Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a game where frame rates are paramount, and the data for the Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 reveals a configuration that scales predictably across resolutions. The measured results show a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at lower resolutions, with the CPU becoming a more significant factor as the resolution drops and the frame rate target rises.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K is a classic study in bottleneck dynamics. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces an average of 690 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 Low, that figure drops to 475 FPS, a 31% reduction. The jump to 3840x2160 Low yields 280 FPS, which is another 41% decline from the 1440p result. This steep curve at lower settings strongly indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor even at 1440p, as the CPU has enough headroom to push far beyond what the RTX 5060 can render.

The scaling pattern changes when we look at higher settings. At Ultra settings, the average FPS drops from 434 at 1080p to 299 at 1440p (a 31% decrease), and then to 176 at 4K (a further 41% decrease). The consistency of these percentage drops across both Low and Ultra settings is telling. It suggests that the rendering load scales almost linearly with pixel count, which is typical for a game like CS:GO that is not heavily dependent on complex geometry or advanced shading effects.

The data implies that at 1080p, the system is firmly in CPU-bound territory. The difference between 690 FPS at Low and 434 FPS at Ultra is a 37% swing, which is substantial but not as large as the resolution-based drops. If the GPU were the only constraint, we would expect the gap between Low and Ultra at a fixed resolution to be more uniform. Instead, the margin narrows as resolution increases, which points to the CPU's single-thread performance being the ceiling at 1080p. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting component, as the gap between Low (280 FPS) and Ultra (176 FPS) widens to 59%, reflecting the increased pixel shader workload.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Core i5-11400F and RTX 5060 achieves a rank of 1629 out of 3719 combos for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. This places it in the 56th percentile of all tested systems, which is a solidly above-average position for a mid-range pairing. The ranking reflects that while the raw frame rates are very high, many other configurations with more powerful CPUs or GPUs can push even higher numbers in this esports title.

The combo rank is particularly interesting when compared to the individual component percentiles. The CPU sits at the 71st percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU is at the 72nd percentile among all GPUs. The fact that the combo rank (56th percentile) is lower than either component's individual percentile suggests that the pairing is not perfectly balanced for this specific game. The CPU's single-thread performance is crucial for CS:GO, and while the i5-11400F is strong, it may not extract the full potential of the RTX 5060 at lower resolutions where the frame rate ceiling is highest.

The nearest rival data for the CPU shows a tight cluster. The AMD EPYC 7H12 scores 0.3% higher, while the Intel Core i5-12450H scores 0.4% lower, and the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G is 0.6% lower. This indicates that the i5-11400F's overall benchmark performance is extremely competitive with these alternatives, but the specific gaming workload in CS:GO may favor chips with higher single-core clocks. For the GPU, the nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon 860M (0.3% lower), NVIDIA GeForce MX550 (0.3% lower), and AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT (1.2% higher), showing that the RTX 5060's general compute performance is in a similar band to those cards.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved by this combo in the measured data?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 690 FPS, which occurs at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the frame rate drop when moving from 1080p to 1440p at Medium settings?

A: At Medium settings, the average FPS falls from 587 at 1920x1080 to 404 at 2560x1440, representing a 31% reduction in performance.

Q: Is the RTX 5060's 8 GB VRAM a limiting factor in this game?

A: The data does not indicate VRAM capacity as a bottleneck. The minimum frame rates at 4K Medium (203 FPS) and 1440p Medium (343 FPS) are still extremely high, suggesting that memory capacity is not causing stutters or frame drops in CS:GO.

Q: What is the rank of this specific CPU and GPU combination among all tested combos for CS:GO?

A: The combo is ranked 1629 out of 3719 total combinations, placing it in the upper half of all tested systems.

Q: Which resolution and settings produce the lowest average frame rate in the dataset?

A: The lowest average frame rate is 176 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings.

Q: How does the CPU's benchmark score compare to its nearest rival?

A: The Intel Core i5-11400F has an average benchmark score of 17177, which is 0.3% lower than the AMD EPYC 7H12's score of 17120, making them statistically equivalent.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the results are exceptionally high across the board. Low settings yield 690 FPS average, Medium produces 587 FPS (with a minimum of 499 and maximum of 675), High reaches 508 FPS, and Ultra drops to 434 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 37% performance cost for maximum quality, which is a significant but acceptable trade-off given the frame rates involved.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains impressive. Low settings average 475 FPS, Medium averages 404 FPS (minimum 343, maximum 465), High averages 350 FPS, and Ultra averages 299 FPS. The relative performance gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 37%, identical to the 1080p scaling. This consistency suggests that the game's settings have a uniform impact on rendering cost regardless of resolution.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates become more modest but still highly playable. Low settings average 280 FPS, Medium averages 239 FPS (minimum 203, maximum 274), High averages 207 FPS, and Ultra averages 176 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra at 4K is 37% as well, maintaining the same scaling ratio. However, the minimum frame rate at 4K Medium (203 FPS) is still above the refresh rate of most high-end monitors, indicating that this combo can drive 4K gaming smoothly even with some headroom for competitive play.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture and features 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's core clocks are 2280 MHz base and 2497 MHz boost, with 3840 shading units and 48 ROPs. In the context of CS:GO, the GPU's role is primarily to handle the rendering of the relatively simple scenes at very high frame ratescars. The measured data shows that the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K, where the pixel throughput demands exceed what the CPU can feed.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it at the 72nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 26331. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT, scores 1.2% higher, while the AMD Radeon 860M and NVIDIA GeForce MX550 score 0.3% lower. This indicates that the RTX 5060's raw compute performance is solidly mid-range, but its architecture is well-suited for high-refresh-rate gaming.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is not a concern for CS:GO, as the game's texture and geometry requirements are modest even at 4K Ultra. The minimum frame rate of 203 FPS at 4K Medium shows no signs of memory-related stuttering. The GPU's pixel rate of 119.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 299.6 GTexel/s are more than adequate for this title, as evidenced by the high average frame rates across all tested configurations. The GPU's FP32 performance of 19.18 TFLOPS is also more than sufficient for the DirectX 9-era rendering engine that CS:GO uses.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal settings depend heavily on the target resolution and refresh rate. For players with a 1080p 144Hz or 240Hz monitor, the Low preset at 690 FPS provides the maximum competitive advantage, ensuring that frame times are as low as possible. The Medium preset at 587 FPS is also an excellent choice, offering slightly better visual quality with a negligible performance penalty. The High and Ultra presets at 508 and 434 FPS respectively are still far above what any monitor can display, so they are recommended for players who prioritize visual clarity over the absolute maximum frame rate.

At 1440p, the situation is similar. The Low preset at 475 FPS is ideal for competitive play, while Medium at 404 FPS and High at 350 FPS are both excellent options for players with high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors. The Ultra preset at 299 FPS is still very capable, though it comes close to the 300 FPS threshold that some esports players consider a minimum for smoothness. The minimum frame rate of 343 FPS at Medium indicates that even in demanding scenes, the system maintains a high floor.

For 4K gaming, the Medium preset at 239 FPS (minimum 203) is the recommended sweet spotcars, as it provides a significant visual upgrade over Low (280 FPS) while maintaining frame rates well above 200 FPS. The High preset at 207 FPS is also viable for players with 4K 144Hz displays, but the Ultra preset at 176 FPS is best reserved for those who prioritize image quality over competitive performance. The data suggests that Medium at 4K offers the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate consistency, with the minimum FPS staying above 200.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Rocket Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. It has 12 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel configuration. In CS:GO, the CPU's single-thread performance is critical, as the game's engine is primarily single-threaded in its rendering pipeline. The CPU's benchmark scores reflect this: it achieves a 3DMark single-thread score of 868 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2024.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 71st among all CPUs indicates that it is a capable performer, but its nearest rivals show that it is not a top-tier part. The AMD EPYC 7H12 scores 0.3% higher, while the Intel Core i5-12450H scores 0.4% lower and the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G scores 0.6% lower. This tight grouping suggests that the i5-11400F's performance is competitive with these alternatives, but none of them are specifically optimized for CS:GO's unique workload.

The data indicates that the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p, where the frame rates exceed 500 FPS. The fact that the 1080p Low setting yields 690 FPS while the 4K Low setting yields 280 FPS demonstrates that the CPU has enough headroom to drive much higher frame rates, but the GPU cannot keep up at higher resolutions. However, at 1080p, the CPU's single-thread performance appears to be the ceiling, as the frame rate does not scale linearly with GPU load. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are more than sufficient for CS:GO, as the game does not utilize more than a few threads effectively. The boost clock of 4.40 GHz is the key specification for this game, as higher clocks directly translate to higher frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios.