THE free Blood Money update for the PC version of Red Dead Online (and by extension, Red Dead Redemption II) has brought a performance increase for Nvidia graphics cards owners in the form of Deep Learning Super-Sampling (DLSS) support.
The famously performance-hungry game will now, according to Nvidia, run at more than 60fps average at max settings on a decent rig with an RTX 2080ti, RTX 3070/3070Ti, or RTX 3080/3080Ti GPU, and isn’t far off that benchmark on the RTX 3060 and 3060Ti models.
According to Nvidia, “With the aid of NVIDIA DLSS, all GeForce RTX gamers can experience Red Dead Redemption 2’s incredible world with max settings at 1920×1080 at over 60 FPS. At 2560×1440, GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and above users can ride out with over 60 FPS. And at 3840×2160, gamers with a GeForce RTX 3070, or a faster GPU, can enjoy 60 FPS+ max setting gameplay, for the most detailed, immersive, and engrossing Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online experience possible.”
Given how performance hungry Red Dead Redemption II is (and how much I love the game), I was keen to test the DLSS improvement claims for myself, so fired it up, cranked the graphics settings to max, enabled DLSS, and undertook a stagecoach bail-up/kidnapping mission from Blood Money in Red Dead Online. My rig (Intel i9-10900K, Nvidia RTX 3070FE and 32GB RAM, running at 3440×1440 resolution) delivered exactly the result Nvidia claimed – I was comfortably averaging 62fps, and outside places like the city of St Denis was comfortably getting over 70fps with no issues at all.
Needless to say, I was impressed – especially because I’m now getting better graphics and faster framerates from the game, without doing anything except checking the “Nvidia DLSS: On” option in the settings.
If you’re a Red Dead Online player or fan of Red Dead Redemption II, make sure you update to the latest Nvidia drivers, get the free Blood Money update for the game, and saddle up for more virtual Western action.
