Guides

Red Dead Redemption 1 PC Optimized Settings & Guide

After 14 years of console exclusivity, Red Dead Redemption 1 has made its way to PC via Steam and Epic Games. This isn’t a remake or an upgrade of the original, but the same game with customizable graphics and higher resolution/frame rates. Most PCs should be able to run it at the highest quality graphics settings with ease. For those who can’t, here’s our optimization guide for Red Dead Redemption 1.

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.
  • Here’s a guide with more detailed instructions.

Red Dead Redemption 1 PC System Requirements

Minimum Specs

  • OS: Windows 10 64-Bit.
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-4670|AMD FX-9590.
  • Memory: 8 GB.
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960|AMD Radeon R7 360.
  • DirectX: Version 12.
  • Storage: 12 GB available space.
  • Sound Card: Direct X Compatible.
  • OS: Windows 10 64-Bit.
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-8500|AMD Ryzen 5 3500X.
  • Memory: 8 GB.
  • Graphics: NVIDIA RTX 270|AMD RX 5700 XT.
  • DirectX: Version 12.
  • Storage: 12 GB available space.
  • Sound Card: Direct X Compatible.
  • Additional Notes: SSD recommended.

Contents & Testing Methodology

  • Benchmarks at a glance:
    1. Graphics Presets.
    2. Shadow Quality, Soft Shadows, and Shadow Blend.
    3. Texture Filtering & Motion Blur.
    4. Geometry, Terrain, Tree & Grass LOD.
    5. Upscaling & Anti-Aliasing.
    6. VRAM usage.
    7. CPU bottlenecks.
    8. Best Graphics Settings for Red Dead Redemption 1.
  • Hardware setup used:
    • CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X.
    • Cooler: Arctic Liquid Freezer III 420.
    • GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti FE.
    • Motherboard: MSI MPG B650 Edge WiFi.
    • Memory: 16 GB x2 @ 6000 MT/s CL30.

Red Dead Redemption 1: Graphics Quality Presets

The 144 FPS lock makes lower-resolution tests obsolete. The internal rendering resolution was set to 5K (NVIDIA DSR) to get around this. We recorded an average framerate of 90 FPS at “Ultra,” 101.5 FPS at “High,” 120.7 FPS at “Medium,” and 144 FPS (capped) at the “Low” quality graphics preset.

Shadow Quality, Soft Shadows & Blending

Red Dead Redemption 1 features three graphics settings that modify the shadow quality. The “Shadow Quality” setting sets the resolution of the shadow maps. It considerably impacts performance, reducing the average framerate by ~26% at the highest quality setting.

The second is “Shadow Softness” which does what it sounds like it does. The lowest option grants a 14% performance uplift at the cost of sharp shadow edges. Unless that’s an issue, you can easily reduce this setting to the lowest.

Shadow blend sets the technique used to blend shadow cascades. The dithering and “Off” setting can lead to artifacts along the shadow edges as the game skips the blending of different cascade maps. The performance impact of this setting is trivial.

Texture Filtering & Motion Blur

Texture filtering samples mipmaps for sharper and more detailed textures in the distance. Red Dead Redemption 1 doesn’t let you completely disable it, instead setting Anisotropic Filtering 4x as the lowest option. Either way, the performance impact is minor.

Motion blur (surprisingly) costs more than texture filtering, reducing the average framerates by 2-3% at higher resolutions.

Geometry, Terrain, Tree & Grass LOD

Red Dead Redemption 1 features five LOD sliders on PC, but only one notably impacts performance. Geometry, terrain, tree detail, and tree draw distance have a negligible impact on the game’s framerates.

Grass LOD sets the distance at which grass is culled (not rendered). Even the minimum value is quite high in Red Dead Redemption 1. Reducing this setting can grant a 3-4% performance uplift.

Upscaling & Anti-Aliasing

Red Dead Redemption 1 features two upscalers on PC: NVIDIA DLSS 3.7 and AMD FSR 3.1. Only the former supports frame generation (on RTX 40 GPUs). Upscaling improves the average framerates by 50%. 58%, and 68% at the “Quality,” “Balanced,” and “Performance” modes, respectively.

Red Dead Redemption 1: VRAM Usage & CPU Bottlenecks

Red Dead Redemption 1 uses up to ~8 GB of graphics memory at 5K “Ultra.” UHD 4K and lower should remain in the 4-6 GB range for the highest quality preset. Reducing the graphics settings only grants a 200-300 MB reduction in VRAM consumption.

Despite being a really old game, Red Dead Redemption 1 runs well on modern multi-threaded CPUs. We recorded a GPU-Busy deviation of 2% at 1440p, implying there are no CPU bottlenecks at the resolution.

1440p Ultra

Red Dead Redemption 1 Performance Summary

Three settings in Red Dead Redemption that have a significant impact on performance, and they’re all related to shadow quality. They reduce the average framerate by 26%, 14%, and 6% at the highest quality preset. If you’re suffering from low framerates, consider reducing either of them to the lowest setting.

Best Settings for Red Dead Redemption 1 on PC

Optimized SettingsHigh-endMidrangeLow-end PC
Resolution4K4K1440p
FPS Target144 FPS144 FPS144 FPS
Shadow QualityUltraUltraUltra
Shadow SoftnessCHSSCHSSCHSS
Shadow BlendSmoothSmoothSmooth
Texture Filtering16x16x16x
Motion BlurOffOffOff
Geometry LODMaxMaxMax
Terrain LODMaxMaxMax
Tree LODMaxMaxMax
Tree Draw DistanceMaxMaxMax
Grass LODMaxMaxMax
UpscalingDLAADLSS/FSR QualityDLSS/FSR Balanced
CPUCore i9-12900K/Ryzen 7 7700XCore i5-12600K/Ryzen 5 7600Core i5-12400
AMD Ryzen 5 3600
GPURTX 4070 Ti/RX 7900 XTRTX 4060 Ti/RX 7700 XTRTX 3060/RX 6600
Memory16 GB (dual-channel)8 GB (dual-channel)Less than: 8 GB
High-endMidrangeLow-end PC

Red Dead Redemption 1 Settings for Low-end PC: RTX 3060, RTX 4060 & RTX 3060 Ti

Red Dead Redemption produces a stable 60 FPS+ at 4K “Ultra” with DLSS upscaling set to “Balanced.” Considering the game is nearly two decades old, this isn’t surprising. Regardless, a well-optimized port is always a welcome sight.

Optimized SettingsRTX 3060RTX 4060RTX 3060 Ti
Resolution4K4K1440p
FPS Target60 FPS60 FPS60 FPS
Shadow QualityUltraUltraUltra
Shadow SoftnessCHSSCHSSCHS
Shadow BlendSmoothSmoothSmooth
Texture Filtering16x16x16x
Motion BlurOffOffOff
Geometry LODMaxMaxMax
Terrain LODMaxMaxMax
Tree LODMaxMaxMax
Tree Draw DistanceMaxMaxMax
Grass LODMaxMaxMax
UpscalingDLSS BalancedDLSS Quality+ FGDLSS Balanced

Areej Syed

Processors, PC gaming, and 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.
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