Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 with an Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 presents a stark study in bottleneck dynamics. The benchmark data shows a pairing where a high-end, modern GPU is tethered to a six-thread CPU from 2018, and the results vary dramatically depending on resolution and settings. At 4K High, the combo delivers 155 FPS, but at 1080p Low, it reaches 415 FPS. These figures reveal a system that is capable of extreme frame rates at lower resolutions, yet becomes increasingly GPU-bound as resolution climbs, though the CPU's age limits the ceiling even at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a predictable trend: as resolution increases, average frame rates fall. At 1080p Low, the system produces 415 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 362 FPS, a reduction of 53 FPS (roughly 13%). At 4K Low, the average falls further to 249 FPS, which is 166 FPS lower than the 1080p result. This scaling pattern indicates that at Low settings, the load shifts from the CPU to the GPU as pixel count rises, but the CPU still has enough headroom to feed the RTX 4080 at 4K.

The High preset tells a similar story with different numbers. At 1080p High, the average is 349 FPS. At 1440p High, it drops to 277 FPS, and at 4K High, it falls to 155 FPS. The gap between 1080p and 1440p High is 72 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K High is 122 FPS. This widening delta suggests that the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor at 4K High, as the increased pixel workload saturates the RTX 4080's capabilities.

The Medium preset provides the only complete min/max data in the pack. At 1080p Medium, the average is 389 FPS, with a min of 330 and max of 447. At 1440p Medium, the average is 339 FPS (min 288, max 390), and at 4K Medium, the average is 207 FPS (min 176, max 238). The frame time consistency, as indicated by the min/max spread, shows a tighter range at 1080p (117 FPS spread) compared to 4K (62 FPS spread), which suggests that at lower resolutions, CPU-driven hitches can cause larger frame time spikes.

Ultra settings produce the lowest frame rates across the board. The system hits 319 FPS at 1080p Ultra, 215 FPS at 1440p Ultra, and 120 FPS at 4K Ultra. The scaling from 1440p to 4K Ultra shows a 95 FPS drop, which is the largest absolute decrease between any two consecutive resolutions in the dataset. This indicates that Ultra settings at 4K push the RTX 4080 to its limits in this title, bringing the average down to a level where the CPU's age becomes less relevant.

The data suggests that at 1080p and 1440p, the Intel Core i5-9400 is the limiting component, as frame rates do not scale linearly with the GPU's raw power. At 4K, the RTX 4080 takes over as the bottleneck, particularly at High and Ultra presets, where the pixel fill rate and shading demands outpace the CPU's ability to feed frames. The jump from 249 FPS at 4K Low to 155 FPS at 4K High demonstrates how much headroom the GPU has, but also how quickly it gets consumed by higher quality settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the dominant component in this pairing, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process node from TSMC. It carries 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s. The GPU's boost clock is 2505 MHz, with a base clock of 2205 MHz. These specifications place the RTX 4080 in the 86th percentile of all GPUs in the benchmark database, with an average benchmark score of 54247.

The RTX 4080's memory configuration is particularly relevant for Counter-Strike 2 at high resolutions. The 16 GB frame buffer ensures that even at 4K Ultra, the game will not exceed VRAM capacity, preventing texture thrashing. The 716.8 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient to feed the GPU's 9728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs, which are the key components for rasterizing the game's geometry and effects.

Clock speeds play a role in the observed frame rates. The boost clock of 2505 MHz helps the GPU maintain high throughput in lighter scenes, but the data shows that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 415 FPS, which is likely constrained by the CPU rather than the GPU. The GPU's raw compute power, measured at 48.74 TFLOPS FP32, is more than adequate for Counter-Strike 2, even at 4K Ultra, where it still manages 120 FPS.

The RTX 4080's performance relative to its nearest rivals in the database is within a narrow margin. It scores 0.1% higher than the RTX 4080 SUPER, 1.1% lower than the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X, and 2.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB. In practice, these deltas are negligible for gameplay, and the RTX 4080's advantage lies in its feature set and power efficiency, not raw benchmark superiority.

The GPU's role in this specific combo becomes clearer when examining the 4K results. At 4K Low, the system produces 249 FPS, which is 166 FPS lower than 1080p Low. This drop of 40% is entirely attributable to the GPU's pixel processing workload. At 4K Ultra, the 120 FPS result is exactly 30% of the 1080p Low figure, showing that the GPU is scaling as expected with resolution, while the CPU remains a constant factor.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a Coffee Lake Refresh part with 6 cores and 6 threads, a base clock of 2.90 GHz, and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. It has 9 MB of shared L3 cache, with 64 KB L1 and 256 KB L2 per core. The CPU supports DDR4 memory in dual-channel mode with 42.7 GB/s of bandwidth. Its average benchmark score is 2254, placing it in the 47th percentile of all CPUs, which is near the median for desktop processors.

In this game, the CPU's 6 threads are a limiting factor at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system hits 415 FPS, but this is likely near the CPU's maximum frame generation capability. The nearest rivals in the database, such as the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (scoring 2259, a 0.2% delta) and the Intel Core i7-10710U (scoring 2248, a 0.3% delta), exhibit similar single-thread and multi-thread performance, indicating that the i5-9400 is firmly in a mid-tier CPU class.

The boost clock of 4.10 GHz is the key metric for Counter-Strike 2, which is known for its sensitivity to single-core performance. The CPU's single-core Cinebench R23 score is 935, which is modest by modern standards. The data shows that at 4K Low, the system produces 249 FPS, suggesting that even at high resolution, the CPU can still generate enough frames to keep the GPU busy, but the frame rate ceiling is capped by the CPU's architecture.

The CPU's 6 cores without hyper-threading mean that background tasks or game logic threads can cause contention. The measured FPS at 1080p Medium shows a min of 330 and max of 447, with an average of 389. The 117 FPS spread between min and max indicates that the CPU's thread scheduling can introduce frame time variability, which is less pronounced at 4K where the GPU's workload smooths out the frame delivery.

The i5-9400's memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s is another potential constraint. While Counter-Strike 2 does not heavily rely on memory bandwidth, the dual-channel DDR4 configuration is adequate for the CPU's needs. The CPU's PCIe Gen 3 interface with 16 lanes is sufficient for the RTX 4080, though the newer PCIe 4.0 interface on the GPU is not fully utilized, which could slightly impact data transfer rates in scenarios with heavy asset streaming.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 691st out of 3719 tested combos in Counter-Strike 2, placing it in the top 18.6% of all configurations. This rank reflects the system's ability to deliver high frame rates, but it also highlights the imbalance: the GPU is an 86th percentile part, while the CPU is a 47th percentile part. The combo rank of 691 indicates that there are many systems with more balanced pairings that achieve better frame rates in this specific title.

The rank is heavily influenced by the 4K results, where the combo achieves 155 FPS at High settings. If the ranking were based solely on 1080p performance, the combo would likely rank higher, as 349 FPS at 1080p High is an exceptional result. However, the database aggregates results across all resolutions and settings, pulling the rank down due to the CPU's limitations at lower resolutions where it cannot fully unlock the GPU's potential.

Out of 3719 combos, the 691st rank means that roughly 3028 configurations perform better in Counter-Strike 2. This is notable because the RTX 4080 alone is a top-tier GPU, but the i5-9400's age prevents the combo from reaching the upper echelons of the ranking. The data suggests that pairing this CPU with a less powerful GPU would yield a better overall rank relative to the hardware's capabilities.

The combo's rank relative to its components' individual percentiles shows a clear bottleneck. The GPU's 86th percentile is dragged down by the CPU's 47th percentile, resulting in a combo that performs worse than the sum of its parts. The delta between the CPU's nearest rivals is minimal (all within 0.4%), so the CPU is not an outlier in its class, but it is simply outclassed by the GPU's performance ceiling.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p Low settings for this combo?

A: The system achieves an average of 415 FPS at 1080p Low settings, which is the highest measured frame rate in the dataset.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its nearest rival in benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 4080 scores 54247 on average, which is 0.1% higher than the RTX 4080 SUPER (54209) and 1.1% lower than the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (54828).

Q: What is the biggest FPS drop between 1440p and 4K?

A: The largest drop occurs at Ultra settings, where the average falls from 215 FPS at 1440p to 120 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 95 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance at 1080p High?

A: At 1080p High, the system produces 349 FPS, which is likely CPU-limited given that the i5-9400 has only 6 threads and a 4.10 GHz boost clock, while the RTX 4080 is capable of much higher frame rates.

Q: What is the combo's rank out of all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 691st out of 3719 total combos in Counter-Strike 2, placing it in the top 18.6% of all tested systems.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded at 4K Medium?

A: The minimum FPS at 4K Medium is 176 FPS, with an average of 207 FPS and a maximum of 238 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The data provides clear guidance for optimizing this combo in Counter-Strike 2. For competitive play at 1080p, the Low preset delivers 415 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. However, the Medium preset at 1080p offers a better visual experience with 389 FPS average (min 330, max 447), which is still far above the threshold for smooth gameplay. The High preset at 1080p drops to 349 FPS, which is acceptable but offers diminishing returns for the visual quality gain.

At 1440p, the Medium preset is the sweet spot. It produces 339 FPS average with a min of 288 FPS, ensuring that frame rates stay above 240 Hz even in demanding scenes. The High preset at 1440p yields 277 FPS, which is still excellent for most monitors, but the Medium preset's higher minimum frame rate (288 vs null for High) suggests better consistency. The Low preset at 1440p reaches 362 FPS, but the visual fidelity loss is significant.

For 4K gaming, the Medium preset is the recommended choice. It achieves 207 FPS average with a minimum of 176 FPS, which ensures a smooth experience on 144 Hz or 165 Hz displays. The High preset at 4K drops to 155 FPS, which is playable but may not fully utilize high-refresh-rate panels. The Ultra preset at 4K produces 120 FPS, which is below the 144 Hz threshold and not worth the visual uplift over Medium.

The Ultra preset is generally not recommended for this combo. At 1080p Ultra, the system hits 319 FPS, which is lower than the Medium preset's 389 FPS, indicating that the Ultra settings introduce overhead that the CPU cannot overcome. At 4K Ultra, the 120 FPS result is 87 FPS lower than 4K Medium, showing that the GPU's workload increases disproportionately. The measured data shows that Medium settings provide the best balance of frame rate and visual quality across all resolutions, with the 1440p Medium result (339 FPS) being the standout choice for a high-refresh-rate experience.