Valve · 2023 · Tactical Shooter
Counter-Strike 2 is Valve’s Source 2 rebuild of the long-running competitive shooter, replacing CS:GO with updated lighting, physics and smoke rendering. It still runs comfortably on modest hardware by modern standards.
The move to Source 2 did raise its baseline requirements slightly compared to the previous engine, particularly around VRAM and installed storage space.
| Requirement | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i5-750 / AMD equivalent | Intel Core i5-9600K / AMD Ryzen 5 3600 |
| GPU | NVIDIA GTX 660 / AMD equivalent, 1GB VRAM | NVIDIA GTX 1650 / AMD RX 570 |
| RAM | 8 GB | 16 GB |
| Storage | 85 GB | 85 GB |
| OS | Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 11 64-bit |
Counter-Strike 2's publisher lists a minimum spec only. The Recommended column is our own suggestion for smoother play, not an official figure.
Source: the publisher's own officially listed system requirements (view source). Actual performance still depends on drivers, background load and in-game settings.
Want to know roughly what frame rate your own CPU and graphics card get in Counter-Strike 2, not just whether you clear the minimum?
Check Your PC for Counter-Strike 2Or check every game in our list at once with Can I Run It?, or the balance of your CPU and graphics card with the Bottleneck Calculator.
Competitive tactical shooters are deliberately light on hardware so more players can hit high, stable framerates, which means even a modest GPU clears the recommended spec — the bigger lever for competitive play is a high-refresh-rate monitor and a CPU that keeps the 1% low framerate steady during firefights.
The jump from 8GB to 16GB of RAM between the minimum and recommended spec is where Counter-Strike 2 stops paging textures and level data from disk mid-play — below 16GB, that shows up as short stutters and pop-in rather than a flat drop in average framerate. At roughly 85GB, plan storage for Counter-Strike 2 the same way you would for any modern title: an NVMe SSD keeps load times and texture streaming noticeably smoother than a hard drive at the same free-space total.
Counter-Strike 2 has no official recommended tier; our suggested 16GB of RAM matches the highest recommended figure among the other 15 games we cover. 9 others ask for the same amount. Its 85GB install ranks #7 of 16 by size, so 6 of the games we cover need more free space.
Games with the closest published requirements (recommended RAM, install size and minimum RAM):
| Game | Recommended RAM | Install size | Recommended GPU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Counter-Strike 2 (this page) | 16 GB | 85 GB | NVIDIA GTX 1650 / AMD RX 570 (our suggestion) |
| Grand Theft Auto V: Enhanced | 16 GB | 105 GB | NVIDIA RTX 3060 8GB / AMD RX 6600XT 8GB |
| PUBG: Battlegrounds | 16 GB | 50 GB | NVIDIA GTX 1060 3GB / AMD RX 580 4GB |
| Fortnite | 16 GB | 40 GB | NVIDIA GTX 960 / AMD R9 280 |
The Bottleneck Calculator treats Counter-Strike 2 as one of the esports games. Here is which part would set the frame rate on 6 pairings from budget to high-end at high settings; each pairing links to its full page.
| CPU + GPU | 1080p | 1440p |
|---|---|---|
| Core i3-12100F + Arc A750 | GPU-limited | GPU-limited |
| Core i5-12400F + Arc B580 | GPU-limited | GPU-limited |
| Ryzen 5 5600 + RTX 3070 | CPU ~16% | GPU-limited |
| Core i5-12600K + RTX 4070 Super | CPU ~21% | GPU-limited |
| Ryzen 5 7600X3D + RX 9070 | CPU ~8% | GPU-limited |
| Core i9-13900K + RX 7900 XTX | CPU ~27% | GPU-limited |
Estimate Counter-Strike 2 FPS for your own CPU and GPU · Check every game against your PC · All CPU + GPU comparisons
What the parts in the table above do: CPU, GPU, RAM and SSD.
8GB is the publisher's stated minimum, meaning Counter-Strike 2 will start and run, but 16GB (our suggested figure; the publisher lists no recommended tier) avoids the stuttering that comes from paging assets off your storage drive mid-session. Use our RAM calculator to check your exact total against everything else you run alongside it.
For Counter-Strike 2, the GPU is the more common limiting part at higher resolutions and settings — our PC Bottleneck Calculator breaks this down by your exact CPU and GPU pairing instead of a generic rule of thumb.
Plan for at least 85GB free, not exactly 85GB — day-one patches, DLC and shader/texture caches routinely add several more gigabytes after install. Our Storage Calculator can help you plan an upgrade if you are close to full.
The publisher lists NVIDIA GTX 660 / AMD equivalent, 1GB VRAM as the minimum for Counter-Strike 2 and publishes no recommended tier; NVIDIA GTX 1650 / AMD RX 570 is our own suggestion for smoother play. To see how your own card is likely to perform at your resolution, try our FPS Calculator, and check memory needs with the GPU VRAM Calculator.
The publisher lists Windows 10 64-bit for Counter-Strike 2.