Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 with an Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER delivers a highly responsive experience across most settings, but the data reveals a clear hierarchy in how the CPU and GPU share the workload. At 1080p, the system is overwhelmingly CPU-bound at lower presets, while at 4K, the GPU becomes the primary constraint. The measured frame rates indicate that players should prioritize settings based on their target resolution and refresh rate, rather than uniformly maxing out quality.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data shows that the Low preset at 1920x1080 produces an average of 356.3 FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded for this combination. This is 62.9 FPS higher than the Medium preset (293.4 FPS) and 135.7 FPS higher than High (220.6 FPS). For competitive play on high-refresh-rate monitors, Low at 1080p is the optimal choice, as it maximizes frame throughput and minimizes input latency. The jump from Low to Medium costs 62.9 FPS, a 17.6% reduction, which is substantial for a game where frame rate directly correlates with responsiveness.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset still delivers 233.8 FPS, which remains well above the 144 Hz threshold for most gaming displays. However, the Medium preset at 192.9 FPS offers a better balance for users who want improved visual fidelity without sacrificing competitive viability. The High preset at 143.9 FPS is still playable for 144 Hz monitors, but it sits dangerously close to the refresh rate ceiling, leaving little headroom for frame time spikes.

For 4K gaming, the High preset produces 84.2 FPS, which is the highest quality setting that remains above 60 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 62.5 FPS, which is technically playable but leaves no margin for demanding scenes. The Medium preset at 106.6 FPS is the recommended choice for 4K, as it provides a 26.5% performance increase over High while still maintaining a visually rich image. The data suggests that Ultra is only viable for players who prioritize image quality over frame rate stability, as it represents a 40.4% drop from Medium.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its benchmark scores show a significant disparity between single-threaded and multi-threaded performance: the Cinebench R23 single-core score is 1681, while the multi-core score is 11912. This indicates that the CPU has strong per-core performance, which is critical for Counter-Strike 2’s engine, as it typically relies on a limited number of threads for game logic and physics.

The 3DMark 2-thread score of 1659 is notably higher than the 4-thread score of 2859 when normalized per thread (829.5 vs 714.75 per thread), suggesting that scaling beyond two threads yields diminishing returns. This is consistent with the game’s behavior at 1080p Low, where the CPU becomes the limiting factor. The fact that the frame rate drops from 356.3 FPS at 1080p Low to 233.8 FPS at 1440p Low — a 34.4% reduction — indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is maxed out, and the GPU has spare capacity.

The processor’s 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB of L2 per core provide sufficient data locality for the game’s map geometry and entity management. The PassMark single-thread score of 3444 places it in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs, confirming that its single-core strength is above average. However, the 4-core design means that background tasks or streaming can cause frame drops, as the game cannot rely on spare cores. The data shows that the CPU is the bottleneck at 1080p and 1440p for Low and Medium presets, while at 4K, the GPU takes over as the primary constraint.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its boost clock of 1770 MHz and base clock of 1605 MHz, combined with 2560 shading units, yield a FP32 performance of 9.062 TFLOPS. The GPU’s PassMark G3D score of 18169 places it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A400, scores 22307, which is 0.5% higher. This puts the RTX 2070 SUPER in a competitive position for 1440p gaming.

The GPU’s memory configuration is a key factor at higher resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops to 62.5 FPS, which is 40.4% lower than the 4K Medium result of 106.6 FPS. This steep decline suggests that the 8 GB VRAM capacity is being stressed at Ultra settings, as the game attempts to load higher-resolution textures and effects. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for 4K Medium, but the Ultra preset likely exceeds the memory subsystem’s capacity, causing the GPU to rely on slower data paths.

At 1440p, the GPU shows its strength: the High preset delivers 143.9 FPS, which is only 1.4% slower than the 1440p Medium result of 192.9 FPS. This indicates that the GPU is not the bottleneck at 1440p High, as the CPU is still capable of feeding it frames. However, at 4K High, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, as the frame rate drops to 84.2 FPS, a 41.5% reduction from 1440p High. The RTX 2070 SUPER’s pixel rate of 113.3 GPixel/s and texture rate of 283.2 GTexel/s are adequate for 1440p but struggle to maintain high frame rates at 4K with demanding presets.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for a 144 Hz monitor at 1080p?

A: The Low preset at 1920x1080 yields 356.3 FPS, which is well above 144 Hz. The Medium preset at 293.4 FPS still provides a comfortable margin, but Low is recommended for maximum frame rate and minimal input lag.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 1440p?

A: At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 356.3 FPS to 233.8 FPS, a 34.4% reduction. At High settings, it drops from 220.6 FPS to 143.9 FPS, a 34.8% reduction, indicating that the scaling is consistent across presets.

Q: Is the RTX 2070 SUPER or the i3-12100F the bottleneck at 4K?

A: At 4K, the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The frame rate at 4K Low is 131.5 FPS, which is 36.0% lower than 1080p Low (356.3 FPS), while the CPU has more headroom. The GPU’s memory bandwidth and capacity become limiting factors at higher settings.

Q: Can this system handle Ultra settings at any resolution?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 1080p Ultra, the system achieves 171.8 FPS, which is playable. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 112.7 FPS, still above 60 FPS. At 4K Ultra, it falls to 62.5 FPS, which is barely above the 60 FPS threshold but leaves no headroom for frame time spikes.

Q: How does the i3-12100F compare to its nearest rivals in CPU benchmarks?

A: The i3-12100F has an average benchmark score of 13516, which is 0.1% lower than the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (13534) and 0.4% higher than the Intel Core i7-1250U (13462). Its performance is closely matched with these processors.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between High and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, High produces 143.9 FPS, while Ultra produces 112.7 FPS. This is a 27.7% reduction in frame rate when moving to Ultra, which may not be worth the visual gain for competitive play.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance scaling as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 356.3 FPS at 1080p to 233.8 FPS at 1440p (a 34.4% reduction) and then to 131.5 FPS at 4K (a 43.8% reduction from 1440p). This progressive decline indicates that the GPU is becoming more involved as resolution increases, but the CPU still has some influence at 1440p.

At High settings, the scaling is similar: 220.6 FPS at 1080p, 143.9 FPS at 1440p (a 34.8% drop), and 84.2 FPS at 4K (a 41.5% drop). The consistent percentage reduction between 1080p and 1440p across presets suggests that the CPU is the limiting factor at both resolutions, as the GPU has enough headroom to handle the increased pixel count. However, the larger drop from 1440p to 4K (41.5% at High) indicates that the GPU’s limitations become dominant at 4K, particularly with its 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling: 171.8 FPS at 1080p, 112.7 FPS at 1440p (a 34.4% drop), and 62.5 FPS at 4K (a 44.5% drop). This pattern confirms that the RTX 2070 SUPER is the primary constraint at 4K Ultra, as the GPU must process significantly more pixels and texture data. The data suggests that this system is best suited for 1440p gaming, where it can maintain high frame rates across all presets, while 4K is viable only at Medium or High settings. The 1080p results show that the CPU is the bottleneck at lower resolutions, but the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases, making the system well-balanced for 1440p.