Valorant

# Valorant with Intel Core i5-11400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 produces an extraordinary performance profile in Valorant, a competitive FPS where frame rates far exceed display refresh capabilities. The measured data shows average frame rates ranging from 331.1 FPS at 4K Ultra settings to 456 FPS at 1080p Low settings, placing this combination in the 868th position out of 1,650 tested combos in this game. This places the combo in the upper half of all tested configurations, though the sheer magnitude of the frame rates suggests that the game's engine, rather than either component, becomes the limiting factor at lower resolutions. The i5-11400F, a 6-core, 12-thread Rocket Lake processor with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz, demonstrates that high-frequency, moderate-core-count CPUs remain highly effective for esports titles like Valorant.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior reveals a distinctive pattern: frame rates decrease as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the drop is relatively modest compared to more graphically demanding titles. Moving from 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS at High settings declines from 382.8 to 362.2, a reduction of approximately 5.4%. The step from 1440p to 4K at High settings shows a more pronounced decline, falling from 362.2 to 331.7 FPS, which represents an 8.4% reduction. Across the full range from 1080p to 4K at High settings, the total drop is 51.1 FPS, or about 13.4% of the 1080p figure.

This scaling pattern indicates that at 1080p, the system is heavily CPU-bound, as the RTX 3080's massive compute resources are not fully exercised by Valorant's relatively simple rendering workload. The i5-11400F's single-thread performance, reflected in a 3DMark single-thread score of 868 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,029, becomes the primary constraint. As resolution increases, the GPU begins to take on more of the workload, though even at 4K Ultra, the 331.1 FPS average demonstrates that the RTX 3080 is nowhere near its performance ceiling in this title.

The Low settings results further highlight the CPU-bound nature of the game. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 456 FPS, which is 73.2 FPS higher than at High settings. However, at 4K Low, the average is 398.5 FPS, only 67.4 FPS below the 1080p Low figure. This suggests that even with reduced graphical fidelity, the frame rate ceiling is determined by the CPU's ability to process game logic and draw calls, not by the GPU's rendering capacity. The difference between Low and Ultra settings at 4K is 67.4 FPS (398.5 vs. 331.1), whereas at 1080p the same settings gap is 83.4 FPS (456 vs. 372.6), reinforcing that lower resolutions amplify the CPU's role as the bottleneck.

FAQ

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

A: The highest recorded average frame rate is 456 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the i5-11400F's multi-threaded performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The i5-11400F's average benchmark score of 17,181 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (17,189, 0% delta), and it trails the Intel Core i7-1260P and Intel Core Ultra 7 164U by only 0.2% each, while marginally ahead of the Intel Core i5-1240U by 0.2%.

Q: What resolution and settings combination yields the lowest average frame rate?

A: The lowest recorded average is 331.1 FPS, achieved at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings. The 4K High setting produces a nearly identical result at 331.7 FPS.

Q: Does increasing settings from Medium to Ultra have a significant impact on performance?

A: At 1080p, the difference between Medium (386.6 FPS) and Ultra (372.6 FPS) is 14 FPS, or about 3.6%. At 4K, the gap narrows to 7.3 FPS (338.4 vs. 331.1), indicating that settings have a diminishing effect at higher resolutions.

Q: How does the RTX 3080's benchmark performance compare to its closest competitors?

A: The RTX 3080's average benchmark score of 35,787 places it 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon Pro Duo (35,860) and 0.9% behind the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE (36,101), while it leads the AMD Radeon 880M by 0.4% and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile by 1%.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and High settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings yield 429 FPS, while High settings produce 362.2 FPS, a difference of 66.8 FPS favoring Low settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-11400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 achieves a rank of 868 out of 1,650 tested combos in Valorant, placing it in the 52.6th percentile of all configurations. This ranking is notable because the hardware itself is not top-tier by contemporary standards — the CPU sits in the 75th percentile among all CPUs, and the GPU in the 80th percentile among all GPUs. Yet the combo's ranking in-game is lower than either component's individual percentile would suggest, indicating that Valorant's performance ceiling is reached well before the hardware's full potential is tapped.

The rank disparity can be attributed to the game's engine characteristics. Valorant is designed to run on modest hardware, and its competitive nature means that frame rates are typically very high across a wide range of systems. Combos featuring higher-end CPUs with stronger single-thread performance, such as those with higher boost clocks or more recent architectures, may edge out this configuration despite having weaker GPUs. The i5-11400F's 4.40 GHz boost clock is respectable, but it is not exceptional among the 1,650 tested combinations, many of which include newer processors with higher IPC and clock speeds.

The data shows that this combo's ranking is more heavily influenced by the CPU than the GPU. The RTX 3080's raw compute power, with 8,704 shading units and 29.77 TFLOPS FP32 performance, is vastly overprovisioned for Valorant's requirements. In contrast, the CPU must handle the game's core simulation loop, and its performance directly sets the upper bound on achievable frame rates. The 6-core, 12-thread configuration is sufficient, but the relatively modest single-thread score compared to newer processors likely holds the combo back from a higher ranking.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average frame rates span from 372.6 FPS at Ultra settings to 456 FPS at Low settings. The progression is as follows: Low (456 FPS), Medium (386.6 FPS), High (382.8 FPS), and Ultra (372.6 FPS). The gap between Low and Medium is substantial at 69.4 FPS, while the difference between Medium and High is minimal at 3.8 FPS, and High to Ultra narrows further to 10.2 FPS. This suggests that the Medium preset captures most of the visual fidelity improvements with a relatively small performance penalty, while the step from Low to Medium is where the largest cost occurs.

At 2560x1440, the results show a similar pattern with slightly lower absolute values: Low (429 FPS), Medium (367.7 FPS), High (362.2 FPS), and Ultra (354.5 FPS). The Low-to-Medium gap is 61.3 FPS, while Medium-to-High is only 5.5 FPS, and High-to-Ultra is 7.7 FPS. The 1440p Low result of 429 FPS is only 27 FPS lower than the 1080p Low figure, indicating that the CPU remains the limiting factor even as pixel count increases by 78%.

At 3840x2160, the measured values are: Low (398.5 FPS), Medium (338.4 FPS), High (331.7 FPS), and Ultra (331.1 FPS). The Low-to-Medium drop is 60.1 FPS, while Medium-to-High is 6.7 FPS, and High-to-Ultra is a mere 0.6 FPS. The near-identical High and Ultra results at 4K suggest that the GPU is finally beginning to show some workload, though even the lowest 4K result of 331.1 FPS remains far above what any current display can present. The data shows that across all resolutions, the Low preset consistently provides a substantial frame rate advantage, while the differences between Medium, High, and Ultra are relatively small.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Rocket Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 14 nm process node. It features a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 512 KB of L2 cache per core. The CPU's benchmark results show strong multi-threaded capability, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14,372 and a Geekbench multicore score of 7,579, but its single-thread scores — Cinebench R23 single-core of 2,029 and Geekbench single-core of 1,979 — are more relevant for Valorant.

Valorant is a CPU-bound title at the frame rates observed in this data, and the i5-11400F's single-thread performance directly dictates the achievable FPS ceiling. The 3DMark single-thread score of 868 and 2-thread score of 1,691 indicate that the processor's architecture, despite being from the 11th generation, delivers competitive per-core performance. The 4.40 GHz boost clock is the key specification here, as the game's engine primarily relies on one or two threads for the main game logic and rendering thread.

The data shows that the i5-11400F's performance in this combo is sufficient to drive frame rates well above 330 FPS at all tested settings and resolutions. However, the combo's rank of 868 out of 1,650 suggests that other CPUs with higher single-thread performance can push frame rates even higher. The CPU's 75th percentile ranking among all CPUs, combined with its average benchmark score of 17,181, places it in the upper quartile, but not at the extreme top where the fastest gaming processors reside. The 6-core, 12-thread configuration provides ample headroom for background tasks and game-related threading, but the single-thread clock speed of 4.40 GHz is the primary factor enabling the high frame rates observed.