Red Dead Redemption 2 has finally reached the PC this week. The launch was not smooth, but Rockstar Games is actively working on fixing bugs. In particular, a patch has already been released that solves the problem with crashes.

Fans should be happy: finally, they can run the game in 4K and 60 frames per second… Or not? The Digital Foundry portal has explored a new version of the game.

Is it possible to reach 60 fps?

First of all, the main thing: trying to run the game at maximum settings, in 4K and stable 60 frames per second looks like an impossible task so far. Even on the GTX 2080 Ti, the average performance will vary around 50 frames. The best option is to lower the image quality to 1800p or lower.

The settings menu gives you access to a huge number of options, allowing you to calibrate the game in detail. Enthusiasts have already analyzed which parameters consume the most computer resources. In particular, it is worth looking at the following parameters:

MSAA – 56.7%

Reflection quality – 39.66%

Water quality – 34.37%

Lighting quality of volume effects – 25.79%

Resolution of near-volumetric effects – 21.88%

TAA – 11.26%

It is also interesting that an attempt to achieve console graphics quality also looks unrealistic. As Digital Foundry writes, if you take the Xbox One X as a basis, some of the console’s values are equivalent to the high settings, some – medium and low, and some – below the lowest available on the PC.

If you’re willing to sacrifice some sliders, you can get relatively stable 60 frames per second on even the least popular graphics cards. To test the wizards from Rockstar Games added a very useful benchmark, which runs the computer through a series of loaded scenes, including a trip through the city of Saint-Denis (the most demanding location for iron).

or the laziest, there is a slider with several presets, which allows you to choose flexibly what you want to focus on: performance or image quality. The developers clearly show the buyer what parameter is responsible for, encouraging further experiments.

The game has a set of scaling resolution, which allows you to reduce the load, while not sacrificing the quality of the interface. Downsampling is also available if necessary.

Which graphics card should I choose?

Despite this, the game still turned out to be eager. Digital Foundry was used as the basis for building a computer based on the overclocked Intel Core i7-8700K. There shouldn’t be any problems with the processor, but tricks can throw away budget models or solutions from AMD. For example, it is recommended to skip the Ryzen 3 2200G, as uncomfortable freezes are fixed. The situation should be better on Core i3.

As for video cards, several copies from different price categories were tested at once. Let’s run through the final average figures:

RTX 2080 Ti / Ultra / 1800p – 55 frames per second

RTX 2080 Ti / High / 1800p – 68 frames per second

RTX 2080 Ti / Medium / 1800p – 78 frames per second

RTX 2080 Ti / Low / 1800p – 88 frames per second

GTX 1060 6 GB / Medium+ / TAA / 1440p – 37-40 frames per second

GTX 1070 / Medium+ / TAA / 1440p – 53-54 frames per second

GTX 1660 / Medium+ / TAA / 1440p – 52 frames per second

GTX 1660 Ti / Medium+ / TAA / 1440p – 58 frames per second

RX 580 8 GB / Average+/ TAA / 1440p – 48 frames per second

RX 580 8 GB / Customizing / 1080p – 58-60 frames per second

Interestingly enough, the RX 580 is ahead of its competitor, the GTX 1060 6 GB. The gap can reach 28%. The game also supports Vulkan and Direct X 12, but it is the first API that leads the tests. The advantage on Nvidia video cards reaches 7%, and on AMD cards – 4%. That’s why Microsoft’s solution can be simply ignored, especially since friezes slip through it every now and then.

DF also decided to test the game on more budget video cards, which can be useful to the vast majority of players:

GTX 970 / Medium+ (due to limited memory available only for high quality textures) / TAA / 1440p – 36 frames per second.

R9 390 / Medium+ (available textures of ultrasound quality) / TAA / 1440p – 46 frames per second.



The main question is, is it possible to achieve a stable 60 frames per second? The answer is ambiguous. Even on the release on the consoles, it became clear that no benchmark is needed for stress testing because there are two problematic episodes in RDR 2: the fight in the saloon in Valentine, which takes place on the plot, as well as the city of Saint-Denis entirely.

It is on them that the video cards for PCs stumble: