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Steady two-dimensional Rayleigh–Bénard convection between stress-free isothermal boundaries is studied via numerical computations. We explore properties of steady convective rolls with aspect ratios $${\rm \pi} /5\leqslant \varGamma \leqslant 4{\rm \pi}$$ , where $$\varGamma$$ is the width-to-height ratio for a pair of counter-rotating rolls, over eight orders of magnitude in the Rayleigh number, $$10^3\leqslant Ra\leqslant 10^{11}$$ , and four orders of magnitude in the Prandtl number, $$10^{-2}\leqslant Pr\leqslant 10^2$$ . At large $Ra$ where steady rolls are dynamically unstable, the computed rolls display $$Ra \rightarrow \infty$$ asymptotic scaling. In this regime, the Nusselt number $Nu$ that measures heat transport scales as $$Ra^{1/3}$$ uniformly in $Pr$ . The prefactor of this scaling depends on $$\varGamma$$ and is largest at $$\varGamma \approx 1.9$$ . The Reynolds number $Re$ for large- $Ra$ rolls scales as $$Pr^{-1} Ra^{2/3}$$ with a prefactor that is largest at $$\varGamma \approx 4.5$$ . All of these large- $Ra$ features agree quantitatively with the semi-analytical asymptotic solutions constructed by Chini & Cox ( Phys. Fluids , vol. 21, 2009, 083603). Convergence of $Nu$ and $Re$ to their asymptotic scalings occurs more slowly when $Pr$ is larger and when $$\varGamma$$ is smaller.