Counter-Strike 2

This combo pairs the Intel Core i5-11400F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, and in Counter-Strike 2, it lands at rank 71 out of 1,632 tested combinations. That places it in the top 4.4% of all combos in the database for this title. The ranking reflects a system that is heavily GPU-limited at most settings, with the RTX 4090 doing the heavy lifting while the six-core CPU keeps pace. The data shows a wide spread between Low and Ultra presets, indicating that the GPU has enough headroom to push massive frame rates when the CPU allows it.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame of 71 out of 1,632 tested combos puts this setup in the 95.6th percentile for Counter-Strike 2 performance. This is an exceptionally high placement, driven almost entirely by the RTX 4090’s raw throughput. The i5-11400F, while not a top-tier processor by modern standards, still provides sufficient single-thread performance to avoid becoming a bottleneck at 1080p and 1440p in this particular game. The data indicates that the combo outperforms the vast majority of tested systems, with only 70 combos achieving higher average FPS across the tested settings and resolutions. For context, the CPU’s average benchmark score of 17,181 places it at the 75th percentile among all CPUs tested, while the GPU’s average score of 66,473 places it at the 91st percentile among all GPUs. This disparity in percentile rankings directly explains why the combo ranks so high — the GPU is doing the heavy lifting, and the CPU is just along for the ride.

GPU Role

The RTX 4090 is the star of this benchmark, and its specifications make that clear. It features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. The core clocks run at 2,235 MHz base and 2,520 MHz boost, with 16,384 shading units and 128 RT cores. In Counter-Strike 2, this translates to frame rates that are almost absurdly high. At 1080p Low, the GPU pushes 598.1 FPS average, which is the highest recorded figure in the entire measured FPS table. The GPU’s performance is so dominant that even at 4K Ultra, it still manages 135.5 FPS average. The gap between settings presets is telling: at 1080p, moving from Low to High drops the average from 598.1 to 465.5 FPS, a 22% reduction, while moving from High to Ultra drops it further to 362.1 FPS. This suggests that the GPU is so powerful that the game’s engine becomes the limiting factor at lower resolutions, but the GPU still has plenty of headroom to render at higher settings without dropping below playable thresholds. The 91st percentile GPU ranking, with nearest rivals like the Tesla T4 and Quadro P6000 differing by less than 1.3% in average score, underscores that this is near the top of the GPU hierarchy.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on Rocket Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 14 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with 12 MB of shared L3 cache. In benchmark tests, it scores 14,372 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2,029 in single-core. For Counter-Strike 2, which is known to be sensitive to single-thread performance, this CPU is adequate but not exceptional. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo hits 598.1 FPS, but this is likely close to the CPU’s ceiling for this game. At 1440p Low, the average drops to 496.7 FPS, and at 4K Low it falls to 276.5 FPS. This scaling pattern suggests that while the GPU is powerful enough to render frames faster, the CPU starts to become a limiting factor at lower resolutions where the GPU has less work to do. The CPU’s nearest rivals in benchmark scores include the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U and Intel Core i7-1260P, all within 0.2% of each other, indicating that this processor is at the middle of the pack for its performance class. However, in this game, the CPU’s 75th percentile ranking means it’s not holding the combo back as much as one might expect from a budget-oriented chip.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of how this combo performs across resolutions and settings. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 598.1 FPS average, Medium delivers 558.4, High delivers 465.5, and Ultra delivers 362.1. The jump from Low to Medium is only 6.6%, while the jump from Medium to High is 16.6%, and from High to Ultra is 22.2%. This suggests that the game’s Ultra preset introduces effects that are particularly demanding on the GPU, even at 1080p. At 1440p, the numbers are 496.7 FPS for Low, 410.0 for Medium, 308.8 for High, and 239.9 for Ultra. The relative drop from Low to Ultra at 1440p is 51.7%, which is steeper than the 39.4% drop at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is becoming more fully utilized as resolution increases. At 4K, the results are 276.5 FPS for Low, 233.0 for Medium, 169.9 for High, and 135.5 for Ultra. The drop from Low to Ultra at 4K is 51.0%, similar to 1440p, but the absolute numbers are much lower. This breakdown confirms that the RTX 4090 is the primary driver of performance, with the CPU only becoming a factor at the lowest settings and resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling pattern is revealing. From 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS drops by 16.9% at Low, 26.5% at Medium, 33.7% at High, and 33.7% at Ultra. From 1440p to 4K, the drops are 44.3% at Low, 43.2% at Medium, 45.0% at High, and 43.5% at Ultra. The fact that the percentage drop from 1440p to 4K is fairly consistent across all settings, hovering around 43-45%, suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor at these resolutions. However, the smaller drops from 1080p to 1440p (especially at Low, where it’s only 16.9%) indicate that the CPU is more of a constraint at 1080p. This is a classic sign of a system where the GPU has massive headroom but the CPU can’t feed it fast enough at lower resolutions. At 4K, the GPU is fully loaded, and the CPU has no trouble keeping up, which is why the scaling becomes more uniform. For players using high-refresh-rate monitors at 1080p, this combo will deliver well over 300 FPS on any setting, but the CPU will prevent it from reaching its theoretical maximum.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the best experience depends on the display setup. For 1080p and 1440p displays with refresh rates above 240 Hz, the High preset is the sweet spot. It delivers 465.5 FPS at 1080p and 308.8 FPS at 1440p, both well above what most monitors can display, while maintaining better visual fidelity than Low or Medium. The Ultra preset at 1080p still hits 362.1 FPS, which is excellent, but the 22% drop from High is noticeable for a visual gain that is often subtle in a competitive shooter like Counter-Strike 2. For 4K displays, the Medium preset at 233.0 FPS is the recommended choice, as it provides a good balance between visual quality and frame rate. The High preset at 4K drops to 169.9 FPS, which is still playable but sacrifices the smoothness that high-refresh-rate 4K monitors are capable of. The Low preset at 4K delivers 276.5 FPS, but the visual downgrades are significant and not worth the frame rate gain. For competitive play at any resolution, the Low preset at 1080p (598.1 FPS) or 1440p (496.7 FPS) is the go-to choice, as it maximizes frame rate for minimal input latency. However, for most players, the Medium preset offers the best trade-off between clarity and performance, with 558.4 FPS at 1080p, 410.0 FPS at 1440p, and 233.0 FPS at 4K.