Valorant

Valorant is a competitive FPS where frame rate consistency and high averages directly translate to smoother aim and lower input latency. The measured data for the Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT shows a system that is overwhelmingly powerful for this title, delivering frame rates that far exceed the refresh rates of most monitors. The benchmark results indicate a combination that is heavily skewed toward GPU capability, leaving the CPU as a secondary factor across most tested configurations. This analysis will break down the measured FPS across resolutions and settings, examine the roles of the core components, and contextualize the combo's overall standing within the database.

Settings Recommendations

The data provides a clear picture of how the i5-9400 and RX 6600 XT handle Valorant's different presets. Across all three tested resolutions (1080p, 1440p, and 4K), the "Low" preset delivers the highest average frame rates, but the margins between presets are surprisingly small, which suggests the game is not particularly demanding on this hardware. At 1920x1080, the "Low" preset achieves 370.4 FPS, while "High" drops to 311 FPS, "Medium" to 311.6 FPS, and "Ultra" to 303.2 FPS. The difference between the most demanding "Ultra" preset and the least demanding "Low" preset is only 67.2 FPS, or roughly 18%, which is a modest penalty for significantly improved visual fidelity.

Given that the average frame rate never falls below 238.5 FPS in any tested configuration, the best experience is achieved by selecting the "High" or "Ultra" preset, as the visual upgrade comes at a relatively minor performance cost. At 2560x1440, "High" yields 291.7 FPS, while "Ultra" yields 286.7 FPS, a negligible difference of 5 FPS. Even at 3840x2160, "High" produces 251.6 FPS, and "Ultra" produces 238.5 FPS, both of which are well above the threshold for high-refresh-rate gaming. The data suggests that the "Ultra" preset is the most sensible choice for users with a 144Hz or even 240Hz monitor, as the performance remains fluid while the visual quality is maximized. For players seeking the absolute maximum frame rate to push a 360Hz display, the "Low" preset at 370.4 FPS is the only option that approaches that territory, but the benefits of such high frame rates are marginal for most users.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is the dominant component in this pairing for Valorant. Its specifications include a boost clock of 2589 MHz, a game clock of 2359 MHz, and a base clock of 1968 MHz, all of which contribute to its high compute throughput. The GPU features 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output units, with a texture rate of 331.4 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 165.7 GPixel/s. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for Valorant's relatively light texture loads. The GPU's FP32 performance is rated at 10.60 TFLOPS, indicating a capable mid-range part that excels in esports titles.

The benchmark results show that the GPU is not the limiting factor in this game. Even at the highest resolution tested (3840x2160) with the "Ultra" preset, the average frame rate is 238.5 FPS. This confirms the RX 6600 XT's raw power relative to Valorant's rendering requirements. The GPU's percentile ranking is 71, which places it above the majority of all tested GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 27985 is within 0.9% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, a significantly higher-tier card in most other workloads. The data indicates that the RX 6600 XT is heavily overprovisioned for this game, meaning that its compute and memory resources are not being fully utilized, even at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that remains frame-rate-bound rather than resolution-bound across all tested settings. At the "Low" preset, the frame rate drops from 370.4 FPS at 1920x1080 to 353.1 FPS at 2560x1440, a decline of 17.3 FPS, and then to 324.8 FPS at 3840x2160, a further drop of 28.3 FPS. The total scaling from 1080p to 4K at "Low" is a reduction of 45.6 FPS, or approximately 12.3%. This relatively small percentage drop indicates that the CPU is likely the primary bottleneck at lower resolutions, as the increase in pixel count does not proportionally increase the rendering load on the GPU.

The scaling becomes slightly more pronounced at higher settings, where the GPU is more engaged. At the "Ultra" preset, the frame rate goes from 303.2 FPS at 1080p to 286.7 FPS at 1440p, and then to 238.5 FPS at 4K. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 64.7 FPS, which is a 21.3% reduction. This steeper decline suggests that the GPU is taking on a larger share of the workload as settings increase, but the absolute frame rates remain so high that the experience is still fluid. The data shows that the limiting component shifts slightly toward the GPU at 4K with "Ultra" settings, but the combination of the i5-9400 and RX 6600 XT is balanced enough to prevent any severe frame rate collapse.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the combination delivers its highest frame rates. The "Low" preset leads with 370.4 FPS, followed by "Medium" at 311.6 FPS, "High" at 311 FPS, and "Ultra" at 303.2 FPS. The gap between "Medium" and "High" is negligible at 0.6 FPS, while "Ultra" trails "High" by only 7.8 FPS. This clustering of results indicates that the game's visual settings have a limited impact on performance at this resolution, reinforcing that the CPU is the primary driver of frame rate here.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern remains consistent, with "Low" at 353.1 FPS, "Medium" at 299.5 FPS, "High" at 291.7 FPS, and "Ultra" at 286.7 FPS. The difference between "Low" and "Ultra" is 66.4 FPS, which is similar to the 1080p spread. At 3840x2160, the "Low" preset still achieves 324.8 FPS, while "Medium" drops to 263.3 FPS, "High" to 251.6 FPS, and "Ultra" to 238.5 FPS. The scaling from "Low" to "Ultra" at 4K is 86.3 FPS, which is the largest absolute spread across all resolutions, indicating that the GPU becomes more influential as the pixel count increases. However, even the lowest average frame rate measured in the entire dataset (238.5 FPS at 4K "Ultra") is exceptionally high, ensuring a smooth experience on virtually any display.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT ranks 1333 out of 1650 tested combos in Valorant. This places it in the bottom 20% of all configurations tested for this specific game. This ranking is surprising given the high absolute frame rates, but it can be explained by the nature of the database. The combo rank is relative to other tested combinations, which likely include higher-tier CPUs and GPUs that push frame rates even higher. The i5-9400, with its 6 cores and 6 threads, and the RX 6600 XT are both capable parts, but they are not top-of-the-line. The data shows that while this combo is fast, it is not among the fastest in the database, as many other combos likely exceed 400 FPS at 1080p.

The ranking suggests that for competitive play at the highest levels, there are faster combinations available. However, the combo's performance is consistent across all settings and resolutions, with no anomalous dips. The CPU's average benchmark score of 2305 places it at the 50th percentile, indicating it is a mid-range processor. The GPU's percentile rank of 71 is higher, but the combo's overall position in Valorant is dragged down by the CPU's relative weakness in comparison to newer or higher-core-count processors. The deltaPct values for the CPU's nearest rivals show it is nearly identical to the Intel Core i3-10305 (0.2% higher score) and the Intel Core i3-1125G4 (0.2% higher), but slightly behind the Intel Core i7-8809G (-0.6% delta). This indicates the CPU is firmly in the mid-range tier.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. Its 9 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support are standard for its generation. The CPU's benchmark scores include a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 7969 and a single-core score of 1125, which are typical for a 6-core part from its era. However, the data suggests that the CPU is the limiting factor in Valorant, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU is not fully taxed.

In a game like Valorant, which is known for being CPU-intensive due to its reliance on single-threaded performance for game logic and physics, the i5-9400's 6 threads are sufficient but not exceptional. The measured FPS at 1080p "Low" is 370.4 FPS, which is high, but the ranking of 1333 out of 1650 suggests that other CPUs can push frame rates even higher. The CPU's percentile ranking of 50 and its average benchmark score of 2305, which is nearly identical to the Intel Core i3-10305, indicate that it is not a top-tier performer. The data implies that while the RX 6600 XT has headroom to render more frames, the i5-9400's processing power caps the output at roughly 370 FPS in the most favorable conditions. For most users, this is more than sufficient, but for those chasing the absolute maximum frame rates on 360Hz monitors, a more powerful CPU would be necessary to fully unlock the GPU's potential.