Valorant

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data for Valorant reveals a fascinating scaling pattern that tells us a great deal about where the bottleneck lies in this AMD Ryzen 5 7600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 pairing. Starting at 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 597 FPS average. Moving to 1440p drops that to 563.1 FPS — a modest decline of roughly 5.7%. Pushing further to 4K yields 479.6 FPS, which represents a 19.7% reduction from the 1080p figure. This relatively gentle slope across such a massive resolution increase suggests that at lower settings, the system is not purely GPU-bound; the CPU is doing substantial heavy lifting.

The picture changes dramatically when we examine the High and Ultra presets. At 1080p High, the system delivers 439.8 FPS. At 1440p High, that falls to 374.2 FPS — a 14.9% drop. At 4K High, the average sinks to 303.1 FPS, a 31.1% reduction from the 1080p baseline. The Ultra preset shows an even steeper curve: 419.9 FPS at 1080p, 357.7 FPS at 1440p (14.8% lower), and 286 FPS at 4K (31.9% lower). The widening gap between resolution tiers as settings increase is a classic indicator that the GPU becomes progressively more dominant in limiting performance as both resolution and graphical load rise.

What's particularly telling is the comparison between Low and Ultra at each resolution. At 1080p, the gap between Low (597 FPS) and Ultra (419.9 FPS) is 177.1 FPS. At 4K, that gap narrows to 193.6 FPS (479.6 vs 286). The fact that even at 4K Ultra the system still averages 286 FPS — far above any competitive display's refresh rate — underscores that this game is exceptionally light on the GPU. The data implies that in Valorant, the Ryzen 5 7600's six Zen 4 cores are frequently the limiting factor, especially at 1080p where the GPU has plenty of headroom. The 4K results, by contrast, show the RTX 4060 finally exerting more influence, though it never becomes a hard wall — the game simply doesn't demand enough from the GPU to fully saturate even this mid-range card.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured rows allow for a clear recommendation based on the relationship between settings and achieved frame rates. At every resolution tested, the Low preset delivers the highest average FPS: 597 at 1080p, 563.1 at 1440p, and 479.6 at 4K. However, the jump from Low to Medium costs relatively little in performance — at 1080p, Medium yields 463.7 FPS versus 597 for Low, a 22.3% penalty. At 4K, Medium produces 315.6 FPS compared to Low's 479.6, a 34.2% reduction. The Medium preset appears to be the sweet spot for players who want a balance between visual quality and frame rate headroom, as it still clears 300 FPS even at 4K.

The High preset offers a curious middle ground. At 1080p, High (439.8 FPS) is only marginally slower than Medium (463.7 FPS) — a 5.2% difference. At 1440p, the gap narrows further: 374.2 vs 397, a 5.7% difference. But at 4K, High (303.1) and Medium (315.6) are separated by just 4% as well. This suggests that the visual uplift from Medium to High is nearly free in performance terms, making High the recommended preset for most users. The Ultra preset, meanwhile, extracts a measurable toll: at 1080p it is 9.5% slower than High (419.9 vs 439.8), and at 4K it is 5.6% slower (286 vs 303.1). Given that the absolute FPS numbers remain astronomical even at Ultra — never dipping below 286 — the data supports Ultra for players on high-refresh-rate displays who prioritize consistency over chasing every last frame.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This specific combination of AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 achieves a combo rank of 640 out of 1650 tested combos in Valorant. That places it in the 61st percentile of all combinations — comfortably above the median, but not in the upper echelon. The rank is somewhat surprising given the absolute FPS numbers are extremely high; the explanation lies in the fact that Valorant is so light that even modest hardware can hit triple-digit frame rates, and the top-performing combos likely feature higher-end CPUs with stronger single-thread performance.

The CPU's individual standing provides context. The Ryzen 5 7600 sits at the 83rd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 26,617. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (average score 26,574, a 0.2% delta) and the Intel Core i9-12900HK (26,672, -0.2% delta). This means the processor is performing essentially at parity with those chips in general benchmarks. However, in a game like Valorant that heavily favors single-thread performance, the 7600's 3DMark single-thread score of 999 and its passmark single-thread score of 3,910 become more relevant. The GPU, meanwhile, ranks at the 66th percentile among all GPUs with an average score of 23,181, placing it just behind the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23,321, -0.6% delta) and ahead of the Intel Arc B580 (23,021, 0.7% delta).

The rank of 640 suggests that while this combo is strong, there are 1,010 other combinations that deliver higher average FPS in Valorant. This is likely due to the fact that the RTX 4060, while perfectly capable, is not the primary driver of FPS in this title — the CPU is. Combos with processors like the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which has a nearly identical average score but potentially better gaming-specific characteristics, could edge ahead. The data implies that for Valorant specifically, investing in a higher-tier CPU rather than a higher-tier GPU would yield a better combo rank.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The complete set of measured average FPS figures forms a consistent matrix. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 597 FPS, Medium produces 463.7 FPS, High achieves 439.8 FPS, and Ultra reaches 419.9 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440, the numbers shift downward: Low yields 563.1 FPS, Medium 397 FPS, High 374.2 FPS, and Ultra 357.7 FPS. At 3840x2160, the pattern continues: Low produces 479.6 FPS, Medium 315.6 FPS, High 303.1 FPS, and Ultra 286 FPS.

Several observations emerge from this data. The step from Low to Medium is the largest performance hit at every resolution: a 22.3% reduction at 1080p, a 29.5% reduction at 1440p, and a 34.2% reduction at 4K. The step from Medium to High is much gentler — 5.2%, 5.7%, and 4.0% respectively. The step from High to Ultra is similarly modest: 4.5% at 1080p, 4.4% at 1440p, and 5.6% at 4K. This implies that the game's Medium preset introduces significant additional GPU load compared to Low, while the differences between Medium, High, and Ultra are comparatively minor in performance impact.

The resolution scaling also shows that the gap between 1080p and 1440p is smaller than the gap between 1440p and 4K for most settings. For Low, the 1080p-to-1440p drop is 33.9 FPS, while 1440p-to-4K is 83.5 FPS. For Ultra, the corresponding drops are 62.2 FPS and 71.7 FPS. The 4K to 1080p range behaves as expected — higher resolutions consistently reduce FPS, but the absolute values remain so high that even the lowest measured figure (286 FPS at 4K Ultra) exceeds the refresh rate of virtually all commercial monitors.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 brings 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding a memory bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s. In Valorant, this memory configuration is more than sufficient — the game's relatively simple geometry and textures do not approach the 8 GB capacity, and the bandwidth is ample for the frame rates observed. The GPU's boost clock of 2460 MHz, base clock of 1830 MHz, and memory clock of 2125 MHz (17 Gbps effective) are not stressed by this title, as evidenced by the fact that even at 4K Ultra, the system still averages 286 FPS.

The RTX 4060's compute capabilities — 15.11 TFLOPS FP32, 3072 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs — are substantial but largely underutilized in Valorant. The pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s are more than enough for the game's rendering demands. The data suggests that the GPU is rarely the limiting factor; instead, the frame rates are capped by CPU-side processing, particularly at lower resolutions and settings. This is consistent with the observation that the FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p (177.1 FPS) is smaller than the difference between 1080p and 4K at Low (117.4 FPS) — indicating that resolution changes affect the GPU more than settings changes do.

The GPU's 66th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23,181, places it in the mid-range tier. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6600M, scores 23,321 (0.6% higher), while the Intel Arc B580 trails at 23,021 (0.7% lower). These tiny deltas suggest that in this game, any of these GPUs would produce nearly identical results — the RTX 4060's specific features, such as its Ada Lovelace architecture and ray tracing cores (24 RT cores, 96 tensor cores), are irrelevant to Valorant's rendering pipeline. The game simply does not leverage these capabilities, making the GPU's raw rasterization throughput the only relevant metric, and even that is rarely taxed.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Valorant?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 597, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This represents the absolute ceiling for this combination in the tested configurations.

Q: How much FPS does the system lose when moving from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings?

A: At Ultra settings, the average FPS drops from 419.9 at 1080p to 286 at 4K — a reduction of 133.9 FPS, or approximately 31.9% of the 1080p value.

Q: Which is more impactful: changing resolution or changing settings?

A: The data shows that at 1080p, switching from Low to Ultra reduces FPS by 177.1 (from 597 to 419.9). Moving from 1080p to 4K at Low settings reduces FPS by 117.4 (from 597 to 479.6). Thus, settings changes have a larger impact than resolution changes in this game.

Q: Is this combo ranked highly compared to other tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 640 out of 1650 tested combos, placing it in the 61st percentile. While the absolute FPS numbers are high, many other combinations achieve even higher frame rates in Valorant.

Q: Does the RTX 4060's 8 GB VRAM limit performance in Valorant?

A: No. The game's graphics load is light enough that the 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 272.0 GB/s bandwidth are never saturated, as evidenced by the fact that even at 4K Ultra, the system maintains 286 FPS average.

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

A: At 2560x1440, Medium yields 397 FPS and High yields 374.2 FPS — a difference of 22.8 FPS, or approximately 5.7% of the Medium value. This makes the High preset an attractive choice for minimal performance cost.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 is a six-core, twelve-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. In Valorant, these specifications matter enormously because the game is heavily reliant on single-thread performance. The CPU's 3DMark single-thread score of 999 and its passmark single-thread score of 3,910 indicate strong per-core capability, which is precisely what this game rewards. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 per core also help maintain low latency memory access, which is critical for maintaining high frame rates in fast-paced esports titles.

The CPU's benchmark results reveal a processor that is well-balanced but not exceptional in multi-threaded workloads. Its 3DMark max-threads score of 6,503 and multi-thread passmark score of 27,058 place it at the 83rd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 26,617. The nearest rivals — the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (26,574, 0.2% delta) and the Intel Core i9-12900HK (26,672, -0.2% delta) — show that this chip is performing essentially at parity with those higher-tier processors. However, in Valorant, the 7600's six physical cores are more than enough, since the game rarely scales beyond a few threads. The 12 threads provide headroom for background tasks, but the game's core workload is likely confined to two to four threads.

The CPU's relationship to the measured FPS is most apparent when examining the 1080p Low results: 597 FPS. At this resolution and settings, the GPU is barely working, so the CPU must handle all frame pacing and game logic. The fact that the system still achieves nearly 600 FPS indicates the 7600's single-thread performance is robust, but it also suggests that a faster CPU could push even higher. The 4K results, by contrast, show the CPU's influence waning — the GPU becomes more of a factor, though even at 4K Ultra the system never drops below 286 FPS, confirming that this processor has ample headroom for Valorant's demands. The combination's rank of 640 out of 1650 implies that while the 7600 is excellent, it is not the absolute best choice for maximizing FPS in this specific title — but for a six-core desktop chip with a 65 W TDP and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, the measured results are exceptional.