Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 with the Intel Core i7-14700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 presents a dataset that isolates the relationship between CPU headroom, GPU throughput, and resolution scaling. The measured frames per second (FPS) rows cover three resolutions and four quality presets, providing a complete matrix of how this specific pairing behaves under load. This analysis walks through the numbers sequentially, drawing conclusions from the deltas between settings and resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 is steep but predictable, and the shape of that drop reveals where the bottleneck shifts. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces 408 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops that to 270 FPS, a reduction of 138 FPS or roughly 34%. Going further to 3840x2160 Low yields 151 FPS, another 119 FPS decline, which is about 44% lower than the 1440p figure. The scaling is not linear; the largest absolute loss occurs between 1080p and 1440p, but the percentage loss accelerates at 4K.

The same pattern holds for Medium settings. At 1920x1080 Medium, the average is 339 FPS. At 2560x1440 Medium it falls to 224 FPS, a drop of 115 FPS. At 3840x2160 Medium, the average is 125 FPS, which is 99 FPS below the 1440p result. The gap between 1440p and 4K is nearly as large as the gap between 1080p and 1440p, indicating that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor as pixel count rises. At High settings, the numbers are 253 FPS at 1080p, 167 FPS at 1440p, and 94 FPS at 4K. The percentage declines are 34% and 44% respectively, mirroring the Low preset behavior.

Ultra settings show the most dramatic scaling. At 1920x1080 Ultra, the average is 196 FPS. At 2560x1440 Ultra, it drops to 130 FPS, a 34% reduction. At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average falls to 73 FPS, which is 44% lower than the 1440p result. The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings—roughly one-third loss from 1080p to 1440p and another 44% loss from 1440p to 4K—suggests that the RTX 5060’s rendering throughput scales predictably with pixel count. The GPU’s 8 GB GDDR7 memory and 128-bit bus are the architectural constraints here, and the data shows no sign of the CPU stepping in to relieve the pressure at higher resolutions.

The limiting component at 1080p is more nuanced. At Low settings with 408 FPS, the CPU’s 20 cores and 28 threads are likely near their limit for frame generation in a fast-paced FPS. The gap between 1080p Low and 1080p Medium is 69 FPS (408 to 339), which is smaller than the gap between Medium and High (86 FPS, from 339 to 253). That inversion—where the jump from Medium to High costs more performance than Low to Medium—indicates that the GPU starts to matter more at Medium, but the CPU still has headroom. At Ultra, the average drops to 196 FPS, meaning the GPU is now the dominant constraint even at 1080p. The data shows a transition zone: below Medium, the CPU leads; above Medium, the GPU takes over.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo in Counter-Strike 2?

A: The highest measured average is 408 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only row exceeding 400 FPS in the dataset.

Q: How does the RTX 5060 perform at 4K with this CPU?

A: At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 73 on Ultra to 151 on Low. Medium sits at 125 FPS, and High at 94 FPS. All 4K results are above 60 FPS, but only Low and Medium exceed 120 FPS.

Q: Is there a settings preset where the FPS drops below 100 at 1440p?

A: No. At 2560x1440, the lowest average is 130 FPS on Ultra. High produces 167 FPS, Medium 224 FPS, and Low 270 FPS. Every preset at 1440p stays well above 100 FPS.

Q: What is the difference in FPS between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low averages 408 FPS while Ultra averages 196 FPS. The difference is 212 FPS, meaning Ultra delivers roughly 48% of the Low preset’s frame rate.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance at 1080p Low?

A: The data suggests the CPU is the primary limiter at 1920x1080 Low. With 408 FPS, the GPU is underutilized relative to its capacity, and the Core i7-14700KF’s single-thread performance—628 in Cinebench R15 single-core—becomes the ceiling.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: This combo ranks 1632 out of 3719 tested combinations, placing it in the 56th percentile of all tested combos. That rank places it in the upper half but not the top tier.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 carries the rendering load with a boost clock of 2497 MHz and a base clock of 2280 MHz. Its 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus delivers 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. In Counter-Strike 2, these specs translate directly to the measured FPS deltas between settings. The memory size is not stressed by this game’s typical texture loads at 1080p, but at 4K with Ultra settings, the 8 GB capacity and 128-bit bus become visible constraints. The 73 FPS average at 3840x2160 Ultra is the lowest result in the entire dataset, and it aligns with the GPU’s passmark G3D score of 20891, which places it in the 72nd percentile among all GPUs.

The GPU’s texture rate of 299.6 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 119.9 GPixel/s are the raw throughput figures behind the scaling behavior. At 1080p, the RTX 5060 can easily exceed 300 FPS on Medium (339 FPS) and still hit 253 FPS on High. The drop to 196 FPS at Ultra reflects the increased shading load from 3840 shading units running at full tilt. The FP32 performance of 19.18 TFLOPS is sufficient for this game’s DirectX 12 workload, but the 48 ROPs limit fill-rate-heavy scenes at high resolution. The data shows a consistent pattern: each step from Low to Ultra costs roughly 15-20% of the previous setting’s FPS, which is a typical rasterization curve for a mid-range GPU.

Comparing the RTX 5060 to its nearest rivals in the GPU benchmark database, it sits slightly above the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT with a deltaPct of 1.2, and slightly below the AMD Radeon 860M with a deltaPct of -0.3. The NVIDIA GeForce MX550 is also within 0.3% of the RTX 5060’s average score. These are marginal differences in synthetic benchmarks, but in Counter-Strike 2, the measured FPS shows the RTX 5060 holding its own at 1440p and 4K, where the 448.0 GB/s bandwidth provides enough throughput for the game’s engine.

The GPU’s 145 W TDP and suggested 300 W PSU indicate a power-efficient design, and the 5 nm process node from TSMC contributes to the clock stability. The 21,900 million transistors on a 181 mm² die allow for high density, which explains how the card maintains 2497 MHz boost clocks under sustained load. In the measured results, the RTX 5060’s role is clear: it is the dominant factor at 4K and Ultra settings, while at 1080p Low, it has excess capacity that the CPU cannot fully utilize.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the dataset provides four data points. Low settings deliver 408 FPS average, which is the peak for the entire combo. Medium drops to 339 FPS, with a minimum of 288 FPS and a maximum of 389 FPS. High averages 253 FPS, and Ultra averages 196 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 212 FPS, and the Medium row includes the only min/max values at this resolution, showing a 101 FPS range (288-389). This indicates that at Medium, the frame pacing is consistent but not locked, with the CPU occasionally causing dips.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 270 FPS. Medium averages 224 FPS, with a minimum of 190 FPS and a maximum of 258 FPS. High averages 167 FPS, and Ultra averages 130 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 46 FPS, smaller than at 1080p (69 FPS). The Medium min/max range at 1440p is 68 FPS (190-258), tighter than at 1080p, suggesting the GPU is now smoothing out frame delivery. The difference between High and Ultra at 1440p is 37 FPS, which is proportionally similar to the 57 FPS gap at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the numbers compress significantly. Low averages 151 FPS. Medium averages 125 FPS, with a minimum of 106 FPS and a maximum of 144 FPS. High averages 94 FPS, and Ultra averages 73 FPS. The Low-to-Medium gap is 26 FPS, the Medium-to-High gap is 31 FPS, and the High-to-Ultra gap is 21 FPS. The min/max range at 4K Medium is 38 FPS (106-144), which is the narrowest of any resolution, indicating that the GPU is fully saturated and delivering a more stable frame rate relative to its average.

The Medium preset is the only one with min/max data across all three resolutions. At 1080p, the range is 101 FPS; at 1440p, 68 FPS; at 4K, 38 FPS. This trend shows that as resolution increases, the variance between minimum and maximum FPS shrinks, which is a hallmark of GPU-bound scenarios. The CPU’s ability to feed frames becomes less relevant when the GPU takes longer to render each frame.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy for playability. At 1920x1080, Medium settings with 339 FPS average and a 288 FPS minimum is the best balance of visual quality and headroom. The 288 FPS minimum is still far above the refresh rate of most monitors, and the 101 FPS variance is acceptable for competitive play. High settings at 253 FPS are also viable, but the 86 FPS drop from Medium to High is significant. Ultra at 196 FPS is playable but offers diminishing returns for the 143 FPS loss compared to Medium.

At 2560x1440, Medium at 224 FPS is the recommended preset. The 190 FPS minimum is comfortable for high-refresh displays, and the 68 FPS variance is manageable. High at 167 FPS is a solid alternative for users prioritizing visual fidelity, but the 57 FPS drop from Medium is noticeable. Low at 270 FPS is excessive for most situations, and Ultra at 130 FPS, while smooth, does not justify the 94 FPS sacrifice compared to Medium.

At 3840x2160, Medium at 125 FPS is the best choice. The 106 FPS minimum ensures no dips below 100 FPS, and the 38 FPS variance is the tightest in the dataset. Low at 151 FPS is acceptable but sacrifices visual quality for a 26 FPS gain. High at 94 FPS is borderline for 120 Hz displays, and Ultra at 73 FPS is only suitable for 60 Hz monitors. For 4K players, Medium delivers the highest consistent frame rate without compromising the experience.

Overall, Medium settings across all resolutions provide the most balanced experience. The data shows that Medium’s min FPS at 1080p (288) and 1440p (190) are higher than Ultra’s average at the same resolutions (196 and 130 respectively). This suggests that Medium is the sweet spot for this combo, offering a 60-100% FPS uplift over Ultra while maintaining visual quality above Low.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF brings 20 cores and 28 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44167 and single-core score of 6235 position it as a high-end desktop processor, and its 33 MB of shared L3 cache is relevant for Counter-Strike 2’s engine, which benefits from large caches for game logic and entity updates. The CPU’s percentileVsAllCpus of 94 indicates it outperforms 94% of all CPUs in the database, and its average benchmark score of 70163 is within 0.2% of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and 0.4% of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX.

In this game, the CPU’s role is most apparent at 1080p Low, where the 408 FPS average exceeds what the GPU would typically produce without a strong CPU. The 5.60 GHz boost clock is critical for single-threaded game logic, and the 28 threads handle background tasks without interfering with frame rendering. The Passmark single-thread score of 4480 and Geekbench single-core score of 2578 corroborate the strong per-core performance. At 1440p and 4K, the CPU’s influence wanes as the GPU becomes the bottleneck, but the 1080p results show that this CPU does not restrict the RTX 5060 at lower resolutions.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in the benchmark database are all within 1% of its average score. The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is 0.2% slower, the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX is 0.4% slower, and the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X is 0.9% slower. The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is 1% faster. These deltas are negligible for gaming, and the measured FPS in Counter-Strike 2 reflects the CPU’s capability to push high frame rates without becoming a limiting factor until the GPU is fully saturated.

The CPU’s 125 W TDP, while not a performance metric, indicates that thermal headroom is available for sustained boost clocks. The 10 nm process node and Raptor Lake architecture provide the IPC gains needed for this game’s physics and AI calculations. In practice, the data shows that the i7-14700KF can deliver 408 FPS at 1080p Low, which is nearly 100 FPS higher than the RTX 5060’s 4K Low result, proving that the CPU is not the primary constraint in higher-resolution scenarios.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core i7-14700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 ranks 1632 out of 3719 tested combos in Counter-Strike 2. That places it in the 56th percentile of all tested configurations, meaning it outperforms 56% of combos but lags behind the top 44%. The rank reflects the GPU’s mid-range positioning more than the CPU’s high-end standing. The CPU alone sits in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU is in the 72nd percentile, so the combo’s aggregate rank is dragged down by the RTX 5060.

The rank of 1632 is consistent with the GPU’s nearest rivals. The RTX 5060’s average benchmark score of 26331 is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon 860M (26401) and NVIDIA GeForce MX550 (26421), both within 0.3%. The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary is 0.8% slower, and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT is 1.2% slower. In Counter-Strike 2, these small synthetic differences translate to the FPS ranges seen in the measured data. A combo with a stronger GPU, such as one in the top 10% of GPUs, would rank significantly higher than 1632.

The combo’s rank also reflects the game’s demands. Counter-Strike 2 is a CPU-sensitive FPS at high frame rates, but the RTX 5060’s 8 GB memory and 128-bit bus limit its ability to exploit the i7-14700KF’s headroom at 4K. The rank of 1632 out of 3719 is a reasonable outcome for a mid-range GPU paired with a high-end CPU. Users seeking higher ranks would need a GPU with more bandwidth or memory, but for the intended resolution of 1080p or 1440p, this combo performs admirably, as shown by the 339 FPS average at 1080p Medium and 224 FPS at 1440p Medium. The data confirms that the combo is well-suited for competitive play at standard resolutions, with diminishing returns only at 4K Ultra.