Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is an esports title where frame rate is king, and the pairing of the Intel Core i5-11400F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers a performance profile that is decisively GPU-bound at lower resolutions and increasingly CPU-influenced as pixel count rises. The measured data shows that this combination produces exceptionally high frame rates across the board, yet the scaling patterns reveal a system that is over-provisioned for 1080p gaming and only begins to flex its full graphical muscle at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K produces a dramatic shift in frame rate, but the magnitude of that drop is far from uniform across settings. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 1073 FPS at 1920x1080 to 464 FPS at 3840x2160, a reduction of approximately 56.8%. This steep decline indicates that even at the lowest graphical preset, the RTX 4080’s rendering workload scales heavily with resolution, though the absolute numbers remain so high that playability is never in question.

The Medium preset shows a similar pattern, with average FPS dropping from 971 at 1080p to 668 at 1440p and then to 395 at 4K. The step from 1440p to 4K costs 273 FPS, which is the largest single-resolution drop in the entire dataset. This suggests that the GPU’s pixel throughput becomes the dominant constraint at 4K Medium, as the 256-bit memory bus and 716.8 GB/s bandwidth are pushed harder by the 8.3 million pixel count of 3840x2160.

At High settings, the scaling is steeper percentage-wise but more predictable in absolute terms: 841 FPS at 1080p, 578 FPS at 1440p, and 342 FPS at 4K. The 1440p to 4K transition here costs 236 FPS, which is slightly less than the Medium preset’s drop, indicating that the High preset’s additional shading work is partially offset by the GPU’s high texture and pixel rates. The Ultra preset follows the same trajectory with 717 FPS at 1080p, 494 FPS at 1440p, and 292 FPS at 4K, marking the lowest observed average in the entire measured set.

What the data reveals is that the i5-11400F’s six cores and twelve threads are not the bottleneck at any resolution. The 841 FPS at 1080p High and 1073 FPS at 1080p Low are far beyond what any display can present, and the fact that these numbers scale so cleanly with resolution points to the RTX 4080’s rendering pipeline as the limiting component. The CPU’s single-thread performance, which sits in the 71st percentile of all processors, is sufficient to feed the GPU at these extreme rates. The real story is that the RTX 4080 is so fast that even at 4K, it produces frame rates that are several times higher than the refresh rates of all but the most specialized esports monitors.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows make it clear that the Low preset is the most effective for pure competitive performance, delivering 1073 FPS at 1080p and 785 FPS at 1440p. These figures represent the best possible frame pacing for high-refresh-rate displays, and the delta between Low and the next step up is substantial. Moving from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 102 FPS, and from Medium to High costs another 130 FPS. This suggests that the visual fidelity gains from Medium and High settings are not worth the frame rate sacrifice for players who prioritize responsiveness.

However, the Medium preset offers the best balance for most users, as it provides a measurable improvement in visual quality while still maintaining 971 FPS at 1080p and 668 FPS at 1440p. The minimum FPS at Medium is also the only recorded minimum in the dataset, coming in at 825 FPS at 1080p, 568 FPS at 1440p, and 335 FPS at 4K. These minimums are still astronomically high, but they indicate that Medium introduces occasional frame dips that are absent from the Low measurements. For players with 360 Hz or 500 Hz monitors, the difference between 971 and 1073 FPS may be imperceptible, but for those seeking absolute consistency, Low is the safer choice.

At 4K, the recommendation shifts. The High preset’s 342 FPS average is more than sufficient for any display, and the Ultra preset’s 292 FPS still clears the 240 Hz threshold. The data shows that at 4K, the GPU has enough headroom to run High settings without compromising the competitive advantage that CS:GO players seek. The Ultra preset is not recommended for serious play, as the 50 FPS drop from High to Ultra (342 to 292) provides diminishing visual returns in a game where visibility of distant enemies is often more important than texture detail.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i5-11400F and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 348th out of 3719 tested combos in CS:GO, placing it in the top 9.4% of all systems measured. This is a strong result for a CPU that was released in 2021 and is now end-of-life, paired with a GPU that is also end-of-life. The ranking suggests that the i5-11400F’s 4.40 GHz boost clock and solid single-core performance are well-matched to the RTX 4080’s immense rasterization power in this specific title.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD EPYC 7H12, which scores 0.3% higher, and the Intel Core i5-12450H, which scores 0.4% lower. These deltas are negligible, indicating that the i5-11400F is not leaving any meaningful performance on the table relative to other processors in its class. The GPU’s nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER, which is only 0.1% faster, and the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X, which is 1.1% slower. This means the RTX 4080 is performing almost exactly at the expected level for its silicon, with no thermal or driver-related anomalies dragging down its frame rates.

The top 9.4% ranking is particularly notable given that CS:GO is a CPU-sensitive title in many configurations. The fact that this combo still achieves such a high percentile indicates that the i5-11400F’s six cores are not limiting the RTX 4080 in any meaningful way. The 348th rank out of 3719 also implies that the few combos that beat this one are likely using newer, higher-clocked CPUs or multiple GPUs, neither of which would be practical for a typical gaming build.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a clear hierarchy across settings. The Low preset produces an average of 1073 FPS, which is the highest figure in the entire dataset. Medium follows at 971 FPS, with a minimum of 825 FPS and a maximum of 1117 FPS. High drops to 841 FPS, and Ultra falls further to 717 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 356 FPS, which is the largest absolute range at any resolution, demonstrating that the RTX 4080 has ample headroom to render even the lowest preset at absurd speeds.

At 2560x1440, the pattern holds but the absolute numbers compress. Low still leads at 785 FPS, followed by Medium at 668 FPS (minimum 568, maximum 768), High at 578 FPS, and Ultra at 494 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra shrinks to 291 FPS, indicating that the GPU is becoming more resolution-bound. The Medium preset’s maximum of 768 FPS at 1440p is just 53 FPS lower than its 1080p maximum of 1117 FPS, which shows that the GPU’s memory bandwidth is still sufficient at this resolution to avoid severe throttling.

At 3840x2160, the numbers are still extraordinary by any measure. Low produces 464 FPS, Medium drops to 395 FPS (minimum 335, maximum 454), High yields 342 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 292 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra gap is now just 172 FPS, less than half of the 1080p spread. This compression is the clearest evidence that the rendering load at 4K is dominated by pixel fill and texture bandwidth, where the RTX 4080’s 280.6 GPixel/s pixel rate and 761.5 GTexel/s texture rate become the deciding factors. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium is 335, which is still far above the refresh rate of any consumer display, confirming that this combo never produces a playability issue.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications align perfectly with the measured results. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is critical for CS:GO at 4K, where the texture data for each frame can be substantial even at Medium settings. The 22.4 Gbps effective memory speed ensures that the GPU is not starved for data, which is why the frame rates remain so high even at 3840x2160.

The GPU’s clock speeds are also a factor. The base clock of 2205 MHz and boost clock of 2505 MHz are high for a 40-series card, and they contribute to the 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power. This raw compute is what allows the RTX 4080 to maintain 342 FPS at 4K High, a workload that would cripple most other GPUs. The 9728 shading units and 304 texture mapping units work in tandem to process the game’s geometry and textures, while the 112 ROPs handle pixel output. The pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s is particularly relevant to CS:GO’s simple but fast-moving scenes, where fill rate can become a bottleneck at high resolutions.

The GPU’s nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, is only 0.1% faster in synthetic benchmarks, which means the measured FPS in CS:GO is essentially at the ceiling for this class of hardware. The fact that the RTX 4080 is end-of-life and still ranks in the 86th percentile of all GPUs indicates that Ada Lovelace architecture remains highly competitive in esports titles. The 5 nm process node and 45,900 million transistors provide the efficiency needed to sustain these frame rates without thermal throttling, as evidenced by the consistent scaling from 1080p to 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in CS:GO?

A: The highest measured average is 1073 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset.

Q: How much FPS does the combo lose when moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 841 at 1920x1080 to 342 at 3840x2160, a loss of 499 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K?

A: The data shows that the GPU is the limiting factor, as the frame rate drops by roughly half from 1440p to 4K while the CPU’s six cores still deliver headroom above 292 FPS at Ultra settings.

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

A: The lowest minimum is 335 FPS, recorded at 3840x2160 with the Medium preset.

Q: How does this combo rank against all other tested combinations?

A: This combo ranks 348th out of 3719 tested combinations, placing it in the top 9.4% of all systems evaluated for CS:GO.

Q: Does the RTX 4080’s 16 GB of memory matter for this game?

A: The 16 GB of GDDR6X memory is not a limiting factor in CS:GO, as the game’s texture requirements are modest, but the 716.8 GB/s bandwidth ensures smooth performance at 4K.