Valorant

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 delivers exceptionally high frame rates in Valorant across all measured settings and resolutions. This combination ranks 472nd out of 1650 tested combos for this game, placing it in the upper portion of the database. The measured data shows average FPS figures ranging from 379.6 at 4K Ultra to 526.1 at 1080p Low, indicating that this system is far beyond the threshold needed for competitive play. The following sections break down how the CPU and GPU each contribute to these results, what settings provide the best experience, and how the system scales across resolutions.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process node. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with 18 MB of shared L3 cache. The processor's benchmark scores show strong single-thread and multi-thread performance: it achieves a 3dmark single-thread score of 910, a 3dmark max threads score of 5890, and a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15935 with a single-core score of 2249. The PassMark single-thread result is 3456, while the multi-thread score is 18747.

Valorant is a competitive FPS that relies heavily on CPU performance, particularly single-thread speed, to maintain high frame rates. The i5-12400's single-core results are strong, and this is reflected in the measured FPS data. At 1080p Low, the system averages 526.1 FPS, which is the highest recorded value across all configurations. Even at 1080p Ultra, the average remains at 433.4 FPS, showing that the CPU is not a bottleneck at this resolution. The processor's 6 cores and 12 threads are more than sufficient for Valorant, which typically does not scale beyond a few threads. The 3dmark 2-thread score of 1692 and 4-thread score of 3012 indicate that the CPU handles lightly threaded workloads with ease. The i5-12400's percentile ranking versus all CPUs is 77, meaning it outperforms most processors in the database. Compared to its nearest rivals, it sits within a narrow band: it is 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-9700, 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i5-11600K, and 0.2% behind the Intel Core i7-8700 in average benchmark score. These small deltas suggest that the i5-12400 is competitively positioned for this game, where FPS differences between similar CPUs are often negligible at the high frame rates observed.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured data includes four settings presets—Low, Medium, High, and Ultra—across three resolutions. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers the highest average FPS at 526.1, followed by Medium at 450.8, High at 443.4, and Ultra at 433.4. The spread between Low and Ultra is 92.7 FPS, which is significant in percentage terms but less impactful in actual gameplay since even the lowest value exceeds 400 FPS. At 1440p, the pattern is similar: Low averages 499.4 FPS, Medium 427.4, High 417.3, and Ultra 410.8. At 4K, Low averages 464.3 FPS, Medium 394.4, High 389.8, and Ultra 379.6.

For competitive play, the Low preset provides the highest frame rates at every resolution, which can reduce input latency and improve responsiveness. However, the difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is roughly 18%, and at 4K it is about 22%. Given that even the Ultra preset at 4K maintains an average of 379.6 FPS, players with high-refresh-rate monitors may not notice a meaningful difference between presets. The data suggests that the Medium preset offers a balanced compromise, with only a 4.6% drop from Low at 1440p (427.4 vs 499.4 FPS) and a 5.6% drop at 1080p (450.8 vs 526.1 FPS). For those prioritizing maximum performance, Low is the clear choice; for those wanting better visual fidelity without sacrificing much FPS, Medium appears optimal. The Ultra preset's performance, while the lowest, still exceeds the refresh rate of most displays, making it viable for players who value image quality.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

Examining the FPS scaling across resolutions reveals the nature of the bottleneck. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 526.1 at 1080p to 499.4 at 1440p (a 5.1% decrease) and then to 464.3 at 4K (a 7.0% decrease from 1440p). The total drop from 1080p to 4K at Low is 61.8 FPS, or 11.8%. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 433.4 at 1080p to 410.8 at 1440p (5.2% decrease) and then to 379.6 at 4K (7.6% decrease from 1440p), with a total reduction of 53.8 FPS, or 12.4%.

These relatively small percentage drops as resolution increases indicate that the system is not heavily GPU-limited at lower resolutions. If the GPU were the primary constraint, the frame rate would typically drop much more sharply when moving from 1440p to 4K, since the pixel count roughly doubles. Instead, the data shows that the CPU is likely the limiting component at 1080p and 1440p, with the GPU becoming more relevant at 4K. The i5-12400's strong single-thread performance keeps frame rates high, but the scaling pattern suggests that the CPU's ability to feed the GPU is capped at around 500 FPS at Low settings, regardless of resolution. The RTX 5070, with its high compute capabilities, is not fully utilized until 4K, where the FPS still remains above 379.6 at Ultra. This behavior is consistent with a CPU-bound scenario at lower resolutions, where the GPU has headroom to spare. The fact that the FPS difference between 1080p and 4K at Low is only 61.8 FPS—rather than a halving—confirms that the GPU is not the limiting factor at 1080p, and even at 4K the combination remains well balanced for this game.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combo of the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 ranks 472nd out of 1650 tested combos for Valorant. This places it in the top 28.6% of all combinations in the database. The rank reflects the measured average FPS across all settings and resolutions, with the system's strong CPU and GPU performance contributing to a high overall position. The i5-12400's percentile versus all CPUs is 77, and the RTX 5070's percentile versus all GPUs is 83, indicating that both components are above average in their respective categories. The combo rank of 472 suggests that while many higher-end combinations (with more powerful CPUs like flagship models or GPUs with higher raw scores) may achieve higher frame rates, this pairing is still far ahead of the majority of systems tested.

The GPU's average benchmark score is 41687, with a PassMark G3D score of 29137 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 185269. Its nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (0.2% higher score), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (0.6% higher score), and the NVIDIA Tesla M40 (0.5% lower score). These small deltas indicate that the RTX 5070's raw performance is closely matched by several other GPUs, but in Valorant specifically, the combination's rank benefits from the CPU's strong single-thread performance. The combo's position in the 472nd spot out of 1650 reflects a system that delivers high, consistent frame rates, though it is not at the very top of the rankings. Systems with top-tier CPUs and GPUs may achieve higher averages, but the data shows that this pairing is more than capable of saturating high-refresh-rate displays in Valorant.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process, with 31,100 million transistors on a 263 mm² die. It features 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's base clock is 2325 MHz with a boost clock of 2512 MHz, and memory runs at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). The RTX 5070 includes 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output pipelines. Its FP32 performance is 30.87 TFLOPS, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

In Valorant, the GPU's role is secondary to the CPU at lower resolutions, as evidenced by the relatively small FPS drops when moving from 1080p to 1440p. The RTX 5070's high pixel rate of 201.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 482.3 GTexel/s mean it can easily handle the game's rendering demands. The 12 GB of VRAM is far more than Valorant requires, so memory capacity is not a constraint. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 29137 and DirectX 12 score of 108 indicate strong overall performance, but in this game, the bottleneck shifts to the CPU at 1080p. At 4K, the GPU becomes more engaged, yet the FPS still remains above 379.6 at Ultra, showing that the RTX 5070 is not overburdened. The GPU's 83rd percentile ranking versus all GPUs confirms its high standing, but the measured FPS data shows that in Valorant, the i5-12400's single-thread capability is what drives the top-end frame rates. The GPU's contribution is more evident at 4K, where the difference between Low and Ultra settings is 84.7 FPS (464.3 vs 379.6), reflecting the impact of shading and texture loads. Overall, the RTX 5070 provides ample headroom, and the combination's performance is limited more by the CPU at lower resolutions, with the GPU taking on a larger role as resolution increases.