Valorant

Valorant’s performance with the AMD Ryzen 5 4600G and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination reveals a profound bottleneck in the processor, as the data indicates that even a flagship GPU like the RTX 5090 cannot push frame rates past the 404 FPS ceiling established by the Ryzen 5 4600G. Across all resolutions and settings, the measured average FPS remains remarkably high, but the scaling pattern shows that graphical fidelity has minimal impact on performance, while resolution changes produce a more noticeable, albeit still CPU-bound, effect. The benchmark results position this pairing as a mismatch, where the GPU’s immense capabilities are largely left untapped in this specific title.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K demonstrates a clear but limited performance drop, indicating that the game’s frame rate is primarily governed by the CPU rather than the GPU. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 404.4 FPS. Moving to 1440p at the same settings reduces the average to 385 FPS, a decline of 19.4 FPS. At 4K with Low settings, the average further drops to 352.4 FPS, representing a total decrease of 52 FPS from the 1080p baseline. This pattern shows that while resolution does have an effect, the overall performance remains exceptionally high, suggesting that the GPU has ample headroom even at 4K.

When examining High settings, the scaling is similar but with lower absolute values. At 1080p, the average is 339.5 FPS; at 1440p, it falls to 319 FPS; and at 4K, it reaches 295.9 FPS. The difference between 1080p and 4K at High settings is 43.6 FPS, which is slightly less than the 52 FPS drop observed at Low settings. This indicates that as resolution increases, the GPU begins to take on a slightly larger role, but the CPU still remains the limiting factor. The fact that the FPS at 4K Ultra (295.2 FPS) is only slightly lower than at 4K High (295.9 FPS) further reinforces that the system is not GPU-bound at any tested configuration.

FAQ

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

A: The highest average FPS is 404.4, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the performance at 4K Ultra compare to 1080p Low?

A: The 4K Ultra average FPS is 295.2, which is 109.2 FPS lower than the 1080p Low score of 404.4, showing a significant but not proportional drop given the 4x pixel increase.

Q: Does increasing graphical settings from Low to Ultra at 1080p cause a large FPS loss?

A: Yes, the average FPS drops from 404.4 at Low to 333.5 at Ultra, a reduction of 70.9 FPS, which indicates that even CPU-bound scenarios have some sensitivity to settings.

Q: Is the RTX 5090 the performance bottleneck in this configuration?

A: No, the data suggests the Ryzen 5 4600G is the limiting factor, as the FPS remains consistently high across resolutions, and the GPU percentile rank of 94 versus the CPU’s 75 percentile indicates a processor-side constraint.

Q: What is the performance difference between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: The average FPS at Medium is 323.6, while at High it is 319, a difference of only 4.6 FPS, showing that these settings have a negligible impact on this system.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations in Valorant?

A: It ranks 1161 out of 1650 tested combos, placing it in the lower portion of the database despite the high absolute frame rates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090’s role in Valorant is heavily diminished due to the CPU bottleneck, as evidenced by the minimal FPS variation across different graphical presets. The GPU boasts 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s, and its boost clock is rated at 2407 MHz. These specifications are far beyond what a competitive FPS like Valorant requires, and the measured results confirm this, as the difference between Low and Ultra settings at 4K is only 57.2 FPS (352.4 vs 295.2). This small delta indicates that the GPU is not being stressed by texture load or shader complexity, but rather waiting for the CPU to deliver draw calls.

The RTX 5090’s average benchmark score is 84306, placing it in the 94th percentile of all GPUs, and it is closely matched by the RTX 5090 D (deltaPct 0.1) and the RTX 5050 Mobile (deltaPct 0.2). However, in this game, the GPU’s raw power is irrelevant to the final FPS output. The data shows that the limiting factor is the CPU’s single-thread performance, as Valorant is typically sensitive to that metric, and the Ryzen 5 4600G’s 3dmark_single_thread score of 726 is a modest figure compared to its multi-threaded scores. Therefore, the GPU operates at a fraction of its capacity, making it an overkill component for this specific pairing.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combination would be Medium at 1440p, as it provides a balance between visual fidelity and performance. At 1440p Medium, the average FPS is 323.6, which is only 61.4 FPS lower than the absolute maximum at 1080p Low. The jump from Medium to High at 1440p yields just a 4.6 FPS difference, making the increased visual load of High settings virtually free in terms of performance. However, the step from Low to Medium at 1440p increases the average from 385 to 323.6, which is a more substantial 61.4 FPS drop, suggesting that the Low preset is significantly lighter on the CPU.

For players prioritizing maximum frame rates, the 1080p Low preset is the clear choice, delivering 404.4 FPS, which is the highest score in the entire measured set. At 4K, the differences between presets are even smaller, with High (295.9) and Ultra (295.2) being nearly identical, so choosing Ultra at 4K would provide the best visual experience with only a 0.7 FPS penalty compared to High. Given that the CPU is the bottleneck, the recommendation is to select a higher resolution or settings without fear of major FPS loss, as the system will remain above 295 FPS in all tested configurations.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 4600G and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 1161 out of 1650 tested combos in Valorant, which places it in the bottom 30% of the database. This ranking is surprising given the absolute FPS numbers, but it reflects the fact that many other CPU-GPU pairings achieve even higher frame rates, likely due to having more capable processors. The CPU’s percentile rank of 75 against all CPUs indicates it is a mid-range performer, while the GPU’s 94th percentile rank shows it is top-tier, but the pairing’s overall rank is dragged down by the processor’s limitations in this specific game.

The nearest rivals to the Ryzen 5 4600G in terms of average benchmark score include the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE (deltaPct 0) and the Intel Core i5-12450H (deltaPct 0.1), which are all within 1% of its score. This suggests that the 4600G is performing as expected for its class, but it simply lacks the single-thread headroom required to push Valorant beyond the 404 FPS mark. The combo’s rank of 1161 out of 1650 indicates that while the frame rates are playable and high, the system is not optimized for competitive esports titles where higher FPS is paramount.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are 404.4 for Low, 341.3 for Medium, 339.5 for High, and 333.5 for Ultra. The spread between the lowest and highest settings is 70.9 FPS, which is the largest range across all resolutions. At 2560x1440, the averages are 385 for Low, 323.6 for Medium, 319 for High, and 318 for Ultra, with a spread of 67 FPS. At 3840x2160, the averages are 352.4 for Low, 301 for Medium, 295.9 for High, and 295.2 for Ultra, with a spread of 57.2 FPS. These numbers show a consistent pattern where the Low preset is always significantly faster than the other presets, while Medium, High, and Ultra are clustered closely together, typically within a 10 FPS range of each other. The data indicates that the CPU’s performance ceiling is around 404 FPS at 1080p Low, and that ceiling decreases as resolution increases, reaching 352.4 FPS at 4K Low, which is still a very high frame rate.