Valorant

Valorant is a competitive FPS with relatively modest graphical demands, making it an excellent case study for CPU and GPU behavior at high frame rates. The measured data for the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER reveals a system that is overwhelmingly CPU-bound at lower resolutions, with the GPU only beginning to exert meaningful influence at 4K. The combination ranks 34th out of 1650 tested combinations in this game, placing it in the top 2% of all configurations. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS data to understand where the performance ceiling lies and how the hardware components interact.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling across resolutions tells a clear story about system balance. At 1080p High settings, the system produces 596.1 FPS. Moving to 1440p High drops this to 562.9 FPS, a reduction of approximately 5.6%. The further jump to 4K High yields 459.4 FPS, which represents a substantial 18.4% drop from the 1440p result. This scaling pattern is notably flat between 1080p and 1440p, suggesting that the CPU is the primary limiting factor in that range, as the GPU has ample headroom to render frames faster than the processor can feed it.

The 4K results, however, show a different dynamic. The delta between 1080p and 4K at High settings is 136.7 FPS, which is a 22.9% loss in performance. This is a significant drop that indicates the GPU is beginning to become the bottleneck at this resolution. The RTX 4070 SUPER, with its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth, is still delivering exceptional performance, but the pixel throughput requirement at 3840x2160 is finally taxing the graphics card enough to matter.

Examining the Low preset across resolutions reinforces this interpretation. At 1080p Low, the system hits 706.4 FPS, which drops to 675.1 FPS at 1440p (a 4.4% loss) and then to 625.9 FPS at 4K (a 7.3% loss from 1440p). The much smaller percentage drops at Low settings compared to High settings show that when the GPU workload is minimal, the CPU becomes the sole constraint. The Ryzen 7 9700X, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, maintains an extremely high frame ceiling, but it is still finite. The data strongly suggests that for competitive play at 1080p or 1440p, the CPU is the limiting component, and the GPU is underutilized.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy of performance across presets, and the differences between them are relatively small compared to what is seen in more graphically intensive titles. At 1080p, the gap between Low and Ultra is 122.5 FPS (706.4 versus 583.9), which is a 17.3% performance spread. This is a modest penalty for a massive visual quality increase, making Ultra the obvious choice for most players at this resolution. The 4K spread is similar in percentage terms, with Low at 625.9 FPS and Ultra at 437.5 FPS, a difference of 188.4 FPS or 30.1%.

Given the data, the Ultra preset at 1440p offers the most balanced experience. It delivers 548.7 FPS while providing the highest visual fidelity, and this frame rate is still far above the refresh rate capabilities of virtually all gaming monitors. At 1080p, the Ultra preset at 583.9 FPS is equally compelling, as the performance penalty versus Low is proportionally small. For players targeting the absolute maximum frame rates, the Low preset at 1080p yields 706.4 FPS, but this comes at the cost of visual clarity that can be important for spotting enemies at range.

At 4K, the recommendation becomes more nuanced. The High preset at 459.4 FPS is still exceptionally fast, but the Ultra preset at 437.5 FPS shows that the GPU is working harder. The Medium preset at 480.8 FPS is a reasonable middle ground, but given that High only costs 21.4 FPS versus Medium, the High preset is the sensible default for 4K play. The data shows that this system is so powerful that even the most demanding settings do not compromise competitive viability.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum frame rate achievable with this CPU and GPU combination in Valorant?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 706.4, achieved at 1080p with the Low preset. This represents the absolute ceiling for this configuration under the tested conditions.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 9700X compare to its closest rivals in overall CPU performance?

A: The processor scores 36,029 on the average benchmark score, which places it 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core i5-14500HX and 0.6% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845. It trails the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H by 0.4% and the Intel Core Ultra 5 225H by 0.8%, indicating extremely tight competition at this performance tier.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 SUPER the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: No, the data indicates the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p. The frame rate difference between Low and Ultra presets is only 17.3%, showing that the GPU is not heavily stressed. The 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 4627 and the passmark G3D score of 29995 confirm the GPU is highly capable.

Q: What is the performance penalty for enabling Ultra settings at 4K compared to Low?

A: At 4K, moving from Low to Ultra reduces the average FPS from 625.9 to 437.5, which is a 188.4 FPS or 30.1% drop. This is the largest relative penalty across all resolution and preset combinations.

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

A: This specific CPU and GPU combo ranks 34th out of 1650 tested combinations, placing it in the top 2.06% of all systems. The GPU itself sits in the 84th percentile of all GPUs, while the CPU is in the 89th percentile.

Q: Does increasing resolution from 1080p to 1440p significantly impact performance?

A: The impact is minimal. At High settings, the drop is only 33.2 FPS (from 596.1 to 562.9), which is a 5.6% reduction. This suggests that players with 1440p monitors can expect essentially the same competitive experience as 1080p users.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured results shows a consistent pattern across all resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the frame rates are exceptionally high across the board. The Low preset leads at 706.4 FPS, followed by Medium at 605.8, High at 596.1, and Ultra at 583.9. The spread between the fastest and slowest preset is 122.5 FPS, which is the smallest absolute difference at any resolution, underscoring the CPU-bound nature of 1080p gameplay.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain remarkably stable. Low preset yields 675.1 FPS, which is only 31.3 FPS less than at 1080p. The Medium preset produces 572.9 FPS, High produces 562.9 FPS, and Ultra produces 548.7 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is relatively uniform across presets, averaging around 5-7%. This consistency reinforces that the CPU is still the primary constraint at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to show its load. The Low preset still produces a staggering 625.9 FPS, but the gap between presets widens considerably. Medium drops to 480.8 FPS, High to 459.4 FPS, and Ultra to 437.5 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 188.4 FPS, which is significantly larger than the 122.5 FPS gap seen at 1080p. This widening delta is a classic indicator of the GPU becoming the limiting factor at higher pixel counts.

The data also shows that the High preset is consistently close to Medium in performance, with only a 21.4 FPS difference at 4K and a 6.8 FPS difference at 1440p. This suggests that the visual quality improvements in High over Medium are nearly free in performance terms. The Ultra preset, however, does incur a more noticeable cost, particularly at 4K where it is 22.9 FPS slower than High.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is a powerful graphics card in its own right, but its role in Valorant is somewhat diminished due to the game's low graphical complexity. The GPU features 7,168 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 80 raster operation units, which are more than sufficient for this title. Its boost clock of 2475 MHz and base clock of 1980 MHz provide the raw speed necessary to handle high frame rates, but the measured data shows that this headroom is rarely fully utilized except at 4K.

The 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus provides 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. In Valorant, this memory configuration is largely irrelevant to performance, as the game's texture and geometry data are relatively small. The 4K Ultra result of 437.5 FPS shows that even the most demanding settings do not come close to stressing the memory subsystem. The GPU's 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is also far beyond what this game requires at any resolution tested.

The RTX 4070 SUPER ranks in the 84th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 42,576. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A6000, scores 42,653, a difference of just 0.2%. The AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE scores 42,723, putting it 0.3% ahead. These extremely small deltas show that the RTX 4070 SUPER is positioned in a highly competitive performance band, but in this specific game, the CPU dominates the equation. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4627 and the passmark DirectX 12 score of 110 are more reflective of the GPU's capability in general workloads, but the Valorant data shows a system where the processor is the clear performance driver.