Valorant

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers an exceptional Valorant experience, with performance that is decisively CPU-bound at every setting and resolution tested. The data shows this combination is not merely capable of high refresh rates; it is capable of maximum refresh rates on essentially any display, making it a top-tier choice for competitive play. The benchmark results position this combo as a formidable pairing for esports, where frame rate consistency and raw speed are paramount.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the optimal settings for this configuration depend entirely on the refresh rate of the user's display and their tolerance for frame rate variability. The data shows a clear hierarchy across the four settings presets, but the differences are smaller than what is typically seen in more graphically demanding titles.

For users with a 360Hz or higher refresh rate monitor, the Low preset is the only logical choice. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves an average of 715 FPS, which is the highest measured result in the entire dataset. This represents a 16% performance increase over the High preset at the same resolution (599 FPS). The jump from Low to Medium sees a significant 106 FPS drop (715 to 609 FPS), highlighting that Low is the optimal preset for chasing the absolute maximum frame rate. The data suggests that the CPU has more headroom to work with at the Low preset, allowing the system to push frame rates beyond what the GPU can maintain at higher settings.

If a user has a 240Hz display, the Medium preset offers the best balance. At 1080p Medium, the average FPS is 609, with a recorded minimum of 518 FPS. This minimum is still well above the 240Hz target, ensuring a consistent and tear-free experience. More importantly, Medium settings provide a noticeable visual upgrade over Low, which can improve target acquisition in some scenarios. The average of 609 FPS is still 19 FPS higher than the High preset's 590 FPS average, meaning there is a tangible performance benefit to staying on Medium rather than High.

For 1440p or 4K displays with a 120Hz to 144Hz refresh rate, the High preset becomes the best choice. At 1440p High, the average is 569 FPS, and at 4K High, it is 528 FPS. These numbers are astronomically high for these resolutions, and the visual quality improvements from High settings will be more perceptible than the raw frame rate differences at these refresh rates. The difference between High and Medium at 1440p is only 9 FPS (569 vs 578), which is negligible for a 144Hz display, making High the better choice for visual fidelity. The Ultra preset, while delivering an average of 507 FPS at 4K, is the most demanding and offers no benefit that would justify its use on any display covered by this data, save for a 500Hz class display where every frame counts.

FAQ

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

A: The highest average frame rate recorded was 715 FPS, which was achieved at the 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: How does this combo perform at 4K resolution?

A: At 3840x2160, the combo achieved an average of 528 FPS on High settings, 536 FPS on Medium, 629 FPS on Low, and 507 FPS on Ultra. These results show that even at the most demanding resolution tested, the system still produces frame rates far exceeding the refresh rate of any standard gaming monitor.

Q: Is the frame rate stable, or are there significant dips?

A: The data includes min/max FPS measurements for the Medium preset only. At 1920x1080 Medium, the minimum was 518 FPS and the maximum was 701 FPS. At 2560x1440 Medium, the minimum was 491 FPS and the maximum was 665 FPS. At 3840x2160 Medium, the minimum was 456 FPS and the maximum was 617 FPS. These minimums are still extremely high, indicating a very stable experience with no significant frame time spikes.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Low and Ultra presets?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 715 FPS, while Ultra achieves 590 FPS. This represents a 21% performance drop when moving from Low to Ultra. The pattern is consistent at other resolutions, with the entire gap being attributable to the CPU's ability to feed the GPU at higher settings.

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

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combination ranks 51st out of 3,708 tested combos for this game, placing it in the top 1.4% of all tested systems.

Q: What is the CPU's performance percentile relative to all other CPUs?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F has a percentile score of 94, meaning it outperforms 94% of all CPUs in the benchmark database.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is remarkably flat, which provides a definitive insight into the system's performance characteristics for Valorant. The data shows that the GPU is not the primary bottleneck at any resolution, and the CPU is the dominant factor in determining the final frame rate.

At the Low preset, the frame rate drops from 715 FPS at 1080p to 678 FPS at 1440p, a 5.4% decrease. Moving from 1440p to 4K, it drops to 629 FPS, another 7.2% decrease. This pattern shows a clear trend: as the resolution increases, the GPU has to work harder to render each frame, and the frame rate scales down proportionally. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 86 FPS (or 12%), which is a far smaller drop than what would be expected in a GPU-bound scenario.

At the High preset, the scaling is similar but slightly more pronounced. From 1080p to 1440p, the frame rate drops from 599 to 569 FPS (5%), and from 1440p to 4K, it drops from 569 to 528 FPS (7.2%). The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 71 FPS (11.9%), which mirrors the Low preset's relative scaling. At the Ultra preset, the pattern continues: 590 FPS at 1080p, 559 FPS at 1440p (5.3% drop), and 507 FPS at 4K (9.3% drop from 1440p). The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 83 FPS (14%).

The interpretation of this data is clear: the game's frame rate is overwhelmingly dictated by CPU performance, not the GPU. Even at 4K Ultra, the RTX 4080 is not being fully utilized. The fact that the frame rate only drops by roughly 12% to 14% when the pixel count quadruples (1080p to 4K) is a strong indicator that the CPU is the limiting factor, as a GPU-bound scenario would see a much steeper decline. The RTX 4080 is so powerful for this title that it renders the game at such high speed that the CPU cannot generate frames fast enough to keep it saturated.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database, the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combination holds a rank of 51st out of 3,708 tested combos for Valorant. This places it in the top 1.4% of all configurations tested for this specific game. This rank is exceptionally high, and when contextualized against the game's release date in 2020, it shows that this hardware is overkill for the game's engine.

The rank of 51 is within the top tier of results, but it is not the absolute top. This is because the game is CPU-bound, meaning that systems with more powerful CPUs can achieve higher frame rates, even if they have less capable GPUs. The rank reflects the specific strengths and weaknesses of this combination: the RTX 4080 provides a high base level of performance, but the CPU's power is what pushes the combo into the top tier.

The rank also indicates that this combo is significantly better than the average system for this game. The 3,708 combos tested include a wide range of hardware, from budget to enthusiast level, and this pairing is at the top of that spectrum. If the user is looking for a definitive, no-compromise Valorant system, this configuration is an ideal choice.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is the primary driver of performance in this pairing for Valorant. The data strongly indicates this because the frame rates drop so little across resolutions, a hallmark of a CPU-bound scenario. The CPU has 8 cores and 16 threads, which is significantly more than Valorant typically uses, as the game is known for being sensitive to single-thread performance. However, the high base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz on this Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge) provides the raw speed needed to maintain high frame rates.

The CPU's PassMark single-thread score is 4,691, which is a strong result that aligns with the high frame rates observed. The game's performance in the measured FPS is likely more correlated with this single-core strength than with the multi-core score of 36,470. In contrast, the multi-thread performance of 36,470 is high, but Valorant's engine does not scale well with many cores, so the single-thread speed is the critical factor.

The CPU's architecture is Zen 5, which is a modern, high-speed architecture. The fact that the combo rank is 51st out of 3,708 shows that the CPU is not the absolute fastest, so there are other CPUs that can push higher frame rates, such as the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, which is a nearest rival with an average score of 69,515 and a delta of 0.7% compared to the 9700F's score. This indicates that the 9700F is within 0.7% of the performance of the higher-tier 7950X, a small difference. The benchmarks also show that the 9700F sits between the Intel Core i7-14700KF and the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, with a delta of -0.2% against the former and +0.7% against the latter, meaning it occupies a prime spot in this performance tier. The CPU's high single-threaded performance is the reason this system achieves such impressive numbers.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following is the complete breakdown of measured average FPS for the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 in Valorant, separated by resolution and settings preset.

1920x1080:

• Low: 715 FPS average.
• Medium: 609 FPS average, with a minimum of 518 FPS and a maximum of 701 FPS.
• High: 599 FPS average.
• Ultra: 590 FPS average.

2560x1440:

• Low: 678 FPS average.
• Medium: 578 FPS average, with a minimum of 491 FPS and a maximum of 665 FPS.
• High: 569 FPS average.
• Ultra: 559 FPS average.

3840x2160:

• Low: 629 FPS average.
• Medium: 536 FPS average, with a minimum of 456 FPS and a maximum of 617 FPS.
• High: 528 FPS average.
• Ultra: 507 FPS average.

The data reveals a consistent pattern: the Low preset always delivers the highest frame rate, and the gap between Low and Ultra is consistent across all resolutions. At 1080p the difference is 125 FPS, at 1440p it is 119 FPS, and at 4K it is 122 FPS. This uniformity confirms the CPU-bound nature of the game, as the GPU's workload scaling from Low to Ultra does not translate into a proportional frame rate drop. The frame rates are so high that even the minimum 1% FPS values recorded at the Medium preset are beyond the refresh rate of any mainstream monitor, ensuring stutter-free gameplay.