How is RDR2 so ridiculously well-optimized for what it offers?
For context, I'm playing on the ROG Xbox Ally X.
With most modern AAA games, I have to drop the graphics settings to Low or Medium just to get a somewhat playable 30–40 FPS. Even games like Grounded and Grounded 2 struggle to maintain decent frame rates unless I turn everything down.
And then there's RDR2.
This game has one of the most detailed, dense, and visually stunning open worlds I've ever seen. The lighting, vegetation, weather, NPCs, animations, draw distances, everything looks incredible.
Yet somehow, on the same handheld, I can crank up the graphics to High and consistently get 60+ FPS.
And the crazy part is that RDR2 is a massive open-world game from 2018 that still looks better than a lot of games releasing today.
How the hell did Rockstar pull this off? Is it something about their engine, the way the world is rendered, or just an insane amount of optimization?
Genuinely curious what makes RDR2 so much more efficient than many modern games.