The IncastroPC test
Fabio Graziosi · November 2026Counter-Strike 2 looks great and its maps are beautifully crafted, but compared to Call of Duty it offers much more tactical gameplay, without the usual frantic movement. It runs natively on Linux, but you really need to play it with mouse and keyboard, since the gamepad experience feels clunky and poorly suited.
What we liked
- +Top-tier visuals and carefully reworked maps
- +Flawless native Linux support (Vulkan), no Proton needed
- +The benchmark tactical shooter for anyone who loves precision and teamplay
Less convincing
- −Stiff movement system compared to modern arcade shooters like CoD (no slides or frantic sprints)
- −Gamepad play isn't great: you need mouse and keyboard to handle everything properly
- −Very heavy in 4K on an iGPU (23 FPS average at 4K High on Radeon 780M, you'll need 1080p for smooth gameplay)
How we tested it
Performance
Average FPS over 9 min 59 s of gameplay, measured with MangoHud. The line marks 60 FPS. Average FPS: how many frames per second on average. 1% low: the FPS in the worst moments (the slowest 1% of frames). The closer the 1% low is to the average, the smoother the game, without stutters.
Also applies to other mini PCs with the same Radeon 780M graphics: Ryzen 7 8845HS, Ryzen 7 8745HS, Ryzen 9 7940HS Same integrated graphics, so similar FPS. They can vary a bit with RAM (speed and dual channel) and with the power limit set by the manufacturer.
Test timeline
Power is the processor's (CPU and graphics) as read by MangoHud: at the wall it's a few watts more.
Moving on to Counter-Strike 2, a game that splits opinions a bit compared to shooters like Call of Duty. Visually, there's nothing to complain about: the graphics are excellent and the maps are superbly made, polished to a shine with the Source 2 engine. On the gameplay side, though, the structure is completely different from your usual arcade FPS: movement is much stiffer, and you can't pull off all those dynamic moves (like slides or frantic sprints) that games like CoD have gotten us used to.
Another key point is the controls: with a gamepad, movement feels awkward and it's decidedly unrewarding. CS2 has always been built to be played with mouse and keyboard, and in this version too, controller play remains a no-go if you want to be even remotely responsive.
On the technical and performance side, the game runs natively on Linux using the Vulkan API on CachyOS (Kernel 7.3.1). In our test in 4K on the High graphics preset on the Radeon 780M, MangoHud recorded 23.4 FPS average. Clearly, 4K High is out of reach for an integrated GPU; to play CS2 smoothly and competitively on a Mini PC, you'll need to set the resolution to 1080p and lower the graphics settings to hit high frame rates.
