Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 is a competitive FPS where frame rate consistency often matters more than raw graphical fidelity. The benchmark data for the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 shows a combo that is brutally fast at 1080p, yet reveals interesting scaling behavior as resolution climbs. This combination ranks 237th out of 3719 tested combos, placing it in the top 6.4% of all systems tested, a strong result that underscores its high-end positioning. The data indicates that while the RTX 4080 is a formidable GPU, the 20-core Intel processor plays a critical role in achieving the sky-high frame rates seen at lower resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings is 418 FPS. This is a very high score that suggests the CPU and GPU combination has significant headroom for competitive play on high-refresh-rate monitors.

Q: How much faster is Low settings compared to Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the average FPS on Low settings is 446, while on Ultra it drops to 215. This represents a 231 FPS difference, showing that Ultra settings impose a substantial load on the GPU at this resolution, nearly halving the frame rate.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested systems?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and RTX 4080 combination holds a comboRankInGame of 237 out of 3719 possible combos. This places the system in the top percentile of tested hardware configurations for Counter-Strike 2.

Q: Does the RTX 4080 have enough VRAM for this game?

A: The RTX 4080 comes equipped with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory. This is ample for Counter-Strike 2's requirements, as the game is not typically VRAM-intensive at the tested settings, allowing the GPU to focus on processing speed rather than memory capacity.

Q: What is the boost clock of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265?

A: The processor has a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. This high frequency is beneficial for game logic and frame pacing, which are critical for translating CPU performance into high average FPS in a fast-paced shooter.

Q: What is the average FPS difference between 1080p and 4K on Medium settings?

A: At 1920x1080 Medium, the average FPS is 560, whereas at 3840x2160 Medium, it falls to 207. The significant drop of 353 FPS demonstrates how much more demanding 4K resolution is on the GPU's rendering pipeline.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the primary driver of visual quality in this configuration. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides a memory bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s, which ensures that textures and geometry data are fed to the processing cores without bottlenecking. The card's 9728 shading units and boost clock of 2505 MHz are the workhorses for pixel processing, directly impacting the frame rates at higher settings.

The data shows a clear correlation between GPU load and frame rate. At 1080p, the RTX 4080 is not the limiting factor; the average FPS of 674 on Low settings is extraordinarily high, indicating the GPU is waiting on the CPU to send draw calls. However, as the resolution increases to 3840x2160, the GPU's workload becomes significantly heavier. The average FPS on Low settings at 4K drops to 249, which is a 425 FPS reduction from 1080p. This steep decline shows the GPU's pixel throughput is being saturated at 4K, even with minimal graphical effects.

The RTX 4080's specifications also point to its capability for high-refresh-rate gaming. With a pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s, the card has an immense amount of raw processing power. In Counter-Strike 2, this translates to the ability to maintain very high frame rates at 1440p, as evidenced by the 277 FPS average on High settings. The GPU's 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores are less relevant for this title's standard rendering, but they do not hinder performance. The overall data suggests that the RTX 4080 is a robust partner for the Ultra 7 265, capable of delivering excellent performance across all tested settings, with its strengths becoming most apparent at resolutions beyond 1080p.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a textbook example of resolution-dependent scaling. At 1920x1080, the system is clearly CPU-bound. The jump from Low to Ultra settings only reduces the average frame rate from 674 to 325 FPS. While this is a significant drop, the absolute numbers are so high that the limiting factor is the CPU's ability to process the game's simulation and issue commands to the GPU.

Moving to 2560x1440, the GPU begins to take on more responsibility. The average FPS on Low settings is 446, and on Ultra, it is 215. The scaling is steeper here, with Ultra settings being only 48% of the Low settings performance. This indicates that the increased pixel count is starting to tax the RTX 4080 more heavily, though the CPU still manages to feed it enough data to achieve high frame rates.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the dominant bottleneck. The performance drop is drastic. The average FPS on Low settings is 249, which is a 44% reduction from 1440p Low. The impact of settings is even more pronounced, with Ultra settings plummeting to 120 FPS. This 4K data point demonstrates that while the RTX 4080 is powerful, it cannot maintain the same CPU-limited frame rates at this resolution. The scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a clear transition from a CPU-limited scenario to a GPU-limited one, with the crossover point around 1440p where the balance is most even.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame of 237 out of 3719 places this system in the top 6.4% of all tested configurations for Counter-Strike 2. This is a strong result, indicating that the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and RTX 4080 pairing is exceptionally well-suited for this game. The high rank is a reflection of the synergy between the CPU's strong single-threaded performance and the GPU's high frame rate capabilities.

The CPU's benchmark scores support this ranking. The Core Ultra 7 265 scores 5960 in Cinebench R23 single-core, which is a high result that helps maintain high FPS in CPU-bound scenarios. The RTX 4080 also excels in this context, with a percentileVsAllGpus of 86, meaning it performs better than 86% of all GPUs in the database. When combined, these two components produce a system that can handle both the high-frequency draw calls of Counter-Strike 2 and the demanding pixel loads at higher resolutions. The deltaPct values against its nearest rivals are very small, showing that the RTX 4080's performance is tightly clustered with other top-tier cards. The 0.1% deltaPct against the RTX 4080 SUPER is negligible, confirming that the base 4080 offers almost identical performance in this game. This high rank suggests that for users seeking a top-tier experience, this combo is a proven quantity.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture. While it has a high core count, its performance in Counter-Strike 2 is likely more dependent on its boost clock of 5.30 GHz and its cache hierarchy. The L3 cache is 30 MB (shared) and L2 is 3 MB per core, which helps reduce memory latency for frequently accessed game data.

The data strongly indicates a CPU bottleneck at 1080p. The average FPS of 674 on Low settings is exceptionally high and suggests that the GPU is not being fully utilized. The CPU's single-core performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 score of 5960 and Passmark single-thread score of 4689, is crucial for handling the game's main thread and physics calculations. The processor's 20 cores also ensure that background tasks and the game's secondary threads do not interfere with the primary rendering thread.

The CPU's performance relative to its rivals is very tight. Its average benchmark score is 64640, which is only 0.3% lower than the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F and 0.7% lower than the AMD EPYC 7343. This indicates that the Ultra 7 265's processing power is on par with other high-end server and desktop chips. In Counter-Strike 2, this translates to a stable platform that can push frame rates to their limits, particularly at lower resolutions where the CPU is the primary driver. The 65W TDP is also notable, as it suggests the processor can deliver this high performance without requiring an extreme cooling solution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The benchmark results provide a comprehensive picture of performance across three resolutions and four quality settings.

At 1920x1080, the system achieves its highest frame rates. With Low settings, the average FPS is 674. Medium settings yield an average of 560 FPS, with a minimum of 476 and a maximum of 644 FPS, showing a tight frame time distribution. High settings reduce the average to 418 FPS. Ultra settings bring the average down to 325 FPS. The small delta between Low and Ultra (349 FPS) suggests the CPU is the primary limiter here, as the GPU can handle the increased visual load without a proportional drop in performance.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain very high but show a wider spread. Low settings average 446 FPS, which is still excellent for competitive play. Medium settings average 371 FPS, with a min-max range of 315 to 426 FPS. High settings average 277 FPS, and Ultra settings average 215 FPS. The performance drop from Low to Ultra here is 231 FPS, indicating that the GPU is becoming a more significant factor at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck. Low settings average 249 FPS, which is a substantial drop from 1440p. Medium settings average 207 FPS, with a min-max of 176 to 238 FPS. High settings average 155 FPS, and Ultra settings average 120 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 4K is a 129 FPS difference, showing that the GPU is struggling to maintain the same frame rate headroom as at lower resolutions. The 4K data confirms that while the RTX 4080 is a top-tier card, 4K gaming with Ultra settings will push it to its limits, with the CPU no longer being the limiting factor.