Valorant

Valorant is a competitive FPS where frame rate matters more than almost any other visual feature, and the measured results for the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER combo show a system that is heavily skewed toward CPU-bound performance at every resolution. The data indicates this pairing is capable of delivering extremely high frame rates that far exceed the refresh rates of most monitors, but the way those frames scale with resolution and settings reveals exactly where the bottleneck lies and how to configure the game for the best competitive experience.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is surprisingly modest, which is the first major indicator that the CPU is the primary limiting factor in this title. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 467 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low only drops that to 442.7 FPS, a decline of roughly 5.2%. At 4K Low, the average is 408.6 FPS, which is still within 12.5% of the 1080p result. This is a classic sign of a CPU-bound scenario: the GPU has so much headroom at lower resolutions that it can easily keep up with the CPU's frame generation, and even at 4K, the rendering load is not enough to saturate the RTX 2060 SUPER's capabilities.

The gap widens somewhat when you move to higher settings presets. At High settings, the spread from 1080p (373.9 FPS) to 4K (252.9 FPS) is a 32.4% reduction, which is more pronounced than the Low setting delta. This suggests that the GPU begins to take on more work as visual complexity increases, but even at 4K Ultra, the average of 239.6 FPS is still exceptionally high. The pattern is clear: this game is so lightweight on the GPU that the RTX 2060 SUPER never becomes a meaningful constraint, even at 4K. The limiting component is consistently the Ryzen 5 5500's single-thread performance, which dictates the ceiling for frame generation regardless of resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific combination of CPU and GPU ranks 1114th out of 1650 tested combos for Valorant. This places it in the 67th percentile of all tested pairings, which is a solid result, but the raw FPS numbers suggest that the ranking is heavily influenced by the CPU's performance tier. The Ryzen 5 5500 itself sits at the 79th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20875. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-12500, which scores 20897 (0.1% higher), and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE at 20900 (0.1% higher). This indicates that the CPU is performing exactly as expected for its class, and the combo's rank is a direct reflection of that CPU's standing rather than any GPU limitation.

The GPU, a GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER, sits at the 63rd percentile among all GPUs with an average score of 19774. Its nearest rivals include the GeForce GTX TITAN (0.3% higher) and the GeForce RTX 2070 (0.5% higher). In Valorant, however, the GPU's ranking is almost irrelevant. The measured FPS data shows that even the weakest link in this chain, the CPU, is strong enough to push frame rates into the hundreds at 4K. The combo rank of 1114 out of 1650 might seem low, but it is important to contextualize that this game is not demanding on the GPU, and the ranking likely reflects that many other combos feature higher-end CPUs that can push even more frames in CPU-bound scenarios.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to a clear winner for competitive play: the Low preset. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 467 FPS, which is 75.3 FPS higher than the Medium preset (391.6) and 93.1 FPS higher than High (373.9). The jump from Low to Medium costs you 75.4 FPS, which is a significant margin in a game where every frame can reduce input latency. The difference between Medium and High is smaller, at 17.7 FPS, but still not worth the visual fidelity trade-off for most players.

If you insist on higher visual quality, the Medium preset at 1440p (332.2 FPS) is a reasonable compromise, as it still delivers frame rates well above 300. However, the data strongly suggests that for maximum competitive advantage, you should select Low settings at 1080p. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 112.3 FPS (467 vs. 354.7), which is a 24% performance penalty for visual features that are often distracting in a tactical shooter. The Low preset also reduces visual clutter, which can be a practical advantage. Even at 4K, Low settings (408.6 FPS) outperform Ultra at 1080p (354.7 FPS), showing that resolution is less of a factor than the settings preset itself.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the FPS ranges from a low of 354.7 on Ultra to a high of 467 on Low. The Medium preset lands at 391.6, and High at 373.9. The scaling is consistent: each step down in settings yields a noticeable gain in frame rate. The delta between Low and Medium is 75.4 FPS, between Medium and High is 17.7 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 19.2 FPS. This indicates that the Low preset is uniquely positioned to unlock the CPU's full potential, while the higher presets introduce incremental GPU load that slightly reduces the frame ceiling.

At 1440p, the results are similar but slightly lower. Low settings produce 442.7 FPS, Medium 332.2, High 316.8, and Ultra 305. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 5% on Low, but the drop on Ultra is 14% (354.7 to 305). This shows that the GPU is starting to feel the resolution increase on the highest presets, but it is still nowhere near its limit. At 4K, the frame rates remain exceptionally high: Low at 408.6, Medium at 265.7, High at 252.9, and Ultra at 239.6. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is 142.9 FPS, which is the largest single-settings delta in the entire dataset, highlighting how much performance is left on the table when you enable higher presets at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The RTX 2060 SUPER is not the bottleneck in this configuration. With 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, it provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for a game like Valorant. The GPU's boost clock of 1650 MHz and 2176 shading units are capable of handling the game's rendering demands with ease. The measured data confirms this: at 1080p Low, the GPU is likely idling or running at low utilization, as the CPU is generating frames faster than the GPU can display them.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 63rd among all GPUs is misleading in this context because Valorant does not stress the GPU's compute or memory subsystems. The RTX 2060 SUPER's 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is far more than needed for a game that is primarily draw-call and geometry limited. The fact that 4K Low (408.6 FPS) is only 12.5% slower than 1080p Low (467 FPS) proves that the GPU has massive headroom. Even at 4K Ultra, the GPU is producing 239.6 FPS, which is still well above the refresh rate of most high-end monitors. This GPU is effectively a non-factor in this game's performance profile.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 is the true driver of performance in this pairing. With 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture, it has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. Its single-thread performance, as measured by the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2319, is the key determinant of frame rates in Valorant, which is notoriously sensitive to single-thread IPC and clock speed. The CPU's L3 cache of 16 MB and support for DDR4 memory with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth is ample for the game's data requirements.

The measured FPS data shows that the CPU hits its ceiling at around 467 FPS on 1080p Low, which is likely the maximum frame generation rate for this processor in this title. The fact that 4K Low (408.6 FPS) is only 12.5% lower than 1080p Low (467) suggests that the CPU is still the limiting factor even at 4K, as the GPU has not become saturated. The CPU's percentile ranking of 79th, with an average benchmark score of 20875, places it in the upper tier of desktop processors, and its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-12500, scores nearly identically (0.1% difference). This explains why the combo rank is 1114 out of 1650: the CPU is solid but not top-tier, and higher-end CPUs like the i5-12500 or better can push even higher frame rates in this game. For most players, however, 467 FPS is far beyond what any monitor can display, and the Ryzen 5 5500 is more than capable of delivering a flawless competitive experience.