Valorant

Valorant is a competitive FPS that responds strongly to both CPU and GPU capabilities, and the combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 produces exceptionally high frame rates across all tested configurations. The measured data shows this pairing delivers average FPS figures that consistently exceed 290 at 4K and reach as high as 403 at 1080p with Low settings, indicating a system that is well-balanced for this title. The following analysis breaks down the performance characteristics, scaling behavior, and component roles based strictly on the provided benchmark results.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data reveals a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, though the absolute drops are relatively modest given the high baseline. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 403 FPS. Moving to 1440p at the same settings reduces the average to 383 FPS, a drop of 20 FPS. At 4K with Low settings, the average falls further to 355 FPS, representing a 48 FPS decrease from the 1080p figure. This scaling suggests that while the GPU is becoming more stressed at higher resolutions, the CPU remains a significant factor even at 4K, as the frame rates stay well above what would be expected if the GPU were the sole bottleneck.

The High settings preset shows a similar trend. At 1080p, the average is 338 FPS, which drops to 321 FPS at 1440p and then to 298 FPS at 4K. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K is 40 FPS, or approximately 11.8% of the 1080p value. For Medium settings, the averages are 344 FPS at 1080p, 326 FPS at 1440p, and 303 FPS at 4K, with a 41 FPS total drop. Ultra settings produce 333 FPS at 1080p, 316 FPS at 1440p, and 293 FPS at 4K, a 40 FPS reduction.

The consistency of the FPS drop across settings presets—roughly 40-48 FPS from 1080p to 4K—indicates that the resolution scaling is primarily driven by the GPU's rendering load, but the high absolute values suggest the CPU is not fully saturated. The fact that even at 4K Ultra the system maintains an average of 293 FPS points to a scenario where the RTX 3080's substantial compute resources are still not fully utilized, as Valorant's engine is relatively lightweight compared to other modern titles. The data implies that the limiting component at 1080p is likely the CPU's single-thread performance, while at 4K the GPU begins to take on a more prominent role, yet neither component becomes a hard bottleneck given the frame rates achieved.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this CPU-GPU combination in Valorant?

A: The highest average FPS is 403, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This represents the peak performance point in the measured data.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at the same settings?

A: At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 403 at 1080p to 355 at 4K, a reduction of 48 FPS. For High settings, the drop is from 338 to 298 FPS, a 40 FPS reduction. The loss is consistent across presets, ranging from 40 to 48 FPS.

Q: Which settings preset provides the highest average FPS at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low settings preset yields the highest average at 383 FPS. Medium follows at 326 FPS, High at 321 FPS, and Ultra at 316 FPS.

Q: Are there any recorded minimum FPS values in the data?

A: Yes, minimum FPS values are only provided for the Medium settings preset at each resolution. At 4K, the minimum is 257 FPS; at 1440p, it is 277 FPS; and at 1080p, it is 292 FPS. No minimum values are listed for Low, High, or Ultra presets.

Q: How does the RTX 3080's benchmark percentile compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 3080 has a percentile of 68 among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA P106-100 with a deltaPct of -0.3, the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 at -0.3, the AMD Radeon RX 6600M at -0.4, and the AMD Radeon R9 M290X at -0.4, indicating the 3080 scores slightly higher than these alternatives.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested combinations for Valorant?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X with the RTX 3080 ranks 2590 out of 3708 tested combos, placing it in the upper portion of the distribution but not at the very top.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the user's priority between maximum frame rate and visual fidelity. For competitive play where frame rate is paramount, the Low settings preset at 1080p delivers the highest average at 403 FPS, which is 65 FPS higher than the next best preset at the same resolution. This substantial margin suggests that Low settings minimize GPU load, allowing the CPU to push frame rates to their ceiling. At 1440p, Low still leads with 383 FPS, and at 4K it provides 355 FPS, which remains exceptionally high.

For users seeking a balance between visual quality and performance, the Medium preset offers a compelling option. At 1080p, Medium averages 344 FPS, which is only 6 FPS higher than High (338 FPS) and 11 FPS higher than Ultra (333 FPS). The Medium preset also provides the only recorded minimum FPS values, with 292 FPS at 1080p, 277 FPS at 1440p, and 257 FPS at 4K, indicating a stable frame delivery. The difference between Medium and High is minimal—only 6 FPS at 1080p, 5 FPS at 1440p, and 5 FPS at 4K—suggesting that High settings can be adopted without significant frame rate loss.

The Ultra preset consistently produces the lowest averages across all resolutions, with 333 FPS at 1080p, 316 FPS at 1440p, and 293 FPS at 4K. However, even at Ultra, the frame rates remain above 290 FPS, which is far beyond the refresh rate of most monitors. Given that the performance gap between Low and Ultra is only 70 FPS at 1080p (403 vs 333), and the system never drops below 257 FPS even at 4K Medium, the data suggests that users can safely select High or Ultra settings for improved visuals without sacrificing playable frame rates. The recommendation is to use High settings as a default, as it provides a 5 FPS advantage over Ultra at all resolutions while offering nearly identical visual quality, and reserve Low only for scenarios where absolute maximum FPS is required.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 achieves a rank of 2590 out of 3708 tested combos in Valorant, placing it in the 69.9th percentile of all configurations. This ranking indicates that while the system performs admirably, there are 1118 combos that achieve higher average FPS in this specific game. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU's 84th percentile among all processors and the GPU's 68th percentile among all graphics cards, suggesting that the CPU is relatively stronger than the GPU in the broader benchmark context.

The CPU's nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score include the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 with a deltaPct of 0.1, the AMD EPYC 4244P at 0.1, the Intel Core i5-13450HX at -0.2, and the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H at 0.5. These small deltas indicate that the 3700X is closely matched with several modern processors, yet its 84th percentile ranking shows it outperforms the majority of CPUs. The GPU's nearest rivals—the NVIDIA P106-100, AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16, AMD Radeon RX 6600M, and AMD Radeon R9 M290X—all have negative deltaPct values ranging from -0.3 to -0.4, meaning the RTX 3080 scores slightly higher than each of them.

The combo's rank of 2590 suggests that in Valorant, the system is not at the top tier despite its high absolute FPS. This is likely because many other combos feature newer CPUs with higher single-thread performance or GPUs with better optimization for this title. However, the measured FPS data shows that the system consistently delivers over 290 FPS at 4K Ultra, which is a level of performance that would satisfy even the most demanding competitive players. The rank should be interpreted as a relative measure against all possible combinations, not as an indication of inadequate performance, given that the absolute frame rates are exceptionally high.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, manufactured on a 7 nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU's cache configuration includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of L3 cache. In benchmark tests, the 3700X achieves a Cinebench R15 multicore score of 2092 and a single-core score of 204, along with Geekbench multicore and single-core scores of 8899 and 1593, respectively. Its Passmark multithread score is 22458, and its single-thread score is 2656.

In Valorant, the CPU's role is critical because the game's engine is known to be sensitive to single-thread performance. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 403 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's maximum frame generation capability. The fact that increasing resolution to 4K only reduces FPS to 355 at Low settings—a 48 FPS drop—indicates that the CPU is still able to feed the GPU with enough data to maintain high frame rates even at higher resolutions. The 8 cores and 16 threads provide ample multi-threading headroom, but the game's reliance on single-thread performance means the 4.40 GHz boost clock is the more relevant specification.

The CPU's 84th percentile ranking among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 34260, places it above the majority of CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (34222, deltaPct 0.1), AMD EPYC 4244P (34220, deltaPct 0.1), Intel Core i5-13450HX (34333, deltaPct -0.2), and Intel Core Ultra 7 165H (34083, deltaPct 0.5). These small deltas suggest that the 3700X is competitive with newer processors in general benchmarks, but in Valorant, the specific combination with the RTX 3080 yields the observed FPS figures. The data indicates that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at any resolution, as even at 4K Ultra the system maintains 293 FPS, which is far above typical display refresh rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the highest average at 403 FPS, followed by Medium at 344 FPS, High at 338 FPS, and Ultra at 333 FPS. The Medium preset also records a minimum of 292 FPS and a maximum of 396 FPS, indicating a range of 104 FPS. At 2560x1440, Low again leads with 383 FPS, then Medium at 326 FPS, High at 321 FPS, and Ultra at 316 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p shows a minimum of 277 FPS and a maximum of 375 FPS, a range of 98 FPS. At 3840x2160, Low achieves 355 FPS, Medium 303 FPS, High 298 FPS, and Ultra 293 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K records a minimum of 257 FPS and a maximum of 348 FPS, a range of 91 FPS.

The data reveals a consistent pattern where Low settings provide a significant FPS advantage over other presets, with a 59 FPS gap between Low and Medium at 1080p, 57 FPS at 1440p, and 52 FPS at 4K. The differences between Medium, High, and Ultra are much smaller, ranging from 5 to 11 FPS across all resolutions. This suggests that the Low preset reduces GPU workload enough to allow the CPU to reach its maximum frame output, while the other presets are more GPU-bound. The minimum FPS values for Medium settings show that even at 4K, the system never drops below 257 FPS, which is well above the threshold for smooth gameplay. The maximum FPS values for Medium at each resolution—396 at 1080p, 375 at 1440p, and 348 at 4K—indicate that the system can burst to very high frame rates, though the averages are more representative of sustained performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is based on the Ampere architecture with the GA102 chip, manufactured on an 8 nm process by Samsung. It features 8704 shading units, 272 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, along with 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores. The GPU has a base clock of 1440 MHz and a boost clock of 1710 MHz, with memory clocked at 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective). It comes with 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s. The card's compute capabilities include 29.77 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and a pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s.

In benchmark tests, the RTX 3080 achieves a Passmark G3D score of 25086 and a Passmark GPU Compute score of 14397. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 4407, with Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan scores of 152423 and 33620, respectively. The GPU's 68th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23172, places it above the majority of graphics cards. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA P106-100 (23249, deltaPct -0.3), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (23250, deltaPct -0.3), AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23273, deltaPct -0.4), and AMD Radeon R9 M290X (23276, deltaPct -0.4), all of which score slightly lower.

In Valorant, the RTX 3080's role is to render frames at high resolutions and settings, but the game's relatively low graphical demands mean the GPU is not fully stressed. The measured FPS data shows that at 4K Ultra, the system still achieves 293 FPS, which is far above the 144 Hz or 240 Hz refresh rates common in competitive gaming monitors. The GPU's 10 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for Valorant, as the game does not require large texture pools. The high memory bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s ensures that data transfer is not a bottleneck, even at 4K. The GPU's boost clock of 1710 MHz, combined with its 8704 shading units, provides ample compute power for the game's rendering tasks, but the data suggests that the CPU's single-thread performance is the more limiting factor at lower resolutions, while the GPU becomes more relevant at 4K where the FPS drops are more pronounced.