Valorant

The Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D delivers exceptional frame rates in Valorant, a competitive FPS where high refresh rates matter more than absolute graphical fidelity. The measured data shows this combination producing average FPS figures well above 430 at every resolution and settings preset tested, from 4K Ultra down to 1080p Low. This analysis breaks down how the system scales across resolutions, the respective roles of the CPU and GPU, exact measured performance, and how this specific pairing ranks against other tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that remains heavily CPU-bound even at the highest resolution tested. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combination averages 595 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops the average to 564 FPS, a reduction of 31 FPS or roughly 5.2 percent. At 3840x2160 Low, the average falls further to 524 FPS, another 40 FPS drop. The total decline from 1080p Low to 4K Low is 71 FPS, which is about 11.9 percent lower. This relatively modest scaling penalty indicates that the GPU has ample headroom, and the limiting factor is elsewhere.

When examining the High settings preset, the scaling pattern shifts slightly. At 1080p High, the average is 499 FPS. At 1440p High, it dips to 473 FPS, and at 4K High, it reaches 439 FPS. The gap between 1080p and 4K High is 60 FPS, or 12.0 percent. Notably, the difference between Low and High at the same resolution is consistent: at 1080p, Low is 96 FPS faster than High; at 1440p, the gap is 91 FPS; at 4K, it is 85 FPS. This consistency suggests that the GPU is not becoming the bottleneck even when settings increase, as the performance penalty for higher settings remains nearly flat across resolutions.

The Medium settings preset provides the only rows with min and max FPS data. At 1080p Medium, the average is 507 FPS, with a minimum of 431 FPS and a maximum of 584 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average is 481 FPS, with min/max of 409 and 553 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 447 FPS, with min/max of 380 and 514 FPS. The delta between the minimum and average grows slightly with resolution: 76 FPS at 1080p, 72 FPS at 1440p, and 67 FPS at 4K. This narrowing range indicates that higher resolutions introduce slightly more consistent frame pacing, likely because the GPU starts to have a more equal share of the workload, though it still does not become the primary constraint.

The overall scaling behavior—where 4K Ultra (432 FPS) remains within 27.4 percent of 1080p Low (595 FPS)—points to a CPU-limited scenario. In a GPU-bound title, the difference between 1080p and 4K would typically be far larger, often exceeding 40 percent. The data here shows that even at 4K Ultra, the system sustains over 400 FPS, which is far beyond what most displays can show. The limiting component is the processor, which must feed the GPU with enough frames to maintain these high outputs.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is a flagship graphics card built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC. It features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. The base clock is 2017 MHz, boosting to 2407 MHz. The GPU includes 21760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, along with 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores. Its theoretical peak is 104.8 TFLOPS for FP32 and FP16 operations, with a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s.

In the context of Valorant, the GPU's massive resources are largely underutilized. The game is not graphically demanding, and the RTX 5090 D's 32 GB VRAM is far more than needed. The memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s is similarly excessive for a title that relies on simple geometry and low-resolution textures. The benchmark results for the GPU show a PassMark G3D score of 44065 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 376915, placing it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score is 77712.

The nearest rivals for the RTX 5090 D, based on average benchmark scores, include the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (score 76904, deltaPct 1.1), the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (score 78940, deltaPct -1.6), and NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants (scores 79396 and 79605, deltaPct -2.1 and -2.4). These deltas indicate that the RTX 5090 D sits within about 2 percent of these competitors in raw compute, though those are not gaming-class parts. The GPU's role in Valorant is to render frames as fast as possible, but the observed FPS figures top out at 595 (1080p Low), which is far below what the card could theoretically deliver in a lighter workload. The data suggests the GPU is never the bottleneck; even at 4K Ultra, the average FPS of 432 is high enough to saturate most high-refresh displays.

The clock behavior also matters. With a boost clock of 2407 MHz, the GPU can sustain high throughput when needed, but in Valorant, the frame rate is capped by the CPU's ability to issue draw calls. The measured FPS differences between Low and Ultra settings at the same resolution (e.g., 595 vs. 491 at 1080p) show that the GPU does respond to settings changes, but the magnitude is small—about 17.5 percent—which is typical for a CPU-bound scenario where the GPU has spare capacity.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF is a 10-core, 16-thread processor from the Alder Lake architecture, manufactured on a 10 nm process by Intel. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports dual-channel DDR4 and DDR5 memory, with a PCIe Gen 4 interface offering 20 lanes. The processor was released in November 2021 with a launch MSRP of $264.

In Valorant, the CPU is the dominant factor. The game is known for being highly sensitive to single-thread performance, and the i5-12600KF's boost clock of 4.90 GHz provides strong per-core throughput. Its benchmark scores reflect this: Cinebench R23 single-core score is 3302, and Geekbench single-core is 2157. Multi-threaded scores are also robust, with Cinebench R23 multicore at 23391 and PassMark multithread at 27575. The 3DMark single-thread score is 1016, while the 16-thread score is 7956.

The nearest CPU rivals, based on average benchmark scores, include the Intel Core i9-10900K (avgScore 27872, deltaPct -0.3), AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE (avgScore 27712, deltaPct 0.3), AMD Ryzen 7 6800U (avgScore 27887, deltaPct -0.3), and AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (avgScore 27896, deltaPct -0.3). The i5-12600KF's average benchmark score is 27799, placing it in the 79th percentile of all CPUs. The deltas are tiny, meaning the i5-12600KF performs nearly identically to these rivals in aggregate benchmarks, but in Valorant, the combination of high boost clock and 10 cores ensures that no single thread becomes a weak link.

The measured FPS data shows that the CPU can sustain over 590 FPS at 1080p Low, which is a strong indicator of its single-thread capability. The fact that 4K Ultra still yields 432 FPS means the CPU is not overwhelmed even when the GPU has to do more work per frame. The 16 threads help with background tasks and game engine overhead, but the key metric is the single-core performance, which is excellent given the 4.90 GHz boost. The processor's 125 W TDP and 10 nm node are not directly relevant to frame rates, but they define its power envelope. In this pairing, the CPU is the limiter, but it is a high-capacity limiter that still allows for extreme frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data includes 12 combinations of resolution and settings presets. For 1920x1080, the average FPS figures are: Low 595, Medium 507 (with min 431 and max 584), High 499, and Ultra 491. The spread from Low to Ultra is 104 FPS, with Low being 21.2 percent faster than Ultra. Medium sits between Low and High, which is expected, but its average is only 8 FPS above High, indicating diminishing returns from Medium to High. The minimum FPS at Medium (431) is well above 400, suggesting stable performance even in demanding scenes.

For 2560x1440, the averages are: Low 564, Medium 481 (min 409, max 553), High 473, and Ultra 466. The gap between Low and Ultra is 98 FPS, or 21.0 percent. The Medium preset's minimum of 409 FPS is slightly lower than at 1080p, but still high. The High and Ultra presets are close, with only 7 FPS separating them, which implies that Ultra adds little over High at this resolution.

For 3840x2160, the averages are: Low 524, Medium 447 (min 380, max 514), High 439, and Ultra 432. The total spread is 92 FPS, with Low being 21.3 percent faster than Ultra. The Medium preset's minimum of 380 FPS is the lowest recorded across all rows, but it is still comfortably above 360 FPS. The High and Ultra presets are nearly identical, with just 7 FPS difference, mirroring the 1440p pattern.

Looking at the settings progression across resolutions, the average FPS drops are consistent: from Low to Medium, the drop is 88 FPS at 1080p, 83 FPS at 1440p, and 77 FPS at 4K. From Medium to High, the drop is 8 FPS at 1080p, 8 FPS at 1440p, and 8 FPS at 4K. From High to Ultra, the drop is also 8 FPS at all three resolutions. This uniform 8 FPS penalty for each step above Medium suggests that the game's higher presets impose a similar incremental cost regardless of resolution, reinforcing the CPU-bound nature. The Medium preset consistently has a lower average than High, which is unusual but may reflect specific in-game settings (e.g., anti-aliasing or shadows) that are differently configured in the Medium preset.

The minimum FPS data, available only for Medium settings, shows that the lowest recorded frame rate at any resolution is 380 FPS at 4K. This means even in the heaviest tested configuration, the system never drops below 380 FPS, which is far above the refresh rate of most monitors.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is ranked 445th out of 2883 tested combos in Valorant. This places it in the top 15.4 percent of all combinations. Given the extreme hardware involved, the ranking might seem lower than expected, but it reflects the fact that Valorant is not GPU-intensive, and many other combos with similar or better CPU single-thread performance can achieve comparable frame rates. The combo's percentile is driven by the CPU's ranking (79th percentile) and the GPU's ranking (92nd percentile), but the game's low GPU load means the CPU's performance is the primary determinant.

The rank of 445 out of 2883 means there are 444 combos that perform better in this specific game. These would likely include CPUs with higher boost clocks or better single-thread performance, paired with any capable GPU. The RTX 5090 D's massive compute resources do not translate to a top-tier ranking here because Valorant does not utilize them fully. The data shows that the combo still delivers frame rates above 430 at 4K Ultra, which is excellent, but the ranking indicates that other configurations (perhaps with a faster CPU like a top-tier Alder Lake or Raptor Lake part) could push even higher.

The deltaPct values for the CPU's nearest rivals are all within 0.3 percent, meaning the i5-12600KF is statistically tied with those CPUs in average benchmarks. In Valorant, this translates to similar frame rates, so the ranking would not change significantly if the CPU were swapped for a Ryzen 7 5800X3D or Core i9-10900K. The GPU's nearest rivals are less relevant, as they are not modern gaming cards, but the data shows the RTX 5090 D is competitive with them in raw compute. The combo's rank of 445 is a function of the CPU's place in the distribution; the GPU's contribution is secondary.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal settings preset depends on the display's refresh rate and resolution. For a 1080p display with a 240 Hz or 360 Hz refresh rate, the Low preset at 595 FPS provides the highest headroom, ensuring that frame times stay well below the display's refresh interval. The Medium preset at 507 FPS is still sufficient for a 360 Hz display, but its minimum of 431 FPS could occasionally cause a missed frame. The High and Ultra presets at 499 and 491 FPS are nearly identical and are suitable for 240 Hz displays, but they offer no advantage over Medium in terms of visual fidelity that would justify the FPS drop.

For 1440p, the Low preset at 564 FPS is the best choice for maximum competitive performance, especially on 360 Hz monitors. The Medium preset at 481 FPS (min 409) remains viable for 360 Hz, but the margin is thinner. The High and Ultra presets at 473 and 466 FPS are essentially the same and are fine for 240 Hz displays. Given the small FPS difference between Medium and High (8 FPS), the Medium preset offers a better balance if the user wants slightly better visuals without sacrificing much performance, but the minimum FPS of 409 is still high.

For 4K, the Low preset at 524 FPS is the only way to approach 500 FPS, which is overkill for most 4K displays that typically run at 120 Hz or 144 Hz. The Medium preset at 447 FPS (min 380) is more than adequate for any 4K display, and its minimum of 380 FPS ensures no drops below a 360 Hz threshold. The High and Ultra presets at 439 and 432 FPS are equally sufficient. Since 4K displays rarely exceed 240 Hz, the Ultra preset at 432 FPS is a reasonable choice for the best visual quality, as it still provides a massive margin over typical refresh rates.

In summary, the Low preset gives the highest FPS at every resolution, but the Medium preset offers a better compromise if visuals matter, as it only costs 88 FPS (1080p) to 77 FPS (4K) compared to Low, while still maintaining averages above 447 FPS. The High and Ultra presets are nearly indistinguishable from each other, and the data suggests that Ultra does not meaningfully improve the experience over High, given the consistent 8 FPS difference. For competitive play, Low is recommended; for casual play with better visuals, Medium is the best measured option.

FAQ

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

A: The highest average FPS is 595, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings?

A: At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 595 at 1080p to 564 at 1440p and 524 at 4K, a total decrease of 71 FPS (11.9 percent).

Q: What is the lowest minimum FPS recorded across all settings?

A: The lowest minimum FPS is 380, recorded at 3840x2160 with Medium settings (average 447 FPS).

Q: Is this combo more CPU-bound or GPU-bound in Valorant?

A: The data indicates the system is CPU-bound, as the FPS drops only 11.9 percent from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, and 4K Ultra still averages 432 FPS, which is close to the 1080p Low figure of 595 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-12600KF compare to its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D?

A: The i5-12600KF has an average benchmark score of 27799, while the Ryzen 7 5800X3D has a score of 27896, a deltaPct of -0.3 percent, meaning they perform nearly identically in aggregate benchmarks.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations in Valorant?

A: The combo ranks 445th out of 2883 tested combinations, placing it in the top 15.4 percent.