Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

FAQ

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested CPU-GPU pairings for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive?

A: The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 104th out of 3,719 tested combos for this game, placing it in the top 2.8% of all configurations measured.

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

A: The maximum measured average FPS is 1,257, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. The next highest is 1,099 FPS at the same resolution with Medium settings.

Q: Does raising settings from Low to Ultra at 1080p have a linear impact on performance?

A: No, the scaling is non-linear. At 1080p, moving from Low to Medium drops average FPS by 158 (from 1,257 to 1,099), while moving from High to Ultra drops 139 FPS (from 951 to 812). The largest single-step reduction is 148 FPS going from Medium to High.

Q: What are the minimum FPS figures available for this combo?

A: The data provides min FPS only for Medium settings: 934 FPS at 1080p, 643 FPS at 1440p, and 380 FPS at 4K. All other settings rows have null min FPS values.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The i5-12400F has an average benchmark score of 19,039, which is virtually identical to the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (19,047, 0% delta), the Intel Core 3 201E (19,056, -0.1% delta), and the Intel Core i5-1335U (18,982, 0.3% delta). The AMD EPYC 7773X also sits at 18,979, a 0.3% delta.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all GPUs tested?

A: The RTX 5090 sits in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79,842. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB, scores 79,605, a 0.3% delta.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on preset selection based on resolution. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 1,257 average FPS, which is 158 FPS higher than Medium (1,099) and 445 FPS higher than Ultra (812). For competitive play where maximum frame rate matters most, Low at 1080p is the optimal choice, offering a 14% improvement over Medium and a 55% improvement over Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts slightly. Low still leads with 888 average FPS, but the gap to Medium (756) narrows to 132 FPS. High (655) and Ultra (559) follow with progressively larger drops. The 1440p Low preset remains the best balance for high-refresh-rate monitors, as it clears 850 FPS while the Medium preset still exceeds 750 FPS.

At 3840x2160, Low (525 FPS) remains the top performer, but the differences compress. Medium (447) is 78 FPS behind Low, while High (387) and Ultra (330) trail by 138 and 195 FPS respectively. At 4K, the Low preset is still recommended for maximum frame rate, though the data shows that even Ultra delivers 330 FPS, which exceeds the refresh rate of most displays.

For users prioritizing visual fidelity over raw frame rates, the Ultra preset at 1080p (812 FPS) and 1440p (559 FPS) still provides exceptionally smooth gameplay. The data suggests that the Low preset is never more than 58% faster than Ultra at any resolution, making the trade-off between visuals and speed relatively modest in percentage terms.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core i5-12400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 achieves a rank of 104 out of 3,719 tested combos for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. This places the pairing in the top 2.8% of all measured configurations, indicating that this CPU-GPU match is exceptionally well-suited for this particular title.

The ranking reflects the game's tendency to scale with both CPU and GPU resources. The i5-12400F, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, provides sufficient processing power to feed the RTX 5090's massive rendering throughput. The GPU's 92nd percentile standing among all GPUs contributes significantly to this high combo rank, as the RTX 5090's raw compute capabilities are among the highest measured.

Comparatively, the combo outperforms 3,615 other pairings, which underscores the synergy between this mid-range CPU and flagship GPU. The rank suggests that the i5-12400F does not bottleneck the RTX 5090 in this game to any meaningful extent, as the measured FPS figures at all resolutions and settings remain far above playable thresholds.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 1,257 average FPS, the highest figure across all measurements. Medium produces 1,099 FPS with a minimum of 934 and maximum of 1,264. High drops to 951 FPS, while Ultra yields 812 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 445 FPS, representing a 35% reduction at the highest settings.

At 2560x1440, Low achieves 888 FPS, which is 369 FPS lower than the 1080p Low result. Medium produces 756 FPS (min 643, max 870), High delivers 655 FPS, and Ultra yields 559 FPS. The resolution increase from 1080p to 1440p costs between 29% (Low) and 31% (Ultra) of average FPS.

At 3840x2160, Low produces 525 FPS, Medium reaches 447 FPS (min 380, max 514), High delivers 387 FPS, and Ultra drops to 330 FPS. The 1080p to 4K transition reduces FPS by 58% at Low settings and 59% at Ultra settings. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium (380) still exceeds the maximum FPS at 4K Ultra (330), showing that settings choice has a more pronounced effect than resolution at this level.

The data reveals that the gap between Low and Ultra narrows as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference is 445 FPS; at 1440p, it is 329 FPS; at 4K, it is 195 FPS. This indicates that GPU load becomes more uniform across settings at higher resolutions, while CPU-bound scenarios at lower resolutions amplify the settings impact.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz, and memory runs at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). The GPU's 21,760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs provide the raw throughput necessary for high frame rates.

In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the RTX 5090's role is evident in the resolution scaling behavior. At 1080p, the GPU is not the primary limiter, as FPS exceeds 800 even at Ultra settings. The 32 GB memory capacity is far beyond what this game requires, but the bandwidth and compute resources allow the GPU to maintain high utilization across all measured settings.

The GPU's benchmark scores show strong compute performance: 334,370 in Geekbench OpenCL and 376,728 in Geekbench Vulkan. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18,355 and Passmark G3D score of 39,650 place it in the 92nd percentile. These metrics correlate with the game's ability to push beyond 500 FPS at 4K Low, indicating that the RTX 5090 delivers sufficient pixel throughput for this esports title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F has 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its L3 cache is 18 MB shared, with 80 KB L1 and 1.25 MB L2 per core. The CPU's benchmark scores include a Cinebench R23 multi-core result of 12,380 and single-core of 1,680, with Geekbench multi-core at 9,472 and single-core at 1,964.

In this game, the CPU's influence is most pronounced at lower resolutions where GPU load is lighter. The 1080p Low preset achieves 1,257 FPS, which suggests the i5-12400F can sustain extremely high frame rates when the GPU is not the bottleneck. The CPU's 73rd percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates solid mid-range performance, yet the measured FPS figures show it does not hold back the RTX 5090 in this title.

The CPU's multi-threaded performance, reflected in its 19,039 average benchmark score, is on par with rivals like the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (19,047) and Intel Core i5-1335U (18,982). This parity suggests that the i5-12400F provides consistent frame delivery without introducing stutter or frame-time spikes, as evidenced by the minimum FPS figures at Medium settings (934 at 1080p).

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K follows a consistent pattern across settings. At Low, FPS falls from 1,257 to 525, a 58% reduction. At Medium, the drop is from 1,099 to 447, a 59% reduction. High goes from 951 to 387 (59% reduction), and Ultra from 812 to 330 (59% reduction). This uniformity suggests that the GPU becomes the primary limiter at higher resolutions, with CPU performance playing a diminishing role.

The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a 29% FPS loss at Low (1,257 to 888) and a 31% loss at Ultra (812 to 559). The larger relative drop at Ultra indicates that higher settings increase GPU workload proportionally more than resolution alone, though the difference is modest.

The transition from 1440p to 4K shows a 41% FPS loss at Low (888 to 525) and a 41% loss at Ultra (559 to 330). This consistent scaling across settings suggests that at 4K, the game becomes almost entirely GPU-bound, and the i5-12400F's processing capabilities are sufficient to feed the RTX 5090 without introducing additional bottlenecks.

The data shows that the limiting component shifts as resolution increases. At 1080p, the CPU likely plays a larger role, as evidenced by the 445 FPS spread between Low and Ultra. At 4K, the GPU dominates, with the settings spread narrowing to 195 FPS. This indicates that for users targeting maximum frame rates, lower resolutions and settings will expose CPU limits, while higher resolutions will leverage the RTX 5090's full potential.