Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 is a competitive FPS that scales dramatically with resolution, and the measured data for the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 + Intel Arc B570 combination reveals a system that is clearly GPU-bound at higher resolutions but becomes increasingly CPU-sensitive as pixel count drops. At 4K Ultra, the combo manages just 49 FPS, which is a demanding target for any hardware. Dropping to 4K High improves the average to 63 FPS, while 4K Medium reaches 85 FPS. The most significant jump occurs when moving from Medium to Low settings at 4K, where the average leaps to 102 FPS. This 20% gain from a single settings tier reduction indicates that the GPU’s shading workload is the primary bottleneck at this resolution, as reducing it yields immediate and substantial returns. The spread from 49 FPS at Ultra to 102 FPS at Low at 4K shows a 108% performance range, underscoring how much headroom exists in the settings menu for this hardware pairing.

Moving to 2560x1440, the same pattern persists but with more absolute headroom. Ultra settings produce an average of 88 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for high-refresh monitors. High settings boost this to 113 FPS, while Medium hits 151 FPS. The Low preset at 1440p is where the combination truly shines, delivering 182 FPS on average. This progression from 88 to 182 FPS represents a 107% improvement from Ultra to Low, nearly identical to the scaling observed at 4K. The fact that the percentage scaling is so similar across both resolutions suggests that the GPU is still the limiting factor at 1440p, though the absolute numbers indicate that the Arc B570 has enough raw throughput to feed a 144Hz panel when settings are moderated. The minimum FPS recorded at 1440p Medium is 129, which is still comfortably above 60 FPS, indicating that frame pacing remains stable even when the GPU is under load.

At 1920x1080, the system transitions into a different operating regime. The Low preset produces an average of 275 FPS, which is an exceptional result for competitive play. Medium settings yield 229 FPS, while High drops to 171 FPS. Ultra settings at 1080p produce 133 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p is from 275 down to 133 FPS, a 107% range that mirrors the other resolutions. However, the absolute numbers reveal that the CPU is beginning to exert its influence at this resolution. The Ryzen 5 5500, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, has a boost clock of 4.20 GHz and a base clock of 3.60 GHz. Its single-thread performance, as measured by 3dmark_single_thread at 836 and Cinebench R23 single-core at 2319, is respectable but not top-tier. At 1080p Low, the GPU is no longer the sole bottleneck, and the CPU’s frame delivery becomes more critical. The data shows that the system can still push past 275 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any current display, but the gap between 1080p Low and Medium (275 vs 229 FPS) suggests that the GPU is still doing most of the heavy lifting even at this resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial and reveals the GPU-bound nature of this pairing. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 275 at 1080p to 182 at 1440p, a 34% reduction, and then to 102 at 4K, a further 44% reduction from 1440p. This steep decline indicates that the Intel Arc B570’s 10 GB of GDDR6 memory and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth are being saturated as pixel count increases. The GPU’s 160-bit memory bus and 2500 MHz base/boost clock are the same across all resolutions, so the performance drop is purely a function of the increased rendering workload. At High settings, the progression is 171 FPS at 1080p, 113 FPS at 1440p, and 63 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are consistent: 34% from 1080p to 1440p and 44% from 1440p to 4K. This uniform scaling pattern is a classic sign of a GPU that is bandwidth-limited at higher resolutions, as the memory subsystem cannot keep up with the doubling of pixel data.

The Medium preset shows the same trend, with 229 FPS at 1080p, 151 FPS at 1440p, and 85 FPS at 4K. The minimum FPS values at Medium also scale proportionally: 194 at 1080p, 129 at 1440p, and 72 at 4K. This consistency across all settings tiers suggests that the limiting component is the GPU’s rasterization throughput rather than any specific architectural bottleneck. The Arc B570’s 2304 shading units and 80 ROPs are fixed, and their utilization scales directly with resolution. The data indicates that at 4K Ultra, the GPU is fully saturated, producing only 49 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. At 4K Medium, the system achieves 85 FPS, which is playable but requires the user to sacrifice visual fidelity.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is the dominant component in this pairing for Counter-Strike 2, and its specifications directly explain the measured results. The GPU has a base and boost clock of 2500 MHz, which is a single fixed frequency, indicating that the card does not rely on dynamic boosting to manage thermals or power. The 10 GB GDDR6 memory operates at 2375 MHz with a 19 Gbps effective data rate, providing 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming but becomes a limiting factor at 4K, where the larger frame buffer demands more bandwidth. The GPU’s 160-bit bus width is narrower than many high-end competitors, which explains why the performance drop from 1440p to 4K is so pronounced.

The Arc B570’s compute capabilities are substantial, with 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 23.04 TFLOPS of FP16 performance. These numbers translate to strong rasterization throughput, which is why the card can push 275 FPS at 1080p Low. However, the GPU’s percentile ranking of 65 among all GPUs indicates that it is a mid-range part, and its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile and the Intel Arc A750. The Arc A750, which is the predecessor to the B570, has an average benchmark score of 20582, while the B570 scores 20556. This puts the B570 at a 0.1% deficit to the A750, making them effectively equivalent in raw performance. The data shows that the B570’s 150 W TDP and 450 W suggested PSU are modest for the performance delivered, but this does not directly affect the measured FPS in Counter-Strike 2.

The VRAM usage in Counter-Strike 2 is not explicitly measured, but the 10 GB capacity is ample for this game at all settings. The fact that the system achieves 102 FPS at 4K Low indicates that the GPU is not running out of memory, as such a failure would result in severe stuttering or crashes. Instead, the performance degradation from 4K Medium to 4K High (85 to 63 FPS) is a result of increased shading complexity, not memory capacity. The GPU’s 5 nm process node and 19,600 million transistors on a 272 mm² die allow for efficient power delivery, but the raw performance is what matters here. The benchmark results show that the B570 is a capable 1440p card, with 151 FPS at Medium settings, which is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate of most gaming monitors.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 + Intel Arc B570 combination ranks 2286 out of 2870 tested combos in Counter-Strike 2. This places it in the bottom 20% of all pairings, which is surprising given the high FPS numbers at 1080p. The ranking is determined by the average FPS across all tested resolutions and settings, and the system’s poor performance at 4K Ultra (49 FPS) drags down its overall score. The combo’s rank of 2286 indicates that there are many other CPU-GPU pairings that deliver higher average FPS in this game. The Ryzen 5 5500 has a percentile ranking of 73 among all CPUs, meaning it outperforms 73% of processors, but this does not translate to a high combo rank because the GPU is the limiting factor at most resolutions.

The GPU’s percentile ranking of 65 among all GPUs is lower than the CPU’s ranking, which explains why the combo underperforms relative to its components. A system with a better GPU, such as one ranking in the 90th percentile, would likely score much higher in the combo ranking. The nearest CPU rivals to the Ryzen 5 5500 include the AMD Ryzen AI 5 430, which has an average score of 19617 and a delta of -0.1%, and the Intel Core i5-12500, which scores 19668 with a -0.4% delta. These processors are essentially equivalent in performance, meaning the CPU is not the differentiator in this combo’s rank. The bottleneck is clearly the GPU, as evidenced by the fact that the combo’s rank of 2286 is much worse than the CPU’s individual percentile of 73.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the user’s resolution and refresh rate. For 1080p gaming, the Low preset delivers 275 FPS, which is ideal for competitive play on a 240 Hz or 360 Hz monitor. However, the Medium preset at 229 FPS is still well above 144 Hz and offers better visual quality. The data shows that 1080p Ultra at 133 FPS is also playable, but the jump from High (171 FPS) to Ultra (133 FPS) is a 22% performance loss for marginal visual gains. For most players, the Medium preset at 1080p is the sweet spot, as it provides a high frame rate with improved shadows and textures over Low.

At 1440p, the Medium preset at 151 FPS is the best recommendation for high-refresh monitors. The Low preset at 182 FPS is also excellent, but it sacrifices too much visual fidelity for the extra 31 FPS. The High preset at 113 FPS is acceptable for 60 Hz displays but falls short of 144 Hz. For 4K gaming, the Medium preset at 85 FPS is the only viable option for smooth gameplay, as Low at 102 FPS is playable but visually sparse, and High at 63 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold in demanding scenes. The Ultra preset at 49 FPS is not recommended for any gameplay scenario. The measured minimum FPS at 1440p Medium is 129, which ensures no major stutters, while the minimum at 4K Medium is 72, still above 60 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data for this combo is as follows. At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset averages 49 FPS, High averages 63 FPS, Medium averages 85 FPS with a minimum of 72 and maximum of 97, and Low averages 102 FPS. At 2560x1440, Ultra averages 88 FPS, High averages 113 FPS, Medium averages 151 FPS with a minimum of 129 and maximum of 174, and Low averages 182 FPS. At 1920x1080, Ultra averages 133 FPS, High averages 171 FPS, Medium averages 229 FPS with a minimum of 194 and maximum of 263, and Low averages 275 FPS. The minimum FPS values are only recorded for the Medium preset at each resolution, which provides insight into frame pacing. At 1080p Medium, the minimum of 194 FPS shows that the system rarely drops below 194 FPS, which is excellent for competitive play. At 1440p Medium, the minimum of 129 FPS is still above 120 FPS, and at 4K Medium, the minimum of 72 FPS is above 60 FPS.

The gap between Low and Medium settings is consistent across all resolutions: 46 FPS at 1080p, 31 FPS at 1440p, and 17 FPS at 4K. This narrowing gap at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is becoming more the bottleneck, as the absolute performance difference shrinks. The gap between High and Ultra is also consistent: 38 FPS at 1080p, 25 FPS at 1440p, and 14 FPS at 4K. The data shows that the Ultra preset at 4K is the most demanding, with only 49 FPS, while the Low preset at 1080p is the least demanding, with 275 FPS. The measured FPS at 1080p Low is 5.6 times higher than at 4K Ultra, which perfectly illustrates the GPU-bound nature of this system.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 plays a secondary role in this combo, but its performance characteristics are still relevant. The CPU has 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. It supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel bus and 51.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The CPU’s L3 cache is 16 MB, which is modest but sufficient for Counter-Strike 2’s engine. The 3dmark single-thread score of 836 and the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2319 indicate that the CPU has decent per-core performance. In a game like Counter-Strike 2, which is heavily dependent on single-thread performance for game logic and draw calls, the Ryzen 5 5500 is adequate but not outstanding.

The CPU’s multicore performance, as measured by Cinebench R23 at 16429 and Geekbench multicore at 7976, shows that it can handle background tasks while gaming. However, the measured FPS data suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor at 4K, where the GPU is clearly saturated. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 275 FPS, which reflects the CPU’s ability to feed the GPU at high frame rates. The nearest CPU rivals to the Ryzen 5 5500 are all within 0.7% of its average benchmark score, indicating that swapping to a different mid-range CPU would not materially change the FPS in this game. The CPU’s 65 W TDP is low, which helps with thermals, but this is not reflected in the gaming performance. The data shows that for this combo, the GPU is the component that determines whether the system can hit high refresh rates, and the CPU is merely along for the ride.