Red Dead Redemption 2
We are using the latest version of the brand-new game Red Dead Redemption 2 which is 1207.73. This game is very taxing on graphics. We are using the in-game built-in benchmark for our tests. This is the most real-world benchmark we’ve ever seen, it’s exactly the kind of run-through we’d chose in the game to use. It runs just like a player was playing the game so we are very confident in its results. This game runs by default in the Vulkan API. We have customized our graphics settings in this game and will show you the settings.
Apples-to-Apples Custom “High” Settings
In this first graph below we have customized the game’s settings to a “High” level of graphics settings. These are far from the game’s maximum game settings, but still provides a good level of visual detail with all options set to “High.” Just note that all the settings shown have an “Ultra” option plus higher slider options and so forth. We generally have everything turned on, just at “High” settings as shown in these screenshots.
In this comparison graph, you will see how demanding this game is, and this isn’t even near the maximum game settings. Also, note in the graph we are comparing from 720p to 1080p to 1440p. We’ve included 720p (1280×720) since this is a lower-end video card.
1440p and 1080p are really out of the question at “High” settings in this game. Only 720p comes close to playable at 46 FPS. This shows how drastic resolution affects performance. Overclocking the video card does help, it really makes 720p viable at “High” settings. We are looking at best at about an 8% boost in performance with this overclock.
Apples-to-Apples Custom “Medium” Settings
In this graph below we have lowered the game to a custom “Medium” graphics settings level. Basically, everything is at Medium as you can see in the screenshots. The visual quality isn’t that bad honestly.
Even at Medium, you can see 1440p is out of the question. However, 1080p starts to come into play a little bit. For the ultimate smoothness 720p is killing it with an average of 61 FPS at Medium settings.
Playable Settings
To really make this game ultimately smooth though we did explore lowering the settings to “Low” settings as shown in the above screenshots. When we did this performance at 1080p was at 46 FPS average and overclocking it brought us close to an average of 50 FPS at 1080p.
This game is very demanding, it’s brand new, and it shows to be extremely taxing. For this video card, which is a very fast GTX 1650 1080p will struggle unless you are at low settings. It seems though 720p might be the sweet spot here and allow you to play at Medium settings with ultimate smoothness.