Counter-Strike 2

# Counter-Strike 2 with Intel Core Ultra 7 155H + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070

The measured frame rates for this mobile platform pairing reveal a system that scales predictably across resolutions and settings, with the data showing a clear shift from GPU-bound behavior at 4K to a more balanced or CPU-influenced profile at 1080p. The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, a 16-core Meteor Lake mobile processor, combined with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 (AD104, Ada Lovelace) produces frame rates ranging from 68 FPS at 4K Ultra to 382 FPS at 1080p Low, positioning this combo at rank 1510 out of 2870 tested combinations in Counter-Strike 2.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lies. At Low settings, the system delivers 382 FPS at 1920x1080, dropping to 253 FPS at 2560x1440, and then falling to 141 FPS at 3840x2160. That represents a 34% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 44% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is not linear, and the steep drop at 4K indicates that the RTX 4070's rendering workload becomes increasingly dominant as pixel count rises.

Looking at High settings, the pattern repeats: 237 FPS at 1080p, 157 FPS at 1440p, and 88 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are similar to Low, suggesting that the GPU is the primary limiter even at lower quality presets. However, the fact that 1080p Low reaches 382 FPS—a figure far beyond what most displays can show—implies that at the lowest resolution, the CPU's capability is being tested, and the Core Ultra 7 155H with its 4.80 GHz boost clock is keeping up admirably.

The Medium preset data includes min and max frame rates, which adds depth to the scaling analysis. At 4K Medium, the average is 117 FPS with a range of 100 to 135 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average jumps to 210 FPS with a range of 179 to 242 FPS. At 1080p Medium, the average reaches 317 FPS with a range of 270 to 365 FPS. The variance between min and max grows at higher resolutions in absolute terms, but the relative spread is tighter at 4K, which suggests the GPU is consistently saturated.

What does this scaling imply about the limiting component? At 4K, the RTX 4070's 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth and 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 performance are the binding constraints. At 1080p, the GPU has spare capacity, and the frame rates become more dependent on the CPU's ability to feed draw calls and maintain physics calculations. The Ultra 7 155H's 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth appear sufficient for the task, as evidenced by the 382 FPS Low result, but the scaling curve suggests that further CPU headroom would not translate to higher frame rates at 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved by this combo in Counter-Strike 2?

A: The highest measured average is 382 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next highest is 317 FPS at 1080p Medium, followed by 253 FPS at 1440p Low.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K with the Ultra preset?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate is 68 FPS. This is the lowest measured result across all resolution and settings combinations, representing a substantial drop from the 88 FPS at 4K High.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 or the Core Ultra 7 155H the primary bottleneck at 1440p?

A: The data suggests a mixed profile. At 1440p Low, the system hits 253 FPS, which is high enough to indicate the GPU is still handling most of the work, but the drop to 122 FPS at 1440p Ultra (a 52% reduction from Low) shows the GPU becomes more stressed as settings increase. The CPU's 16 cores and 22 threads are likely sufficient at this resolution, but the scaling pattern points to GPU dominance.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested combinations in this game?

A: The combo ranks 1510 out of 2870 tested combinations, placing it slightly above the median. This rank reflects the overall balance of the CPU-GPU pairing across all measured scenarios.

Q: How much faster is 1080p Low compared to 4K Ultra for this system?

A: The difference is substantial: 382 FPS at 1080p Low versus 68 FPS at 4K Ultra. That is a 5.6x increase in frame rate when moving from the most demanding to the least demanding tested configuration.

Q: Does the system maintain playable frame rates at 4K with any settings preset?

A: Yes, all 4K presets produce averages above 60 FPS. The lowest is 68 FPS at Ultra, while Medium reaches 117 FPS, Low hits 141 FPS, and High achieves 88 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy of performance across presets, and the optimal choice depends on the target resolution and refresh rate. For players with 1080p displays, the Medium preset at 317 FPS average is the standout recommendation, as it delivers near-maximum frame rates while presumably offering better visual quality than Low. The Ultra preset at 1080p still manages 184 FPS, which is excellent for competitive play, but the 42% drop from Medium to Ultra suggests diminishing returns for the visual investment.

At 1440p, the Medium preset at 210 FPS average is the sweet spot for high-refresh monitors, while the Low preset at 253 FPS offers a competitive edge for those prioritizing frame rate above all else. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 122 FPS, which is still playable but represents a significant compromise compared to Medium. The High preset at 157 FPS sits between Medium and Ultra, offering a balanced option for players who want quality without sacrificing too much speed.

For 4K displays, the situation is more constrained. The Medium preset at 117 FPS is the best measured result that balances quality and performance, as it exceeds the 100 FPS threshold that many gamers consider smooth. The Low preset at 141 FPS offers the highest 4K frame rate but at reduced visual fidelity. The High preset at 88 FPS and Ultra at 68 FPS are both playable but sit below the 100 FPS mark, making them less ideal for fast-paced competitive gameplay where reaction time matters.

The data indicates that Medium settings provide the best experience across all three resolutions, with the caveat that at 4K, the 117 FPS average is still 63% lower than the 1440p Medium result of 210 FPS. For players who own high-refresh 1440p monitors, Medium is the clear winner. For 1080p esports-focused players, Low at 382 FPS might be tempting, but Medium at 317 FPS offers a better compromise between frame rate and visual clarity.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system produces its highest frame rates across all presets. The Low setting averages 382 FPS, which is the peak measured value in the entire dataset. Medium averages 317 FPS with a range of 270 to 365 FPS, indicating some frame time variance but still a very smooth experience. High averages 237 FPS, while Ultra drops to 184 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 52% reduction in average frame rate, which is notable but not unexpected given the increased shading and texture work.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show a clear step down. Low averages 253 FPS, Medium averages 210 FPS with a range of 179 to 242 FPS, High averages 157 FPS, and Ultra averages 122 FPS. The 1440p Medium range of 179 to 242 FPS is the widest spread in the entire dataset, suggesting that some scenes are more demanding than others at this resolution. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across presets, ranging from a 34% reduction at Low to a 34% reduction at High, with Medium and Ultra showing similar proportional declines.

At 3840x2160, the system's performance is heavily constrained by the GPU. Low averages 141 FPS, Medium averages 117 FPS with a range of 100 to 135 FPS, High averages 88 FPS, and Ultra averages 68 FPS. The 4K Low result of 141 FPS is still highly playable, but the Ultra result of 68 FPS is the only measured average below 70 FPS. The 4K Medium range of 100 to 135 FPS shows that even the minimum frame rate stays above 100 FPS, which is a positive indicator for smooth gameplay.

Comparing the same preset across resolutions, the scaling is steep. Low settings go from 382 FPS at 1080p to 253 FPS at 1440p to 141 FPS at 4K. Medium goes from 317 to 210 to 117. High goes from 237 to 157 to 88. Ultra goes from 184 to 122 to 68. The pattern is consistent, with roughly a 40-50% drop from 1080p to 4K for each preset, confirming that resolution is the dominant factor in performance scaling for this combo.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is the centerpiece of this system's graphics performance, and its specifications explain much of the observed behavior. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, yielding 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory subsystem is likely enough for Counter-Strike 2 at these resolutions, as the game is not known for extreme VRAM consumption, but the bandwidth becomes critical at 4K where pixel throughput demands are highest.

The RTX 4070's clock speeds are 1920 MHz base and 2475 MHz boost, with memory running at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). The boost clock is what the GPU sustains under load, and the data shows that at 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor. The 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 455.4 GTexel/s texture rate are substantial, but they are insufficient to maintain high frame rates at 4K Ultra, where the average drops to 68 FPS.

The GPU's Ada Lovelace architecture includes 5888 shading units, 184 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, along with 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores. While ray tracing is not a major factor in Counter-Strike 2's competitive modes, the raw rasterization throughput is what drives the measured results. The pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s provide the foundation for the frame rates seen in the data.

The GPU's percentile rank of 81 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37648, places it in the upper tier of graphics hardware. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Tesla P4 (delta 0.1%) and the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (delta 0.4%), which are all within 1.3% of its average score. This indicates that the RTX 4070 is a well-balanced performer, but in Counter-Strike 2 specifically, the 4K results show that even this capable GPU struggles to maintain high frame rates at maximum settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H is a 16-core, 22-thread mobile processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 7 nm process. It features a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz, with a TDP of 28 W. The CPU's cache configuration includes 112 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. This cache hierarchy is important for Counter-Strike 2, which relies on frequent draw calls and physics calculations that benefit from fast access to frequently used data.

The CPU's memory support includes dual-channel DDR5 with a bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s, which matches the needs of the RTX 4070 in this game. The 16 cores and 22 threads provide ample parallelism for the game's engine, and the 4.80 GHz boost clock ensures strong single-thread performance, which is often the bottleneck in esports titles. The CPU's benchmark results support this: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15028 and single-core score of 1743, along with a PassMark single-thread score of 3468.

The CPU's percentile rank of 83 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 32697, places it in the upper echelon of processors. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-14600T (delta 0%) and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 (delta 0.1%), which are effectively tied in average score. This suggests the Ultra 7 155H is well-matched to the RTX 4070 in terms of overall capability.

In Counter-Strike 2, the CPU's role is most apparent at 1080p Low, where the frame rate reaches 382 FPS. At this resolution and settings level, the GPU is not the limiting factor, and the CPU's ability to process game logic and issue draw calls determines the ceiling. The 382 FPS result indicates that the Ultra 7 155H is capable of feeding the RTX 4070 at very high frame rates, though the 4K results show that the GPU becomes the bottleneck as resolution increases.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 ranks 1510 out of 2870 tested combinations in Counter-Strike 2, placing it in the 52nd percentile of all tested systems. This ranking reflects the system's overall performance across all resolutions and settings, and it suggests that while this pairing is capable, it is not at the very top of the performance spectrum for this game.

The rank is somewhat surprising given the individual strengths of the components. The CPU's 83rd percentile ranking and the GPU's 81st percentile ranking would suggest a higher combined rank, but the 1510th position out of 2870 indicates that other combinations—likely with more powerful desktop components—outperform this mobile pairing. The 28 W TDP of the CPU and the 200 W TDP of the GPU constrain performance compared to higher-power desktop equivalents.

The data shows that this combo's performance is competitive with many other systems, but not exceptional. The 4K Ultra result of 68 FPS, while playable, is significantly lower than what high-end desktop combos might achieve. The 1080p Low result of 382 FPS is impressive, but it is unlikely to be the highest in the database, given that there are 1359 combinations ranked above this one.

The ranking suggests that for players who prioritize Counter-Strike 2 performance, this combo is a solid mid-pack option. It delivers excellent frame rates at 1080p and good performance at 1440p, with playable but not exceptional results at 4K. The system's overall balance—with the CPU and GPU both performing near their respective percentile ranks—makes it a predictable and reliable choice, even if it does not top the charts in this specific title.