Red Dead Redemption 2 is undoubtedly one of the most stunning video games ever created. While it was released as a console exclusive in 2018, not only was it the best-looking game on any platform at the time, it remains that way after its release on PC in 2019. With great visuals, however, comes great performance costs, and RDR2 is no slouch when it comes to the latter. For many, it’s a game that can be quite tricky to run properly, especially on older hardware.
Even with newer, more advanced specs, finding the right settings for the best balance between quality and performance can be a daunting task. Here are some tips to provoke some extra frames Red Dead Redemption 2 on pc.
6 Disable Tree Pattern Pattern
Not many people seem to be aware of the performance costs associated with tessellation with trees. As with other mosaic patterns, TT tree models simply give more detail the closer the player is to them. This has the unfortunate effect of significantly reducing the number of frames as there are so many trees in the game’s environment. This is especially noticeable when you run through the jungles of Guarma.
Fortunately, disabling tree tessellation has an extremely minimal impact on the game’s appearance. The player wouldn’t really notice the difference until they stood right in front of a tree and stared at it long enough, and into trees RDR2 look good enough as it is. For that reason, it is recommended that the player disable TT for a 10-12 fps boost along with a little more consistency.
5 DSR + DLSS
For players with intermediate to high-level Nvidia graphics cards, the combination of DLSS and Nvidia DSR can improve performance without sacrificing much in visual fidelity. Although DLSS is just a setting in the RDR2 graphic menu, Nvidia DSR can be found in the Nvidia Control Panel on the desktop.
Go to advanced 3D settings and look for the DSR setting and set it to the desired multiplier (4k on a 1440p monitor should be 2.25x for example). Don’t forget to also increase the smoothness to 50%. Finally, when in game, increase RDR2‘s resolution to that indicated by the DSR multiplier. DLSS, if enabled, will render the game at a lower resolution, but use AI to scale the game back to the DSR resolution. For many, this is a much better looking and performance saving alternative to playing the game with TAA and RDR2’s internal resolution scaling feature.
4 Decrease Grass Detail
There is quite a lot of grass in RDR2. You could even argue that there is way too much and that it has a negative effect on performance. The “grass detail level” setting determines how far the player’s grass is displayed. On the highest setting, the grass is visible at extreme distances, causing a noticeable performance drop for something that arguably doesn’t look very good after all.
Reducing the turf detail to three is the sweet spot for looks and performance. This ensures that grass is displayed fairly far without looking too grainy and not causing too much dip in frames.
3 Decrease water physics
While the player doesn’t always spend their time near water, there are plenty of times when they’ll encounter it while exploring, as part of a mission, or during the main story. When this happens, it’s better if the water physics quality isn’t maxed out as it will cause a significant performance drop, even on a high-end PC.
While the water physics won’t look as complicated on a lower setting, lowering the physical quality (which varies based on hardware) will ensure that the player doesn’t experience a huge dip in frames when near a river. or more travel. Lowering the water reflection and refraction quality can also save a bit on performance; this isn’t such a high priority though, especially on more powerful gaming rigs.
2 Disable MSAA
Anti-aliasing in RDR2 is a frustrating mystery. Pretty much all AA options in the game have issues, even at 4k resolution. TAA is a blurry mess, FXAA seems to do nothing at all and MSAA is a huge performance hog. Even on the lowest setting, it pulls a lot of FPS and doesn’t even look good on its own.
This means that the player has to combine it with TAA, which is just too taxing for most PCs to even bother with. It’s best to just leave it out altogether. Instead, players should experiment with TAA or DLSS as their main anti-aliasing method. The game will always look better and run better.
1 Using Nvidia Control Panel
For Nvidia graphics card users, the Nvidia Control Panel is an extremely valuable tool to maximize performance. To access it, right-click on the desktop and select Control Panel from the list of options. Once it opens, make sure “use advanced 3D image settings” is selected as this is where all the important settings are located.
In the “Manage 3D Settings” section, there are a few key settings to consider: low latency, power management, and thread optimization. Making sure these settings are maxed out (especially power management) helps to ensure the GPU performs RDR2 as best it can.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is now available on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
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