Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 with an Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER presents a fascinating study in bottleneck dynamics. The measured data reveals a system where the GPU becomes the primary constraint at higher resolutions, while the CPU's substantial core count ensures that frame rates remain competitive even when graphical loads escalate. This analysis breaks down the performance characteristics across resolutions, component roles, and overall ranking.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep, illustrating the RTX 2060 SUPER's limitations at higher pixel counts. At 1080p High settings, the combo delivers 201.1 FPS average, which falls to 130 FPS at 1440p High — a reduction of 71.1 FPS, or roughly 35%. Pushing further to 4K High yields only 71.8 FPS, a 64.3% decrease from the 1080p result. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the limiting component; as resolution increases, the shading workload grows faster than the CPU can compensate.

The Low preset tells a clearer story about the CPU's headroom. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 324.5 FPS average. At 1440p Low, it still manages 216.2 FPS, and even at 4K Low it holds 118.2 FPS. The gap between Low and High at each resolution is substantial: at 1080p, the difference is 123.4 FPS (324.5 vs 201.1), while at 4K it narrows to 46.4 FPS (118.2 vs 71.8). This convergence suggests that at lower resolutions, the CPU can feed frames quickly, but the GPU's rendering capacity caps performance as resolution climbs.

Medium settings offer a middle ground: 268.3 FPS at 1080p, 175.1 FPS at 1440p, and 102.1 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings are the most demanding, dropping to 155.8 FPS at 1080p and just 56.3 FPS at 4K. The delta between Medium and Ultra at 4K is 45.8 FPS, indicating that the GPU's memory bandwidth and shading units are saturated by the highest preset. The data shows that 1440p High is the practical ceiling for maintaining a smooth competitive experience, while 4K is only viable on Low or Medium settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F brings 20 cores and 28 threads, based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. This configuration is clearly capable of feeding the GPU in Counter-Strike 2, as evidenced by the 1080p Low result of 324.5 FPS. The CPU's 33 MB of shared L3 cache helps maintain high frame rates in a game that relies on rapid draw calls and physics calculations.

Benchmark data places this CPU in the 94th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54097. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, scores 54450, a delta of -0.6%, meaning the i7-14700F trails by just 0.6%. Against the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D (54681), the deficit is 1.1%, while it leads the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 (53469) by 1.2% and the AMD EPYC 7313P (53206) by 1.7%. These slim margins indicate that the CPU is not a performance outlier in either direction.

In gaming terms, the Core i7-14700F's single-thread performance is strong, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 5003 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2711. The multi-core scores (35443 in Cinebench R23, 16571 in Geekbench) reflect the high core count, but Counter-Strike 2 does not scale perfectly with all 20 cores. The data suggests that the CPU's boost clock of 5.40 GHz is more impactful than the raw thread count for this title, as frame rates at 1080p Low remain high even when the GPU is not fully utilized.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. Its boost clock is 1650 MHz, and it features 2176 shading units. The GPU's 63rd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19774, places it in the mid-range tier. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN, scores 19706 (a 0.3% delta), while the RTX 2070 scores 19680 (0.5% higher). The RTX 2060 SUPER actually leads these rivals by small margins, but the performance envelope is tight.

The GPU's role becomes clear when examining the resolution scaling. At 1080p, the RTX 2060 SUPER can push well over 200 FPS on High settings, but the 4K Ultra result of 56.3 FPS shows its limits. The 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p in Counter-Strike 2, but 4K textures and effects strain the memory subsystem. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is a bottleneck at 4K, where the pixel rate of 105.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 224.4 GTexel/s are not enough to maintain high frame rates on demanding presets.

The GPU's FP32 performance of 7.181 TFLOPS is modest by modern standards, but it is adequate for this game's graphical demands at lower resolutions. The data indicates that the RTX 2060 SUPER is the limiting factor in most scenarios; the CPU has headroom, as shown by the 324.5 FPS at 1080p Low, which exceeds what the GPU can sustain at higher settings. The 175 W TDP and dual-slot design suggest a mid-range card that prioritizes efficiency over raw power.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this pairing of Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER ranks 1160 out of 1632 combos. This places it in the lower-middle tier, which is consistent with the GPU's 63rd percentile ranking. The CPU's high percentile (94th) does not fully compensate for the GPU's mid-range position, as Counter-Strike 2 is more sensitive to GPU performance at higher resolutions.

The ranking reflects the overall balance of the system. At 1080p, the combo performs admirably, with frame rates above 200 FPS on High settings and above 300 FPS on Low. However, at 4K, the system falls behind more powerful GPU pairings, as the 56.3 FPS on Ultra is below the 60 FPS threshold that many competitive players consider minimum. The rank of 1160 suggests that this combo is better suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming rather than 4K.

The delta between the CPU and GPU performance tiers is notable. The i7-14700F is within 1.1% of the top-tier AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D, while the RTX 2060 SUPER is only 1.3% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla K40m, a compute-focused card. This imbalance means that the system's overall ranking is dragged down by the GPU, even though the CPU is capable of supporting a much faster graphics card.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the optimal preset depends on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For 1080p, the High preset at 201.1 FPS is the best balance of visual quality and performance, as it exceeds the 144 Hz refresh rate commonly found in competitive monitors. The Medium preset at 268.3 FPS offers a smoother experience for players with 240 Hz displays, while Low at 324.5 FPS is only recommended for players seeking maximum frame rates at the expense of visual fidelity.

At 1440p, the High preset at 130 FPS is the sweet spot, providing a fluid experience for 120 Hz or 144 Hz monitors. The Medium preset at 175.1 FPS is a strong alternative for those prioritizing frame rate over visuals, while Low at 216.2 FPS is suitable for high-refresh-rate panels. The Ultra preset at 102.5 FPS is playable but may introduce noticeable dips in intense scenes.

For 4K, the data suggests that Low settings at 118.2 FPS is the only preset that maintains a competitive frame rate. Medium at 102.1 FPS is acceptable for casual play, but High at 71.8 FPS and Ultra at 56.3 FPS fall below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Given the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and bandwidth constraints, 4K gaming is only viable on the lowest preset. The best overall experience for this combo is 1440p High, which balances visual quality and performance without overburdening the GPU.