Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 with an AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 shows a performance curve that is heavily dictated by resolution, with the CPU providing a massive headroom at lower settings and the GPU becoming the limiting factor as resolution climbs. The measured data covers 1080p, 1440p, and 4K across Low, Medium, High, and Ultra presets, giving a complete picture of how this mobile combo behaves in a competitive FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all presets, but the magnitude varies dramatically depending on the settings chosen. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 330 FPS at 1920x1080 to 219 FPS at 2560x1440, then down to 122 FPS at 3840x2160. That is a 63% reduction from 1080p to 4K, indicating that even at Low, the GPU is increasingly burdened by pixel count. The gap between 1080p and 1440p at Low is 111 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K is 97 FPS, showing a relatively linear scaling pattern as resolution increases.

At Medium settings, the same resolution progression yields 275 FPS at 1080p, 182 FPS at 1440p, and 102 FPS at 4K. The delta from 1080p to 1440p is 93 FPS, and from 1440p to 4K it is 80 FPS. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K here is about 63% as well, but the absolute numbers are lower, suggesting that the added shading work at Medium is cutting into the headroom that Low settings provided. The measured minimum and maximum for Medium at 1080p are 233 and 316 FPS, respectively, while at 1440p they are 154 and 209, and at 4K they are 86 and 117. These ranges show that frame pacing tightens as resolution rises, with the spread between min and max shrinking from 83 FPS at 1080p to 63 FPS at 1440p and 31 FPS at 4K.

High settings produce 205 FPS at 1080p, 136 FPS at 1440p, and 76 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 69 FPS, and from 1440p to 4K it is 60 FPS. The percentage loss from 1080p to 4K is roughly 63% again, matching the pattern seen at Low and Medium. This consistency suggests the scaling is dominated by resolution rather than preset-specific effects, but the absolute FPS at 4K High (76) is already below the 100 FPS threshold that many competitive players would consider acceptable.

Ultra settings show the most severe scaling. At 1080p, the average is 159 FPS; at 1440p, it drops to 105 FPS; and at 4K, it falls to 59 FPS. The reduction from 1080p to 1440p is 54 FPS, and from 1440p to 4K it is 46 FPS. This represents a 63% drop from 1080p to 4K, identical in percentage terms to the other presets, but the 4K number is critically low for a game like Counter-Strike 2 where responsiveness matters. The data indicates that the limiting component shifts from the CPU at 1080p to the GPU at 4K, especially at Ultra, where the RTX 5060 is clearly struggling to maintain playable rates.

The pattern is clear: resolution scaling is nearly linear in percentage terms across all presets, with roughly a 63% loss from 1080p to 4K. However, the absolute FPS at 4K varies from 122 at Low to 59 at Ultra, meaning that users targeting 4K must accept Low settings to stay above 120 FPS, while 1080p users can comfortably run Ultra at 159 FPS or High at 205 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a straightforward hierarchy: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra, each with distinct average FPS values at every resolution. For competitive play at 1080p, Low settings deliver 330 FPS, which is the highest average in the entire dataset. This gives a massive margin over the 205 FPS at High and 275 FPS at Medium. The benefit of Low is not just the raw frame rate; it also reduces input latency and visual clutter, which matters in a tactical shooter. Medium at 1080p still offers 275 FPS, which is more than sufficient for most displays, but Low is the safest choice for maximum responsiveness.

At 1440p, Low settings produce 219 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh monitors. Medium drops to 182 FPS, still very playable, while High sits at 136 FPS and Ultra at 105 FPS. For 1440p users, Low or Medium provides the best balance of frame rate and visual quality, given that the difference between them is 37 FPS (from 219 to 182), while the jump from Medium to High costs 46 FPS and from High to Ultra costs 31 FPS. The data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot at 1440p, offering 182 FPS with better visuals than Low, while keeping well above the 144 FPS threshold that many 1440p monitors support.

At 4K, the situation is more constrained. Low settings yield 122 FPS, which is the only preset above 100 FPS at this resolution. Medium drops to 102 FPS, High to 76 FPS, and Ultra to 59 FPS. For a game like Counter-Strike 2, where frame rate directly impacts aim precision and reaction time, Low or Medium at 4K are the only viable options. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is 20 FPS, which is significant, but even Medium’s 102 FPS is borderline for competitive play. High and Ultra at 4K are not recommended, as the 76 and 59 FPS averages would put players at a disadvantage against opponents on lower settings.

The best experience per the measured rows depends on the display resolution. At 1080p, Low offers the highest possible FPS (330), which is ideal for 240 Hz or 360 Hz monitors. At 1440p, Medium provides 182 FPS, a good match for 165 Hz or 180 Hz displays, with Low at 219 FPS for those who prioritize frame rate above all else. At 4K, Low is the clear winner at 122 FPS, with Medium as a fallback at 102 FPS. The data shows no scenario where Ultra is the best choice, as it always delivers the lowest FPS and offers no competitive advantage in a game where visual fidelity is secondary to performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a GB206 chip, using a 5 nm process from TSMC. It has 3840 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs, with 30 RT cores and 120 tensor cores. The boost clock is 2497 MHz, and the memory runs at 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective speed across a 128-bit bus, yielding 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. The 8 GB GDDR7 capacity is a key factor in this game’s results, as Counter-Strike 2 is not particularly VRAM-hungry at the tested settings, but the 128-bit bus width limits memory throughput compared to wider implementations.

The GPU’s benchmark scores put it in the 72nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 26331. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon 860M (avgScore 26401, deltaPct -0.3), NVIDIA GeForce MX550 (avgScore 26421, deltaPct -0.3), AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary (avgScore 26553, deltaPct -0.8), and AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT (avgScore 26011, deltaPct 1.2). These deltas are all within 1.2%, indicating that the RTX 5060 sits in a tightly competitive band with these cards in synthetic benchmarks, though the in-game results show its strengths and weaknesses more clearly.

In Counter-Strike 2, the GPU’s role becomes dominant at higher resolutions and presets. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra (59 FPS) is less than half of the 1080p Low result (330 FPS), showing that the GPU is the bottleneck when pixel count and shading load increase. The 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for the game’s needs at these settings, as no data suggests memory capacity limits, but the 448.0 GB/s bandwidth and 128-bit bus may constrain performance at 4K, where texture and geometry data demands are higher. The boost clock of 2497 MHz is relatively modest, but the architecture’s efficiency allows it to achieve the observed frame rates.

The GPU’s compute performance, as measured by passmark_gpu_compute (10899) and passmark_g3d (20891), shows that it is a mid-range part. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3628 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 112787, along with a Vulkan score of 113321, indicate solid DirectX 12 and Vulkan support, which is relevant for Counter-Strike 2’s engine. The RTX 5060’s performance relative to its rivals is close in synthetic tests, but in this game, the measured FPS at 1080p Low (330) demonstrates that the GPU is not the limiting factor at lower resolutions, where the CPU takes over.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 combination ranks 1875 out of 2870 tested combos in Counter-Strike 2, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database. This rank reflects the overall performance across all resolutions and settings, but it is important to interpret it in context. The combo is not among the top performers, which would be dominated by desktop parts with higher power limits, but it is a mobile setup with a 55 W CPU TDP and 145 W GPU TDP, so the rank is reasonable for its class.

The CPU’s percentile versus all CPUs is 95, meaning it outperforms 95% of processors in the database, with an average benchmark score of 76212. Its nearest rivals in CPU benchmarks are the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX (avgScore 76155, deltaPct 0.1), AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P (avgScore 76492, deltaPct -0.4), AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX (avgScore 76513, deltaPct -0.4), and AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D (avgScore 75779, deltaPct 0.6). These deltas are all under 1%, showing that the 8945HX is essentially tied with these high-end parts in synthetic benchmarks, which explains why the combo ranks as well as it does in a CPU-heavy game like Counter-Strike 2.

The GPU’s percentile versus all GPUs is 72, with an average benchmark score of 26331. Its nearest rivals (Radeon 860M, MX550, RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary, RX 6750 XT) are all within 1.2% in synthetic scores, but in-game, the RTX 5060’s performance is more variable. The combo rank of 1875 out of 2870 suggests that many other GPU+CPU pairings outperform it, likely due to more powerful GPUs or desktop CPUs with higher boost clocks. However, the 8945HX’s high percentile helps offset the GPU’s mid-range position, especially at 1080p where the CPU’s strength shines.

The rank also indicates that this combo is not optimized for maximum FPS at high resolutions. At 4K, the FPS drops to 59 at Ultra, which would drag the combo down in rankings that weight 4K performance heavily. Conversely, at 1080p Low, the 330 FPS result would rank much higher, showing that the combo’s overall position depends on the target resolution and settings. For a mobile gaming laptop, this rank is acceptable, but it does not place the combo among the elite for Counter-Strike 2.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on Zen 4 architecture with the Dragon Range codename. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with a 55 W TDP. The CPU features 64 MB of L3 cache, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 64 KB of L1 per core, which is substantial for gaming. Its memory support is DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and 83.2 GB/s bandwidth. The CPU’s benchmark scores are impressive: Cinebench R23 multi-core of 42713 and single-core of 6030, Cinebench R20 multi-core of 17939 and single-core of 2532, and Cinebench R15 multi-core of 4305 and single-core of 607. Passmark multi-thread score is 51405, and single-thread is 3907.

In Counter-Strike 2, the CPU’s role is most apparent at 1080p, where the GPU is not the bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 330, which is nearly three times the 4K Ultra result (59). This massive headroom indicates that the 8945HX’s high boost clock of 5.40 GHz and strong single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core 6030) are critical for driving high frame rates in a game that relies on CPU-bound logic for player positions, hit registration, and physics. The 16 cores and 32 threads also help with background tasks and streaming, but the single-thread performance is the key factor for this game.

The CPU’s percentile of 95 versus all CPUs confirms its strength. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, scores nearly identically (avgScore 76155 vs 76212, deltaPct 0.1), meaning the 8945HX is on par with the best mobile CPUs available. The delta to the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is 0.6%, which is within noise, but the 9950X3D has additional cache that could help in some games, though not reflected here. The CPU’s 64 MB L3 cache is double what many desktop chips offer, and it likely contributes to the high FPS at 1080p by keeping more game data on-chip.

At higher resolutions, the CPU’s role diminishes as the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The FPS drop from 1080p Low (330) to 1440p Low (219) is 111 FPS, and to 4K Low (122) is 208 FPS, showing that the CPU can push far more frames than the RTX 5060 can render at higher pixel counts. The data suggests that the 8945HX is overkill for this GPU at 4K, but it provides a comfortable buffer at 1080p, ensuring that frame rates are never CPU-limited in typical scenarios. The CPU’s 5.40 GHz boost clock is particularly valuable in Counter-Strike 2, where frame times need to be consistent, and the data shows no signs of CPU throttling at any resolution.

FAQ

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

A: The highest average FPS is 330, measured at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the maximum across all tested resolutions and presets.

Q: Is the RTX 5060 capable of 4K gaming in Counter-Strike 2?

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, where it averages 122 FPS. At Medium, it drops to 102 FPS, while High and Ultra produce 76 and 59 FPS, respectively, which are below competitive thresholds.

Q: How does the Ryzen 9 8945HX compare to its nearest CPU rival?

A: The 8945HX has an average benchmark score of 76212, which is 0.1% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX (avgScore 76155). It also outperforms the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D by 0.6% (deltaPct 0.6).

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

A: Medium settings at 2560x1440 deliver 182 FPS, which is the best balance of visual quality and frame rate. Low gives 219 FPS, but Medium’s 182 FPS is still sufficient for most high-refresh monitors while providing better visuals.

Q: Does the GPU’s VRAM affect performance in this game?

A: The RTX 5060 has 8 GB of GDDR7 memory, and the measured data shows no indication of VRAM limitations at any tested setting. The memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s is more relevant, especially at 4K where the 128-bit bus may limit throughput.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to all tested combos?

A: It ranks 1875 out of 2870 combos in Counter-Strike 2. This places it in the lower-middle range, reflecting the GPU’s mid-tier status (72nd percentile) despite the CPU’s high standing (95th percentile).