Counter-Strike 2

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER holds rank 280 out of 1632 tested combinations in Counter-Strike 2. That places this pairing in the top 17% of all tested combos, a strong position that reflects the hardware's ability to push high frame rates in this esports title. The ranking becomes more meaningful when you consider the CPU's overall percentile of 89 — meaning it outperforms 89% of all tested processors — and the GPU's percentile of 84. Both components sit comfortably above the median, yet the combo rank is slightly lower than either percentile alone might suggest, hinting that Counter-Strike 2's engine has specific demands that keep this pairing from reaching the absolute top tier.

The data reveals an interesting dynamic: the CPU's average benchmark score is 35684, while the GPU's average is 42576. The CPU sits within 0.8% of its nearest rivals — the Intel Core i7-13800H (deltaPct 0.8) and Intel Core i5-14500HX (deltaPct -0.7) — which suggests that the 12700K is firmly in a competitive cluster of mid-high range processors. The GPU shows a similar pattern, with its closest competitor being the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE at a deltaPct of -0.3. This tight clustering means the combo's rank is less about any single component being exceptional and more about how well they synchronize in this specific game.

FAQ

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems in Counter-Strike 2?

A: It ranks 280th out of 1632 tested combinations, placing it in the top 17% of all systems tested for this game.

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves at 1080p?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 588.3, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU show a larger performance gap from its nearest rival?

A: The CPU's closest rival, AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845, is only 0.3% away in average benchmark score. The GPU's closest rival, NVIDIA RTX A6000, is 0.2% away. Both are extremely close, but the GPU has the slight edge in proximity.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded with this combo?

A: The lowest average FPS is 103.4, observed at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

Q: How many cores and threads does the i7-12700K have?

A: It has 12 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz.

Q: What is the VRAM capacity of the RTX 4070 SUPER?

A: It has 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K tells a clear story about which component is the limiting factor. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo delivers 588.3 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 drops that to 387.4 FPS, and at 3840x2160 it falls to 214.4 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a 34% reduction, while 1440p to 4K shows a 45% reduction. This pattern — where the percentage drop increases as resolution rises — is classic GPU-bound behavior. The CPU has enough headroom to feed frames at lower resolutions, but the GPU's rendering workload grows disproportionately as pixel count increases.

At High settings, the same trend holds but with a steeper initial drop: 365.4 FPS at 1080p falls to 239.8 FPS at 1440p (a 34% reduction), then to 135.8 FPS at 4K (a 43% reduction from 1440p). The consistency of these drops across different settings presets suggests that resolution, not graphical complexity, is the primary driver of performance loss. The RTX 4070 SUPER's 12 GB VRAM and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth appear sufficient to handle 4K textures without a memory bottleneck, as evidenced by the still-high 135.8 FPS at 4K High.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Low settings as the best choice for competitive play, where maximum frame rate is paramount. At 1920x1080, Low produces 588.3 FPS versus 488.7 at Medium and 365.4 at High. The jump from Low to Medium costs 17% of the frame rate, while Medium to High costs another 25%. For a game like Counter-Strike 2, where reaction time matters, the gap between Low and Medium is substantial but not insurmountable.

However, the story changes at higher resolutions. At 2560x1440, Low yields 387.4 FPS, Medium yields 324.2 FPS, and High yields 239.8 FPS. Even at 4K, Low maintains 214.4 FPS, which exceeds the refresh rate of most high-end monitors. The Ultra preset, by contrast, shows a dramatic drop at every resolution: 282.8 FPS at 1080p, 184.4 at 1440p, and 103.4 at 4K. The data suggests that Medium offers the best balance for players who want visual fidelity without sacrificing the high frame rates that give a competitive edge. It provides 488.7 FPS at 1080p and 324.2 at 1440p, both well above 240 Hz refresh rates, while offering improved visuals over Low.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results. Low settings produce 588.3 FPS average, Medium produces 488.7, High produces 365.4, and Ultra produces 282.8. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 52% reduction in frame rate, which is significant but leaves the system with playable performance even at the most demanding preset.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 387.4 FPS at Low, 324.2 at Medium, 239.8 at High, and 184.4 at Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 52%, similar to 1080p, but the absolute numbers remain high enough for smooth competitive play on 1440p 240 Hz monitors.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates are 214.4 FPS at Low, 182.8 at Medium, 135.8 at High, and 103.4 at Ultra. The drop from Low to Ultra is 52% again, showing a consistent scaling pattern across resolutions. The 4K Ultra result of 103.4 FPS is the only measured average that falls below 120 FPS, indicating this combo can handle 4K gaming but not at maximum settings with high refresh rates.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K brings 12 cores and 20 threads to the pairing, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. Its Alder Lake architecture uses a 10 nm process, and the chip includes 25 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 29241 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 4128 in single-core, with a Passmark multithread score of 34404. These numbers place it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35684.

The CPU's single-thread performance — 4128 in Cinebench R23 single-core — is particularly relevant for Counter-Strike 2, which typically relies heavily on one or two threads for game logic and physics. The 3dmark single-thread score of 1043 and the Passmark single-thread score of 4013 both indicate strong per-core performance. The 3dmark 2-threads score of 2065 suggests that even with just two active threads, the CPU maintains high performance. This explains why the combo can achieve 588.3 FPS at 1080p Low — the CPU is not the bottleneck at lower resolutions, allowing the GPU to run at full utilization.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features 7168 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1980 MHz with a boost clock of 2475 MHz, and its memory runs at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective speed. The 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus delivers 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth.

In synthetic benchmarks, the GPU scores 29995 in Passmark G3D and 192684 in Geekbench OpenCL. Its average benchmark score is 42576, placing it in the 84th percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rival, NVIDIA RTX A6000, is only 0.2% ahead, while the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE is 0.3% ahead. The GPU's 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 554.4 GTexel/s texture rate provide ample compute for rendering tasks.

The GPU's role in Counter-Strike 2 becomes apparent in the resolution scaling data. At 1080p Low, the 588.3 FPS result shows the GPU is not the limiting factor — the CPU can feed frames faster than the GPU can render them. But at 4K Ultra, the 103.4 FPS result indicates the GPU is now the primary constraint, as the increased pixel count and graphical effects overwhelm the rendering pipeline. The 12 GB VRAM is sufficient for 4K textures, but the raw compute power is what caps performance at higher settings.