Valorant

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9060 delivers exceptional performance in Valorant, consistently producing frame rates far beyond the capabilities of standard high-refresh-rate monitors. The data indicates that this combination is overwhelmingly GPU-limited at lower settings and heavily CPU-bound at higher settings, making it an excellent choice for competitive play. Based on the measured frames per second, the optimal experience is achieved by prioritizing high average frame rates while maintaining enough graphical fidelity to avoid distraction, with the data pointing to the Medium preset as the best balance for most users.

Settings Recommendations

The measured results show a clear hierarchy across the four available presets, with the differences between them revealing how the hardware responds to graphical load. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 552 FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded for this combination. Moving to Medium drops the average to 432 FPS, a substantial 21.7% reduction, while High delivers 411 FPS and Ultra falls to 391 FPS. The pattern is consistent across all resolutions, with Low always providing the highest average FPS, followed by Medium, then High, and finally Ultra.

For competitive play, the Low preset offers the maximum frame rate headroom, ensuring that even in the most chaotic team fights with multiple abilities active, the frame rate will remain exceptionally high. However, the data suggests that the Medium preset is the smarter choice for most players. The average FPS at 1080p Medium is 432, which is still more than enough for any current display technology, including 360Hz panels. The minimum FPS recorded at 1080p Medium is 367, which is 65 FPS higher than the average of the Ultra preset at the same resolution. This indicates that Medium provides a more stable experience with less variance between average and minimum frame rates, reducing the likelihood of micro-stutters during intense moments.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset yields an average of 368 FPS with a minimum of 313 FPS, which remains exceptionally high. The Low preset at this resolution produces 524 FPS average, but the visual quality reduction is significant enough that the competitive advantage of the extra frames is negligible when the Medium preset still exceeds 300 FPS at its lowest point. At 3840x2160, the Medium preset produces an average of 294 FPS with a minimum of 250 FPS, which is still exceptionally high for 4K gaming. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 267 FPS average, which is a noticeable reduction in headroom.

The data strongly suggests that the Medium preset is the recommended choice across all resolutions. It provides an average FPS that is more than double the refresh rate of even the fastest gaming monitors on the market, while the minimum FPS figures indicate that the frame pacing is consistent and reliable. The Low preset offers diminishing returns in terms of playable advantage, as the difference between 552 and 432 FPS is imperceptible to the human eye and provides no competitive edge. Conversely, the Ultra preset sacrifices too much performance for marginal visual improvements in a fast-paced tactical shooter where clarity and responsiveness are paramount.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s. In the context of Valorant, this memory configuration is more than sufficient, as the game is not particularly memory-intensive. The GPU's memory clock runs at 2250 MHz, which translates to 18 Gbps effective, while the base clock is 1700 MHz and the boost clock reaches 2990 MHz. The game clock is specified at 2400 MHz, which represents the typical sustained clock speed during gaming workloads.

The GPU's specifications become relevant when analyzing the frame rate differences between settings presets. The shift from Low to Medium settings at 1080p reduces the average FPS from 552 to 432, a difference of 120 FPS. This reduction is primarily due to increased pixel shading and texture filtering demands, which the GPU's 1792 shading units and 112 texture mapping units must process. The RDNA 4.0 architecture with 28 ray tracing cores and a 64 ROP count provides ample raw throughput for Valorant's relatively modest graphical requirements.

The GPU's FP32 performance of 21.43 TFLOPS indicates substantial compute capability, but the benchmark results show that this power is not the limiting factor in Valorant. At 1080p with Low settings, the frame rate of 552 FPS is likely constrained by the CPU's ability to feed the GPU with draw calls and game state updates. The Intel Core i5-13400F, with its 10 cores and 16 threads, provides strong single-threaded performance as evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 960 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3191. However, the game engine's main thread can only process so many frames per second, creating a ceiling that the GPU cannot exceed.

The GPU's role becomes more prominent at higher resolutions. At 4K with Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 267, which is 48.4% lower than the 1080p Ultra result of 391 FPS. This scaling indicates that the GPU is becoming the bottleneck as pixel count increases. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is adequate for Valorant at any resolution, as the game does not require large texture pools, but the GPU's processing power is taxed more heavily at 4K. The data shows that the RX 9060 is capable of maintaining high frame rates in this game, but its performance ceiling is more evident at higher resolutions and settings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important information about which component is limiting performance at each resolution. At 1080p with Low settings, the average FPS is 552. Moving to 1440p Low reduces this to 524 FPS, a modest 5.1% decrease. At 4K Low, the average drops to 447 FPS, which is 19.0% lower than the 1080p result. This relatively small decrease suggests that at Low settings, the CPU is the primary bottleneck, as the GPU has enough headroom to handle the increased pixel count without significant performance loss.

At Medium settings, the scaling is more pronounced. The 1080p average is 432 FPS, dropping to 368 FPS at 1440p (a 14.8% decrease) and 294 FPS at 4K (a 31.9% decrease from 1080p). This steeper decline indicates that the GPU is becoming more involved in the rendering process, and its limitations are starting to show at higher resolutions. The minimum FPS figures tell a similar story: 367 FPS at 1080p, 313 FPS at 1440p, and 250 FPS at 4K, showing a consistent pattern of degradation.

The High and Ultra presets exhibit the most significant scaling penalties. At High settings, the 1080p average of 411 FPS drops to 351 FPS at 1440p (a 14.6% decrease) and 280 FPS at 4K (a 31.9% decrease). At Ultra settings, the 1080p average of 391 FPS drops to 334 FPS at 1440p (a 14.6% decrease) and 267 FPS at 4K (a 31.7% decrease). This consistency across High and Ultra presets suggests that once the graphical load exceeds a certain threshold, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, and its performance scales predictably with resolution.

The data indicates that at 1080p and 1440p, the CPU is the primary bottleneck for this combination in Valorant, particularly at lower settings. The GPU has enough performance headroom to render frames faster than the CPU can supply them. However, at 4K resolution, the GPU's workload increases sufficiently that it becomes the limiting component, especially at higher settings. This means that players with 1080p or 1440p monitors will experience CPU-limited performance, while those with 4K displays will see the GPU become the constraint.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured frame rates provides a comprehensive view of this combination's performance across all tested configurations. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 552 FPS, which is the highest score recorded for this hardware pairing. The Medium preset at 1080p yields 432 FPS average with a minimum of 367 FPS and a maximum of 496 FPS, providing a tight performance envelope. The High preset produces 411 FPS average, while the Ultra preset delivers 391 FPS average. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 161 FPS, representing a 29.2% reduction in performance when maxing out the graphical settings.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves 524 FPS average, which is only 28 FPS lower than the 1080p result, demonstrating the CPU's continued dominance at this resolution. The Medium preset at 1440p delivers 368 FPS average with a minimum of 313 FPS and a maximum of 423 FPS. The High preset produces 351 FPS average, and the Ultra preset yields 334 FPS average. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 190 FPS, which is 36.3% lower than the Low preset result.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset achieves 447 FPS average, which is still remarkably high for 4K resolution. The Medium preset at 4K delivers 294 FPS average with a minimum of 250 FPS and a maximum of 338 FPS. The High preset produces 280 FPS average, and the Ultra preset yields 267 FPS average. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 180 FPS, representing a 40.3% reduction. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium is 250, which is still higher than the refresh rate of most 4K monitors.

The performance deltas between settings are consistent across resolutions, with the Low preset always providing a significant advantage over Medium, while the gap between Medium, High, and Ultra is smaller. The minimum FPS values are only recorded for the Medium preset, which suggests that this preset has the most stable frame pacing. The data shows that this combination is capable of delivering playable frame rates even at the most demanding configuration tested, which is 4K Ultra with an average of 267 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-13400F and AMD Radeon RX 9060 combination ranks 1395 out of 2883 tested combos in Valorant, placing it in the top 48.4% of all configurations. This ranking is notable because it places this mid-range CPU and GPU pairing in the upper half of all tested systems, which includes many more expensive and higher-end components. The percentile ranking of the CPU itself is 77, indicating that the i5-13400F outperforms 77% of all tested CPUs in general benchmarks, while the GPU's percentile of 59 shows it outperforms 59% of all tested GPUs.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 25292 places it in close competition with several rivals. The AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS has an average score of 25284, which is 0% different from the i5-13400F, indicating nearly identical performance. The Intel Core 5 120 and AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D both have average scores of 25362 and 25365 respectively, showing a 0.3% advantage over the i5-13400F. The AMD Ryzen 7 6800H has an average score of 25201, which is 0.4% lower than the i5-13400F. These close margins suggest that the CPU's performance is well-matched with its direct competitors.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 16014 places it near the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, which scores 16129, showing a 0.7% advantage for the NVIDIA card. The AMD Radeon R9 370X and RX 7700 both have average scores of 15862 and 15852 respectively, showing a 1% advantage for the RX 9060. The AMD Radeon Pro W5500 has an average score of 15679, which is 2.1% lower than the RX 9060. These comparisons show that the RX 9060 performs competitively with the previous generation's mid-range offerings.

The combo's ranking of 1395 out of 2883 in Valorant specifically indicates that while this hardware is capable, there are many combinations that achieve higher frame rates in this particular game. This is expected given that Valorant is designed to run well on modest hardware, and high-end CPUs with stronger single-threaded performance can achieve even higher frame rates. However, the measured results show that this combination already delivers frame rates that exceed the capabilities of virtually all gaming monitors, making the rank relative rather than absolute in terms of playability.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combination achieves in Valorant?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 552 FPS, which occurs at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: How does the Medium preset at 1440p compare to the Ultra preset at 1080p?

A: The Medium preset at 2560x1440 achieves an average of 368 FPS, which is 23 FPS lower than the Ultra preset at 1920x1080 that achieves 391 FPS. However, the 1440p Medium result has a minimum of 313 FPS, which is still exceptionally high.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p resolution?

A: The data indicates the CPU is the primary limiting factor at 1080p. The frame rate only drops by 5.1% when moving from 1080p Low to 1440p Low, suggesting the GPU has sufficient headroom to handle the increased resolution without significant performance loss.

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

A: The lowest minimum frame rate is 250 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with the Medium settings preset.

Q: How does this combo's ranking in Valorant compare to its overall hardware performance?

A: The combo ranks 1395 out of 2883 tested combos in Valorant, placing it in the upper half of tested systems. The CPU ranks in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU ranks in the 59th percentile of all GPUs, indicating the CPU is relatively stronger than the GPU in general benchmarks.

Q: Does increasing settings from Medium to Ultra provide a significant performance benefit?

A: No, the data shows that moving from Medium to Ultra at any resolution results in a performance decrease, not an increase. At 1080p, Ultra produces 391 FPS average compared to 432 FPS on Medium, making Medium the better choice for maximizing frame rates.