Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

# Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with Intel Core i7-14700KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

The Intel Core i7-14700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 produces extraordinary frame rates across every resolution in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The data records a maximum average of 1291 FPS at 1080p Low settings, while even the most demanding configuration — 4K Ultra — maintains 330 FPS average. This combination ranks 80th out of 3719 tested combos in the database, placing it in the top 2.2% of all configurations. The benchmark results reveal a system where CPU headroom and GPU bandwidth interact in ways that become increasingly clear as resolution and settings scale.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a pronounced and predictable decline as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At High settings, the transition from 1080p to 1440p drops the average from 951 FPS to 655 FPS, a reduction of 296 FPS or approximately 31%. Moving from 1440p to 4K at High settings further reduces the average from 655 FPS to 387 FPS, another 41% decrease. The cumulative effect from 1080p to 4K at High settings is a 564 FPS decline, leaving the system at roughly 41% of its 1080p performance.

Low settings tell an even starker story of resolution dependence. The 1080p Low average of 1291 FPS falls to 888 FPS at 1440p, then to 525 FPS at 4K. This represents a 59% drop from 1080p to 4K. The scaling pattern suggests that at lower settings, the GPU becomes increasingly the limiting factor as pixel count rises, since the CPU has ample headroom to feed frames at these extreme rates.

Medium settings show a similar trajectory: 1099 FPS at 1080p, 756 FPS at 1440p, and 447 FPS at 4K. The 4K Medium result includes a measured minimum of 380 FPS and maximum of 514 FPS, indicating some frame-time variance at the highest resolution. Ultra settings produce the lowest absolute numbers across the board, with 812 FPS at 1080p, 559 FPS at 1440p, and 330 FPS at 4K.

The resolution scaling behavior reveals that this game remains highly responsive to pixel count even with a top-tier GPU. The drop from 1080p to 4K at every settings level exceeds 50% of the 1080p value, which is consistent with a game that is heavily fill-rate and shading-bound at higher resolutions. The RTX 5090's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth provides ample memory headroom, so the scaling is driven by compute and shader throughput rather than memory capacity.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF provides substantial processing capability with 20 cores and 28 threads, running at a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. This configuration ranks at the 94th percentile among all CPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 70163. The CPU's nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F, scores 69996, placing the i7-14700KF just 0.2% ahead. The AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX trails by 0.4%, while the Ryzen 9 7950X is 0.9% behind. The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K leads by 1.0%, scoring 70879.

In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p Low settings, where the system achieves 1291 FPS. At this resolution and settings combination, the GPU is far less burdened with pixel work, allowing the CPU to push frame rates to their absolute ceiling. The data indicates that even at these extreme frame rates, the i7-14700KF does not become a bottleneck that prevents the system from exceeding 1200 FPS.

The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 80 KB L1 per core, 2 MB L2 per core, and 33 MB shared L3. This large shared cache benefits game logic and draw call processing, which are frequently repeated operations in a fast-paced FPS. The Raptor Lake architecture with its 10 nm process node and 257 mm² die size delivers the single-thread performance that CS:GO's engine favors, as evidenced by the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6235 and Geekbench single-core score of 2578.

The boost clock of 5.60 GHz is particularly relevant for this game. CS:GO's engine relies heavily on a few primary threads for game simulation and rendering commands. The high boost frequency ensures that these threads execute with minimal latency, which translates directly into higher frame rates at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the primary constraint.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on settings selection based on resolution. At 1920x1080, all four settings levels produce averages above 800 FPS. The jump from Ultra (812 FPS) to High (951 FPS) yields a 139 FPS improvement, while moving from High to Medium (1099 FPS) adds another 148 FPS. Low settings (1291 FPS) represent the absolute maximum but also the greatest visual compromise. For competitive play at 1080p, the data suggests that Medium settings offer the best balance, providing 1099 FPS average with a measured minimum of 934 FPS and maximum of 1264 FPS, ensuring consistent frame delivery above the refresh rate of virtually any monitor.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers 756 FPS average with a minimum of 643 FPS and maximum of 870 FPS. This is the only 1440p configuration with recorded min/max values, and the spread of 227 FPS between minimum and maximum indicates some frame-time variability. High settings at 1440p produce 655 FPS, which is still exceptionally high. The data shows that Ultra at 1440p (559 FPS) drops below the 600 FPS threshold, while Low (888 FPS) remains in a class by itself. For most users at 1440p, High settings provide the best combination of visual quality and performance, as the 655 FPS average leaves substantial headroom above typical high-refresh-rate displays.

At 3840x2160, the settings hierarchy becomes more consequential. Ultra produces 330 FPS average, High yields 387 FPS, Medium achieves 447 FPS, and Low reaches 525 FPS. The Medium setting at 4K is the only configuration with recorded min/max values (380 FPS minimum, 514 FPS maximum), and its 447 FPS average represents a 117 FPS improvement over Ultra. This makes Medium the recommended preset for 4K gaming on this combo, as it maintains frame rates well above the 240 Hz refresh rate ceiling of most high-end displays while preserving a reasonable level of visual fidelity.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core i7-14700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 achieves a combo rank of 80 out of 3719 tested combinations in this game. This places the configuration in the top 2.2% of all tested systems, a remarkable position given the database includes a wide range of hardware combinations. The ranking reflects the synergy between a top-tier CPU that excels at feeding frames and a flagship GPU that can sustain extreme output across all resolutions.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 70163 places it at the 94th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU's average benchmark score of 79842 places it at the 92nd percentile among all GPUs. The combo rank of 80 suggests that this pairing performs even better in CS:GO than the individual percentile rankings might predict, indicating that the CPU's high single-thread performance and the GPU's massive shader throughput complement each other well in this particular title.

The nearest GPU rivals in the database are the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (0.3% lower average score), NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (0.6% lower), and AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (1.1% lower). The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X leads the RTX 5090 by 1.4%. These comparisons are based on synthetic benchmarks rather than game-specific performance, but they establish that the RTX 5090 sits in a competitive bracket with other high-end accelerators.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 brings formidable specifications to this game. Its 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 render output units are backed by a boost clock of 2407 MHz. The GPU's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus delivers 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for CS:GO's modest memory footprint. The 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute provides the raw arithmetic throughput needed to sustain extreme frame rates.

The GPU's role in this game becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 1080p, the RTX 5090 is not heavily burdened, and the CPU's 5.60 GHz boost clock can push frame rates to 1291 FPS at Low settings. However, at 4K, the GPU's shading and rasterization workload scales dramatically. The drop from 525 FPS at 4K Low to 330 FPS at 4K Ultra represents a 37% performance penalty for higher visual quality, demonstrating that the GPU's compute resources are being taxed more heavily at this resolution.

The RTX 5090's 170 ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores are unlikely to be utilized in CS:GO, which does not employ such features. Instead, the game relies on the GPU's traditional rasterization pipeline, which is exceptionally strong given the 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate and 1,636.8 GTexel/s texture rate. The GPU's 5 nm process node from TSMC allows these high clock speeds and transistor density (92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die) to operate within a 575 W TDP.

The benchmark results show that the GPU is not the limiting factor at 1080p, where frame rates exceed 800 FPS even at Ultra settings. However, at 4K, the GPU's workload increases to the point where even this flagship part cannot maintain the same frame rates as at lower resolutions. The data indicates a smooth scaling curve with no anomalous drops, suggesting that the GPU's memory subsystem and compute units are well-balanced for this workload.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo in CS:GO?

A: The highest average FPS is 1291, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700KF scores 70163 on average, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (69996) and 0.4% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875).

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded across all tested configurations?

A: The lowest average FPS is 330, recorded at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings.

Q: Does the RTX 5090 outperform its nearest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5090's average benchmark score is 79842, which is 1.4% lower than the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X (80959) but 0.3% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79605).

Q: What is the combo's rank relative to all tested configurations?

A: This combo ranks 80th out of 3719 tested configurations, placing it in the top 2.2% of all systems tested in CS:GO.

Q: Which settings preset at 4K provides the highest average FPS above 400?

A: At 3840x2160, the Medium preset achieves 447 FPS average with a minimum of 380 FPS and maximum of 514 FPS, making it the only 4K configuration with an average above 400 FPS besides Low (525 FPS).

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional performance across all settings. Low settings produce the highest average at 1291 FPS, followed by Medium at 1099 FPS with a recorded minimum of 934 FPS and maximum of 1264 FPS. High settings achieve 951 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 812 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 479 FPS, demonstrating the significant impact of settings on frame rate.

At 2560x1440, performance remains extremely high. Low settings average 888 FPS, Medium produces 756 FPS with a minimum of 643 FPS and maximum of 870 FPS, High achieves 655 FPS, and Ultra maintains 559 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 329 FPS, a narrower gap than at 1080p but still substantial.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates remain competitive with high-refresh-rate displays. Low settings average 525 FPS, Medium produces 447 FPS with a minimum of 380 FPS and maximum of 514 FPS, High achieves 387 FPS, and Ultra drops to 330 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 195 FPS, the smallest absolute difference across all resolutions but the largest percentage drop from the Low baseline.

The complete dataset shows a consistent hierarchy: Low > Medium > High > Ultra at every resolution, with the relative differences between settings levels shrinking as resolution increases. This pattern indicates that pixel count becomes the dominant performance factor at higher resolutions, while settings-based visual enhancements have a comparatively smaller impact. The Medium settings at each resolution provide a balanced middle ground, with the 4K Medium configuration being the only 4K setting that records both minimum and maximum frame rates, suggesting the most stable frame delivery among the 4K options.