Counter-Strike 2

# Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Counter-Strike 2 with the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 reveals a clear pattern: resolution scaling dramatically impacts performance, but the magnitude of that impact depends heavily on the graphics preset. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 505 FPS at 1920x1080 to 334 FPS at 2560x1440, a 34% reduction, and then further to 187 FPS at 3840x2160, a 63% reduction from the 1080p baseline. This steep scaling curve at Low settings indicates that the RTX 3080's raw rasterization throughput is the limiting factor even at lower resolutions, as the CPU has ample headroom to feed frames.

At Medium settings, the scaling pattern shifts. The average FPS at 1920x1080 is 420, dropping to 278 at 2560x1440 (a 34% decrease) and then to 155 at 3840x2160 (a 63% decrease from 1080p). The consistency of these percentage drops across Low and Medium settings suggests that the GPU is the primary bottleneck in both cases, with the additional shading work at Medium not fundamentally changing the performance ceiling. However, at High settings, the scaling becomes steeper: 313 FPS at 1080p drops to 207 FPS at 1440p (a 34% decrease) and then to 116 FPS at 4K (a 63% decrease from 1080p). This pattern indicates that High settings introduce enough pixel shader complexity that the GPU's 10 GB of GDDR6X memory and 320-bit bus become increasingly strained at higher resolutions.

Ultra settings exhibit the most dramatic scaling collapse. The average FPS falls from 243 at 1920x1080 to 161 at 2560x1440 (a 34% drop) and then to 90 at 3840x2160 (a 63% drop from 1080p). The fact that 4K Ultra produces just 90 FPS—barely above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth play—highlights the RTX 3080's limitations when pushed with maximum visual fidelity at high pixel counts. The data shows that the limiting component shifts with resolution: at 1080p, the Ryzen 7 7700's 8 cores and 16 threads can keep up with the GPU's output, but at 4K, the RTX 3080's 29.77 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 760.3 GB/s memory bandwidth become the definitive constraint.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable with this combo at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 505 FPS average, which is the highest measured result across all configurations. The Medium preset yields 420 FPS, High produces 313 FPS, and Ultra drops to 243 FPS.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K resolution?

A: At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 187 at Low settings down to 90 at Ultra settings. High settings produce 116 FPS, while Medium delivers 155 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 90 FPS is the lowest measured performance in the entire dataset.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the primary bottleneck in Counter-Strike 2?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the consistent 34% FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p and 63% drop from 1080p to 4K across all settings. At 1080p Low, the 505 FPS result shows the Ryzen 7 7700's 5.30 GHz boost clock and 32 MB L3 cache can feed the RTX 3080 effectively, but the GPU's 10 GB memory capacity and 29.77 TFLOPS throughput cap performance at higher pixel counts.

Q: What are the minimum FPS values recorded for this combo?

A: The dataset includes minimum FPS only for Medium settings. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 357 FPS; at 1440p Medium, it is 236 FPS; and at 4K Medium, it is 132 FPS. These values indicate that even the lowest frames remain playable at Medium settings across all resolutions.

Q: How does the RTX 3080's benchmark percentile compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 3080 sits at the 68th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23172. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA P106-100, scores 23249, representing a -0.3% delta, meaning the RTX 3080 is effectively tied with that card in synthetic benchmarks despite the massive real-world performance difference in this game.

Q: Does the combo's ranking in Counter-Strike 2 reflect its overall hardware strength?

A: The combo ranks 1050th out of 3719 tested combos in this game, placing it in the top 28% of all configurations. This ranking is notably lower than the individual components' percentiles (the CPU at 87th percentile and GPU at 68th percentile), suggesting that Counter-Strike 2's performance profile is more demanding on certain aspects of these components than typical benchmark workloads.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimizing the gameplay experience with this combo. For competitive play at high refresh rates, the Low preset at 1920x1080 delivers 505 FPS average, which is far beyond what any 360 Hz monitor can display. This configuration maximizes frame throughput and minimizes input latency, making it the ideal choice for serious competitive players. The Medium preset at 1080p, with 420 FPS average and a 357 FPS minimum, offers a better balance between visual clarity and performance—the minimum FPS remains above 300, ensuring no perceptible stutter even in intense firefights.

For 1440p gaming, which represents the sweet spot for this hardware, the Low preset achieves 334 FPS average, while Medium delivers 278 FPS with a 236 FPS minimum. The High preset at 1440p produces 207 FPS average, which still exceeds the 144 Hz refresh rate common on 1440p monitors. Given that the minimum FPS at 1440p Medium is 236, this setting provides a comfortable margin above 144 Hz, making it the recommended configuration for high-refresh 1440p displays. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 161 FPS average, which, while still playable, offers diminishing visual returns compared to the substantial frame rate cost.

At 4K resolution, the recommendation shifts to Medium settings, which achieve 155 FPS average with a 132 FPS minimum. This configuration keeps the experience smooth on 120 Hz or 144 Hz 4K displays, though the 132 FPS minimum approaches the edge of what could cause noticeable frame time variance. The High preset at 4K, at 116 FPS average, is acceptable for 60 Hz displays but falls short of 120 Hz panels. Ultra at 4K, with 90 FPS average, is only suitable for slower-paced play or when prioritizing image quality over responsiveness. The data clearly shows that Medium settings provide the best performance-per-visual-quality tradeoff across all three resolutions, with the 132 FPS minimum at 4K being the only concerning metric.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 combination achieves a rank of 1050 out of 3719 tested combos in Counter-Strike 2, placing it in the 71.8th percentile of all configurations. This ranking is notably underwhelming when compared to the individual component strengths: the Ryzen 7 7700 sits at the 87th percentile among all CPUs, while the RTX 3080 holds the 68th percentile among GPUs. The discrepancy between the component percentiles and the combo's in-game rank suggests that Counter-Strike 2 does not scale perfectly with the raw compute capabilities of these parts.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks—the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 (0.1% faster), Intel Core 5 221E (0.2% slower), AMD Ryzen 9 270 (0.4% slower), and Intel Core i9-13905H (0.6% slower)—all sit within a tight performance band around the 7700's average score of 40081. Similarly, the GPU's nearest rivals—the NVIDIA P106-100 (-0.3% delta), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (-0.3% delta), AMD Radeon RX 6600M (-0.4% delta), and AMD Radeon R9 M290X (-0.4% delta)—show that the RTX 3080's synthetic benchmark position is also tightly clustered. Yet in Counter-Strike 2, the combo's 1050th rank indicates that the game's engine rewards certain architectural features beyond what these synthetic scores capture.

The 3719 tested combos span a wide range of hardware configurations, and the 1050th position places this combo roughly in the upper-middle tier. The data suggests that while this pairing is far from the top of the leaderboard, it outperforms the majority of tested systems. The 4K Ultra result of 90 FPS, while low by this combo's standards, still exceeds the 60 FPS threshold that many systems struggle to reach at that resolution. The 1080p Low result of 505 FPS demonstrates that the combo can deliver extreme frame rates when the graphical load is minimal, but the overall rank reflects the fact that Counter-Strike 2's performance ceiling is limited by factors beyond raw compute throughput.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 brings 8 cores and 16 threads to this configuration, built on the Zen 4 architecture with a 5 nm process node. The CPU's base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz provide the single-thread performance that Counter-Strike 2 heavily relies on, as evidenced by the 3dmark single-thread score of 1049 and the Geekbench single-core score of 2525. The 32 MB shared L3 cache is particularly relevant for gaming workloads, as it reduces memory latency and improves data locality for frequently accessed game assets.

In synthetic multi-threaded benchmarks, the 7700 achieves 18760 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 15371 in Geekbench multi-core, with a PassMark multithread score of 34470. These figures indicate strong all-core performance, but Counter-Strike 2's frame rate data suggests that the game does not fully utilize all 16 threads. The transition from 1080p Low (505 FPS) to 1440p Low (334 FPS) shows a 34% drop, which is primarily driven by the GPU's workload increase rather than CPU limitations. At 1080p Low, the CPU must deliver frames at a 505 FPS average rate, which corresponds to a frame time of approximately 1.98 ms—a demanding task that the 7700 handles with its high boost clock and efficient Zen 4 architecture.

The 7700's percentile ranking at 87th among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 40081, places it well above the median. However, its nearest rivals in synthetic tests—the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365, Intel Core 5 221E, AMD Ryzen 9 270, and Intel Core i9-13905H—all show that the 7700 is not an outlier in CPU performance; it competes closely with a range of mobile and desktop processors. In Counter-Strike 2, the CPU's role becomes more prominent at lower resolutions where the GPU has less work per frame. The 505 FPS result at 1080p Low demonstrates that the 7700 can sustain extremely high frame rates without becoming the bottleneck, but the 63% drop from 1080p to 4K across all settings proves that the GPU takes over as the limiting component at higher pixel counts.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for Counter-Strike 2 with the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 covers four settings levels across three resolutions. At 3840x2160, the Low preset delivers an average of 187 FPS, Medium achieves 155 FPS with a minimum of 132 and maximum of 178, High produces 116 FPS, and Ultra drops to 90 FPS. These 4K results show a clear hierarchy where each step up in settings costs roughly 30-40% of the frame rate, with Ultra representing a 52% reduction from Low.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves 334 FPS average, Medium delivers 278 FPS with a minimum of 236 and maximum of 319, High produces 207 FPS, and Ultra reaches 161 FPS. The 1440p results demonstrate that the combo can comfortably exceed 200 FPS at High settings and approach 300 FPS at Medium, making this resolution the most versatile for different visual preferences. The minimum FPS of 236 at Medium ensures consistent frame delivery even during demanding scenes.

At 1920x1080, the performance reaches its peak: Low settings achieve 505 FPS average, Medium delivers 420 FPS with a minimum of 357 and maximum of 482, High produces 313 FPS, and Ultra reaches 243 FPS. The 1080p results reveal that even at Ultra settings, the combo maintains an average above 240 FPS, which is sufficient for the highest refresh rate gaming monitors currently available. The minimum FPS of 357 at Medium settings is particularly noteworthy, as it exceeds the refresh rate of all but the most extreme esports displays.

The scaling between resolutions follows a consistent pattern across all settings: the drop from 1080p to 1440p averages 34%, and the drop from 1080p to 4K averages 63%. This consistency suggests that the RTX 3080's memory bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s and pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s are the primary determinants of performance scaling, with the CPU's role diminishing as resolution increases. The 10 GB GDDR6X memory capacity, while sufficient for this game's requirements at all tested settings, does not appear to cause any capacity-related stuttering, as evidenced by the smooth minimum FPS values at Medium settings.