Red Dead Redemption 2 was recently released for PC and it boasts a wide variety of graphics settings. Including levels of performance that can't be reached on console, this new port requires the latest version of the Nvidia driver to even run. For those jumping in blind, Nvidia has released a guide to instruct players how to reach the maximum settings of 60 frames per second at 4K resolution. Unfortunately, these settings can't be reached by even the most expensive consumer-level graphics card.
As noted by Polygon, the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (which costs about $1200 and is one of the most powerful consumer GPUs on the market) cannot actually run Red Dead Redemption 2 at maximum settings. Instead, it runs the game at a mix of medium and high settings to ensure a consistent 60 FPS playback.
For those that desperately want high settings, it is possible to use the GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER or the GeForce RTX 2060 graphics cards at lower resolutions – 2560 x 1440 and 1920 x 1080 respectively – to run the game with higher detail level. Nvidia recommends the lower resolution for "a sizeable performance improvement, and only a minimal reduction in image clarity."
Of course, it is likely that most players who have spent $1200 on a GPU won't notice the difference between high and medium-high settings. Many didn't when Rockstar Games demonstrated the game on a rig that included the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in October. If the company felt that the graphics card was sufficient to demonstrate the game (especially since the main draw of the PC release was the fact that this was a newer, shinier version of RDR2 that couldn't be handled on console), it's probably sufficient to play as well.
After all, it seems like Rockstar Games might have some other issues than getting to the highest possible graphics quality possible. For many, the game is crashing when they attempt to boot it up. An issue like that is clearly more important than whether or not the horse testicles are being rendered at the maximum possible quality.
Source: Polygon