Valorant

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and Intel Arc B390 combination delivers a distinctive performance profile in Valorant, positioning the system at the 2534th rank out of 2883 tested combos. This pairing of a modern 6-core desktop processor with an integrated-class graphics solution produces frame rates that range from 135 FPS at 4K Ultra to 331 FPS at 1080p Low, demonstrating that the CPU has ample headroom while the GPU becomes the primary constraint at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the overall benchmark ranking of this combo in Valorant?

A: This combination ranks 2534th out of 2883 tested combos, placing it in the lower portion of the performance distribution for this game.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 8400F compare to its closest rival in CPU benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 8400F has an average benchmark score of 25005, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F and 0.3% higher than the Intel Core i7-11850H.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all tested graphics cards?

A: The Intel Arc B390 sits at the 9th percentile versus all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 1482 from the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The highest average FPS is 331, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The lowest average FPS is 135, recorded at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings.

Q: Does the CPU have integrated graphics?

A: No, the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F lists integrated graphics as "N/A," meaning it requires a discrete GPU, which in this case is the Intel Arc B390.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 2534 out of 2883 places this system in the bottom 12% of tested configurations for Valorant. This low position is primarily attributable to the GPU's performance tier rather than the CPU's capabilities. The Ryzen 5 8400F itself ranks at the 77th percentile among all CPUs, indicating it is a relatively capable processor. The disconnect between the CPU's percentile and the combo's rank highlights how the Intel Arc B390, which sits at only the 9th GPU percentile, drags the overall system down in this title.

When analyzing the measured FPS data, the system still produces playable frame rates across all tested configurations. Even at 4K Ultra, the average of 135 FPS exceeds the 60 FPS threshold commonly associated with smooth gameplay. The combination's rank suggests that while it is not competitive with high-end gaming rigs, it does not fall into the unplayable category either. The data indicates a system that is heavily GPU-limited, as evidenced by the relatively small FPS differences between Low and Ultra settings at the same resolution compared to what a more balanced system might show.

The nearest rival comparisons for the GPU reinforce this assessment. The Arc B390's benchmark score of 1482 places it just 1.3% above the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX and 2.7% above the GeForce GT 710. These are entry-level parts from previous generations, confirming that the GPU component of this combo is positioned at the very bottom of the performance spectrum. The combo rank of 2534 reflects this GPU limitation more than any CPU bottleneck.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics processor built on Intel's 3 nm process with the Xe3-LPG architecture. Its memory configuration is entirely system-shared, meaning it draws from the same DDR5 memory pool as the CPU rather than having dedicated VRAM. The memory bandwidth is listed as system-dependent, which introduces variability based on the system's RAM configuration. This shared memory architecture is a critical factor in the GPU's performance characteristics.

Clock speeds for the Arc B390 show a base frequency of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz. The wide gap between base and boost suggests the GPU can ramp up significantly under load, but the integrated nature of the part likely means thermal and power constraints within the system chassis will influence sustained performance. The GPU's TDP is 80 W, which is modest for a graphics solution and consistent with its integrated design.

The Arc B390 has 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster operation units. It also includes 12 ray tracing cores. The pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance rated at 7.680 TFLOPS. These specifications place it firmly in the entry-level segment. The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, meaning it has modern API support even if raw performance is limited.

In Valorant specifically, the GPU's role becomes apparent when examining FPS variations across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 331 FPS, but at 4K Low, it drops to 225 FPS. This 106 FPS reduction across a 4x increase in pixel count demonstrates that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The fact that the Arc B390 can still produce 135 FPS at 4K Ultra in a competitive FPS title is notable, but the performance ceiling is clearly set by the integrated graphics rather than the CPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 331 FPS average, which is the peak performance recorded in the entire dataset. Medium settings yield 218 FPS with a minimum of 185 and maximum of 250 FPS. High settings achieve 207 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 198 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 133 FPS, indicating that the GPU becomes more stressed as visual quality increases, but the CPU still has enough headroom to maintain high frame rates even at the lowest settings.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally. Low settings produce 282 FPS, a 49 FPS decrease from the 1080p Low result. Medium settings achieve 186 FPS with a minimum of 158 and maximum of 214 FPS. High settings reach 177 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 169 FPS. At this resolution, the gap between Low and Ultra is 113 FPS, slightly smaller than at 1080p, suggesting the GPU is becoming more of a bottleneck as pixel count increases.

At 3840x2160, the system shows its most constrained performance. Low settings yield 225 FPS, which is still respectable but represents a 106 FPS drop from 1080p Low. Medium settings achieve 149 FPS with a minimum of 126 and maximum of 171 FPS. High settings produce 141 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 135 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is only 90 FPS, the smallest spread across all resolutions. This compression of FPS values at 4K indicates that the GPU is saturated and cannot scale performance with settings changes as effectively as at lower resolutions.

The Medium settings rows are the only ones with min and max FPS data. At 1080p Medium, the range is 185 to 250 FPS, showing a 65 FPS variance. At 1440p Medium, the range narrows to 158 to 214 FPS, a 56 FPS variance. At 4K Medium, the range tightens further to 126 to 171 FPS, a 45 FPS variance. This trend of decreasing variance at higher resolutions reinforces that the GPU is the limiting component, as frame pacing becomes more consistent when the GPU is fully utilized.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1080p, all settings produce frame rates above 198 FPS, which exceeds the refresh rate of most monitors. For competitive play where maximum FPS is prioritized, Low settings at 331 FPS provide the highest headroom. However, the 133 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p means that players with 144 Hz or 240 Hz monitors can comfortably select Medium or High settings while still maintaining frame rates above 200 FPS.

At 1440p, the choices require more consideration. Low settings at 282 FPS still provide excellent performance for high-refresh-rate displays. Medium settings at 186 FPS remain viable for 144 Hz monitors, while High and Ultra at 177 and 169 FPS respectively still exceed 60 FPS but may not fully saturate higher refresh rates. The data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot at 1440p, balancing the 186 FPS average with the improved visual quality over Low settings.

At 4K, the settings recommendation shifts toward lower presets. Low settings at 225 FPS are the only configuration that clearly supports high-refresh-rate gaming at this resolution. Medium at 149 FPS, High at 141 FPS, and Ultra at 135 FPS all fall below 150 FPS, which may be insufficient for competitive players using 240 Hz displays. For 4K gaming on a 60 Hz or 144 Hz monitor, Medium settings at 149 FPS provide a good compromise between visual fidelity and performance.

The measured data indicates that the system scales well with settings reductions at lower resolutions but offers diminishing returns at 4K. At 1080p, dropping from Ultra to Low yields a 67% FPS increase, while at 4K, the same settings change produces only a 67% improvement as well, but from a lower baseline. The recommendation is to prioritize Low or Medium settings at 4K, Medium or High at 1440p, and any settings at 1080p depending on monitor refresh rate.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture with a Phoenix codename. It operates on the AMD Socket AM5 platform with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. The CPU has a 65 W TDP and is manufactured on a 4 nm process by TSMC. Its cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 16 MB of shared L3 cache.

In CPU benchmarks, the Ryzen 5 8400F shows strong multi-threaded performance. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 20851, while the single-core score is 2943. The 3DMark results show scaling from 1874 at 2 threads to 6165 at max threads, indicating good thread scaling. The PassMark multithread score is 24389, with a single-thread score of 3685. These results place the CPU at the 77th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25005.

The nearest rival comparisons show the 8400F is closely matched with several other processors. It is 0.2% above the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F, 0.3% above the Intel Core i7-11850H, and 0.4% above the Intel Core i7-13620H. It trails the AMD EPYC 9474F by 0.4%. These tight margins indicate that the 8400F performs in line with expectations for a mid-range desktop processor.

In the context of Valorant, the CPU's role is primarily to feed frames to the GPU. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 331 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's practical limit for this game. As settings increase, frame rates drop, suggesting the GPU takes over as the bottleneck. The 12 threads and 4.70 GHz boost clock provide sufficient single-thread performance for the game's engine, which is typically not heavily multi-threaded. The CPU's 16 MB of L3 cache is adequate for the game's data access patterns.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the system's bottleneck characteristics. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 331 FPS at 1080p to 282 FPS at 1440p, a 15% reduction, and then to 225 FPS at 4K, a 32% reduction from 1440p. The total drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is 106 FPS, representing a 32% decrease. This relatively modest scaling suggests that at Low settings, the CPU still plays a significant role in determining frame rates, as the GPU has less work to do per frame.

At Medium settings, the scaling shows a different pattern. The frame rate drops from 218 FPS at 1080p to 186 FPS at 1440p, a 15% reduction, and then to 149 FPS at 4K, a 20% reduction from 1440p. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 69 FPS, a 32% decrease. This consistent percentage drop across settings indicates that the GPU is becoming more dominant as the resolution increases.

At High settings, the frame rate scales from 207 FPS at 1080p to 177 FPS at 1440p, a 14% reduction, and then to 141 FPS at 4K, a 20% reduction from 1440p. The total drop is 66 FPS, a 32% decrease. At Ultra settings, the frame rate drops from 198 FPS at 1080p to 169 FPS at 1440p, a 15% reduction, and then to 135 FPS at 4K, a 20% reduction. The total drop is 63 FPS, a 32% decrease.

The consistent 32% total reduction from 1080p to 4K across all settings is a strong indicator that the GPU is the limiting component in this system. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the percentage drop would be smaller at higher resolutions, as the CPU would maintain similar frame rates regardless of resolution. Instead, the frame rates scale almost linearly with pixel count, which is characteristic of a GPU-limited scenario. The Arc B390's system-shared memory and low performance tier make it the clear constraint, while the Ryzen 5 8400F's strong single-thread performance ensures it is not holding back the system at any resolution.