Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a title that scales dramatically with resolution, and the measured data for the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination illustrates this clearly. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces an average of 1248.9 FPS. Stepping up to 2560x1440 Low reduces that figure to 902.6 FPS, a drop of 346.3 FPS. Moving further to 3840x2160 Low yields 531.5 FPS, which represents a 371.1 FPS decline from the 1440p result. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low settings shows a total reduction of 717.4 FPS, indicating that the GPU is taking on significantly more work as pixel count rises. However, the absolute numbers remain exceptionally high, suggesting that even at 4K, the limiting factor is not purely the graphics card.

The pattern holds across other settings, but the magnitude of the drop varies. At High settings, the transition from 1080p to 1440p sees a decrease from 960.9 FPS to 662.8 FPS, a loss of 298.1 FPS. The move from 1440p to 4K High further reduces the average to 393.2 FPS, another 269.6 FPS decline. For Ultra settings, the 1080p average of 823.6 FPS falls to 564.3 FPS at 1440p, and then to 331.5 FPS at 4K. This consistent reduction across all settings indicates that the rendering load scales predictably with resolution, but the frame rates never approach a level where the experience would feel sluggish. The data suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding frames at a rate far exceeding what the GPU can render at lower resolutions, but the GPU becomes more of a bottleneck as resolution increases.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep but not uniform across settings. At Low settings, the 1080p average is 1248.9 FPS, while the 4K average is 531.5 FPS, a 57.4% reduction. For High settings, the drop is from 960.9 FPS to 393.2 FPS, a 59.1% decrease. Medium settings see a reduction from 1112.3 FPS to 452.3 FPS, which is 59.3% lower. Ultra settings show the smallest relative decline, from 823.6 FPS to 331.5 FPS, a 59.7% drop. These percentages are remarkably similar across the board, indicating that the scaling factor is consistent regardless of the quality preset. This uniformity suggests that the rendering pipeline is being stressed in a linear fashion, with the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth becoming the primary constraints at higher resolutions.

The fact that even at 4K Ultra the combo maintains 331.5 FPS is telling. This is a frame rate that far exceeds the refresh rate of most displays, which typically max out at 240 Hz or 360 Hz for competitive gaming. The data shows that the RTX 5090 is not the limiting factor at 1080p, where the CPU likely dictates the maximum achievable frame rate. At 4K, the GPU begins to assert its influence, but it still delivers performance that is more than sufficient for competitive play. The scaling behavior indicates that this combination is heavily CPU-bound at lower resolutions, with the GPU having ample headroom to spare. As resolution climbs, the load shifts towards the graphics card, but the overall performance remains exceptionally high, underscoring the raw power of both components.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a flagship GPU with a 32 GB GDDR7 memory pool and a 512-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. Its base clock runs at 2017 MHz, boosting up to 2407 MHz. These specifications are central to understanding the measured frame rates. In a game like CS:GO, which is not particularly demanding on memory capacity, the 32 GB VRAM is far more than necessary. However, the sheer bandwidth and clock speeds contribute to the high frame rates observed. The GPU's shading units, totaling 21760, along with 680 texture mapping units and 176 ROPs, allow it to process geometry and pixels at a rate that keeps up with the CPU's output. The pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s are indicative of its ability to handle the workloads at 4K, where the pixel count is four times that of 1080p.

The benchmark results for the GPU show a Passmark G3D score of 39650, placing it in the 94th percentile among all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 84306 is remarkably close to its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D, which scores 84241, a delta of 0.1%. This close margin indicates that the RTX 5090 is performing as expected relative to its direct sibling. In terms of the game's measured FPS, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced at 4K, where the minimal FPS differences between Low and Ultra settings are substantial—531.5 FPS versus 331.5 FPS. This 200 FPS gap highlights the impact of pixel shading and texture work on the GPU. The data shows that the RTX 5090 has the computational muscle to push frame rates into the hundreds even at the highest resolution, but the CPU still holds the reins at 1080p.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

In the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 20th out of 1605 combos for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. This places it in the top 1.2% of all tested systems, a position that reflects the high frame rates achieved across all resolutions and settings. The ranking is a composite measure, taking into account the performance at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. Given that the RTX 5090 is one of the most powerful GPUs available, the rank is heavily influenced by the CPU's ability to keep up. The i5-12400, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, is not a top-tier processor in terms of raw multithreaded performance, but its single-thread capabilities are strong, which is critical for CS:GO's engine.

The combo's rank of 20 suggests that there are 19 other combinations that outperform it, likely featuring more powerful CPUs that can push even higher frame rates at 1080p. However, the margin between the top combos is likely small, given that the GPU is identical or similar. The data indicates that the i5-12400 is a capable partner for the RTX 5090 in this game, but it does leave some performance on the table at lower resolutions. The rank also reflects the consistency of the results. With the highest average FPS at 1248.9 and the lowest at 331.5, the spread is wide, but the ranking accounts for the overall experience. The fact that this combo sits in the 20th position out of 1605 confirms the balanced performance it delivers, even if the CPU is not the absolute best for this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are as follows: Low settings yield 1248.9 FPS, Medium settings produce 1112.3 FPS, High settings deliver 960.9 FPS, and Ultra settings result in 823.6 FPS. This represents a drop of 425.3 FPS from Low to Ultra, indicating that the visual quality settings have a significant impact on performance even at this resolution. The gap between Low and Medium is 136.6 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 151.4 FPS. The step from High to Ultra is smaller at 137.3 FPS. These numbers suggest that the CPU is the primary limiter, as the GPU has enough headroom to render at these rates without being fully utilized.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 902.6 FPS for Low, 765.2 FPS for Medium, 662.8 FPS for High, and 564.3 FPS for Ultra. The drop from Low to Ultra here is 338.3 FPS, which is less than at 1080p but still notable. The relative differences between settings are similar, with Low to Medium showing a 137.4 FPS reduction, Medium to High a 102.4 FPS reduction, and High to Ultra a 98.5 FPS reduction. At 3840x2160, the averages are 531.5 FPS for Low, 452.3 FPS for Medium, 393.2 FPS for High, and 331.5 FPS for Ultra. The total spread from Low to Ultra is 200 FPS, a narrower range than at lower resolutions. This narrowing indicates that the GPU is becoming the bottleneck, as the absolute frame rates are lower and the settings have a more pronounced effect on the rendering load. The data across all resolutions shows a clear trend: as resolution increases, the impact of settings on FPS diminishes, but the overall frame rates remain high enough for competitive play.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Alder Lake-S architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. It features an 18 MB shared L3 cache and a 10 nm process node. In the context of CS:GO, which is notorious for relying on single-thread performance, the i5-12400's boost clock is a key factor. The benchmark data shows a 3DMark single-thread score of 910 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2249, indicating strong per-core performance. This is crucial because the game's engine often bottlenecks on a single thread, and the CPU's ability to sustain high clocks under load directly influences the frame rates at 1080p.

The measured FPS at 1080p Low, which reaches 1248.9 FPS, is likely close to the limit of what the CPU can deliver, as the GPU is nowhere near its maximum capacity. The i5-12400's passmark single-thread score of 3456 supports this, showing that it is a capable performer for lightly threaded workloads. However, its multithreaded scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15935, are less relevant for this game. The CPU's 12 threads are not fully utilized by CS:GO, but the extra cores do help with background tasks and system overhead. The percentile vs all CPUs is 77, and its average benchmark score of 19850 is virtually identical to its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-9700, which scores 19831, a delta of 0.1%. This indicates that the i5-12400 is a well-balanced processor, but for this specific game, its single-thread speed is the determining factor, and the data shows that it provides enough headroom to keep the RTX 5090 fed at 1080p but not enough to push beyond 1248.9 FPS.