Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 is a title where competitive framerates take precedence over visual fidelity, and the measured data for the Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination reflects this priority. The results across all resolutions and settings show a system that is capable of pushing well beyond typical high-refresh-rate monitors, but the specific choice of settings has a profound impact on the experience. The data suggests that players should prioritize frame rate stability and raw speed, as the hardware provides enough headroom to do so at virtually every configuration tested.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS values indicate that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience, particularly for users with high-refresh-rate displays who still want a degree of visual quality. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 634 FPS, which is only 129 FPS lower than the Low preset's 763 FPS but 161 FPS higher than the High preset's 473 FPS. This positions Medium as a strong middle ground, where the frame rate remains exceptionally high for competitive play while providing better visual detail than the Low preset. The Medium preset also shows the most consistent frame delivery according to the data, with a recorded minimum of 539 FPS and a maximum of 729 FPS at 1080p, indicating that the frame pacing is stable enough for demanding esports scenarios.

For users with 1440p monitors, the Medium preset again stands out as the recommended choice. It produces an average of 420 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any current high-refresh-rate display. The delta between Low and Medium at 1440p is 85 FPS (505 FPS versus 420 FPS), which is a relatively small penalty for the visual upgrade. Conversely, the jump from Medium to High at 1440p results in a significant 107 FPS drop to 313 FPS, suggesting that the High preset begins to tax the system more heavily. At 4K, the Medium preset maintains a playable average of 234 FPS with a minimum of 199 FPS, which is still above the threshold for high-refresh-rate 4K gaming, though the Low preset's 282 FPS average might be preferable for those who want maximum headroom.

The Ultra preset is consistently the worst performer in the measured data, with averages of 368 FPS at 1080p, 243 FPS at 1440p, and 136 FPS at 4K. While these numbers are still respectable, the drop from Medium to Ultra is substantial at every resolution—a 266 FPS decrease at 1080p, a 177 FPS decrease at 1440p, and a 98 FPS decrease at 4K. The visual fidelity gains from Ultra are not quantified in the data, but the frame rate cost is clear. For a competitive FPS like Counter-Strike 2, the trade-off is rarely worth it. The Low preset, while offering the highest frame rates (763 FPS at 1080p, 505 FPS at 1440p, 282 FPS at 4K), sacrifices too much visual information for most players, making Medium the clear recommendation for the best balance of speed and clarity.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain why the frame rates remain so high even at 4K resolution. The GPU features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. This substantial bandwidth is critical for feeding the 21,760 shading units at the card's high clock speeds. The base clock is 2017 MHz, which boosts up to 2407 MHz, and this clock speed is directly reflected in the GPU's benchmark scores, such as a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18,355 and a Passmark G3D score of 39,650.

In Counter-Strike 2, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 1080p, the CPU is likely the primary bottleneck, as evidenced by the relatively small gains from the Low to Medium presets compared to the larger jumps seen at higher resolutions. However, at 4K, the RTX 5090's raw compute power becomes the limiting factor. The data shows that moving from Low to Ultra at 4K reduces the average FPS from 282 to 136, a 52% drop, which is a clear indication that the GPU's rendering workload is scaling with the quality settings. The GPU's high fill rate and texture rate—423.6 GPixel/s and 1,636.8 GTexel/s respectively—ensure that even at 4K Medium settings, the card can maintain an average of 234 FPS.

The VRAM capacity of 32 GB is more than sufficient for Counter-Strike 2, which is not a memory-intensive title. The data does not indicate any memory-related stuttering or performance degradation at higher settings, suggesting that the 32 GB allocation is never fully utilized. The GPU's 92.2 billion transistors on a 5 nm process at TSMC contribute to its efficiency and raw throughput, but in this game, the sheer number of shading units and the high boost clock are the primary drivers of the observed performance.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable with this CPU and GPU combination?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 763 at 1920x1080 with the Low preset. This is the peak performance observed across all measured configurations.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at the same settings?

A: At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 634 at 1080p to 420 at 1440p and finally to 234 at 4K. This represents a 63% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K.

Q: Is the Ultra preset viable for competitive play at 4K?

A: The Ultra preset at 4K produces an average of 136 FPS. While this is still a high frame rate, it is significantly lower than the Medium preset's 234 FPS average, making Ultra less ideal for high-refresh-rate 4K displays.

Q: Does the data suggest a CPU or GPU bottleneck at 1080p?

A: Yes, the data implies a CPU bottleneck at 1080p. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 395 FPS (763 versus 368), but the gap between Medium and Low is only 129 FPS, suggesting that the CPU is limiting the GPU's potential at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the most consistent frame rate configuration in the data?

A: The Medium preset at 1080p shows the most consistent frame delivery, with a minimum of 539 FPS and a maximum of 729 FPS, resulting in a narrow 190 FPS range compared to other settings.

Q: How does the RTX 5090's memory bandwidth affect performance in this game?

A: The 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth is likely a key factor in maintaining high frame rates at 4K, where the GPU must process large amounts of texture and geometry data. The data shows strong 4K performance, with the Low preset achieving 282 FPS, which indicates the bandwidth is not a limiting factor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of how this combination performs across different resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 763 FPS, the Medium preset averages 634 FPS with a minimum of 539 FPS and a maximum of 729 FPS, the High preset averages 473 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 368 FPS. This shows a clear progression where each step up in settings costs a significant number of frames, but even the Ultra preset remains well above the 240 FPS threshold for high-end monitors.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain exceptionally high. The Low preset averages 505 FPS, the Medium preset averages 420 FPS with a minimum of 357 FPS and a maximum of 482 FPS, the High preset averages 313 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 243 FPS. The 1440p results show a similar pattern to 1080p, but with a more pronounced drop from Medium to High, indicating that the GPU is starting to take on a larger share of the workload.

At 3840x2160, the performance scales down as expected. The Low preset averages 282 FPS, the Medium preset averages 234 FPS with a minimum of 199 FPS and a maximum of 270 FPS, the High preset averages 175 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 136 FPS. The 4K data reveals that the RTX 5090 is still capable of delivering high refresh rates, but the margins between settings become tighter, and the Ultra preset dips below the 144 FPS threshold that many competitive players consider the minimum for smooth gameplay.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination holds a rank of 68 out of 3,719 tested combos in Counter-Strike 2. This places the pairing in the top 2% of all configurations tested for this game, which is a strong indicator of its overall capability. The rank reflects the system's ability to maintain high frame rates across all resolutions, with the 4K Low preset average of 282 FPS being particularly notable.

In the context of the CPU's overall performance, the i7-14700F has an average benchmark score of 53,620, which places it in the 91st percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Xeon 6505P with an average score of 53,701 (a delta of -0.2%), the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 with 53,469 (a delta of 0.3%), the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X with 53,288 (a delta of 0.6%), and the AMD EPYC 7313P with 53,206 (a delta of 0.8%). These deltas are all within 1% of the i7-14700F, indicating that the CPU's raw compute performance is competitive with these alternatives, though the game-specific rank is influenced by the GPU pairing.

The GPU's average benchmark score is 79,842, placing it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB with 79,605 (a delta of 0.3%), the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB with 79,396 (a delta of 0.6%), and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT with 78,940 (a delta of 1.1%). The RTX 5090's performance is clearly superior in general benchmarks, and this translates to the high frame rates observed in Counter-Strike 2.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F has 20 cores and 28 threads, with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. This high boost clock is crucial for Counter-Strike 2, which is a game that relies heavily on single-core performance for game logic and physics calculations. The CPU's Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4,958 and multi-core score of 35,122 highlight its balanced capability, but in this game, the single-core performance is likely the more relevant metric.

The CPU's role is most evident at 1080p, where the frame rates are so high that the GPU is not fully utilized. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 763, which reflects the CPU's ability to feed the GPU with enough draw calls to sustain such high frame rates. The L3 cache of 33 MB shared across the 20 cores helps reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for a game that requires rapid data access for hit detection and player positioning.

The i7-14700F is built on Intel's 10 nm process and has a TDP of 65 W, which is relatively low for a 20-core processor. This efficiency does not appear to hinder performance in the measured data, as the frame rates are consistently high across all resolutions. The CPU's memory support for DDR4 and DDR5 provides flexibility, but the dual-channel memory bus may limit bandwidth in some scenarios, though the data does not indicate this is a bottleneck in Counter-Strike 2.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear pattern of frame rate scaling as resolution increases. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 634 at 1080p to 420 at 1440p, a 34% decrease, and then to 234 at 4K, a 44% decrease from 1440p. This scaling suggests that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor as resolution increases, which is expected given the increased pixel count and rendering workload.

At 1080p, the CPU is the primary bottleneck, as evidenced by the fact that the frame rates are so high that the GPU has plenty of headroom. The difference between Low and Medium at 1080p is 129 FPS, while the difference between Medium and High is 161 FPS. This indicates that the CPU limits the frame rate more at lower settings, while the GPU starts to take over as settings are increased. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting component, as the frame rates are much lower, and the difference between Low and Medium is only 48 FPS, while the difference between Medium and Ultra is 98 FPS.

The resolution scaling data also reveals that the system is well-balanced for 1440p gaming, where the frame rates are high enough for any current display while still leaving headroom for future titles. The 4K performance is also strong, but the lower frame rates at higher settings suggest that players targeting 4K should stick to the Low or Medium presets for the best experience. Overall, the data indicates that this combination is most effective at 1080p and 1440p, where the CPU and GPU work in harmony to deliver exceptional frame rates.