Counter-Strike 2

The Intel Core i5-14400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 delivers exceptional performance in Counter-Strike 2, placing this combination at rank 15 out of 1632 tested combos. The data shows that this system is capable of pushing frame rates far beyond what competitive players need, even at 4K Ultra settings. Benchmark results indicate that the most balanced experience is found at Medium settings, where frame rates remain massively high while visual quality is maintained across all resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data clearly indicates that Medium settings offer the optimal balance between visual fidelity and raw performance for this specific CPU-GPU pairing. At 1080p Medium, the system produces 643.1 FPS, which is nearly double the 373 FPS seen at Ultra. The jump from Low to Medium costs only 98.9 FPS at 1080p (742 to 643.1), while the jump from Medium to High costs 164.5 FPS (643.1 to 478.6). This suggests that Medium provides diminishing returns on visual quality while maintaining excellent frame rates.

At 1440p, Medium settings deliver 422.7 FPS, which remains far above the refresh rate capabilities of even the most advanced gaming monitors. The pattern holds at 4K, where Medium produces 235.1 FPS versus 180.1 FPS at High and 138.1 FPS at Ultra. For players prioritizing competitive advantage, Low settings at 1080p yield 742 FPS, but the visual degradation may not be worth the 98.9 FPS gain over Medium. The data supports Medium as the sweet spot, as it maintains over 235 FPS even at 4K while providing substantially better visuals than Low.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090 features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory across a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. This massive memory configuration is paired with a 2017 MHz base clock and 2407 MHz boost clock. The GPU's 21760 shading units and 176 ROPs contribute to its 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 performance. In Counter-Strike 2, the GPU's role becomes increasingly apparent at higher resolutions and settings. The transition from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings shows a drop from 373 to 138.1 FPS, indicating that the GPU is the limiting factor when maximum visual quality is enabled.

The RTX 5090's performance percentile of 94 versus all GPUs places it in the top tier of graphics cards. Its nearest rival, the RTX 5090 D, scores 84241 in average benchmarks with a 0.1 percent delta, while the RTX 5050 Mobile scores 84171 with a 0.2 percent delta. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 39650 and 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 14411 demonstrate its compute capabilities. At 4K High settings, the GPU produces 180.1 FPS, which is still exceptionally high for competitive play, but the scaling from 1080p to 4K at this setting shows a 62.4 percent reduction (478.6 to 180.1), highlighting the GPU's workload at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F provides 10 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.70 GHz. This Raptor Lake Refresh processor features 20 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory. The CPU's Cinebench R23 scores of 21914 multi-core and 3093 single-core, along with a Geekbench single-core score of 2333, indicate strong per-thread performance that Counter-Strike 2 benefits from. The processor's percentile of 88 versus all CPUs positions it well above average.

The CPU's role in Counter-Strike 2 becomes evident when examining the frame rate scaling at Low settings. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 742 FPS, which represents the ceiling of what this CPU can feed to the GPU. When moving to 1440p Low, the frame rate drops to 513.7 FPS, and at 4K Low it falls to 284.4 FPS. This scaling pattern at Low settings, where the GPU is least stressed, reveals that the CPU is capable of delivering over 700 FPS at 1080p but becomes less able to maintain those extreme rates as resolution increases. The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-12800H at 32513 average score with 0 percent delta and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 at 32446 with 0.2 percent delta.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the i5-14400F and RTX 5090 achieves rank 15 out of 1632 tested combos in Counter-Strike 2. This top 1 percent placement indicates that the pairing is exceptionally well-suited for this game. The rank reflects the synergy between the CPU's strong single-core performance and the GPU's immense rasterization power. Benchmark results show the combo outperforms the vast majority of alternatives, with only 14 other combinations producing higher frame rates in this title.

The high rank is particularly notable given that the CPU is a mid-range offering while the GPU is flagship-tier. The data suggests that Counter-Strike 2's engine rewards the combination of high IPC and massive GPU throughput. The combo's performance at 1080p Medium (643.1 FPS) and 1440p Medium (422.7 FPS) demonstrates that this pairing can handle competitive settings with massive headroom. The rank of 15 indicates that while this system is not the absolute fastest available, it sits in the elite tier of configurations for this game.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals distinct patterns depending on settings. At Low settings, the drop from 1080p to 4K is 457.6 FPS (742 to 284.4), representing a 61.7 percent reduction. At Medium settings, the drop is 408 FPS (643.1 to 235.1), a 63.4 percent reduction. High settings show a drop of 298.5 FPS (478.6 to 180.1), a 62.4 percent reduction. Ultra settings display the smallest absolute drop of 234.9 FPS (373 to 138.1), a 63 percent reduction.

The consistency of these percentage reductions across all settings suggests that resolution scaling affects this system uniformly, regardless of visual complexity. However, the absolute frame rates at 4K remain extraordinarily high, with even Ultra settings producing 138.1 FPS. The data indicates that the GPU becomes progressively more dominant as resolution increases, with the CPU's influence waning at 4K. At 1080p Low, the system is likely CPU-bound at 742 FPS, while at 4K Ultra, the GPU workload dominates, producing 138.1 FPS.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest frame rate achievable with this combo?

A: The maximum measured frame rate is 742 FPS at 1080p Low settings. This represents the peak performance of the system in Counter-Strike 2.

Q: How does this combo perform at competitive settings?

A: At 1440p Low, the system produces 513.7 FPS, while 1440p Medium delivers 422.7 FPS. Both settings provide frame rates far above competitive standards.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this setup?

A: Yes, even at 4K Ultra settings, the system maintains 138.1 FPS. At 4K Medium, it achieves 235.1 FPS, making 4K gaming very viable.

Q: What is the biggest frame rate drop between settings?

A: The largest drop occurs from Low to High at 1080p, where frame rates fall from 742 to 478.6 FPS, a reduction of 263.4 FPS.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its closest rival?

A: The RTX 5090 scores 84306 in average benchmarks, while the RTX 5090 D scores 84241, a 0.1 percent delta, making them nearly identical in performance.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any resolution?

A: At 1080p Low, the 742 FPS result suggests the CPU is approaching its limit, but at higher settings and resolutions, the GPU becomes the primary factor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers 742 FPS at Low, 643.1 FPS at Medium, 478.6 FPS at High, and 373 FPS at Ultra. These figures represent the highest frame rates in the dataset, with even Ultra settings exceeding 350 FPS.

At 2560x1440, performance remains exceptional: 513.7 FPS at Low, 422.7 FPS at Medium, 320.8 FPS at High, and 244.2 FPS at Ultra. The 1440p results show that the system maintains over 240 FPS at the highest settings.

At 3840x2160, the system produces 284.4 FPS at Low, 235.1 FPS at Medium, 180.1 FPS at High, and 138.1 FPS at Ultra. These 4K results demonstrate that even the most demanding configuration remains above 138 FPS, which is more than sufficient for competitive play. The complete dataset covers 12 measured configurations across three resolutions and four settings levels, providing a comprehensive picture of the system's capabilities in Counter-Strike 2.