Valorant

# Valorant with AMD Ryzen 7 9700F + AMD Radeon RX 9060

This combination of AMD's Zen 5-based Ryzen 7 9700F and the Radeon RX 9060 produces exceptional frame rates in Valorant, with the measured data showing that even at 4K Ultra settings the system maintains an average of 267 FPS. The pairing ranks in the 54th percentile of all tested combinations for this title, placing it at position 1310 out of 2883 combos, which is respectable given that Valorant is a highly competitive esports title where many systems are tuned specifically for maximum frame rates.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals how the workload shifts between CPU and GPU as pixel count increases. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system delivers 655 FPS average, which drops to 559 FPS at 2560x1440 and further to 447 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 31.8% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a 31.8% reduction from 1440p to 4K, showing remarkably consistent scaling behavior across resolutions.

The High settings preset shows a similar pattern: 411 FPS at 1080p, 351 FPS at 1440p, and 280 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops here are 14.6% from 1080p to 1440p and 20.2% from 1440p to 4K, which is less steep than the Low preset scaling. This suggests that at higher quality settings, the GPU becomes more of a limiting factor, but the CPU still has ample headroom given the Ryzen 7 9700F's strong single-thread performance.

Looking at Medium settings, the system achieves 432 FPS at 1080p, 368 FPS at 1440p, and 294 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset delivers 391 FPS at 1080p, 334 FPS at 1440p, and 267 FPS at 4K. The gap between Medium and Ultra narrows as resolution increases, indicating that at 4K the pixel fill rate becomes the dominant constraint regardless of quality preset.

The data indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is the primary limiting component for Low settings, as evidenced by the 655 FPS ceiling that likely approaches the practical rendering limits of the engine. As resolution climbs to 4K, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory interface become more relevant, though even at Ultra 4K the system stays well above competitive play thresholds.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1310 out of 2883 tested combinations in Valorant, placing it in the middle of the pack at roughly the 54.6th percentile. This positioning is interesting because the individual components have different relative standings: the CPU sits at the 94th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU ranks at the 59th percentile among all GPUs. The combination's overall rank being lower than the CPU's percentile suggests that the GPU holds back the system in this title.

Comparing the CPU to its nearest rivals, the Ryzen 7 9700F's average benchmark score of 69,996 sits just 0.2% above the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69,875) and 0.2% below the Intel Core i7-14700KF (70,163). The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X trails by 0.7% at 69,515, while the Intel Core i7-14700K is 0.9% behind at 69,355. This clustering means the CPU choice among these four options would have negligible impact on Valorant frame rates, as they all perform within 1% of each other.

On the GPU side, the Radeon RX 9060's average benchmark score of 16,014 puts it 0.7% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (16,129) and 1% ahead of both the AMD Radeon R9 370X (15,862) and AMD Radeon RX 7700 (15,852). The AMD Radeon Pro W5500 trails by 2.1% at 15,679. These margins are small, meaning the RX 9060 delivers performance comparable to the RTX 3060 Ti in general compute workloads.

The rank of 1310 out of 2883 means there are 1,309 combinations that perform better in Valorant, many of which likely pair higher-end GPUs with CPUs that have similar or better single-thread performance. The Ryzen 7 9700F's PassMark single-thread score of 4,691 is strong, and its multithread score of 36,470 places it well for CPU-bound scenarios, but the RX 9060's mid-range GPU position prevents the combo from climbing higher in the rankings.

FAQ

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings is 411 FPS, with no minimum or maximum values recorded for this configuration.

Q: How does the system perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate is 267 FPS, which remains well above the refresh rates of most gaming monitors.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more limiting in Valorant?

A: The data shows the CPU ranks at the 94th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU ranks at the 59th percentile, indicating the GPU is the more constraining component in this pairing.

Q: What is the difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings deliver 559 FPS average, while Ultra settings deliver 334 FPS average, a difference of 225 FPS or approximately 40.3% lower performance at Ultra.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM cause issues at 4K?

A: The measured data shows no VRAM-related problems, with the system achieving 280 FPS at 4K High and 267 FPS at 4K Ultra, indicating the 8 GB frame buffer is sufficient for this game's requirements.

Q: How does this combo compare to others in the database?

A: The combination ranks 1310 out of 2883 tested combos for Valorant, placing it just past the midpoint of all tested configurations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 655 FPS average, which is the peak measured performance in the entire dataset. Medium settings yield 432 FPS average with a minimum of 367 FPS and maximum of 496 FPS. High settings achieve 411 FPS average, while Ultra settings deliver 391 FPS average. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 264 FPS, representing a 40.3% reduction in performance when moving to maximum quality.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain exceptionally high but show the expected decline. Low settings drop to 559 FPS average, a 14.7% reduction from 1080p. Medium settings deliver 368 FPS average with minimum 313 FPS and maximum 423 FPS. High settings achieve 351 FPS average, while Ultra settings produce 334 FPS average. The Low-to-Ultra spread at 1440p is 225 FPS, a 40.2% reduction from Low to Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the system still maintains triple-digit frame rates across all presets. Low settings deliver 447 FPS average, which is a 31.8% drop from 1080p Low. Medium settings achieve 294 FPS average with minimum 250 FPS and maximum 338 FPS. High settings produce 280 FPS average, while Ultra settings deliver 267 FPS average. The Low-to-Ultra spread at 4K is 180 FPS, a 40.3% reduction, showing that the relative performance penalty for Ultra settings remains consistent across resolutions.

The Medium preset is the only one with complete minimum and maximum data across all resolutions. At 1080p, the minimum of 367 FPS and maximum of 496 FPS show a 129 FPS range. At 1440p, the range narrows to 110 FPS (313 to 423). At 4K, the range tightens further to 88 FPS (250 to 338). This decreasing variance at higher resolutions indicates that frame time consistency improves when the GPU workload increases, likely because the CPU has more time to prepare frames.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 9060's specifications play a crucial role in the measured performance. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 288.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth. For Valorant, a game with relatively modest texture requirements, this configuration proves sufficient, as evidenced by the ability to maintain 267 FPS at 4K Ultra settings without apparent memory-related stutters.

The GPU's clock speeds show a base of 1700 MHz, a game clock of 2400 MHz, and a boost clock of 2990 MHz. The substantial gap between base and boost clocks (1290 MHz) indicates the card can aggressively scale performance under load, which helps maintain high frame rates in competitive scenarios. The memory clock runs at 2250 MHz with 18 Gbps effective speed, contributing to the 288.0 GB/s bandwidth figure.

The RX 9060's compute resources include 1,792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operations pipelines. The pixel rate of 191.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 334.9 GTexel/s provide the raw throughput needed for high-resolution rendering. The FP32 performance of 21.43 TFLOPS places this card in the mid-range segment, which aligns with its 59th percentile ranking among all GPUs.

The GPU's 132 W TDP and PCIe 5.0 x16 interface ensure it can draw sufficient power and bandwidth for demanding workloads. The 4 nm process node from TSMC, shared with the CPU, contributes to efficiency. The RDNA 4.0 architecture with 28 ray tracing cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate support means the card is future-proofed for newer titles, though Valorant itself does not heavily utilize these features.

The benchmark scores for the RX 9060 show a PassMark G3D score of 17,631, which is notably higher than the average benchmark score of 16,014. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 88,183 and Vulkan score of 39,476 indicate strong compute performance. The PassMark DirectX 11 score of 182 and DirectX 12 score of 44 suggest that the card performs better in older DirectX 11 titles compared to DirectX 12 workloads, which is relevant for Valorant's rendering engine.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the target refresh rate and resolution. For 1080p gaming, all presets deliver frame rates above 390 FPS, meaning even Ultra settings at 391 FPS average will satisfy 360 Hz monitors. The Low preset at 655 FPS is well beyond the capabilities of any currently available display, so players with 1080p panels should prioritize visual quality without worrying about frame rate limitations.

At 1440p, the system maintains over 330 FPS on Ultra settings, which comfortably exceeds 240 Hz refresh rates. The Medium preset at 368 FPS provides a good balance between visual fidelity and performance headroom, with a minimum of 313 FPS ensuring consistent frame delivery. Players with 144 Hz or 165 Hz monitors can freely use Ultra settings at this resolution, as the 334 FPS average leaves substantial margin above the display's refresh rate.

For 4K gaming, the data shows that all presets remain above 250 FPS, which is exceptional for this resolution. The Medium preset at 294 FPS average with a 250 FPS minimum is the recommended choice for 4K, as it provides a comfortable buffer above 240 Hz refresh rates while maintaining higher visual quality than Low. The High preset at 280 FPS and Ultra at 267 FPS are also viable, with the choice between them coming down to whether the 13 FPS difference matters for the specific display in use.

The measured data indicates that the Medium preset offers the best combination of visual quality and performance consistency, as it is the only preset with complete minimum and maximum readings across all resolutions. The minimum FPS values for Medium (367 at 1080p, 313 at 1440p, 250 at 4K) demonstrate that even in demanding scenes, the system maintains frame rates well above competitive thresholds. For esports players prioritizing maximum frame rates, the Low preset provides the highest averages, but the diminishing returns above 500 FPS make this choice less impactful for actual gameplay experience.