Valorant

Settings Recommendations

For Valorant, the measured data reveals a clear hierarchy among the four available presets, and the differences are substantial enough to inform a deliberate choice. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 696.6 FPS, which is the highest figure recorded for this combination across any resolution or setting. The Medium preset follows at 523.9 FPS, then High at 503.9 FPS, and finally Ultra at 476.3 FPS. This pattern indicates that the Low preset offers a significant performance advantage, but the gap between Low and the next tier is considerable.

The question becomes whether that performance delta justifies the visual compromise. When examining the scaling from Low to Medium at 1080p, the average FPS drops by roughly 25% — from 696.6 to 523.9 — yet the visual quality improvement is modest in a competitive FPS where clarity of enemy silhouettes often matters more than texture detail. The Medium preset appears to strike a balance: it retains the vast majority of the performance headroom while providing more visual information than Low. At 2560x1440, the same relationship holds, with Low at 662.3 FPS, Medium at 449.9 FPS, High at 427.9 FPS, and Ultra at 404.7 FPS.

However, the data suggests that High and Ultra are difficult to justify for gameplay purposes. The difference between Medium and High at 1440p is only 22 FPS (449.9 vs 427.9), and between High and Ultra it shrinks to 23.2 FPS (427.9 vs 404.7). These are relatively small margins compared to the Low-to-Medium jump. For a game where frame rate consistency directly impacts aim and reaction time, the Medium preset provides the best experience per the measured rows: it keeps average FPS well above 400 at all resolutions while avoiding the steep performance penalty of the higher presets. Players with high-refresh monitors will find Medium sufficient to saturate even the most demanding displays, as the lowest Medium figure is 360.8 FPS at 4K.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 plays a critical but nuanced role in these results. Its memory configuration — 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth — is ample for Valorant, which is not a texture-heavy title. The GPU's clock behavior shows a base of 1500 MHz and a boost of 1725 MHz, and the data indicates that this combination rarely becomes the limiting factor until the resolution climbs toward 4K.

At 1920x1080, the GPU's role is almost secondary. The average FPS figures — 696.6 at Low, 523.9 at Medium, 503.9 at High, 476.3 at Ultra — suggest that the CPU's single-thread performance is driving the upper bounds, as the RTX 3070 is capable of far higher output in lighter scenes. The GPU's 5888 shading units and 184 texture mapping units provide more than enough raw throughput for a game like Valorant, which is geometrically simple but requires rapid frame delivery. The FP32 compute of 20.31 TFLOPS is far above what this game can utilize, meaning the GPU operates well within its comfort zone.

The situation changes at 3840x2160. Here, the GPU begins to assert itself more forcefully. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 696.6 at 1080p to 546.8 at 4K — a substantial reduction that indicates the GPU's pixel throughput is now a meaningful constraint. The RTX 3070's pixel rate of 165.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 317.4 GTexel/s are being taxed more heavily. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the average falls to 323.6 FPS, which is still high by any standard but represents a 32% drop from the 1080p Ultra figure of 476.3 FPS. This suggests that while the GPU is not the bottleneck at lower resolutions, it does contribute to the scaling penalty at higher pixel counts.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals important information about where the bottleneck shifts. Starting with the Low preset, the averages are 696.6 at 1080p, 662.3 at 1440p, and 546.8 at 4K. The decline from 1080p to 1440p is a modest 4.9%, but the drop from 1440p to 4K is a steeper 17.4%. This pattern suggests that at Low settings, the CPU remains the primary limiter even at 1440p, and only at 4K does the GPU's pixel-pushing workload become significant.

For the Medium preset, the averages are 523.9 at 1080p, 449.9 at 1440p, and 360.8 at 4K. The proportional drops are more uniform: a 14.1% decline from 1080p to 1440p, followed by a 19.8% decline from 1440p to 4K. This indicates that the GPU is becoming a co-limiter even at 1440p when settings increase. The High preset shows 503.9 at 1080p, 427.9 at 1440p, and 342.4 at 4K — drops of 15.1% and 20.0% respectively. Ultra follows the same trajectory: 476.3 at 1080p, 404.7 at 1440p, and 323.6 at 4K, representing declines of 15.0% and 20.0%.

The data implies that at lower settings, the CPU-bound nature of Valorant dominates, and resolution matters less. At higher settings, the GPU workload increases enough to make resolution scaling more punishing. The fact that even at 4K Ultra the average FPS never dips below 323.6 indicates that this combination is extraordinarily capable for this title, but the scaling curves suggest that players targeting maximum frame rates should stay at 1440p or below, where the CPU's headroom is more fully expressed.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of results is available. The Low preset leads with 696.6 average FPS, followed by Medium at 523.9, High at 503.9, and Ultra at 476.3. The spread from Low to Ultra is 220.3 FPS, which is substantial. The Medium-to-High gap is only 20 FPS, making those two presets quite close in performance. The Low preset's advantage over Medium is 172.7 FPS, which is the largest single-step difference at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern persists but with compressed values. Low produces 662.3 average FPS, Medium 449.9, High 427.9, and Ultra 404.7. The Low-to-Ultra spread narrows to 257.6 FPS, and notably, the Low-to-Medium gap grows to 212.4 FPS. This suggests that at 1440p, the Medium preset's additional GPU workload costs more relative to Low than it did at 1080p. The High-to-Ultra difference is just 23.2 FPS, reinforcing the idea that the two highest presets are nearly interchangeable in performance terms.

At 3840x2160, the values are 546.8 for Low, 360.8 for Medium, 342.4 for High, and 323.6 for Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra spread is 223.2 FPS, and the Low-to-Medium gap is 186.0 FPS. Interestingly, the Medium-to-High difference at 4K is only 18.4 FPS, and the High-to-Ultra difference is 18.8 FPS. These shrinking gaps at higher resolutions indicate that the GPU is becoming the dominant constraint, and the settings-based performance differences diminish as resolution increases. Across all resolutions, the Low preset consistently provides the highest frame rates, but the relative ordering of Medium, High, and Ultra remains stable, with Ultra always the slowest.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of tested combinations, this pairing of AMD Ryzen 5 9600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 holds a combo rank of 293 out of 1650 combinations in Valorant. This places it in the top 17.8% of all tested configurations, which is a strong showing for a mid-generation pairing. The rank reflects that while this is not an extreme enthusiast setup, it outperforms the vast majority of alternatives in this specific game.

The rank is notable because Valorant is known to be CPU-sensitive, and the Ryzen 5 9600X's architecture benefits from high single-thread performance. The CPU's percentile rank against all CPUs is 85, meaning it outperforms 85% of all processors in the database. The GPU's percentile is lower at 72, which suggests that the CPU is the stronger component in this pairing relative to their respective pools. This asymmetry likely contributes to the combo's high rank, as the game leverages the CPU's strengths while the GPU's capabilities are sufficient but not overkill.

The nearest rival CPUs provide context. The Intel Core i5-13490F has an average benchmark score of 28173, which is 0.3% lower than the Ryzen 5 9600X's 28246. The AMD Ryzen 5 230 is similarly close at 28164, also 0.3% behind. On the other side, the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS scores 28369, 0.4% ahead, and the Intel Core i5-14500T scores 28377, 0.5% ahead. These margins are tiny, indicating that the 9600X is solidly in a competitive cluster. The combo rank of 293 suggests that, in practice, this CPU-GPU pairing outperforms many combinations with nominally more powerful components because of the game's specific engine characteristics.

FAQ

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

A: The highest average FPS is 696.6, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset.

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

A: The 4K Ultra average is 323.6 FPS, which is 373.0 FPS lower than the 1080p Low figure of 696.6, representing a 53.5% reduction.

Q: Which preset offers the best balance of performance and visual quality?

A: The Medium preset provides a strong balance, with 523.9 FPS at 1080p, 449.9 FPS at 1440p, and 360.8 FPS at 4K, while avoiding the steep performance penalties of High and Ultra.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more responsible for the high frame rates?

A: The CPU appears to be the primary driver, given its 85th percentile rank versus the GPU's 72nd, and the relatively small FPS drops from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings.

Q: Does the RTX 3070's 8 GB VRAM limit performance in Valorant?

A: No, the data shows no such limitation. The 8 GB GDDR6 configuration is more than sufficient for this title, as evidenced by the consistently high frame rates even at 4K.

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

A: It ranks 293rd out of 1650 combinations, placing it in the top 17.8% of all tested combos in Valorant.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X is the central figure in this performance story. With 6 cores and 12 threads, it is not a high-core-count processor, but its Zen 5 architecture on a 4 nm process delivers exceptional single-thread throughput. The base clock of 3.90 GHz and boost clock of 5.40 GHz are key metrics, and the benchmark results confirm this strength: the 3DMark single-thread score is 1253, the Cinebench R23 single-core score is 3603, and the Geekbench single-core score is 3363. These are elite-level figures for a desktop chip.

The CPU's cache hierarchy — 80 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 — is well-suited for a game like Valorant that relies on rapid, repetitive data access. The 32 MB L3 cache is particularly relevant, as it can hold frequently accessed game assets and reduce memory latency. The dual-channel DDR5 memory support provides 89.6 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for this workload. The CPU's TDP of 65 W indicates it runs efficiently, which is beneficial for sustained frame rates without thermal throttling.

The data suggests the CPU is the bottleneck in most scenarios, particularly at 1080p and 1440p with lower settings. The fact that the average FPS at 1080p Low is 696.6, and the CPU's 3DMark max-threads score is 7590, indicates that the processor is being pushed toward its limits. The multi-threaded scores — Cinebench R23 multicore at 25525, Geekbench multicore at 15182, and PassMark multithread at 30027 — show that while the CPU has decent multi-core capability, its single-core prowess is what shines in this title. The nearest rival CPUs are all within 0.5% of its average benchmark score, suggesting that the 9600X is at the leading edge of its performance tier, and this is directly reflected in the game's frame rates.