Watch Counter-Strike 2 Hit A Staggering 1000FPS On A Core i9-14900K And RTX 4090

Out in the wild, you'll typically find a few types of gamers. The first one is a fan of boosting the visual eye candy to the max—we're talking ultra settings at a 4K resolution, with path tracing to boot. Alan Wake 2 is a great example of leading edge technology that focuses on the visual aspect of the game. The next type of gamer is the one who lives and breathes competition, sacrificing visual fidelity for the maximum amount of frame rates possible. It's the second type that appreciate what an overclocker has achieved in Counter-Strike 2.

Lastly, there is the rare, niche type of gamer who goes to the stratosphere. Der8auer, the famous German hardware overclocker, has taken that type of gaming mentality to the extreme by breaking the 1,000 frames per second barrier CS2, with a little tinkering magic.

The hardware behind this impressive achievement is no surprise, as it is the prerequisite starting point. NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4090 lends a big hand here with its superior grunt to any other GPU on the market. It's generally thermally well-behaved to begin with, to help achieve a higher starting point than what would be possible on a lower end GPU. Coupled with Intel's 14th Gen Core-i9 14900K (Raptor Lake Refresh), this is where the magic starts to happen.

To help matters along, the 1080p resolution was chosen, which gives the frame rates a head start versus a higher resolution. Derb8auer also tuned the settings in Counter Strike 2 for an optimal mix of performance and real world use that an e-sports player might actually use. 

Overclocking these components gets these already-hot trailblazers to even higher scorching temperatures. This calls for liquid nitrogen, or LN2, a favorite amongst extreme hardware enthusiasts. Utilizing about 2 liters of this ice cold LN2, he manages to surpass the already impressive 6GHz stock capabilities of the Core-i9 14900K. That only got him and his team to the near-800 FPS range. Not good enough, right? Well, hold onto your boots. 

The LN2 application allowed the Core-i9 14900K to reach a sweltering 7.4GHz overclock on its P-cores. Derb8auer was even able to hit over 8GHz with some more fine-tuning. The 7.4GHz clock speed finally allowed Counter Strike 2 to break the 1,000 FPS ceiling at 1080p. We're hoping that is the only thing it was able to break, too. 

Why would gamers typically want these insanely high frame rates? If it is not for world-record chasing overclocks, there are other valid reasons. The higher frames in a game such as Counter Strike 2 reduces latency and makes pro e-sports players almost instant in their reactions. Add to this the rise of popular high refresh rate monitors, and it is a recipe for ultra-competitive gaming. 

It is great to see what this hardware can do when pushed to the max, and but most gamers will already be more than satisfied with the stock performance without needing a pit-crew of LN2 team members around them when gaming.