Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

FAQ

Q: What is the overall performance rank of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 + Intel Arc B390 combo in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive?

A: The combo ranks 2510 out of 2848 tested combinations. This places it in the lower tier of systems tested for this title, indicating that while playable, it does not deliver top-tier frame rates.

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 compare to its closest CPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The CPU is nearly matched with its closest rivals. It scores 0.3% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F, 0.7% higher than the AMD EPYC 7343, and 0.3% lower than the AMD EPYC 4464P. It also trails the AMD EPYC 9124 by 0.7%.

Q: What is the GPU's performance standing relative to other graphics cards?

A: The Intel Arc B390 sits at the 9th percentile among all GPUs. In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, it scores 1482, which is just 1.3% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX and 2.7% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710.

Q: What is the best frame rate achieved at 1920x1080 resolution?

A: The highest average frame rate at 1920x1080 is 303 FPS, which is achieved with Low settings. The next best is 258 FPS on Medium, while High settings yield 223 FPS and Ultra settings produce 190 FPS.

Q: Are there any frame rate limits or minimum FPS data available for most settings?

A: Minimum FPS data is only provided for the Medium preset across all resolutions. At 1920x1080 Medium, the minimum is 219 FPS; at 2560x1440 Medium, it is 151 FPS; and at 3840x2160 Medium, it is 89 FPS.

Q: Does the system's memory configuration influence the GPU's performance in this game?

A: The Intel Arc B390 uses System Shared memory with a bandwidth described as System Dependent. This indicates that the GPU relies on the system's DDR5 RAM, and performance can vary based on the dual-channel memory bus configuration.

How This Combo Ranks

The data places this configuration at rank 2510 out of 2848 combos tested for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. That is a bottom-decile result, but the ranking is not a simple failure. The percentile standing of the GPU is particularly telling: the Arc B390 sits at the 9th percentile among all GPUs, a very low position. The CPU, meanwhile, is much stronger, sitting at the 93rd percentile among all CPUs.

This imbalance is the defining characteristic of the pairing. The CPU is a high-end part, but the GPU is a low-end integrated solution. The combo rank reflects the GPU's limitations more than the CPU's capabilities. With a rank of 2510 out of 2848, this setup falls behind the vast majority of other tested systems in this specific title. However, the measured frame rates show that the game remains playable at lower settings and resolutions, so the rank does not mean the game is unplayable—it means the hardware is not exploiting the game's potential at higher quality presets.

The GPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores are all legacy, low-power NVIDIA parts—the GT 520MX, GeForce 800M, GT 625 OEM, and GT 710. The Arc B390 beats them by 1.3% to 2.7% in the Steel Nomad DX12 test. That is a narrow margin, and it places the Arc B390 in a performance class that predates the modern era of gaming GPUs. For a competitive shooter like CS:GO, which can run on modest hardware, this still produces acceptable frame rates at 1080p, but the headroom for high refresh rates at higher resolutions is limited.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics processor based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, built on Intel's 3 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz. The GPU has 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster output units. It also includes 12 ray tracing cores.

Crucially, the memory configuration is System Shared. There is no dedicated VRAM; the GPU uses the system's DDR5 memory, with a bus width and bandwidth that are System Dependent. This means the GPU's memory performance is tied directly to the host CPU's memory controller and the dual-channel configuration. For a game like CS:GO, which is not particularly memory-hungry, this is less of a bottleneck than it would be in a modern AAA title, but it still limits the GPU's ability to handle high resolutions and settings.

The GPU's compute capabilities are modest: 7.680 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and a pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s. The texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s. These figures align with the GPU's low benchmark standing. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 is the only GPU benchmark available, and it places the Arc B390 near the bottom of the performance stack. The percentile rank of 9 confirms this.

In CS:GO, the GPU's role is to handle the rendering pipeline, and the data shows that it does so adequately at lower settings. The 1080p Low result of 303 FPS suggests the GPU can keep up with the CPU when the graphical load is light. But as settings and resolution increase, the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The 4K Ultra result of 77 FPS illustrates this clearly: the GPU is struggling to maintain high frame rates at the highest quality preset.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of how this combo scales across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are as follows: Low settings produce 303 FPS, Medium produces 258 FPS, High produces 223 FPS, and Ultra produces 190 FPS. The Medium preset also reports a minimum FPS of 219 and a maximum of 296, indicating a stable frame delivery at that setting.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates drop noticeably. Low settings yield 208 FPS, Medium yields 177 FPS, High yields 154 FPS, and Ultra yields 131 FPS. The Medium preset at this resolution has a minimum of 151 FPS and a maximum of 204 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 30% at Low settings, which is a significant reduction but still leaves the game playable.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limitations become stark. Low settings produce 123 FPS, Medium produces 105 FPS, High produces 91 FPS, and Ultra produces 77 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K has a minimum of 89 FPS and a maximum of 120 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is severe: the Low setting drops from 208 to 123 FPS, a 41% reduction. This indicates that the GPU is running out of memory bandwidth and shading capacity at this resolution.

The pattern is consistent: each resolution step down reduces frame rates by a substantial margin, and each settings step down at a given resolution adds a meaningful boost. The largest single jump is from Medium to Low at 1080p, which adds 45 FPS. The smallest jump is from Ultra to High at 4K, which adds only 14 FPS. This suggests that the GPU has more headroom at lower resolutions to benefit from reduced settings, while at 4K it is already too constrained to benefit much from lowering settings.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal experience for this combo is at 1920x1080 with Medium settings. This preset delivers 258 FPS on average, with a minimum of 219 FPS and a maximum of 296 FPS. The minimum frame rate is well above the typical 144 Hz refresh rate, so this setting provides a smooth and consistent experience for competitive play. The jump to High settings at 1080p drops the average to 223 FPS, which is still playable, but the Medium preset offers a better balance of visual fidelity and performance.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset is the recommended choice as well. It averages 177 FPS with a minimum of 151 FPS. This is sufficient for 144 Hz displays, though the margin is tighter than at 1080p. The High preset at 1440p drops to 154 FPS, which is still above 144 Hz but leaves less headroom for frame time spikes. Low settings at 1440p offer 208 FPS, but the visual quality trade-off may not be worth it for most players.

At 3840x2160, only the Low preset (123 FPS) and Medium preset (105 FPS) are viable for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset has a minimum of 89 FPS, which is still above 60 FPS but below 144 Hz. For a competitive shooter, this is not ideal. The High and Ultra presets at 4K produce 91 FPS and 77 FPS respectively, which are too low for fast-paced play. If 4K is a requirement, Low settings are the only sensible choice, but the 123 FPS average is marginal.

The data suggests that the best overall experience is at 1920x1080 with Medium settings. This provides a high average frame rate, a solid minimum frame rate, and good visual quality. The 1440p Medium preset is a strong alternative for users with higher-resolution monitors who can tolerate slightly lower but still playable frame rates.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 30 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus with a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s.

The CPU's benchmark results are strong. In Cinebench R23, it scores 42,216 in multi-core and 5,960 in single-core. In PassMark, the multi-thread score is 49,682 and the single-thread score is 4,689. The CPU sits at the 93rd percentile among all CPUs, and its average benchmark score is 64,640. Its nearest rivals are all server-class AMD EPYC processors, and the deltas are minimal—less than 1% in all cases.

For CS:GO, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, physics, and the simulation of the game world. The 20 cores and 20 threads provide ample parallel processing capability, and the high boost clock of 5.30 GHz ensures strong single-thread performance, which is critical for a game that is often CPU-bound at lower resolutions and settings. The data supports this: at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 303 FPS, which suggests the CPU is not the bottleneck at that setting.

However, the CPU's performance is not fully utilized because the GPU is the limiting factor at higher settings and resolutions. The measured FPS drops from 303 at 1080p Low to 77 at 4K Ultra, which is a direct result of the GPU's inability to keep up. The CPU's benchmark scores indicate it could drive much higher frame rates if paired with a more capable GPU. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42,216 places it well above average, and the PassMark physics score of 2,923 suggests strong computational throughput.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s is shared with the GPU, which uses System Shared memory. This means the CPU and GPU compete for the same memory bandwidth, and the dual-channel configuration may limit the GPU's performance in memory-intensive scenarios. For CS:GO, which has moderate memory requirements, this is not a critical issue, but it contributes to the GPU's performance ceiling at 4K.

In summary, the CPU is a high-end part that provides excellent single-thread and multi-thread performance. Its capabilities are not the limiting factor in this combo's CS:GO results; the GPU is. The data shows a CPU that is capable of far higher frame rates than the GPU can deliver, especially at lower resolutions where the CPU's single-thread performance shines.