Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 is a competitive FPS that rewards high frame rates, and the pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600G with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 produces a wide spread of results depending on resolution and settings. The measured data shows a system that is heavily influenced by the CPU at lower resolutions, while the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution climbs. This analysis walks through the measured FPS, the role of each component, and how this specific combination ranks among other tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of diminishing returns as resolution increases, a trend that points directly at which component is constraining performance. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo delivers 229 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops that to 195 FPS, a reduction of 34 FPS or roughly 15%. At 3840x2160 Low, the average falls further to 107 FPS, a steep 88 FPS decline from the 1440p figure. This dramatic drop from 1440p to 4K — a 45% decrease — indicates the GPU is becoming the primary bottleneck, as the RTX 4080’s rendering load at 4K overwhelms what the CPU can feed it.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings presets. For High settings, 1080p produces 195 FPS, 1440p yields 128 FPS (a 34% drop), and 4K falls to 70 FPS (a 45% drop from 1440p). Medium settings show 208 FPS at 1080p, 149 FPS at 1440p (28% drop), and 82 FPS at 4K (45% drop from 1440p). Ultra settings follow the same trajectory: 152 FPS at 1080p, 100 FPS at 1440p (34% drop), and 55 FPS at 4K (45% drop from 1440p). The consistency of the 28-34% drop from 1080p to 1440p and the 45% drop from 1440p to 4K across all four presets strongly suggests that the GPU’s compute capability is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s single-thread performance caps frame rates at 1080p.

At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 229 vs 152 FPS, a gap of 77 FPS. At 1440p, that same Low-to-Ultra gap narrows to 95 FPS (195 vs 100). At 4K, the gap compresses further to 52 FPS (107 vs 55). This compression of the settings-based FPS spread as resolution increases is another sign that the GPU is the bottleneck at 4K — the RTX 4080’s pixel pushing becomes the dominant cost, making the CPU’s role less significant. Conversely, at 1080p, the CPU has more headroom to influence the outcome, as evidenced by the larger FPS swings between presets.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide clear guidance on which preset offers the best experience for this combo. At 1920x1080, Low settings yield the highest average FPS at 229, but Medium is only 21 FPS behind at 208, while High is 195 and Ultra is 152. The Medium preset at 1080p also has a measured minimum of 177 FPS and a maximum of 239, indicating a stable frame delivery. Given that Counter-Strike 2 is a competitive title where frame rate consistency matters, Medium at 1080p offers a strong balance: 208 average FPS with a 177 minimum, which is well above typical high-refresh-rate monitor thresholds.

At 2560x1440, Low produces 195 FPS, Medium 149 FPS, High 128 FPS, and Ultra 100 FPS. The Medium preset again shows a measured min of 127 and max of 172. For players with 144Hz or 165Hz monitors, Medium at 1440p is the sweet spot — 149 average FPS stays above 144Hz, and the 127 minimum is still within a usable range for competitive play. High at 1440p drops to 128 average, which falls below 144Hz, making it less ideal for high-refresh displays. Ultra at 1440p at 100 FPS is playable but sacrifices the frame rate advantage that this game rewards.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes. Low yields 107 FPS, Medium 82 FPS (with min 70 and max 94), High 70 FPS, and Ultra 55 FPS. For 4K gaming, Low is the only preset that approaches 100 FPS, but even that is a significant step down from the 195 FPS available at 1440p Low. Medium at 4K offers 82 average but a 70 minimum, which could feel inconsistent in fast-paced scenarios. The data suggests that for this combo, 1440p Medium is the best overall experience — it delivers 149 average FPS with a 127 minimum, which is a superior competitive experience compared to 1080p Ultra’s 152 average with no measured minimum, or 4K Low’s 107 average.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600G is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 5000 series, built on the Zen 3 architecture with a Cezanne codename. Its base clock is 3.90 GHz and boost clock reaches 4.40 GHz. The CPU has a 65 W TDP and supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel bus and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth. Its cache configuration includes 64 KB L1 per core, 512 KB L2 per core, and 16 MB of L3 cache. The processor is manufactured on a 7 nm process by TSMC, with 10,700 million transistors on a 180 mm² die.

Benchmark results show the 5600G’s single-thread capability: it scores 872 in 3dmark single-thread, 228 in Cinebench R15 single-core, 1409 in Cinebench R23 single-core, 1801 in Geekbench single-core, and 3177 in Passmark single-thread. Multi-thread scores include 5451 in 3dmark 16-threads, 10551 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 8428 in Geekbench multi-core, and 19717 in Passmark multi-thread. The CPU’s percentile vs all CPUs is 74, and its average benchmark score is 21088. Its nearest rivals are the Intel Core i3-1220P (avg score 21066, delta 0.1%), Intel Core Ultra 7 256V (21112, delta -0.1%), AMD Ryzen 5 7530U (21133, delta -0.2%), and Intel Core Ultra 7 155U (21174, delta -0.4%).

In Counter-Strike 2, the CPU’s impact is most visible at 1080p. The 229 FPS at Low settings and 208 FPS at Medium suggest that the 5600G’s single-core performance, while not top-tier, is sufficient to push frame rates well above 200 at lower resolutions. However, the fact that 1080p Ultra only reaches 152 FPS — a 77 FPS drop from Low — indicates that the CPU’s ability to handle the increased draw calls and physics load at higher settings is limited. The 5600G’s 12 threads do provide some multi-threaded headroom, but Counter-Strike 2’s engine tends to favor single-thread performance, as shown by the CPU’s 872 single-thread score in 3dmark being far lower than its 5455 max-thread score.

At 1440p, the CPU’s role diminishes. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 95 FPS (195 vs 100), which is larger than at 1080p in absolute terms but proportionally similar. The fact that 1440p Low (195 FPS) is nearly identical to 1080p High (195 FPS) suggests that the CPU is still capable of feeding the GPU at these settings, but the GPU’s workload is starting to dominate. At 4K, CPU influence nearly disappears — the 52 FPS gap between Low and Ultra (107 vs 55) is the smallest of all resolutions, confirming that the RTX 4080 is the sole limiting factor there.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600G and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 2985 out of 3719 tested combos in Counter-Strike 2. This places it in the bottom 20% of all configurations, which is a surprising result given the GPU’s high-end status. The rank reflects the fact that the 5600G, despite being a capable 6-core processor, cannot fully utilize the RTX 4080’s potential in this game, especially at lower resolutions where CPU overhead is the bottleneck.

To put this in perspective, the RTX 4080 alone has a percentile vs all GPUs of 86, meaning it outperforms 86% of GPUs in the database. Its average benchmark score is 54247, with nearest rivals being the RTX 4080 SUPER (54209, delta 0.1%), AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (54828, delta -1.1%), AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55698, delta -2.6%), and AMD Radeon 8060S (55757, delta -2.7%). The GPU’s 3dmark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 6567, and its Passmark G3D score is 34457.

The CPU, meanwhile, has a percentile vs all CPUs of 74, with an average benchmark score of 21088. This is a mid-range ranking, but the CPU’s single-thread performance is notably weaker than its multi-thread score relative to other processors. The combo rank of 2985 out of 3719 reflects the mismatch: a top-tier GPU paired with a mid-range CPU results in a system that underperforms in a CPU-sensitive game like Counter-Strike 2. Other combos with more powerful CPUs (e.g., higher single-thread scores) would likely rank significantly higher, even with the same GPU.

The data shows that the combo’s rank is not a reflection of the RTX 4080’s capabilities, but rather of the 5600G’s limitations in feeding that GPU. In games that are more GPU-bound, this pairing would likely rank much higher. But in Counter-Strike 2, where frame rates at 1080p are already high, the CPU becomes the weak link, dragging the overall combo rank down.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is a high-end card from the GeForce 40-series, based on the AD103 chip with Ada Lovelace architecture. It has 9728 shading units, 304 TMUs, 112 ROPs, 76 RT cores, and 304 tensor cores. The GPU’s base clock is 2205 MHz with a boost clock of 2505 MHz, and memory runs at 1400 MHz (22.4 Gbps effective). It features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding 716.8 GB/s bandwidth. The card is manufactured on a 5 nm process by TSMC, with 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die. Its TDP is 320 W, and it uses a triple-slot design with a 1x 16-pin power connector, requiring a suggested 700 W PSU.

The RTX 4080’s benchmark results are strong: it scores 6567 in 3dmark Steel Nomad DX12, 214739 in Geekbench OpenCL, 263779 in Geekbench Vulkan, 314 in Passmark DirectX 11, 132 in Passmark DirectX 12, 370 in Passmark DirectX 9, 34457 in Passmark G3D, and 20671 in Passmark GPU Compute. Its percentile vs all GPUs is 86, and its average benchmark score is 54247.

In Counter-Strike 2, the GPU’s role becomes dominant at 4K. The fact that 4K Low (107 FPS) is less than half of 1080p Low (229 FPS) highlights the massive pixel throughput required at 4K. The RTX 4080’s 16 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for this game — the data shows no signs of VRAM limitations, as even at 4K Ultra, the card maintains 55 FPS average, which is a playable (if not competitive) frame rate. The GPU’s 716.8 GB/s memory bandwidth is also adequate, as the frame rate drops at 4K are consistent with compute-bound scenarios rather than memory-bound ones.

The GPU’s boost clock of 2505 MHz and its 48.74 TFLOPS FP32 performance are what enable it to deliver 107 FPS at 4K Low. At 1440p, the RTX 4080 is clearly overkill for this game when paired with the 5600G — the 195 FPS at Low settings is likely CPU-limited, as the GPU has plenty of headroom. The measured minimum FPS values at Medium settings (127 at 1440p, 177 at 1080p, 70 at 4K) show that the GPU maintains consistent frame delivery even when the CPU is struggling to keep up. This suggests that the RTX 4080 is not the bottleneck at 1080p or 1440p; rather, the 5600G’s single-thread performance is what prevents higher frame rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Counter-Strike 2?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 229, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K with Medium settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the combo delivers an average of 82 FPS, with a minimum of 70 and maximum of 94.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the CPU is the limiting factor, as shown by the 77 FPS gap between Low (229 FPS) and Ultra (152 FPS), indicating the Ryzen 5 5600G cannot fully feed the RTX 4080.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested configurations?

A: This combo ranks 2985 out of 3719 tested combos in Counter-Strike 2.

Q: How much faster is 1080p Low compared to 4K Ultra?

A: 1080p Low averages 229 FPS, while 4K Ultra averages 55 FPS — a difference of 174 FPS or roughly 4.2 times higher performance at the lower resolution.

Q: What is the best settings preset for competitive play at 1440p?

A: Medium at 2560x1440 offers 149 average FPS with a 127 minimum, which is the best balance for maintaining frame rates above 144Hz.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following exact measurements are taken from the data for Counter-Strike 2 with the AMD Ryzen 5 5600G and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080.

1920x1080:

• Low: average 229 FPS
• Medium: average 208 FPS, minimum 177 FPS, maximum 239 FPS
• High: average 195 FPS
• Ultra: average 152 FPS

2560x1440:

• Low: average 195 FPS
• Medium: average 149 FPS, minimum 127 FPS, maximum 172 FPS
• High: average 128 FPS
• Ultra: average 100 FPS

3840x2160:

• Low: average 107 FPS
• Medium: average 82 FPS, minimum 70 FPS, maximum 94 FPS
• High: average 70 FPS
• Ultra: average 55 FPS

The data reveals a few notable observations. First, the Medium preset at each resolution is the only one with measured minimum and maximum FPS values, suggesting it was tested with more detailed frame tracking. Second, the 1080p High (195 FPS) and 1440p Low (195 FPS) results are identical, reinforcing the CPU-bound nature of this combo at lower resolutions — the GPU is not being taxed differently between these two settings. Third, the 4K High (70 FPS) and 4K Ultra (55 FPS) results are significantly lower than 1080p High (195 FPS), demonstrating that the RTX 4080’s rendering workload at 4K is the dominant factor. Finally, the gap between 1440p Medium (149 FPS) and 1080p Medium (208 FPS) is 59 FPS, while the gap between 4K Medium (82 FPS) and 1440p Medium (149 FPS) is 67 FPS, showing that the performance penalty per resolution step increases as you move to higher pixel counts. This combo is best suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming with Medium or Low settings to maximize frame rates, while 4K gaming is possible but requires significant compromises in settings to maintain playable frame rates.