Best settings for Red Dead Redemption PC

Modified Oct 30, 2024 15:20 GMT

Picture of John Marston in Red Dead Redemption — John Marston in Red Dead Redemption (Image via Rockstar Games)

Rockstar Games has finally released Red Dead Redemption for PC, 14 years after its debut on consoles. Even though it's an older game, people are excited nonetheless. However, given its age, its default settings may not be favorable for many modern users. Hence, before you hop into the game, you should change a few settings to get the best experience.

With that in mind, this article presents all the best settings for Red Dead Redemption PC.

Note: This article is subjective and solely reflects the writer's opinions. These settings are meant for PCs that meet the minimum (or recommended) specs recommended by the publisher.

What are the best settings for Red Dead Redemption PC?

We went through every aspect of the Red Dead Redemption PC settings, from gameplay to graphics, to come up with the best combination. You will find them below:

Gameplay

The gameplay settings are related to the skins and autosave features in the game. Here are the best settings:

Golden Guns: On
Auto Save: On

Gamepad

The best controller settings for Red Dead Redemption PC:

Controls: Default
Targeting Mode: Casual
Invert Camera Y: Normal
Invert Camera X: Normal
Horse Control: Horse Relative
Vibration: On
Sensitivity: 5
Auto-center: Off
Flip RB with RT and LB with LT: Normal
South Paw: As per preference
Left Stick Deadzone: As per preference
Right Stick Deadzone: As per preference

Keyboard

Below, you will find the optimal keyboard and mouse settings for Red Dead Redemption PC:

Key Mappings: Default
Invert Camera Y: Normal
Invert Camera X: Normal
Horse Control: Horse Relative
Mouse Look Sensitivity: 5
Mouse Aim Sensitivity: 4
Hold L.Shift to sprint (On Foot): On
Hold L.Shift to sprint (On Vehicle): On

Audio

By default, the game has loud music, which may hinder the storytelling experience for some users. For the best results, apply the following settings:

Sound Effects Volume: 10
Music Volume: 4
Headphones: As per preference

Also read: Why you should play Red Dead Redemption after RDR2

Display

The display settings let you customize how the game appears on the screen. Apply the following settings for the best result:

Brightness: Default / As per preference
Contrast: Default / As per preference
Saturation: Default / As per preference
Kill Effect: On
Subtitles: On
Subtitle Scale: 1
Objective Scale: 0
Help Text Scale: 0
Show Map: On
Show Waypoint: On

Graphics

The graphics settings directly affect the kind of experience you have in the Red Dead Redemption PC. The game's system requirements are relatively low, so even an older GPU like Nvidia GTX 960 can easily achieve stable 60 FPS, as long as you have the right settings.

Apply the following graphics settings for Red Dead Redemption on PC:

Output Monitor: 1
Screen Type: Fullscreen
Resolution: 1080p or higher
Refresh Rate: 60hz or higher
Framerate Cap: 60 FPS or higher
V-Sync: Off
Triple Buffering: On
Pause Game On Focus Loss: On
Constrain Mouse Pointer: Off
Quality Preset: Custom
HDR: Off
Shadow Quality: Ultra
Shadow Softness: CHSS
Shadow Blend: Smooth
Anisotropic Level: x8
Nvidia Reflex Low Latency: On (Only on Nvidia GPU)
Anti-Aliasing / Upscaling Quality: Nvidia DLSS / AMD FSR 3
Resolution Scaling: Native AA
DRS Target Framerate: Default
DRS Minimum Render Scale: Default
Additional Sharpening: 3
Motion Blur: Disabled
Motion Blur Strength: Default
Geometry Level of Detail: 10
Terrain Level of Detail: 9
Tree Level of Detail: 10
Tree Draw Distance: 8
Grass Level of Detail: 10

The above settings will provide the best balance between visuals and performance. The HDR setting is for monitors with proper HDR capabilities. We have turned off the Motion Blur settings since the game can run at 60 FPS and higher. We have also disabled V-sync since most modern monitors have Freesync or G-Sync. Also, the Nvidia Reflex Low Latency is only available for Nvidia GPUs.

This concludes the list of the best settings for Red Dead Redemption PC.

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Edited by Niladri Roy