Valorant

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 1167 out of 3708 tested combinations in Valorant. This places the combo in the 68.5th percentile of all recorded system pairings, meaning roughly two-thirds of tested configurations deliver lower frame rates in this title. The ranking reflects the unusual balance of this pairing: the RTX 4080 is a high-end GPU operating at 86th percentile among all GPUs in the database, while the i5-12400 sits at the 72nd percentile among CPUs. The gap between those two percentile positions explains why the combo does not climb higher; Valorant is highly sensitive to CPU throughput, and the i5-12400, while capable, does not match the GPU's tier.

The nearest CPU rivals in the database show how tightly grouped the i5-12400's overall processing power is. The AMD EPYC 7643 scores 18697 in average benchmark score, a mere 0.1 percent above the i5-12400's 18683. The Intel Core i7-1355U sits 0.3 percent higher at 18730, and the AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 leads by 0.7 percent with 18811. The Intel Core i3-14100F trails by 0.9 percent with 18519. These sub-one-percent deltas indicate that the i5-12400's raw compute sits in a dense cluster of processors, and Valorant's frame pacing will depend more on single-thread responsiveness than on aggregate multi-core output.

On the GPU side, the RTX 4080's nearest rivals in the database are similarly close. The RTX 4080 SUPER averages 54209, just 0.1 percent ahead of the RTX 4080's 54247. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54828, which is 1.1 percent higher than the RTX 4080. The AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB posts 55698, a 2.6 percent advantage, and the AMD Radeon 8060S reaches 55757, 2.7 percent higher. These margins are small enough that game-specific optimization, not raw compute, determines which card leads in Valorant. The recorded data shows the RTX 4080 delivers 526 FPS at 1080p Low, a figure that exceeds the refresh rates of virtually all consumer monitors, so the GPU is rarely the constraining factor in this title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows for this combo cover four presets: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra, across three resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 526 FPS, which is the highest recorded value in the entire dataset for this pairing. Medium drops to 449 FPS, High to 441 FPS, and Ultra to 434 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 77 FPS, while Medium to High costs only 8 FPS, and High to Ultra costs another 7 FPS. This pattern suggests diminishing returns as settings climb; the GPU has ample headroom at 1080p, but the CPU's frame generation limit becomes visible above Medium.

At 2560x1440, the same ordering holds: Low averages 499 FPS, Medium 425 FPS, High 419 FPS, and Ultra 412 FPS. The Low-to-Medium gap is 74 FPS, again the largest single-step drop. Medium to High costs 6 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 7 FPS. At 3840x2160, Low averages 463 FPS, Medium 395 FPS, High 388 FPS, and Ultra 382 FPS. The Low-to-Medium step costs 68 FPS, while Medium to High costs 7 FPS and High to Ultra costs 6 FPS.

The data indicates that Medium is the optimal preset for this combo. It captures the majority of the Low preset's performance advantage while providing the visual improvements that Medium settings offer. The margin between Medium and High is consistently small, 6 to 8 FPS depending on resolution, which means High does not meaningfully degrade the experience. However, Ultra offers almost nothing beyond High: at every resolution, the Ultra average is within 8 FPS of High. Since the game is a competitive FPS where frame rate consistency matters more than subtle visual fidelity, Medium provides the best balance. The min FPS values are only recorded for Medium presets: 381 FPS at 1080p, 362 FPS at 1440p, and 336 FPS at 4K. These minimums are still far above the 144 Hz or 240 Hz refresh rates typical of gaming monitors, so even the lowest recorded frames remain smooth.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals where the bottleneck lies. At Low settings, the average falls from 526 FPS at 1080p to 499 FPS at 1440p, a decline of 5.1 percent, and then to 463 FPS at 4K, another 7.2 percent drop. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K is 63 FPS, or 12.0 percent. For a resolution that quadruples the pixel count, a 12 percent frame rate penalty is remarkably small. This indicates that the RTX 4080 is not being stressed by the rendering load; even at 4K, the GPU has enough bandwidth and shading power to keep up with the CPU's output.

At Medium settings, the progression is 449 FPS at 1080p, 425 FPS at 1440p, and 395 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is 24 FPS (5.3 percent), and the 1440p-to-4K drop is 30 FPS (7.1 percent). The total decline is 54 FPS, or 12.0 percent, identical to the Low preset's relative scaling. High settings show 441 FPS at 1080p, 419 FPS at 1440p, and 388 FPS at 4K, a total drop of 53 FPS (12.0 percent). Ultra goes from 434 FPS at 1080p to 412 FPS at 1440p to 382 FPS at 4K, a 52 FPS decline (12.0 percent). Every preset loses almost exactly 12 percent of its 1080p average when moving to 4K.

This uniform scaling pattern is the signature of a CPU-limited scenario. If the GPU were the constraint, the 4K penalty would be much larger, typically 40 to 60 percent, because pixel count quadruples while the GPU's fill rate is fixed. Instead, the RTX 4080's pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s are far above what Valorant requires at any resolution. The frame rate is governed by the CPU's ability to feed the game logic, issue draw calls, and maintain the simulation thread. The i5-12400's 6 cores and 12 threads, with a 4.40 GHz boost clock, set the ceiling. The 12 percent drop from 1080p to 4K likely comes from the GPU's added latency in presenting frames, not from a rendering throughput limit. The data confirms that this pairing is CPU-bound in Valorant at every resolution and preset.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full set of measurements is as follows. Low settings average 526 FPS with no recorded minimum or maximum. Medium averages 449 FPS, with a minimum of 381 FPS and a maximum of 516 FPS. High averages 441 FPS with no extremes recorded. Ultra averages 434 FPS with no extremes recorded. The Medium preset's min-to-max range spans 135 FPS, from 381 to 516, which is a wider spread than the average-to-average differences between presets. This suggests that Medium introduces occasional frame dips that are not present at Low, but those dips remain above 300 FPS.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 499 FPS. Medium averages 425 FPS, with a minimum of 362 FPS and a maximum of 489 FPS, a 127 FPS range. High averages 419 FPS. Ultra averages 412 FPS. The Medium min of 362 FPS is 37 FPS lower than the High average, which shows that the Medium preset's variable frame timing can occasionally produce frames slower than a consistently locked High preset. However, the average still favors Medium over High by 6 FPS.

At 3840x2160, Low averages 463 FPS. Medium averages 395 FPS, with a minimum of 336 FPS and a maximum of 454 FPS, a 118 FPS range. High averages 388 FPS. Ultra averages 382 FPS. The Medium minimum of 336 FPS is still 46 FPS above the Ultra average, and it exceeds the refresh rate of any standard 4K monitor (typically 60 to 144 Hz). The data shows that even the worst-case frame time at 4K Medium is far beyond playable thresholds.

Comparing across resolutions, the Low preset at 1080p delivers the single highest average at 526 FPS. The Low preset at 1440p (499 FPS) beats every higher preset at 1080p except Low itself. The Low preset at 4K (463 FPS) beats Medium, High, and Ultra at both 1440p and 1080p. This means that resolution has a smaller impact on FPS than settings do. Dropping from 1080p Ultra to 4K Low costs only 29 FPS (from 434 to 463, actually a gain of 29 FPS, since 463 is higher than 434). In fact, 4K Low produces higher frame rates than 1080p Ultra, which underscores how CPU-limited this game is with this hardware.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 uses the AD103 chip on a 5 nm process from TSMC, with 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die. Its base clock is 2205 MHz and its boost clock is 2505 MHz. The memory subsystem consists of 16 GB of GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus, delivering 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth. The card has 9728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs, along with 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores. Its pixel rate is 280.6 GPixel/s and texture rate is 761.5 GTexel/s, with FP32 compute at 48.74 TFLOPS.

In Valorant, these specifications are massively overprovisioned. The game's art style uses simple geometry and low-detail textures, so the RTX 4080's texture rate and shading throughput are rarely exercised. The 16 GB VRAM is far beyond the game's requirements; Valorant's asset footprint fits easily within a fraction of that capacity. The memory bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s is likewise excessive for a game that does not stream large texture sets. The GPU benchmarks in the database confirm the card's general capability: 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 scores 6567, Geekbench OpenCL scores 214739, Geekbench Vulkan scores 263779, and Passmark G3D scores 34457.

The measured FPS data shows that the RTX 4080's role is to keep up with the CPU without introducing frame pacing issues. At 4K Low, the card produces 463 FPS, which means the GPU's per-frame workload at that resolution and preset is completed in roughly 2.16 milliseconds. At 1080p Low, the 526 FPS average implies a frame time of about 1.90 milliseconds. The difference between those frame times (0.26 ms) is the additional GPU work from rendering four times as many pixels. That tiny delta indicates that the GPU is operating far below its saturation point. The RTX 4080's nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, is only 0.1 percent faster in aggregate benchmarks, and the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X is 1.1 percent faster, but those differences would not manifest in Valorant because neither card is the limiting factor.

The GPU's power draw is 320 W, with a suggested PSU of 700 W and a single 16-pin connector. The card is triple-slot and measures 310 mm in length. None of these physical characteristics affect the Valorant results, but they place the RTX 4080 in the high-end desktop segment where users expect maximum frame rates. The recorded FPS values confirm that expectation: even at the most demanding preset and resolution (4K Ultra), the combo averages 382 FPS, which is above the refresh rate of all but the most specialized esports monitors.

FAQ

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

A: The highest average is 526 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset.

Q: How much FPS does the combo lose when moving from 1080p to 4K at Low settings?

A: The average drops from 526 FPS at 1080p to 463 FPS at 4K, a decrease of 63 FPS or 12.0 percent.

Q: Which preset shows the largest single-step FPS drop?

A: The transition from Low to Medium produces the largest drop at every resolution. At 1080p, the drop is 77 FPS (526 to 449). At 1440p, it is 74 FPS (499 to 425). At 4K, it is 68 FPS (463 to 395).

Q: Does the combo ever drop below 300 FPS in any recorded measurement?

A: No. The lowest recorded minimum FPS is 336, which appears only in the 4K Medium preset. All other presets and resolutions have either no recorded minimum or a minimum above 336.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its nearest database rival in aggregate GPU score?

A: The RTX 4080 scores 54247, which is 0.1 percent lower than the RTX 4080 SUPER's 54209. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54828, 1.1 percent higher, and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB scores 55698, 2.6 percent higher.

Q: Is the combo ranked higher in Valorant than the average system?

A: Yes. The combo ranks 1167 out of 3708 tested combinations, placing it in the upper 68.5 percent of all recorded pairings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Alder Lake-S family, built on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel mode and uses the Intel Socket 1700. Its integrated graphics are UHD Graphics 730, though the RTX 4080 handles all rendering in this dataset. The CPU's launch MSRP is $199.

In Valorant, the CPU's single-thread performance is the dominant factor. The database records a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2257, a Geekbench single-core score of 1848, and a 3DMark single-thread score of 910. These numbers indicate strong per-core throughput for a mid-range desktop chip. The game's simulation and draw call generation run on one or two primary threads, so the boost clock of 4.40 GHz directly determines the frame rate ceiling. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 1692 and 4-thread score of 3012 show how the processor scales beyond a single thread, but Valorant rarely uses more than a few cores intensively.

The multi-threaded scores are also relevant because background tasks and the operating system consume threads. The 3DMark 16-thread score is 5873, nearly identical to the max-thread score of 5890, indicating that the 6 physical cores with Hyper-Threading are fully utilized at 16 threads. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15989 places the CPU in a competitive range for its class. However, the nearest CPU rivals all have aggregate scores within 0.9 percent of the i5-12400, which means that swapping to any of those processors would not dramatically change Valorant performance. The AMD EPYC 7643, despite being a server chip, scores 18697, just 0.1 percent higher, and the Intel Core i3-14100F scores 18519, 0.9 percent lower.

The percentile rank of 72 among all CPUs indicates that the i5-12400 outperforms about 72 percent of processors in the database. But the GPU sits at the 86th percentile, creating a mismatch. In a CPU-bound game like Valorant, the system's frame rate is capped by the CPU's single-thread speed, not by the GPU's rasterization capability. The recorded FPS values, which never exceed 526 at 1080p Low, reflect that cap. A higher-tier CPU, one with a higher boost clock or better IPC, would likely push the average higher, but the database only records this specific pairing. The data shows that the i5-12400 provides enough throughput to keep the RTX 4080's frame rates in the very high range, but it does not allow the GPU to demonstrate its full potential in this particular title.