Counter-Strike 2

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers exceptional performance in Counter-Strike 2, with measured frame rates that consistently exceed the thresholds required for high-refresh-rate competitive play. The data set reveals a combination that is heavily CPU-limited at lower resolutions and progressively becomes GPU-bound as resolution increases, offering distinct experiences across the four tested presets.

Settings Recommendations

For competitive play, the Low preset at 1920x1080 delivers the highest measured average of 484 FPS, which is 84 FPS higher than the Medium preset’s 402 FPS at the same resolution. This gap demonstrates that the Low preset removes rendering bottlenecks that would otherwise constrain the frame rate, making it the optimal choice for players seeking maximum responsiveness. The 1440p Low result of 320 FPS also remains far above the 240Hz refresh rate ceiling common in esports displays, so players with 1440p monitors lose little by keeping settings minimal.

The Medium preset provides a balanced alternative, with measured averages of 402 FPS at 1080p, 266 FPS at 1440p, and 149 FPS at 4K. The Medium preset is the only configuration in the data set that includes minimum and maximum frame rate values, showing a minimum of 342 FPS at 1080p and 226 FPS at 1440p—both of which remain above 200 FPS, ensuring consistent pacing even during intense firefights. For players who prioritize visual fidelity over raw frame rates, the High preset still delivers 300 FPS at 1080p and 199 FPS at 1440p, which are respectable figures but show a clear step down from Low.

The Ultra preset is the most demanding, producing 233 FPS at 1080p, 154 FPS at 1440p, and 86 FPS at 4K. While the 1080p Ultra result is still playable on a 144Hz monitor, the 4K Ultra figure of 86 FPS falls below the 90 FPS threshold that many players consider the baseline for smooth gameplay. The data suggests that Ultra should be reserved for players who have display refresh rates capped at 144Hz or lower and who prioritize image quality over competitive advantage. For most users, the Low preset at 1080p or 1440p offers the best combination of frame rate headroom and input latency reduction, while Medium serves as a strong middle ground for those who want improved visuals without sacrificing the high frame rates that Counter-Strike 2 rewards.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest measured average frame rate in the data set?

A: The highest measured average is 484 FPS, achieved with the Low preset at 1920x1080 resolution.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra preset compare to the 1080p Low preset?

A: The 4K Ultra preset produces 86 FPS on average, which is 398 FPS lower than the 1080p Low preset’s 484 FPS, representing a dramatic 82% drop in performance when moving from the least demanding to the most demanding configuration.

Q: Which preset shows the smallest difference between minimum and maximum frame rates?

A: The Medium preset is the only one with min/max data available, and at 1080p it shows a range of 342 to 462 FPS, a spread of 120 FPS. At 1440p, the Medium preset ranges from 226 to 306 FPS, a spread of 80 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: The data indicates the CPU is the primary limiter at 1080p, as the average frame rates scale dramatically from 233 FPS on Ultra to 484 FPS on Low, while the GPU’s rendering load decreases. This pattern is consistent with a CPU-bound scenario where the GPU has spare capacity.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested combinations for this game?

A: The combo ranks 873rd out of 2870 tested combinations, placing it in the 70th percentile of all tested systems for Counter-Strike 2.

Q: Does the 4K High preset outperform the 1440p Ultra preset?

A: Yes, the 4K High preset averages 111 FPS, while the 1440p Ultra preset averages 154 FPS. The 1440p Ultra result is 43 FPS higher, indicating that resolution scaling has a larger impact than the single-step settings change from High to Ultra.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear pattern of GPU limitation emerging at higher resolutions. At the Low preset, the 1080p average of 484 FPS drops to 320 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 164 FPS or 34%, and then to 179 FPS at 4K, a further reduction of 141 FPS or 44%. This steep decline indicates that the RTX 4080’s rendering workload becomes the dominant constraint as pixel count increases, even at minimal settings.

The Medium preset follows a similar trajectory: 402 FPS at 1080p, 266 FPS at 1440p, and 149 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 34% from 1080p to 1440p and 44% from 1440p to 4K, nearly identical to the Low preset’s scaling. This consistency across presets suggests that the resolution scaling factor is independent of the settings level, with the GPU’s fill-rate and bandwidth limitations driving the performance curve.

At the High preset, the scaling becomes more pronounced: 300 FPS at 1080p, 199 FPS at 1440p, and 111 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 101 FPS (34%), and from 1440p to 4K is 88 FPS (44%), again matching the percentage pattern. The Ultra preset shows the most extreme scaling, with 233 FPS at 1080p, 154 FPS at 1440p, and 86 FPS at 4K—drops of 34% and 44% respectively.

The consistent 34% and 44% scaling factors across all four presets indicate that the CPU’s performance at 1080p is sufficient to feed the GPU without introducing a bottleneck, as the frame rate reductions align perfectly with the pixel count increases (1440p has 1.78x the pixels of 1080p, and 4K has 2.25x the pixels of 1440p). The measured reductions are slightly less than the pixel count ratios, suggesting that the GPU’s memory bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s and 16 GB of GDDR6X VRAM are adequate for these loads, but the rendering pipeline becomes the limiting factor as resolution grows.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the maximum measured average of 484 FPS, followed by Medium at 402 FPS, High at 300 FPS, and Ultra at 233 FPS. The Medium preset at 1080p includes the only complete min/max data for this resolution, with a minimum of 342 FPS and a maximum of 462 FPS, showing a 120 FPS spread that indicates stable performance under load. The 1080p results show a monotonic decrease as settings increase, with each preset step costing roughly 80-100 FPS on average.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 320 FPS, Medium averages 266 FPS, High averages 199 FPS, and Ultra averages 154 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p shows a minimum of 226 FPS and a maximum of 306 FPS, a spread of 80 FPS that is narrower than the 1080p Medium spread, suggesting that the GPU becomes more consistent at higher resolutions. The 1440p results represent a 34% reduction from the corresponding 1080p values across all presets, confirming the uniform resolution scaling factor.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 179 FPS, Medium averages 149 FPS, High averages 111 FPS, and Ultra averages 86 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K shows a minimum of 126 FPS and a maximum of 171 FPS, a spread of 45 FPS that is the tightest of any preset in the data set. The 4K results show that only the Low preset manages to exceed 150 FPS, while the Ultra preset falls below 90 FPS, making it marginal for competitive play.

The data set includes no minimum or maximum values for the High and Ultra presets at any resolution, as well as for the Low preset at all resolutions. The Medium preset is the only configuration with full min/max data, providing a reference point for frame time consistency. Across all resolutions, the Medium preset shows that the minimum frame rate is consistently 84-85% of the average, indicating that the combination maintains a stable frame delivery without severe dips.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 873rd out of 2870 tested combinations for Counter-Strike 2, placing it in the 70th percentile of all tested systems. This rank reflects a high-performing configuration that sits above the median but falls short of the top tier of competitive setups. The ranking is influenced by the fact that Counter-Strike 2 is a CPU-sensitive title, and while the Ryzen 9 8945HX is a strong mobile processor, it does not match the absolute top desktop CPUs that often appear in the highest-ranked combos.

The CPU’s percentile rank against all CPUs is 95, meaning it outperforms 95% of all processors in the benchmark database. This places the Ryzen 9 8945HX in the upper echelon of available CPUs, with its nearest rivals being the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX (0.1% higher average score), AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P (0.4% higher), AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX (0.4% higher), and AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D (0.6% lower). These rivals are all within 0.6% of the Ryzen 9’s average benchmark score, indicating that the CPU is competitive with the best available options.

The GPU’s percentile rank against all GPUs is 86, meaning it outperforms 86% of all graphics cards. The nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER (0.1% higher), AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (1.1% higher), AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (2.6% higher), and AMD Radeon 8060S (2.7% higher). The RTX 4080’s average benchmark score of 54247 is within 2.7% of its nearest rivals, showing that it is a top-tier GPU but not the absolute fastest available.

The combination of a 95th percentile CPU and an 86th percentile GPU results in a combo rank in the 70th percentile for this specific game, suggesting that the system is somewhat underutilized in Counter-Strike 2 compared to its raw benchmark potential. This is likely due to the game’s engine favoring higher single-thread performance, which the Ryzen 9 8945HX provides via its 5.40 GHz boost clock, but the overall rank indicates that other combos with slightly faster CPUs achieve better in-game results.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX features 16 cores and 32 threads, based on the Zen 4 architecture built on a 5 nm process. Its base clock is 2.50 GHz with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, providing substantial single-thread performance that is critical for Counter-Strike 2’s engine. The CPU has 64 MB of L3 cache, which is shared across the 16 cores, and each core has 64 KB of L1 and 1 MB of L2 cache, enabling fast access to frequently used game data.

In multi-threaded benchmarks, the CPU scores 42713 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 17939 in Cinebench R20 multi-core, along with 51405 in Passmark multithread. These scores indicate strong parallel processing capability, but Counter-Strike 2’s engine typically relies more on single-thread performance. The single-core scores of 6030 in Cinebench R23 and 3907 in Passmark single-thread are above average, and the CPU’s 95th percentile ranking against all CPUs confirms its competitive position.

The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p, the frame rates are exceptionally high (up to 484 FPS on Low), which indicates that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with enough draw calls to sustain such rates. However, the fact that the 1080p frame rates vary significantly between presets (233 FPS on Ultra vs 484 FPS on Low) suggests that the CPU is not the sole bottleneck at 1080p; rather, the GPU’s rendering workload at higher settings also plays a role. The CPU’s boost clock of 5.40 GHz is likely the key factor in achieving these high frame rates, as the game’s engine scales with single-thread performance.

The CPU’s 32 threads are more than sufficient for Counter-Strike 2, which typically uses only a few cores. The Passmark physics score of 2168 and the data compression score of 677755 indicate strong computational throughput, but these are not directly relevant to gaming performance. The CPU’s memory support for DDR5 with a bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s ensures that the system’s memory subsystem does not become a bottleneck, which is important for maintaining high frame rates in a fast-paced FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s. The GPU has a base clock of 2205 MHz and a boost clock of 2505 MHz, with 9728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 render output units. These specifications enable a pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s, which are crucial for rendering the high frame rates seen in the data.

The GPU’s FP32 performance of 48.74 TFLOPS places it among the top tier of consumer graphics cards, and its 16 GB of VRAM is ample for Counter-Strike 2’s modest memory requirements. The measured FPS data shows that at 4K, the frame rates drop significantly compared to 1080p, indicating that the GPU’s rendering capabilities are the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The 4K Ultra preset averages 86 FPS, which is the lowest measured value in the data set, while the 4K Low preset averages 179 FPS, showing that even at minimal settings, the GPU cannot match the 1080p performance.

The GPU’s 86th percentile ranking against all GPUs places it in the upper tier, with its nearest rivals being the RTX 4080 SUPER (0.1% faster), Radeon Pro W5700X (1.1% faster), Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (2.6% faster), and Radeon 8060S (2.7% faster). These rivals are all within 2.7% of the RTX 4080’s average benchmark score, indicating that the GPU is competitive but not the absolute fastest available. However, in Counter-Strike 2 specifically, the GPU’s performance is more than adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming, as evidenced by the high frame rates measured at those resolutions.

The GPU’s support for DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4 ensures compatibility with Counter-Strike 2’s rendering API, and the 16 GB of VRAM provides headroom for future game updates. The GPU’s power consumption of 320 W and triple-slot design are notable, but these factors do not directly impact the measured frame rates. The GPU’s role in this combo is to deliver the high pixel throughput needed at 1440p and 4K, while at 1080p, the CPU takes precedence in determining the final frame rate.