Red Dead Redemption 2 PC Performance Review and Optimisation Guide

When using Red Dead Redemption 2’s Maximum preset, the settings for which are detailed on page 2, we can see that the game is a huge performance hog at 1080p. In fact, the framerates are only around 2x higher than 4K in practically all cases, which is odd given 4K’s 4x resolution boost. 

Yes, we know that a lot of people will start using the term unoptimised to describe these performance levels, but it’s also worth noting that even our ageing GTX 1060 and RX 580 can achieve 60FPS average framerates with the right settings. It is also worth noting that Red Dead Redemption 2 can look great while most of the game’s graphical options are set to low. Just look at our image comparisons on pages 3 and 4.  

When comparing teams Geforce and Radeon, we can see that AMD’s graphics cards are ahead in all cases. The RX 5700 XT bests the RTX 2060 Super, the RX 580 bests Nvidia’s GTX 1060 and AMD’s ageing RX Vega 56 can bite on the heels of Nvidia’s RTX 2060 (non-super) Founders Edition. Even so, AMD has not ultra-high-end graphics card to compete with the likes of the RTX 2080 Super and RTX 2080 Ti, so Nvidia still has the most capable graphics cards on the market, albeit at higher price tags. 

Red Dead Redemption 2 reminds us that there is more to PC gaming that setting things to Ultra and then forgetting about it. We are in charge of our own optimisation, which is why we created our own optimised presets on page 2.