How much does it cost to build a gaming PC for Red Dead Redemption 2

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So you’ve decided you want to play Red Dead Redemption 2. Now it comes down to the business of deciding what you’re going to play it on. Compared to playing a lot of AAA titles, building a PC to run Red Dead Redemption 2 is actually very cheap. You can play RDR2 on a PC build for as little as $450.

When it comes to building a game PC which matches the specs of Red Dead 2’s minimum system requirements, a lot of these components are now old and are either unavailable to purchase new or overpriced for the performance they offer.

Red Dead Redemption 2 PC Specs and Predicted Performance

Instead, we’ve looked to the PC hardware components you can buy right now to play Red Dead Redemption 2. The GeForce GTX 770 was once a high-end member of the GeForce GTX 700 Series, for example, but a simple Radeon RX 570 can more than match its performance.

We knew that building a PC for Red Dead 2 was going to be cheap once we saw the specs were revealed but we weren’t prepared for quite how cheap. You can put together an RDR2 PC build at minimum requirements for less than $450. That’s not far off the cost of a PS4 Pro of Xbox One X, and you get a PC which can do a thousand other things besides playing games.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Minimum Specs

OS: Windows 7 64-bit – Service Pack 1 (6.1.7601) CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3 GHz or AMD FX-6300 3.5 GHz  RAM: 8 GB System Memory GPU RAM: 2 GB Video Memory GPU: GeForce GTX 770 2GB or Radeon R9 280 3GB HDD: 150 GB Available Hard Drive Space DX: DirectX 11

Build a Red Dead Redemption 2 Gaming PC for less than $450

The beauty of this PC build is that only does it meet the minimum specs for Red Dead Redemption 2, but that with a Radeon RX 570 you’re also going to have a graphics card which is a fair chunk above the minimum spec GPUs. These are above minimum spec components with a mid-tier graphics card thrown into the mix, all for $448. This is the cheapest way to play Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC without sacrificing performance.

The XFX Radeon RX 570 basically picks itself if you want a decent graphics card which can run RDR2 without any issues. At $140 it’s a bit of a steal, and it’s also comfortably faster than the minimum spec GPUs.

When it comes to choosing a CPU to put into a budget build for Red Dead 2, AMD comes highly recommended. Low-end Ryzen is still a lot cheaper than Intel’s offerings and you can pick up a quad-core Ryzen 3 1200 for just $58.74. That’s cheaper than the game even costs. If you wanted something a little newer, the Ryzen 3 2200G has price dropped down to $79.95 as well.

Rockstar suggests a minimum of 8GB RAM to play RDR2. Memory prices were sky-high 12-18 months ago but you can now pick up an 8GB stick for just $29.99. The Patriot 8GB DDR4 2400 MHz is a single 8GB module so if you decide you want to upgrade to 16GB further down the line, you can just buy another 8GB DDR4 for $29.99 and slot it in.

Elsewhere, a budget-oriented gaming board such as the MSI ProSeries B450M will serve the average users’ motherboard needs. We’d also throw in the Seasonic S12III 450 which is a great PSU for a low price right now. Considering the components we’ve got in there, a 450W PSU should be plenty.

In terms of storage, an SSD is obviously ideal if you want to keep load times short in Red Dead Redemption 2 PC. However, for the purposes of a budget build, a simple 7200RPM HDD will absolutely suffice. At this size, HDD storage is still well under half the price of competing SSDs, which can save a few dollars for your RDR2 gaming PC build.

With a low-spec build we wouldn’t put too much priority of the case but we believe the Fractal Design Focus G is a decent looking budget case with plenty of room. It’s easy to build in and it’s got a clear panel on the side if you want to show off your latest PC gaming hardware.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Recommended Specs @ 60FPS 1080p

OS: Windows 10 64-bit – April 2019 Update (v1803) CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5 GHz or AMD Ryzen 5 1500X 3.5 GHz RAM: 12 GB System Memory GPU RAM: 4 GB Video Memory GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB or AMD Radeon RX 480 4GB HDD: 150 GB Available Hard Drive Space DX: DirectX 11

Red Dead Redemption 2 Recommended PC Build for just $700

If you want to throw the shackles off and get Red Dead Redemption 2 looking its best at 1080p screen resolution, 60 FPS, then you’ll be wanting to have a PC which meets the recommended system specs.

Playing Red Dead Redemption 2 on Ultra isn’t actually as expensive as you’d think. For $704, you can enjoy the ultimate version of RDR2. This is for a rig which will be able to play Red Dead 2 with better graphics than the Xbox One X. You’ll also benefit from mouse & keyboard support, ultra widescreen support, and all those other goodies we’ve come to know and love from the world of PC gaming.

You may have to shop around for bargains depending on when and where you’re building your PC gaming PC, but you’ll see it’s actually quite cheap to build a PC which is more powerful than Red Dead Redemption 2’s recommended system requirements.

In the US you can pick up a Ryzen 5 1600 for cheaper than the cost of a Ryzen 5 1500X. For just over a hundred bucks you can pick up a hexa-core CPU with multi-threading. It really is quite a bargain and more than a match for playing Red Dead 2.

In terms of GPU, Rockstar’s official specs for Red Dead Redemption 2 suggest a Radeon RX 480 4GB. You can actually pick up an 8GB Radeon RX 580 for just $180, which is $40 more than the minimum spec graphics card. Your graphics card will be responsible for the lion’s share of performance so the extra 10% performance offered by the RX 580 8GB versus the recommended GPU should ensure more stable performance at high frame rates.

Moving down the components list, we don’t see why the PSU needs to change at all versus the minimum spec build. The SeaSonic S12III 450 will do the job and it’s available for a very cheap price right now. If you plan to do some light overclocking on your Ryzen 1600 then you may also want to invest in a CPU cooler such as the DeepCool Gammaxx GT BK. If you’re just running at stock clocks then the bundled in Wraith Cooler should be fine and will knock the RDR2 PC build price down to $670.

Last but by no means least, the storage. While a HDD is all that’s required to install and play Red Dead Redemption 2, using an SSD will dramatically improve load times and could help with performance. A 1TB Intel SSD can be bought for $100 right now. It’s not particularly showy but it’s a decent size and will have plenty of room for Red Dead Redemption 2 and its future updates, plus many more games.

These are just a few of the thousands of different PC builds you could theoretically make to play Red Dead Redemption 2. Let us what your ideal build would be for playing RDR2 by heading on down to the comments below. We’re sure with the GD community’s technical know-how there’ll be stacks of amazing PC builds! 

Is anyone planning to upgrade for Red Dead 2? Are you even thinking about a complete new build? Let us know all about it below!