Valorant

The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 delivers exceptional performance in Valorant, a game where frame rates are paramount. The measured data indicates that this combination is not merely playable but vastly exceeds the refresh rate capabilities of most high-end monitors, even at maximum settings and 4K resolution. This analysis breaks down the performance characteristics, scaling behavior, and component roles based on the benchmark results.

Resolution Scaling

The benchmark data reveals a clear pattern of diminishing frame rates as resolution increases, but the absolute numbers remain extraordinarily high. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces an average of 629 FPS. This drops to 537 FPS at 1440p and further to 429 FPS at 4K. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a 14.6% reduction in frame rate, while moving from 1440p to 4K results in a 20.1% reduction. The transition from 1080p to 4K overall sees a 31.8% drop in average FPS on Low settings.

The pattern is consistent across all settings presets. With High settings, the frame rates are 395 FPS at 1080p, 337 FPS at 1440p, and 269 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is 31.9%, nearly identical to the Low preset scaling. This consistency suggests that the performance scaling is driven by the resolution-dependent workload rather than settings-dependent bottlenecks.

At Medium settings, the measured minimums provide additional insight. At 1080p Medium, the average is 414 FPS with a minimum of 352 FPS and a maximum of 477 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average is 354 FPS with a minimum of 301 FPS and a maximum of 407 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 283 FPS with a minimum of 240 FPS and a maximum of 325 FPS. The minimum frame rates scale proportionally with the averages, indicating stable performance without sudden drops.

The scaling behavior suggests that Valorant is not heavily taxing the GPU even at 4K. The frame rates remain so high across all resolutions that the limiting component is unlikely to be the GPU in most scenarios. The relatively modest percentage drops between resolutions, combined with the absolute frame rate levels, point toward a system that is well-balanced for this title but where the CPU still has headroom to push even higher frame rates at lower resolutions.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average is 629 FPS at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the maximum value recorded across all tested configurations.

Q: Does the RTX 4060 bottleneck the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the GPU is not a bottleneck at 1080p. The frame rates range from 376 FPS at Ultra to 629 FPS at Low, which are exceptionally high values. The relatively small frame rate differences between settings at 1080p compared to the resolution scaling indicate that the CPU is likely the primary driver at this resolution.

Q: How does the 4K performance compare to 1440p performance?

A: At 4K Ultra, the combo produces 256 FPS average, while at 1440p Ultra it produces 321 FPS. This represents a 20.2% reduction in performance when moving from 1440p to 4K. The same comparison at Low settings shows 429 FPS at 4K versus 537 FPS at 1440p, a 20.1% drop.

Q: What is the minimum frame rate recorded in the entire dataset?

A: The lowest minimum frame rate is 240 FPS, recorded at 3840x2160 resolution with Medium settings. This is still well above the refresh rate of most displays, indicating smooth gameplay even under load.

Q: Is the performance difference between Medium and Ultra settings significant at 1440p?

A: The difference is moderate. At 1440p, Medium produces 354 FPS average while Ultra produces 321 FPS, a 9.3% reduction. This suggests that the visual upgrades from Medium to Ultra come at a relatively small performance cost.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested combinations for Valorant?

A: The combo ranks 1429 out of 2883 tested combinations. This places it in the upper half of all configurations, though the ranking percentile is lower than the absolute frame rates might suggest, indicating that many other combos also achieve very high performance in this game.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is a GPU based on the Ada Lovelace architecture, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features 3072 shading units, 96 texture mapping units, and 48 render output units. The GPU has 24 ray tracing cores and 96 tensor cores, though Valorant does not heavily utilize these specialized units. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1830 MHz and a boost clock of 2460 MHz, with a memory clock of 2125 MHz running on 8 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 128-bit bus.

The memory configuration provides a bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s, which is sufficient for Valorant's relatively modest texture and geometry demands. The GPU's pixel rate is 118.1 GPixel/s and texture rate is 236.2 GTexel/s, both of which contribute to its ability to render frames quickly. The FP32 performance of 15.11 TFLOPS indicates solid raw compute capability, though Valorant's rendering workload is more dependent on geometry and fill rate than compute shaders.

In the context of Valorant's measured performance, the RTX 4060 appears to have significant headroom. At 4K Ultra, the GPU produces 256 FPS average, which is far from the limits of its rendering capabilities. The GPU's performance percentile of 61 among all GPUs places it slightly above the median, yet it still delivers frame rates that most competitive gamers would consider excessive. The GPU's role becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions, where the fill rate and memory bandwidth are more heavily taxed.

The measured data shows that the GPU is not the limiting factor at 1080p. The frame rates at 1080p across all settings (376-629 FPS) are so high that the CPU's frame generation capability is likely the constraint. As resolution increases to 4K, the GPU's workload increases, but the frame rates remain above 250 FPS even at Ultra settings, indicating that the GPU still has substantial performance reserves.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset provides average frame rates for four settings presets across three resolutions, with minimum and maximum values recorded for Medium settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 629 FPS average, which is the highest recorded value in the entire dataset. High settings at this resolution produce 395 FPS, Medium produces 414 FPS, and Ultra produces 376 FPS. The Medium preset at 1080p has a minimum of 352 FPS and a maximum of 477 FPS, showing a 125 FPS spread between minimum and maximum.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates decrease but remain exceptionally high. Low settings produce 537 FPS average, High settings produce 337 FPS, Medium produces 354 FPS, and Ultra produces 321 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p records a minimum of 301 FPS and a maximum of 407 FPS, a 106 FPS spread. The relative ordering of settings is consistent: Low > Medium > High > Ultra, with Low being significantly faster than the other presets.

At 3840x2160, the performance remains strong. Low settings achieve 429 FPS average, Medium produces 283 FPS, High produces 269 FPS, and Ultra produces 256 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K has a minimum of 240 FPS and a maximum of 325 FPS, an 85 FPS spread. The frame rate differences between settings at 4K are more compressed than at lower resolutions, with the gap between Low and Ultra being 173 FPS compared to 253 FPS at 1080p.

The settings-to-settings deltas reveal interesting patterns. At 1080p, moving from Low to Medium costs 215 FPS, a 34.2% reduction. Moving from Medium to High costs 19 FPS, and from High to Ultra costs 19 FPS. At 4K, the Low to Medium transition costs 146 FPS, and the Medium to High transition costs 14 FPS, showing that the settings impact is less pronounced at higher resolutions where the GPU is more loaded.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on optimal settings for this combo. For players with high refresh rate monitors at 1080p, the Low preset at 629 FPS is the only option that can fully saturate a 600 Hz display, which is an extreme niche. For more common 360 Hz or 240 Hz monitors, the Medium preset at 414 FPS offers a balance between visual quality and frame rate headroom, ensuring the display is fully utilized without hitting frame time inconsistencies.

At 1440p, the Low preset at 537 FPS is the only configuration that exceeds the 500 FPS threshold, while Medium at 354 FPS comfortably drives a 360 Hz monitor. The Ultra preset at 321 FPS still exceeds the refresh rate of most high-end gaming monitors, making it a viable choice for players prioritizing visual fidelity. The minimum frame rate of 301 FPS at Medium settings ensures no drops below the 300 FPS mark, which is crucial for competitive integrity.

For 4K gaming, all settings presets maintain frame rates above 240 FPS, with even the Ultra preset at 256 FPS providing smooth gameplay. The Medium preset at 283 FPS with a minimum of 240 FPS is the recommended choice for 4K, as it offers improved visual quality over Low while maintaining a comfortable margin above the 240 Hz refresh rate ceiling. The High and Ultra presets at 269 and 256 FPS respectively are also viable, though the performance difference between them is marginal at 13 FPS.

The data suggests that the Medium preset is the sweet spot across all resolutions. At 1080p it offers 414 FPS, at 1440p it offers 354 FPS, and at 4K it offers 283 FPS. This preset provides the best balance of visual quality and performance, with minimum frame rates that never drop below 240 FPS. Players who prioritize maximum frame rates should use Low settings, while those who want the best visuals can use Ultra without experiencing frame rates below 256 FPS.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Strix Halo. It has a base clock of 3.00 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with a TDP of 55 W. The CPU features a substantial cache hierarchy including 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1 MB of L2 cache per core, and 64 MB of shared L3 cache. This large cache is beneficial for gaming workloads that exhibit temporal locality.

The CPU's benchmark scores are impressive across the board. In Cinebench R23, it scores 35314 in multicore and 2044 in singlecore, indicating strong multi-threaded and single-threaded performance. Geekbench scores of 20992 multicore and 2464 singlecore further confirm its capabilities. The Passmark multithread score of 54934 and single thread score of 4147 demonstrate balanced performance across different workload types.

In Valorant, the CPU's role is critical due to the game's engine being heavily dependent on single-threaded performance for game logic and draw call submission. The Ryzen AI Max+ 395's single-core performance, evidenced by its 2044 Cinebench R23 singlecore score, is well-suited for this task. The high boost clock of 5.10 GHz ensures that the game's main thread can execute rapidly, directly contributing to the high frame rates observed in the benchmark data.

The CPU's 16 cores and 32 threads provide ample parallel processing capability, though Valorant typically utilizes fewer threads for its main game logic. The 64 MB of L3 cache helps reduce memory latency for frequently accessed game data. The processor's percentile of 95 among all CPUs places it in the top 5% of processors, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX with a negligible 1.6% score difference and the Intel Core i9-14900K with a -1.7% difference, indicating this CPU is competitive with top desktop processors.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank for this specific configuration in Valorant is 1429 out of 2883 tested combinations. This places the combo in the 50.4th percentile, meaning it performs better than just over half of all tested configurations. Given the absolute frame rates achieved, this ranking may seem modest, but it reflects the fact that Valorant is a highly optimized game where many hardware combinations can achieve very high frame rates.

The CPU's performance percentile of 95 and the GPU's percentile of 61 provide context for the combo's overall ranking. The CPU is significantly stronger relative to its peers than the GPU, yet the combo's ranking in Valorant is driven more by the game's engine characteristics than raw component strength. The fact that the combo ranks 1429 out of 2883 despite having a top-5% CPU suggests that other factors, such as memory configuration or platform characteristics, play a role in Valorant's performance.

The nearest rivals for the CPU include the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX and the AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P, both with a 1.6% higher average benchmark score, and the Intel Core i9-14900K with a 1.7% lower score. These differences are small, indicating that the CPU is competitive with the best processors available. The GPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon HD 7790 and AMD Radeon 780M, with score differences of -0.2% and 0.3% respectively, showing that the RTX 4060's performance is closely matched by some older and integrated graphics solutions in synthetic benchmarks.

The combination of a top-tier CPU with a mid-range GPU produces frame rates in Valorant that exceed 250 FPS at 4K Ultra and reach 629 FPS at 1080p Low. This indicates that the CPU has sufficient headroom to drive the GPU to its limits, and the GPU is capable of rendering Valorant at extremely high frame rates. The combo's ranking of 1429 out of 2883 suggests that while this is a strong configuration, there are many other combinations that also deliver excellent performance in this title, reflecting the game's efficient engine and low hardware demands.