Android gaming phone runs Red Dead Redemption 2, but it's barely playable

YouTuber Serg Pavlov has showcased Redmagic 9 Pro running one of the popular titles from Rockstar Games, Red Dead Redemption 2. This gaming phone runs Android and packs the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which is a reasonably powerful smartphone SoC.

Pavlov was able to get the game up and running with a Windows PC emulator called Mobox. The creator used the same emulator before to run numerous other computer games. That includes GTA IV, which ran surprisingly well on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 device (video attached below). However, the case with Red Dead Redemption 2 is a bit different.

While the Android gaming smartphone was able to run the game, the frames were not stable. It was under 10 FPS most of the time, which means the gameplay isn't as enjoyable as on a console or a handheld gaming PC (ROG Ally Ryzen Z1 curr. $399 on Best Buy). There were multiple instances of the textures glitching during the gameplay too. It's also worth noting that Pavlov needed to use an external cooler to keep the device cool. However, the fact that the phone was able to run the full game with the emulator is quite impressive.

It shows how powerful phone hardware has become. To fill you in, according to Rockstar Games, you need at least a Core i5-2500K or AMD FX-6300 CPU and Nvidia GTX 770 or AMD Radeon R9 280 GPU to run the game on PC. These are dated PC components, but you need to consider that the Android phone was running the title with an emulator.

If there was no emulation layer, the performance could've been much better. Apple, for example, has brought ports of AAA titles such as Death Stranding and Resident Evil Village to the newer iPhone models. Thanks to the official support from the game devs, these titles can deliver a console-like experience on the phone. Hopefully, we will see the same level of support on Android smartphones one day.

That said, as mentioned earlier, Serg Pavlov has tested many other PC games on the Redmagic 9 Pro (available on Amazon). The creator has documented how they performed and the settings used to test the titles in a spreadsheet found in this link. You can also check out Pavlov's YouTube channel for more.