Counter-Strike 2 in review: laptop and desktop benchmarks

These devices are used for our gaming benchmarks. You may visit each company's website by clicking on the images. Additional details on the specifications can be found at the end of the article.

With the exception of FSR and Nvidia Reflex Low Latency, the game generally lacks modern features. Notably, gamers have to forego DLSS. However, there are positive aspects, such as the practical preview image in the graphics menu, which even includes a zoom function. It currently occupies just over 30 GB on the hard disk, a relatively moderate amount.

As the benchmark functions of the in-game console were non-functional during the testing period, we opted for the CapFrameX tool to manually capture a sequence that replicated conditions as closely as possible. The Ancient map (practice match with bots) is shown in the video below since it has proven to be the most demanding in terms of visuals and performance, featuring elements like water and dense vegetation. The measurement entails an almost 15-second run on the terrorist side, interrupted by the throw of a smoke grenade. The frame rate in CS 2 can vary significantly depending on the map, the number of characters, and the weapon usage.

Compared to other shooters, CS 2 is relatively undemanding in terms of hardware, particularly at moderate resolutions and settings. For instance, on a Radeon 780M, users may play at 1920 x 1080 pixels with medium details and achieve over 60 FPS. With a reasonably up-to-date mid-range GPU, Full HD performance is generally smooth.

CS 2 is not extremely CPU-intensive even at the resolution of 2560 x 1440 and the Very High preset. A Radeon RX 7600S, for example, has the power to maintain 60 frames per second.

CS 2 only demands a high-end GPU for 4K displays if maximum settings are desired. A GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, for instance, surpasses the 60 FPS mark in this scenario.