Valorant

# Valorant with Intel Core i5-11400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070

The combination of the Intel Core i5-11400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 delivers exceptional performance in Valorant, placing at rank 876 out of 1,650 tested combos. This position in the upper-middle tier of the database reflects a pairing where neither component becomes a consistent bottleneck across the tested settings. The RTX 4070, which sits in the 81st percentile of all GPUs, provides ample headroom for the game's engine, while the i5-11400F, in the 75th percentile of all CPUs, keeps frame pacing stable. The measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings exceed 330 FPS on average, which indicates that this combo is firmly in the territory of high-refresh-rate competitive play. The data shows a system that is overbuilt for Valorant's rendering demands, with the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads proving sufficient to feed the GPU at every tested configuration.

How This Combo Ranks

At rank 876 of 1,650 tested combos, this pairing sits just above the midpoint of the database, but that ranking must be interpreted carefully. Valorant is a highly CPU-sensitive title at lower resolutions, and the combo's position reflects the i5-11400F's standing among all tested processors rather than any deficiency in the GPU. The CPU's average benchmark score of 17,181 places it within 0.2% of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (17,189) and 0.2% behind the Intel Core i7-1260P (17,212) and Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (17,215). Against the Intel Core i5-1240U (17,141), the 11400F is 0.2% ahead. These near-identical scores mean the CPU is effectively tied with its closest rivals in general compute, which translates to consistent frame delivery in a game that relies heavily on single-thread performance.

The GPU's ranking context is different. The RTX 4070's average benchmark score of 37,283 places it 0.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37,507) and 1.9% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A (38,008), while trailing the RTX 4080 Mobile (38,135) by 2.2% and leading the Radeon RX 5300M (36,371) by 2.5%. In Valorant, the GPU is rarely the limiting factor; the measured FPS at 1080p Low (455.7 FPS) versus 4K Low (399.3 FPS) shows only a 12.4% drop, which is modest compared to what a GPU-bound title would exhibit. The combo's rank of 876 is therefore more indicative of the CPU's mid-pack standing than any real-world performance ceiling in this specific game.

FAQ

Q: How does this combo perform at 1080p with competitive settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 455.7 FPS. Medium settings yield 383.4 FPS, High produces 382.4 FPS, and Ultra drops to 370.6 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 85.1 FPS, representing an 18.7% reduction.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 overkill for Valorant?

A: The data suggests yes. At 4K Ultra, the combo still averages 330.4 FPS, which exceeds the refresh rate of virtually all gaming monitors. The GPU's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are far beyond Valorant's requirements, as evidenced by the minimal FPS scaling from 1440p to 4K.

Q: How does the i5-11400F's single-thread performance impact this game?

A: The CPU's single-thread benchmark scores are strong: 868 in 3dMark single-thread, 852 in Cinebench R20 single-core, and 2,029 in Cinebench R23 single-core. Valorant benefits from high single-thread throughput, and these scores support the high frame rates observed at all resolutions.

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

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings average 433.7 FPS, while Ultra averages 355.4 FPS. The gap of 78.3 FPS represents an 18.1% performance penalty for maxing out settings, which is a relatively small cost given the visual uplift.

Q: Does the combo maintain playable frame rates at 4K?

A: Yes, all 4K settings exceed 330 FPS. The lowest measured value is 330.4 FPS at Ultra, while High delivers 335.5 FPS, Medium 336.8 FPS, and Low reaches 399.3 FPS. This indicates the GPU is still not fully taxed at 4K.

Q: How does this CPU compare to its nearest rivals in multi-threaded workloads?

A: The i5-11400F scores 14,372 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 6,036 in Cinebench R20 multi-core. Its average benchmark score of 17,181 is within 0.2% of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (17,189) and Intel Core i7-1260P (17,212), making it statistically equivalent for general compute tasks.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that is CPU-limited at lower resolutions and begins to shift toward GPU limitation only at 4K. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 455.7 at 1080p to 433.7 at 1440p (a 4.8% reduction), then to 399.3 at 4K (a further 7.9% reduction). This modest scaling indicates that the CPU is the primary constraint at 1080p and 1440p, as the GPU has ample headroom to render frames faster than the processor can feed it.

At Ultra settings, the pattern shifts. The 1080p average of 370.6 FPS drops to 355.4 at 1440p (a 4.1% reduction) and then to 330.4 at 4K (a 7.0% reduction). The total drop from 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra is 40.2 FPS, or 10.8%. Compare this to the Low settings total drop of 56.4 FPS (12.4%), and the difference is small. This suggests that even at 4K Ultra, the GPU is not the dominant bottleneck; both components scale in tandem as resolution increases.

The limiting component analysis changes when examining the settings spread at each resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 85.1 FPS, while at 4K it is 68.9 FPS. The narrowing gap at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU begins to matter more, but the absolute frame rates remain so high that neither component is pushed to its limit. The RTX 4070's 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 455.4 GTexel/s texture rate are never fully utilized, while the i5-11400F's 4.4 GHz boost clock and 12 MB of shared L3 cache keep pace without becoming a hard ceiling.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 455.7 FPS, which is the single best result across all tested configurations. Medium settings drop to 383.4 FPS, High to 382.4 FPS, and Ultra to 370.6 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 85.1 FPS, indicating that the game's graphics options have a measurable but not dramatic impact at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 433.7 FPS at Low, 363.4 FPS at Medium, 358.9 FPS at High, and 355.4 FPS at Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra spread narrows to 78.3 FPS. Compared to 1080p, the resolution increase costs 22.0 FPS at Low settings (4.8% reduction) and 15.2 FPS at Ultra (4.1% reduction). These percentages are small enough to confirm that 1440p is well within the combo's comfort zone.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 399.3 FPS at Low, 336.8 FPS at Medium, 335.5 FPS at High, and 330.4 FPS at Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra spread is 68.9 FPS. The jump from 1440p to 4K costs 34.4 FPS at Low settings (7.9% reduction) and 25.0 FPS at Ultra (7.0% reduction). Even at the most demanding setting, 330.4 FPS average is far beyond what any current display can fully utilize, making this combo effectively uncapped in Valorant.

The consistency across resolutions is notable. The largest percentage drop from 1080p to 4K occurs at Low settings (12.4%), while the smallest is at Ultra (10.8%). This uniformity suggests that neither the CPU nor the GPU is hitting a hard resource ceiling, and the frame rates are primarily limited by the game engine's internal tick rate and rendering pipeline efficiency.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F brings 6 cores and 12 threads to this pairing, with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are modest by modern standards, but Valorant's engine is designed to favor high-frequency cores over wide multi-threading. The CPU's performance data supports this: its 3dMark single-thread score of 868 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,029 are strong indicators of the per-core throughput that competitive shooters rely on.

The architecture is Rocket Lake, built on Intel's 14 nm process, with a die size of 276 mm². This is an end-of-life product, released in March 2021, but its benchmark results show it remains competitive. The average benchmark score of 17,181 places it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rivals — the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (17,189), Intel Core i7-1260P (17,212), and Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (17,215) — all fall within 0.2% of its score. This clustering indicates that the 11400F is not an outlier in either direction; it delivers exactly what its specifications suggest.

In Valorant specifically, the CPU's role is evident in the resolution scaling data. The fact that 1080p Low (455.7 FPS) is only 12.4% faster than 4K Low (399.3 FPS) suggests that the CPU is the limiting factor even at 4K. If the GPU were the bottleneck, the 4K result would show a much larger drop relative to 1080p. The CPU's 65 W TDP and 12 threads provide enough compute headroom to maintain high frame pacing, while the 4.4 GHz boost clock ensures that the game's main thread is never starved. The passmark single-thread score of 2,981 and geekbench single-core score of 1,979 further corroborate that this processor excels at the type of lightly-threaded, high-frequency workload that Valorant presents.