Thursday, February 20, 2025
Laptops

5 Best Laptops For Counter Strike 2 (Competitive FPS) – 2025

I’ve been playing the Counter-Strike series since 2003… believe it or not.

Old ass picture of me in my CS 1.5 days …the good ol’ days.

Now we’ve gone through lots of different versions and now it’s all about CS 2. Though all other versions are still popular (1.6), we will focus on Counter-Strike 2.

CS2 is more hardware demanding than Global Offensive, so the best laptop for Counter-Strike 2 should be able to run all versions (CS 1.5, 1.6, Source, Condition Zero, and CS:GO) without any issues.

Now…

To step up your game, you need two things:

  • High & consistent framerates with a high refresh rate display
  • No frame latency

What’s frame latency?

It’s not lag—lag comes from a bad internet connection. Frame latency is a hardware issue where your CPU/GPU struggles, causing choppy gameplay even with good internet.

Lag makes frame latency worse, but they’re not the same thing.

Frame Latency is the time it takes for the game to process your inputs (mouse clicks, key presses) and translate them into on-screen actions like movement or firing.

This delay, known as frame latency, becomes more noticeable as you increase graphics settings, causing unexpected losses in matches you used to win at lower settings.

Of course…

This only matters if you’re playing competitively. If you’re just playing for fun, you probably don’t need to worry about it.

Im using a desktop here and running the game at FHD with all settings maxed out. I’ll give you laptops with similar perfomance soon.

Best Counter Strike 2 Laptop Specs

Counter-Strike 2 isn’t Call of Duty—you don’t need high-end hardware to hit “competitive” framerates (~120 FPS).

GPU

All you need is a 4GB vRAM GPU (1080p) and 6GB vRAM (1440p) and you will be hitting +150-200 fps on Competitive settings (a mixed of low & medium settings).

2050RTX, 1650GTX, 1050Ti GTX. All these GPUs have 4GB vRAM and hit +60fps (Very High) +140fps (Mixed)

4050RTX, 4060RTX. These GPUs can hit +140fps on Very high. Ideal for QHD resolution (1440p) ~100fps

The following GPUs must be avoided :

MX150, MX250, MX230, GTX 1050, MX450, MX550 (non-Ti)

For the simple reason that they’re usually too expensive for the sub-par performance and , save for the MX450 and MX550, integrated GPUs can easily outrun these.

Integrated GPUs: When you’re trying to max out iGPU performance. You need to get your RAM up to 16GB RAM (Dual-Channel) for a boost & make sure to choose the most recent CPU you can find (save for a few exceptions , latest CPUs usually paired with the fastest iGPU).

 

CPU

Ok. According to my benchmarks: Counter Strike 2 isn’t likely to bottleneck the CPU and is mostly single-threaded. In other words, you will benefit far more on clock speed (single-thread performance) rather than # of cores.

Choose the most recent CPU with the highest clock speed performance. Here’s  a comparison chart of single-thread performance of laptop CPUs

RAM
Counter Strike 2 is pretty much like its predecessors. It doesn’t take a lot of RAM. 

8GB should be enough and you won’t need more than 16GB even at 4k resolution.

Storage
All laptops now have PCIe NVMe SSDs, the fastest as of 2025. There are two versions: PCie 4.0 and PcCIe 5.0 the latter is much faster but it doesn’t give you any extra performance for gaming, only for file transfers.

As for space, you’ll need at least 120GB for CS 2 and it’s DLCs. Check my guide on storage for gaming here (for other games).

Display

Most laptops have FHD, that’s not the issue. The game changer is refresh rate. High refresh rates are truly a blessing for spotting enemies faster as shown below:

Top 5 Best Laptops for Counter Strike: Global Offensive

Four out of five best laptops for counter strike 2 will have a dedicated GPU. We’ll start with something that’s affordable yet high performance then follow up with either more expensive or much cheaper options. There’s one laptop without dedicated graphics for those on an extremely low budget . The game is still playable at low settings.

Let’s start with my personal favorite.


1. Acer Nitro V

The Best Laptop For Counter Strike 2 – 4050RTX

  Intel Core i5-13420H

  8GB DDR5 RAM

   RTX 4050 6GB vRAM

  512GB PCIe 4.0 SSD

  15 ” 144Hz Full HD IPS

  4.66 lbs

  3 hours

Ok, this is an RTX 4050—definitely overkill for most players. However, like I mentioned before, it’s useful if you’re the type who plays at super high settings but still wants competitive framerates (150-200+ FPS).

That’s not the main reason I featured this one first, though—it’s the price. This laptop is selling for only $700, which is just $50 more than the average RTX 3050 laptop. It’s pretty much a one-time deal that will likely disappear soon.

That’s not the whole story either—it also has a 144Hz display, making it an ideal pick for anyone serious about ranking up and dominating the game.

Now, let’s go over the GPU, CPU, and some benchmarks:

GPU: 4050 RTXRTX

The RTX 4050 comes in different wattages (70-120W), unlike the GTX 1650, RTX 2050, and RTX 3050, which typically have fixed wattages. Higher wattages on the RTX 4050 translate to significantly better performance.

Also, while the RTX 3060 might sound faster by name, in reality, it’s not much better than the RTX 4050—as long as both GPUs have high wattage.

Here’s the thing with the benchmarks I’ve seen:

  • At FHD (1080p) on very high settings, there’s not much reason to buy an RTX 4050. Framerates hover around 130 FPS, which isn’t much higher than what an RTX 3050 can achieve.
  • At QHD (1440p), however, only the RTX 4050 can push past 100 FPS.

The reason for this huge jump in QHD performance is that the RTX 4050 has 6GB of VRAM, compared to the 4GB VRAM found in the RTX 2050, RTX 3050, and GTX 1650.

Here are the benchmark results at various settings:

GPU Watts MUX CPU FHD – QHD DLLS/FSR Graphics Youtube
4050RTX 115W NO Ryzen 5 7535HS 110 – none OFF/OFF Maximum? Low Gaming
4050RTX 115W NO Core i5 12450H 135 – none OFF/OFF Very High Budget PC Games
4050RTX 120W NO Ryzen 7 7840HS 152 – 98 OFF/OFF Very High Fire in it

At maximum settings (beyond “very high”), you can still hit 110+ FPS. Pair that with a 120-144Hz display, and you’re looking at performance close to competitive framerates, even at very high settings.

Obviously, if you’re serious about a match (clan vs. clan), you’ll want to lower the settings to push past 200+ FPS for the smoothest experience.

CPU: Core i5 13450H

Another reason to pick this laptop over other RTX 4050 models is the CPU. For single-threaded games, this is the best option in this price range (obviously, Core i7 and Ryzen 7 would be faster, but they’re not available here).

Good alternatives include any Core i5 from the 11th or 12th gen. Ryzen 5 CPUs excel in multi-core performance, so if you’re playing more multi-threaded games and have the budget, a Ryzen 5 might be the better choice.

Being this selective can squeeze out a few extra FPS—sometimes up to 10.


2. HP Victus 15-fb2002la

Laptop Deal For Counter Strike 2 – 3050RTX

  Intel Core i5-13420H

  8GB DDR4 RAM

   GeForce RTX 3050 4GB vRAM

  512GB PCIe SSD

  15 ” 144Hz Full HD IPS

  5.10lbs

  3 hours

 

Here’s the deal…3050RTX laptops are not a good option when you have a 4050RTX selling for 699 dollars. However…

The HP Victus 3050 RTX model is selling for about 540 dollars…that’s the same price of a 1650GTX model. So if you are reading this and it’s still on stock…it is a no brainer.

GPU: 3050RTX

The 3050RTX sits between the 1650GTX and the 4050RTX. Now because the game doesn’t use more than 4GB vRAM at FHD and the 3050RTX has 4GB vRAM (some versions have 6GB vRAM), the performance can sometimes MATCH the performance of the 4050RTX at full HD as shown in the benchmarks below:

GPU Watts MUX CPU FHD – QHD DLLS/FSR Graphics Youtube
3050 NO Core i5 11400H 120 – none OFF/OFF Mixed Decoyout
3050* 75W NO Ryzen 5 5600H 128 – none OFF/OFF Very High BLBG
3050RTX 75W NO Core i5 12400H 140 – none OFF/OFF High revins
4050RTX 115W NO Ryzen 5 7535HS 110 – none OFF/OFF Maximum? Low Gaming

Of course for this to happen not all settings have been set to very high. However, if both laptops are set to very high, the difference should be no bigger than 10fps.

Feel free to click the links to see the benchmarks yourself.


3. HP Victus

Budget Laptop For Counter Strike 2 – 2050RTX

  AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS

  16GB DDR5 RAM

  NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2050

  512GB PCIe M.2 SSD

  15.6″ FHD 144Hz

  5.06lbs

  3 hours

Everybody knows that if you are playing competitively, that is, a “Clan Match”, you have to lower down the settings.

You need a 120fps MINIMUM to play competitively….

This is why a 2050RTX is a good option. If you lower down the settings, you easily go past 120fps at FHD.

CS 2 BenchMark – Ryzen 5 + 2050RTX

GPU Watts MUX CPU FHD – QHD DLLS/FSR Graphics Youtube
2050RTX YES Ryzen 7 775H 70 – none OFF Very High Brutal X
2050RTX YES Core i5 11460H 62 – none OFF Very High Gaming Test

~70fps at the highest settings and 140fps at low settings FHD

GPU:  2050RTX vs 1650GTX

A good alternative to the 2050RTX is the 1650GTX which we’ll go over next but do know that the 2050RTX costs about the same as the 1650GTX and includes RTX mode (not useful for CS 2 but for other games) and DLSS 3 (this boosts framerates as explained in my post here).

For CS, there’s also FSR but that’s probably not a good idea for competitive matches as the framerates are artificial and not real. The same can be said for DLSS 3…anyways these two features do become useful in smoothing out gameply for SOLO campaigns and solo games. Just keep in mind that overall the 1650GTX is a good option too but prices are not so great at the moment.

You can read more about the differences between these two GPUs and the fps differences with DLSS on and OFF on my post: 1650GTX vs 2050RTX.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS

The AMD Ryzen 5 7537HS has better multi-core performance than 13th-gen Core i5 CPUs, but for a game like Counter-Strike 2, this doesn’t matter much, as CS2 is still mostly single-threaded, with only minor multi-threading benefits.

You’ll actually get higher framerates if you find a laptop with an RTX 2050 paired with a 13th-gen Core i5, though at the time of writing, there are no RTX 2050 models available with that configuration that are ‘reasonably’ priced.

That said, the Ryzen 5 7537HS still outperforms 12th-gen Core i5 CPUs and their predecessors. So, if you’re comparing it to GTX 1650 laptops, you can expect about 5-30 more FPS depending on the settings, as those older models typically come with CPUs that are 2–3 generations behind

Display: Of course despite being about 200 dollars cheaper than a 4050RTX laptop, it still comes with a 144Hz refresh rate displays. Unbelievable at this price bracket (500-550).


4. MSI GF63

Good Laptop For Counter Strike 2 – 1650GTX

  Intel Core i5-11400H

  8GB DDR4

  NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650

  256GB PCIe NVMe SSD

  15.6” 144Hz FHD IPS

  4.1 lbs

  2 hours

A 1650GTX is only a good alternative IF and ONLY IF the 2050RTX prices are above 550 dollars AND the 1650GTX laptop in question is less than 550 dollars. Otherwise, you should be getting a 2050RTX for all the previous benefits we mentioned.

GPU: 1650GTX GPU

Now all those benefits (DLSS 3 & RTX mode) apply for games outside of Counter Strike 2. For this game itself, the performance is slightly less than the 2050RTX.  Now here’s something interesting. If you can find a 1650GTX with a MUX Switch, the performance will be either the same or slightly higher despite the lack of a recent CPU as shown in the benchmarks below.

GPU Watts MUX CPU FHD – QHD DLLS/FSR Graphics Youtube
2050RTX NO Ryzen 7 775H 70 – none OFF Very High Brutal X
1650GTX YES Core i5 9300H 70 – none OFF/ON Very High Tanuj Gaminator

You will be very very hard pressed to find a MUX Switch under 550 but hey you never know. 

CPU: Core i5 9300H

This CPU is very old compared to the ones we have today. We are in the 14th generation so it’s about 5th generation olds. However, as you can see in the benchmarks it doesn’t stop the laptop from running CS 2 like a champ.

That’s because the 1650GTX is doing most of the heavy lifting and there are minor differences in clock speed between these generations. Add to that the fact that CS 2 doesn’t seem to FULLY use the CPU (in other words, it’s mostly single-threaded and the extra core or extra core performance doesn’t come in handy) and it makes sense for the 1650GTX to perform just as well as other laptops with better CPUs.

Display: 144Hz

The cool thing about this model it’s not the CPU or the 1650GTX…it’s the refresh rates. Despite being super cheap and very old , it still has a 144Hz display. If you lower down the settings, you’ll definitely need all of it since you’ll easily go past 120fps.


5. Lenovo 82RJ005BUS

Cheap Laptop For Counter Strike 2

  Intel Core i5-1235U

  8GB RAM DDR4

  Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 80EUs 

  256GB SSD NVMe PCIe

  14” FHD LCD

  3.3 lbs

  8 hours

If you are on an extreme budget your only choice are integrated graphics but fear not performance should not be detrimental. If you:

  • Set settings to low (still FHD)
  • Make sure you pick the right CPU (still cheap)
  • Upgrade the RAM to 16GB RAM (in dual-channel)

You can easily get close to 100fps on low settings (80fps is more realistic).

CPU: Core i5 1135G7 & Ryzen 5 5500U & Core i5 1235U

If you are talking about cheap laptops, you are not going to get a 13th gen Core i5 under 450 dollars (anything more it’s not good…since you can get a laptop with a dedicated GPU with that money). So your choices are those three CPUs above:

  • Ryzen 5 5500, Core i5 1235U and  the 11th gen Core i5.

Now notice that I’m avoiding the Ryzen 5 from more recent generations and that’s because they are tricky. Some of these come with very suboptimal iGPUs and some come with just normal iGPUs. Either way, the best integrated graphics out of these group are found on Core i5s and if you pick a recent one like the 12th gen…clock speeds are very very high on single-threads which is ideal since CS 2 is mostly single threaded.

GPU:  Intel Xe Benchmarks

The performance is about 80fps on Low settings FHD and 110fps on 720p. 

Note that to get that performance you need RAM set up in dual-channel as explained in my post here. You also need 16GB RAM as the bare bone minimum as explained before that will give you iGPU a nice memory boost.


How To Buy The Best Laptop For Counter Strike 2

The following guide applies to CS: GO as well as CS: 2.

How much hardware you need will depend on how high you want framerates to be and what settings you want to play at. If we are talking competitively, settings do not matter as much as framerates:

60 fps vs ~120fps

Most people, including myself, can easily get by with 60 FPS on public servers, deathmatch servers, etc.

However, if you want to be competitive or play clan matches, having more than 100 FPS—ideally 120 FPS—can slightly improve your overall performance for the following reasons:

  • As you move around the map, your FPS will drop by around 20 due to smoke grenades, close-range gunfights, flashbangs, etc. Aiming for higher framerates helps offset these drops, ensuring a consistently smooth experience throughout the game.
  • High framerates, when paired with a 120Hz+ refresh rate, can slightly improve reflexes. Essentially, you’ll be able to spot enemies a few milliseconds faster, and as you know, even that tiny difference can make or break a 1v1 fight.

Counter Strike 2 Laptop Benchmarks

GPU Watts MUX CPU FHD – QHD DLLS/FSR Graphics Youtube
2050RTX YES Ryzen 7 775H 70 – none OFF Very High Brutal X
2050RTX YES Core i5 11460H 62 – none OFF Very High Gaming Test
1650GTX NO Core i5 9300H 70 – none OFF/ON Very High Tanuj Gaminator
3050 NO Core i5 11400H 120 – none OFF/OFF Mixed Decoyout
3050* 75W NO Ryzen 5 5600H 128 – none OFF/OFF Very High BLBG
3050RTX 75W NO Core i5 12400H 140 – none OFF/OFF High revins
4050RTX 115W NO Ryzen 5 7535HS 110 – none OFF/OFF Maximum? Low Gaming
4050RTX 115W NO Core i5 12450H 135 – none OFF/OFF Very High Budget PC Games
4050RTX 120W NO Ryzen 7 7840HS 152 – 98 OFF/OFF Very High Fire in it
4060RTX 115W NO Core i5 13450HX 135 OFF / OFF Maximum Pazan Gaming

*Notice how the 1650GTX matches the performance ofa 2050RTX with a MUX Switch and a faster processor thanks to FSR. 

* 3050RTX had 32GB RAM in dual-channel mode

*Notice how there’s not a significant difference between 3050RTX and 4050RTX for 1080p very high settings. A 4050RTX becomes more useful (at high wattages) for 1440p.

Competitive Settings

It depends but generally they are going to be going to be slightly lower than 1080p resolution with settings mostly on Low and shadows on high for obvious reasons. You will be getting around 200fps with a 4GB vRAM.

GPU (Graphics Card)

This is the #1 hardware component behind 60-120fps but of course there’s a limit. In other words, at some point, more GPU power becomes useless. And CS 2 although not as graphically demanding as other games also has a bare bone minimum before the game becomes unplayable.

Integrated GPU

It’s important to discuss integrated GPUs before dedicated GPU since most people are on a budget.

“Integrated GPUs” have come a long way. They are not useless, the vast majority of integrated GPUs (made within the past few years) are powerful enough to run games at low settings.

Below a snapshot of the performance of some of these integrated GPUs in CS:GO. We are talking CS 2 but the graph below should give you a good idea how powerful iGPUs are today compared to weaker dedicated GPUs and older dedicated GPUs.

Now we obviously want the best performance.

You don’t want to settle for an integrated GPU just because it’s recent and it’s supposedly faster.

You want at least 60fps at low settings FHD and 80fps at 720p low settings.

From the graph I’d say any iGPU with a score of more than 800 can get you that performance. The graph was taken from my post integrated GPU performance comparison. You’ll also find a table telling you where exactly to find these iGPUs.

Dedicated GPUs

If you have a +$500 budget you don’t need to settle for integrated GPUs or the low entry level dedicated GPUS (MX150, MX250, MX230). 

Depending on your budget you can have any of the following dedicated GPUs which will ALL run the game at +60fps on Very High Settings (except those in gray).

NVIDIA Cores vRAM Speed
MX150 384 2GB 1532
MX250 384 2GB 1582
MX230 256 2GB 1519
MX350 640 2GB 1354
MX450 896 2GB 1580
1050 640 2GB-4GB 1493
1050Ti 768 4GB 1620
1650 1024 4GB 1560
2050  2048 4GB  1470 
1660 Ti 1536 6GB 1590
3050Ti 2560 4GB 1485
4050RTX 2560 8GB 1733
4060RTX 2304 8GB 1620 
3060 3584 8GB 1780

AMD Shaders vRAM Speed Equivalent
RX 555X 768 2GB 855  MX150/MX250
RX 540 512 4GB 1219 ~950M
RX 550 640 4GB 1287 – 1476 +950M
RX 560X 1024 4GB 1172 – 1275 1050GTX
RX 580 1536 6GB 1077 ~1060GTX
RX 6550M
1024 4GB 2-2.56GHz ~3050RTX
RX 5500M 1408  8GB  1327-1645  ~1660Ti 
RX 6700S 2304 10GB 1890 ~3060RTX (Low wattage)

Any other GPU outside of this list is OVERKILL for CS 2 or too weak to be worth the price.

Gray:  These must be avoided. They are dedicated GPUs but they simply are too obselete or weak. You will be better off with an integrated GPU and a recent CPU than buying one of those.

Blue: Bare minimum to play with competitive framerates at low settings (+120 fps) either at FHD or 720p.

Green: Sweet spot for competitive settings at FHD. You will get 120fps on very high settings with these or somewhere around it.

Pink:  Definitely overkill for CS 2 alone. Useful for all other games and also useful to play CS 2 on QHD resolution with approximately 90-100fps.

CPU

If you’re shopping for gaming laptops with dedicated GPUs, there’s really no need to obsess over the CPU. Virtually every modern gaming laptop comes with a CPU that matches its GPU’s power.

For example, if you buy a GTX 1650, you won’t find it paired with anything stronger than a Core i5-11300H—and that’s already plenty fast.

Now, you may see laptops with the same GPU (like the GTX 1650) but different CPUs—Core i5-11300H, Core i5-10300H, Ryzen 5 5600H, Ryzen 5 4600H, etc.

Truth is, as long as they have the same GPU, all of these CPUs will deliver nearly identical performance.

So there’s no point fixating on a slightly better CPU—your framerates will barely change!

Clock Speed vs. Number of Cores

If you really want to squeeze out every last FPS, then focus on clock speed over core count.

As we’ve discussed before, Counter-Strike is single-threaded—it doesn’t care how many cores you have. What matters is clock speed.

Picking the faster CPU is easy when comparing models from the same brand:

  • Intel Core i5-9300H (4.1 GHz) vs. Core i5-1135G7 (4.5 GHz) → The 1135G7 is faster because it has a higher clock speed.

But if you’re comparing AMD vs. Intel, you’ll need benchmarks—check out my post on Ryzen vs. Intel for more details.

Streaming

Streamers don’t need to worry about multiple cores either. Virtually every, modern, gaming laptop has at least 6 cores. 

However, better multi-core performance will usually but not always be given by Ryzen Chips. Again refer to my graph to see where a specific CPU stands in multi-thread performance and single-thread performance with others.

RAM

You only need enough RAM to ensure Windows and background processes don’t interfere with the game.

Display

Full HD + IPS

1080p gaming – If you wanna game at Full HD (FHD), you obviously need a 1080p display. Same deal for 1440p (QHD) or 4K (UHD)—you need a QHD or UHD display to actually see the difference.

That said, if you’re buying a gaming laptop, don’t stress about this—literally every gaming laptop with a dedicated GPU already comes with an FHD display by default.

IPS panels are also pretty much standard now, and they look better with richer colors and wider viewing angles. But if you end up with a TN panel, don’t panic—TN actually has better response times, so you’ll get less motion blur and slightly lower input lag, which is solid for fast-paced games.


Refresh Rates vs. FPS

If you want your gameplay to feel smoother than butter, you’ll need a 120Hz or 144Hz display.

  • What is Hz?
    Hz (Hertz) = how many times per second your screen refreshes. A 120Hz display refreshes 120 times per second, so it can fully display 120 FPS.
  • 60Hz – Most budget laptops only have this, which means even if your rig cranks out 100+ FPS, you’re still only seeing 60 FPS. That doesn’t mean high FPS is useless though—it still reduces input lag and makes everything feel way smoother.
  • 120-144Hz – Usually found on $800+ gaming laptops. Makes the game look twice as smooth, and more importantly, it helps with reaction time. Tiny details—like an enemy barely peeking around a corner—will show up faster, which can be the difference between a win and a rage quit.
  • 165Hz+ (For the sweaty tryhards) – If you’re playing CS2, Valorant, or any twitch shooter, you might wanna go 165Hz or even 240Hz. At this refresh rate, motion clarity is insane, making tracking enemies way easier. Just make sure your GPU can actually push 165+ FPS, otherwise, it’s kinda pointless.

Comments?

If you have any questions, suggestions or recommendations or any other observations please let me know in the comments below.

 

 

Author Profile

Miguel Salas
Miguel Salas
I am physicist and electrical engineer. My knowledge in computer software and hardware stems for my years spent doing research in optics and photonics devices and running simulations through various programming languages. My goal was to work for the quantum computing research team at IBM but Im now working with Astrophysical Simulations through Python. Most of the science related posts are written by me, the rest have different authors but I edited the final versions to fit the site's format.

Miguel Salas

I am physicist and electrical engineer. My knowledge in computer software and hardware stems for my years spent doing research in optics and photonics devices and running simulations through various programming languages. My goal was to work for the quantum computing research team at IBM but Im now working with Astrophysical Simulations through Python. Most of the science related posts are written by me, the rest have different authors but I edited the final versions to fit the site's format.

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