Valorant

Valorant is a competitive FPS where frame rate matters more than almost any other visual feature, and the combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti delivers an exceptionally fast experience. The data shows that this pairing sits at rank 474 out of 1650 tested combos, placing it in the top tier for this title. The measured frame rates are consistently high across all resolutions and settings, but the patterns in the numbers reveal a system that is heavily CPU-bound at lower resolutions and only begins to engage the GPU more fully at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is surprisingly small, which tells you that the CPU is doing the heavy lifting in Valorant. At High settings, the average FPS at 1920x1080 is 442.8, and at 3840x2160 it only falls to 386.4. That is a drop of roughly 56 FPS, or about 12.8 percent, despite a 4x increase in pixel count. This is a classic sign of a CPU bottleneck; the RTX 3080 Ti is not being fully utilized at 1080p, so there is headroom to spare when the resolution increases.

Low settings show a similar trend but with higher absolute numbers. The 1080p Low average is 528.6 FPS, while 4K Low sits at 465.8 FPS. The gap between these two is about 62 FPS, again indicating that the processor is the limiting factor. Medium and Ultra settings follow the same pattern, with 1080p Medium at 448.2 FPS and 4K Medium at 392.8 FPS, while Ultra drops from 434.6 FPS at 1080p to 380.7 FPS at 4K. The consistency of this scaling across all settings confirms that resolution has a muted effect on performance because the game's engine is not pushing the GPU hard enough to create a significant load difference.

At 1440p, the results sit almost exactly between the two extremes. High settings yield 420.2 FPS, Low yields 501.2 FPS, Medium yields 425.4 FPS, and Ultra yields 408.9 FPS. This resolution acts as a middle ground where the CPU is still dominant but the GPU begins to matter slightly more. The data suggests that for a player using a 144Hz or even 240Hz monitor, any of these settings will produce frame rates far above the display's refresh rate, making the resolution choice purely about visual preference rather than performance necessity.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is an end-of-life product with a launch MSRP of 1,199 USD, but its specifications remain formidable for a game like Valorant. It features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 912.4 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 1188 MHz, which translates to 19 Gbps effective. These numbers are far beyond what Valorant requires; the game is not memory-intensive, so the 12 GB capacity and high bandwidth are largely irrelevant to the FPS figures measured here.

The GPU's compute capabilities are equally overkill for this title. With 10240 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 112 ROPs, the RTX 3080 Ti can handle massive workloads, but Valorant's simple geometry and lighting do not leverage this power. The boost clock of 1665 MHz and base clock of 1365 MHz are standard for the Ampere architecture, and the pixel rate of 186.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 532.8 GTexel/s are more than sufficient. The FP32 performance of 34.10 TFLOPS is a strong number, but in practice, the GPU is idling relative to its capacity.

The benchmark results show that the GPU sits at the 83rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average score of 41224. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, scores 41441, a delta of -0.5 percent, meaning the 3080 Ti is essentially matched with the 3090 in general benchmarks. This places it well above the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 and the RTX 5070, but those comparisons are irrelevant in Valorant where the CPU governs the outcome. The GPU's role here is to ensure that frame rates never dip, but it is not the component that sets the upper limit.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is the real star of this pairing. With 6 cores and 12 threads, a base clock of 2.50 GHz, and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, this Alder Lake processor provides the single-thread performance that Valorant heavily relies on. The 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 cache per core are also beneficial for the game's frequent, short-duration instructions. The 10 nm process node and 65 W TDP make it an efficient choice, but the raw clock speed is what matters most here.

The CPU benchmarks confirm its strength. In the Cinebench R23 single-core test, it scores 2249, and in the 3DMark single-thread test, it scores 910. These numbers are critical because Valorant's engine is primarily single-threaded, and the i5-12400's boost clock of 4.40 GHz allows it to process game logic and draw calls rapidly. The multi-threaded scores are also respectable, with Cinebench R23 multicore at 15935 and 3DMark max threads at 5890, but these are less relevant to the FPS figures.

The CPU sits at the 77th percentile among all CPUs, with an average score of 19850. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-9700, scores 19831, a delta of 0.1 percent, so they are effectively identical. The Intel Core i7-8700 scores 19894, a delta of -0.2 percent, and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX scores 19928, a delta of -0.4 percent. This means the i5-12400 is in a tight pack of CPUs that all perform similarly in general benchmarks, but its high boost clock gives it an edge in Valorant's specific workload.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 474 out of 1650 tested combinations places this system in the top 29 percent of all pairings tested in Valorant. This is a strong result, but it is not the absolute top, which suggests that other CPU-GPU pairings can achieve even higher frame rates. Given that the GPU is more than capable and the CPU is strong, the ranking indicates that the limiting factor is the i5-12400's single-thread performance, which is good but not the best available.

The data shows that this combo outperforms the vast majority of alternatives, but it also implies that a newer or higher-clocked CPU could push the FPS even higher. The RTX 3080 Ti's percentile rank of 83 is higher than the CPU's percentile rank of 77, which reinforces the idea that the CPU is the bottleneck. For a player aiming for the absolute highest frame rates, upgrading the CPU would likely yield a larger performance gain than upgrading the GPU, but for the vast majority of users, this combo already delivers far more FPS than any monitor can display.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS is 442.8 at 1920x1080 with High settings.

Q: How much does the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings?

A: At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 528.6 at 1080p to 465.8 at 4K, a decrease of 62.8 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The data indicates the CPU is the limiting factor, as the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is relatively small, suggesting the GPU has headroom to spare.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 Ti compare to its nearest rival in general benchmarks?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti has an average score of 41224, which is 0.5 percent lower than the RTX 3090's score of 41441.

Q: What is the combo rank of this pairing in Valorant?

A: This combo ranks 474 out of 1650 tested combinations.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The highest average FPS is 528.6, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the frame rates are exceptionally high across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 528.6 FPS, Medium produces 448.2 FPS, High produces 442.8 FPS, and Ultra produces 434.6 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 94 FPS, which shows that lowering settings can provide a tangible boost, but even at Ultra the frame rate is far above competitive thresholds.

At 2560x1440, the results are slightly lower but still impressive. Low settings yield 501.2 FPS, Medium yields 425.4 FPS, High yields 420.2 FPS, and Ultra yields 408.9 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 92.3 FPS, and the overall drop from 1080p is roughly 20-30 FPS per setting.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates remain very high. Low settings average 465.8 FPS, Medium averages 392.8 FPS, High averages 386.4 FPS, and Ultra averages 380.7 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 85.1 FPS, and the drop from 1080p is more pronounced but still modest. These numbers confirm that this combo can handle 4K gaming with ease, though the advantage of lowering settings becomes less significant as the resolution increases.