Valorant

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F paired with the Intel Arc B390 delivers a surprisingly playable Valorant experience across all tested resolutions, though the data reveals a clear pattern of GPU limitation at higher settings and diminishing returns at 1080p. The combo ranks 2534 out of 2883 tested configurations, placing it in the lower tier of overall performance, but the measured frame rates tell a more nuanced story for this specific esports title.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 produces a dramatic drop in average FPS across every settings preset, indicating that the Intel Arc B390 becomes the limiting factor as pixel count increases. At Low settings, the measured average falls from 331 FPS at 1080p to 282 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 49 FPS, and then to 225 FPS at 4K, another 57 FPS lower. This scaling pattern shows a nearly linear relationship with pixel count, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario.

The High preset tells a similar story with slightly smaller absolute drops: 207 FPS at 1080p, 177 FPS at 1440p, and 141 FPS at 4K. The difference between 1080p and 4K at High settings is 66 FPS, while at Low settings the same resolution gap costs 106 FPS. This counterintuitive result suggests that at Low settings, the CPU is capable of feeding frames faster, allowing the GPU bottleneck to become more pronounced at higher resolutions.

Medium settings show the same trend with 218 FPS at 1080p, 186 FPS at 1440p, and 149 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset follows with 198 FPS, 169 FPS, and 135 FPS respectively. Across all presets, the scaling from 1440p to 4K costs roughly 20-25% of the frame rate, while the drop from 1080p to 1440p costs approximately 15-18%. This asymmetry suggests the GPU's rendering pipeline becomes progressively less efficient as resolution increases, likely due to the system-shared memory architecture.

The data implies that players targeting 4K should expect roughly half the frame rate of 1080p, regardless of settings preset. At Low settings the ratio is 225/331, or 68% retention, while at Ultra it is 135/198, or 68% retention as well. This consistency across presets reinforces the conclusion that resolution scaling is the dominant variable, not the graphics quality settings.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, built on a 3 nm process from Intel. Its boost clock reaches 2500 MHz with a base clock of 300 MHz, and it features 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 render output units. The GPU's memory is system-shared, meaning it draws from the same DDR5 pool as the CPU, which explains the significant performance variance between settings presets.

At 4K Ultra, the combo delivers 135 FPS average, which drops to 126 FPS minimum at 4K Medium. The maximum frame rate at 4K Medium reaches 171 FPS, showing that even at the highest resolution, the GPU can burst above its average when the scene complexity allows. The 12 ray tracing cores and 7.680 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are modest by discrete GPU standards, yet they prove sufficient for Valorant's stylized visuals.

The GPU's 60.00 GPixel/s pixel rate and 120.0 GTexel/s texture rate provide the raw throughput needed for 4K rendering, but the system-dependent memory bandwidth creates a bottleneck. The GPU percentile rank of 9 versus all GPUs places it in the bottom decile, yet the measured 4K High average of 141 FPS demonstrates that Valorant's engine is not particularly demanding. The 80 W TDP and IGP slot width confirm this is not a high-performance part, but the data shows it handles this game admirably.

The boost clock of 2500 MHz is the key enabler for the higher frame rates, as the base clock of 300 MHz would be insufficient for any modern gaming workload. The gap between base and boost clocks suggests aggressive thermal and power management, which is typical for integrated solutions. The 12_2 DirectX support and Vulkan 1.4 compatibility ensure the GPU can access modern rendering features, though Valorant's competitive design likely favors lower-level optimizations.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F provides substantial headroom for Valorant, with 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture codenamed Granite Ridge. Its base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.50 GHz are high for a 65 W TDP part, and the 32 MB of shared L3 cache helps maintain consistent frame delivery. The CPU's PassMark single-thread score of 4691 and multithread score of 36470 place it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, indicating it is far from the bottleneck in this configuration.

The 4 nm process from TSMC and 8,315 million transistors on a 70.6 mm² die contribute to the efficiency that allows such high clocks within the 65 W power envelope. The dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth provides the system-shared GPU with a reasonably fast memory pool, though the "System Dependent" bandwidth designation for the GPU means actual performance varies with memory configuration.

The nearest CPU rivals show the 9700F sits in a tight performance cluster. The AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX scores 0.2% higher, the Intel Core i7-14700KF scores 0.2% lower, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X scores 0.7% higher, and the Intel Core i7-14700K scores 0.9% higher. These sub-1% deltas indicate that the 9700F is performance-competitive with flagship desktop and mobile parts from the previous generation, yet the combo's overall rank of 2534 out of 2883 suggests the GPU drags down the total package.

The CPU's PassMark data compression score of 421988 and integer math score of 120788 reflect strong general-purpose compute, but Valorant likely benefits more from the single-thread performance of 4691 and the physics score of 2122. The 16 threads allow background tasks to run without impacting game performance, and the 5.50 GHz boost clock ensures the game engine can execute its main loop at maximum speed.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows that Low settings provide the highest frame rates at every resolution, with 331 FPS at 1080p, 282 FPS at 1440p, and 225 FPS at 4K. These numbers far exceed the refresh rate capabilities of most monitors, making Low the optimal choice for competitive play where maximum frame rate is the priority. The jump from Low to Medium costs 113 FPS at 1080p, 96 FPS at 1440p, and 76 FPS at 4K, which is substantial but may be acceptable for players who value visual clarity.

Medium settings offer the best balance for most users, with 218 FPS at 1080p and a minimum of 185 FPS that ensures no noticeable stutter on 144 Hz displays. At 1440p, Medium delivers 186 FPS average with a 158 FPS minimum, still comfortably above typical high-refresh monitors. The 4K Medium average of 149 FPS with a 126 FPS minimum is the only 4K preset that maintains a playable minimum above 120 FPS.

High settings provide a modest improvement in visual fidelity over Medium but cost 11 FPS at 1080p, 9 FPS at 1440p, and 8 FPS at 4K. The minimum frame rates are not measured for High, but the averages suggest it remains smooth. Ultra settings yield 198 FPS at 1080p, 169 FPS at 1440p, and 135 FPS at 4K, which is only 9-10 FPS lower than High at each resolution, indicating diminishing returns from the highest preset.

For competitive play, Low at 1080p is the clear recommendation, as the 331 FPS average provides the lowest input latency and the greatest headroom for frame drops. For casual play with better visuals, Medium at 1440p offers a compelling 186 FPS average with a 158 FPS minimum. At 4K, Medium is the only preset that maintains a minimum above 120 FPS, making it the sole viable option for 120 Hz displays.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of 4K gaming in Valorant?

A: Yes, but only at Medium settings, which delivers 149 FPS average with a 126 FPS minimum. Low settings at 4K achieve 225 FPS, while High and Ultra drop to 141 FPS and 135 FPS respectively.

Q: How does the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The 9700F scores within 0.9% of the Intel Core i7-14700K, Intel Core i7-14700KF, AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX, and AMD Ryzen 9 7950X. The largest delta is 0.9% behind the i7-14700K, while it leads the 7940HX by 0.2%.

Q: What is the best preset for a 144 Hz monitor?

A: Medium settings at 1440p provide 186 FPS average with a 158 FPS minimum, ensuring consistent performance above 144 Hz. At 1080p, High settings deliver 207 FPS, and even Ultra stays at 198 FPS.

Q: Does the GPU bottleneck the CPU at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the CPU provides enough headroom for 331 FPS at Low settings, but the GPU's system-shared memory limits scaling as resolution increases. The 49 FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low indicates GPU-bound behavior.

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

A: It ranks 2534 out of 2883 total combos, placing it in the lower 12% of tested systems. This rank reflects the GPU's low percentile score of 9, despite the CPU's 94th percentile ranking.

Q: What is the minimum FPS at 4K Medium settings?

A: The minimum FPS at 4K Medium is 126, with a maximum of 171 and an average of 149. This is the only 4K preset with a recorded minimum above 120 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 331 FPS average, which is the highest score recorded in the entire dataset. Medium drops to 218 FPS with a minimum of 185 and a maximum of 250. High reaches 207 FPS, and Ultra delivers 198 FPS. The total spread from Low to Ultra is 133 FPS, indicating that settings have a significant impact at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, Low produces 282 FPS, Medium 186 FPS with a 158-214 FPS range, High 177 FPS, and Ultra 169 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium widens to 96 FPS, while the gap between Medium and Ultra shrinks to 17 FPS. This compression at higher settings suggests the GPU's shading resources become the limiting factor.

At 3840x2160, Low yields 225 FPS, Medium 149 FPS with a 126-171 FPS range, High 141 FPS, and Ultra 135 FPS. The Low-to-Medium gap is 76 FPS, while Medium-to-Ultra is only 14 FPS. The measured minimum of 126 FPS at 4K Medium is the lowest minimum across all resolution and settings combinations.

The data reveals that the delta between Medium and High is consistently smaller than between Low and Medium at every resolution. At 1080p, the Medium-to-High drop is 11 FPS versus a Low-to-Medium drop of 113 FPS. At 1440p, these deltas are 9 FPS and 96 FPS respectively. At 4K, they are 8 FPS and 76 FPS. This pattern indicates that the performance curve flattens significantly beyond Medium settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 2534 out of 2883 tested systems places it in the bottom 12.1% of all configurations. This low overall ranking is primarily driven by the Intel Arc B390 GPU, which sits at the 9th percentile of all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 1482. The GPU's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX with a 1.3% higher score, the NVIDIA GeForce 800M at 1.5% higher, the NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM at 2.5% higher, and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 at 2.7% higher.

In contrast, the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F ranks at the 94th percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 69996. This creates an extreme imbalance where the CPU outperforms its competition by a wide margin while the GPU underperforms relative to even entry-level discrete solutions. The 0.2% delta with the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX and the 0.9% delta with the Intel Core i7-14700K show that the CPU is competitive with far more expensive processors.

The rank of 2534 suggests that most tested combos achieve better overall performance, but the measured FPS data shows this specific pairing still delivers excellent results in Valorant. The game's low system requirements allow the weak GPU to pair with a strong CPU without catastrophic frame rate issues. The 4K Ultra average of 135 FPS is still playable, and the 1080p Low average of 331 FPS exceeds what most competitive players need.

The discrepancy between the combo's low rank and its strong game-specific performance highlights the importance of workload-specific testing. While the Arc B390 ranks near bottom-tier GPUs in synthetic benchmarks, Valorant's engine does not stress the GPU as heavily as other titles. The system-shared memory architecture allows the 9700F's fast DDR5 bandwidth to compensate partially for the GPU's lack of dedicated VRAM. The result is a combo that looks poor on paper but delivers competitive frame rates in practice, though users should temper expectations for other games with higher GPU demands.