Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, a 2012 tactical FPS, remains remarkably sensitive to hardware capabilities, and the measured results for the Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the Intel Arc B580 provide a clear picture of modern performance limits. The data indicates that this combination delivers exceptionally high frame rates across all tested settings, but the scaling patterns reveal a nuanced story about where the bottleneck lies depending on the resolution. At 1080p, the system achieves triple-digit averages even at the most demanding preset, while at 4K, the frame rates remain high but show a different performance curve. The benchmark results, drawn from the measured FPS table, show this combo ranking 2781st out of 3719 tested combinations in this specific game, placing it in the upper portion of the database but not at the very top, which is consistent with its component specifications.

Resolution Scaling

The most striking observation in the data is how average FPS scales as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At the High settings preset, the average frame rate drops from 388 FPS at 1080p to 267 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 158 FPS at 4K. This represents a 59% reduction in performance from the lowest to the highest resolution tested. The pattern is consistent across all settings, but the magnitude of the drop varies. For the Low preset, the fall is from 527 FPS at 1080p down to 363 FPS at 1440p and 214 FPS at 4K, a 59% decrease as well. The Medium preset shows a similar trajectory: 449 FPS at 1080p, 309 FPS at 1440p, and 182 FPS at 4K, a 59% decline. The Ultra preset exhibits the steepest relative drop, going from 332 FPS at 1080p to 228 FPS at 1440p and 135 FPS at 4K, a 59% reduction.

This consistent 59% scaling pattern across all four settings presets is a strong indicator that the GPU is the primary limiting factor when moving to higher resolutions. The Arc B580's workload increases proportionally with pixel count, and the frame rate drops accordingly. However, the absolute FPS values remain high even at 4K, suggesting the GPU has substantial headroom in this older title. The fact that even the Ultra preset at 4K still averages 135 FPS means the system is never truly struggling, but the scaling curve shows diminishing returns as resolution climbs. At 1080p, the CPU's role becomes more prominent; the jump from 388 FPS at High to 527 FPS at Low is a 36% improvement, which is larger than the 26% improvement seen at 4K (158 to 214 FPS). This suggests that at lower resolutions, the CPU can feed frames faster, but at higher resolutions, the GPU's rendering work dominates the frame time budget.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process by TSMC, and features 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units. Its memory subsystem consists of 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 456.0 GB/s. The GPU's base and boost clock are both listed at 2670 MHz, with memory running at 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective). In terms of raw compute, the card offers 13.67 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 27.34 TFLOPS of FP16 (2:1). The 190 W TDP and dual-slot design indicate a mid-range power envelope, with a suggested 450 W power supply.

In CS:GO's benchmark data, the GPU's performance is clearly sufficient to drive high frame rates. The average benchmark score for the Arc B580 is 23021, placing it in the 68th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (avg score 23061, delta -0.2%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (avg score 22895, delta 0.6%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (avg score 23172, delta -0.7%), and the NVIDIA P106-100 (avg score 23249, delta -1%). These deltas are all within about 1% of each other, indicating that the Arc B580's overall compute performance is closely matched to those cards, despite the architectural differences. The game results reflect this: the GPU is able to push 135 FPS at 4K Ultra, which is a demanding setting for any card, but the consistent scaling suggests that the 12 GB VRAM is not a limiting factor at these resolutions, as CS:GO is not a VRAM-heavy title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide clear guidance on which preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 332 FPS, while High delivers 388 FPS, a 17% increase. The Medium preset jumps to 449 FPS, and Low reaches 527 FPS. Given that CS:GO is a competitive shooter where higher frame rates can reduce input latency, the Low preset at 1080p offers the maximum performance headroom. However, the difference between Low and Medium is 78 FPS (527 vs 449), while the difference between Medium and High is 61 FPS (449 vs 388). The step from High to Ultra is 56 FPS (388 vs 332). The data suggests that Medium provides a strong compromise; it is 85 FPS faster than Ultra while still offering more visual fidelity than Low.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. Ultra averages 228 FPS, High 267 FPS, Medium 309 FPS, and Low 363 FPS. The relative differences are smaller in percentage terms, but the absolute numbers are still very high. For a 1440p monitor, High settings appear to be the sweet spot, as it is 39 FPS faster than Ultra (267 vs 228) while not sacrificing as much visual quality as Medium or Low. At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset drops to 135 FPS, which is still playable but not ideal for competitive play. High at 4K averages 158 FPS, Medium 182 FPS, and Low 214 FPS. Given the 4K resolution, the Low preset at 214 FPS offers the smoothest experience, but the High preset at 158 FPS provides a more visually detailed image at a frame rate that remains above the 144 Hz threshold common on modern displays. The measured min FPS values for Medium at each resolution (381 at 1080p, 262 at 1440p, and 155 at 4K) show that even the minimum frame rates stay well above playable thresholds, indicating no severe stuttering or frame time spikes.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset of measured average FPS values shows a consistent hierarchy across resolutions. At 3840x2160, the Low preset yields 214 FPS, Medium 182 FPS, High 158 FPS, and Ultra 135 FPS. The Medium preset at this resolution also recorded a minimum FPS of 155 and a maximum of 210, providing a range of 55 FPS. At 2560x1440, the averages are 363 FPS for Low, 309 FPS for Medium, 267 FPS for High, and 228 FPS for Ultra. The Medium preset here demonstrates a min-max range of 262 to 355 FPS. At 1920x1080, the averages reach 527 FPS for Low, 449 FPS for Medium, 388 FPS for High, and 332 FPS for Ultra. The Medium preset at 1080p shows a minimum of 381 FPS and a maximum of 516 FPS.

The 1080p Low result of 527 FPS is particularly notable, as it indicates the CPU-GPU combination is capable of extremely high frame rates in this engine. The drop from 527 FPS at Low to 332 FPS at Ultra at 1080p is a 37% reduction, which is the largest percentage gap between presets at any resolution. This suggests that at 1080p, the GPU's shading and rasterization workload increases significantly with higher settings, but the CPU is able to keep up with the increased draw calls. The 4K results show a smaller relative gap between presets: 214 FPS at Low versus 135 FPS at Ultra, a 37% reduction, which is similar to 1080p. The 1440p results show the same relative pattern, with Low at 363 FPS and Ultra at 228 FPS, a 37% reduction. The consistency of this 37% gap between Low and Ultra across all resolutions implies that the settings presets scale uniformly in terms of GPU workload, regardless of pixel count.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested CPU-GPU combinations for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-10400F and Intel Arc B580 holds a rank of 2781 out of 3719 total combos. This places it in the 74.8th percentile of all tested systems, meaning it outperforms roughly three-quarters of the configurations in the database. The rank is influenced by both the CPU and GPU scores. The CPU alone has an average benchmark score of 14185 and sits in the 68th percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rivals including the Intel Xeon 6756E (delta 0.2%), Intel Core 7 160UL (delta -0.3%), AMD EPYC 7552 (delta 0.5%), and AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (delta -0.6%). The GPU's average benchmark score is 23021, also in the 68th percentile of all GPUs.

The fact that both components sit at the 68th percentile individually, yet the combined rank is at the 74.8th percentile in this specific game, suggests that CS:GO's engine is particularly well-optimized for this hardware combination. The game's relatively low graphical demands compared to modern titles mean that the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the GPU, allowing the Arc B580 to operate near its full potential. The rank of 2781 might seem low in absolute terms, but given that the database includes many high-end configurations with newer and more expensive components, this result is respectable. It indicates that the combo is well-balanced for CS:GO, with neither component severely limiting the other's performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Comet Lake architecture, fabricated on Intel's 14 nm process node. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 256 KB of L2 per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support is DDR4 with a dual-channel bus, providing a bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. The CPU's benchmark scores show a multi-threaded capability that is solid for its class: Cinebench R23 multicore scores 10283, while single-core scores 1451. PassMark's multithread score is 12115, and the single-thread score is 2541.

In the context of CS:GO, the CPU's role is critical because the game's engine has historically been CPU-bound at lower resolutions. The measured FPS at 1080p reaching 527 FPS at Low settings indicates that the 10400F's single-thread performance is sufficient to feed the Arc B580 without creating a bottleneck. The boost clock of 4.30 GHz is relatively high for a locked processor, and the 6 cores handle the game's threading model well. The 3DMark scores further contextualize this: single-thread score of 688, 2-thread score of 1350, 4-thread score of 2560, 8-thread score of 3929, and max-thread score of 4735. The scaling from 2 to 4 threads (90% increase) and from 4 to 8 threads (53% increase) shows that the CPU benefits from additional cores, which aligns with CS:GO's ability to use multiple threads for physics, audio, and rendering tasks. The CPU's percentile rank of 68th among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 14185, is slightly above the midpoint, and its nearest rivals are all within 0.6% of its score, indicating that the 10400F is a solid mid-range performer that does not hold back the GPU in this game.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achieved with this combo?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 527 FPS at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset. This is the maximum value in the measured FPS dataset.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with the Ultra preset, the average FPS is 135. This is the lowest average FPS in the entire dataset, but it remains above the 120 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 363 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 228 FPS. This represents a 135 FPS difference, or a 37% reduction in performance when moving from Low to Ultra.

Q: Which component is more likely to limit performance at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the CPU plays a larger role at 1080p. The difference between Low (527 FPS) and Ultra (332 FPS) is 195 FPS, indicating that as settings increase, the GPU's workload grows, but the CPU still manages to deliver high frame rates. The CPU's 4.30 GHz boost clock and 6 cores are adequate for this resolution.

Q: How does the Arc B580's rank compare to its nearest GPU 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 a delta of -0.2%. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 scores 22895 (delta 0.6%), and the RTX 3080 scores 23172 (delta -0.7%).

Q: What is the lowest minimum FPS recorded in the dataset?

A: The lowest min FPS value is 155, recorded at 3840x2160 resolution with the Medium settings preset. This is the only resolution where a min FPS was recorded for the Medium preset, and it remains well above playable levels.