Counter-Strike 2

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 delivers a highly playable Counter-Strike 2 experience across most settings, but the data reveals a clear shift in system bottleneck as resolution increases. At 1080p, the combination is overwhelmingly CPU-bound, with frame rates scaling dramatically based on graphics preset. The average FPS at 1080p Low is 292.9, dropping to 242 at Medium, 180.9 at High, and 141.7 at Ultra. The gap between Low and Medium (50.9 FPS) and Medium to High (61.1 FPS) shows that the GPU has ample headroom at lower settings, but the CPU's six cores and six threads struggle to push frame rates beyond the 300 FPS mark. Moving to 1440p, the trend continues but with a narrower spread: 194.9 FPS at Low, 159.7 at Medium, 123.2 at High, and 95.1 at Ultra. The scaling here is more linear, indicating that the GPU is beginning to take on a more significant role, yet the CPU still imposes a ceiling. At 4K, the bottleneck shifts decisively to the GPU. The RTX 2060 manages 112 FPS at Low, 87.3 at Medium, 68.9 at High, and 51.6 at Ultra. The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings is steep—from 180.9 to 68.9—which is a 62% reduction, highlighting that the GPU's 6 GB of GDDR6 memory and 192-bit bus are saturated at higher resolutions. The 4K Ultra result of 51.6 FPS is the only point where the combo falls below the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting that players targeting 4K must compromise on settings to maintain smooth gameplay.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a Coffee Lake Refresh part with six cores and six threads, a base clock of 2.90 GHz, and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. This configuration is typical for mid-range gaming in its generation, but Counter-Strike 2's engine is highly sensitive to single-thread performance. The CPU's Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1125 and multi-core score of 7969 place it in the 50th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2305. These numbers indicate that the i5-9400 is a capable but not exceptional processor for this title. The nearest rivals include the Intel Core i3-10305 (avgScore 2300, deltaPct 0.2) and Intel Xeon E-2134 (avgScore 2295, deltaPct 0.4), showing that the i5-9400 sits in a tightly packed performance bracket. The data suggests that at 1080p Low, the CPU is the limiting factor, as the 292.9 FPS result is likely constrained by the processor's ability to feed the render thread rather than the GPU's raw throughput. The lack of hyper-threading means only six threads are available, which can cause stuttering in scenarios with many simultaneous entity updates, although the measured FPS data does not include min or max values to confirm this. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s over dual-channel DDR4 is sufficient for this game, but the 9 MB shared L3 cache is modest by modern standards. Overall, the i5-9400 provides enough processing power to keep the RTX 2060 fed at 1080p, but its performance ceiling becomes apparent when trying to push extremely high frame rates for competitive play.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combo for this system in Counter-Strike 2?

A: Based on the measured data, 1080p High delivers 180.9 FPS, while 1080p Medium reaches 242 FPS. For competitive play, 1080p Low at 292.9 FPS offers the highest headroom, but 1440p High at 123.2 FPS remains playable.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 2060 has an average benchmark score of 16074, placing it in the 58th percentile. It is 0.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7600S (15996) and 1.8% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (15786), but 1.7% behind both the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M and Pro 5700 (16351).

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck at 1080p?

A: Yes. The 1080p Low result of 292.9 FPS is significantly higher than the 4K Low result of 112 FPS, but the CPU's six threads and 50th percentile ranking limit the maximum frame rate. The gap between 1080p Low and 1080p Medium (50.9 FPS) is larger than the gap between 1440p Low and 1440p Medium (35.2 FPS), indicating CPU pressure at lower resolutions.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming?

A: Yes, but with compromises. At 4K High, the average FPS is 68.9, which is smooth, but 4K Ultra drops to 51.6 FPS. The 4K Low setting at 112 FPS shows the GPU can deliver high frame rates if graphical fidelity is reduced.

Q: What does the combo rank tell us about overall performance?

A: This combo ranks 1346 out of 1632 tested combinations in Counter-Strike 2, placing it in the lower half of all systems. This ranking reflects the aging CPU and GPU pair, though the measured FPS data shows it remains viable for most settings.

Q: How does the i5-9400's single-core performance affect gameplay?

A: The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1125 is modest, and Counter-Strike 2 relies on strong single-thread performance. The CPU's boost clock of 4.10 GHz helps, but the 0.2% deltaPct over the Intel Core i3-10305 suggests minimal performance separation from lower-tier rivals.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 combination holds the 1346th position out of 1632 tested combos in Counter-Strike 2, placing it in the 17th percentile of all systems. This rank is notably low, reflecting the age of both components—the CPU released in 2018 and the GPU in 2019. However, the rank does not tell the full story, as the measured FPS data shows the combo is far from unusable. The 1080p High result of 180.9 FPS is competitive for standard monitors, and even 1440p High at 123.2 FPS exceeds the refresh rate of many displays. The low rank is likely due to the presence of numerous newer combos with higher core counts and more powerful GPUs in the database, not because this pair fails to deliver playable performance. The CPU's 50th percentile ranking and the GPU's 58th percentile ranking individually suggest mid-pack hardware, but their combined age and lack of modern features like PCIe 4.0 or larger VRAM pools push the combo down the list. The rank also indicates that in a head-to-head comparison, this system will fall behind more recent mid-range builds, but it remains a solid entry point for 1080p and 1440p esports titles.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is a Turing-architecture GPU with a base clock of 1365 MHz and a boost clock of 1680 MHz. It features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is critical for Counter-Strike 2, which can be demanding at higher resolutions. The 4K Ultra result of 51.6 FPS indicates that the GPU's 6 GB VRAM is sufficient in capacity, but the 192-bit bus limits throughput when rendering at 3840x2160. The GPU's FP32 performance of 6.451 TFLOPS and texture rate of 201.6 GTexel/s are moderate by modern standards, yet the measured FPS shows it can handle the game's Source 2 engine effectively. At 1080p, the GPU is not the primary limiter, as evidenced by the 292.9 FPS at Low settings. The bottleneck only becomes apparent at 4K, where the GPU's pixel rate of 80.64 GPixel/s and 48 ROPs struggle to fill the higher pixel count. The RTX 2060's average benchmark score of 16074 places it in the 58th percentile, and its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7600S, is only 0.5% behind, indicating close performance parity. The GPU's 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores provide ray tracing and DLSS capabilities, but Counter-Strike 2 does not heavily utilize these features in the measured settings. The 160 W TDP and dual-slot design make it a manageable card for most systems, and the 1x 8-pin power connector is standard. The GPU's performance in this game is characterized by strong scaling across settings at 1080p and 1440p, but a sharp falloff at 4K Ultra, where it falls below the 60 FPS threshold.