Valorant

Valorant is a competitive FPS built around high frame rates and low latency, and the measured data for the Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9060 paints a clear picture of a system that is heavily CPU-bound at most settings. The combination achieves exceptionally high average frame rates across all tested resolutions, but the scaling behavior between settings and resolutions reveals that the graphics card is rarely the limiting factor. The data indicates that this combo is positioned in the upper half of all tested configurations, with a frame rate profile that suggests the CPU is doing the heavy lifting to keep the GPU fed.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is remarkably shallow, which is the first strong indicator of a CPU bottleneck. At High settings, the average FPS goes from 411 at 1920x1080 down to 351 at 2560x1440, and finally to 280 at 3840x2160. That is a total drop of 131 FPS, or roughly 32%, when moving from the lowest to the highest resolution. In a purely GPU-bound scenario, a four-fold increase in pixel count would typically cause a much steeper decline, often cutting frame rates by more than half. Here, the relatively modest drop suggests that the RX 9060 has ample headroom even at 4K.

The Low settings preset shows the most extreme example of this behavior. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 530 FPS, which drops to 503 at 1440p, and then 447 at 4K. The difference between 1080p and 1440p is just 27 FPS, or about 5%, which is a tiny penalty for a 78% increase in pixel count. This indicates that at Low settings, the CPU is almost entirely the bottleneck, as the GPU can render the simple scenes so quickly that the processor cannot issue draw calls fast enough to push the frame rate higher. The 4K Low figure of 447 FPS still being significantly lower than 1080p Low does show the GPU starting to contribute, but the scaling is far from linear.

When comparing the Medium and Ultra presets at 4K, the data shows 294 FPS and 267 FPS respectively, while High sits in between at 280 FPS. This tight clustering of results across the three higher quality presets at 4K suggests that the game's visual settings have a limited impact on the GPU load at this resolution. The spread from Low to Ultra at 4K is 180 FPS (from 447 down to 267), which is a substantial range, but the fact that Medium, High, and Ultra are all within 27 FPS of each other implies that the CPU is still the primary constraint even at 4K, with the GPU only becoming a minor factor at the highest quality settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Core i5-12400F and the Radeon RX 9060 achieves a combo rank of 1422 out of 2883 total tested combinations in Valorant. This places the pairing in the 49th percentile, meaning it outperforms just under half of all other CPU-GPU combos in the database for this specific game. This ranking is notably lower than what the raw frame rates might suggest, simply because Valorant is a game where many high-end CPUs paired with mid-range GPUs can achieve extremely high frame rates, making the field very competitive at the top end.

The rank is likely held back by the CPU's position in the broader benchmark landscape. The i5-12400F has a percentile ranking of 73 against all CPUs, which is solidly above average, but it is not a top-tier processor for competitive gaming. The GPU, meanwhile, has a percentile ranking of 59 against all GPUs, which is closer to the median. The combination of a slightly above-average CPU and a slightly above-average GPU yields a result that is right around the middle of the pack for Valorant, where frame rates are so high that even small differences in CPU performance can shift the ranking significantly.

Looking at the nearest rivals for the CPU, the i5-12400F sits within 0.3% of the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS, the Intel Core 3 201E, the Intel Core i5-1335U, and the AMD EPYC 7773X in average benchmark score. This tight clustering indicates that the CPU's performance is not uniquely strong or weak; it is squarely in a competitive bandwidth of processors. For the GPU, the RX 9060 is within 2.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, the AMD Radeon R9 370X, the AMD Radeon RX 7700, and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500, showing that it competes directly with a range of previous-generation and current mid-range cards. The combo rank of 1422 reflects this middle-of-the-road positioning.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, built on a 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, which are the figures that matter most for Valorant's single-threaded rendering pipeline. The CPU's cache configuration includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and a shared 18 MB L3 cache. The single-thread performance, as measured by benchmarks, shows a 3dmark single-thread score of 909 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1680, which are strong indicators of its ability to handle the game's primary game thread.

Valorant is known for being particularly sensitive to CPU single-core performance, and the data supports this. The fact that the frame rates scale so little with resolution at Low settings suggests that the CPU's 4.40 GHz boost clock is the key factor in pushing the 530 FPS figure at 1080p. The CPU's multi-threaded performance is also respectable, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 12380 and a Geekbench multicore score of 9472, but these are less relevant for a game that typically uses only a few threads. The 12 threads provided by the 6 cores are sufficient to handle background tasks and the game's secondary threads without causing frame drops.

The CPU's benchmark score of 19039 places it in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs, which is a solid mid-tier result. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS, has a nearly identical score of 19047, confirming that the i5-12400F is not an outlier in either direction. For Valorant specifically, the CPU's ability to maintain high IPC and clock speeds is what allows the combo to reach the 500+ FPS territory at lower resolutions. The data shows that the CPU is the primary driver of performance in this pairing, as the frame rates are consistently high regardless of the GPU's workload.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average frame rates are as follows: Low settings produce 530 FPS, Medium produces 432 FPS, High produces 411 FPS, and Ultra produces 391 FPS. The Medium preset also recorded a minimum FPS of 367 and a maximum of 496, showing a 129 FPS variance between the lowest and highest frames. The gap between Low and Ultra is 139 FPS, which is a significant range, but even the lowest figure of 391 FPS is far above what most displays can show. The fact that Ultra is only 20 FPS lower than High at this resolution suggests that the extra settings in Ultra have a minimal impact on the CPU's workload.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 503 FPS at Low, 368 FPS at Medium, 351 FPS at High, and 334 FPS at Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 313 FPS and a maximum of 423 FPS, which is a tighter range than at 1080p. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 27 FPS at Low, 64 FPS at Medium, 60 FPS at High, and 57 FPS at Ultra. This pattern shows that the higher quality presets incur a larger penalty when resolution increases, which is expected as the GPU begins to do more work, but the absolute numbers are still very high.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 447 FPS at Low, 294 FPS at Medium, 280 FPS at High, and 267 FPS at Ultra. The Medium preset has a minimum of 250 FPS and a maximum of 338 FPS. The change from 1440p to 4K is a 56 FPS drop at Low, but only a 74 FPS drop at Medium, a 71 FPS drop at High, and a 67 FPS drop at Ultra. Interestingly, the delta between Low and Ultra at 4K is 180 FPS, which is larger than the 139 FPS delta at 1080p, indicating that the GPU's role becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions, even though the CPU still prevents the frame rates from falling to typical GPU-bound levels.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 is based on the Navi 44 chip using the RDNA 4.0 architecture, manufactured on a 4 nm process at TSMC. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s. The GPU has a base clock of 1700 MHz, a game clock of 2400 MHz, and a boost clock of 2990 MHz. The memory operates at 2250 MHz, which translates to 18 Gbps effective. The GPU's compute capabilities include 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, along with 28 ray tracing cores. Its FP32 performance is rated at 21.43 TFLOPS.

The GPU's benchmark results show a passmark G3D score of 17631 and a 3dmark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3322, with a percentile ranking of 59 against all GPUs. Its average benchmark score is 16014, placing it very close to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, which scores 16129, a difference of only 0.7%. This suggests that the RX 9060 is a competent mid-range card, but in Valorant, its role is largely secondary. The measured frame rates indicate that the GPU is rarely the bottleneck, as even at 4K Ultra, the 267 FPS average is far above the refresh rates of most monitors.

The 8 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for Valorant, which is not a graphically demanding game, and the 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth is ample for the texture loads at 4K. The GPU's high boost clock of 2990 MHz helps ensure that it can keep up with the CPU's draw calls, but the data shows that its performance headroom is significant. The 4K Low result of 447 FPS versus the 1080p Low result of 530 FPS demonstrates that even when the GPU is given the easiest possible workload, the CPU still limits the maximum frame rate. The GPU only starts to show its influence when moving from Low to Ultra at 4K, where the frame rate drops by 180 FPS, indicating that the graphics card is finally being stressed.

FAQ

Q: What is the single highest average frame rate recorded for this combo?

A: The highest average frame rate is 530 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo rank compare to other tested systems in Valorant?

A: The combo ranks 1422 out of 2883 total tested combinations, placing it in the 49th percentile of all combos.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck in this system?

A: The data indicates the CPU is the primary bottleneck, as frame rates remain very high across resolutions, with only a 32% drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings.

Q: What is the lowest average frame rate recorded in the measured data?

A: The lowest average frame rate is 267 FPS, recorded at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings.

Q: How does the RX 9060 compare to its nearest rival in GPU benchmarks?

A: The RX 9060 has an average benchmark score of 16014, which is 0.7% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti's score of 16129.

Q: What is the range of average FPS across all settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the average FPS ranges from 503 at Low settings down to 334 at Ultra settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that the optimal experience depends heavily on the user's display refresh rate. For a 240 Hz monitor, the High preset at 1440p delivers 351 FPS, which is well above the threshold, while the Ultra preset at 351 FPS is also sufficient. At 1080p, even Ultra settings produce 391 FPS, meaning any preset will comfortably saturate a 240 Hz display. The data shows that the Medium preset offers a good balance, with 432 FPS at 1080p and 368 FPS at 1440p, but the gains from dropping to Low are substantial for users with higher refresh rate displays.

For users with a 360 Hz or higher refresh rate monitor, the Low preset is the only option that gets close to maxing out the display. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 530 FPS, which is nearly 50% higher than the High preset's 411 FPS. The trade-off in visual quality is significant, but for a competitive FPS, the frame rate advantage may be worth it. At 4K, the Ultra preset still produces 267 FPS, which is playable but may not satisfy users with high refresh rate 4K displays, as the frame rate is below the 280 FPS of the High preset and the 294 FPS of the Medium preset.

The Medium preset is the recommended choice for most users, as it provides a significant boost over High and Ultra in all resolutions while maintaining a minimum FPS of 367 at 1080p, 313 at 1440p, and 250 at 4K. These minimums are all above 240 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay on standard high refresh rate monitors. For users who prioritize maximum frame rates and have a display that can show them, the Low preset at 1080p is the clear winner, with a 530 FPS average. Ultimately, the data shows that this combo is so powerful in Valorant that the settings choice should be based on the display's refresh rate rather than the GPU's capability, as the CPU will keep the frame rates high regardless of the quality preset.