Counter-Strike 2

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Counter-Strike 2 with the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and Intel Arc B570 reveals a clear pattern: performance scales strongly with resolution, indicating that the graphics card is the primary bottleneck at higher settings. At 1080p Low, the combo delivers 275 FPS average, but this drops to 182 FPS at 1440p Low and further to 102 FPS at 4K Low. That represents a 63% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, which is a substantial scaling penalty that points directly at GPU limitations.

The scaling behavior becomes even more pronounced when examining the High preset. At 1080p High, the system produces 171 FPS average. Moving to 1440p High reduces this to 113 FPS, a 34% drop. At 4K High, the average falls to 63 FPS, which is 63% below the 1080p figure. This consistent pattern across settings suggests that the Intel Arc B570's rendering throughput, rather than the CPU's processing capability, governs performance once resolution increases.

The Medium preset data reinforces this conclusion. At 1080p Medium, the average is 229 FPS with a minimum of 194 FPS and maximum of 263 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 151 FPS with min/max of 129/174 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 85 FPS with min/max of 72/97 FPS. The gap between 1080p and 1440p Medium is 78 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K Medium is 66 FPS. These relatively uniform drops across resolution steps indicate that the GPU is scaling predictably with pixel count, a hallmark of a GPU-bound scenario.

Ultra settings tell a similar story with lower absolute numbers. The 1080p Ultra average is 133 FPS, dropping to 88 FPS at 1440p Ultra and 49 FPS at 4K Ultra. The 4K Ultra result of 49 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold typically considered smooth, making that configuration impractical for competitive play. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is a 63% reduction, matching the Low preset's scaling almost exactly. This consistency across all four presets strongly suggests that the limiting component is the GPU, as the CPU would show less resolution sensitivity.

The data indicates that at 1080p, particularly at Low settings, the CPU has room to push higher frame rates, but the GPU still caps performance. The 275 FPS at 1080p Low versus 182 FPS at 1440p Low shows a 93 FPS difference driven purely by resolution increase, which cannot be attributed to CPU limitations. For competitive play at high refresh rates, this combo delivers playable frame rates at 1080p across all presets, but at 4K, only Low and Medium settings exceed 60 FPS average.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average is 275 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only configuration in the measured data that exceeds 270 FPS.

Q: Can this system run Counter-Strike 2 at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: Yes, but only at Low and Medium settings. The 4K Low average is 102 FPS, and 4K Medium averages 85 FPS. At 4K High, the average drops to 63 FPS, and 4K Ultra falls to 49 FPS, which is below the smoothness threshold.

Q: How does the Medium preset compare to High in terms of FPS at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Medium averages 151 FPS with a minimum of 129 FPS and maximum of 174 FPS. High averages 113 FPS. The Medium preset provides a 38 FPS advantage over High at this resolution.

Q: What are the minimum FPS figures for the Medium preset across resolutions?

A: The measured minimums are 194 FPS at 1080p, 129 FPS at 1440p, and 72 FPS at 4K. These minimums indicate frame time consistency, with the 4K minimum of 72 FPS still remaining above 60 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The resolution scaling data indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck. FPS drops by roughly 63% from 1080p to 4K across Low and Ultra presets, which is characteristic of GPU-bound performance rather than CPU limitations.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to Low at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low averages 275 FPS while Ultra averages 133 FPS. This represents a 142 FPS difference, meaning Ultra delivers slightly less than half the frame rate of Low at the same resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimizing the Counter-Strike 2 experience with this hardware combination. For competitive play where frame rate is paramount, the Low preset at 1080p delivers the highest average at 275 FPS, which provides the greatest headroom for high refresh rate monitors and minimizes input latency. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 46 FPS (from 275 to 229 FPS), which may be acceptable for players who want slightly better visuals without sacrificing too much responsiveness.

For players using 1440p displays, the Medium preset offers the best balance between visual quality and performance. The 151 FPS average with a 129 FPS minimum ensures consistent frame delivery, and the 174 FPS maximum shows there is occasional headroom above the average. The High preset at 1440p drops to 113 FPS, which is still smooth but leaves less margin for demanding scenes. The Ultra preset at 1440p averages 88 FPS, which may be borderline for competitive play where 100+ FPS is often preferred.

At 4K resolution, the Medium preset is the recommended choice, delivering 85 FPS average with a 72 FPS minimum. This keeps the experience above 60 FPS throughout, which is the minimum threshold for smooth gameplay. The High preset at 4K averages 63 FPS, which is technically above 60 FPS but leaves little room for frame drops during intense combat scenarios. The Ultra preset at 4K should be avoided, as the 49 FPS average falls below the smoothness threshold and would hinder competitive performance.

The data suggests that the Medium preset is the sweet spot across all three resolutions. At 1080p, it provides 229 FPS, which is ample for even the fastest 240Hz displays. At 1440p, it delivers 151 FPS, suitable for 144Hz monitors. At 4K, it maintains 85 FPS, exceeding the 60 FPS baseline. For players who prioritize maximum frame rate over visual fidelity, Low settings remain viable, particularly at 1080p where 275 FPS represents the peak performance of this combo.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X with Intel Arc B570 combination ranks 2286 out of 2870 tested combos in Counter-Strike 2. This places the setup in the lower portion of the tested combinations, with only 584 combos ranking below it. The percentile positioning suggests that while this hardware is capable of producing playable frame rates, there are many other combinations that achieve higher performance in this specific title.

The ranking context is important when interpreting the measured FPS data. A rank of 2286 out of 2870 indicates that this combo is better than roughly 20% of tested configurations but worse than roughly 80%. This does not mean the performance is poor in absolute terms — the 1080p Low result of 275 FPS is objectively high — but it reflects the competitive nature of Counter-Strike 2 benchmarking, where many high-end combinations achieve even higher frame rates.

The CPU's benchmark percentile of 86 versus all CPUs indicates that the Ryzen 7 9700X is a strong processor in general computing tasks. However, the GPU's percentile of 65 versus all GPUs is lower, and this disparity likely contributes to the combo's overall ranking. The data suggests that the Intel Arc B570, while capable, is not among the top-tier graphics cards for this game, which limits the combo's standing.

The nearest rival comparisons for the GPU show that the Arc B570 is closely matched with the Intel Arc A750, with a delta of -0.1%, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, with a delta of 0.1%. These near-identical average benchmark scores indicate that the Arc B570 performs in a similar tier to these cards, which provides context for its relative performance in Counter-Strike 2.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X is an 8-core, 16-thread processor built on the Zen 5 architecture with a 4 nm process node. Its base clock is 3.80 GHz with a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, and it carries 32 MB of shared L3 cache along with 1 MB of L2 cache per core. This configuration provides strong single-threaded performance, as evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 1280 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2211.

In Counter-Strike 2, which is known to be sensitive to CPU performance, the Ryzen 7 9700X demonstrates its capability through the measured frame rates. The fact that 1080p Low achieves 275 FPS average shows that the CPU can support high frame rates when the GPU is not the limiting factor. The processor's 16 threads provide ample parallelism for the game's engine, though the game's performance does not scale indefinitely with core count.

The CPU's benchmark results indicate strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 20485 and a 3DMark max-thread score of 9771. These scores suggest that the processor has headroom to handle background tasks while gaming, but in terms of Counter-Strike 2 specifically, the resolution scaling data suggests the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions.

The 5.50 GHz boost clock is particularly relevant for Counter-Strike 2, as the game's frame pacing often depends on single-threaded performance. The PassMark single-thread score of 4654 and Geekbench single-core score of 3023 both indicate strong single-core capability. However, the measured FPS data shows that even with this strong CPU, the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases, particularly at 4K where the average FPS drops significantly across all settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are 275 for Low, 229 for Medium, 171 for High, and 133 for Ultra. The Medium preset includes measured minimum and maximum values of 194 and 263 FPS respectively. This shows a clear tiering where each settings increase reduces average performance by approximately 40-50 FPS, with Low being the fastest and Ultra being the slowest at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS values drop to 182 for Low, 151 for Medium, 113 for High, and 88 for Ultra. The Medium preset at this resolution has a minimum of 129 FPS and a maximum of 174 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 31 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 38 FPS, and the gap between High and Ultra is 25 FPS. This indicates a relatively consistent performance degradation as settings increase.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS values are 102 for Low, 85 for Medium, 63 for High, and 49 for Ultra. The Medium preset at 4K has a minimum of 72 FPS and a maximum of 97 FPS. The scaling from Low to Medium is 17 FPS, from Medium to High is 22 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 14 FPS. At 4K, the frame rates are significantly lower across all settings compared to 1080p, with even the Low preset barely exceeding 100 FPS.

The complete dataset reveals that the Medium preset is the only settings level with full min/max measurements across all three resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the minimum of 194 FPS ensures no frame drops below 144Hz refresh rates. At 1440p Medium, the 129 FPS minimum stays above 120Hz thresholds. At 4K Medium, the 72 FPS minimum remains above 60Hz, making it the only 4K preset with a guaranteed minimum above 60 FPS. This consistency makes Medium the most reliable preset for smooth gameplay across all resolutions.