Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 with an Intel Core i5-9400 and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D presents a stark imbalance between a last-generation six-core processor and a current flagship graphics card. The measured data shows that this pairing produces extremely high frame rates across all tested configurations, yet the scaling patterns reveal a system where the CPU dictates overall performance ceilings, particularly at lower resolutions. This analysis walks through the resolution scaling, component roles, and specific measured outcomes for this combination.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 demonstrates how this system transitions from a CPU-bound state to a more balanced workload. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the average frame rate is 415 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops that to 362 FPS, a reduction of 53 FPS or roughly 12.8 percent. At 3840x2160 Low, the average falls further to 298 FPS, another 64 FPS decline from the 1440p figure. The pattern across all settings shows that the RTX 5090 D’s massive rendering capability is not the limiting factor at 1080p; the processor cannot feed frames fast enough to saturate the GPU.

The High preset illustrates the same trend. At 1920x1080 High, the average is 349 FPS. At 2560x1440 High, it drops to 304 FPS, and at 3840x2160 High, it reaches 187 FPS. The gap between 1080p and 1440p High is 45 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K High is a larger 117 FPS. This widening delta suggests that as resolution increases, the GPU begins to take on a more significant role, but the absolute numbers remain high enough that the CPU is still responsible for the upper bound in all but the most demanding 4K Ultra scenario.

The Ultra preset shows the closest behavior to a GPU-limited workload. At 1920x1080 Ultra, the average is 319 FPS. At 2560x1440 Ultra, it drops to 260 FPS, and at 3840x2160 Ultra, it falls to 145 FPS. The drop from 1440p to 4K Ultra is 115 FPS, which is proportionally similar to the High preset’s 4K decline. However, the 4K Ultra result of 145 FPS is the only measured configuration where the RTX 5090 D appears to be doing substantial work, as the frame rate finally dips below what a high-refresh monitor would need.

The data indicates that resolution scaling is not uniform. The Low preset loses 117 FPS from 1080p to 4K, while the Ultra preset loses 174 FPS over the same range. This difference of 57 FPS between presets suggests that the GPU’s workload scales with both resolution and settings, but the CPU’s ceiling remains constant. In Counter-Strike 2, the i5-9400's six threads become the primary constraint at 1080p, where even the heaviest preset only yields 319 FPS, while the lighter presets cannot exceed the 415 FPS ceiling.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 provides six cores and six threads, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. Its benchmark scores position it in the 47th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2254. The nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 with a score of 2259 and a delta of -0.2 percent, and the Intel Core i7-10710U at 2248, just 0.3 percent behind. This places the i5-9400 in a tightly clustered group, but for a competitive esports title like Counter-Strike 2, the absolute performance matters more than percentile standing.

In the measured results, the CPU’s limitation is apparent at 1920x1080. The Low preset averages 415 FPS, the Medium preset drops to 389 FPS, and the High preset reaches 349 FPS. The fact that lowering settings from High to Low only yields a 66 FPS improvement at 1080p, while the same change at 4K produces a 111 FPS improvement, confirms that the processor is the bottleneck at the lowest resolution. The CPU’s six threads, without hyper-threading, can only process a finite number of draw calls and game logic updates per second, and Counter-Strike 2’s engine appears to saturate those threads well below the GPU’s potential.

The boost clock of 4.10 GHz helps sustain high minimum frame rates in the Medium preset, where the 1920x1080 result shows a minimum of 330 FPS and a maximum of 447 FPS. The spread of 117 FPS between minimum and maximum at 1080p Medium indicates that the CPU’s frame pacing is inconsistent, likely due to occasional thread contention. At 2560x1440 Medium, the minimum is 288 FPS and the maximum is 390 FPS, a spread of 102 FPS, suggesting the GPU starts to smooth out some of the CPU’s variability. The 3840x2160 Medium result shows a minimum of 213 FPS and a maximum of 288 FPS, a 75 FPS spread, further evidence that the GPU’s longer render times mask CPU stutter.

Compared to the RTX 5090 D, which sits in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 77712, the CPU’s 47th percentile ranking is a clear mismatch. The data shows that in this game, the CPU is the limiting component for most configurations, and upgrading the processor would yield larger frame rate gains than any GPU change.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is a flagship Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU with 21760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster operation pipelines. It features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. The boost clock is 2407 MHz, and the pixel rate is 423.6 GPixel/s. Its benchmark scores include a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 result of 14326, a Geekbench Vulkan score of 376915, and a Passmark G3D score of 44065. The nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT with a score of 76904 and a delta of 1.1 percent, and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT at 78940, which is 1.6 percent higher.

In Counter-Strike 2, the GPU’s role becomes visible only at higher resolutions and settings. At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average frame rate is 145 FPS, which is the lowest measured result for this combination. The GPU’s 32 GB of VRAM is far more than the game requires, but the sheer compute power drives the 4K Ultra result to a playable level. The memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s ensures that texture streaming and geometry processing at 4K do not introduce stutter, as evidenced by the Medium preset’s minimum of 213 FPS at 4K.

The GPU’s performance ceiling is not reached until the CPU allows it. At 1920x1080 Low, the 415 FPS average is likely near the CPU’s limit, as the GPU could theoretically render far more frames. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 310674 and the Passmark GPU Compute score of 28396 indicate massive compute throughput, but Counter-Strike 2’s relatively simple geometry does not leverage this power until the resolution increases. The pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s suggests that even at 4K, the GPU has headroom, but the measured 4K Ultra result of 145 FPS is constrained by the CPU’s ability to issue draw calls.

The RTX 5090 D’s 170 ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores are largely irrelevant for this title, as Counter-Strike 2 does not heavily utilize those features in the measured presets. The GPU’s role is to provide a high enough frame buffer and fill rate to avoid becoming the bottleneck at 4K, which it does, but the data shows that the CPU is the primary driver of the system’s frame rate in most scenarios.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate measured for this CPU and GPU combination?

A: The highest average frame rate is 415 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How much faster is the 1080p Low preset compared to the 4K Ultra preset?

A: The 1080p Low preset averages 415 FPS, while the 4K Ultra preset averages 145 FPS, making the 1080p result 270 FPS higher, or roughly 2.86 times faster.

Q: Does the RTX 5090 D’s 32 GB VRAM affect the measured frame rates?

A: The data does not show a direct correlation between VRAM usage and frame rates; the measured results are consistent across settings, and the 32 GB capacity is not a limiting factor in any tested configuration.

Q: What does the Medium preset’s minimum FPS tell us about performance consistency?

A: At 1920x1080 Medium, the minimum FPS is 330 and the maximum is 447, a spread of 117 FPS. At 2560x1440 Medium, the spread narrows to 102 FPS, and at 3840x2160 Medium, it narrows to 75 FPS, indicating better consistency as the GPU takes on more load.

Q: How does the CPU’s benchmark percentile compare to the GPU’s?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 is in the 47th percentile of all CPUs, while the RTX 5090 D is in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, highlighting a significant performance tier gap.

Q: What is the average frame rate at 2560x1440 with High settings?

A: The measured average is 304 FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance for this combination. At 1920x1080 Medium, the average is 389 FPS with a minimum of 330 FPS, which is only 26 FPS lower than the Low preset’s average of 415 FPS but provides noticeably better visuals. At 2560x1440 Medium, the average is 339 FPS with a minimum of 288 FPS, still far above the refresh rate of most high-end monitors. The Medium preset’s minimum frame rates are the only ones recorded in the data, and they show that the system maintains playable performance even at 4K, where the average is 250 FPS with a minimum of 213 FPS.

The High preset is also viable, especially at 1440p where it averages 304 FPS. However, at 4K High, the average drops to 187 FPS, which is lower than the Medium preset’s 4K result of 250 FPS. The Ultra preset, which averages 319 FPS at 1080p and 260 FPS at 1440p, provides diminishing returns over High, and its 4K average of 145 FPS is the weakest measured result. For competitive play, the Low preset’s 415 FPS average at 1080p might be tempting, but the Medium preset’s 389 FPS average with a higher minimum of 330 FPS suggests better frame pacing without sacrificing much speed.

The data indicates that the Medium preset is the sweet spot, as it delivers average frame rates above 250 FPS at all resolutions, with the 4K minimum of 213 FPS still exceeding the refresh rate of standard 60 Hz displays. For users with 240 Hz monitors, the Medium preset at 1080p or 1440p is the recommended choice, as the minimums of 330 FPS and 288 FPS, respectively, keep the experience smooth.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results show a clear hierarchy: Low averages 415 FPS, Medium averages 389 FPS with a minimum of 330 FPS and a maximum of 447 FPS, High averages 349 FPS, and Ultra averages 319 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 96 FPS, indicating that the CPU’s ceiling is approached even at the highest settings.

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low averages 362 FPS, Medium averages 339 FPS with a minimum of 288 FPS and a maximum of 390 FPS, High averages 304 FPS, and Ultra averages 260 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 102 FPS, similar to the 1080p spread, suggesting the CPU remains the primary constraint.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low averages 298 FPS, Medium averages 250 FPS with a minimum of 213 FPS and a maximum of 288 FPS, High averages 187 FPS, and Ultra averages 145 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 153 FPS, the largest of any resolution, confirming that the GPU’s workload increases substantially at 4K, allowing the CPU’s limitation to be partially masked.

The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum values at every resolution. At 1080p, the minimum is 330 FPS, at 1440p it is 288 FPS, and at 4K it is 213 FPS. These minimums show that the system rarely dips below 200 FPS, even at the highest resolution with a moderate preset. The maximums follow a similar trend, with 447 FPS at 1080p, 390 FPS at 1440p, and 288 FPS at 4K, indicating that the GPU’s rendering time grows with pixel count.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-9400 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 411th out of 2870 total combinations for Counter-Strike 2. This places it in the top 14.3 percent of all tested combos, which is notable given the CPU’s age. The ranking reflects the game’s engine behavior, where the GPU’s massive lead over the CPU is partially offset by the fact that Counter-Strike 2 is not particularly demanding on the graphics card at lower resolutions.

The rank of 411 out of 2870 means that the combination outperforms the majority of tested systems, but it also indicates that many other pairings, likely with newer processors and similar GPUs, achieve higher frame rates. The CPU’s 47th percentile standing suggests that any combination with a processor above that mark would likely rank higher, assuming the GPU is comparable. The GPU’s 92nd percentile ranking is not fully utilized in this pairing, as the CPU holds back the overall score.

The data shows that this combo’s ranking is driven primarily by the GPU’s ability to maintain high frame rates at 4K, where the CPU’s limitation is less pronounced. At lower resolutions, the combo’s ranking would be worse relative to systems with faster CPUs, but the overall 411th position out of 2870 reflects the RTX 5090 D’s raw power. For users with this specific CPU, the results indicate that the GPU is overkill for 1080p play, but it does provide a significant buffer for future CPU upgrades or for running at higher resolutions with demanding settings.