Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 is a competitive FPS that responds dramatically to both resolution and quality settings. The measured data for the Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 shows a system that is exceptionally fast at 1080p, but which reveals a clear shift in bottleneck behavior as resolution scales. This combination ranks 574th out of 1632 tested combinations, placing it in the upper third of all systems tested for this title.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data shows a steep and consistent decline as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, but the magnitude of that decline depends heavily on the quality preset. At Low settings, the system produces 415.2 FPS at 1080p, which falls to 329.1 FPS at 1440p, and then to 187.2 FPS at 4K. That represents a 21% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 43% drop from 1440p to 4K. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is 54.9%.

At High settings, the pattern is similar but the absolute numbers are lower. The system starts at 311.4 FPS at 1080p, drops to 204.4 FPS at 1440p, and then to 116.7 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is 34.4%, and from 1440p to 4K is 42.9%. The total drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings is 62.5%.

The Ultra preset shows the most severe scaling. At 1080p, the system delivers 238 FPS, which falls to 158.5 FPS at 1440p (a 33.4% drop) and then to 91.1 FPS at 4K (a 42.5% drop from 1440p). The cumulative loss from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is 61.7%.

These scaling patterns indicate that at 1080p, the CPU is the primary limiting factor. The differences between Low and Ultra at 1080p are relatively modest — 415.2 FPS versus 238 FPS — which suggests the i5-9400 cannot push frame rates much beyond the 400 FPS threshold regardless of GPU load. At 4K, however, the GPU becomes the bottleneck. The spread between Low and Ultra at 4K is much wider (187.2 FPS versus 91.1 FPS), showing that the RX 9070's workload is the dominant constraint at that resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that the Medium preset offers the best balance for most users. At 1080p, Medium delivers 387.7 FPS, which is only 6.6% behind Low but 24.5% ahead of High. At 1440p, Medium produces 273.1 FPS, which is 17% behind Low but 33.6% ahead of High. At 4K, Medium yields 154.4 FPS, which is 17.5% behind Low but 32.3% ahead of High.

For competitive play at 1080p, Low settings provide the maximum frame rate at 415.2 FPS, but the gap to Medium is small enough that the visual quality improvement is likely worth the modest FPS trade-off. The data shows that High settings at 1080p still deliver 311.4 FPS, which exceeds the refresh rate of most high-end monitors, so users with 144Hz or 240Hz displays have headroom even at High.

At 1440p, the choice is more constrained. Low delivers 329.1 FPS, Medium 273.1 FPS, and High 204.4 FPS. For users with 240Hz displays, Medium is the highest setting that reliably exceeds that threshold. At 4K, only Low settings exceed 144Hz, with 187.2 FPS. Medium at 4K drops to 154.4 FPS, which still clears 144Hz but leaves little margin. High at 4K falls to 116.7 FPS, which suits 120Hz displays but not higher refresh rates. Ultra at any resolution is difficult to recommend: it delivers 238 FPS at 1080p, 158.5 FPS at 1440p, and 91.1 FPS at 4K, with the 4K result falling below 100 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 7969 points in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1125 points in single-core. Its average benchmark score across all tests is 2305, which places it at the 50th percentile of all CPUs.

The nearest rivals in the benchmark database are closely matched. The Intel Core i3-10305 scores 2300, just 0.2% behind, and the Intel Core i3-1125G4 also scores 2299, also 0.2% behind. The Intel Xeon E-2134 scores 2295, 0.4% behind, while the Intel Core i7-8809G scores 2319, 0.6% ahead. This clustering indicates that the i5-9400 is in a performance tier where small architectural differences matter more than core count.

In Counter-Strike 2, the CPU's influence is most visible at 1080p. The fact that Low settings produce 415.2 FPS while Ultra produces 238 FPS at the same resolution suggests the GPU is not the primary limiter at Low — the CPU is. The i5-9400's 6 threads are sufficient for this game, but the data shows that frame rates plateau around 400 FPS at 1080p Low, which is likely a CPU ceiling. The L3 cache is 9 MB shared, and the memory bandwidth is 42.7 GB/s over dual-channel DDR4. These figures are modest by modern standards but adequate for a competitive shooter.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combination achieves in Counter-Strike 2?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 415.2, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: Can this system maintain 144 FPS at 4K?

A: Yes, at Low settings the system delivers 187.2 FPS at 4K, and at Medium settings it delivers 154.4 FPS. High settings drop to 116.7 FPS, which is below 144.

Q: How much faster is Low compared to Ultra at 1080p?

A: Low delivers 415.2 FPS while Ultra delivers 238 FPS at 1080p. Low is 74.5% faster than Ultra at that resolution.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance more at 1440p?

A: The data shows a 20.5% drop from Low to High at 1440p (329.1 to 204.4 FPS), which indicates the GPU is becoming more influential, but the CPU still matters at Medium and below.

Q: What is the average benchmark score of the RX 9070?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9070 has an average benchmark score of 34780, placing it at the 79th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: How does the i5-9400 compare to its closest rival in synthetic tests?

A: The Intel Core i3-10305 scores 2300, which is 0.2% behind the i5-9400's 2305 average score.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with a Navi 48 chip. It has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU has a base clock of 1330 MHz, a game clock of 2070 MHz, and a boost clock of 2520 MHz. Its memory operates at 2518 MHz, which translates to 20.1 Gbps effective.

In synthetic benchmarks, the RX 9070 scores 6290 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 and 25381 in Passmark G3D. Its OpenCL score is 133741, and its Vulkan score is 165532. The GPU's average benchmark score is 34780, placing it at the 79th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are closely bunched: the NVIDIA A2 scores 34866 (0.2% ahead), the NVIDIA Quadro GV100 scores 34677 (0.3% behind), the AMD Radeon HD 7970 scores 34541 (0.7% behind), and the AMD Radeon PRO W6400 scores 34511 (0.8% behind).

In Counter-Strike 2, the GPU's role becomes more prominent as resolution increases. At 4K, the spread between Low and Ultra is 96.1 FPS (187.2 versus 91.1), which is a 105.5% difference. This wide gap confirms that the GPU is the bottleneck at 4K. The RX 9070's 16 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for this game at any settings, and the 644.6 GB/s bandwidth ensures texture streaming is not a limiting factor. The pixel rate of 322.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 564.5 GTexel/s are high enough to handle the visual load at 4K Ultra, but the resulting 91.1 FPS shows that even this capable GPU cannot fully overcome the demands of Ultra settings at that resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low produces 415.2 FPS, Medium produces 387.7 FPS, High produces 311.4 FPS, and Ultra produces 238 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 27.5 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 76.3 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra is 73.4 FPS. This shows that the largest performance hit occurs when moving from Medium to High.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates are 329.1 FPS at Low, 273.1 FPS at Medium, 204.4 FPS at High, and 158.5 FPS at Ultra. The drop from Low to Medium is 56 FPS, from Medium to High is 68.7 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 45.9 FPS. The Medium to High transition remains the largest single step.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates are 187.2 FPS at Low, 154.4 FPS at Medium, 116.7 FPS at High, and 91.1 FPS at Ultra. The drop from Low to Medium is 32.8 FPS, from Medium to High is 37.7 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 25.6 FPS. At 4K, the steps are more evenly distributed, indicating that the GPU is handling an increasing share of the workload.

The data shows a consistent pattern: the i5-9400 can drive frame rates well above 300 FPS at 1080p when the GPU is not stressed, but the RX 9070 takes over as the limiting factor at higher resolutions. For users targeting the highest refresh rates, 1080p with Low or Medium settings is the optimal configuration. For 1440p, Medium offers the best combination of speed and quality. For 4K, Low settings are required to exceed 144 FPS, while Medium remains viable for 120Hz displays.