Valorant

Valorant is a competitive FPS where frame rates far beyond display refresh rates are the norm, and the data for the Intel Core i5-12400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti combination places it firmly in elite territory. The measured results show a system that never dips below 336 FPS even at the most demanding settings and resolution tested, indicating a pairing that is exceptionally well-suited for high-refresh-rate competitive play. The combination ranks 1167th out of 3708 tested combos in this game, placing it in the top third of all systems, a position that reflects the synergy between a strong modern CPU and a top-tier GPU.

Resolution Scaling

The progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that is primarily CPU-bound at lower resolutions, with the GPU only beginning to assert its influence as pixel count rises. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 526 FPS, which serves as the absolute ceiling for this pairing in Valorant. Moving to 2560x1440 Low, the frame rate drops to 499 FPS, a reduction of 27 FPS or approximately 5.1%. This relatively small decline suggests that at these settings and resolutions, the Intel Core i5-12400 is the limiting factor, as the GPU has ample headroom to render frames quickly.

The scaling becomes more pronounced when moving to 4K. At 3840x2160 Low, the average FPS is 463, which is a 36 FPS drop from the 1440p Low result. This indicates that the RTX 5070 Ti is starting to work harder, though the frame rates remain extraordinarily high. The most telling data point for understanding the bottleneck comes from the High settings preset. Between 1080p High (441 FPS) and 1440p High (419 FPS), the drop is 22 FPS, but between 1440p High and 4K High (388 FPS), the drop is 31 FPS. This accelerating decline as resolution increases confirms that the GPU’s rendering workload is becoming the primary constraint at 4K.

However, the story is not one of a weak GPU. The RTX 5070 Ti, with its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory and 896.0 GB/s of bandwidth, is clearly capable of pushing massive frame rates. The fact that even at 4K Ultra, the system still manages 382 FPS demonstrates that this is a GPU that is overqualified for Valorant’s graphical demands. The data suggests that the i5-12400’s 6 cores and 12 threads, boosting to 4.40 GHz, are what truly dictate the upper limits of performance. The gap between Low and Medium settings at each resolution is also telling. At 1080p, the jump from Low (526 FPS) to Medium (449 FPS) is a 77 FPS difference, while at 4K, the same settings change results in a 68 FPS difference. This consistency in the FPS penalty for raising settings from Low to Medium, regardless of resolution, further reinforces that the CPU is handling the game logic and frame pacing, while the GPU is only minimally taxed by the visual upgrades.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average frame rate this combo can achieve in Valorant?

A: The highest recorded average FPS in the measured data is 526 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

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

A: At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 526 at 1080p to 463 at 4K, a reduction of 63 FPS. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 434 FPS at 1080p to 382 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 52 FPS.

Q: Which component is more likely to be the bottleneck in this game?

A: The benchmark results indicate the CPU is the primary limiter at lower resolutions. For example, at 1080p Low the system hits 526 FPS, but the RTX 5070 Ti is capable of much higher frame rates in less CPU-intensive scenarios. The GPU begins to have a more significant impact on performance at 4K resolution.

Q: What is the lowest frame rate recorded for this configuration?

A: The minimum FPS recorded is 336 FPS, which occurred at 3840x2160 resolution with Medium settings. This represents the worst-case frame pacing scenario in the data.

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

A: The combination ranks 1167th out of 3708 tested combos, placing it in the 68.5th percentile of all systems tested for this game.

Q: Is there a significant difference between the High and Ultra presets?

A: The data shows a minimal difference. At 1080p, High averages 441 FPS while Ultra averages 434 FPS, a difference of only 7 FPS. At 4K, the difference is 6 FPS, with High at 388 FPS and Ultra at 382 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows a clear and predictable scaling of performance across the four presets tested, but the differences are small enough that the choice of settings comes down to a preference for visual fidelity versus maximum frame rate. For players with a 540Hz esports monitor, the Low preset at 1080p, yielding 526 FPS, is the only way to potentially saturate such a display’s refresh rate. This preset offers the highest possible frame pacing and lowest latency, which is critical in a game where reaction time matters.

For those with a 360Hz or 240Hz display, the Medium preset appears to be the sweet spot. At 1080p Medium, the system averages 449 FPS with a minimum of 381 FPS, ensuring that even in the most chaotic team fights, the frame rate should remain well above the refresh rate of most high-end monitors. The jump from Low to Medium provides a qualitative improvement in visual clarity, particularly for distant enemy models, with only a 77 FPS average penalty at 1080p. At 1440p, Medium delivers 425 FPS with a minimum of 362 FPS, which still provides a massive buffer over a 240Hz display’s needs.

The High and Ultra presets offer diminishing returns in visual quality for this game, while the performance cost is consistent. At 4K, High (388 FPS) and Ultra (382 FPS) are nearly identical in performance, suggesting that the Ultra preset is essentially free in terms of FPS at this resolution. However, since Valorant is a competitive shooter where frame rate is king, the data suggests that most players should stick to Medium or Low. The Ultra preset, despite offering the highest visual quality, only delivers 434 FPS at 1080p, which is 92 FPS slower than Low. Given that the minimum FPS is not recorded for Ultra, the risk of frame pacing inconsistencies is not documented, but the average is lower. The recommendation based on the numbers is clear: use Low or Medium for competitive play, with Medium being the best balance of visual clarity and performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates provide a comprehensive picture of this system’s capabilities across all tested scenarios. At 1920x1080, the resolution most common in competitive play, the combo delivers its peak performance. The Low preset leads with an average of 526 FPS. The Medium preset averages 449 FPS, with a minimum of 381 FPS and a maximum of 516 FPS. High follows at 441 FPS, and Ultra trails at 434 FPS. The spread between the fastest and slowest presets at 1080p is 92 FPS, which is significant but still leaves the slowest preset (Ultra) well above the refresh rate of any mainstream monitor.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains exceptionally high. Low averages 499 FPS, a 27 FPS drop from 1080p. Medium averages 425 FPS, with a minimum of 362 FPS and a maximum of 489 FPS. High averages 419 FPS, and Ultra averages 412 FPS. The pattern persists where the drop from Low to Medium (74 FPS) is the largest single step, while the difference between High and Ultra is only 7 FPS. This suggests that the Ultra preset adds little graphical load over High.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is finally given more work to do. Low averages 463 FPS, which is still an incredibly high frame rate for 4K. Medium averages 395 FPS, with a minimum of 336 FPS and a maximum of 454 FPS. This minimum of 336 FPS is the lowest recorded value across all tests, indicating that 4K Medium is the most demanding scenario in the data. High averages 388 FPS, and Ultra averages 382 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 81 FPS, which is less than the 92 FPS difference seen at 1080p. This narrowing gap at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU is becoming a more significant factor, but it is still not fully saturated, as even the most demanding preset at 4K produces frame rates that are over three times higher than a standard 120Hz display’s refresh rate.

How This Combo Ranks

In the context of all 3,708 tested combinations for Valorant, the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti pairing achieves a rank of 1167. This places it in the upper portion of the field, but notably not at the very top. The data implies that while this combo is exceptionally fast, there are other combinations that produce even higher frame rates in this specific title. The ranking suggests that the i5-12400, while a capable processor with a 72nd percentile ranking against all CPUs, may not be the optimal choice for pushing Valorant to its absolute limits. The RTX 5070 Ti, which ranks in the 86th percentile against all GPUs, is clearly not the limiting factor.

The gap between this combo’s rank and the top performers is likely due to the CPU’s single-thread performance. Valorant is known to be sensitive to single-core speed, and while the i5-12400’s boost clock of 4.40 GHz is respectable, it is outclassed by higher-end processors with higher boost clocks and potentially better memory latency characteristics. The combo’s rank of 1167 out of 3708 puts it in the top 31.5% of all systems, which is a strong showing, but it also indicates that for a game that can run on almost any hardware, the specific CPU choice matters more than the GPU. The data shows that the GPU is not the bottleneck, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 4K, so the rank is primarily a reflection of the CPU’s capability to feed frames to the GPU.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its benchmark scores reveal a processor that is strong in multi-threaded tasks, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15,989, but its single-thread performance is more modest, with a score of 2,257 in the same test. In Valorant, this single-thread performance is critical. The game’s engine relies heavily on a single primary thread for game logic and rendering commands, which is why the 526 FPS ceiling at 1080p Low is observed.

The CPU’s L3 cache is 18 MB shared, and it supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory. The measured FPS data shows that the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p and 1440p, as the frame rates do not scale down significantly when the resolution is increased from 1080p to 1440p. For example, at Low settings, the drop is only 27 FPS when moving from 1080p to 1440p. This indicates that the CPU is able to maintain a high level of frame production, but it is capped at around 526 FPS. The 3DMark single-thread score of 910 and the Passmark single-thread score of 3,456 are solid, but they are not at the very top of the charts, which is why this combo does not rank higher among the 3,708 tested configurations. The CPU’s performance is sufficient to deliver elite-level frame rates, but it is the component that holds the system back from achieving even higher numbers seen in combos with faster processors.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is a powerhouse that is almost entirely unconstrained in Valorant. With 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, it offers 896.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth, which is far more than a game like Valorant requires. The GPU’s boost clock of 2452 MHz and its 8,960 shading units provide massive compute throughput, evidenced by its 43.94 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. In the measured data, the GPU’s role is only noticeable at 4K resolution, where the frame rates begin to show a slight decline compared to 1440p, but even then, the performance is staggering.

The GPU’s benchmark scores, such as a Passmark G3D score of 32,974 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 212,363, place it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. In Valorant, this power translates to a situation where the GPU is effectively waiting for the CPU to send it work. The evidence for this is the minimal FPS difference between the High and Ultra presets. At 1080p, the difference is just 7 FPS, and at 4K, it is only 6 FPS. If the GPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see a larger performance gap when increasing the visual load. The fact that the difference remains small suggests that the GPU has more than enough headroom to handle the increased graphical complexity of the Ultra preset. The RTX 5070 Ti is overkill for this title, but it ensures that the system never drops below 336 FPS even at 4K Medium, providing a level of performance consistency that is ideal for competitive play.