Unlock the Maximum FPS in Counter Strike 2 with an i9-14900K: Discover the 7.5 GHz Limit for Peak Performance

Every time a new game is released, we need to check its requirements and watch videos to see if our PC can handle it properly. It’s quite common to encounter games with high demands or poor optimization, so it’s always better to verify its performance before buying and facing disappointment. Fortunately, competitive online games tend to have much lower requirements to be accessible on all PCs. CS2 is one such game, and it has achieved over 1,000 FPS using an i9-14900K with overclocking, utilizing liquid nitrogen along with a powerful RTX 4090.

Although years go by, some games remain alive and full of players as if time stood still. One could say that Counter-Strike is among those franchises since the popular 1.6 version is still being played today. CSGO, the well-known Counter-Strike: Global Offensive released in August 2012, was recently the most played game on Steam. Regardless of new games with better graphics or features, Counter-Strike remained king. Now, Global Offensive has been replaced by an improved Counter-Strike 2.

An overclock test was done on the i9-14900K to examine its impact on CS2 performance. Counter-Strike 2 is almost the same game as before, with a few changes like more realistic smoke grenades and, generally, a different ranking system. Maps have been revamped and updated with a new visual aspect, although, in essence, it remains the same game. Although the graphics have improved, the requirements remain relatively low for a game released in 2023, aiming to cater to most players by providing high FPS. The performance record achieved in CS2 was 1,310 FPS with an i9-14900K overclocked to 8 GHz.

Now, renowned overclocker der8auer plans to do the same with his i9-14900K, focusing on performance analysis. The test used 2 liters of liquid nitrogen on a PC equipped with the CPU, an ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Apex Encore motherboard, and an RTX 4090 GPU. The overclocker achieved a stable overclock of 7.4 GHz on the P-Cores.

Up to 200 additional FPS was obtained using a 7.5 GHz overclock on the i9-14900K. Counter-Strike 2 at 1080p resolution depends heavily on CPU performance to deliver FPS. This lower resolution doesn’t have the most cutting-edge graphics, explaining the massive FPS difference when comparing factory frequency to overclocking. At 6 GHz, the configuration achieved an average FPS of 801, while at 7.4 GHz, the performance increased to an average FPS of 959. To further enhance the performance, der8auer sought help from overclocker SafeDisk, who adjusted the RAM timings and increased the frequency to 7.5 GHz.

In this setup, they achieved over 1,000 FPS in Counter-Strike 2. However, the RTX 4090’s limits were eventually reached, and even at 7.8 GHz, the FPS remained stagnant. During the overclock, the PCIe 5.0 SSD reached high temperatures, causing instability in the PC, but after adding a fan, they managed to achieve a stable i9-14900K overclock across all cores at 8.1 GHz.

This powerful combination of CPU and GPU shows that a higher frequency yields better performance in Counter Strike 2, but only up to 7.5 GHz, with further increases in frequency offering no additional benefit.