Valorant

Valorant is exceptionally forgiving on the Intel Core i3-12100F and AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT combination, with the data showing a system that never drops below 300 FPS at any tested resolution or setting. The measured results place this combo at rank 669 out of 1650 tested combinations, putting it in the upper half of all systems but not at the absolute top tier, which is expected given the role of each component. The benchmark data reveals that this pairing is primarily CPU-limited at lower resolutions, with the GPU becoming more relevant as resolution increases, yet neither component ever becomes a bottleneck that prevents a highly competitive frame rate.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K demonstrates a clear shift in workload distribution between the CPU and GPU. At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 526.8 FPS, which drops to 499.9 FPS at 1440p and further to 463.6 FPS at 4K, showing a 12% reduction from the lowest to highest resolution at that preset. This relatively modest decline indicates that the Core i3-12100F's four cores and eight threads are the primary constraint at lower resolutions, as the GPU has ample headroom to render frames faster than the CPU can feed it.

The scaling story changes dramatically when examining High settings, where the 1080p result of 437.2 FPS falls to 397.1 FPS at 1440p and then to 320.2 FPS at 4K. The 27% drop from 1080p to 4K on High settings suggests the Radeon RX 6750 XT begins to take on a more significant role at higher resolutions, though even the 4K result remains far above what any display can refresh. The Ultra preset shows similar behavior, with 433.8 FPS at 1080p dropping to 381.4 FPS at 1440p and 303.3 FPS at 4K, reinforcing that the GPU's 12 GB of GDDR6 memory and 432.0 GB/s bandwidth become more relevant as pixel count increases.

What the data indicates is that this system has a performance ceiling around 526 FPS at 1080p Low, which is likely the CPU's maximum frame delivery rate for this game. The gap between 1080p and 1440p results at Low settings is only 5%, while the gap between 1440p and 4K is 7%, suggesting that the CPU bottleneck persists even at higher resolutions for the least demanding preset. For the more demanding presets, the GPU scaling becomes more pronounced, with the 4K results showing a more significant percentage drop from 1080p.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data shows that the Low preset at 1080p delivers the highest average at 526.8 FPS, but this comes with the trade-off of reduced visual quality. For competitive play where frame rate is paramount, the Low preset at 1080p is the optimal choice, as the 526.8 FPS result exceeds the refresh rate of virtually any gaming monitor. However, the Medium preset at 1080p still achieves 444 FPS, which is only a 16% reduction from Low while presumably offering better visual fidelity.

The Medium preset appears to be the sweet spot for this combination, as it maintains frame rates above 420 FPS at 1440p and 333.2 FPS at 4K, with only a 25% drop from 1080p to 4K. The High preset offers similar performance to Medium at 1080p with 437.2 FPS versus 444 FPS, but the gap widens at 4K where High drops to 320.2 FPS compared to Medium's 333.2 FPS. The Ultra preset provides the lowest frame rates across all resolutions, with 433.8 FPS at 1080p and 303.3 FPS at 4K, but even this worst-case scenario remains above 300 FPS.

For players using 1440p displays, the Medium preset at 420 FPS offers the best balance between visual quality and performance, as the difference from Low at 499.9 FPS is only 16% while providing more detail. At 4K, the Low preset at 463.6 FPS is the only option that exceeds 400 FPS, making it the recommended choice for those with high-refresh 4K monitors, though the Medium preset at 333.2 FPS remains perfectly playable. The data suggests that players should prioritize Medium settings for the best experience, as the performance delta from Low is minimal while the visual improvement is likely significant.

How This Combo Ranks

The Core i3-12100F and Radeon RX 6750 XT combination holds position 669 out of 1650 tested combos in Valorant, placing it in the 59th percentile of all systems tested. This ranking is somewhat surprising given the extremely high absolute frame rates, but it reflects that many other combinations achieve even higher numbers in this CPU-bound title. The combo's position is likely influenced by the CPU's 4-core design, which limits multi-threaded performance compared to higher-core-count processors.

Looking at the individual component rankings provides context for the combo's position. The Core i3-12100F sits in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13516, placing it just 0.1% behind the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX and 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i7-1250U. The GPU performs even better relative to its peers, with the Radeon RX 6750 XT in the 79th percentile of all GPUs, scoring 35327 on average, which puts it 1.3% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and 0.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 5600M.

The discrepancy between the combo's 59th percentile ranking and the individual components' higher percentiles indicates that Valorant is heavily CPU-dependent, and the i3-12100F's four cores limit the system's ability to fully utilize the GPU's capabilities. The data shows that the combo's ranking would likely improve with a more powerful CPU, as the RX 6750 XT's 13.31 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 166.4 GPixel/s pixel rate are clearly sufficient for this game based on the measured frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results show a clear hierarchy across settings. Low delivers the highest average at 526.8 FPS, followed by Medium at 444 FPS, High at 437.2 FPS, and Ultra at 433.8 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is minimal at only 0.8%, while the gap from Low to Medium is 15.7%, indicating diminishing returns from Medium to the higher presets. The 1080p results suggest that the CPU is the limiting factor, as even the most demanding preset exceeds 430 FPS.

The 2560x1440 results follow a similar pattern but with slightly lower absolute values. Low achieves 499.9 FPS, Medium reaches 420 FPS, High delivers 397.1 FPS, and Ultra produces 381.4 FPS. The percentage differences between settings at 1440p are consistent with the 1080p results, with Medium being 16% slower than Low, and Ultra being 9% slower than High. The 1440p data indicates that the GPU is beginning to have a minor impact, as the frame rates are 5-12% lower than their 1080p counterparts across all settings.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's influence becomes more pronounced. Low still leads with 463.6 FPS, but Medium drops to 333.2 FPS, High to 320.2 FPS, and Ultra to 303.3 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is a substantial 39%, compared to only 16% at 1080p, showing that the RX 6750 XT's 12 GB VRAM and 192-bit bus are more heavily taxed at higher resolutions. The 4K results show that even the most demanding settings remain above 300 FPS, making this combo viable for 4K gaming in Valorant.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Valorant?

A: The highest measured average is 526.8 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo delivers 303.3 FPS average, which remains well above the refresh rate of most displays.

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested systems in this game?

A: The combo ranks 669th out of 1650 tested combinations, placing it in the upper half of all systems.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more limiting at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p, as the frame rates are consistently high across all settings, with Low only 21% faster than Ultra.

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

A: At Medium settings, the 1080p result of 444 FPS drops to 420 FPS at 1440p and 333.2 FPS at 4K, representing a 25% reduction from 1080p to 4K.

Q: What is the recommended setting for competitive play?

A: For competitive play, the Low preset at 1080p provides the highest frame rate at 526.8 FPS, though Medium at 444 FPS may offer a better visual experience with minimal performance loss.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F features 4 cores and 8 threads, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its architecture is Alder Lake-S, built on Intel's 10 nm process, with a 12 MB shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 cache per core. The CPU's single-thread performance is strong, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1681 and Geekbench single-core score of 2224, which are crucial for Valorant's engine.

The benchmark data reveals that the i3-12100F's multi-threaded performance is adequate but not exceptional, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11912 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 7413. The CPU's 3DMark scores show a significant jump from 2 threads (1659) to 4 threads (2859), but minimal improvement from 8 threads (4026) to max threads (4023), indicating that the four physical cores are the primary constraint. This limitation is likely what prevents the combo from ranking higher, as Valorant appears to benefit from additional cores based on the combo's 59th percentile ranking.

The CPU's position relative to its nearest rivals shows it is competitive with much more expensive processors. The i3-12100F's average benchmark score of 13516 is just 0.1% below the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX and 1.8% above the Intel Core i7-7700K, demonstrating that its modern architecture and high clock speeds compensate for its modest core count. The 4.30 GHz boost clock is particularly relevant for Valorant, which likely relies on high single-core performance.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with the Navi 22 chip, manufactured on TSMC's 7 nm process with 17,200 million transistors. It features 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operations pipelines, with 40 ray tracing cores. The GPU's clock speeds include a base of 2150 MHz, a boost of 2600 MHz, and a game clock of 2495 MHz, with memory running at 2250 MHz or 18 Gbps effective.

The GPU's 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for Valorant at all tested settings and resolutions. The RX 6750 XT's compute capabilities include 13.31 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and a texture rate of 416.0 GTexel/s, with a pixel rate of 166.4 GPixel/s. These specifications explain why the GPU is not the bottleneck in Valorant, as the game's relatively simple graphics are easily handled by this hardware.

The GPU's benchmark performance places it in the 79th percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 35327. This puts it between the AMD Radeon RX 5600M (0.2% behind) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (1.3% ahead), showing that the RX 6750 XT is a capable mid-to-high-range card. The data indicates that the GPU's role in this combo is to provide sufficient headroom at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the 4K results where the GPU becomes more relevant, but it never becomes a limiting factor given the consistently high frame rates.