Valorant

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Valorant with the Intel Core i5-12600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 reveals a curious pattern: resolution scaling has a relatively mild impact on performance, but the shape of that impact tells a story about where the bottleneck lives. At 1080p Low settings, the combo produces 599.9 FPS average. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 565.3 FPS, a reduction of roughly 34.6 FPS. The jump to 4K Low yields 523.5 FPS, another drop of about 41.8 FPS. Across the full resolution range at Low settings, the total decline is 76.4 FPS, which is only about 12.7% of the starting value.

This relatively shallow scaling curve suggests that even at 4K, the GPU is not being pushed anywhere near its limits. The RTX 4090, with its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth, is far more capable than this game requires. Valorant is a competitive FPS with stylized, low-detail environments; its rendering load is modest by design. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the combo still delivers 434.5 FPS, which is remarkably high for any game at that resolution.

The interesting wrinkle appears when comparing the scaling from 1440p to 4K versus 1080p to 1440p. At Low settings, the 1080p-to-1440p drop is 34.6 FPS, while the 1440p-to-4K drop is 41.8 FPS. The larger decline at higher resolutions hints that the GPU is beginning to take on more responsibility, but the absolute numbers remain so high that the CPU is likely still the primary constraint. At Ultra settings, the scaling is even flatter: 492.1 FPS at 1080p, 468.1 FPS at 1440p, and 434.5 FPS at 4K. The total drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is only 57.6 FPS, or about 11.7%.

What does this imply? The RTX 4090 is barely breaking a sweat. The frame rates are so high that the CPU's ability to feed the render pipeline becomes the limiting factor. The i5-12600KF, with its 10 cores and 16 threads, is a strong processor, but even it cannot fully saturate a GPU of this caliber in a lightweight esports title. The data suggests that players could drop to 1080p and gain only 76.4 FPS over 4K at Low settings, which is a negligible difference in practical terms given how high all the numbers are.

FAQ

Q: How does the combo perform at 1080p compared to 4K?

A: At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 599.9 at 1080p to 523.5 at 4K, a drop of 76.4 FPS. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 492.1 to 434.5 FPS, a reduction of 57.6 FPS.

Q: Which settings preset yields the highest frame rate?

A: Low settings consistently produce the highest average FPS at every resolution: 599.9 at 1080p, 565.3 at 1440p, and 523.5 at 4K.

Q: Is the RTX 4090 being fully utilized in Valorant?

A: No. The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K is modest, indicating the GPU has ample headroom. The shallow FPS drops suggest the CPU is the limiting component in this title.

Q: How does the i5-12600KF compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: Its average benchmark score of 27,827 is essentially tied with the Intel Core i9-10900K at 27,829 (0% delta), the i5-12600K at 27,851 (-0.1%), and the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H at 27,872 (-0.2%). It is 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i7-13700H (27,716).

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, Low settings produce 565.3 FPS while Ultra produces 468.1 FPS, a difference of 97.2 FPS in favor of Low.

Q: What does the combo's rank of 229 out of 1,650 combos indicate?

A: It places this combo in the top 13.9% of all tested combinations for Valorant, reflecting its strong performance in this game.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data makes a compelling case for Low settings if the goal is pure frame rate. At every resolution, Low settings deliver the highest average FPS: 599.9 at 1080p, 565.3 at 1440p, and 523.5 at 4K. The gap between Low and the next-best preset, Medium, is consistent—about 92.1 FPS at 1080p (507.8), 85.4 FPS at 1440p (479.9), and 78.5 FPS at 4K (445.0). This suggests that the Low preset removes some rendering overhead that the CPU must manage, freeing up headroom for higher frame rates.

However, the differences between Medium, High, and Ultra are small. At 1080p, Medium scores 507.8 FPS, High scores 500.3 FPS, and Ultra scores 492.1 FPS. The spread between Medium and Ultra is just 15.7 FPS. At 1440p, the spread is 11.8 FPS (479.9 to 468.1), and at 4K it narrows to 10.5 FPS (445.0 to 434.5). The data implies that players who prioritize visual fidelity can enable Ultra without sacrificing a meaningful amount of performance. The frame rate penalty for Ultra over Medium is only about 3.1% at 1080p, 2.5% at 1440p, and 2.4% at 4K.

For competitive play, Low settings are recommended because they maximize FPS and likely reduce input latency. For a more balanced experience, Medium or High offers nearly the same performance as Ultra while still boosting visual quality. The data shows no scenario where any preset produces unplayable frame rates—even the lowest measured value, 434.5 FPS at 4K Ultra, is far above the refresh rate of any common monitor.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Intel Core i5-12600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 229th out of 1,650 tested combinations specifically for Valorant. This places it in the 86th percentile of combos, meaning it outperforms the vast majority of other CPU-GPU pairings in this game. Given that the RTX 4090 is one of the most powerful consumer GPUs available, and the i5-12600KF is a capable mid-range processor, this ranking reflects a system that is heavily GPU-saturated in most titles. However, in Valorant, the lightweight rendering load means the CPU becomes the limiting factor, and the combo's ranking suggests there are many other configurations that achieve similar or better results.

The GPU's percentile of 91 against all GPUs and the CPU's percentile of 84 against all CPUs indicate both components are well above average. Yet the combo's rank of 229 out of 1,650 shows that raw component strength does not always translate to top-tier game-specific performance. The data suggests that in Valorant, a less powerful GPU paired with a faster single-threaded CPU might rank higher, as the game's frame rate is more sensitive to CPU performance. The i5-12600KF's 3DMark single-thread score of 1,016 and Geekbench single-core score of 2,529 are solid, but not exceptional, which could explain why the combo doesn't crack the top 200.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, featuring 76,300 million transistors and a die size of 609 mm². Its base clock is 2,235 MHz with a boost clock of 2,520 MHz, and it carries 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs. The 24 GB of GDDR6X memory runs at 1,313 MHz with a 384-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. These specifications are overwhelming for Valorant, which does not require heavy texture memory or compute power.

The measured FPS data confirms the GPU is underutilized. At 4K Ultra, the combo produces 434.5 FPS, and at 1080p Low it reaches 599.9 FPS. The fact that increasing resolution from 1080p to 4K at the same settings only reduces FPS by 12-13% indicates the GPU has massive headroom. The RTX 4090's passmark G3D score of 38,194 and its 91st percentile ranking among all GPUs are impressive, but in Valorant, the game's engine simply cannot stress this GPU enough to make it the bottleneck. The result is that the GPU's role is largely passive—it is more than adequate at any resolution or settings preset, and the frame rate is dictated by what the CPU can deliver.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured data set covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) and four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra). At 1080p, the average FPS ranges from 492.1 (Ultra) to 599.9 (Low), with Medium at 507.8 and High at 500.3. At 1440p, the range is 468.1 (Ultra) to 565.3 (Low), with Medium at 479.9 and High at 471.7. At 4K, the range is 434.5 (Ultra) to 523.5 (Low), with Medium at 445.0 and High at 437.4.

The highest measured FPS across all configurations is 599.9 at 1080p Low, while the lowest is 434.5 at 4K Ultra. The gap between the best and worst case is 165.4 FPS. The pattern is consistent: Low always wins, Ultra always loses, and the order of Medium and High is always in between, with High slightly below Medium. The FPS drops from Low to Ultra are 107.8 at 1080p, 97.2 at 1440p, and 89.0 at 4K. This shows that the settings preset has a larger impact on performance than resolution, at least within the tested range. The resolution scaling from 1080p to 4K at a fixed preset is relatively flat, while the settings scaling from Low to Ultra at a fixed resolution is more pronounced.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF is a 10-core, 16-thread processor from the Alder Lake-S architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, with a 125 W TDP. Its cache configuration includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel mode, and it has a PCIe Gen 4 interface with 20 lanes.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-12600KF scores 23,444 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 3,309 in single-core. Its 3DMark single-thread score is 1,016, and its Geekbench single-core score is 2,529. These numbers place it at the 84th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27,827. Its nearest rivals are nearly identical in performance: the i9-10900K scores 27,829, the i5-12600K scores 27,851, and the Core Ultra 5 125H scores 27,872, all within 0.2% of the i5-12600KF.

In Valorant, the CPU's role is critical because the game is not graphically demanding. The measured FPS data shows that even with the RTX 4090, frame rates are capped by the CPU's ability to process game logic and draw calls. The boost clock of 4.90 GHz and single-core performance are what drive the high frame rates, but the data suggests that a CPU with higher single-thread performance could push FPS even higher. The fact that the combo ranks 229th out of 1,650 combos indicates that other CPUs, possibly with better single-core scores, achieve better results in this specific title. The 10 cores and 16 threads are more than enough for Valorant, but the game's engine likely relies heavily on a few threads, making single-core speed the dominant factor.