Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 is a competitive FPS where frame rate is king, and the pairing of the Intel Core i5-9400 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 delivers a performance curve that clearly defines its strengths and limitations. The benchmark data for this combination reveals a system that is overwhelmingly powerful at standard resolutions but begins to show strain as pixel count and graphical fidelity increase. The measured results indicate a setup that is highly capable of exploiting high-refresh-rate monitors at 1080p, with a predictable degradation in performance that shifts the bottleneck from the GPU to the CPU as settings are lowered.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 shows a dramatic shift in system dynamics. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 414.2 FPS, which is an extraordinarily high figure that far exceeds the refresh rate of all but the most specialized gaming monitors. Moving up to 1440p Low, the average drops to 286.2 FPS, a reduction of approximately 31%, and at 4K Low it falls to 159.3 FPS. This scaling pattern—where the performance hit from resolution increases is significant even at low graphical loads—indicates that while the RTX 3070 is powerful, the 6-core, 6-thread Intel Core i5-9400 begins to limit the frame rate ceiling. The data suggests that at 1080p Low, the CPU is the primary constraint, as the GPU has ample headroom to render frames quickly, but the processor cannot feed it data fast enough to reach even higher numbers.

As settings increase to Ultra, the dynamic shifts. At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 210, which is still excellent but represents a 49% drop from the Low setting at the same resolution. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows at higher resolutions: at 1440p, the difference is from 286.2 FPS down to 136.8 FPS (a 52% reduction), and at 4K, it drops from 159.3 FPS to 77.5 FPS (a 51% reduction). This consistency in the percentage drop across resolutions when moving from Low to Ultra suggests that the GPU is becoming the more dominant bottleneck at higher settings. The 4K Ultra result of 77.5 FPS is the only figure that dips below the 100 FPS mark, highlighting that this combination is not optimized for maxed-out 4K gaming but is exceptional for high-refresh 1080p and 1440p play.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is a pivotal component in this pairing, equipped with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The card’s boost clock is rated at 1725 MHz, and its 5888 shading units work in tandem to deliver the high frame rates seen in the benchmarks. In Counter-Strike 2, the GPU’s role becomes more pronounced as resolution and settings scale. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the average FPS falls to 77.5, which is likely a point where the game’s visual effects and texture loads are saturating the GPU’s capabilities. The 8 GB VRAM capacity appears sufficient for the game’s demands at these tested settings, as there is no evidence of a hard performance cliff that would indicate memory swapping.

The RTX 3070’s position in the benchmark hierarchy is solid, sitting at the 72nd percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 28238 places it close to the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, which scores 27985, a delta of 0.9%. This indicates that in general compute tasks, the two cards are near-equivalent. However, in the context of Counter-Strike 2, the RTX 3070’s architecture, built on the Ampere design with a process node of 8 nm, proves to be very strong. The card’s FP32 performance of 20.31 TFLOPS is a theoretical peak, but the real-world results show that it can push 414.2 FPS at 1080p Low, suggesting that the GPU is rarely the limiting factor at lower resolutions. The GPU’s role is to provide the raw throughput necessary to avoid bottlenecking the CPU, and the data confirms it does so effectively until the resolution and settings load become extreme.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved by this combo?

A: The highest average frame rate is 414.2 FPS, recorded at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate drops to 77.5 FPS, which is the lowest figure in the measured results and suggests the GPU is heavily loaded.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the bottleneck at 1080p Low?

A: The data implies the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p Low, as the frame rate of 414.2 FPS is extraordinarily high, but the 6-core, 6-thread Intel Core i5-9400 likely cannot push beyond this ceiling regardless of GPU headroom.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the average frame rate drops from 286.2 FPS on Low to 136.8 FPS on Ultra, a reduction of 149.4 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 compare to the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT in average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 3070 has an average benchmark score of 28238, while the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT scores 27985, which puts the RTX 3070 ahead by a delta of 0.9%.

Q: Does the combo achieve playable frame rates at 4K Medium settings?

A: Yes, at 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the average frame rate is 131.3 FPS, which is well above the threshold for smooth competitive play.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured results for the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 in Counter-Strike 2 is as follows. At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields an average of 414.2 FPS, which is the peak performance for the entire dataset. The Medium preset at this resolution averages 362 FPS, while High averages 269 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops significantly to 210 FPS, showing that while the game remains highly playable, the graphical load does impact the frame rate.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 286.2 FPS, a substantial but expected decrease from 1080p. The Medium preset at 1440p averages 242.1 FPS, and the High preset averages 180.4 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p brings the average down to 136.8 FPS. At the highest resolution, 3840x2160, the Low preset still manages an average of 159.3 FPS, which is impressive for 4K. The Medium preset at 4K averages 131.3 FPS, and the High preset averages 100.5 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that falls below 100 FPS, with an average of 77.5 FPS. These numbers show a clear and consistent scaling pattern: the combo excels at 1080p and remains strong at 1440p, but 4K Ultra is the only setting where the hardware struggles to maintain high refresh rates.

How This Combo Ranks

In the context of all tested combinations for Counter-Strike 2, the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 pairing holds a rank of 758 out of 1632 total combos. This places it in the upper-middle tier of systems, indicating that while it is not at the absolute top of the performance charts, it is significantly ahead of the majority of configurations tested. The CPU itself has a percentile rank of 50 against all CPUs, meaning it sits exactly at the median in terms of its average benchmark score of 2305. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i3-10305, has a score of 2300, a delta of just 0.2%, indicating that the i5-9400 is statistically tied with several other processors in general compute performance.

The GPU, however, is a stronger performer relative to its peers. The RTX 3070’s percentile rank of 72 against all GPUs shows that it outperforms nearly three-quarters of the graphics cards in the database. Its average benchmark score of 28238 is notably higher than the CPU’s relative standing, which suggests that the RTX 3070 is the more powerful component in this pairing. The combo’s overall rank of 758 out of 1632 reflects this balance. The system is not limited by a weak GPU, but the 6-core, 6-thread CPU, which lacks hyper-threading, does cap the potential frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios like 1080p Low. The data indicates that this combination is best suited for high-resolution, high-detail gaming where the GPU can flex its muscle, rather than esports-style settings where the CPU becomes the limiting factor. The rank demonstrates that this is a capable, balanced system for most gaming scenarios, with the RTX 3070 providing the lion’s share of the performance headroom.