Every figure below is a measurement aggregated from published review charts — the CPU's frame-rate ceiling and the frame rate the GPU delivers in this game, combined. The CPU figure is the highest frame rate that CPU sustained in this game with a flagship GPU installed — past that frame rate, the CPU is the limit. Settings: Epic preset, render scale 100% (native, no upscaling). CPU ceiling measured at 1080p, highest settings (TechPowerUp CPU suite), RTX 5090.
Mild CPU limit
Expected frame rate: 97–97 fps (measured range across sources).
The CPU side is lower by about 32.8% in this game at 1080p. The math, from the two measured figures above: the pair runs at the lower one (~97 fps), and the gap to the faster side is (144 − 97) ÷ 144 ≈ 32.8% of the faster side's output. That percentage belongs to this game, this resolution and these settings only — the same two parts score differently in another game, which is why no universal bottleneck percentage exists for a pair of parts. Upgrading the faster part alone would not raise the frame rate.
That range suits a 60 Hz monitor; a high-refresh panel would be underused in this game.
Confidence: MEDIUM — based on 2 source measurements for these two parts.
Mild CPU limit
Expected frame rate: 97–97 fps (measured range across sources).
The CPU side is lower by about 18.0% in this game at 1440p. The math, from the two measured figures above: the pair runs at the lower one (~97 fps), and the gap to the faster side is (118 − 97) ÷ 118 ≈ 18.0% of the faster side's output. That percentage belongs to this game, this resolution and these settings only — the same two parts score differently in another game, which is why no universal bottleneck percentage exists for a pair of parts. Upgrading the faster part alone would not raise the frame rate.
That range suits a 60 Hz monitor; a high-refresh panel would be underused in this game.
Confidence: MEDIUM — based on 2 source measurements for these two parts.
Mild GPU limit
Expected frame rate: 81–81 fps (measured range across sources).
The GPU side is lower by about 16.3% in this game at 4K. The math, from the two measured figures above: the pair runs at the lower one (~81 fps), and the gap to the faster side is (97 − 81) ÷ 97 ≈ 16.3% of the faster side's output. That percentage belongs to this game, this resolution and these settings only — the same two parts score differently in another game, which is why no universal bottleneck percentage exists for a pair of parts. Upgrading the faster part alone would not raise the frame rate.
That range suits a 60 Hz monitor; a high-refresh panel would be underused in this game.
Confidence: MEDIUM — based on 2 source measurements for these two parts.
No CPU measured in this game fully clears this GPU - the strongest measured option:
Full data: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 benchmarks · how verdicts are computed.