Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

The data for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 shows a pairing where the CPU is the primary constraint at lower resolutions, while the GPU takes on a more significant role as resolution and settings increase. The measured frame rates are exceptionally high, consistently exceeding the refresh rates of most displays, even at 4K Ultra settings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear transition in system bottleneck. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces an average of 872.4 FPS, which is a substantial figure. Moving to 2560x1440 at Low settings, the average drops to 663.1 FPS, representing a 24.0% decrease. Scaling further to 3840x2160 at Low settings yields 392.9 FPS, a 40.7% drop from the 1440p result and a 55.0% drop from the 1080p figure. This steep decline at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is increasingly becoming the limiting factor, as the CPU is capable of feeding frames more quickly than the GPU can render them at these pixel counts.

The pattern is consistent across all settings presets. With High settings, the average frame rate falls from 711.5 FPS at 1080p to 486.9 FPS at 1440p (a 31.6% reduction), and then to 287.0 FPS at 4K (a 41.1% reduction from 1440p). For Ultra settings, the progression is 603.6 FPS at 1080p, 419.6 FPS at 1440p, and 248.3 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop between 1080p and 1440p is consistently larger than the drop between 1440p and 4K for each settings level, suggesting that while the GPU load is scaling, the CPU headroom is being exhausted at the lower resolution, making the 1080p to 1440p transition particularly demanding on the whole system.

The margin between Low and Ultra settings widens as resolution decreases. At 4K, the difference between Low (392.9 FPS) and Ultra (248.3 FPS) is 144.6 FPS, a 36.8% penalty for maxing out settings. At 1080p, the same comparison shows a gap of 268.8 FPS (872.4 vs 603.6 FPS), a 30.8% penalty. This indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is able to maintain high frame rates even with increased graphical load, whereas at 4K, the GPU's rendering workload creates a more significant performance ceiling.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process node. It features 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units. The GPU has a base clock of 2325 MHz and a boost clock of 2512 MHz, with memory clocked at 1750 MHz yielding 28 Gbps effective throughput. Its 12 GB of GDDR7 memory is accessed via a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s.

In this game, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions. The 4K Ultra setting produces 248.3 FPS, which is still far above playable thresholds but represents the lowest figure in the dataset. The RTX 5070's pixel rate of 201.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 482.3 GTexel/s are substantial, yet the demands of 4K rendering at Ultra settings begin to tax the card's capabilities. The GPU's FP32 throughput of 30.87 TFLOPS is ample for this title, but the data shows that frame rates at 4K are roughly 40-55% lower than at 1080p depending on settings, confirming the GPU is the dominant factor at this resolution.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 41687. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro 5300, has an average score of 41610, a delta of 0.2%, indicating performance parity in synthetic tests. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 scores 41441, which is 0.6% lower. These close margins in general benchmarks do not reflect the in-game performance, where the RTX 5070 is clearly not the limiting component at 1080p.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor from the Coffee Lake Refresh generation. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 256 KB of L2 per core, and 9 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration, with a memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s.

The CPU's performance in standard benchmarks is modest. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 7969 and single-core score is 1125. The average benchmark score is 2305, placing it in the 50th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i3-10305 with an average score of 2300 (0.2% lower) and the Intel Core i7-8809G with 2319 (0.6% higher). These figures suggest the i5-9400 is a mid-range processor, yet in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive it is capable of pushing frame rates well above 800 FPS at 1080p Low settings.

The data indicates that the CPU is the limiting factor at lower resolutions. The 1080p Low average of 872.4 FPS is the highest in the dataset, and the fact that this figure does not scale much higher with further resolution reductions suggests the CPU is near its maximum frame generation capability. The 6 cores and 6 threads are likely sufficient for this game's engine, which is known for being CPU-bound at high frame rates. The processor's 4.10 GHz boost clock is critical for maintaining these high averages, as the game's frame rate is heavily dependent on single-thread performance.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 ranks 389th out of 1605 combos for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. This places it in the top 24.2% of all tested configurations. Given that the CPU is a mid-range part from 2018 and the GPU is a high-end part from 2025, this ranking reflects the game's relative insensitivity to GPU power at lower resolutions.

The ranking suggests that while this combo is not among the absolute top performers, it still delivers frame rates that exceed the needs of virtually any display. The 389th position out of 1605 indicates that there are many combos with faster CPUs that achieve higher frame rates in this title, particularly at 1080p where the CPU is the bottleneck. However, the RTX 5070 ensures that the combo remains competitive at 4K, where many CPU-heavy pairings would struggle.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the average frame rates range from 872.4 FPS at Low settings to 603.6 FPS at Ultra settings. The Medium preset produces 817.8 FPS and High produces 711.5 FPS. The spread of 268.8 FPS between Low and Ultra demonstrates that while settings do impact performance, even the heaviest preset remains far above playable thresholds.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 663.1 FPS for Low, 561.7 FPS for Medium, 486.9 FPS for High, and 419.6 FPS for Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 243.5 FPS, indicating that the GPU is beginning to assert more influence on performance. The 1440p figures are all comfortably above 400 FPS, ensuring a smooth experience on high refresh rate monitors.

At 3840x2160, the averages drop to 392.9 FPS for Low, 333.0 FPS for Medium, 287.0 FPS for High, and 248.3 FPS for Ultra. The difference between Low and Ultra is 144.6 FPS. Even at the most demanding settings, the game remains highly playable, with the 4K Ultra average of 248.3 FPS still exceeding the refresh rate of most 4K displays.

FAQ

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

A: The highest average frame rate is 872.4 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate is 248.3 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: The data indicates the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p, as frame rates do not scale dramatically with resolution reductions from this point.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested combinations in this game?

A: The combo ranks 389th out of 1605 tested combinations for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

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

A: At 2560x1440, the difference between Low (663.1 FPS) and Ultra (419.6 FPS) is 243.5 FPS.

Q: What is the RTX 5070's average benchmark score and percentile?

A: The RTX 5070 has an average benchmark score of 41687, placing it in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs.