Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is an old title, but it remains extremely sensitive to hardware choices, and the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F plus Intel Arc B580 pairing delivers a wide spread of frame rates depending on how you configure it. Across all four tested resolutions, the measured average FPS spans from 135 at 4K Ultra to 527 at 1080p Low, and the settings ladder tells a clear story: this combo is never truly starved for performance, but the gap between presets widens as resolution drops, which points to where the CPU ends and the GPU takes over.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows show a consistent ordering of presets at every resolution: Low is fastest, Medium is second, High is third, and Ultra is the slowest. There are no exceptions in the data, so the hierarchy is stable. At 1080p, the spread is enormous: Low averages 527 FPS, Medium 449, High 388, and Ultra 332. That is a 195 FPS difference between the lowest and highest preset. At 1440p the same order holds: Low 363, Medium 309, High 267, Ultra 228. At 4K the pattern remains: Low 214, Medium 182, High 158, Ultra 135.

For competitive play, the recommended setting is Low at 1080p. The 527 FPS average is the highest measured in the entire dataset, and CS:GO rewards raw frame rate for input latency and smoothness. The gap between Low and Medium at 1080p is 78 FPS (527 to 449), which is a meaningful advantage for a title where every millisecond counts. Low at 1440p is also strong: 363 FPS, which is still far above the refresh rate of any common 1440p monitor. If you want a balance of visual fidelity and speed, Medium at 1080p (449 FPS) or Medium at 1440p (309 FPS) are the sweet spots, as they keep the frame rate well above 300 FPS at 1440p and above 400 FPS at 1080p while adding some effects over Low.

Ultra is the only preset that drops below 300 FPS at 1440p (228) and below 200 FPS at 4K (135). For a fast-paced shooter, those are still high numbers, but the relative cost of Ultra is large. At 1080p, moving from High to Ultra costs 56 FPS (388 to 332), and from Medium to Ultra costs 117 FPS (449 to 332). The data shows that Ultra is the least efficient preset in this pairing. The Medium preset is the best overall recommendation because it offers the highest frame rate per visual step: at 1080p Medium averages 449, at 1440p Medium averages 309, and at 4K Medium averages 182. The only measured min/max values in the pack are for Medium: at 1080p the range is 381 to 516, at 1440p it is 262 to 355, and at 4K it is 155 to 210. This means Medium also has a known frame time floor, which is useful for predicting lows. For maximum frame rate, Low at 1080p is the pick. For a balanced experience, Medium at any resolution is the best measured compromise.

FAQ

Q: What is the fastest preset for this CPU/GPU combo?

A: Low at 1920x1080, with an average of 527 FPS. That is the highest average measured across all resolution and preset combinations in the data.

Q: How much performance is lost by playing at 4K instead of 1080p?

A: At the Low preset, 4K averages 214 FPS versus 527 at 1080p, a drop of 313 FPS or about 59%. At Medium, 4K averages 182 versus 449 at 1080p, a drop of 267 FPS. At High, 4K averages 158 versus 388 at 1080p, a drop of 230 FPS. At Ultra, 4K averages 135 versus 332 at 1080p, a drop of 197 FPS.

Q: Does the combo ever drop below 155 FPS in the measured rows?

A: No. For the rows that include a minFps value (Medium preset at each resolution), the lowest recorded average minimum is 155 FPS at 4K Medium. The minFps for Low, High, and Ultra presets is not provided in the data.

Q: Which preset is the best for a 360Hz monitor?

A: Low at 1080p, with 527 FPS, is the only measured preset that averages over 500 FPS. Medium at 1080p averages 449 FPS, which is also above 360Hz. At 1440p, only Low (363) and Medium (309) are close to the 360Hz mark, but none exceed it.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B580's average benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Arc B580 has an average benchmark score of 23021. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP, scores 23061, which is 0.2% higher. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 scores 22895, which is 0.6% lower. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 scores 23172, which is 0.7% higher. The NVIDIA P106-100 scores 23249, which is 1% higher.

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F a strong multi-threaded processor?

A: Yes. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 20851, and its PassMark multi-thread score is 24389. It sits at the 77th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25005. Its closest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F, scores 24964, a delta of 0.2%, meaning the 8400F is essentially tied with the 7500F in average CPU performance, with a 0.2% margin.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 8000 series, based on the Zen 4 architecture with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost of 4.70 GHz. It sits on the AMD Socket AM5 and has a 65W TDP. Its 3DMark single-thread score is 951, and its 3DMark 2-thread score is 1874, which indicates that it has strong single- and lightly-threaded performance for a game like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which typically relies on a few cores. The 8400F's 3DMark 4-thread score is 3563, and its 8-thread score is 5275, showing that scaling continues but with diminishing returns beyond 8 threads. The max-thread score is 6165, which is only 17% higher than the 8-thread score, confirming that the game is not heavily multi-threaded and that the CPU is not the limiting factor at lower resolutions.

In the measured frame data, the CPU's contribution is most evident at low settings and low resolution. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 527 FPS, which is far above what most GPUs can deliver at that preset. At 1440p Low, it still hits 363 FPS, and at 4K Low it hits 214 FPS. The drop from 1080p Low to 4K Low is 313 FPS, and the drop from 1080p Medium to 4K Medium is 305 FPS. These numbers are not linear with pixel count, which suggests that the CPU is keeping up well, and the GPU is the primary limiter at higher resolutions. The CPU's PassMark single-thread score is 3685, and its PassMark physics score is 1332, both of which indicate solid performance for a game that depends on physics and logic. The CPU's nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F, has an average score of 24964, a 0.2% difference, meaning the 8400F is essentially the same CPU in raw benchmark terms.

The 8400F's 16MB L3 cache is shared across all cores, and its 1MB L2 cache per core is large enough to keep the game working set local. The CPU's 3DMark max-thread score of 6165 and Cinebench R23 multi-core of 20851 confirm that it is not a bottleneck in this game; the game's frame rate scales more with the GPU settings than the CPU settings, as seen from the fact that lowering settings from Ultra to Low at 1080p raises FPS by 195, which is a GPU-driven change.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F + Intel Arc B580 combo ranks 2781 out of 3719 tested combos in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. That puts this pairing in the 15th percentile of all combos tested, which may sound low, but the context matters: the game is an older title that is very playable on modest hardware, and the rank is relative to the entire database, which includes many high-end CPUs and GPUs. The combination's rank is not a sign of weak absolute performance; the measured average FPS is high. For example, at 1080p High it averages 388 FPS, and at 1080p Medium it averages 449.

The combo's rank is lower than what the GPU's average benchmark score might suggest. The Arc B580 sits at the 68th percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 23021. Its nearest rival, the RTX 3080, scores 23172, which is 0.7% higher, putting the B580 essentially on par with a high-end GPU from a few years ago. The CPU is also strong: the 8400F is at the 77th percentile of all CPUs, with an average score of 25005. Yet the combo ranks in the 15th percentile of combos in this game. This discrepancy is explained by the fact that the rank includes all combos, many of which have higher-end GPUs and CPUs, and CS:GO is not a game that scales heavily with GPU power beyond 1080p. The rank is also a reflection of the fact that the data is measured, not necessarily indicative of the combo's price or value, and the game's engine is old.

The combo's rank in the game is 2781 out of 3719, which is below the median of 1860. However, the absolute FPS numbers are high by any standard. At 1080p Low, it hits 527 FPS, which is far above the frame rate of many competitive shooter players. The rank is a relative measure, and the FPS is an absolute measure, and the two tell different stories. For a player with a 144Hz monitor, the rank is irrelevant because the combo delivers 144+ FPS at every preset and resolution, except 4K Ultra which still hits 135.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data shows a consistent pattern: as resolution increases, average FPS drops, but the drop is not proportional to the pixel count. The pixel count from 1080p to 1440p is an increase of 78%, but the average FPS drop across presets is much smaller. For example, at Low, 1080p is 527, 1440p is 363, and 4K is 214. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 164 FPS, a 31% loss. The drop from 1440p to 4K is 149 FPS, a 41% loss. At Medium, 1080p is 449, 1440p is 309, and 4K is 182. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 140 FPS (31%), and from 1440p to 4K is 127 FPS (41%). At High, 388 to 267 to 158: 31% and 41% loss. At Ultra, 332 to 228 to 135: 31% and 41% loss. The consistency of the percentage loss across presets is striking: the resolution penalty is nearly identical regardless of settings.

This pattern indicates that the limiting component at these settings is the GPU, not the CPU or memory. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would stay flat as resolution increases, because the CPU would struggle at any resolution. Instead, the FPS drops have a consistent ratio, which is a classic sign of GPU-bound rendering. The CPU's 3DMark single-thread score of 951 and its 6-core/12-thread design are more than sufficient for CS:GO's single-threaded engine, and the GPU's average benchmark score of 23021 is in line with an RTX 3080-level GPU, so the GPU is the component that scales with resolution. The B580's 12GB of GDDR6 memory and 456.0 GB/s bandwidth are not a constraint at 4K, as the game is light on VRAM, but the pixel fill rate of 213.6 GPixel/s and the 13.67 TFLOPS FP32 are the performance ceiling. At 4K Ultra, the GPU is fully utilized, yielding 135 FPS, which is still a high frame rate for 4K in an esports title.

Another way to see the GPU limit is the difference between Low and Ultra at each resolution. At 1080p, Ultra is 63% of Low (332 vs 527). At 1440p, Ultra is 49% of Low (228 vs 363). At 4K, Ultra is 63% of Low (135 vs 214). The ratio is roughly consistent, again pointing to a GPU-bound scenario where the GPU's work per pixel is the dominant factor. The CPU is not the bottleneck at any resolution, because even at 1080p Low, the CPU is still producing 527 FPS, which is a high CPU frame rate. The only way to increase FPS further would be to use a stronger GPU, but the data does not include such a comparison.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following are the exact measured averages and mins/maxs from the data.

1920x1080 (Full HD):

• Low: average 527 FPS. No min/max provided.
• Medium: average 449 FPS, min 381, max 516.
• High: average 388 FPS. No min/max.
• Ultra: average 332 FPS. No min/max.

2560x1440 (Quad HD):

• Low: average 363 FPS.
• Medium: average 309 FPS, min 262, max 355.
• High: average 267 FPS.
• Ultra: average 228 FPS.

3840x2160 (4K UHD):

• Low: average 214 FPS.
• Medium: average 182 FPS, min 155, max 210.
• High: average 158 FPS.
• Ultra: average 137 FPS.

The only rows with min/max data are the Medium presets at each resolution. At 1080p Medium, the frame rate swings from 381 to 516, a range of 135 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the range is 93 FPS (262 to 355). At 4K Medium, the range is 55 FPS (155 to 210). The range shrinks as resolution increases, which is further evidence that the GPU is the limiting factor: at lower resolutions, the CPU and GPU swap role, causing wider frame pacing; at higher resolutions, the GPU is consistently loaded, reducing the variance. The 4K Medium minimum of 155 FPS is still above the refresh rate of most 4K monitors (60-144Hz), so the combo is capable of 4K gaming at Medium with a comfortable margin. The 1080p Low average of 527 FPS is the peak of the data, and the 4K Ultra average of 135 FPS is the lowest.

Across all 12 measured rows, the average of the averages is 283 FPS. The median of the averages is 210 FPS. The data shows a combo that is, in absolute terms, fast at every resolution and preset, and the only strategic question is whether to prioritize the highest frame rate (Low at 1080p) or the highest visual fidelity (Ultra at 1440p or 4K). The measured numbers confirm that the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and Intel Arc B580 are a capable pairing for Counter-Strike Global Offensive, with the CPU never becoming a bottleneck and the GPU providing strong performance up to 4K.