Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2, a competitive FPS built on the Source 2 engine, presents a demanding workload for older hardware. This analysis examines the measured performance of the Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570, a combination that ranks 1536th out of 1632 tested configurations for this title. The data, derived from direct measurement, reveals a system that is heavily constrained by its graphics processor, particularly at higher resolutions, yet capable of delivering playable frame rates in specific scenarios.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data demonstrates a steep performance cliff as resolution increases, a classic indicator of GPU-bound rendering. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combination produces 156.6 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 drops this to 102.2 FPS, a 34.7% reduction. The jump to 3840x2160 is even more punishing, yielding just 58.7 FPS, which is a further 42.6% reduction from the 1440p result. This pattern confirms that the Radeon RX 570's rendering pipeline saturates quickly with the increased pixel count.

The scaling behavior across all settings follows this same trajectory. At High settings, the frame rate falls from 99.7 FPS at 1080p to 66.2 FPS at 1440p and then to 37.3 FPS at 4K. The gap between Low and High settings also widens with resolution. At 1080p, the difference is 57 FPS (156.6 vs 99.7), but at 4K, the delta shrinks to 21.4 FPS (58.7 vs 37.3). This shrinking gap indicates that at 4K, the GPU is so overwhelmed by pixel fill rate demands that the settings-based shader complexity has less relative impact. The limiting component is unequivocally the GPU, as the CPU's frame time contribution becomes negligible when the graphics card is struggling to output frames.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570, built on the GCN 4.0 architecture with a Polaris 20 chip, operates with a base clock of 1168 MHz and a boost clock of 1244 MHz. Its 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. In Counter-Strike 2, this memory capacity and bandwidth are critical. The data shows that even at 1080p Ultra settings, the card can only manage 78.2 FPS, suggesting that the 4 GB frame buffer and the 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are insufficient for the game's highest visual fidelity at high refresh rates.

The GPU's benchmark standing places it at the 74th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 30158. Its nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, which scores 30109 (a 0.2% difference), and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, scoring 30097 (also a 0.2% difference). While these scores are similar, the RX 570's end-of-life production status and 14 nm process node highlight its age. The texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s are the raw throughput figures that dictate its 1080p performance ceiling, which is clearly below the 144Hz mark in most settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to use for high refresh rate gaming with this hardware?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 with Low settings is the only configuration that approaches high refresh rate territory, achieving 156.6 FPS. At Medium settings, the average drops to 126.7 FPS, and at High it falls to 99.7 FPS.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Counter-Strike 2?

A: No. The maximum average FPS at 3840x2160 is 58.7 FPS on Low settings. On Ultra settings, the average falls to 26.1 FPS, which is far below the threshold for smooth, competitive play.

Q: How does the CPU's benchmark score compare to its direct rivals?

A: The Intel Core i5-12400 has an average benchmark score of 19850. It is 0.1% faster than the Intel Core i7-9700 (19831) and 0.4% faster than the Intel Core i5-11600K (19771). It is 0.2% slower than the Intel Core i7-8700 (19894).

Q: What is the impact of switching from High to Medium settings at 1440p?

A: Switching from High to Medium at 2560x1440 increases the average frame rate from 66.2 FPS to 86.2 FPS, a 30.2% improvement. This is a substantial gain for a one-step reduction in visual fidelity.

Q: Is the RX 570's performance closer to modern cards or older ones?

A: Its average benchmark score of 30158 places it within 0.8% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile (29928) and 0.2% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (30109), according to the nearest rival data.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the difference is 78.4 FPS. Low settings average 156.6 FPS, while Ultra settings average 78.2 FPS, showing that the Ultra preset halves the performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset provides a matrix of results across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the frame rates are 156.6 (Low), 126.7 (Medium), 99.7 (High), and 78.2 (Ultra). The progression shows a consistent penalty for each step up in quality, with the largest single drop occurring between Medium and High, which is a 27.0 FPS reduction.

Moving to 2560x1440, the results are 102.2 (Low), 86.2 (Medium), 66.2 (High), and 51.6 (Ultra). The relative ordering remains the same, but the absolute values have decreased significantly. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 50.6 FPS. At 3840x2160, the figures are 58.7 (Low), 47.5 (Medium), 37.3 (High), and 26.1 (Ultra). Here, the gap between Low and Ultra is 32.6 FPS, but all values are below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay.

The data reveals that the scaling from 1080p to 1440p is roughly linear, but the transition to 4K introduces a non-linear penalty. For example, Low settings drop from 156.6 to 102.2 (a 54.4 FPS loss) between 1080p and 1440p, but then from 102.2 to 58.7 (a 43.5 FPS loss) between 1440p and 4K. This suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s becomes a critical bottleneck at the higher resolution.

Settings Recommendations

Based purely on the measured FPS rows, the optimal configuration for a competitive experience is 1920x1080 with Low settings, yielding 156.6 FPS. This is the only preset that exceeds the 144 Hz refresh rate common among esports monitors. For users willing to sacrifice some smoothness for visual clarity, Medium settings at 1080p still provide 126.7 FPS, which is acceptable for 120 Hz displays.

At 2560x1440, the recommendation shifts based on priority. For frame rate, Low settings provide 102.2 FPS, which is the highest available at this resolution. If visual quality is more important, High settings at 66.2 FPS may be preferable, but this falls below the 75 Hz threshold. The Ultra preset at 1440p, at 51.6 FPS, is not recommended for competitive play due to its significant performance cost. At 3840x2160, no setting is recommended for serious play, as even the Low preset at 58.7 FPS is inconsistent and below the standard 60 FPS target.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, presents a strong foundation for gaming. Its base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz, combined with an 18 MB shared L3 cache, provide ample single-thread performance. The benchmark data shows a single-thread score of 910 in 3dmark and 3456 in Passmark, while multi-threaded scores reach 5890 in 3dmark and 18747 in Passmark. This places the CPU at the 77th percentile of all processors.

In Counter-Strike 2, the CPU's role is less about raw core count and more about per-core performance and cache latency. The i5-12400's Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2249 is indicative of its capability. The measured FPS data suggests that at lower resolutions and settings, the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU, as the 1080p Low result of 156.6 FPS is likely near the CPU's practical limit for this game engine. However, as resolution increases, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, meaning the CPU's performance headroom is unused. The average benchmark score of 19850 positions it just 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-9700 and 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i5-11600K, showing it is a competitive mid-range part. The 65 W TDP and dual-channel memory support round out a package that, in this pairing, is clearly not the bottleneck at higher resolutions.