Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 with the Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 delivers a remarkable performance profile, but the scaling characteristics reveal a nuanced story about where the bottleneck lies. At 1080p Low settings, the combo produces 528.8 FPS average, a figure that drops dramatically to 329.2 FPS at High settings at the same resolution. This 199.6 FPS gap between the lowest and highest presets at 1080p indicates that the GPU is not the limiting factor at lower resolutions; instead, the CPU's 10 cores and 16 threads are being pushed to their limits, with the 2.50 GHz base clock and 4.60 GHz boost clock determining the ceiling for frame generation. Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset yields 349.9 FPS, which is a 178.9 FPS drop from 1080p Low, showing that resolution scaling begins to engage the GPU more heavily. At 4K, the Low preset still produces a highly playable 195.1 FPS, but the High preset at 4K drops to 122 FPS, and Ultra falls to 92.2 FPS. The scaling from 1080p High to 4K High represents a 207 FPS reduction, suggesting that while the RTX 4070 with its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth handles the resolution increase, the CPU still maintains a strong influence on overall performance.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling data shows a predictable yet revealing pattern. From 1080p Low to 1440p Low, the average FPS falls from 528.8 to 349.9, a 33.8% reduction. From 1440p Low to 4K Low, the drop continues to 195.1 FPS, another 44.2% reduction. This steep decline across low settings suggests that even at the lowest graphical load, the system is not purely GPU-bound; the CPU's architecture, based on Raptor Lake and manufactured on a 10 nm process, still plays a significant role. However, the scaling is more dramatic when looking at the High preset. At 1080p High, the system achieves 329.2 FPS, which falls to 219.8 FPS at 1440p High and then to 122 FPS at 4K High. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is 33.2%, and from 1440p to 4K is 44.5%, indicating that as resolution increases, the RTX 4070's workload expands proportionally. Interestingly, the Ultra preset shows the most constrained performance at 4K with 92.2 FPS, which is only 35.9% of the 1080p Ultra score of 256.9 FPS. This suggests that at Ultra settings with 4K resolution, the GPU's 5888 shading units and 64 ROPs are the primary bottleneck, whereas at lower settings, the CPU's single-thread performance, reflected in a 3dmark single-thread score of 960, becomes more critical.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide clear guidance for optimal settings based on resolution. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 528.8 FPS, which is excessive for most displays, but the Medium preset at 435.1 FPS offers a better balance of visual quality and frame rate for competitive play. The High preset at 329.2 FPS remains well above the 240 Hz refresh rate common in esports monitors, making it a viable choice for those prioritizing visual fidelity without sacrificing responsiveness. At 1440p, the Low preset produces 349.9 FPS, but the Medium preset at 289 FPS is the sweet spot, as it maintains high frame rates while improving image quality. The High preset at 219.8 FPS is still excellent for high-refresh-rate gaming, but the Ultra preset at 170.5 FPS begins to show diminishing returns. For 4K gaming, the data indicates that the Low preset at 195.1 FPS is the only option that fully utilizes high-refresh-rate displays, as Medium drops to 163.5 FPS and High falls to 122 FPS. The Ultra preset at 92.2 FPS is playable but not ideal for competitive Counter-Strike 2, which prioritizes frame rate over graphical detail. The recommendation based on the measured data is to use Medium settings at 1080p and 1440p for the best experience, while 4K users should stick to Low or Medium depending on their refresh rate tolerance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F is a central figure in this combo's performance. With 10 cores and 16 threads, it provides substantial multi-threaded capacity, but Counter-Strike 2's engine appears to favor single-thread performance. The CPU's 3dmark single-thread score of 960 and 2-thread score of 1880 suggest that its 4.60 GHz boost clock is crucial for achieving the high frame rates seen at low resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 528.8 FPS result demonstrates that the CPU can feed the GPU effectively, but the drop to 329.2 FPS at 1080p High indicates that the CPU's performance ceiling is being approached as the GPU becomes more active. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 21279 and single-core score of 3004 place this CPU in the 82nd percentile of all processors, and its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-13620H, has a similar average score with a 0.1% delta. The 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache help reduce latency, which is critical for a fast-paced FPS. In terms of core utilization, the Passmark multithread score of 25032 and the 3dmark 16-thread score of 7314 indicate that while the CPU can handle many threads, the game's performance at 1080p Low settings is likely limited by the CPU's single-thread capabilities rather than its multi-thread throughput. The 65 W TDP and dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 memory support suggest that this is a balanced processor for gaming, but the data clearly shows that at lower resolutions, the CPU is the primary driver of frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

Among the 1632 tested combos in the database, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 ranks 371st, placing it in the top 22.7% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the strong synergy between the CPU and GPU, though it is not at the very top tier. The combo ranking is influenced by the CPU's 82nd percentile standing among all CPUs and the GPU's 81st percentile among all GPUs. The RTX 4070's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, which has a 0.6% higher average score, and the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A, which is 1.9% higher, but these comparisons are based on general benchmark averages rather than game-specific performance. The CPU's nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D, has a 0.5% higher average score, showing that the i5-13400F is competitive in its class. The combination's rank of 371 out of 1632 suggests that while there are many faster combos, this setup provides a robust experience for Counter-Strike 2, particularly given the high frame rates measured at 1080p and 1440p. The fact that the combo achieves 122 FPS at 4K High settings further validates its strong position, as many combos would struggle to maintain such performance at that resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 plays a critical role in this combo's performance, especially at higher resolutions and settings. With 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, the GPU is well-equipped for 4K gaming, as evidenced by the 122 FPS average at 4K High. The GPU's 5888 shading units and 184 texture mapping units contribute to its ability to render complex scenes, while the 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores provide additional capabilities for ray tracing and DLSS, though these features are not directly measured in the FPS data. The boost clock of 2475 MHz and base clock of 1920 MHz, combined with a 200 W TDP, indicate a high-performance part that scales well with resolution. The Passmark G3D score of 26927 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3854 place the GPU in the 81st percentile of all GPUs. In the measured data, the GPU's impact is most apparent at 4K Ultra, where the 92.2 FPS result represents a significant drop from the 122 FPS at 4K High, showing that the GPU is the limiting factor at the highest settings. At 1080p Low, the GPU is underutilized, with the CPU dictating the 528.8 FPS result, but as resolution increases, the GPU's workload grows, and the 12 GB VRAM capacity ensures that memory is not a constraint even at 4K Ultra. The RTX 4070's predecessor is the GeForce 30 series, and its successor is the GeForce 50 series, indicating its position in the product stack. The GPU's 35,800 million transistors on a 5 nm process from TSMC highlight its efficiency, which is reflected in the strong performance at 4K resolutions.