It is one of the most baffling mysteries of the current generational era. So many PS4 and Xbox One titles have received remasters or 60fps upgrades and yet one game stands alone… Red Dead Redemption 2. There’s no real reason why developer Rockstar can’t release a vastly improved version of the game for PS5 and Series X could deliver, with the PC version paired with console equivalent hardware giving us some insight into what quality and performance modes might actually look like.
However, at the moment, current consoles are limited to backward compatibility versions of the existing last-gen version. What that means is that PlayStation 5 runs with a matte 4K checkerboard display of the game, locked at 30fps. The situation improves slightly on Xbox Series X, which runs at native 4K – again at 30fps. However, both experiences are basically interchangeable with gameplay on PS4 Pro and Xbox One X. This game deserves better.
First of all, I would like to highlight the work of modder Illusion, who has released a framerate unlock mod for Red Dead Redemptio n2 that – unfortunately – only works on exploited PlayStation 5 consoles. By removing Sony’s system call to limit to 30 fps, the game ‘normally’ runs at 60 fps. PS5 has more than enough horsepower to double the frame rate at checkerboard 4K – and thanks to another Illusion mod, v-sync can even be turned off and the frame rate completely unlocked. Run Red Dead 2 in 1080p mode (accessible from the console’s front-end) and we can see that even in the most CPU-intensive areas we are always above 60 fps.
That’s the back-compat hacking situation being addressed, but what form might a true current-gen Red Dead 2 upgrade look like? Regular readers will know what happens next: we ran the PC version of Red Dead 2 on our Frankenstein console – this is a computer built using the AMD 4800S desktop kit, which literally puts the Xbox Series PC format. Unfortunately, the integrated GPU is disabled, which means we need a GPU and for that we use the AMD Radeon RX 6700 10 gig, an RDNA 2 graphics card with many similarities to the PlayStation 5 GPU.
When targeting 60fps we used Alex’s optimized settings for the PC version, which is basically the same as the Xbox One Where there were hybrid settings – such as a quality between medium and high, for example – we went for high. Interestingly, PC offers Vulkan and DX12 rendering paths: you’d think DX12 would be better suited to consoles, but I lost a lot of performance versus Vulkan.
Next stop: Red Dead 2’s benchmark series. I ran at full 4K, 1944p, 1890p, and 1800p and found that only 1800p delivered an effective 60fps lock. Perhaps current generation consoles could do better with custom optimization, but that said, we want to double Xbox One X’s 30fps… and that console was a beast! On the GPU side, the game is locked for the vast majority of the game and really shows what we’re missing. I saw minor performance drops during the saloon brawl in Valentine – which brought some serious nostalgia when the Xbox One X dipped below 30fps in the same area. I think a dynamic resolution range of 1728p to 2160p would probably cover all scenarios.
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I also noticed some traversal stuttering – which is either a factor of the PC game itself, or the rather strange nature of the computer I built for the task, which isn’t exactly typical hardware. Regardless, Illusion’s frame rate unlock for the PS4 Pro version of the game running on PS5 suggests that these stutters are simply not an issue with the consoles.
As you’ll see in the video above, I’ve also put together a projected quality mode – which runs at native 4K and ups the ante in areas where the Xbox One Lighting quality, global illumination, grass draw distance, volumetric lines and shadows were my first port of call when improving the quality of the settings. However, full-on ultra was off the table with a locked 30fps – Red Dead 2 is That demanding.
I also noticed that the PC version’s half-speed v-sync doesn’t work well, causing inconsistent frame pacing. This isn’t a problem on the console builds, of course, and I solved it on PC thanks to Kaldiaen’s SpecialK. This projected ‘quality mode’ looks good, but in reality 60fps is quite a transformative upgrade.
So on the face of it, a nice 60fps experience could be achievable for PS5 and Series of the last generation – no matter how small they are. However, I wonder if more recent improvements to the RAGE engine could deliver more beyond the scope of the PC version of the game.
Looking at Grand Theft Auto 5 on PS5 and Series X, Rockstar went further. Ray traced sun shadows offer a nice improvement over more traditional shadow maps. Of course these are based on a much older game with GPU cycles left, but looking ahead to GTA 6 there are no RT shadows, but it does appear to have RT reflections and global illumination – and the latter in particular would look beautiful in Red Dead Redemption 2.
Rockstar is adapting its technology in the upcoming game, but adding RT to a future current-gen Red Dead 2 upgrade seems a bit complicated. But perhaps a certain level of ambition is the reason we haven’t seen this most anticipated upgrade yet?