Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 is a title where frame rate is king, and the pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER produces a fascinating dataset. The data reveals a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions but begins to expose the CPU's limitations as resolution drops. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across all settings to show exactly where this combo excels and where it leaves performance on the table.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable trend: as resolution increases, frame rates drop, but the rate of that drop tells the story of system balance. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 654.4 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 440.3 FPS, a significant reduction. Jumping to 4K Low yields 250.4 FPS. This scaling pattern—a 33% drop from 1080p to 1440p and another 43% drop from 1440p to 4K—indicates that even at Low settings, the GPU is still doing heavy lifting, but the CPU is starting to become a limiting factor at the lowest resolution.

The story changes dramatically when looking at High settings. At 1080p High, the combo produces 417.5 FPS. At 1440p High, it drops to 276.3 FPS, and at 4K High, it falls to 151.5 FPS. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p (about 34%) is similar to Low, but the drop from 1440p to 4K (about 45%) is slightly steeper. This suggests that the higher graphical workload at 4K is shifting the bottleneck more firmly onto the GPU, which is expected given the RTX 4080 SUPER's immense power.

The most telling data point is the Ultra preset. At 1080p Ultra, the system hits 323.2 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it manages 214.8 FPS. At 4K Ultra, it drops to 118.8 FPS. The scaling here shows a nearly linear relationship with pixel count, indicating a pure GPU-bound scenario. This is the classic sign of a GPU that is fully saturated; the CPU has enough headroom to feed it at any resolution, but the GPU's raw throughput is the ceiling. The data indicates that players targeting 4K Ultra will see roughly a third of the frame rate of 1080p Low, but still maintain a highly playable 118.8 FPS average.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand database of tested hardware combinations for Counter-Strike 2, this specific pairing ranks at position 125 out of 1632 combos. This places it in the top 7.7% of all tested systems, which is a strong showing. The rank reflects the immense power of the RTX 4080 SUPER, which sits in the 88th percentile of all GPUs, paired with a capable mid-range CPU in the Ryzen 5 5600, which sits in the 79th percentile of all CPUs.

The GPU is clearly the dominant component in this ranking. Its average benchmark score of 53610 places it just 0.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT and 2.9% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. This high GPU percentile is what propels the combo to its strong rank, as the CPU, while respectable, does not have the same level of dominance in its own field. The Ryzen 5 5600's average benchmark score of 21765 is only 0.6% ahead of the Intel Xeon D-1746TER and trails the Intel Core i7-11700F by 0.9%. The data suggests that in this specific game, the combo's rank is driven almost entirely by the GPU, and a weaker CPU would likely yield a similar ranking, while a stronger CPU would not significantly improve it.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS this combo can achieve in Counter-Strike 2?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 654.4, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Counter-Strike 2?

A: Yes. At 3840x2160 with High settings, it averages 151.5 FPS. Even on the demanding Ultra preset, it maintains an average of 118.8 FPS, which is well above the refresh rate of most standard monitors.

Q: How does the combo rank against other tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 125th out of 1632 tested hardware combinations for this game, placing it in the top 8% of all systems.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck in this setup?

A: The bottleneck shifts with settings. At 1080p Low, the data suggests the CPU is limiting performance. At 4K Ultra, the GPU is the clear limiting factor, as frame rates scale almost perfectly with resolution.

Q: What is the difference in FPS between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings yield an average of 654.4 FPS, while Ultra settings yield 323.2 FPS. This represents a drop of about 51% when moving from Low to Ultra.

Q: Does the RTX 4080 SUPER perform better than the RX 6900 XT in synthetic benchmarks?

A: Yes, marginally. The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 53610, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT's score of 53489.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following data presents the exact measured average FPS for each resolution and settings preset combination.

1920x1080 (1080p)

• Low: 654.4 FPS
• Medium: 555.8 FPS
• High: 417.5 FPS
• Ultra: 323.2 FPS

At 1080p, the system is incredibly fast. The jump from Low to Medium costs about 98 FPS, but the jump from Medium to High costs another 138 FPS. The most significant drop is from High to Ultra, which costs 94.3 FPS. This indicates that the Ultra preset includes settings that are particularly demanding, likely related to shadows and anti-aliasing.

2560x1440 (1440p)

• Low: 440.3 FPS
• Medium: 369.4 FPS
• High: 276.3 FPS
• Ultra: 214.8 FPS

At 1440p, the frame rates remain exceptionally high. The scaling from Low to Ultra is more gradual than at 1080p, with a roughly 70 FPS drop between each consecutive settings tier. This suggests a more balanced load between CPU and GPU at this resolution.

3840x2160 (4K)

• Low: 250.4 FPS
• Medium: 203.9 FPS
• High: 151.5 FPS
• Ultra: 118.8 FPS

At 4K, the system remains very capable. Even on Ultra, it stays above the 100 FPS mark. The relative performance difference between Low and Ultra is about 53%, which is consistent with the scaling seen at other resolutions, confirming the GPU is the primary driver of performance here.

Settings Recommendations

The data provides clear guidance for different display types. For players with a 1080p or 1440p monitor with a refresh rate of 240Hz or higher, the High preset is the sweet spot. At 1080p High, the system produces 417.5 FPS, and at 1440p High, it produces 276.3 FPS. Both are high enough to saturate even the fastest competitive monitors. Moving to Ultra at these resolutions costs a significant amount of performance (over 94 FPS at 1080p) for visual gains that are minimal in a fast-paced esports title.

For 4K users, the High preset is also recommended. The 151.5 FPS average is smooth and responsive, and it is a 28% improvement over the 118.8 FPS offered by Ultra. While the Ultra preset is playable, the High preset offers a better balance of visual fidelity and raw frame rate. The Low and Medium presets are only recommended if a player is chasing the absolute maximum FPS for a 360Hz or higher refresh rate display, but the visual clarity loss in Counter-Strike 2 can be a competitive disadvantage. The data strongly supports High as the optimal preset for this hardware combination across all resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, running on the AM4 socket. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 2584 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 18309 in multi-core. This single-core strength is critical for Counter-Strike 2, which is known to be sensitive to CPU performance.

The data from this combo, however, suggests that the CPU is not the primary driver of the high frame rates. At 1080p Low, the system hits 654.4 FPS, which is a massive number. The fact that it drops to 440.3 FPS at 1440p Low indicates a shift in load, but the CPU is still delivering enough performance to keep the GPU well-fed. The CPU's 32 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR4 memory are adequate for this task.

The CPU's role becomes more apparent when looking at the ranking data. The Ryzen 5 5600 sits in the 79th percentile of all CPUs, which is good but not elite. The combo ranks 125th out of 1632, and this is almost certainly due to the GPU's high percentile (88th) pulling the overall score up. If the CPU were a bottleneck in a meaningful way, we would expect to see a larger performance gap between resolutions at lower settings. While the drop from 1080p Low to 1440p Low is substantial (about 33%), it is not catastrophic, indicating the CPU can handle the frame rates being requested. The data indicates this CPU is a competent partner for the RTX 4080 SUPER in this title, though it is not the star of the show.