Counter-Strike 2

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the Intel Arc B390 produces a Counter-Strike 2 experience that is firmly below average among all tested CPU-GPU combinations, ranking 2535 out of 2870 combos. This places the pairing in the 12th percentile of tested systems, indicating that while the game is playable at lower settings, the hardware combination struggles to deliver the high frame rates that competitive FPS players typically seek. The measured data shows that the combo’s performance is heavily dependent on resolution and settings, with a wide spread between the fastest and slowest configurations tested.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 2535 out of 2870 tested combinations places it in the bottom 12% of all systems benchmarked in Counter-Strike 2. This is a decisive indicator that the Intel Arc B390, despite its modern architecture, is the limiting factor in this pairing. The GPU’s own benchmark percentile versus all GPUs is just 9, and its average benchmark score of 1482 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals, which include the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (deltaPct 1.3), NVIDIA GeForce 800M (deltaPct 1.5), NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM (deltaPct 2.5), and NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 (deltaPct 2.7). These rivals are all entry-level or legacy parts, which contextualizes the Arc B390’s performance tier.

In contrast, the Intel Core i5-11400F is a far more capable component. The CPU’s percentile versus all CPUs is 71, and its average benchmark score of 17177 places it near the AMD EPYC 7H12 (deltaPct 0.3), Intel Core i5-12450H (deltaPct -0.4), AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G (deltaPct -0.6), and Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (deltaPct 0.6). These rivals span server, mobile, and desktop segments, yet the i5-11400F holds its own with a margin of less than 1% in either direction. This suggests the CPU is not the bottleneck in most scenarios, and the low combo rank is attributable almost entirely to the GPU’s limited throughput.

The measured frame rates confirm this imbalance. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo reaches 179 FPS, which is respectable for a competitive shooter. However, the same resolution with Ultra settings drops to 86 FPS, a 52% reduction. The gap between the GPU’s theoretical capabilities and the CPU’s headroom becomes evident when comparing the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482, which is a low-end result, against the CPU’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14340 and single-core score of 2024. The data indicates that the i5-11400F can feed frames far faster than the Arc B390 can render them, especially at higher graphical presets.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear hierarchy of playable settings across resolutions. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 179 FPS, which is the highest average frame rate recorded for this combo. Medium drops to 149 FPS, High to 111 FPS, and Ultra to 86 FPS. For a fast-paced FPS like Counter-Strike 2, the data suggests that Low or Medium at 1080p is the optimal choice for maintaining high refresh rates, as both exceed the 144 Hz threshold that many competitive monitors use. The Medium preset also provides a minimum FPS of 126, which is above the 120 FPS mark, ensuring smoother frame pacing during intense firefights.

At 1440p, the Low preset yields 118 FPS, while Medium produces 98 FPS with a minimum of 84 FPS. High drops to 73 FPS, and Ultra falls to 57 FPS. For players with 1440p displays, Low is the only preset that approaches the 120 FPS target, and Medium remains playable but with occasional dips below 90 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p is not recommended for competitive play, as the average of 57 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold that most players consider minimum viable.

At 4K (3840x2160), the results are marginal. Low produces 66 FPS, Medium 55 FPS with a minimum of 47 FPS, High 41 FPS, and Ultra 32 FPS. Even the Low preset at 4K struggles to maintain a consistent 60 FPS, and the minimum FPS on Medium suggests stutter-prone gameplay. For this combo, 4K is only suitable for casual play or screenshot purposes, and even then, the Low preset is the only one that approaches playability. The data strongly suggests that 1080p with Low or Medium settings offers the best balance of frame rate and visual fidelity for this hardware pairing.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and reveals the GPU’s limitation. At Low settings, the combo delivers 179 FPS at 1080p, 118 FPS at 1440p, and 66 FPS at 4K. This represents a 34% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 44% reduction from 1440p to 4K. At Medium settings, the progression is 149 FPS at 1080p, 98 FPS at 1440p, and 55 FPS at 4K, with drops of 34% and 44% respectively. The High preset follows a similar pattern: 111 FPS at 1080p, 73 FPS at 1440p, and 41 FPS at 4K, with reductions of 34% and 44%.

The consistency of these percentage drops across presets is notable. It indicates that the scaling is resolution-bound rather than settings-bound, meaning the GPU’s pixel throughput is the primary constraint. The Arc B390’s pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s, and its texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s, which are modest figures for a modern GPU. As resolution increases, the number of pixels and textures that need to be processed grows quadratically, and this GPU’s fixed pixel and texture throughput cannot keep pace.

The CPU’s role in this scaling is minimal. The i5-11400F has a boost clock of 4.40 GHz and 12 threads, which provides ample single-thread performance for Counter-Strike 2’s engine. The CPU’s single-thread benchmark scores, such as 868 in 3DMark and 2024 in Cinebench R23, are strong for a 2021 desktop part. Even at 1080p Low, where the CPU has to feed frames as fast as possible, the combo reaches 179 FPS, suggesting that the CPU is not a bottleneck at this resolution. The frame rate ceiling at higher resolutions is clearly set by the GPU, as evidenced by the uniform percentage drops across all settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this CPU-GPU pairing in Counter-Strike 2?

A: Based on the measured data, 1080p with Low settings provides the highest average FPS at 179, while Medium delivers 149 FPS with a minimum of 126 FPS. Both are suitable for competitive play. At 1440p, Low is the only preset that exceeds 100 FPS, with 118 FPS. 4K is not recommended for serious play, as even Low only reaches 66 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B390 has an average benchmark score of 1482, which is 1.3% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463), 1.5% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce 800M (1460), 2.5% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM (1446), and 2.7% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 (1443). These are all low-end GPUs, indicating the Arc B390 sits in the entry-level performance tier.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-11400F a bottleneck for the Arc B390?

A: The data suggests the CPU is not the limiting factor. The i5-11400F has a percentile of 71 versus all CPUs and an average benchmark score of 17177, which is within 0.6% of its nearest rivals. In Counter-Strike 2, the combo reaches 179 FPS at 1080p Low, which is a high enough frame rate to indicate the GPU is the primary constraint, especially given the GPU’s 9th percentile ranking.

Q: What are the minimum FPS values for this combo, and where are they recorded?

A: The measured data includes minimum FPS only for the Medium preset at each resolution. At 1080p Medium, the minimum FPS is 126; at 1440p Medium, it is 84; and at 4K Medium, it is 47. No minimum FPS values are provided for Low, High, or Ultra presets.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations in Counter-Strike 2?

A: The combo ranks 2535 out of 2870 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 12%. This low ranking is primarily driven by the GPU’s weak performance, as the CPU is relatively more capable.

Q: What is the CPU’s memory bandwidth and how does it affect gaming?

A: The i5-11400F supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel bus and a memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. This is sufficient for feeding the GPU in most scenarios, and the measured frame rates indicate that memory bandwidth is not a bottleneck in Counter-Strike 2, as the CPU’s performance metrics are competitive with its peers.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is the dominant factor in this combo’s Counter-Strike 2 performance, and its specifications explain why. The GPU is based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, built on a 3 nm process, with a chip codenamed Panther Lake. It features 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster operation units, along with 12 ray tracing cores. The boost clock is 2500 MHz, while the base clock is 300 MHz. The GPU’s FP32 performance is 7.680 TFLOPS, and its FP16 performance is 15.36 TFLOPS (2:1). The pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s.

These are modest numbers for a discrete GPU, but the Arc B390 is actually an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with a slot width of IGP and no power connectors. Its TDP is 80 W, and its memory is “System Shared,” meaning it relies on the CPU’s DDR4 memory rather than dedicated VRAM. The memory bandwidth is “System Dependent,” which in this case is tied to the i5-11400F’s 51.2 GB/s dual-channel DDR4 configuration. This shared memory architecture is a significant limitation, as it reduces effective bandwidth compared to a dedicated GPU with its own VRAM.

The GPU’s benchmark results are poor. The only recorded benchmark, 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, yields a score of 1482. This places the Arc B390 in the 9th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals are all legacy NVIDIA parts from the early 2010s, such as the GeForce GT 520MX and GeForce GT 710. The deltaPct values of 1.3% to 2.7% indicate that the Arc B390 is only marginally faster than these ancient GPUs, which is a damning assessment for a part released in 2026.

In Counter-Strike 2, the GPU’s limitations manifest as a hard frame rate ceiling. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 179 FPS, but this drops to 66 FPS at 4K Low. The uniform scaling across presets suggests that the GPU’s pixel and texture throughput is the bottleneck. The 60.00 GPixel/s pixel rate and 120.0 GTexel/s texture rate are simply too low to handle higher resolutions efficiently. The GPU also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so it is feature-complete, but raw performance is lacking.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread desktop processor based on the Rocket Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 14 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. The CPU features 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel bus and a memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. The CPU is socketed in Intel Socket 1200 and has a launch MSRP of $157. It is unlocked for overclocking? No, the multiplier is not unlocked, and its production status is end-of-life.

The CPU’s benchmark performance is solid for a mid-range part. In 3DMark, it scores 868 for single-thread, 1691 for 2 threads, 3171 for 4 threads, 4691 for 8 threads, 5619 for 16 threads, and 5652 for max threads. In Cinebench, it scores 204 in R15 single-core and 1445 in R15 multi-core, 850 in R20 single-core and 6022 in R20 multi-core, and 2024 in R23 single-core and 14340 in R23 multi-core. Geekbench scores are 1777 for single-core and 7737 for multi-core. PassMark tests show a single-thread score of 2981, a multithread score of 16908, and a physics score of 842.

The CPU’s percentile versus all CPUs is 71, and its average benchmark score of 17177 places it nearly exactly between the AMD EPYC 7H12 (17120, deltaPct 0.3) and the Intel Core i5-12450H (17239, deltaPct -0.4). This indicates that the i5-11400F performs on par with a server EPYC chip and a mobile laptop CPU, which confirms its per-core efficiency. In Counter-Strike 2, the CPU’s role is to handle game logic, physics, and draw calls. The measured frame rates show that even at 1080p Low, the combo reaches 179 FPS, which suggests the CPU can feed the GPU with frames faster than the GPU can render them.

The CPU’s 12 threads are more than sufficient for Counter-Strike 2, which is not heavily multi-threaded. The single-thread performance, as evidenced by the 2024 Cinebench R23 score, is strong enough to avoid bottlenecking in most scenarios. The 4.40 GHz boost clock provides high instantaneous performance, and the 12 MB L3 cache helps reduce memory latency. The CPU’s memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s is shared with the GPU, which is a potential constraint, but the data shows that frame rates scale more with GPU load than CPU load, confirming that the i5-11400F is not the weak link in this pairing.