Valorant

Valorant is a competitive FPS that often behaves differently from typical triple-A titles, and the measured data for the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER confirms this. The combination produces exceptionally high frame rates across all tested resolutions, placing it in the 97th percentile of 2,883 tested combos. The following analysis breaks down how this specific hardware pairing handles the game, examining the balance between CPU and GPU workload, scaling behavior, and practical settings guidance based solely on the provided benchmark data.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that is heavily CPU-bound at lower resolutions, with the GPU only beginning to show its influence as pixel count increases. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the average frame rate is 715 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops this to 678 FPS, and at 3840x2160 Low it falls further to 629 FPS. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is approximately 5.2%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is approximately 7.2%. These are relatively modest decreases, indicating that the CPU is the primary limiter even at 4K with Low settings.

When we look at High settings, the scaling pattern shifts. At 1080p High, the average is 599 FPS. At 1440p High, it rises slightly to 569 FPS, a drop of about 5%. At 4K High, the average is 464 FPS, which represents a more substantial 18.4% drop from the 1440p result. This steeper decline at 4K with High settings suggests that the GPU is beginning to take on a more significant role, though the absolute numbers remain far above typical refresh rate requirements.

The Medium settings row provides the only complete min/max data in the pack, offering insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p Medium, the average is 609 FPS with a minimum of 518 and maximum of 701. At 1440p Medium, the average is 578 FPS with a minimum of 491 and maximum of 665. At 4K Medium, the average is 487 FPS with a minimum of 414 and maximum of 560. The spread between minimum and maximum is roughly 30% of the average at each resolution, which points to some frame time variance but nothing that would be problematic for competitive play at these high frame rates.

The Ultra settings tell a similar story to High. From 1080p Ultra at 590 FPS to 1440p Ultra at 553 FPS is a 6.3% drop, while moving to 4K Ultra at 442 FPS represents a 20.1% drop from 1440p. The increasing penalty at 4K as settings rise from Low to Ultra indicates a progressive shift from CPU bottleneck to a more balanced workload. However, even at the most demanding configuration tested (4K Ultra), the system still produces 442 FPS, which is far beyond what any current display can refresh.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge. It has a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, with 32 MB of shared L3 cache. In the PassMark multi-thread benchmark, it scores 36,470, and its single-thread score is 4,691. The processor sits in the 94th percentile of all CPUs tested, with an average benchmark score of 69,996.

Its closest rivals in the benchmark database include the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX with an average score of 69,875 (a delta of 0.2% favorable to the 9700F), the Intel Core i7-14700KF at 70,163 (a delta of -0.2%, meaning the 9700F trails slightly), the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X at 69,515 (a delta of 0.7%), and the Intel Core i7-14700K at 69,355 (a delta of 0.9%). These are all extremely close scores, placing the 9700F in a tightly contested performance tier.

For Valorant specifically, the CPU's role is evident in the frame rate ceilings observed. The fact that 1080p Low produces 715 FPS while 4K Low produces 629 FPS — a difference of only 86 FPS — suggests that the game's engine is heavily reliant on single-thread performance and cache efficiency. The 9700F's high boost clock of 5.50 GHz and substantial L3 cache are likely contributing factors to these high minimum frame rates, although the data does not isolate individual CPU contributions from the GPU pairing.

The PassMark physics score of 2,122 and the floating-point math score of 77,955 indicate strong general processing capability, but for a game like Valorant, the single-thread score of 4,691 is more relevant. The data does not provide per-core breakdowns for the game itself, but the consistent high FPS across all settings suggests that the 9700F is not the limiting factor until we approach the highest frame rates. The 4K Ultra result of 442 FPS is likely where the GPU starts to become the primary constraint, given the 12 GB VRAM and 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth of the RTX 4070 SUPER.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved by this combo in Valorant?

A: The highest measured average is 715 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How much does the average FPS drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average drops from 599 FPS at 1080p to 464 FPS at 4K, which is a decrease of 135 FPS or approximately 22.5%.

Q: Which settings preset shows the smallest difference between 1080p and 1440p?

A: The Low preset shows the smallest difference, with 715 FPS at 1080p and 678 FPS at 1440p, a gap of 37 FPS or about 5.2%.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the bottleneck at 1080p Low settings?

A: Based on the data, the CPU is likely the primary limiter at 1080p Low. The frame rate of 715 FPS is extremely high, and the relatively small drop to 629 FPS at 4K Low suggests that the GPU is not being fully utilized, indicating a CPU-bound scenario.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for Medium settings at 1440p?

A: The minimum FPS recorded for Medium settings at 2560x1440 is 491 FPS, with an average of 578 FPS and a maximum of 665 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations in Valorant?

A: The combo ranks 97th out of 2,883 tested combinations, placing it in the top 3.4% of all results.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination achieves a rank of 97 out of 2,883 tested combos for Valorant. This places the configuration in the 97th percentile, meaning it outperforms approximately 96.6% of all recorded hardware pairings for this game. The ranking reflects the exceptionally high frame rates measured across all resolutions and settings, from the 715 FPS at 1080p Low to the 442 FPS at 4K Ultra.

The nearest rivals for the CPU alone include systems based on the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX, Intel Core i7-14700KF, AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, and Intel Core i7-14700K, all of which have average benchmark scores within 1% of the 9700F. This suggests that the CPU is not the differentiating factor for the top-tier ranking; rather, it is the combination of the 9700F's strong single-thread performance and the RTX 4070 SUPER's high rendering capability that pushes the total score to the 97th position.

For context on the GPU side, the RTX 4070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 43,223 and sits in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB (score 43,262, delta -0.1%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile (score 43,268, delta -0.1%), and the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 (score 43,301, delta -0.2%). The GPU's percentile rank of 83 is lower than the CPU's 94, but in a CPU-bound game like Valorant, the processor's strength is more impactful for achieving the top-tier combo ranking.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides 12 distinct configurations across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 715 FPS for Low, 609 FPS for Medium, 599 FPS for High, and 590 FPS for Ultra. The Medium preset also records a minimum of 518 FPS and a maximum of 701 FPS, providing the only full range data at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 678 FPS for Low, 578 FPS for Medium, 569 FPS for High, and 553 FPS for Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 491 FPS and a maximum of 665 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 125 FPS, which indicates that the settings preset has a moderate effect on performance but does not fundamentally change the playable experience.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 629 FPS for Low, 487 FPS for Medium, 464 FPS for High, and 442 FPS for Ultra. The Medium preset records a minimum of 414 FPS and a maximum of 560 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra at 4K is 187 FPS, which is the largest spread across any resolution, showing that the GPU becomes more of a factor at higher pixel counts.

Looking at the data across all resolutions, the Low preset consistently yields the highest frame rates, while the Ultra preset yields the lowest. The gap between Medium and High is relatively small at each resolution, with differences of 10 FPS at 1080p, 9 FPS at 1440p, and 23 FPS at 4K. This suggests that the visual fidelity improvements from Medium to High come at a negligible performance cost, while the jump from High to Ultra incurs a slightly larger penalty.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the Medium preset appears to offer the best balance between performance and visual quality for most users. At 1080p Medium, the average is 609 FPS with a minimum of 518 FPS, which guarantees that even the lowest frame times stay well above the refresh rate of any consumer monitor. At 1440p Medium, the average is 578 FPS with a minimum of 491 FPS, still providing a comfortable margin above 360 Hz displays. Even at 4K Medium, the average of 487 FPS with a minimum of 414 FPS maintains a smooth experience on high-refresh 4K panels.

The Low preset offers the highest raw performance, with 715 FPS at 1080p and 629 FPS at 4K, but the visual compromise may not be necessary given that Medium already clears 500 FPS at every resolution. The High preset provides nearly identical performance to Medium, with differences of only 10 FPS at 1080p and 23 FPS at 4K, making it a viable alternative for users who prioritize graphics quality over marginal frame rate gains.

The Ultra preset, while still producing excellent numbers (590 FPS at 1080p, 553 FPS at 1440p, 442 FPS at 4K), offers the least performance headroom and does not meaningfully improve the experience over High for a competitive FPS. The data suggests that Medium or High are the optimal choices, depending on whether the user values slightly higher frame rates or slightly better visual fidelity. For competitive play, the Medium preset at 1440p or 1080p provides the best combination of high average FPS and consistent minimum frame rates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using a 5 nm process at TSMC, with a die size of 294 mm² and 35,800 million transistors. It features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 504.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The GPU has a base clock of 1980 MHz and a boost clock of 2475 MHz, with a TDP of 220 W.

In the benchmark data, the GPU scores 29,995 in PassMark G3D and 17,108 in compute, placing it in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 43,223 is within 1% of its nearest rivals, which include the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB and the GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile. The GPU's role in Valorant becomes more apparent as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 125 FPS (715 to 590), but at 4K, this difference expands to 187 FPS (629 to 442). This widening gap indicates that the GPU's rendering workload scales with pixel count, whereas the CPU's contribution remains relatively constant.

The RTX 4070 SUPER's 12 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for Valorant, which is not a VRAM-intensive title at these settings. The 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth and 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 compute provide ample headroom for the game's shader and post-processing effects, as evidenced by the high frame rates even at 4K Ultra. The GPU's boost clock of 2475 MHz and 56 RT cores are largely irrelevant for this title, but the raw rasterization throughput is clearly adequate to push 442 FPS at 4K Ultra when paired with the 9700F's strong single-thread performance.

The data indicates that the GPU is not the primary bottleneck at any tested configuration, as the frame rates remain exceptionally high even at 4K Ultra. The limiting factor shifts from CPU at low resolutions to a more balanced workload at 4K, but the RTX 4070 SUPER never falls below 442 FPS average, which confirms its capability for esports titles.