Red Dead Redemption 2
A masterpiece of the RAGE engine, heavily taxing the GPU with volumetric lighting and water physics. Interestingly, it has relatively low CPU utilization compared to its graphical demands. Be prepared for a massive 150GB install size.
Actual FPS may vary based on RAM speed, background processes, and other system factors
Performance Report
At 1080p, frame rates range from 19 to 61 FPS depending on quality settings. At 1440p, frame rates range from 16 to 40 FPS. At 4K, frame rates range from 9 to 19 FPS.
The GeForce RTX 4090 is 279% above the recommended GPU (GeForce GTX 1060) for Red Dead Redemption 2. The Core i3-8121U is 53% below recommended, but 3% above minimum.
The Core i3-8121U sets the FPS ceiling at all 1080p settings, all 1440p settings, all 4k settings, while the GeForce RTX 4090 still has headroom.
This chart answers a simple question: which upgrade is more likely to increase FPS first? In this case, the answer is clearly the CPU.
The largest gap appears at 1080p Low, where the Core i3-8121U reaches about 67 FPS, while the GeForce RTX 4090 still has headroom up to roughly 271 FPS.
That means the Core i3-8121U is hitting its performance ceiling first, leaving a 75% gap versus the GeForce RTX 4090's available headroom in the most unbalanced scenario. Across all tested settings, this pairing is CPU-limited in 12 out of 12 cases, with 0 GPU-limited and 0 balanced results.
Overall, this is a clearly CPU-bound combination in this game.
The Core i3-8121U is consistently the limiting part in this game, so upgrading the CPU is more likely to deliver a larger FPS gain than upgrading the GPU.
This chart shows which upgrade is more likely to unlock more FPS in each tested setting. The lower line represents the part that reaches its limit first. When the CPU and GPU lines stay close together, the system is more balanced. When the gap widens, one component is more clearly holding the other back. Hover any setting to inspect it.
The lower line is the current limiter. The closer the two lines are, the more balanced the CPU and GPU are for this game.
Each line represents an estimated FPS ceiling for one component, rather than live usage alone.
To estimate the CPU ceiling, we pair the Core i3-8121U with GeForce RTX 5090, our current GPU anchor. To estimate the GPU ceiling, we pair the GeForce RTX 4090 with Ryzen 9 9950X3D, our current CPU anchor.
The lower line indicates the current limiter, since that component reaches its FPS ceiling first. In most scenarios, that is also the part most likely to deliver the bigger performance uplift if upgraded first.
The percentage shown represents the gap between the two ceilings. In practical terms, it shows how much of the stronger component's potential is left unused because the weaker one becomes the bottleneck first.
See how your processor and graphics card compare against the game official minimum and recommended system specs. The placement of your hardware is calculated using relative synthetic performance scores to help you gauge overall playability.
Your CPU is 53% below recommended and your GPU is 279% below recommended, but both meet minimum specs. Playable at Low/Medium settings, 1080p or below.
-53%vsrecommended
+279%vsrecommended
+3%vsminimum
+539%vsminimum
The Core i3-8121U and GeForce RTX 4090 will struggle to run Red Dead Redemption 2 at smooth framerates. At 1080p Ultra, you can expect around 19 FPS which is classified as "struggling". Consider lowering settings or upgrading your hardware.
Price data is not currently available for this combination. In general, look for setups where the CPU and GPU are balanced - this ensures you're not overspending on one component that the other can't keep up with.
For Red Dead Redemption 2, upgrading the CPU would usually improve performance first. In the Performance Limiter Analysis, the Core i3-8121U is the side that most often caps the frame rate, while the GeForce RTX 4090 still has additional headroom in the tested presets. The main bottleneck appears on the CPU side. The largest gap shows up at 1080p Low, where the CPU reaches about 67 FPS while the GPU still has headroom up to roughly 271 FPS. Across all tested settings, the distribution is 0/12 GPU-limited, 12/12 CPU-limited, and 0/12 balanced.
Red Dead Redemption 2 does not currently support Frame Generation technologies like DLSS 3 or FSR 3. Your performance is based entirely on native rendering. If the game adds support in a future update, newer GPUs will benefit the most.
Red Dead Redemption 2 requires at minimum a Core i5-2500K (CPU) and GeForce GTX 770 (GPU) with 8 GB RAM and 150 GB storage. For the recommended experience, you need a Core i7-4770K and GeForce GTX 1060 with 12 GB RAM. Your setup meets the minimum requirements but falls short of the recommended specs. You may need to lower some settings for smooth performance.
These Red Dead Redemption 2 FPS results are not arbitrary numbers. They come from calculations informed by thousands of real gaming benchmarks, and the typical accuracy range is around 10% to 15%. That makes them far more useful than generic FPS calculators that simply invent values without a benchmark foundation. Actual in-game performance can still vary with drivers, updates, RAM configuration, cooling, and the exact scene being rendered.
Performance estimates are based on synthetic benchmarks and hardware capabilities.
Results may vary based on drivers, OS, and background processes.
