Counter-Strike 2

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER delivers a formidable Counter-Strike 2 experience, with benchmark results showing this combination ranks 1156th out of 1632 tested combos. The data reveals a system that excels at high refresh rate 1080p gaming, maintains solid 1440p performance, and remains surprisingly capable at 4K given the hardware's profile. The i5-10400F, a 6-core/12-thread Comet Lake processor, sits in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs, while the RTX 2060 SUPER, a Turing architecture GPU with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, holds the 63rd percentile among GPUs. This pairing produces frame rates that cater to competitive play, with the measured FPS showing substantial headroom across most settings and resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Counter-Strike 2?

A: The data shows 1080p as the optimal resolution, delivering 323.3 FPS on Low settings and 202 FPS on High settings. At 1440p, performance remains strong with 211 FPS on Low and 133.9 FPS on High. Even at 4K, the combo manages 116.6 FPS on Low, making it viable for less demanding play.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 19774 places it just ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN, which scores 19706, and slightly behind the RTX 2070 at 19680. The deltaPct values show the RTX 2060 SUPER is 0.3% ahead of the GTX TITAN and 0.5% behind the RTX 2070, indicating near-identical performance among these cards.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck at high frame rates?

A: The data suggests the i5-10400F is well-matched for this title. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 10297 and single-core score of 1453 indicate solid processing power. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 323.3 FPS, and the 3DMark single-thread score of 688 shows the CPU can keep pace with the GPU's output.

Q: What settings preset provides the highest frame rate?

A: The Low preset yields the maximum FPS at every resolution, with 323.3 FPS at 1080p, 211 FPS at 1440p, and 116.6 FPS at 4K. The Medium preset offers a significant jump in visual quality while maintaining high performance, such as 269.9 FPS at 1080p and 100.5 FPS at 4K.

Q: How does the combo rank in the overall database?

A: This specific CPU-GPU combination holds a rank of 1156 out of 1632 tested combos for Counter-Strike 2. This places it in the upper-mid range of the database, reflecting its balanced performance across different settings and resolutions.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Counter-Strike 2?

A: Yes, but with caveats. The measured data shows 72.3 FPS on High settings and 58.2 FPS on Ultra at 4K. The Low preset achieves 116.6 FPS, making it playable, but for competitive play where higher frame rates matter, 1080p or 1440p are clearly superior choices.

GPU Role

The RTX 2060 SUPER serves as the primary driver of visual fidelity in this build. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves sufficient for Counter-Strike 2's texture and geometry demands at 4K Ultra settings. The GPU's boost clock of 1650 MHz and 2176 shading units generate the pixel and texture throughput necessary to maintain playable frame rates, though the Ultra preset's 58.2 FPS at 4K shows the card reaching its limits.

The GPU's 64 ROPs and 136 TMUs work in tandem to deliver the 105.6 GPixel/s pixel rate and 224.4 GTexel/s texture rate. These specifications explain the performance scaling observed in the data: moving from Low to Ultra at 4K drops average FPS from 116.6 to 58.2, a 50% reduction that highlights the GPU's increasing workload. The 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power handles the game's lighting and particle effects, while the RT cores and tensor cores, though not directly utilized in this title, contribute to the card's overall capability.

At lower resolutions, the GPU's role shifts. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 323.3 FPS, a figure likely constrained by the CPU's single-thread performance rather than GPU limits. The i5-10400F's boost clock of 4.30 GHz and its 3DMark single-thread score of 688 suggest this is the ceiling for this pairing. Conversely, at 4K Ultra, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck, as the 58.2 FPS result indicates the RTX 2060 SUPER cannot fully process the increased pixel load despite the CPU having additional headroom.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data points to the Medium preset as the optimal balance between visual quality and performance for this combo. At 1080p, Medium delivers 269.9 FPS, which is 16.4% lower than Low's 323.3 FPS but still far above the refresh rate of most gaming monitors. At 1440p, Medium achieves 179.1 FPS, and at 4K it produces 100.5 FPS, making it the only preset that exceeds 100 FPS at 4K besides Low.

For competitive players prioritizing maximum frame rates, the Low preset is the clear choice. It delivers 323.3 FPS at 1080p and 211 FPS at 1440p, providing the smoothest possible experience. The High preset offers a middle ground with 202 FPS at 1080p and 133.9 FPS at 1440p, but its 4K performance of 72.3 FPS may feel less fluid. The Ultra preset, which produces 154.6 FPS at 1080p and 58.2 FPS at 4K, appears best suited for players who prioritize image quality over competitive advantage, though the 4K result falls below the 60 FPS threshold typically desired for smooth gameplay.

Given these metrics, the Medium preset represents the most versatile option. It maintains frame rates above 100 FPS at all tested resolutions, ensuring a responsive experience across different display configurations. Players with 144Hz monitors at 1080p will find Medium more than adequate, while those with 4K displays can still enjoy playable performance without sacrificing too much visual detail.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the i5-10400F and RTX 2060 SUPER holds the 1156th position out of 1632 tested combos in Counter-Strike 2, placing it in the 70.8th percentile of all configurations. This ranking reflects a system that performs admirably but sits below the top-tier setups in the database. The CPU's percentileVsAllCpus of 73 and the GPU's percentileVsAllGpus of 63 indicate that while neither component is elite, their pairing creates a balanced platform that punches above its individual rankings in this specific game.

The CPU's nearest rivals provide context for its performance. The AMD EPYC 7552 scores a nearly identical 14115 average benchmark score, a mere 0.4% difference, while the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C and Intel Core i5-8500 score 14277 and 14332 respectively, placing them 0.8% and 1.1% ahead. These marginal differences suggest the i5-10400F is competitive within its performance tier, and in Counter-Strike 2's CPU-light workloads, this translates to consistent frame delivery.

The GPU's rival comparisons show similar tight clustering. The RTX 2060 SUPER's 19774 average score edges out the GeForce GTX TITAN's 19706 by 0.3% and trails the RTX 2070's 19680 by 0.5%. This positions the card as essentially equivalent to its nearest competitors, meaning the overall combo ranking is more influenced by the CPU's contribution than by GPU differentiation. The rank of 1156 suggests that many higher-ranked combos feature newer CPUs or GPUs, but the measured FPS data shows this older pairing still delivers competitive performance in Counter-Strike 2.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound behavior at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 323.3 FPS; at 1440p Low, this drops to 211 FPS, a 34.7% reduction; and at 4K Low, it falls to 116.6 FPS, a 63.9% reduction from 1080p. This steep decline indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor as pixel count increases, since the CPU's workload remains relatively constant across resolutions.

The scaling pattern becomes more pronounced at higher settings. With the Ultra preset, 1080p yields 154.6 FPS, 1440p drops to 101.2 FPS, and 4K falls to 58.2 FPS. The 62.4% drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings is slightly less severe than the 63.9% drop at Low, suggesting that at Ultra, both the CPU and GPU are more evenly taxed. However, the fact that 1080p Ultra produces 154.6 FPS—still below 1080p High's 202 FPS—shows that the GPU's render pipeline becomes saturated with the increased visual effects.

The data also reveals that the CPU's influence is most apparent at 1080p Low, where the 323.3 FPS figure likely approaches the i5-10400F's practical limit. The 3DMark single-thread score of 688 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1453 support this interpretation, as Counter-Strike 2 relies heavily on single-core performance for game logic. At 1440p and 4K, the GPU's workload increases proportionally with pixel count, making the RTX 2060 SUPER the dominant factor in determining final frame rates. This analysis indicates that players seeking maximum FPS should prioritize the CPU, while those targeting higher resolutions will benefit more from a GPU upgrade.