Valorant

The Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 570 combination delivers a remarkably smooth Valorant experience across all tested settings, with the data showing that the pairing is far more capable than its mid-range positioning suggests. At 1080p, even the most demanding Ultra preset maintains an average of 174 FPS, while the Low preset pushes well beyond the refresh rates of most competitive monitors at 285.7 FPS. The measurable performance hierarchy is consistent and predictable, with the CPU proving to be the dominant factor in frame rate delivery at lower resolutions, while the GPU begins to assert its influence as resolution increases. The i5-9400’s six physical cores without hyper-threading are sufficient for Valorant’s engine, and the RX 570’s 4 GB of GDDR5 memory and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth handle the game’s modest texture requirements without bottlenecking. This analysis draws exclusively from measured data points, providing a clear picture of what players can expect from this specific hardware pairing.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable with this hardware at 1080p?

A: The highest measured average is 285.7 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This represents the ceiling for this combination at the most common competitive resolution.

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

A: At 2560x1440, Ultra delivers 148.8 FPS average, while High is slightly faster at 153 FPS. The difference is minimal, suggesting the Ultra preset’s additional effects have a negligible impact on this hardware.

Q: Is the RX 570’s 4 GB VRAM a limitation for Valorant?

A: The data does not indicate any VRAM-related performance cliff. At 4K Ultra, the system still achieves 114.3 FPS average, which implies the 4 GB frame buffer is sufficient for this game’s texture workloads at all tested settings.

Q: What is the percentile ranking of the RX 570 among all GPUs?

A: The RX 570 sits at the 74th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 30158. This places it ahead of the majority of graphics cards in the database.

Q: How does the i5-9400 compare to its nearest rival in CPU benchmarks?

A: The i5-9400 scores 2305 on average, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core i3-10305 and 0.2% higher than the Intel Core i3-1125G4. It trails the Intel Core i7-8809G by 0.6%.

Q: Can this system maintain 144 FPS at 4K?

A: No. At 3840x2160, only the Low preset exceeds 144 FPS, hitting 197.3 FPS. All other presets at 4K fall below the 144 FPS threshold, with Ultra at 114.3 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Low settings as the optimal choice for competitive play, particularly for players with high-refresh-rate monitors. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 285.7 FPS average, which is 106.1 FPS higher than the High preset and 111.7 FPS higher than Ultra. This massive headroom ensures that frame times remain consistent even during intense team fights with multiple abilities active. For 1440p users, Low settings still deliver 248.9 FPS average, maintaining a comfortable margin above 240 Hz displays. The performance gap between Low and Medium at 1080p is 97.6 FPS, indicating that the Low preset removes significant rendering overhead that the RX 570 would otherwise process.

For players prioritizing visual fidelity over raw frame rate, the High preset offers the best balance. At 1080p, High delivers 179.6 FPS average, which is still well above 144 Hz and only 5.6 FPS slower than Medium. The jump from High to Ultra costs only 5.6 FPS at 1080p, suggesting that Ultra is viable for those who want maximum quality without sacrificing competitive performance. However, at 4K, the Ultra preset drops to 114.3 FPS, which may feel less responsive for fast-paced gameplay. The data recommends High as the ceiling for 4K, where it achieves 122.8 FPS. Medium settings at 1440p provide 161.8 FPS, which is a reasonable middle ground for users with 165 Hz monitors who want some visual polish.

The most significant performance jump occurs between Low and Medium, with a 97.6 FPS difference at 1080p. This indicates that the Low preset disables several GPU-intensive effects that create a substantial rendering cost. For esports-focused players, the recommendation is clear: Low settings maximize the i5-9400 and RX 570 combination’s ability to push frames, and the 285.7 FPS result at 1080p demonstrates that this hardware is not the limiting factor for most competitive scenarios.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that transitions from CPU-bound behavior at lower resolutions to GPU-bound behavior at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the 1080p result of 285.7 FPS drops to 248.9 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 36.8 FPS, and then to 197.3 FPS at 4K, a further reduction of 51.6 FPS. This steep decline at higher resolutions indicates that the RX 570’s rendering throughput becomes the primary constraint as pixel count increases. The 4K Low result is 30.9% lower than the 1080p Low result, showing that even with minimal graphical effects, the GPU struggles to maintain the same frame delivery when pixel workload rises.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is less severe in absolute terms but proportionally similar. The 1080p Ultra average of 174 FPS drops to 148.8 FPS at 1440p, a 25.2 FPS decrease, and then to 114.3 FPS at 4K, another 34.5 FPS decrease. The 4K Ultra result is 34.3% lower than 1080p Ultra, indicating that the combination of higher resolution and maximum effects places significant strain on the GPU. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 111.7 FPS, but at 4K, this gap narrows to 83 FPS. This compression suggests that at 4K, the GPU is the bottleneck regardless of settings, as it cannot fully leverage the CPU’s headroom.

The 1440p results show the most balanced behavior. At this resolution, the difference between High and Ultra is only 4.2 FPS, while the difference between Low and Medium is 87.1 FPS. This suggests that 1440p is the resolution where the i5-9400’s single-thread performance and the RX 570’s fill rate are most evenly matched. For players with 1440p monitors, the data indicates that High settings provide near-Ultra performance with a 4.2 FPS penalty, while Low settings remain the choice for maximum frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the i5-9400 and RX 570 deliver a wide performance envelope across all four settings presets. The Low preset leads with 285.7 FPS average, followed by Medium at 188.1 FPS, High at 179.6 FPS, and Ultra at 174 FPS. The 111.7 FPS spread between the fastest and slowest presets at 1080p highlights how much headroom the CPU provides when GPU load is reduced. The gap between Medium and High is 8.5 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is only 5.6 FPS, showing diminishing returns as settings increase.

At 2560x1440, the performance hierarchy remains consistent but with reduced absolute values. Low settings achieve 248.9 FPS average, Medium delivers 161.8 FPS, High reaches 153 FPS, and Ultra drops to 148.8 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra narrows to 100.1 FPS, compared to 111.7 FPS at 1080p. The Medium-to-High delta is 8.8 FPS, and the High-to-Ultra delta is 4.2 FPS, both slightly larger than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU’s workload at higher resolutions begins to amplify the cost of each settings tier.

At 3840x2160, the RX 570 becomes the clear limiting factor. Low settings produce 197.3 FPS average, which is still respectable, but Medium drops to 129.5 FPS, High falls to 122.8 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 114.3 FPS. The delta between Low and Medium at 4K is 67.8 FPS, significantly larger than the 26.3 FPS delta at 1080p. This widening gap demonstrates that at 4K, enabling any additional graphical effects has a disproportionate impact on frame rate, as the GPU’s 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 159.2 GTexel/s texture rate are fully saturated. The 4K results suggest that only Low settings provide a consistently smooth experience above 144 Hz, while all other presets fall below 130 FPS.

GPU Role

The RX 570’s specifications directly inform its performance in Valorant. The GPU features 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs, operating at a base clock of 1168 MHz and a boost clock of 1244 MHz. Its memory subsystem consists of 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. These specifications place the RX 570 at the 74th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 30158. The nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, scores 30109, which is 0.2% lower, while the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT scores 30097, also 0.2% lower. This tight clustering indicates that the RX 570’s computational throughput is well-matched to its peer group.

In Valorant’s measured results, the GPU’s role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 1080p Low settings, the RX 570 is not the bottleneck, as the 285.7 FPS result suggests the i5-9400’s six cores are feeding frames faster than the GPU can render them. However, at 4K Ultra, the 114.3 FPS result indicates the GPU is working near its limits. The 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is sufficient for the game’s texture streaming, as no VRAM-related stutters are evident in the average FPS data. The 4 GB frame buffer does not appear to cause any measurable performance regression, even at 4K Ultra, where the system still maintains a playable 114.3 FPS average.

The GPU’s 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 39.81 GPixel/s pixel rate determine the ceiling for high-resolution rendering. The measured scaling from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings—from 174 FPS to 114.3 FPS—reflects a 34.3% reduction in frame rate, which aligns with the increased pixel workload. The RX 570’s 150 W TDP and 1x 6-pin power connector indicate that it is a mid-range part, yet its performance in Valorant exceeds expectations for this class. The data shows that for 1080p and 1440p competitive play, the RX 570 is more than adequate, and only at 4K with high settings does it begin to show its limitations.