What simply occurred? Overclocking fanatic der8auer lately set about to find out what kind of efficiency is feasible in Counter-Strike 2 utilizing cutting-edge {hardware} and excessive cooling strategies. To maintain issues considerably reasonable, he caught to some baseline graphical settings that an esports competitor may make the most of like 1080p decision.
Utilizing an Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Apex Encore paired with a retail Intel Core i9-14900K and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU, he was in a position to hit 7.4 GHz on the CPU with relative ease utilizing liquid nitrogen.
At 7.4 GHz (overclocking solely the P-cores), Counter-Strike 2 ran at round 950 frames per second on common. That is up from near 800 FPS at 6 GHz utilizing an all-in-one liquid cooler, so a pleasant enchancment for certain. To interrupt the 1,000 FPS barrier, nevertheless, der8auer switched to a binned CPU with extra headroom. An OC of seven.5 GHz with some work to the E-Cores and cache did the trick.
Apparently sufficient, additional CPU overclocking netted few good points because the GPU had turn out to be the bottleneck. Pushing to 7.8 GHz, for instance, did not have a lot of an affect on the sport’s body charge.
der8auer reached 8.1 GHz utilizing the LN2 setup after diagnosing a PCIe Gen5 SSD overheating challenge. Including some energetic cooling to the drive remedied the matter.
Liquid nitrogen is a confirmed instrument for excessive overclockers, permitting them to push {hardware} effectively past what it was designed for. The catch, in fact, is that the good points are solely sustainable for a brief interval as a result of perils like condensation and the sheer value of sustaining a gentle provide of LN2.
Later within the session, Asus was in a position to push considered one of their binned chips to over 9 GHz utilizing liquid helium at a brilliant chilly -240 levels Celsius.
Valve introduced Counter-Strike 2 earlier this yr. The sport was developed as an up to date model of Counter-Strike: World Offensive, and changed the sooner entry when it debuted in September. It is free to obtain over on Steam if you happen to’re fascinated about giving it a spin.
