Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive presents an unusual scaling profile for the Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the Intel Arc B580. At 1080p Low settings, the combination produces 525.1 FPS, which drops to 387 FPS at High settings, a reduction of roughly 26% from the Low preset. Moving to 1440p, the same Low-to-High comparison yields 361.5 FPS versus 265.9 FPS, again a drop of about 26%. At 4K, the Low preset delivers 214.4 FPS, while High drops to 157.1 FPS, a 27% reduction. The consistency of this scaling penalty across resolutions suggests that the graphics settings themselves, rather than resolution, are the primary lever on performance.

The resolution scaling from 1080p to 4K is steep but reveals a balanced system. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 525.1 FPS at 1080p to 361.5 FPS at 1440p, a 31% reduction, and then to 214.4 FPS at 4K, a further 41% drop from 1440p. This indicates that the Intel Arc B580's rendering load scales heavily with pixel count, as expected for a game that is not particularly demanding on geometry. However, the i5-12400F’s six cores and 12 threads are sufficient to keep feeding the GPU at lower resolutions; the fact that 1080p Low still exceeds 500 FPS shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck there. At 4K Ultra, the combination yields 136.2 FPS, which is still playable, but the 4K High result of 157.1 FPS is notably lower than the 1440p High result of 265.9 FPS, underscoring that pixel throughput is the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this combination?

A: The highest average frame rate is 525.1 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does performance degrade from 1080p to 4K at the same settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 387 at 1080p to 265.9 at 1440p, and then to 157.1 at 4K. This represents a 59% reduction from 1080p to 4K.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to limit performance at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the 525.1 FPS result is high enough that the CPU’s single-thread performance (3dmark_single_thread score of 909) is likely the primary constraint, as the GPU has ample headroom. At 4K Ultra, the 136.2 FPS result suggests the GPU is the limiting component.

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

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings produce 361.5 FPS, while Ultra settings produce 224 FPS. That is a 38% reduction in average frame rate when moving from Low to Ultra.

Q: Does the Arc B580 handle 4K resolution adequately?

A: Yes, the data shows 4K performance remains above 136 FPS across all settings, with Low at 214.4 FPS and Medium at 182.8 FPS. Even Ultra at 136.2 FPS is well above typical 60 FPS thresholds.

Q: How does the i5-12400F compare to its nearest CPU rivals in overall benchmarks?

A: The i5-12400F’s average benchmark score is 19221, which is 0.1% higher than the Intel Core i7-8700K (19210) and 0.3% higher than the Intel Core i5-1335U (19167). It trails the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS by 0.7%.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture using a 5 nm process at TSMC, featuring 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 80 ROPs. Its memory subsystem consists of 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, delivering 456.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The core clock is fixed at 2670 MHz for both base and boost, which is a relatively high operating point for a desktop GPU. The card’s FP32 throughput is rated at 13.67 TFLOPS, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

In this game, the GPU’s role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 1080p, the average FPS ranges from 327.3 (Ultra) to 525.1 (Low), indicating that the GPU is not saturated at lower pixel counts. The 12 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for CS:GO’s texture requirements, even at 4K Ultra, where the average FPS is 136.2. The memory bandwidth of 456.0 GB/s appears adequate, as there is no precipitous drop between Medium and High settings at any resolution that would suggest a bandwidth bottleneck; rather, the scaling is smooth. The GPU’s PassMark G3D score of 15748 places it in the 66th percentile among all GPUs, and its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, scores 23181, which is 0.7% higher. The B580’s performance in this game is strong enough to exceed 200 FPS at 4K Low, showing that even a mid-range GPU can drive high refresh rates in this older title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average frame rates are 525.1 FPS on Low, 446.9 FPS on Medium, 387 FPS on High, and 327.3 FPS on Ultra. The delta between Low and Ultra is 197.8 FPS, a 38% drop, which is significant but leaves the system far above refresh rate limits. At 2560x1440, the results are 361.5 FPS (Low), 307.8 FPS (Medium), 265.9 FPS (High), and 224 FPS (Ultra). The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 137.5 FPS, or 38% as well, maintaining the same relative penalty. At 3840x2160, the averages are 214.4 FPS (Low), 182.8 FPS (Medium), 157.1 FPS (High), and 136.2 FPS (Ultra). The absolute drop from Low to Ultra is 78.2 FPS, or 36%.

The data shows a consistent pattern: each step up in quality costs roughly 10-15% of the frame rate, regardless of resolution. For example, at 1080p, moving from Low to Medium costs 78.2 FPS, from Medium to High costs 59.9 FPS, and from High to Ultra costs 59.7 FPS. At 4K, the same steps cost 31.6 FPS, 25.7 FPS, and 20.9 FPS respectively. This suggests that the GPU’s shading and texture work scales linearly with settings, but the absolute impact is smaller at higher resolutions because the base frame rate is lower. The combination ranks 1247th out of 1605 tested combinations in this game, placing it in the lower-middle tier, but the absolute FPS numbers are high due to the game’s age and the hardware’s capability.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Alder Lake-S family, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. It uses a 10 nm process and has 18 MB of shared L3 cache, with 1.25 MB of L2 per core. Its single-thread performance is strong for gaming, as evidenced by a 3dmark_single_thread score of 909 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2221. The processor’s PassMark single-thread score of 3481 is particularly relevant for CS:GO, which relies heavily on a few threads for game logic and draw calls.

In this benchmark, the CPU’s impact is most visible at 1080p Low, where the GPU is underutilized and the frame rate reaches 525.1 FPS. This result is likely constrained by the CPU’s ability to issue draw calls, as the i5-12400F’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16518 and single-core score of 2332 show balanced performance. The CPU’s 65 W TDP and dual-channel memory support (DDR4 or DDR5) provide ample bandwidth for a game that does not require high memory throughput. Compared to its nearest rivals, the i5-12400F’s average benchmark score of 19221 is nearly identical to the Intel Core i7-8700K (19210, 0.1% ahead) and the AMD EPYC 7773X (18979, 1.3% ahead), but it trails the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS by 0.7%. At 4K Ultra, the frame rate of 136.2 FPS suggests the CPU is no longer the limiting factor, as the GPU’s pixel fill rate is the constraint. The processor’s 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates it is a solid mid-range choice that will not bottleneck the Arc B580 in this title, even at competitive settings where frame rates exceed 300 FPS.