Valorant

Valorant is a competitive FPS built around high frame rates and low latency, and the data for the Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER shows a system that is overwhelmingly capable of delivering on that promise. Across all measured resolutions and settings, the average frame rate never drops below 267 FPS, which means the combination is never the bottleneck in practical terms. The benchmark results indicate a configuration that is so far ahead of the game’s demands that the limiting factor shifts away from raw hardware capability and toward the refresh rate of the display and the responsiveness of the input chain. The following analysis breaks down how the measured FPS behaves across resolutions, what settings provide the best balance, and how the specific components contribute to these results.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance scaling as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the drop is notably small due to the game’s inherent lightness on the GPU. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the average FPS is 324. Moving up to 2560x1440 with the same High settings, the average FPS drops to 307, a reduction of only about 5.2%. Pushing further to 3840x2160 at High settings yields an average of 281 FPS, which is another 8.5% drop from the 1440p result. This scaling curve is remarkably flat, indicating that the RTX 2070 SUPER has ample headroom at all resolutions and that the game’s rendering load at High settings is not saturating the GPU’s capabilities.

The pattern holds across other settings presets as well. At Low settings, the jump from 1080p to 1440p is from 386 FPS to 366 FPS, a 5.2% decrease, and then to 340 FPS at 4K, a 7.1% decrease from 1440p. The Medium preset shows a similar trend, with 329 FPS at 1080p, 312 FPS at 1440p, and 290 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset, being the most demanding, shows the largest relative drop from 1080p to 4K, going from 319 FPS to 267 FPS, which is a 16.3% reduction. However, even this worst-case scaling scenario leaves the system far above the 240 Hz refresh rate that many competitive monitors offer.

What does this scaling tell us about the limiting component? The fact that FPS drops by only a small margin when pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K suggests that the CPU, specifically the Core i5-10400F, is a significant contributor to the frame rate ceiling. In a GPU-bound scenario, doubling the resolution would typically halve the frame rate or worse. Here, the 4K High result of 281 FPS is still 86.7% of the 1080p High result of 324 FPS. This indicates that the RTX 2070 SUPER is not being fully utilized at lower resolutions, and the 6-core, 12-thread processor is keeping up with the game’s logical threads well enough to avoid becoming a major constraint. The data suggests that for this particular game, the RTX 2070 SUPER has enough raw throughput to handle 4K without breaking a sweat, and the i5-10400F is providing sufficient single-threaded performance to feed the GPU.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy for settings optimization, and the data strongly favors the Low preset for players seeking the absolute highest frame rates. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 386 FPS, which is 62 FPS higher than the High preset’s 324 FPS and 67 FPS higher than the Ultra preset’s 319 FPS. This is a substantial margin for a competitive title where every frame can reduce input latency. The Medium preset sits close to High, at 329 FPS, but it does not offer the same headroom as Low. The Low preset at 1080p is the only configuration in the entire dataset that breaks the 380 FPS mark, making it the definitive choice for maximizing refresh rate potential.

At 2560x1440, the same pattern holds. The Low preset averages 366 FPS, which is 59 FPS ahead of the High preset’s 307 FPS and 64 FPS ahead of the Ultra preset’s 302 FPS. The Medium preset at 312 FPS is again only marginally better than High. At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 340 FPS, which is still exceptionally high and 59 FPS ahead of High’s 281 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 267 FPS, which is the lowest average recorded in the dataset, but still perfectly playable on a 240 Hz display.

The recommendation is straightforward: for players who prioritize competitive integrity and maximum frame rates, the Low preset is the optimal choice. The gap between Low and Medium is significant enough to matter, while the gap between Medium, High, and Ultra is relatively small. For example, at 1080p, the difference between Medium and Ultra is only 10 FPS, whereas the difference between Low and Medium is 57 FPS. This suggests that the Medium, High, and Ultra presets are all hitting a similar performance ceiling, likely due to CPU limitations, while the Low preset relieves enough CPU load to unlock higher FPS. Players with a 144 Hz monitor could comfortably use High settings, but the data shows that the Low preset is the only one that truly maximizes the system’s potential.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is a Turing-architecture GPU built on a 12 nm process at TSMC, featuring a TU104 chip with 13,600 million transistors on a 545 mm² die. Its memory configuration includes 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The core clocks are listed at a base of 1605 MHz and a boost of 1770 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz or 14 Gbps effective. These specifications place the GPU in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20282. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M with a score of 20480, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile at 20534, and the Intel Arc B570 at 20556, all of which are within 1.5% of its score.

In the context of Valorant, the GPU’s role is somewhat secondary, as the game is known for being CPU-light. The measured FPS data supports this, as the RTX 2070 SUPER is clearly not the limiting factor. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 386 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s maximum output for this game. The GPU’s high memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s and 8 GB of VRAM are more than sufficient for the game’s textures at any resolution, and the 2560 shading units provide ample pixel throughput. The GPU’s boost clock of 1770 MHz is modest by modern standards, but it is enough to easily handle the game’s rendering demands.

The fact that the RTX 2070 SUPER is in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, yet still delivers over 280 FPS at 4K High, illustrates that Valorant is not a graphics-heavy title. The GPU’s compute capabilities, such as its 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 113.3 GPixel/s pixel rate, are far beyond what this game requires. The data suggests that the GPU is effectively idling in many scenarios, and the frame rate is being capped by the CPU’s ability to process game logic and submit draw calls. This is further evidenced by the relatively small FPS delta between Low and Ultra presets, which typically stress the GPU more heavily; here, the difference is only 67 FPS at 1080p, indicating that the GPU can handle the increased visual load without a proportional hit to performance.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this system in Valorant?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 386, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: How much of a performance drop occurs when moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 324 at 1920x1080 to 281 at 3840x2160, a reduction of 43 FPS or approximately 13.3%.

Q: Is the RTX 2070 SUPER the bottleneck in this configuration?

A: No, the data suggests the GPU is not the limiting factor. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K is minimal, indicating the CPU is likely capping performance, especially at lower resolutions.

Q: Which settings preset offers the best performance for competitive play?

A: The Low preset offers the best performance, providing the highest average FPS at all three resolutions (386 at 1080p, 366 at 1440p, and 340 at 4K).

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded in the dataset?

A: The lowest average FPS is 267, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with the Ultra settings preset.

Q: How does the system’s performance at 1440p compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 2070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 20282, which is 1.2% lower than the RTX 3070 Mobile and 1.3% lower than the Intel Arc B570, but the measured FPS in Valorant are all exceptionally high regardless of these minor score differences.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Comet Lake architecture, released on April 29, 2020. It operates at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. It supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration, providing a memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s, and features 12 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 10283 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 1451 in single-core, with a Geekbench multicore score of 6257 and single-core score of 1420. Its average benchmark score is 14185, placing it in the 68th percentile of all CPUs.

In Valorant, the CPU’s single-threaded performance is paramount, as the game’s engine relies heavily on a few main threads. The i5-10400F’s boost clock of 4.30 GHz and its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1451 indicate strong per-core capabilities. The measured FPS data shows that the system can push well over 300 FPS at all resolutions, which confirms the CPU’s ability to keep up with the game’s logic. The fact that the FPS does not scale dramatically with resolution changes suggests that the CPU is often the limiting factor, as the GPU has spare capacity.

The nearest rivals to the i5-10400F in terms of average benchmark score include the Intel Xeon 6756E with a score of 14163 (0.2% lower), the Intel Core 7 160UL with 14232 (0.3% higher), and the AMD EPYC 7552 with 14115 (0.5% lower). These comparisons show that the i5-10400F is in a competitive position for its performance class, but the specific 6-core, 12-thread configuration with a high boost clock is what makes it suitable for Valorant. The 12 MB of shared L3 cache helps with game data locality, and the 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth is sufficient for the game’s needs. The data indicates that the CPU’s 3DMark single-thread score of 688 and Passmark single-thread score of 2541 are strong indicators of the per-core performance that Valorant demands.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates. The Low preset averages 386 FPS, which is the best result in the entire dataset. The Medium preset follows at 329 FPS, with a minimum of 280 FPS and a maximum of 379 FPS. The High preset averages 324 FPS, and the Ultra preset is only slightly lower at 319 FPS. The spread between the lowest and highest presets at 1080p is 67 FPS, from 319 to 386. The Medium preset’s minimum of 280 FPS is worth noting, as it indicates that even in demanding scenes, the system stays well above 240 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains exceptionally high. The Low preset averages 366 FPS, a modest 20 FPS drop from the 1080p result. The Medium preset averages 312 FPS, with a minimum of 265 FPS and a maximum of 359 FPS. The High preset delivers 307 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 302 FPS. Interestingly, the difference between High and Ultra at 1440p is only 5 FPS, suggesting a performance ceiling is being approached. The 1440p results are still 60-80 FPS higher than what most 1440p high-refresh monitors can display, making this resolution entirely viable for competitive play.

At 3840x2160, the system still produces frame rates that exceed most displays’ capabilities. The Low preset averages 340 FPS, which is only 26 FPS lower than the 1440p Low result. The Medium preset averages 290 FPS, with a minimum of 246 FPS and a maximum of 333 FPS. The High preset delivers 281 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 267 FPS, which is the lowest recorded average but still above 240 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is gentle, with the Low preset dropping by 7.1% and the Ultra preset dropping by 11.6%. The minimum FPS of 246 at 4K Medium is the lowest single data point recorded, but it remains comfortably within the range of high-refresh-rate gaming. The overall picture is one of overwhelming performance, where even the most demanding preset at 4K yields an average FPS that most systems cannot achieve at 1080p.