Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 with the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is a pairing that delivers exceptionally high frame rates across all tested resolutions. The data shows a system capable of far exceeding the refresh rates of most monitors, even at 4K Ultra settings. The measured results indicate that the GPU is the primary driver of performance at higher resolutions, while the CPU's six cores and 12 threads are sufficient to keep up with the game's demands at lower settings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic pattern where the GPU becomes progressively more stressed as resolution increases. At 1080p High settings, the combo produces 418 FPS, but this drops to 277 FPS at 1440p High and further to 155 FPS at 4K High. This represents a 63% reduction in average FPS from 1080p to 4K at High settings, showing that the RTX 4080 is the limiting component as pixel count rises.

The pattern is even more pronounced at Low settings. The system hits 508 FPS at 1080p Low, which is a staggering figure, but this falls to 443 FPS at 1440p Low and 249 FPS at 4K Low. The 51% drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings indicates that while the CPU is capable of pushing very high frame rates, the GPU still has to work harder at 4K to fill those pixels. At 1080p Low, the frame rate is likely approaching a CPU-bound ceiling, as the i5-10400F's boost clock of 4.30 GHz is being fully utilized.

Medium settings show a similar scaling trend. The average FPS is 476 at 1080p, 371 at 1440p, and 207 at 4K. The minimum FPS recorded at 4K Medium is 176, while the maximum is 238, showing a 35% variance between the lows and highs. This variance suggests that while the average frame rate is good, there are moments where the system dips, likely due to CPU thread scheduling in busy scenes. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 405 FPS and the maximum is 548 FPS, a tighter spread that indicates less bottlenecking.

Ultra settings provide the most demanding workload. The system manages 325 FPS at 1080p Ultra, 215 FPS at 1440p Ultra, and 120 FPS at 4K Ultra. The 63% drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is identical to the High settings drop, confirming that the RTX 4080's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 716.8 GB/s bandwidth are the key factors at higher resolutions. The 4K Ultra result of 120 FPS is still highly playable, but it is the only setting where the system drops below the 155 FPS mark seen at 4K High.

Settings Recommendations

For competitive play, Low settings at any resolution are the clear choice. The data shows 508 FPS at 1080p Low and 443 FPS at 1440p Low, both of which are far beyond what any standard monitor can display. Even at 4K Low, the 249 FPS average is more than sufficient for high-refresh-rate gaming. The increase from 1080p Low to 1080p Medium is only 6% (508 to 476 FPS), suggesting that the CPU is the limiting factor at these low settings, as the GPU has plenty of headroom.

For a balance of visual quality and performance, High settings at 1440p are the sweet spot. The 277 FPS average at 1440p High is 79% higher than the 155 FPS at 4K High, and it still maintains a visual quality that is noticeably better than Medium. The jump from Medium to High at 1440p costs 25% of the frame rate (371 to 277 FPS), but the visual fidelity gains are typically worth it for a game like Counter-Strike 2 where clarity matters. At 1080p, High settings at 418 FPS are also an excellent option, as the difference between High and Ultra is 22% (418 to 325 FPS) with minimal visual improvement.

Ultra settings are not recommended for this combo in most cases. The 120 FPS at 4K Ultra is playable, but it is a 23% drop from the 155 FPS at 4K High. At 1080p Ultra, the 325 FPS is still excellent, but the 22% reduction from High settings provides diminishing returns. The data suggests that High settings offer the best experience per the measured rows, as they provide a substantial visual upgrade over Medium while maintaining frame rates that are far higher than the refresh rate of typical 1440p and 4K monitors.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the dominant component in this system at higher resolutions. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory with a 256-bit bus width and 716.8 GB/s bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and memory-intensive effects at 4K do not cause stuttering. The base clock of 2205 MHz and boost clock of 2505 MHz are high for a modern GPU, and the 9728 shading units provide massive compute throughput. The measured FPS data shows that at 4K, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, as frame rates scale nearly linearly with the workload.

The RTX 4080's 304 texture mapping units and 112 render output units contribute to its ability to maintain high frame rates even at 4K Ultra. The pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s are the highest in the GeForce 40-series, and they explain why the card can hit 155 FPS at 4K High. The 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is more than enough for Counter-Strike 2, which is not a graphically demanding title but benefits from high raw throughput for high frame rates.

Comparing to its nearest rivals, the RTX 4080's average benchmark score of 54247 is nearly identical to the RTX 4080 SUPER at 54209, with a deltaPct of just 0.1%. This means the 4080 is effectively on par with the SUPER for this game's workload. It is also 2.6% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB, which has an average score of 55698, and 2.7% faster than the AMD Radeon 8060S at 55757. The GPU's percentile rank of 86% versus all GPUs indicates it is in the top tier of graphics cards, and the measured FPS data confirms this is not a limiting factor until 4K Ultra.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Counter-Strike 2 at 4K with high refresh rates?

A: Yes. The data shows 155 FPS at 4K High and 120 FPS at 4K Ultra. This is well above the 60 FPS standard and supports 120 Hz or 144 Hz monitors at 4K High settings.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-10400F a bottleneck for the RTX 4080?

A: At 1080p Low and Medium, the CPU appears to be the limiting factor, with frame rates around 508 and 476 FPS respectively. At 4K settings, the GPU is the clear bottleneck, as frame rates scale with resolution.

Q: What is the best resolution for competitive play with this setup?

A: 1080p Low offers the highest average FPS at 508, followed by 1440p Low at 443 FPS. Both provide frame rates far beyond the refresh rate of most high-end monitors, making them ideal for competitive play.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to the RTX 4080 SUPER in this game?

A: The average benchmark scores are nearly identical, with the RTX 4080 at 54247 and the RTX 4080 SUPER at 54209. The deltaPct is 0.1%, meaning there is no meaningful performance difference for Counter-Strike 2.

Q: Does the RTX 4080's 16 GB of VRAM matter for Counter-Strike 2?

A: The data suggests that 16 GB of GDDR6X memory is more than sufficient. Even at 4K Ultra, the system maintains 120 FPS, indicating that VRAM is not a limiting factor at the tested settings.

Q: What is the minimum FPS I can expect at 4K Medium settings?

A: The measured minimum FPS at 4K Medium is 176 FPS, with an average of 207 FPS and a maximum of 238 FPS. This shows that there is some variance, but the minimum is still very high.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combination ranks 414 out of 3719 tested combos in Counter-Strike 2. This places it in the top 11% of all tested systems, which is a strong showing for a CPU from the Comet Lake generation paired with a current-gen GPU. The rank is driven almost entirely by the RTX 4080's performance, as the i5-10400F's average benchmark score of 14185 places it in the 68th percentile of all CPUs, which is solid but not exceptional.

The combo's rank of 414 is particularly impressive given that the i5-10400F is a 10th-generation processor with only 6 cores and 12 threads. Many of the combos ranked above it likely feature newer CPUs with higher core counts and faster single-thread performance. However, the data shows that for Counter-Strike 2, the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, and the RTX 4080's raw power carries the system to a high ranking. The deltaPct of 0.2% between the i5-10400F and its nearest rival, the Intel Xeon 6756E, shows that the CPU is performing as expected for its class.

The fact that this combo ranks in the top 11% of all tested combos confirms the RTX 4080's dominance. The GPU's 86th percentile ranking versus all GPUs, combined with the CPU's 68th percentile, results in a system that is well-balanced for this game. The 414th rank out of 3719 means there are only 413 combos that perform better, which likely include higher-end CPUs like the Core i7 or i9 series. For a budget-oriented CPU like the i5-10400F, this is a remarkable achievement.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Comet Lake architecture, built on a 14 nm process. Its base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost clock of 4.30 GHz provide a solid foundation for gaming, and the 12 MB of shared L3 cache helps reduce memory latency. The CPU's average benchmark score of 14185 places it in the 68th percentile of all CPUs, and its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 10283 and single-core score of 1451 show that it has adequate performance for modern games.

In Counter-Strike 2, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 508 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's maximum frame rate output for this game. At 1080p Medium, the FPS drops to 476, a 6% reduction that is smaller than the 10% drop seen from Low to Medium at 4K (249 to 207 FPS). This indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is the limiting factor, while at 4K, the GPU takes over.

The CPU's 4.30 GHz boost clock is crucial for Counter-Strike 2, which is a game that relies heavily on single-thread performance for game logic and physics. The Cinebench R20 single-core score of 609 is respectable, and the Geekbench single-core score of 1420 confirms that the CPU can handle the game's primary thread. The 3DMark single-thread score of 688 is also solid, and the CPU's 2-thread score of 1350 shows that it can handle the game's secondary threads without issue.

The memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s from dual-channel DDR4 is sufficient for the i5-10400F, and the data shows that the CPU does not become a severe bottleneck until frame rates exceed 500 FPS. At 4K High, the CPU has plenty of headroom, as the GPU is the limiting factor. The 65W TDP of the CPU also means it generates less heat, which can be beneficial for system stability, though the RTX 4080's 320W TDP is the dominant power draw in this combo. The CPU's PCIe Gen 3 interface with 16 lanes is a potential bottleneck for the RTX 4080's PCIe 4.0 interface, but the measured FPS data shows that this does not significantly impact performance in Counter-Strike 2.