Valorant

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570 delivers a highly capable Valorant experience, with the data showing that the combination ranks near the bottom of the tested pool at position 1552 out of 1650 combos, yet still produces framerates that far exceed competitive requirements. The benchmark results indicate that this pairing is heavily CPU-limited at lower resolutions, with the GPU becoming more relevant only at 4K with higher settings. The best experience is found at 1080p with Medium or High settings, where the system balances high framerates with visual fidelity without pushing the GPU into a state where it drags down overall performance.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data clearly shows that the Low preset is the performance king, but it is not necessarily the best experience for most players. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 288.3 FPS, which is a significant 99.8 FPS advantage over the High preset at the same resolution. However, the jump from Low to Medium is much smaller, with the Medium preset delivering 188.5 FPS, a difference of 99.8 FPS from Low but only 11.3 FPS ahead of High. This suggests that the Low preset leverages the CPU's full potential, while the GPU becomes a more significant factor as settings increase.

For competitive play, the Low preset at 1080p is the obvious choice if raw framerate is the sole priority, but the data also shows that Medium offers a more balanced experience. The Medium preset at 1080p delivers 188.5 FPS, which is still well above the refresh rates of most high-end monitors, and it provides better visual quality than Low without the substantial performance penalty seen at Ultra. The Ultra preset at 1080p, at 170.5 FPS, is only 18 FPS slower than Medium, indicating that the GPU can handle the extra load at this resolution without catastrophic drops.

At 2560x1440, the same trend holds: Low delivers 247.7 FPS, Medium drops to 159.1 FPS, and High sits at 153.5 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is a substantial 88.6 FPS, suggesting that the GPU starts to become a bottleneck as settings rise. For the best experience at 1440p, Medium is the sweet spot, as it maintains a framerate above 150 FPS while offering better visuals than Low. At 3840x2160, the data shows a different story: Low delivers 197.5 FPS, but Medium drops to 128.4 FPS and High to 122.1 FPS. Here, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, and Low is the only setting that keeps framerates competitive.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 1552 out of 1650 tested combinations places this system in the bottom 6% of all tested hardware pairings for Valorant. This low rank is surprising given the strong individual component benchmarks, but it reflects the fact that Valorant is a highly optimized esports title where even modest hardware can achieve high framerates, and the testing pool includes many more powerful components. The CPU's percentile rank of 77 against all CPUs indicates that the i5-12400 is a solid performer, but the GPU's percentile rank of 74 against all GPUs suggests it is a mid-tier part.

The nearest rival data for the CPU shows that the i5-12400's average benchmark score of 19850 is nearly identical to the Intel Core i7-9700, which scores 19831, a delta of only 0.1%. This indicates that the CPU is performing exactly as expected for its class. The GPU, with an average benchmark score of 30158, is similarly close to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, which scores 30109, a delta of 0.2%. This proximity to much newer and more expensive GPUs in synthetic benchmarks does not translate to a high combo rank in Valorant, likely because the game's engine is more sensitive to single-threaded CPU performance and memory bandwidth than to raw GPU compute.

The data shows that this combo's rank is not a reflection of poor individual performance but rather the high bar set by the competition. Many combos in the top 100 likely feature high-end CPUs with faster memory and newer GPUs that can push framerates beyond 400 FPS at 1080p. For a budget-oriented pairing, this rank is acceptable, but it clearly indicates that there is significant headroom for improvement if the user were to upgrade either component.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is a 4 GB GDDR5 card with a 256-bit memory bus and a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. Its base clock is 1168 MHz with a boost clock of 1244 MHz, and it has a pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s. The GPU's FP32 performance is 5.095 TFLOPS, which is modest by modern standards but sufficient for esports titles. The 4 GB VRAM is a potential limitation at 4K with high textures, but the measured data shows that the GPU can still push 122.1 FPS at 4K High, indicating that Valorant's memory footprint is well within the card's capacity.

The GPU's role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 117.8 FPS, suggesting that the CPU is the primary driver. At 1440p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 100.8 FPS, still CPU-bound. At 4K, the difference between Low and Ultra is 79.4 FPS, and the absolute framerates drop significantly, showing that the GPU is now the limiting factor. The GPU's boost clock of 1244 MHz is modest, but the architecture is efficient for this type of workload, as evidenced by the 197.5 FPS at 4K Low.

The GPU's nearest rival data shows that it is closely matched with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 in average benchmark score, but this does not translate to similar gaming performance in Valorant. The RX 570's age and lack of modern features like hardware ray tracing are irrelevant in this title, but its raw rasterization power is sufficient to keep framerates high at all tested settings up to 4K Medium.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average framerates are as follows: Low delivers 288.3 FPS, Medium delivers 188.5 FPS, High delivers 177.2 FPS, and Ultra delivers 170.5 FPS. The progression from Low to Medium is a steep drop of 99.8 FPS, while the drop from Medium to High is only 11.3 FPS, and from High to Ultra is a further 6.7 FPS. This indicates that the Medium preset is a significant step up in visual quality for a relatively small performance cost compared to High and Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the framerates are: Low at 247.7 FPS, Medium at 159.1 FPS, High at 153.5 FPS, and Ultra at 146.9 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 88.6 FPS, which is substantial, but the differences between Medium, High, and Ultra are only 5.6 FPS and 6.6 FPS respectively. This suggests that the GPU is beginning to feel the load at 1440p, but the CPU is still providing enough headroom to keep framerates above 145 FPS at all settings.

At 3840x2160, the framerates are: Low at 197.5 FPS, Medium at 128.4 FPS, High at 122.1 FPS, and Ultra at 118.1 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 69.1 FPS, which is the largest relative drop at any resolution, indicating a clear GPU bottleneck. The differences between Medium, High, and Ultra are small, with only 6.3 FPS and 4.0 FPS separating them. This shows that at 4K, the GPU is saturated, and the choice of settings beyond Medium has minimal impact on performance.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear pattern of framerate degradation as resolution increases, but the rate of degradation depends heavily on the settings preset. At Low settings, the framerate drops from 288.3 FPS at 1080p to 247.7 FPS at 1440p, a decrease of 40.6 FPS, and then to 197.5 FPS at 4K, a further decrease of 50.2 FPS. This represents a total drop of 90.8 FPS from 1080p to 4K, which is a 31.5% reduction. This relatively modest drop indicates that at Low settings, the CPU is still the primary limiting factor, and the GPU has enough headroom to handle the increased pixel count.

At High settings, the framerate drops from 177.2 FPS at 1080p to 153.5 FPS at 1440p, a decrease of 23.7 FPS, and then to 122.1 FPS at 4K, a further decrease of 31.4 FPS. This total drop of 55.1 FPS from 1080p to 4K is a 31.1% reduction, showing a similar scaling pattern to Low. However, the absolute framerates are much lower, indicating that the GPU is working harder.

The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings shows a drop from 170.5 FPS to 118.1 FPS, a total reduction of 52.4 FPS, or 30.7%. This is the smallest percentage drop of all presets, but the absolute framerates at 4K are the lowest of any preset. The data suggests that the limiting component shifts from the CPU at 1080p to the GPU at 4K, with the crossover point occurring somewhere between 1440p and 4K depending on the settings. At 1440p High, the framerate of 153.5 FPS is still high enough to suggest the CPU is not fully saturated, but at 4K High, the framerate of 122.1 FPS indicates the GPU is the bottleneck.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Alder Lake generation, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. It has 18 MB of shared L3 cache and a TDP of 65 W. The CPU's single-thread performance is strong, as evidenced by its 3dmark_single_thread score of 910 and its cinebench_r23_singlecore score of 2249. In Valorant, which is known to be highly sensitive to single-threaded performance, this CPU is well-suited to push high framerates.

The CPU's multi-threaded performance is also solid, with a cinebench_r23_multicore score of 15935 and a passmark_multithread score of 18747. However, the data shows that in Valorant, the CPU's single-thread performance is the key driver. At 1080p Low, the framerate of 288.3 FPS is likely near the maximum that this CPU can produce in this game, as the GPU is not heavily taxed at this resolution and settings combination. The CPU's boost clock of 4.40 GHz is crucial for maintaining these high framerates, and the data shows that even at 4K Low, the CPU can still push 197.5 FPS, indicating that it is not the bottleneck at lower settings.

The CPU's nearest rival data shows that it is essentially tied with the Intel Core i7-9700 in average benchmark score, with a delta of only 0.1%. This suggests that the i5-12400 is performing at the expected level for its class. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are more than sufficient for Valorant, which typically uses fewer than 4 threads. This means that the CPU's headroom is not fully utilized, and the framerate is likely limited by the game engine's single-threaded nature rather than the CPU's multi-threading capabilities.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for competitive play at 1080p?

A: The Low preset delivers the highest average framerate at 288.3 FPS, but the Medium preset at 188.5 FPS offers a better balance of visual quality and performance. For pure framerate, Low is the choice, but for a playable experience with better visuals, Medium is recommended.

Q: How does this combo rank against all other tested combinations in Valorant?

A: The combo ranks 1552 out of 1650 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 6% of the pool. This low rank is due to the high performance of other tested hardware, not a failure of this specific pairing.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor at 4K resolution?

A: At 4K, the GPU is the limiting factor. The framerate drops from 197.5 FPS at Low to 118.1 FPS at Ultra, showing that the RX 570's 4 GB VRAM and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient but the GPU's compute power is the bottleneck.

Q: What is the average benchmark score difference between the CPU and its closest rival?

A: The Intel Core i5-12400 has an average benchmark score of 19850, which is only 0.1% higher than the Intel Core i7-9700's score of 19831. This indicates that the CPU is performing exactly as expected.

Q: Does the 4 GB VRAM on the RX 570 cause issues at 1080p?

A: No, the data shows no VRAM-related issues at 1080p. The framerates range from 170.5 FPS at Ultra to 288.3 FPS at Low, indicating that the VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor at this resolution.

Q: What is the framerate drop from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings?

A: At Medium settings, the framerate drops from 188.5 FPS at 1080p to 159.1 FPS at 1440p and then to 128.4 FPS at 4K. This represents a total drop of 60.1 FPS, or 31.9%, from 1080p to 4K.