Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

# How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-14700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 places 2010th out of 3719 tested combinations in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, putting it in the 54th percentile of all recorded system pairings. This mid-pack standing is notable given the hardware's individual benchmark positions: the CPU sits at the 94th percentile among all processors, while the GPU ranks at the 61st percentile among all graphics cards. The gap between the CPU's elite standing and the GPU's more modest position suggests the combo's overall rank is constrained by the graphics component, particularly at lower resolutions where the CPU's headroom cannot be fully expressed.

The combo rank of 2010 indicates that roughly 54% of tested systems outperform this pairing in CS:GO, while 46% fall behind. This places the configuration in the broad middle of the field, a result that seems counterintuitive given the i7-14700K's exceptional synthetic scores—a Cinebench R23 multi-core result of 33440.5 and a Geekbench multi-core of 20767. The explanation lies in the game's nature: CS:GO is heavily CPU-bound at high frame rates, yet the RTX 4060's 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit bus become more relevant as resolution climbs. The data indicates that at 1080p, this combo delivers frame rates well above the needs of any display, but the rank reflects performance across all tested scenarios, where higher resolutions and settings expose the GPU's limitations.

Comparatively, the CPU's nearest rivals in aggregate benchmark scores—the AMD EPYC 9115 (delta 0.1%), AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (delta -0.2%), AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (delta -0.7%), and AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (delta -0.9%)—all cluster within 1% of the i7-14700K's average score of 69355. This tight grouping implies that swapping among these processors would yield negligible differences in CS:GO, reinforcing that the GPU plays the decisive role in this combo's overall ranking.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is built on the AD107 chip using TSMC's 5 nm process, with 18,900 million transistors on a 159 mm² die. Its base clock runs at 1830 MHz, boosting to 2460 MHz, while memory operates at 2125 MHz (17 Gbps effective) across an 8 GB GDDR6 frame buffer connected via a 128-bit bus. This yields a bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s, which is modest for a modern GPU but sufficient for CS:GO's relatively simple textures and geometry. The card delivers 15.11 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, 118.1 GPixel/s pixel fill rate, and 236.2 GTexel/s texture fill rate, figures that are more than adequate for a game with the visual fidelity of CS:GO.

Benchmark results show the RTX 4060 achieving a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2302, a Geekbench OpenCL score of 95057, and a Passmark G3D score of 19545. Its average benchmark score of 17639 places it at the 61st percentile, with nearest rivals including the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (delta -0.2%), AMD Radeon 780M (delta 0.3%), AMD Radeon Pro 560 (delta 0.5%), and AMD Radeon Pro 460 (delta 0.7%). These rivals are all within 0.7% of the RTX 4060's average score, indicating that the GPU's raw compute is not exceptional for its class, but CS:GO's engine does not demand heavy compute workloads.

In the measured FPS data, the GPU's role shifts with resolution. At 4K Ultra settings, the combo averages 165 FPS, which drops to 194 FPS at High, 224 FPS at Medium, and rises to 263 FPS at Low. The scaling from Ultra to Low at 4K represents a 59% improvement in frame rate, showing that the GPU is the primary limiter at this resolution. At 1440p, the spread narrows: 280 FPS at Ultra, 328 FPS at High, 379 FPS at Medium, and 445 FPS at Low—a 59% uplift from Ultra to Low, mirroring the 4K pattern. At 1080p, the same settings yield 407, 476, 550, and 646 FPS respectively, a 58% increase from Ultra to Low. This consistent ~59% scaling across resolutions indicates the GPU remains the bottleneck even at 1080p, though the absolute frame rates are so high that the limitation is academic for most users.

The RTX 4060's 8 GB VRAM is not a constraint in CS:GO at any tested setting, as the game's textures are far below this capacity. The card's PCIe 4.0 x8 interface and 300 W suggested PSU are adequate for the workload. The GPU's end-of-life production status and release in May 2023 position it as a current-generation part, but its performance class places it below the top tier, which is reflected in the combo's mid-pack rank.

FAQ

Q: Why does this combo rank 2010th out of 3719 if the CPU is in the 94th percentile?

A: The combo rank reflects real CS:GO performance, not synthetic benchmarks. The CPU's high percentile (94) is based on diverse workloads like Cinebench and Passmark, but CS:GO's frame rates are also governed by the GPU. The RTX 4060 sits at the 61st GPU percentile, and the measured FPS data shows the GPU limits performance at all resolutions, dragging the combo's overall rank below what the CPU alone would suggest.

Q: What is the best resolution-to-settings combination for maximum frame rate?

A: According to the measured data, the highest average FPS is 646 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is followed by 550 FPS at 1080p Medium and 476 FPS at 1080p High. At 1440p, the maximum is 445 FPS on Low, and at 4K, the maximum is 263 FPS on Low. For any competitive play, 1080p Low provides the largest margin above display refresh rates.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its nearest rivals in GPU benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4060's average benchmark score of 17639 is within 0.7% of its nearest rivals: the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (delta -0.2%), AMD Radeon 780M (delta 0.3%), AMD Radeon Pro 560 (delta 0.5%), and AMD Radeon Pro 460 (delta 0.7%). This means performance is statistically identical to these cards in synthetic tests, though real CS:GO performance may vary due to driver optimizations.

Q: Does the CPU's 20 cores and 28 threads provide any benefit in CS:GO?

A: CS:GO is a lightly threaded game that rarely utilizes more than a few cores. The i7-14700K's 20 cores (8 performance and 12 efficiency, per the architecture) and 28 threads are far beyond the game's needs. The CPU's single-thread performance, reflected in a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2160 and a Geekbench single-core of 2569, is more relevant, but the measured FPS data shows the GPU is the limiter even at 1080p, so additional CPU headroom does not translate into higher frame rates.

Q: Is the 8 GB VRAM on the RTX 4060 sufficient for CS:GO?

A: Yes. CS:GO's textures and assets are modest, and the 8 GB GDDR6 frame buffer is never approached at any tested resolution or setting. The memory bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s is also sufficient, as evidenced by the frame rates exceeding 400 FPS at 1080p High settings. VRAM is not a limiting factor in this game for this GPU.

Q: What is the FPS drop from 1080p Low to 4K Ultra?

A: The average FPS drops from 646 at 1080p Low to 165 at 4K Ultra, a 74.5% reduction. This indicates that the GPU is heavily stressed at 4K Ultra, while at 1080p Low it operates well within its capabilities. The frame rate at 4K Ultra remains above 144 Hz, so it is still playable on high-refresh displays.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides average frame rates for each resolution and settings preset, with only Medium settings including min and max FPS values. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 646 FPS on Low, 550 FPS on Medium (min 468, max 633), 476 FPS on High, and 407 FPS on Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 239 FPS, a 36.9% reduction from Low to Ultra. The Medium preset shows a 165 FPS spread between minimum and maximum, indicating some frame time variance, but the average remains well above any display refresh rate.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates are 445 FPS on Low, 379 FPS on Medium (min 322, max 436), 328 FPS on High, and 280 FPS on Ultra. The drop from Low to Ultra is 165 FPS, a 37.1% reduction. The Medium preset's min-to-max range is 114 FPS, narrower than at 1080p, suggesting more consistent frame pacing at this resolution. All 1440p averages exceed 280 FPS, which is sufficient for even the fastest competitive displays.

At 3840x2160, the results are 263 FPS on Low, 224 FPS on Medium (min 190, max 257), 194 FPS on High, and 165 FPS on Ultra. The reduction from Low to Ultra is 98 FPS, a 37.3% decrease, consistent with the other resolutions. The Medium preset's min of 190 FPS and max of 257 FPS show a 67 FPS spread, the smallest of all resolutions, indicating that at 4K the system is more consistently GPU-bound. Even at 4K Ultra, the average of 165 FPS exceeds the standard 144 Hz refresh rate, making this combo viable for high-refresh 4K gaming in CS:GO.

Across all resolutions, the settings presets scale nearly identically: Low to Medium shows roughly a 15-17% reduction, Medium to High a 13-14% reduction, and High to Ultra a 14-15% reduction. This uniform scaling suggests that each settings tier imposes a similar incremental load on the GPU, with no single setting causing a disproportionate frame rate penalty.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals how the limiting component changes with pixel count. At Low settings, the averages are 646 FPS at 1080p, 445 FPS at 1440p, and 263 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 201 FPS (31.1% reduction), and from 1440p to 4K is 182 FPS (40.9% reduction). The total reduction from 1080p to 4K is 383 FPS, a 59.3% decrease. This scaling is not linear—the 4K penalty is proportionally larger than the 1440p penalty, which is expected as pixel count quadruples from 1440p to 4K but only doubles from 1080p to 1440p.

At Ultra settings, the pattern is similar: 407 FPS at 1080p, 280 FPS at 1440p (31.2% reduction), and 165 FPS at 4K (41.1% reduction from 1440p). The total reduction from 1080p to 4K is 242 FPS, a 59.5% decrease. This consistency across settings—all show roughly 59% reduction from 1080p to 4K—indicates that the GPU's fill rate and bandwidth are the limiting factors at higher resolutions. The RTX 4060's 118.1 GPixel/s pixel rate and 272.0 GB/s memory bandwidth are being increasingly taxed as resolution rises.

The scaling data also reveals that the CPU is not the bottleneck at any resolution. If the CPU were limiting, the frame rates at 1080p would plateau regardless of settings, but they scale from 407 to 646 FPS—a 58.7% range—showing the GPU still has headroom at lower resolutions. The fact that the percentage reduction from 1080p to 4K is nearly identical across all settings (59.3% to 59.5%) confirms that the system is GPU-bound throughout the tested range. The i7-14700K's single-thread performance, evidenced by a Passmark single-thread score of 4472, is sufficient to feed the RTX 4060 even at 1080p Low, where 646 FPS is achieved.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on Raptor Lake-R architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process with a die size of 257 mm². Its base clock is 3.40 GHz with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, and it features 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 33 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel mode and includes integrated UHD Graphics 770. Its TDP is 125 W, and it uses the Intel Socket 1700 interface with PCIe Gen 5 support for 16 lanes.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i7-14700K excels: Cinebench R15 multi-core scores 5035, R20 multi-core scores 18544, and R23 multi-core scores 33440.5. Single-core results are 313.5, 2617, and 2160 for R15, R20, and R23 respectively. Geekbench scores are 20767 multi-core and 2569 single-core. Passmark results include a multi-thread score of 52392, single-thread of 4472, and physics score of 2964. The CPU's average benchmark score is 69355, placing it at the 94th percentile with nearest rivals all within 1%: AMD EPYC 9115 (0.1%), AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (-0.2%), AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (-0.7%), and AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (-0.9%).

In CS:GO, the CPU's role is to maintain frame pacing and avoid bottlenecking the GPU. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 646 FPS, which is near the practical limit for the engine. The fact that frame rates increase as settings decrease at all resolutions indicates the CPU can push frames faster than the GPU can render them at higher settings. However, the CPU's high core count and threads are not utilized by CS:GO, which is a legacy engine from 2012. The game's single-threaded nature means the i7-14700K's boost clock of 5.60 GHz and strong single-core performance are the relevant attributes, and these are sufficient to keep the RTX 4060 fully occupied across all tested configurations.

The CPU's memory controller, supporting dual-channel DDR4/DDR5, provides adequate bandwidth for the game's data streaming. The 33 MB L3 cache helps with frequently accessed game assets, but CS:GO's map sizes are small enough that cache misses are not a significant factor. The data indicates no CPU-induced frame rate limits: at 4K Ultra, the system still delivers 165 FPS, and the uniform scaling across resolutions confirms the GPU is the sole limiter.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the user's display refresh rate and resolution preference. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 646 FPS, which is far beyond any current display's refresh rate (typically 144-360 Hz). The Medium preset at 550 FPS still provides ample headroom, while High at 476 FPS and Ultra at 407 FPS are also above 360 Hz. For 1080p users, the Low preset offers the maximum competitive advantage with the highest frame rate, but the visual quality difference between Low and High is minimal in CS:GO, and the 170 FPS gap between Low and High (26.3%) may not be perceptible on most displays.

At 2560x1440, Low delivers 445 FPS, Medium 379 FPS, High 328 FPS, and Ultra 280 FPS. All of these exceed 240 Hz, so users with 1440p 240 Hz monitors can select High or Ultra without dropping below their display's refresh rate. The Medium preset's min FPS of 322 ensures no drops below 300 FPS, making it a safe choice for consistency. For 1440p users with 360 Hz displays, the Low preset is necessary to stay above 360 FPS, though the margin is only 85 FPS.

At 3840x2160, Low provides 263 FPS, Medium 224 FPS (min 190, max 257), High 194 FPS, and Ultra 165 FPS. Users with 4K 144 Hz displays can comfortably use Ultra, as the average exceeds 144 Hz and no min FPS data suggests drops below that threshold (though min FPS is only recorded for Medium). For 4K 240 Hz displays, Low is the only preset that stays above 240 FPS, and the margin is thin at 23 FPS. The Medium preset's min of 190 FPS means some scenes will drop below 240 Hz, which could be noticeable in competitive play.

For the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate, the High preset at 1440p (328 FPS) or 1080p (476 FPS) offers a strong experience without sacrificing performance. The data shows that the step from High to Ultra costs roughly 15% performance at every resolution, while the step from Low to High costs about 26%. Given that CS:GO's visual differences between High and Ultra are subtle, High represents the sweet spot for most users. Competitive players prioritizing maximum frame rate should select Low at their native resolution, while those with 144 Hz displays can use Ultra at 4K without concern.