Red Dead Redemption 2 requires a fairly recent quad or hex-core CPUlike the i7-4770K or the Ryzen 5 1500Xto run at 60 FPS using medium to high-quality settings. The GPU requirements include a GeForce GTX 1060 or a Radeon RX 480 for the baseline (1080p 30 FPS) experience.
Specs
Minimum
Recommended
CPU
Core i5-2500K / FX-6300
Core i7-4770K / Ryzen 5 1500X
GPU
GeForce GTX 770 / Radeon R9 280
GeForce GTX 1060 / Radeon RX 480
RAM
8 GB
12 GB
Storage
150 GB
150 GB
RDR2 Optimization Brief
Vulkan is generally more stable and delivers asmoother experience than DX12.
Reflection Quality is among the most taxing settings in RDR2. Reducing it to low quality can improve frame rates by 8-9%.
Reflection MSAA can be disabled for similar gains without sacrificing reflection quality.
Tree Tessellation can be safely disabled for a 9% performance boost at minimal quality loss.
Grass Shadows can be turned down to low for a massive improvement in the minimum frame rates (+13%).
Geometry and Grass LOD should be reduced to <50% on older and lower-end CPUs for smoother frame times.
Tree Quality and Parallax Mapping are best left at high for balanced quality and performance.
Upscaling is recommended for most PCs: Performance mode for 4Kbalanced for 1440pand quality for 1080p.
RDR2: Resolution & Upscaling
Red Dead Redemption 2 scales fairly well with resolutionaveraging 80 FPS at 4K116.5 FPS at 1440pand 137 FPS at 4K UHD. The 1% lows varied from 52 FPS to 67 FPS and 84 FPS at the three resolutions.
Test Bench
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X.
Cooler: Lian Li Galahad 360 AIO.
GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4090 FE.
Motherboard: MSI MPG X670E Carbon WiFi.
Memory: 16 GB x2 @ 6000 MT/s CL30.
DLSS
Red Dead Redemption 2 features several anti-aliasing techniquesincluding MSAAFXAAand TAA. We recommend everyone stick to DLSS or FSR upscaling for superior performance and quality.
FSR
Windows/System Settings to Optimize
Enable Resizable BAR.
Turn on Game Mode.
Enable Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling (HAGS) and Windowed Optimizations.
Use the Windows “High Performance” power profile and set your GPU power management mode to the same.
Disable Memory Integrity. Windows Menu->VBS->Device Security.
Ensure you use the proper XMP/EXPO memory profile (if available).
Overclock your GPU if you’re narrowly missing the 60 FPS mark.
Red Dead Redemption 2 features Vulkan and DirectX 12 APIs. The former is selected by default and for good reason. Vulkan produces similar averagesbut vastly superior lows than DX12thanks to the reduced CPU overhead.
Vulkan also delivers smoother 1% frametimes with DLSS and FSR enabled. We’re talking about gains of up to 30% or morewhich can drastically alter (improve) your experience. Ergostick to Vulkan.
Texture Quality & Filtering
As tradition dictates“Texture quality” and “Anisotropic filtering” are first on the list of graphics options. The former sets the quality or resolution of in-game textures (object skins) and directly depends on how much VRAM (graphics memory) you’ve got on your graphics card.
Red Dead Redemption 2 requires an 8 GB graphics card for optimal performance. Even running the game at 1080p or 1440p uses 7-8 GB of VRAM at the higher quality presets.
Texture filtering or anisotropic filtering continuously samples texture maps farther away from the camera (player viewport) to retain detail and avoid blurring (most common with maps perpendicular to the screen).
Texture filtering ensures that texture maps (mipmaps) retain their detail. Mipmaps are usually smaller than the original texture by a factor of 2 and there are points (texels) where multiple mipmaps may converge. These must be filtered to avoid blurring and other artifacts.
Bilinear filteringthe simplest form of texture filteringtakes four texel samples from the approximate position of the texel and calculates its average which is used as the final value. Bilinear filtering only uses texels from mipmaps identified by the game engine.
Trilinear filtering improves on bilinear filtering by continuously sampling and interpolating (averaging) texels from the two closest mipmaps for the target texelbut like BFit assumes that the texture is displayed as a square from the player’s perspectivefailing when viewed from an angle perpendicular to the screen.
This is due to the texel covering a depth (area along the axis perpendicular to the screen) longer than and a width narrower than the samples extracted from the mipmapsresulting in blurring due to under and over-samplingrespectively.
Anisotropic Filtering scales either the height or width of a mipmap by a ratio relative to the texture’s angle against the screen. The ratio is dependent on the maximum sampling value specifiedfollowed by taking the appropriate samples. It varies between 1 (no scaling) & 16defining the maximum degree by which a mipmap can be scaled.
The difference between these settings is the maximum angle that AF will filter the texture by. For example4x will filter textures at angles twice as steep as 2xbut will still apply standard 2x filtering to textures within the 2x range to optimize performance.
Lighting & Global Illumination
Lighting Quality adjusts the intensity and spread of artificial lighting. Higher quality options dramatically improve the lighting in dark/dimly lit areas (light dispersion and bleeding). Lower quality options limit the impact of artificial lighting on the scene.
Lighting Quality barely impacts performanceand should be maxed out.
Reducing it to low improves 1% lowsso folks on older CPUs might want to consider that.
Lighting Quality
Global illumination sets the quality of indirect lightingwhich subtly impacts the visual fidelityoften brightening darker and occluded areas by tracing more obscure light rays. It is most evident in darker areas with few light sources.
Global Illumination has a minimal performance impact.
Reducing its quality can slightly improve the 1% lows.
Global illumination
Shadow Quality
Red Dead Redemption 2 lets you adjust the shadow quality in five different ways on PC. This includes Shadow QualityFar ShadowsLong ShadowsSoft Shadowsand Grass Shadows. The first two are available in the main graphics menuwhile the remaining can be found under “Advanced Graphics.”
Shadow Quality
Shadow quality sets the resolution of shadow mapsadjusting the shadow detail. It primarily affects the graphics memory usagewith a slight reduction in lows.
Setting the shadow quality to ultra slightly reduces the 1% lows (5-10%).
The averages are mildly affected (2%).
LongFar & Soft Shadows
Far Shadow Quality
Long shadows enable more elongated sunrise/sunset shadows. Along with “Far Shadows,” they drastically impact the minimum frame rates and 1% lows. It nominally impacts the average frame rate (2-3%).
Long ShadowsSoft Shadows
Soft shadows produce more accurate shadow silhouettesmaking the edges smoother and less pronounced. This is usually implemented where the shadows are farther away from the caster. They drastically reduce performance on low-end PCs.
Setting soft shadows to ultra reduces frame rates by up to 5% and the lows by 14%.
The medium and high quality options are more forgivingreducing the averages by 2-3% and the lows by 4-5%.
Grass shadows drastically impact the visual fidelity at the cost of ~13% lower minimum framerates and a 3-5% reduction in averages.
Grass Shadows
Reflections & Ambient Occlusion
Red Dead Redemption 2 handles reflections cast by mirrorswaterand other glossy objects separately:
Mirror reflections don’t affect general performance.
Reflection Quality adjusts the quality of low-resolution (diffuse) reflections cast on bottlesmetal objectsand other glassy surfaces.
Reflection quality is among the most taxing settings in the gamereducing the average frame rate by 8-10%. We recommend opting for medium or low quality.
Disabling “Reflection MSAA” saves a lot of performance without degrading visualsReflection Quality
SSAO (Screen Space Ambient Occlusion) enables secondary shadows along edgescrevicesand corners. The standard options have a nominal impact on performance.
You can enable “Full Resolution SSAO” under the advanced section for fullerdarker shadows at the cost of 13% lower minimums and 8% average framerates. Its quality and performance rely on your input resolution.
SSAO Quality
Water Quality: Reflection & Refraction
Water quality sets the resolution of water reflectionsrefractions (caustics)and physics (waves). Each can be individually set under the advanced section for a subtle performance trade-off. The high-quality option moderately reduces the 1% lows.
Water Quality
Volumetrics: FogClouds & Godrays
Volumetrics sets the quality of cloudsfogand godrays. Lower values produce blurred/pixelated outputwith high/ultra rendering smoother effects.
High seems to be the sweet spotonly 2-3% slower than low.
Ultra can reduce the average FPS by up to 5%.
Volumetrics Quality
Near Volumetric Resolution (Advanced Graphics) sets the volumetric resolution for nearby godrays and fogand can be maxed out on most PCs.
Far Volumetric Resolution can be safely reduced to lower values without an apparent drop in visual fidelityas it only impacts fog and cloud quality in the distance.
Unlocked Volumetric Resolution (advanced) enables full-resolution volumetric lightingproducing more detailedrealistic godrays. It scales with your screen resolutionand can be taxing on low and midrange GPUs.
It reduces the average FPS by up to 5%.
Volumetric Lighting in the advanced section sets the quality of godrays at sunrise and sunset. It drastically impacts performance and works best at high.
Ultra quality can reduce the 1% lows by over 10%.
GeometryGrass & Tree Quality
Geometry LOD sets the level of detail (LOD) of terrainvegetationtreesand mountains. It also affects the shading quality of man-made structures like buildingstentsand fences. The highest quality option is 5% slower than the lowest. +2 is the sweet spot.
Geometry LOD
Grass LOD sets the densitydetailand draw distance of grass. Lower quality options cause increased pop-ins and barren landscapes. It drastically improves the visual fidelity at a minimal performance cost. The highest quality option is 4% slower than the lowest.
Grass LOD
Tree Quality is the third LOD setting that sets the detail and render distance of treesbushesand other natural vegetation. High balances quality and performanceas ultra can drain up to 10% of your 1% lows. It’s also 5-6% slower than high on average.
Tree Quality LOD
FurParallax Mapping & Tessellation
The fur setting sets the detail of fur coats and any furry wildlife roaming the wilderness. In most casesyou won’t feel its impactso leave it as is.
Parallax mapping is a technique used to create 3D detail out of 2D geometry using normal maps. It is a cheap method of improving the quality of flat textures without much of a performance loss. The ultra quality is 4% slower than the rest.
Parallax Mapping
Tessellation Quality sets the polygon density of treesmudand other deformable surfaces. It’s used sparinglymostly on tree trunkswhich can be disabled for a healthy FPS boost of up to ~10% or more.
Tessellation Quality
Particle Quality & Decals
Particle quality sets the resolution of particlesincluding emberssmokeand dust matter. It hardly affects performance.
Particle Lighting Quality sets the resolution of textures used for particle lighting. It leads to a more cinematic experience without hurting frame rates.
Decals set the details of bullet holesimpact marksand other player/NPC-made impacts on walls and surfaces. The performance impact is negligible.
RDR2: VRAM Usage
Red Dead Redemption 2 uses up to 9 GB of graphics memory at 4K8.25 GB at 1440pand 8 GB at 1080p using the “Ultra” quality settings (without upscaling). Enabling DLSS or FSR reduces the VRAM usage by 500-600 MBso you should be good with an 8 GB graphics card even at 4K.
RDR2: CPU Bottlenecks
Red Dead Redemption 2 is mildly CPU-bounddepending on your hardware and graphics API. Vulkan has a lower CPU overhead than DirectX 12with a GPU-Busy deviation of 3-5%versus 7-10% on the latter.
Red Dead Redemption 2 averages over 50 FPS (1440p) and 70 FPS (1080p) on the RTX 3060 using our optimized settings. The primary tweaks involve reducing global illuminationtessellationand volumetric quality to “High.” The reflection quality also has to be turned down to “Medium.”
The GeForce RTX 4060 laptop GPU averaged 71 FPS and 63 FPS at 1200p and 1600prespectively.
The game is completely GPU-bound even on budget hex-core CPUsand tends to use approximately 6 GB of graphics memory at 1080p and 1440p. Here’s our mini-guide for a detailed look at the game’s performance on low-end PCs.
ProcessorsPC gamingand the past. I have been writing about computer hardware for over seven years with more than 5000 published articles. Started off during engineering college and haven't stopped since. Find me at HardwareTimes and PC Opset.
