I've been upgrading my setup for CS2 and I'm trying to figure out if my performance is being held back by my CPU or GPU. Previously with CSGO, the CPU was clearly the bottleneck, but now with CS2, it's not so obvious. I want to maintain a consistent minimum of 360Hz, as anything below that could lead to latency issues. Currently, I'm using a 7600X3D CPU paired with a 5060Ti GPU. I'd like some advice on whether I should upgrade my CPU or GPU first, and how much I'd need to spend on a GPU upgrade to really see any benefits, especially since I'm focused on 1080p or 2K resolutions and have no intention of going for 4K.
3 Answers
At 1080p on low settings, you'll definitely hit a CPU bottleneck since CS2 pushes a lot of frames at that quality. With your current setup, you should see around 200 FPS on Dust2, and you could even hit over 300 FPS on lower settings. Since you're already seeing good FPS, it’s likely that your system could be GPU-limited in cases where you notice drops.
Your 5060 Ti can handle around 300 FPS easily at 1080p low/medium settings, but CPU is where you might hit snags. In competitive gameplay, even strong CPUs sometimes dip below 300 FPS. Since the 7600X3D is only about 15-20% slower than the top models, I'd suggest focusing on the GPU upgrade if you want to keep that 360 FPS goal.
A good rule of thumb is that if your GPU usage is above 97%, you’re dealing with a GPU bottleneck. If your FPS drops to around 200 while GPU usage is only 60%, then your CPU is likely limiting performance. Keep that in mind when checking your metrics.
I wish it was that straightforward, though!