Valorant

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for Valorant across the three tested resolutions reveal a title that is extraordinarily responsive to the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination. At 1080p with Low settings, the average frame rate reaches 714 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low reduces this to 672.6 FPS, a decline of roughly 5.8% from the 1080p figure. The scaling to 4K Low produces an average of 627.8 FPS, which is 12.1% below the 1080p baseline.

The pattern is consistent across all quality presets. At High settings, the transition from 1080p (595 FPS) to 1440p (565.6 FPS) costs only 4.9% performance, and the move to 4K (460.4 FPS) represents a 22.6% drop. The Ultra preset shows the tightest scaling: 586.9 FPS at 1080p, 549.7 FPS at 1440p, and 435.8 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is 25.8% below the 1080p Ultra figure.

These deltas are remarkably small for a modern FPS, indicating that Valorant is predominantly CPU-bound even at 4K. The RTX 4070 SUPER, with its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, is never the limiting factor in this configuration. The largest single drop between adjacent resolution steps occurs at 4K High versus 1440p High, a 18.6% reduction, which still leaves the average well above any competitive refresh rate threshold.

The data suggests that the rendering engine’s workload scales modestly with pixel count. The GPU’s 1980 MHz base clock and 2475 MHz boost clock provide ample throughput for the game’s relatively simple geometry and shading tasks. The 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 compute capacity is more than sufficient to handle the particle effects and post-processing inherent to the tactical shooter genre.

What is most telling is the difference between the Low and Ultra presets at the same resolution. At 1080p, the spread is 714 FPS (Low) versus 586.9 FPS (Ultra), a 17.8% performance cost for maximum visual fidelity. At 4K, the spread is 627.8 FPS versus 435.8 FPS, a 30.6% cost. This widening gap at higher resolution indicates that the GPU begins to take on a more meaningful role as pixel count and graphical complexity increase, though it never approaches the point of being a bottleneck.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER belongs to the Ada Lovelace architecture, built on a 5 nm process at TSMC. The chip, designated AD104, contains 35,800 million transistors across a 294 mm² die. The GPU’s memory subsystem consists of 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 192-bit bus, yielding 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1313 MHz, or 21 Gbps effective.

In Valorant, the GPU’s role is secondary to the CPU, but the benchmark results show that it still contributes meaningfully at higher settings and resolutions. The 4K Ultra result of 435.8 FPS versus the 4K Low result of 627.8 FPS demonstrates that the GPU is processing additional effects and geometry when the preset is raised. The 7168 shading units and 224 texture mapping units handle the game’s texture filtering and lighting calculations, while the 80 ROPs manage the final pixel output.

The RTX 4070 SUPER’s position relative to its peers is interesting. Its average benchmark score of 42576 places it in the 84th percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A6000, scores 42653, a delta of -0.2% in favor of the A6000. The AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE trails by 0.3%, scoring 42723, while the AMD Radeon Pro 580X is 1.4% behind at 41991. The NVIDIA Tesla M40 completes the group at 41897, a 1.6% deficit. These margins are well within noise for a game like Valorant, where the CPU dominates the frame time budget.

The GPU’s 220 W TDP and dual-slot design suggest a power envelope that is modest for a 40-series card. The 1x 16-pin power connector and 550 W suggested PSU indicate that system integration is straightforward. The PCIe 4.0 x16 interface provides ample bandwidth for the game’s data transfer requirements, and the display outputs (1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a) support high refresh rate monitors that can take advantage of the frame rates measured here.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear hierarchy for optimizing the Valorant experience with this hardware combination. The Low preset at 1080p produces the highest average at 714 FPS, which is ideal for competitive play where frame rate is paramount. However, the Medium preset at 1080p still delivers 608 FPS, a mere 14.8% reduction, while presumably offering improved visual clarity for target acquisition.

The High preset at 1440p yields 565.6 FPS, which is 20.8% below the 1080p Low figure but still far exceeds the refresh rate capabilities of most gaming monitors. The 4K High result of 460.4 FPS is the lowest High-preset measurement, yet it remains above 400 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any display technology currently available.

The Ultra preset offers the most visually rich experience, but the performance cost is measurable. At 1080p, Ultra produces 586.9 FPS versus 714 FPS on Low, a 17.8% penalty. At 4K, the penalty grows to 30.6% (435.8 FPS versus 627.8 FPS). For players who prioritize frame rate consistency over graphical fidelity, the Medium preset at 1440p represents the best balance: 574.5 FPS with a moderate visual upgrade over Low.

The data also shows that the gap between Medium and High is small. At 1440p, Medium produces 574.5 FPS and High produces 565.6 FPS, a difference of only 1.6%. At 1080p, the difference is 2.2% (608 FPS versus 595 FPS). This suggests that High is essentially free in performance terms and should be preferred over Medium for its visual benefits. The jump from High to Ultra, however, is more costly: 2.7% at 1080p, 2.8% at 1440p, and 5.3% at 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate measured for this combination?

A: The highest average is 714 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: The average drops from 595 FPS at 1080p to 460.4 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 22.6%.

Q: Does the RTX 4070 SUPER bottleneck the Ryzen 9 9900X in this game?

A: No. The frame rate scaling across resolutions is modest, and the CPU’s benchmark scores (94th percentile, average 54450) indicate it is the primary driver of performance.

Q: Is the Ultra preset worth using on this hardware?

A: At 1080p, Ultra costs 17.8% performance versus Low (586.9 FPS versus 714 FPS). At 4K, the cost is 30.6%. If frame rate is the priority, High is a better choice, as it performs within 2.8% of Ultra at 1080p and 1440p.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 9 9900X scores 54450 on average, which is 0.4% behind the Ryzen 9 9900X3D (54681) and 0.7% ahead of the Intel Core i7-14700F (54097).

Q: What is the lowest average frame rate recorded?

A: The lowest is 435.8 FPS, measured at 3840x2160 with the Ultra preset.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge. It operates from a 4.40 GHz base clock to a 5.60 GHz boost clock, with a 120 W TDP. The CPU is built on a 4 nm process at TSMC, containing 16,630 million transistors across two 70.6 mm² dies. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 64 MB of shared L3 cache.

Valorant is a CPU-intensive title, and the benchmark results confirm that the Ryzen 9 9900X is exceptionally well-suited to it. The 3DMark single-thread score of 1286 and the 2-thread score of 2519 indicate strong per-core performance, which is critical for the game’s main thread. The 4-thread score of 4886 and 8-thread score of 9114 show that the processor scales efficiently with additional cores, though the game likely does not utilize all 24 threads.

The Cinebench R23 scores are particularly revealing: 6555 for single-core and 46438 for multi-core. The single-core figure is among the highest measured, and the multi-core result demonstrates the 12-core design’s ability to handle background tasks while maintaining game performance. The Geekbench scores (3341 single-core, 19827 multi-core) corroborate this pattern.

The PassMark suite provides additional context. The single-thread score of 4672 and the multithread score of 54643 place the CPU in the 94th percentile of all processors. The data encryption score of 33421 and compression score of 683579 indicate robust computational throughput, which is relevant for game asset loading and anti-cheat systems.

The nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are close. The Ryzen 9 9900X3D averages 54681, a 0.4% advantage over the 9900X. The Intel Core i7-14700F scores 54097, 0.7% lower. The Intel Core Ultra 5 245K and 245KF score 55304 and 55421 respectively, representing 1.5% and 1.8% advantages. These differences are negligible for Valorant, where the measured frame rates are already multiples of typical display refresh rates.

The CPU’s memory support for DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and 89.6 GB/s of bandwidth ensures that memory latency does not impede frame pacing. The 24 PCIe Gen 5 lanes and Radeon integrated graphics provide additional flexibility, though the discrete RTX 4070 SUPER handles all rendering duties. The launch MSRP of $499 positions it as a high-end desktop part, and its benchmark performance justifies that positioning.