Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 is a competitive FPS where frame rate often trumps visual fidelity, and the pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 produces results that are heavily dictated by resolution and settings. The data shows a system capable of extreme performance, yet the choices you make in the settings menu have a massive impact on the experience.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo if I want the highest possible frame rate?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 763 FPS. This is the highest measured average in the entire dataset, making it the clear choice for maximum frame rates.

Q: How does the RTX 5090's 32 GB of VRAM affect 4K performance?

A: The 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides a 1.79 TB/s bandwidth. This large frame buffer ensures that even at 3840x2160, the GPU is not constrained by memory capacity, allowing the average FPS to scale from 136 at Ultra to 282 at Low.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 a bottleneck for the RTX 5090 in this game?

A: The data suggests that the CPU becomes a limiting factor at lower resolutions. At 1920x1080 Low, the average FPS is 763, but at 2560x1440 Low, it drops to 505. This indicates that the GPU is being fed faster at 1080p, but the CPU's 14 cores and 14 threads are still sufficient to push frame rates far beyond what most displays can show.

Q: What is the most balanced preset for competitive play?

A: The Medium preset at 2560x1440 offers a strong balance, with an average of 420 FPS and a minimum of 357 FPS. This ensures a very smooth experience while still providing a visual upgrade over Low settings.

Q: How does the combo rank compared to other tested combinations?

A: This specific configuration ranks 66th out of 2870 tested combos in Counter-Strike 2, placing it in the top 2.3% of all tested systems.

Q: What is the performance delta between High and Ultra settings at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the High preset yields an average of 175 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 136 FPS. This is a difference of 39 FPS, or roughly 22% lower performance for the Ultra preset.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data offers a clear picture of how this hardware combo behaves across different presets. For players who prioritize competitive integrity and maximum refresh rate, the Low preset is the definitive choice. At 1920x1080, it produces an average of 763 FPS, which is a massive headroom above any current high-refresh-rate monitor. Even at 2560x1440, the Low preset maintains an exceptional 505 FPS average. The jump from Low to Medium is substantial, but the frame rate cost is also significant. At 2560x1440, moving from Low to Medium drops the average from 505 FPS to 420 FPS. While still incredibly fast, this 85 FPS reduction is notable.

The Medium preset appears to be the sweet spot for those who want a better visual experience without sacrificing the fluidity required for fast-paced gameplay. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset shows an average of 420 FPS with a minimum of 357 FPS. This minimum frame rate is critical; it means the worst-case scenario still stays above the refresh rate of most high-end monitors. The same pattern holds at 1920x1080, where Medium averages 634 FPS with a minimum of 539 FPS. The High preset is a compromise that leans more toward visual quality. At 2560x1440, it averages 313 FPS, which is still very playable but shows a clear performance drop from Medium. At 3840x2160, High averages 175 FPS, which is a solid experience for a single-player title but might be below the threshold for the most demanding esports players.

The Ultra preset is the most demanding and offers the lowest performance. At 3840x2160, it averages only 136 FPS, and at 2560x1440, it drops to 243 FPS. While these numbers are far from unplayable, they represent a significant performance penalty for visual gains that are likely distracting in a competitive title. For the best experience in Counter-Strike 2, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 provides the ideal combination of high average FPS and a solid minimum frame rate. Players with 1080p displays should also consider Medium, which delivers a 634 FPS average, ensuring that the GPU is never the limiting factor.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant force in this configuration. Built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB202 chip, it brings a massive 32 GB of GDDR7 memory across a 512-bit bus. This memory subsystem provides a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s, a figure that is crucial for feeding the GPU's 21,760 shading units at high resolutions. The GPU's base clock is 2017 MHz, with a boost clock of 2407 MHz. The data shows that this combination of memory bandwidth and core clocks is more than enough to handle Counter-Strike 2's engine at any resolution.

The role of the GPU becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 1920x1080, the CPU is often the bottleneck, as evidenced by the 763 FPS average at Low settings. However, at 3840x2160, the GPU's workload increases dramatically. Here, we see the average FPS drop from 282 at Low to 136 at Ultra. This 146 FPS swing is entirely attributable to the GPU's rendering load. The RTX 5090's 32 GB VRAM is not a factor in this game, as Counter-Strike 2 is not a VRAM-intensive title. However, the sheer processing power of the GPU ensures that even at 4K Ultra, the frame rate remains above 136 FPS.

The GPU's performance is also reflected in its benchmark scores. It achieves a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18,355 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 376,728. These figures place it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. When compared to its nearest rivals, the data shows a near-tie. The RTX 5090's average benchmark score is 79,842, which is only 0.3% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB and 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT. This indicates that while the RTX 5090 is a top-tier card, its raw compute advantage over some workstation and mobile parts is marginal in synthetic tests, though its gaming performance in this dataset is clearly exceptional.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. Starting with 3840x2160, the highest resolution tested, we see a clear hierarchy. The Low preset delivers an average of 282 FPS. This is a remarkably high frame rate for 4K, indicating that the RTX 5090 has ample headroom. Moving up to Medium, the average drops to 234 FPS, with a minimum of 199 FPS and a maximum of 270 FPS. The High preset further reduces the average to 175 FPS. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, bringing the average down to 136 FPS. This progression shows a consistent scaling of performance cost as visual fidelity increases.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates are substantially higher. The Low preset averages 505 FPS, a number that is approaching the limit of what the CPU can feed. The Medium preset averages 420 FPS, with a minimum of 357 FPS and a maximum of 482 FPS. This is a very tight performance window, suggesting a stable experience. The High preset averages 313 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 243 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 262 FPS, which highlights the enormous impact of settings on performance.

At 1920x1080, the CPU becomes the primary limiter. The Low preset achieves an extraordinary 763 FPS average. This is the highest score in the entire dataset. 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 drops to 368 FPS. Even at the most demanding settings, the Ultra preset at 1080p provides a higher average FPS than the High preset at 1440p. The data shows that for players with 1080p monitors, the Medium preset is the optimal choice, as it provides a 634 FPS average while the jump to High costs 161 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand scheme of tested hardware combinations, this pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is exceptionally strong. The data indicates a combo rank of 66 out of 2,870 tested combos in Counter-Strike 2. This places the system in the top 2.3% of all configurations, evidence of the raw power of the GPU and the capable mid-range CPU. This rank is particularly impressive given that the CPU is not a top-tier part. The Core Ultra 5 245 sits in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, but its average benchmark score of 48,995 is only slightly above the Intel Core i5-14600K, which scores 48,618.

The ranking suggests that in Counter-Strike 2, the GPU is the dominant factor for overall combo performance. The RTX 5090, with its 92nd percentile ranking among GPUs, provides the bulk of the frame-pushing capability. The CPU's role is to keep up with the GPU's demands, which it does admirably. The 66th rank out of 2,870 combos is a clear indicator that this system is overkill for most gaming scenarios, but it does not reach the absolute top tier. The combos ranked above 66 likely include more powerful CPUs, such as the higher-end Core Ultra 9 or Ryzen 9 parts, which can extract even more performance at lower resolutions where the CPU bottleneck is more pronounced.

The data also shows that the CPU's nearest rivals have nearly identical benchmark scores. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G has an average score of 49,196, which is 0.4% higher than the Core Ultra 5 245. The AMD Ryzen 9 7900 scores 49,228, a 0.5% difference. The Intel Xeon Gold 5318H scores 48,698, which is 0.6% lower. This indicates that the Core Ultra 5 245 is positioned in a very tight performance band, and any of these CPUs would likely yield similar results in Counter-Strike 2 when paired with the same GPU.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. This is a desktop processor on the Intel Socket 1851 platform, and it operates with a 65W TDP. The CPU has a 24 MB shared L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. In terms of raw compute, it scores 32,924 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 4,648 in single-core. These numbers place it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, but the data from Counter-Strike 2 shows that its role is secondary to the GPU.

In this game, the CPU's impact is most visible at lower resolutions. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the average FPS is 763. This is a staggering number, but it is also a sign that the CPU is working near its limit. At 2560x1440 with Low settings, the average drops to 505 FPS. This 258 FPS drop as resolution increases suggests that the GPU is becoming more of a factor, but the CPU is still capable of delivering high frame rates. The 14 cores and 14 threads are more than sufficient for Counter-Strike 2, which is a game that typically performs well with fewer, faster cores. The boost clock of 5.10 GHz is a key asset here, as it provides the single-threaded performance that the game's engine relies upon.

The CPU's benchmark scores put it in a close race with its rivals. Its average benchmark score of 48,995 is essentially tied with the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (49,196) and the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (49,228). The Intel Xeon Gold 5318H is slightly behind at 48,698. This means that in a GPU-bound scenario like Counter-Strike 2 at high resolutions, swapping the Core Ultra 5 245 for any of these rivals would result in a negligible performance difference. However, in CPU-bound scenarios at 1080p, the 0.8% advantage over the Core i5-14600K could translate to a few extra frames, though the data shows the difference is minimal. The CPU is not a bottleneck in this configuration; it is a capable partner that allows the RTX 5090 to stretch its legs.