Red Dead Redemption 2: PC graphics benchmark review (revisited) - Article - Guide - Review

Red Dead Redemption II for PC benchmarked- 2020 retest
PC graphics performance/analysis review for Windows 10 PC with 30 graphics cards

July 2020 - One of biggest AAA PC Game released back in Nov 2019 was, of course, Red Dead Redemption II for PC. When the game was released we published our performance analysis in relation to many graphics cards and monitor resolutions. However patch after patch and graphics card driver after driver where released, we noticed subtle yet significant changes in game rendering performance. So much so that we made the call to remove the title from our graphics card reviews, as the FPS fluctuated continuously. Red Dead Redemption II for PC is still one of the best selling titles for the PC, it's cherished by many and with many months away from the original release, the patches and performance driver enhancements have stabilized. As such, we figured we'd re-do all testing to see where the game is with the latest patches and drivers installed. 

All results have been retested, we'll also look at DirectX12 versus VULKAN once again, and also performance CPU core scaling results as well as we'll be testing the Game on a ~400 USD processor from Intel ( Core i9 9900K) as well as the Ryzen 9 3900X.

When Red Dead Redemption II got launched for the console platform, the entire PC community was like what .. no PC release? But, it has been the same with the GTA series, Rockstar games always launch exclusively on the console, and then moves onwards to the PC platform, unfortunately, a long long time later. Red Dead Redemption II is back for PC. The PC version has better visuals than its console counterpart. With all-new graphical and technical enhancements for deeper immersion, Red Dead Redemption 2 for PC takes full advantage of the power of the PC to bring every corner of this massive, rich and detailed world to life including increased draw distances; higher-quality global illumination and ambient occlusion for improved day and night lighting; improved reflections and deeper, higher resolution shadows at all distances; tessellated tree textures and improved grass and fur textures for added realism in every plant and animal. Red Dead Redemption 2 for PC also offers HDR support, the ability to run high-end display setups with 4K resolution and beyond, multi-monitor configurations, widescreen configurations, faster frame rates and more.

Red Dead Redemption 2 for PC also includes additional Story Mode content including Bounty Hunting Missions, Gang Hideouts, Weapons and more; plus free access to the shared living world of Red Dead Online featuring all previously released improvements and the latest content for the complete Online experience including Frontier Pursuits and the specialist Roles of The Bounty Hunter, Trader and Collector, and much more. Red Dead Redemption 2 for PC is the ultimate way to experience one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time, winner of over 175 Game of the Year Awards and recipient of over 250 perfect scores.

Both AMD and NVIDIA have compatible drivers. We take a look at the game in our usual in-depth ways. That would be tested on the PC gaming wise relative towards graphics card performance with the latest AMD/NVIDIA graphics card drivers. Many graphics cards are being tested and benchmarked. We have a look at performance with the newest graphics cards and technologies. Multiple graphics cards are being tested and benchmarked with the latest cards such as the GeForce GTX 10 and RTX 20 (Super) series included as well as the latest Radeon RX series 5000, Vega, VII and series 500 graphics cards. You are going to need a reasonably modern PC with at least a mainstream graphics card to run the game nicely. We test with the game based on the final release for PC / Windows from this week, all patched up combined with latest AMD Radeon and Nvidia GeForce drivers. 

This article will cover benchmarks in the sense of average framerates, we'll look at all popular resolutions scaling from Full HD (1920x1080/1200), WQHD (2560x1440) and of course Ultra HD. UHDTV (2160p) is 3840 pixels wide by 2160 pixels tall (8.29 megapixels), which is four times as many pixels as 1920x1080 (2.07 megapixels).  We test with the game based on the optimized and available AMD Radeon Adrenalin Edition driver (download) and for Nvidia their GeForce WHQL driver (download). We'll test the game on the PC platform relative to graphics card performance with the AMD/NVIDIA graphics card drivers.