Valorant

# Valorant with Intel Core i5-12400 + AMD Radeon RX 9060

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 9060 delivers exceptionally high frame rates in Valorant across all tested resolutions, with the data showing a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at lower settings and progressively more balanced as resolution and visual quality increase. This pairing ranks 1429th out of 2883 tested combos in this game, placing it in the upper half of the database, which is notable given that Valorant is a competitive FPS where high refresh rates matter more than absolute visual fidelity.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of diminishing returns as resolution increases, but the absolute numbers remain extremely high even at 4K. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the average frame rate is 526 FPS, which drops to 499 FPS at 2560x1440 and further to 447 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 5.1% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 10.4% drop from 1440p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that the system has substantial headroom at lower resolutions.

The scaling behavior changes significantly when moving to higher settings presets. At High settings, the averages are 411 FPS at 1080p, 351 FPS at 1440p, and 280 FPS at 4K — representing a 14.6% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 20.2% drop from 1440p to 4K. At Ultra settings, the pattern continues with 391 FPS at 1080p, 334 FPS at 1440p, and 267 FPS at 4K, showing drops of 14.6% and 20.1% respectively. The larger percentage drops at higher settings suggest that the GPU's rendering workload becomes more demanding relative to the CPU's ability to feed frames.

The fact that even at 4K Ultra the system maintains an average of 267 FPS indicates that the limiting component is not severely stressed in this title. The scaling from 1080p Low to 4K Low shows only a 15% total reduction, which is remarkably small for a resolution increase of 4x pixel count. This strongly suggests that at Low settings, the CPU is the primary bottleneck — the i5-12400's six cores and 12 threads appear to cap the frame rate around the 526 FPS mark, regardless of how much GPU headroom exists. When settings increase, the GPU becomes more involved, but even at Ultra 4K, the system never drops below 250 FPS in the Medium preset's minimum frame rate of 250 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. In the context of Valorant, which is known to be sensitive to single-thread performance, the CPU's 3DMark single-thread score of 910 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2257 provide context for its frame generation capability.

The CPU's benchmark profile shows strong multi-threaded performance for a mainstream desktop part, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15989 and a Geekbench multicore score of 8564. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5873 and max-thread score of 5890 are nearly identical, indicating that the processor's 12 threads are fully utilized without significant scaling penalties. The PassMark multithread score of 18747 and single-thread score of 3456 further corroborate the balanced performance profile.

In Valorant specifically, the data suggests that the i5-12400 provides sufficient single-thread performance to drive very high frame rates, but it appears to be the limiting factor at Low settings across all resolutions. The fact that 1080p Low produces 526 FPS while 4K Low produces 447 FPS — only a 15% difference — implies that the CPU is generating frames at a rate that the GPU can easily render even at 4K. The percentile ranking of 72 for this CPU versus all other processors in the database indicates it sits comfortably above average, and its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7643 (with a delta of -0.1%), Intel Core i7-1355U (-0.3%), and AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 (-0.7%), while the Intel Core i3-14100F is 0.9% behind.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 44 chip, manufactured on a 4 nm process by TSMC. It features 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, along with 28 ray tracing cores. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1700 MHz, a game clock of 2400 MHz, and a boost clock of 2990 MHz, with memory running at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective) across a 128-bit bus providing 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory is notable for a modern GPU, and in Valorant's context, the VRAM capacity appears sufficient — the game's measured performance at 4K Ultra remains above 260 FPS, suggesting no memory-related stuttering or bandwidth limitations. The GPU's pixel rate of 191.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 334.9 GTexel/s provide the raw throughput needed for high-resolution rendering, while the FP32 performance of 21.43 TFLOPS indicates solid compute capability.

The GPU's benchmark scores show a DirectX 12 performance of 44 in PassMark, which is relatively low compared to its other scores, but the PassMark G3D score of 17631 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 88183 paint a more complete picture of its gaming capability. The GPU ranks in the 59th percentile versus all GPUs, with its nearest rival being the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti at a delta of -0.7%, meaning the RX 9060 is essentially on par with that card. The AMD Radeon R9 370X and AMD Radeon RX 7700 are both 1% behind, while the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 trails by 2.1%.

In Valorant, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced at higher settings and resolutions. The transition from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a drop from 526 to 391 FPS — a 25.7% reduction — which indicates that the GPU is taking on substantially more work as settings increase. At 4K, the Low to Ultra drop is from 447 to 267 FPS, a 40.3% reduction, demonstrating that the GPU is the dominant factor at that resolution with high visual quality.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows the following averages: Low settings produce 526 FPS, Medium produces 432 FPS with a minimum of 367 and maximum of 496, High produces 411 FPS, and Ultra produces 391 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 135 FPS, which is the largest absolute difference across all resolutions, but the relative drop of 25.7% is the smallest. This resolution represents the most CPU-limited scenario, where the GPU has significant headroom even at Ultra settings.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 499 FPS at Low, 368 FPS at Medium (with a minimum of 313 and maximum of 423), 351 FPS at High, and 334 FPS at Ultra. The drop from Low to Ultra is 165 FPS, representing a 33.1% reduction. This indicates that at 1440p, the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor, as the additional pixel count requires more rendering throughput, but the system still maintains frame rates well above what most displays can show.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 447 FPS at Low, 294 FPS at Medium (with a minimum of 250 and maximum of 338), 280 FPS at High, and 267 FPS at Ultra. The Low to Ultra drop is 180 FPS, a 40.3% reduction, which is the largest relative decrease. Even at this demanding resolution with Ultra settings, the system produces an average of 267 FPS, which exceeds the refresh rate of all but the most extreme gaming monitors. The Medium preset's minimum of 250 FPS at 4K demonstrates that even in the worst-case measured scenario, the system never drops below the 240 Hz threshold.

FAQ

Q: Is this system capable of 4K gaming in Valorant?

A: Yes, the data shows an average of 267 FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra settings, and even the Medium preset maintains a minimum of 250 FPS at 4K, indicating no performance issues at this resolution.

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

A: At Low settings, the average drops from 526 FPS at 1920x1080 to 447 FPS at 3840x2160, a 15% reduction. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 391 to 267 FPS, a 31.7% reduction.

Q: What is the best resolution to use with this combination?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 provides a good balance, with 334 FPS at Ultra and 499 FPS at Low. The performance at 1440p is only 10-15% lower than 1080p across most settings, while offering significantly more screen real estate.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM on the RX 9060 cause issues in Valorant?

A: No, the measured performance shows no signs of VRAM limitations. At 4K Ultra, the system maintains 267 FPS average, and the minimum frame rate at 4K Medium is 250 FPS, suggesting the memory capacity is not a bottleneck in this title.

Q: How does the RX 9060 compare to the RTX 3060 Ti?

A: According to the benchmark data, the RX 9060's average score is 16014, while the RTX 3060 Ti scores 16129, putting the RX 9060 at -0.7% relative to the NVIDIA card — essentially a statistical tie.

Q: Is the i5-12400 holding back the GPU in Valorant?

A: The data suggests the CPU is the limiting factor at Low settings, where 1080p and 4K produce 526 and 447 FPS respectively — a small difference. At higher settings, the GPU becomes more involved, but the CPU still provides enough performance to maintain over 260 FPS at 4K Ultra.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium produces 432 FPS with a minimum of 367, which is only 94 FPS lower than Low but provides better visual quality. At 1440p, Medium delivers 368 FPS with a minimum of 313, and at 4K, it maintains 294 FPS with a minimum of 250. The Medium preset consistently provides the highest minimum frame rates relative to its average, indicating more stable frame pacing.

For players with high refresh rate monitors (240 Hz or above), the High preset at 1080p (411 FPS) or 1440p (351 FPS) is recommended, as it offers better visuals than Medium while still clearing the 240 FPS threshold comfortably. At 4K, High settings produce 280 FPS, which still exceeds the refresh rate of most displays. The Ultra preset provides diminishing returns — at 1080p it only drops to 391 FPS (20 FPS lower than High), but the visual improvements may not justify the performance cost in a competitive shooter where frame rate consistency matters more than graphics fidelity.

The Low preset is only advisable for players with 360 Hz or higher refresh rate monitors, as it pushes frame rates to 526 FPS at 1080p and 499 FPS at 1440p. However, the visual sacrifice is substantial, and the data shows that even Medium at 4K provides three times the refresh rate of a standard 60 Hz monitor. For most users, the Medium preset at 1440p (368 FPS) represents the sweet spot, balancing visual quality with frame rates that far exceed any display's refresh capabilities.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 9060 ranks 1429th out of 2883 tested combos in Valorant, placing it in the 50.4th percentile of all configurations in the database. This ranking is somewhat conservative given the measured performance, as the system produces over 260 FPS even at 4K Ultra settings, which is exceptional for a competitive FPS title.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 72 versus all processors indicates that the i5-12400 is well above average in general computing performance, while the GPU's 59th percentile ranking places it slightly above the median. The combination of a strong CPU and a competent GPU results in a system that excels specifically in CPU-bound titles like Valorant, where the i5-12400's single-thread performance (3DMark single-thread score of 910) and high boost clock of 4.40 GHz are critical factors.

The rank of 1429 out of 2883 means that roughly half of the tested combinations outperform this pairing in Valorant. Given that many of those configurations likely include higher-end CPUs or GPUs, the fact that this mid-range pairing still achieves 267 FPS at 4K Ultra demonstrates that Valorant is not particularly demanding on either component. The data indicates that this system is well-matched for the game, with no single component severely bottlenecking the other — the CPU handles frame generation efficiently while the GPU provides ample rendering throughput across all settings and resolutions tested.