Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 is a fast-paced competitive FPS where frame rate consistency often matters more than absolute visual fidelity. The measured data for the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER combination provides a clear picture of how this system handles the game across various presets and resolutions, with the results showing a system that is more than capable of delivering high refresh rate experiences at standard resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The data indicates that the Low preset is the optimal choice for competitive play, particularly for users with high-refresh-rate monitors. At 1080p, the Low preset produces an average of 355 FPS, which is a substantial 135 FPS higher than the High preset and 60 FPS higher than the Medium preset at the same resolution. This headroom is critical for maintaining frame times that keep up with 240Hz or higher displays, ensuring that the system is never the bottleneck in a firefight.

For users prioritizing visual quality without sacrificing competitive viability, the High preset at 1080p offers a balanced experience with 220 FPS average. This is still well above the 144Hz threshold, making it a strong choice for gamers who want improved shadows and textures while retaining a fluid experience. The Medium preset, at 295 FPS, sits between these two, but the incremental visual gains over Low are often minimal in a fast-paced shooter where motion blur and detail are secondary to clarity.

At 1440p, the Low preset remains the top performer with 235 FPS, which is still excellent for high-refresh-rate gaming. The High preset at this resolution delivers 146 FPS, which just barely clears the 144Hz mark ret. The Medium preset provides 195 FPS, offering a good middle ground for users who find the visual difference between Low and Medium noticeable. Given the data, the Low preset is recommended for the most competitive experience, while Medium at 1440p provides a good blend of fidelity and speed for more relaxed play.

The Ultra preset is not recommended for this combination, as it significantly reduces performance across all resolutions. The performance cost is steep, with the average FPS dropping to 171 at 1080p and 63 at 4K. The visual improvements from High to Ultra are typically subtle in Counter-Strike 2, making the performance trade-off unfavorable for a game where frame rate is kingunct.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database, this specific combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER ranks #2151 out of 3719 tested combos for Counter-Strike 2. This places the system in the top 42% of all configurations tested, indicating that while it is not a top-tier enthusiast setup, it is a solidly mid-to-high range performer. The rank reflects a balanced pairing where the CPU and GPU work together to produce high frame rates, but it also shows that many other combinations, likely with newer CPUs, are capable of pushing even higher numbers.

This percentile position is consistent with the hardware's age. The CPU, a 6-core/6-thread part from the Coffee Lake generation, is showing its age in a game that can be CPU-bound at lower resolutions. The GPU, however, is strong enough to keep pace at higher settings. The data suggests that the system is well-balanced for 1440p gaming, but at 1080p, the CPU is likely the limiting factor preventing even higher frame rates. The rank confirms the RTX 2070 SUPER's enduring capability, but it also highlights the performance ceiling imposed by the i5-9400.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is the workhorse of this pairing, built on the Turing architecture with a TU104 chip. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is ample for Counter-Strike 2 at all tested settings, as the game is not particularly VRAM-hungry compared to modern AAA titles. The GPU's clock speeds, with a base of 1605 MHz and a boost of 1770 MHz, are the primary drivers of its rasterization performance.

The benchmark data shows that the GPU is the dominant component at higher resolutions and settings. At 4K with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 63, indicating that the GPU is fully saturated. The scaling from 1440p High (146 FPS) to 4K High (82 FPS) shows a performance drop of 44%, which is a clear sign of GPU-bound behavior. The GPU's compute capabilities, rated at 9.062 TFLOPS for FP32, are sufficient to drive the game's visual effects, but the demand at 4K Ultra pushes the architecture to its limits.

The performance percentile for this GPU is in the 65th percentile against all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 20282 places it in close competition with cards like the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile and the Intel Arc B570. In this game, the RTX 2070 SUPER proves to be a capable 1440p high-refresh-rate cardcase, but the 4K Ultra preset remains out of reach for a consistently smooth experience.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a comprehensive look at performance across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the system excels, producing an average of 355 FPS on Low, 295 FPS on Medium, 220 FPS on High, and 171 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset also shows a minimum FPS of 251 and a maximum of 339, indicating good frame time consistency for a 1% low that is still very high. This resolution is clearly where the system performs best, easily driving high refresh rate monitors.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but reflects the increased pixel count. The Low preset produces 235 FPS, Medium delivers 195 FPS with a minimum of 166 FPS, and High drops to 146 FPS. Ultra, however, falls to 113 FPS. This resolution is the sweet spot for the RTX 2070 SUPER, as it maintains high frame rates on competitive presets while offering better image quality than 1080p. The data shows that the system can comfortably drive a 144Hz monitor at 1440p with Medium or High settings.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain high refresh rates. The Low preset yields 131 FPS, which is playable, but Medium drops to 109 FPS, High to 82 FPS, and Ultra to 63 FPS. The data clearly indicates that 4K is not the intended use case for this hardware combination in this game, as even the Low preset cannot reach the 144 FPS threshold. The scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a significant performance hit, confirming that the GPU is the limiting factor at this resolution.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU/GPU combo in Counter-Strike 2?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 delivers the highest frame rates, with the Low preset hitting 355 FPS. 2560x1440 is also viable for high-refresh gaming, with the Low preset producing 235 FPSaine.

Q: Can this system handle a 144Hz monitor?

A: Yes. At 1080p, all presets except Ultra exceed 144 FPS. At 1440p, Low and Medium presets exceed 144 FPS, while High nearly reaches it at 146 FPS.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High?

A: The Ultra preset is significantly more demanding. At 1080p, it drops the average FPS from 220 (High) to 171 (Ultra), and at 4K, the average falls from 82 FPS to 63 FPS.

Q: Is this system better suited for 1080p or 1440p?

A: The 1080p results are higher, but 1440p Medium offers a good balance of visuals and performance at 195 FPS. The system is well-suited for both, but 1440p High or Medium is the recommended sweet spot for visual fidelity.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded across all tests?

A: The only minimum FPS values are provided for the Medium preset: 251 FPS at 1080p, 166 FPS at 1440p, and 93 FPS at 4K. These figures indicate strong frame time consistency at lower resolutions.

Q: How does the GPU's 8GB of VRAM affect performance?

A: The 8GB of GDDR6 memory is sufficient for all tested settings and resolutions, as the game does not appear to be VRAM-limited in the data. The performance drops at 4K are more attributable to the GPU's compute limits rather than memory capacity.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, running on the Intel Socket 1151 platform. With a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, it provides a solid foundation for gaming. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 and 256 KB of L2 per core, along with a shared 9 MB L3 cache. This configuration is typical for mid-range gaming CPUs from its generation.

In Counter-Strike 2, the CPU's role is critical at lower resolutions and settings where the GPU is not the bottleneck. The data shows that at 1080p, the performance scaling from Low to High is not linear, suggesting the CPU is reaching its limits. For instance, the jump from Low (355 FPS) to Medium (295 FPS) is a 60 FPS drop, which is significant and indicates the CPU is struggling to feed the GPU with enough frames to maintain the highest possible output.

The CPU's benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 6629 and a single-core score of 935, place it in the 47th percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 2254 puts it in the same league as the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500. In this game, the i5-9400 is adequate, but its 6 threads are a limitation compared to modern CPUs with more cores and higher IPC. The data suggests that while the GPU can push high frame rates, the CPU is the component that prevents the system from achieving even higher numbers at 1080p.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the system's bottleneck characteristics. At the High preset, the average FPS drops from 220 at 1080p to 146 at 1440p (a 34% decrease) and then to 82 at 4K (a 63% decrease from 1080p). This steep drop-off is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the rendering workload increases exponentially with pixel count.

Conversely, at the Low preset, the scaling is less severe but still shows a significant impact. The average FPS falls from 355 at 1080p to 235 at 1440p (a 34% decrease) and to 131 at 4K (a 63% decrease). The similarity in percentage drops between Low and High presets suggests that the resolution is the dominant factor in performance scaling, with the GPU bearing the brunt of the workload.

The data indicates that the system is GPU-bound at 4K, as the CPU's workload does not scale with resolution. However, at 1080p, the system becomes more CPU-bound, as evidenced by the smaller frame rate gap between the High and Low presets (220 vs 355 FPS) compared to the 4K gap (82 vs 131 FPS). This means that at 1080p, the i5-9400 is limiting the RTX 2070 SUPER from reaching its full potential, while at 4K, the GPU is the clear limiting factor. The sweet spot for this combo is 1440p, where the balance between CPU and GPU load allows the RTX 2070 SUPER to deliver high frame rates without being overly constrained by the processor.