Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a long-standing esports title where frame rates are the primary performance currency, and the measured data for the Intel Core i5-12400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 combination reveals a system tuned for high refresh-rate competition. This pairing sits at rank 914 out of 1605 tested combinations in this game, placing it in the upper-middle tier of the database. The benchmark results show that this configuration is heavily CPU-bound at lower resolutions, with the GPU becoming more relevant only as the resolution and settings scale upward.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate behavior across resolutions clearly identifies where the bottleneck lies for this hardware pairing. At 1080p with Low settings, the system delivers an average of 650.6 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 447.8 FPS, a decline of roughly 31%. The subsequent jump to 4K Low yields 265.5 FPS, representing another 41% reduction from the 1440p figure. This steep scaling curve, where frame rates fall faster than the pixel count increases, indicates that the GPU is becoming progressively more saturated.

However, the pattern changes when examining the High settings preset. At 1080p High, the average is 476.3 FPS. At 1440p High, it falls to 329.2 FPS, a 31% drop. The transition to 4K High results in 191.6 FPS, which is a 42% decrease from 1440p. The consistency of these percentage drops across Low and High settings suggests that the game engine's draw call overhead is not the limiting factor; instead, the GPU's pixel throughput and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints at higher resolutions.

The data indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is the dominant limiting component. The difference between 1080p Low and 1440p Low is 202.8 FPS, but the difference between 1440p Low and 4K Low is 182.3 FPS. These similar absolute deltas imply that the scaling is relatively linear, but the fact that 1080p Low still cannot exceed 651 FPS suggests the CPU's single-thread performance is capping the output. The Core i5-12400F has a boost clock of 4.40 GHz and scores 909 in the 3dmark single-thread test, which is the metric most relevant to CS:GO's engine.

GPU Role

The RTX 4060 brings specific capabilities to this title that become more apparent at higher settings. The card features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s. While this bandwidth is sufficient for CS:GO, the memory configuration is a factor in how the GPU handles the 4K Ultra preset. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 167.5, which is the lowest figure recorded across all tested configurations. This represents a 58% reduction from 1080p Ultra's 408.3 FPS, showing that the combination of high resolution and maximum settings stresses the GPU's shading units and memory subsystem.

The GPU's clock speeds are notably high for its class, with a base clock of 1830 MHz and a boost clock of 2460 MHz. These clocks contribute to the card's pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s. In a game like CS:GO, which relies heavily on fill rate for its relatively simple scenes, these specifications help maintain high frame rates. The card's standing relative to its rivals is close: it sits 0.7% ahead of the Intel Arc B580 and 0.8% ahead of the AMD Radeon 760M in average benchmark score. It trails the AMD Radeon RX 6600M by 0.6% and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti by 0.7%.

The difference between Low and Ultra settings at the same resolution provides insight into the GPU's headroom. At 1080p, the gap between Low and Ultra is 242.3 FPS, with Low hitting 650.6 FPS and Ultra reaching 408.3 FPS. At 4K, the same settings gap is 98 FPS, from 265.5 FPS down to 167.5 FPS. This compression of the settings delta at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU is being saturated, causing the visual quality settings to have a relatively smaller absolute impact on frame rates.

FAQ

Q: Is the Core i5-12400F or the RTX 4060 the limiting factor at 1080p in CS:GO?

A: The data indicates the CPU is the primary limiter at 1080p. The 3dmark single-thread score of 909 and the 4.40 GHz boost clock are the key metrics, and the frame rates, like 650.6 FPS on Low settings, appear capped by the processor's ability to feed the GPU.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its nearest rivals in raw benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 4060 has an average benchmark score of 23181. It is 0.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6600M and 0.7% behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti. It is 0.7% ahead of the Intel Arc B580 and 0.8% ahead of the AMD Radeon 760M.

Q: What is the performance cost of enabling Ultra settings at 4K resolution?

A: At 4K Ultra, the system produces an average of 167.5 FPS. This is the lowest measured result in the dataset, representing a 36.6% reduction compared to 4K High's 191.6 FPS and a 58.9% reduction from 4K Low's 265.5 FPS.

Q: Does the RTX 4060's 8 GB memory capacity cause any issues in CS:GO?

A: The benchmarks do not show any memory-related stutters or performance anomalies. The 128-bit memory bus and 272.0 GB/s bandwidth appear adequate for the game, as even the most demanding tested config (4K Ultra) maintains an average above 165 FPS.

Q: How much faster is the system at 1080p compared to 4K when using High settings?

A: At 1080p High, the average FPS is 476.3, while at 4K High it is 191.6. This represents a 148.5% higher frame rate at the lower resolution, demonstrating the significant impact of pixel count on the GPU.

Q: What is the system's overall ranking among all tested hardware combinations?

A: The Core i5-12400F and RTX 4060 combination is ranked 914 out of 1605 total combinations for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. This places it in the 57th percentile of all tested systems.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates, with Low settings producing 650.6 FPS, Medium reaching 550.7 FPS, High achieving 476.3 FPS, and Ultra settling at 408.3 FPS. These figures show a progressive reduction as visual fidelity increases, with the step from Low to Medium costing 99.9 FPS, Medium to High costing 74.4 FPS, and High to Ultra costing 68 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain substantial but show more GPU involvement. Low settings yield 447.8 FPS, Medium drops to 379.3 FPS, High comes in at 329.2 FPS, and Ultra reaches 280.8 FPS. The absolute deltas between settings are similar to 1080p, suggesting the GPU is still managing the load effectively. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at High settings results in a 147.1 FPS loss, which represents a 30.9% reduction.

The 3840x2160 results show the GPU working hardest. Low settings produce 265.5 FPS, Medium achieves 224.4 FPS, High reaches 191.6 FPS, and Ultra falls to 167.5 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 98 FPS, which is significantly smaller than the 242.3 FPS gap at 1080p. This compression indicates the GPU is becoming the primary bottleneck, as the absolute performance difference between settings shrinks when the resolution demands more from the rendering pipeline.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Alder Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. Its base clock is 2.50 GHz with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. The processor has an 18 MB shared L3 cache and per-core L2 and L1 caches of 1.25 MB and 80 KB respectively. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a single-thread score of 909 in 3dmark and 2332 in cinebench r23 single-core. These scores are critical for CS:GO, which is known to be highly dependent on single-core performance.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are also relevant, as the game can utilize additional threads for asset streaming and physics. The 3dmark 4-thread score is 3067, and the 8-thread score is 4779, showing decent scaling. The passmark single-thread score is 3481, reinforcing the processor's strength in lightly-threaded workloads. The CPU's percentile ranking places it at 77 among all CPUs, meaning it outperforms the majority of processors in the database.

The nearest rival comparisons show the i5-12400F is very closely matched with several other processors. It is 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-8700K and 0.3% ahead of the Intel Core i5-1335U. It trails the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS by 0.7% and the AMD EPYC 7773X by 1.3%. This grouping suggests the i5-12400F's performance is well-balanced for the price point, though the CS:GO results specifically highlight the importance of its single-core boost clock.

The benchmark data shows that the CPU's performance ceiling is evident at 1080p Low, where the system reaches 650.6 FPS but cannot push further. This is likely due to the game's engine serializing draw calls on a single thread. The CPU's 2.50 GHz base clock is less relevant here, as the processor will boost to 4.40 GHz under load. The 65 W TDP and 163 mm² die size indicate an efficient chip, and the 18 MB L3 cache helps with the game's map data, but the primary constraint remains the single-thread execution rate.