Counter-Strike 2

# How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 paired with the Intel Arc B370 ranks 2,642 out of 2,870 tested combos in Counter-Strike 2, placing it in the bottom 8% of all system pairings measured. This is a low position, driven almost entirely by the graphics side of the equation: the Intel Arc B370 sits at the 5th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 1,184 — a figure that places it alongside legacy mobile and entry-level desktop parts from over a decade ago. Its nearest rivals include the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1,186, deltaPct -0.2), the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1,190, deltaPct -0.5), and the AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1,192, deltaPct -0.7). The only rival it beats is the AMD FirePro M2000 (1,168, deltaPct +1.4). That context matters: this is not a GPU built for high-refresh competitive shooters, and the measured FPS data confirms it.

The CPU, by contrast, is a far more capable component. The Ryzen 5 5500 ranks in the 73rd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19,593. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Ryzen AI 5 430 (19,617, deltaPct -0.1), the Intel Core i5-12500 (19,668, deltaPct -0.4), the Intel Core i7-10700F (19,499, deltaPct +0.5), and the Intel Core i5-11600KF (19,723, deltaPct -0.7). In raw compute terms, the 5500 is effectively neck-and-neck with those parts, differing by less than a percentage point in either direction. But in Counter-Strike 2, the pairing’s overall rank is dragged down by the GPU’s inability to push frames at competitive levels, particularly at higher resolutions and settings. The data shows a system that is CPU-balanced in theory but GPU-limited in practice — and the gameplay experience reflects that imbalance.

# FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Counter-Strike 2 at 1920x1080 with High settings?

A: Yes, but barely at competitive smoothness. The measured average FPS at 1080p High is 100, which is playable but well below the 144+ that serious CS2 players typically target. At 1080p Low, the average jumps to 162 FPS, which clears that bar.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: 1920x1080 with Low settings gives the highest measured average at 162 FPS. At 2560x1440, the best average is 107 FPS (Low), and at 3840x2160, the best average is 60 FPS (Low). The data suggests 1080p is the only resolution where this combo approaches high-refresh territory.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B370 compare to its closest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B370’s average benchmark score is 1,184. It trails the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1,186) by 0.2%, the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1,190) by 0.5%, and the AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1,192) by 0.7%. It leads the AMD FirePro M2000 (1,168) by 1.4%. These are all sub-1% differences, placing the B370 in a cluster of very low-end parts.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 5500 a bottleneck for the Arc B370?

A: No. The CPU ranks in the 73rd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19,593. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-12500 (19,668), is only 0.4% faster. The GPU, however, sits at the 5th percentile, so the Arc B370 is the clear limiting factor in this pairing.

Q: What are the measured FPS numbers at 2560x1440?

A: At 1440p, the averages are: Low 107 FPS, Medium 89 FPS (with min 76 and max 102), High 66 FPS, and Ultra 52 FPS. Only the Low preset clears 100 FPS, and Ultra dips below 60.

Q: How does this combo’s rank break down by component strength?

A: The combo ranks 2,642 out of 2,870 in Counter-Strike 2. The CPU is strong (73rd percentile), but the GPU is extremely weak (5th percentile), and the measured FPS data shows that the GPU dictates the experience across all tested resolutions and settings.

# Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data points to a clear hierarchy: Low is the only preset that delivers consistently high frame rates, and even then, only at 1920x1080 does it approach what competitive players expect. At 1080p Low, the average is 162 FPS — the single highest measured value in the entire dataset. Medium at 1080p drops to 134 FPS (min 114, max 154), which is still smooth but leaves less headroom. High at 1080p falls to 100 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 78 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the pattern repeats but with lower absolute numbers: Low averages 107 FPS, Medium 89 FPS (min 76, max 102), High 66 FPS, and Ultra 52 FPS. At 3840x2160, only Low clears 60 FPS (exactly 60), while Medium averages 50 FPS (min 42, max 57), High 37 FPS, and Ultra 29 FPS.

The data suggests that for players prioritizing frame rate, 1080p Low is the best experience this combo can offer. It is the only tested configuration that exceeds 160 FPS on average, which is meaningful for a fast-paced shooter like Counter-Strike 2. If visual fidelity matters more, 1080p Medium at 134 FPS is a reasonable middle ground, but the jump to High costs 34 FPS on average — a 25% drop. At 1440p, Low remains the only preset above 100 FPS, and at 4K, no preset exceeds 60 FPS. The recommendation is clear: stay at 1080p, use Low or Medium, and accept that this hardware is not built for high-settings competitive play.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset includes measured average FPS for three resolutions and four settings presets, with min/max values recorded only for Medium presets. At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low averages 162 FPS, Medium averages 134 FPS (min 114, max 154), High averages 100 FPS, and Ultra averages 78 FPS. The step from Medium to High is the largest single drop at this resolution, losing 34 FPS (25.4%). The step from High to Ultra loses another 22 FPS (22%). From Low to Medium, the drop is 28 FPS (17.3%).

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low 107 FPS, Medium 89 FPS (min 76, max 102), High 66 FPS, and Ultra 52 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 18 FPS (16.8%), from Medium to High is 23 FPS (25.8%), and from High to Ultra is 14 FPS (21.2%). Notably, the Medium preset’s min FPS of 76 at 1440p is lower than the High preset’s average of 66 FPS, but the max of 102 shows significant variance.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low 60 FPS, Medium 50 FPS (min 42, max 57), High 37 FPS, and Ultra 29 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 10 FPS (16.7%), from Medium to High is 13 FPS (26%), and from High to Ultra is 8 FPS (21.6%). At 4K, even the Low preset barely hits 60 FPS, and Ultra is below 30 FPS, which is effectively unplayable for a shooter.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently shows a min/max spread of roughly 15 FPS (e.g., 114–154 at 1080p, 76–102 at 1440p, 42–57 at 4K). This indicates that frame pacing is not perfectly stable, but the variance is moderate rather than extreme. The data also shows that resolution scaling is nearly linear for this combo: moving from 1080p to 1440p reduces FPS by roughly 34–38% across presets, and moving from 1440p to 4K reduces FPS by another 44–50%. The GPU’s limited compute resources are the clear cause.

# Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows how dramatically this combo’s performance degrades as resolution increases. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 162 at 1080p to 107 at 1440p to 60 at 4K. That is a 34% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 44% drop from 1440p to 4K. At Medium settings, the averages are 134, 89, and 50, respectively — a 33.6% drop and then a 43.8% drop. At High settings, the averages are 100, 66, and 37 — a 34% drop and then a 43.9% drop. At Ultra settings, the averages are 78, 52, and 29 — a 33.3% drop and then a 44.2% drop.

The consistency of these percentages is telling. Across all four presets, the resolution scaling penalty is nearly identical: roughly one-third lost from 1080p to 1440p, and roughly another 44% lost from 1440p to 4K. This uniformity indicates that the limiting component is the GPU, not the CPU or memory bandwidth. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the FPS to stay relatively flat at lower resolutions (where CPU bound) and only drop at higher resolutions (where GPU bound). Instead, the FPS drops proportionally at every step, which is the signature of a GPU that is saturated even at 1080p.

The Intel Arc B370 has a pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s, with FP32 compute of 6.144 TFLOPS. Those are extremely low numbers for a modern GPU, and the measured FPS reflects them. At 4K, the GPU simply cannot fill frames fast enough: even Low settings only average 60 FPS, and Ultra drops to 29. The CPU, by contrast, is a 6-core/12-thread Zen 3 part with a boost clock of 4.20 GHz and 16 MB of L3 cache. It is more than capable of feeding frames at 1080p, as evidenced by the 162 FPS Low result, but the GPU’s rendering ceiling is the wall that this combo hits.

The practical takeaway is that this system is best used at 1080p. The data shows that dropping resolution from 1440p to 1080p yields a 51% FPS increase at Low settings (107 to 162), which is a massive gain for a single setting change. Dropping from 4K to 1080p more than doubles the FPS at every preset. For Counter-Strike 2, where frame rate is king, 1080p is the only sensible choice.

# CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, built on TSMC’s 7 nm process with 10,700 million transistors on a 180 mm² die. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, with 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 16 MB of shared L3. It supports DDR4 memory in dual-channel mode with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s, and it connects via PCIe Gen 3. The TDP is 65 W, and it launched at an MSRP of $159.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 5500 shows a clear multi-threaded strength: Cinebench R23 multicore scores 16,429, while single-core scores 2,319. Geekbench multicore is 7,976, and single-core is 1,730. PassMark multithread is 19,330, with single-thread at 3,058. The 3DMark results show scaling from 1,645 (2 threads) to 5,386 (16 threads) and 5,411 (max threads), indicating that the chip scales well with thread count up to its physical limits. The 5500’s average benchmark score of 19,593 places it in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rivals are all within 0.7% of its score.

In Counter-Strike 2, however, the CPU’s role is secondary. The game is not particularly demanding on cores; the 5500’s 6 cores and 12 threads are more than sufficient for the title’s typical thread usage. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (162) suggests that the CPU can feed the GPU at high rates, but the GPU’s low ceiling (5th percentile) means that the 5500’s headroom is never fully utilized. At 4K, the CPU is almost certainly idle waiting for the GPU, as the 37 FPS High result and 29 FPS Ultra result are far below what the 5500 could theoretically support.

The data indicates that the Ryzen 5 5500 is not a bottleneck in this pairing. Its 3DMark 16-thread score of 5,386 and PassMark multithread of 19,330 show a capable multi-core part, and its single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core 2,319, Geekbench single-core 1,730) is respectable for gaming. The 4.20 GHz boost clock and 16 MB L3 cache are adequate for modern shooters. The limiting factor is unambiguously the Intel Arc B370, which has a 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1,184 and sits at the 5th percentile of all GPUs. For a game like Counter-Strike 2, where high FPS at low settings is the competitive standard, this CPU is more than adequate — but the GPU prevents the combo from delivering the experience that the CPU alone could enable. If this CPU were paired with a stronger GPU, the measured FPS would be substantially higher, but with the Arc B370, the system is confined to the low end of the performance spectrum.