. The data clearly shows that the RTX 3080 is the limiting component at 4K, as the CPU’s powerful multi-core performance cannot alleviate the GPU’s rendering burden. Overall, the combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K requiring significant compromises in settings to maintain playable frame rates.