After waiting for a long era, Red Dead Redemption 2 is now available for PC users also. If you encounter performance problems in this game with great graphics, this guide is for you! I listed a few tweaks and tips to fix the issues in Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online, such as fps drop, spikes, low FPS, stuttering, lagging, freezing.
There are 17 ways to improve your frame rates in Red Dead Redemption 2.
System Requirements for Running RDR 2 on PC
| Minimum System Requirements | Recommended System Requirements | |
| CPU | Intel® Core™ i5-2500K / AMD FX-6300 | Intel® Core™ i7-4770K / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X |
| GPU | Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 2GB / AMD Radeon R9 280 3GB | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB / AMD Radeon RX 480 4GB |
| RAM | 8 GB RAM | 12 GB RAM |
| Storage | 150 GB available space | 150 GB available space |
| OS | Windows 7 - Service Pack 1 (6.1.7601) | Windows 10 - April 2018 Update (v1803) |
1) Best Graphics Settings for Red Dead: Redemption II
You can skip this step if you don’t want to change graphics settings. These High Performance graphics settings are for PCs which close to the minimum system requirements.
If you have a good PC, you can increase the settings slightly.
Go to in-game graphics options and make sure the settings are as follows.
| High Performance | Performance | Normal | |
| Screen Type | Fullscreen | Fullscreen | Fullscreen |
| VSync | Off | Off | Off |
| Triple Buffering | Off | Off | Off |
| Constrain Mouse Pointer | Off | Off | Off |
| Texture Quality | Low | Medium | High |
| Anisotropic Filtering | Off | Off | X4 |
| Lighting Quality | Low | Low | Medium |
| Global Illumination Quality | Low | Low | Medium |
| Shadow Quality | Low | Low | Medium |
| Far Shadow Quality | Low | Low | Low |
| Screen Space Ambient Occlusion | Off | Off | Medium |
| Reflection Quality | Low | Low | Low |
| Mirror Quality | Low | Medium | High |
| Water Quality | Low | Low | Medium |
| Volumetrics Quality | Low | Low | Low |
| Particle Quality | Low | Low | Medium |
| Tessellation Quality | Low | Low | Low |
| TAA | Off | Off | Medium |
| FXAA | Off | On | Off |
| MSAA | Off | Off | Off |
| Advanced Settings | Unlocked | Unlocked | Unlocked |
| Near Volumetric Resolution | Low | Low | Low |
| Far Volumetric Resolution | Low | Low | Low |
| Volumetric Lighting Quality | Low | Low | Low |
| Unlocked Volumetric Raymarch Resolution | Off | Off | Off |
| Particle Lighting Quality | Low | Low | Medium |
| Soft Shadows | Off | Off | Medium |
| Grass Shadows | Low | Low | Medium |
| Long Shadows | Off | Off | On |
| Full Resolution Screen Space Ambient Occlusion | Off | Off | Off |
| Water Refraction Quality | Low | Low | Medium |
| Water Reflection Quality | Low | Low | Medium |
| Resolution Scale | Off | Off | Off |
| TAA Sharpening | 0% | 0% | 50% |
| Motion Blur | Off | Off | Off |
| Reflection MSAA | Off | Off | Off |
| Geometry Level of Detail | 0% | 20% | 50% |
| Grass Level of Detail | 0% | 0% | 40% |
| Tree Quality | Low | Low | Medium |
| Parallax Occlusion Mapping Quality | Low | Low | Medium |
| Decal Quality | Low | Medium | High |
| Fur Quality | Medium | Medium | Medium |
Apply Changes and Exit the game.
If you encounter screen tearing problem during the gameplay, you should enable the VSync. If you have a monitor with G-SYNC or FreeSync, you can activate them instead of Vsync.
By the way, don't use the DirectX 12, it is buggy and causes low fps. Turn back to Vulkan in Advanced Graphics Settings (Graphics API). If you are not able to change it, check out the 17th method.
2) Launch Options
- Run the Rockstar Games Launcher
- Go to the Settings
- Select the Red Dead Redemption 2 on the My installed games tab.
- Type or paste the following commands into the Launch arguments box.
-USEALLAVAILABLECORES -high
- If your game on the Epic Games launcher, open up the Epic Games launcher.
- Click the Settings
- Click the Red Dead Redemption 2 on MANAGE GAMES section.
- Select the “Additional Command Line Arguments” checkbox.
- Paste the commands into the box.
On Steam
- Go to the list of games in the Steam library.
- Right-click the Red Dead Redemption 2 and click the Properties.
- Click the Set Launch Options in the General tab.
- Type or paste the commands into the box in the incoming window.
3) Update Your Graphics Drivers
You should keep your computer’s graphics drivers updated.
People who have an NVIDIA graphics card can download and install their new drivers here.
People who have an AMD graphics card can download and install their new drivers here.
4) NVIDIA Control Panel Settings
- Open NVIDIA Control Panel
- Go to the Adjust image settings with preview tab.
- Click the “Use my preference emphasising“ (If you have a mid&high end pc, Let the 3D application decide)
- Put the bar in Performance mode.
- Apply
- Click the Manage 3D settings
- Click the Program Settings
- Click the Add
- Select the Red Dead Redemption 2 from the list, then click on the “Add Selected Program” button.
- After, make the following settings
Antialiasing – Mode: Off
Power management mode: Prefer maximum performance
Vertical sync: Off
Virtual Reality pre-rendered frames: 1 - If you have a notebook, make sure you have selected the “High-performance NVIDIA processor” on preferred graphics processor.
- Apply and close the NVIDIA Control Panel.
Effect of the “Power management mode” setting differs between GPUs. If these settings made your FPS worse, just set the “Power management mode” to “Optimal power“. After that, it will increase. You can test it.
5) AMD Radeon Settings
- Open the AMD Radeon Settings window.
- Click on the Gaming tab.
- Then click on Global Settings.
- Go to the Anti-aliasing mode, choose Override application settings.
- Click on the Anti-aliasing level, so make sure you have selected the 2X
- Go to the Anisotropic Filtering Mode and turn it on.
- Then, click on the Anisotropic Filtering Level, so make sure you have selected the 2X.
- Click on the Texture Filtering Quality and select the Performance.
- Now, click on the Wait for Vertical Refresh and select the Always off.
- Click on the Tessellation Mode and select the Override application settings.
- Finally, click on the Maximum Tessellation Level and select the 32x or lower.
6) Intelligent Standby List Cleaner
The “Intelligent standby list cleaner” application will monitor and clear the memory standby list when it is > 1000mb (1gb). It will help players to fix stutters in games.
- Download the Intelligent standby list cleaner
- Run the 7-zip file.
- Extract to a folder.
- Go to the that folder.
- Run the “Intelligent standby list cleaner ISLC” application.
- Check the “Start ISLC minimized and auto-Start monitoring”
- Also, check the “Launch ISLC on user logon”
- Now, click on the Start button
- Minimize
7) Full-screen Optimizations & High DPI in Windows 10
- Go to the folder where the game is installed.
- Right-click on the RDR2.exe application
- Hit the Properties
- Tick “Disable full-screen optimizations” on the Compatibility tab.
- After that, click on the “Change high DPI settings” button.
- Under the “High DPI scaling override” section, tick the “Override high DPI scaling behavior“
- Use the “Scaling performed by:” drop-down menu and select the “Application”
- Click on the OK and again OK.
8) Power Options
If the CPU cooler is not enough, you can skip this setting. Processor temperature may increase by 5-6 degrees.
- Right-click the Windows icon on the bottom left.
- Click the Power Options
- Click the Additional power settings
- Select the High performance on the Preferred plans tab.
- After, click the Change plan settings link next to High performance.
- Tap on the Change advanced power settings
- Find Processor power management in the incoming list, click the + icon on the left side.
- Set Minimum processor state and Maximum processor state to 100%
- Click on the OK
9) Game Mode
- To turn off Windows 10 game mode, click the Start icon to bring up the Start menu. Then open the Settings.
- Click the Gaming
- On the Game Bar tab, set the “Record game clips, screenshots and broadcast using Game bar” to Off.
- On the Captures tab, set the “Record in the background while I’m playing a game” to Off.
- On the Game Mode tab, set the “Game Mode” to Off.
If you are using an older version of Windows 10, you may not see the Game Mode settings. In this case, you can configure the settings directly in the Registry.
- Press the Windows logo key and R key simultaneously on your keyboard.
- Type regedit
- Press the Enter key.
- The Registry Editor will open. In the left panel, Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\GameBar
- Right-click inside the panel and select New
- Click on the DWORD (32-bit) Value
- Rename the New Key to AllowAutoGameMode
- Right-click on the AllowAutoGameMode
- Select the Modify…
- Set the “Value data” to 0
- Click on the OK button.
- Close the Registry Editor.
- Restart your PC.
10) Windows Performance Options
- Type performance in the search section of Windows, click to Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows from the results.
- Select the Adjust for best performance from the options in the Performance Options window that opens.
- Click OK
11) Cleaning Temporary Files
- Simultaneously press the Windows logo and R keys.
- Type %temp%
- Press Enter key.
- Delete everything in the Temp folder that opens. You can skip undeleted.
- Again, Simultaneously press the Windows logo and R keys.
- Type temp
- Press Enter key.
- Delete everything in the folder that opens.
- Again, Simultaneously press the Windows logo and R keys.
- Type prefetch
- Press Enter key.
- Delete everything in the Prefetch folder that opens.
Finally, empty the Recycle Bin
12) SSD
If you have a Solid-State Drive, I recommend that you install the game on the SSD or move the game files to the SSD.
13) Optimize the Discord
If you are using Discord, disable the Hardware Acceleration and in-game overlay.
- Open Discord
- Go to the User Settings
- Then, go to the Appearance tab.
- Uncheck the Hardware Acceleration.
- Go to the Overlay on App Settings tab.
- Make sure unchecked the “Enable in-game overlay”
14) Optimize the Google Chrome
If you’re using Google Chrome, you’ll need to make this setting.
- Go to settings page in Chrome
- Click the Advanced
- Go to the System tab
- Finally, uncheck the “Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed”
15) Background Processes
You should close all unnecessary Apps, such as Chrome, OneDrive. Also, if the Discord is idle, you should quit Discord.
Also, you can use the CCleaner to go through your startup and scheduled tasks, and disable everything that you consider unnecessary.
16) Increase The Priority
You need to adjust this setting every time you enter the game.
- Launch the game.
- Simultaneously press the ALT and TAB keys to minimize the game.
- Open the Task Manager
- Click on Details Tab
- In the list, find the RDR2.exe application.
- Right-click on the RDR2.exe application and Set priority to High.
If you facing stuttering issue in the game after doing this, don’t do the High priority setting. Set it to Normal. You should also try the next method instead of 16th method.
17) CPU Limiter - Fix Freezing & Stuttering
If the CPU usage is around 100% while playing RDR 2 and you experience freezing/stuttering issues, you can limit your CPU.
- Download and install the Process Lasso
- Run the Process Lasso application.
- Launch the Red Dead Redemption 2.
- Go to the Process Lasso app and find the RDR2.exe in "All processes" list.
- Right-click on the RDR2.exe and select the CPU Limiter
- Set the "When CPU use is" to 98
- Set the "Reduce by this many CPU cores" to 1
- Below the "Reduce by this many CPU cores", set the "For a period of" to 1
- Click on the Add Rule button.
- Finally click OK button and play the game.
Enjoy fellers!