Valorant

Valorant is a competitive FPS built to run on a wide range of hardware, but the combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER produces an extraordinary dataset. The measured frames per second (FPS) across all resolutions and settings are consistently above 438 FPS, with the peak reaching 721.5 FPS at 1080p with Low settings. This places the combo at rank 25 out of 1650 tested combinations, a top-tier result that underscores its capability. The data indicates that this system is not merely playable but is operating at the extreme high end of performance, likely exceeding the refresh rate limits of most displays.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals a clear and predictable pattern of performance scaling as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the drop is notably small. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings, the average FPS goes from 601.9 to 571.2, a reduction of approximately 30.7 FPS. This is a modest decline of about 5%, indicating that the GPU has ample headroom at these resolutions. The scaling from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 at High settings is more pronounced, with FPS falling from 571.2 to 459.8, a drop of 111.4 FPS or roughly 19.5%. This steeper decline at 4K suggests that the rendering load is finally starting to tax the RTX 4070 SUPER, though the absolute performance remains exceptionally high for a competitive shooter.

The pattern holds across all settings presets. At Low settings, the FPS drops from 721.5 at 1080p to 684.4 at 1440p, a 37.1 FPS decrease, and then to 637.4 at 4K, another 47 FPS decrease. The relative consistency of these drops suggests that the CPU is still a significant contributor to frame generation even at 4K. If the GPU were the sole limiting factor, the scaling from 1080p to 4K would typically be much larger, often exceeding a 50% reduction in frame rate. Here, the reduction from 1080p Low to 4K Low is only 84.1 FPS, or about 11.7%. This indicates a balanced system where the powerful 16-core processor helps maintain high minimum frame rates, ensuring the GPU is consistently fed with data. The data shows that even at 4K Ultra, the system maintains 438.8 FPS, which is still far beyond the threshold for smooth competitive play, but the scaling curve clearly points to the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck at this resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the engine driving the visual output, and its specifications align well with the measured results. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. For a game like Valorant, which is not known for massive texture requirements, this memory configuration is more than sufficient. The data shows that increasing settings from Low to Ultra at any resolution does not cause a catastrophic performance collapse, which confirms that the 12 GB VRAM capacity is not being exhausted. The GPU’s boost clock of 2475 MHz and base clock of 1980 MHz contribute to its raw compute power, which is further defined by its 7168 shading units and 80 ROPs. The pixel rate of 198.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 554.4 GTexel/s are key metrics for understanding how quickly it can fill the screen.

The benchmark results for the GPU show an average score of 42576, placing it in the 84th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A6000, scores 42653, a delta of -0.2%, meaning the 4070 SUPER is virtually tied with that workstation card in synthetic tests. This context is important because it shows the GPU is a high-performance part, but the FPS data in Valorant suggests it is not the primary constraint. At 1080p Ultra, the combo achieves 594.2 FPS, while at 4K Ultra it drops to 438.8 FPS. The 155.4 FPS difference is directly attributable to the GPU’s workload increasing with pixel count. The RTX 4070 SUPER is a capable air-cooled, dual-slot card, but the data indicates its role here is to provide a high ceiling, while the CPU is responsible for pushing the frame rate toward that ceiling.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is the central processing unit in this combo, and its architecture is uniquely suited for high-FPS gaming. With 16 cores and 32 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge), it offers massive parallel processing capability. The processor has a base clock of 4.30 GHz and a boost clock of 5.70 GHz, which are high frequencies for a 16-core part. Crucially, the CPU features 128 MB of shared L3 cache, a massive pool that is likely the key to its exceptional gaming performance. This large cache allows the CPU to store more game data on-die, reducing latency and improving instruction throughput, which is critical for maintaining high frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios like Valorant.

The CPU’s benchmark scores are equally impressive, with a passmark_multithread score of 70255 and a passmark_single_thread score of 4737. Its percentile rank of 96 against all CPUs places it in the top tier of processors. The nearest rival data shows it edges out the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X by 1.8% in average benchmark scores, highlighting the benefit of the extra 3D V-Cache for certain workloads. In the measured FPS, the CPU’s influence is most visible when comparing resolutions at the same settings. At 4K High, the FPS is 459.8, which is only 142.1 FPS lower than at 1080p High (601.9). This gap is relatively small, suggesting the CPU is still able to generate frames faster than the GPU can render them, even at the higher resolution. The 9950X3D’s high single-thread performance, evidenced by its 3dmark_single_thread score of 1292, ensures that the primary game thread is not a bottleneck, allowing the GPU to work at its full potential.

How This Combo Ranks

The overall performance of this CPU-GPU pair places it at rank 25 out of 1650 tested combinations in Valorant. This is a top 1.5% finish, indicating that this system is among the fastest available for this specific title. The rank is a composite measure that considers the balance between CPU and GPU capabilities. A system that is heavily imbalanced might score high in one area but suffer in another, but this combo demonstrates no such weakness. The GPU’s 84th percentile ranking is strong, but the CPU’s 96th percentile ranking is exceptional, which likely pulls the combo’s overall rank higher than what a typical mid-range CPU would achieve with the same GPU.

The data suggests that the Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a perfect match for the RTX 4070 SUPER in this context. The CPU’s raw power ensures that even at lower resolutions where the GPU has less work, the frame rate can climb to extremely high levels, reaching 721.5 FPS at 1080p Low. This is a scenario where a weaker CPU would cap the FPS well below the GPU’s maximum output. Conversely, at 4K Ultra, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, and the CPU has enough headroom to avoid introducing any stutter or frame drops, maintaining a stable 438.8 FPS. The rank of 25 out of 1650 confirms that this is not just a good pairing; it is a near-optimal one for Valorant, likely rivaling systems with much more expensive GPUs.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the user’s display refresh rate and resolution preference. For a 1080p display with a 360 Hz or 500 Hz refresh rate, the Low settings preset is the only one that fully saturates the panel with 721.5 FPS. However, the difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is substantial, with Ultra delivering 594.2 FPS, a 127.3 FPS reduction. For most competitive players, the visual fidelity of Ultra is not worth a 17.6% performance loss, so High settings at 601.9 FPS offer a balanced trade-off, providing better visuals while retaining over 600 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the recommendation shifts. High settings deliver 571.2 FPS, which is still incredibly high. Moving to Ultra reduces this to 550.2 FPS, a modest 21 FPS drop. In this case, Ultra is a viable option for users with high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors, as the performance remains far above the typical 240 Hz ceiling. The Low preset at 1440p yields 684.4 FPS, but the visual downgrade is unnecessary given the headroom. At 3840x2160, the data suggests using Medium settings for the best experience. Medium delivers 485.7 FPS, which is higher than High’s 459.8 FPS and Ultra’s 438.8 FPS. The performance gap between Medium and Low is 151.7 FPS, but Low’s 637.4 FPS is likely overkill for a 4K display, making Medium the sweet spot for maintaining high frame rates while keeping acceptable visual quality.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset offers a granular view of performance across all 12 tested configurations. At 1920x1080, the average FPS starts at 721.5 for Low, drops to 613.7 for Medium, then 601.9 for High, and finally 594.2 for Ultra. The delta between Low and Ultra is 127.3 FPS, a significant range that shows how much headroom the CPU provides. At 2560x1440, the numbers are 684.4 (Low), 582.8 (Medium), 571.2 (High), and 550.2 (Ultra). The spread narrows slightly to 134.2 FPS, indicating the GPU is starting to take on a larger share of the workload. At 3840x2160, the values are 637.4 (Low), 485.7 (Medium), 459.8 (High), and 438.8 (Ultra). The spread here is 198.6 FPS, which is the largest, confirming that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at this resolution.

Looking at the data across resolutions for each settings preset provides further insight. For Low settings, the FPS drops from 721.5 to 684.4 to 637.4, a total reduction of 84.1 FPS from 1080p to 4K. For Medium, the drop is from 613.7 to 582.8 to 485.7, a total reduction of 128.0 FPS. For High, the drop is from 601.9 to 571.2 to 459.8, a reduction of 142.1 FPS. For Ultra, the drop is from 594.2 to 550.2 to 438.8, a reduction of 155.4 FPS. This pattern demonstrates that as the settings preset increases, the GPU workload grows disproportionately, leading to a larger performance penalty at higher resolutions. The data confirms that this system is exceptional for Valorant, with every measured configuration delivering a smooth and highly responsive experience.