Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 presents an unusual scaling pattern for the Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. The data shows a dramatic drop in average frame rate when moving from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, but the shape of that drop is heavily dependent on the quality preset. At Low settings, the game runs at 747.6 FPS at 1080p, falls to 494.4 FPS at 1440p, and then to 278.7 FPS at 4K. This represents a 62.7% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which is a substantial performance cliff. At High settings, the same resolution sweep yields 466.6 FPS, 309.6 FPS, and 173.6 FPS, respectively — a 62.8% drop. The Ultra preset shows the steepest relative decline, falling from 358.5 FPS at 1080p to 238.2 FPS at 1440p and then to 135.8 FPS at 4K, a 62.1% reduction overall. These consistent percentage drops across presets indicate that the scaling bottleneck is predominantly resolution-driven rather than settings-driven.

The fact that the percentage loss from 1080p to 4K is nearly identical across all four presets — hovering around 62% — suggests that the limiting component is the GPU’s pixel throughput. The RTX 4090’s 176 ROPs and 443.5 GPixel/s pixel rate are being saturated as the pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K. However, the absolute FPS values at 1080p Low (747.6) versus 1080p Ultra (358.5) show that the CPU is not completely idling; the Core i7-12700KF’s 20 threads and 5.00 GHz boost clock are still relevant, but the GPU is clearly the primary constraint at higher resolutions. The data indicates that at 1080p, the CPU has more headroom, while at 4K, the GPU’s workload dominates the frame time budget.

FAQ

Q: What is the single highest average FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The highest average FPS is 747.6, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is more than double the 4K Ultra result of 135.8 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4090 compare to its nearest rivals in aggregate benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 4090’s average benchmark score is 66473, which places it 0.4% behind the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (66733) and 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P40 (66127). It also leads the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (67097) by 0.9% and the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 (67320) by 1.3%, though those deltas are inverted in the data.

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

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings produce 494.4 FPS, while Ultra produces 238.2 FPS. The gap is 256.2 FPS, meaning Ultra delivers roughly 51.8% of the Low preset’s frame rate.

Q: Does the Core i7-12700KF’s benchmark percentile indicate strong overall performance?

A: Yes, the processor sits in the 89th percentile against all CPUs. Its average benchmark score is 35355, which is only 0.1% higher than the Intel Core i5-14400 (35336) and 0.2% lower than the Intel Core i7-13800H (35416).

Q: How does 4K Medium compare to 1080p Ultra in average FPS?

A: 4K Medium runs at 227.4 FPS, while 1080p Ultra runs at 358.5 FPS. The 4K Medium result is 131.1 FPS lower, despite Medium being a less demanding preset, highlighting the resolution’s heavy impact.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested configurations in Counter-Strike 2?

A: This specific CPU-GPU combination ranks 27th out of 1632 tested combos, placing it in the top 1.7% of all configurations for this game.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications dictate the frame rate ceiling at every resolution. The GPU features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is more than ample for Counter-Strike 2’s asset streaming, but the game’s frame rate is more sensitive to the GPU’s compute and rasterization throughput. The RTX 4090’s 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 1,290.2 GTexel/s texture rate provide the raw horsepower, yet the measured FPS scaling shows diminishing returns as resolution increases.

The GPU’s boost clock of 2520 MHz and base clock of 2235 MHz are relevant when analyzing the 1080p results. At 1920x1080 Low, the 747.6 FPS average suggests the GPU is not the limiting factor; the CPU is likely holding the frame rate back. However, at 3840x2160 Ultra, the 135.8 FPS result indicates the GPU is fully saturated. The pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s becomes the binding constraint at 4K, as the number of pixels to shade quadruples compared to 1080p. The data supports this interpretation: the transition from 1440p to 4K at High settings drops from 309.6 FPS to 173.6 FPS, a 43.9% reduction that aligns with the pixel count increase of 2.25x.

The RTX 4090’s 91st percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 66473, confirms it is a top-tier part. Its nearest rivals in aggregate score are professional workstation cards like the Tesla T4 and P40, but those lack the gaming-specific optimizations that show up in Counter-Strike 2’s measured FPS. The GPU’s VRAM capacity of 24 GB is not a factor in these results; even at 4K Ultra, the game does not approach the memory limit, as evidenced by the consistent frame rates without stutter-related min FPS data. The 1.01 TB/s bandwidth ensures that texture fetching never starves the shader units, allowing the GPU to operate at its theoretical efficiency across all tested presets.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides 12 distinct data points across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the results are 747.6 FPS (Low), 622 FPS (Medium), 466.6 FPS (High), and 358.5 FPS (Ultra). The step from Low to Medium is a 16.8% reduction, while Medium to High is a 25% drop, and High to Ultra is a 23.2% drop. This progressive decline is typical of a GPU-bound scenario, but the absolute values indicate the RTX 4090 is never fully stressed at 1080p; even the Ultra preset exceeds 350 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the results are 494.4 FPS (Low), 412.1 FPS (Medium), 309.6 FPS (High), and 238.2 FPS (Ultra). The relative gaps between presets shrink slightly compared to 1080p: Low to Medium is a 16.6% drop, Medium to High is a 24.9% drop, and High to Ultra is a 23.1% drop. The 1440p results are roughly 66% of the 1080p results for each preset, confirming a consistent scaling factor. For instance, 1440p Low (494.4) is 66.1% of 1080p Low (747.6), and 1440p Ultra (238.2) is 66.4% of 1080p Ultra (358.5).

At 3840x2160, the results are 278.7 FPS (Low), 227.4 FPS (Medium), 173.6 FPS (High), and 135.8 FPS (Ultra). The 4K results are approximately 37% of the 1080p results for each preset. 4K Low (278.7) is 37.3% of 1080p Low, and 4K Ultra (135.8) is 37.9% of 1080p Ultra. This consistent ratio across all presets strongly suggests that the GPU’s pixel throughput is the limiting factor at 4K, regardless of how light or heavy the settings load is. The 4K Ultra result of 135.8 FPS is still highly playable, but it represents the lowest measured frame rate in the entire dataset.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal preset depends on the target resolution and refresh rate. For users with a 1080p 240 Hz or 360 Hz monitor, the Low preset at 747.6 FPS provides the highest headroom, but the Medium preset at 622 FPS still exceeds the refresh rate of most displays while offering better visual quality. The High preset at 466.6 FPS is a balanced choice for 1080p 360 Hz panels, as it delivers more than enough frame rate without the visual compromises of Low. The Ultra preset at 358.5 FPS is overkill for any current 1080p display, as it exceeds even the fastest 360 Hz panels.

At 1440p, the High preset at 309.6 FPS is the sweet spot for 240 Hz monitors, offering a 30% higher frame rate than Ultra (238.2 FPS) while maintaining high visual fidelity. The Medium preset at 412.1 FPS is preferable for 360 Hz 1440p panels, as it provides a comfortable margin above the refresh rate. The Low preset at 494.4 FPS is unnecessary for most users, as the visual degradation outweighs the frame rate benefit beyond 360 Hz. The Ultra preset at 238.2 FPS is viable for 240 Hz displays but leaves no headroom for frame time spikes.

At 4K, the Medium preset at 227.4 FPS is the recommended choice for 144 Hz or 165 Hz monitors, as it delivers 37% more frame rate than High (173.6 FPS) and 67% more than Ultra (135.8 FPS). The High preset at 173.6 FPS is suitable for 144 Hz displays with some margin, while Ultra at 135.8 FPS is only appropriate for 120 Hz panels. The Low preset at 278.7 FPS is not recommended at 4K because the visual quality drop is severe, and the frame rate exceeds what most 4K displays can show. Across all resolutions, the data indicates that Medium or High provides the best balance of frame rate and visual quality, with Ultra being reserved for scenarios where frame rate is secondary to image fidelity.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF provides the computational backbone for this configuration, and its specifications suggest it is well-matched to the RTX 4090 for Counter-Strike 2. The processor features 12 cores and 20 threads, 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 it supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus. The 25 MB of shared L3 cache is significant for a game that relies on low-latency data access, as CS2’s engine often benefits from larger caches to reduce memory stalls.

The CPU’s benchmark results indicate strong single-thread and multi-thread performance. In Cinebench R23, it scores 4091 in single-core and 28979 in multi-core. The single-core score is critical for Counter-Strike 2, which typically scales with per-thread performance. The 3DMark tests show a scaling pattern from 1043 (single-thread) to 9983 (max threads), demonstrating that the processor can handle both lightly-threaded and heavily-threaded workloads. The Geekbench scores of 2526 (single-core) and 13596 (multi-core) corroborate this balance.

In the measured FPS data, the CPU’s role becomes apparent at 1080p Low, where the 747.6 FPS result approaches the practical limit for the RTX 4090. At this resolution and settings combination, the GPU is not the bottleneck; the CPU’s 5.00 GHz boost clock and 20 threads are feeding the GPU with draw calls and game logic updates. However, as resolution increases, the CPU’s influence wanes. The 4K results across all presets are nearly identical in relative scaling, indicating that the CPU has ample headroom and is not constraining performance at higher resolutions.

The processor’s 89th percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 35355 place it in the same performance tier as the Intel Core i5-14400 (35336, 0.1% slower) and the Intel Core i7-13800H (35416, 0.2% faster). These rivals are within 0.3% of the 12700KF’s score, suggesting that for this game, the CPU is not a differentiating factor — the RTX 4090 is the primary determinant of frame rates. The combo’s overall rank of 27th out of 1632 configurations reinforces this conclusion: the pairing is near the top of the leaderboard, with the GPU’s capabilities defining the ceiling and the CPU ensuring that ceiling is reached at lower resolutions.