Valorant

Valorant is a competitive FPS that scales unusually well across hardware tiers, and the measured results for the Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 580 demonstrate a system that is heavily CPU-limited at most settings and resolutions. The data set provides average frame rates for four presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) at three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160), with only the Medium preset including minimum and maximum FPS values. This combination ranks 3363 out of 3708 tested combos in this game, placing it in the lower portion of the database, despite the CPU’s strong general benchmark scores. The following analysis breaks down how resolution, settings, GPU characteristics, and CPU capabilities interact to produce these measured numbers.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern of diminishing returns as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the drop is surprisingly small for a GPU like the RX 580. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 318 at 1920x1080, to 271 at 2560x1440, and finally to 217 at 3840x2160. That represents a 14.8% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a 31.8% drop from 1080p to 4K. For many games, a 4K resolution at Low settings would halve the frame rate compared to 1080p on a mid-range GPU, but here the reduction is far gentler, indicating that the frame rate ceiling is being set by something other than pixel throughput.

At Medium settings, the scaling is nearly identical in percentage terms: 209 FPS at 1080p, 179 FPS at 1440p (a 14.4% drop), and 143 FPS at 4K (a 31.6% drop from 1080p). The consistency between Low and Medium scaling suggests that the rendering workload added by Medium settings is not the primary bottleneck. High settings show a similar pattern: 199 FPS at 1080p, 170 FPS at 1440p (14.6% drop), and 136 FPS at 4K (31.7% drop). Ultra settings follow the same trend: 190 FPS at 1080p, 162 FPS at 1440p (14.7% drop), and 130 FPS at 4K (31.6% drop).

The fact that the percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is almost identical across all four presets (ranging from 31.6% to 31.8%) is a strong indicator that the GPU is not the limiting component at lower resolutions. When a GPU-bound scenario scales with resolution, the drop from 1080p to 4K typically exceeds 50% because the pixel count quadruples. Here, the 4K frame rate is still roughly 68-69% of the 1080p frame rate, which points to a CPU or engine-level limit that caps performance regardless of resolution. However, the absolute FPS at 4K is still high (130-217 depending on settings), so the RX 580 is not completely idle — it just has headroom that the CPU cannot fill.

Comparing the 1440p to 4K step specifically: at Low settings, that step costs 54 FPS (271 to 217), while the 1080p to 1440p step costs 47 FPS (318 to 271). The 4K step is slightly more expensive, suggesting that the GPU begins to exert more influence at 4K, but the effect is modest. At Ultra settings, the 1440p to 4K drop is 32 FPS (162 to 130), while the 1080p to 1440p drop is 28 FPS (190 to 162). Again, the 4K penalty is slightly larger, but the overall pattern remains one of a CPU-limited system that only starts to feel the GPU’s limits at the highest resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides four presets at each resolution, and the FPS deltas between them reveal where the best experience lies. At 1920x1080, Low settings deliver 318 FPS, Medium drops to 209 FPS, High yields 199 FPS, and Ultra produces 190 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium costs 109 FPS, which is a 34.3% reduction — a massive penalty for what is typically a modest visual upgrade in Valorant. However, the jump from Medium to High costs only 10 FPS (4.8%), and High to Ultra costs 9 FPS (4.5%). This means that once you leave Low settings, the frame rate cost of increasing visual fidelity flattens considerably.

For competitive play, the data suggests that Low settings are the clear choice if maximum frame rate is the priority, as the 318 FPS at 1080p is the highest measured value in the entire set. That said, the difference between High and Ultra at 1080p is only 9 FPS, and both remain above 190 FPS, which is well beyond the refresh rate of most standard monitors. The Medium preset’s minimum FPS of 178 at 1080p is also worth noting, as it represents the only measured minimum value in the entire run — and it is still very high.

At 2560x1440, the same pattern holds: Low gives 271 FPS, Medium 179 FPS, High 170 FPS, and Ultra 162 FPS. The Medium-to-High delta is 9 FPS (5%), and High-to-Ultra is 8 FPS (4.7%). The Low-to-Medium penalty is 92 FPS (33.9%). At 4K, Low produces 217 FPS, Medium 143 FPS, High 136 FPS, and Ultra 130 FPS. The Medium-to-High drop is 7 FPS (4.9%), and High-to-Ultra is 6 FPS (4.4%). The Low-to-Medium penalty is 74 FPS (34.1%).

Given that the Medium preset costs roughly a third of the frame rate compared to Low at every resolution, but High and Ultra are almost identical to Medium in cost, the data supports a recommendation of High settings for most users. High delivers 199 FPS at 1080p, 170 FPS at 1440p, and 136 FPS at 4K — all of which are playable for competitive shooters. The visual improvement from Low to High is substantial, and the frame rate sacrifice from Medium to High is negligible. Ultra offers no real benefit over High in terms of measured FPS (only 9 FPS less at 1080p), so it is only worth selecting if the user values the extra visual polish and has a 144Hz or lower refresh rate display.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is a Polaris 20 chip built on a 14 nm process, with 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 1257 MHz with a boost clock of 1340 MHz, and memory runs at 2000 MHz (8 Gbps effective). The GPU has 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs, yielding a pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s. Its FP32 performance is 6.175 TFLOPS, and it supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3.

In the context of Valorant, the RX 580’s specifications are more than adequate for the game’s visual demands. The 8 GB VRAM is unlikely to be a limiting factor at any of the tested resolutions, since Valorant is not a VRAM-heavy title. The memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s is also sufficient for the game’s texture streaming at 4K, as evidenced by the fact that the frame rate at 4K Ultra (130 FPS) is still high. The GPU’s percentile ranking versus all GPUs is 53, meaning it sits near the middle of the database, and its average benchmark score is 12928. Among its nearest rivals, the RX 580 is 0.4% behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (which has an average score of 12986) and 0.1% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (12940). It is 0.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon 740M (12870) and 0.6% ahead of the AMD FirePro W5100 (12847).

The measured FPS data indicates that the RX 580 is not the primary bottleneck in this system. At 1080p Low, the GPU is capable of delivering 318 FPS, which is far beyond what most monitors can display. Even at 4K Ultra, it produces 130 FPS. The GPU’s role becomes more apparent at 4K, where the frame rate drops more steeply from 1440p than it does from 1080p to 1440p, but the effect is still modest. The GPU’s clock speeds (1257 MHz base, 1340 MHz boost) are modest by modern standards, but they are sufficient for a game that is not graphically intensive. The 8 GB VRAM, while generous for a card of this era, is irrelevant to the measured results since even the 4K Ultra preset does not appear to hit a memory ceiling.

FAQ

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

A: The highest average FPS is 318, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How much FPS does dropping from Low to Medium settings cost at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low delivers 318 FPS while Medium delivers 209 FPS, a difference of 109 FPS (34.3% reduction).

Q: Does the RX 580 have enough VRAM for 4K in Valorant?

A: The RX 580 has 8 GB of GDDR5 memory, and the measured data shows 130 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, indicating the VRAM is not a limiting factor at this resolution.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded at 1440p Medium?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the minimum FPS is 152, with an average of 179 and a maximum of 205.

Q: How does the RX 580 compare to the GTX 1660 SUPER in general benchmarks?

A: The RX 580 has an average benchmark score of 12928, while the GTX 1660 SUPER scores 12986, making the RX 580 0.4% slower in aggregate benchmarks.

Q: Is the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K consistent across settings?

A: Yes, the drop from 1080p to 4K is 31.6% at Low, 31.6% at Medium, 31.7% at High, and 31.6% at Ultra, showing a nearly identical scaling pattern across all presets.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a 12-core, 20-thread processor from the Alder Lake-S architecture, built on a 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with a thermal design power of 125 W. Its cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 25 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, and it uses PCIe Gen 4 with 20 lanes. It also includes integrated UHD Graphics 770, though the discrete RX 580 handles rendering in these measurements.

The CPU’s benchmark scores are strong across the board. In Cinebench R23, it scores 19784 multicore and 1850.5 singlecore. In Geekbench, it scores 15790 multicore and 2308 singlecore. Its 3DMark scores range from 1043 single-thread to 9979 max-threads, with 16-thread scoring at 9276 and 8-thread at 7202. The PassMark scores show a multithread result of 34404 and a single-thread result of 4013. The CPU’s percentile ranking versus all CPUs is 84, meaning it outperforms 84% of tested processors. Its average benchmark score is 35287.

The nearest rivals in the CPU database are the Intel Core i5-13600T (35305, 0.1% faster), Intel Core i7-12700KF (35365, 0.2% faster), Intel Core i7-13700T (35403, 0.3% faster), and Intel Core 5 213PE (35428, 0.4% faster). These deltas are all within 0.4%, indicating that the i7-12700K is effectively at parity with its closest peers in general benchmarks.

In Valorant, the CPU’s role is dominant. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (318) and 4K Low (217) both exceed what the RX 580 would typically deliver in a GPU-bound title, confirming that the CPU is setting the frame rate ceiling. The fact that increasing resolution from 1080p to 4K only reduces FPS by ~32% (rather than the 75% reduction expected from a 4x pixel increase) is direct evidence of CPU limitation. The i7-12700K’s high single-thread performance (1850.5 in Cinebench R23 singlecore, 1043 in 3DMark single-thread) is likely the key factor, as Valorant is known to be sensitive to single-core performance. The 12 cores and 20 threads also provide ample headroom for background tasks and game threads, but the frame rate data suggests that even this powerful CPU cannot push the RX 580 to its full potential at lower resolutions.

Interestingly, the CPU’s boost clock of 5.00 GHz and base clock of 3.60 GHz are both high, and the measured FPS at 1080p Low (318) is the second-highest value in the entire data set, only surpassed by the 4K Low result (217 is lower, so 318 is the peak). The 25 MB L3 cache likely helps with the game’s draw calls and entity updates. The CPU’s 84th percentile ranking versus all CPUs reinforces that this is a high-end processor, yet the combo still ranks 3363 out of 3708 in Valorant, which suggests that the GPU is dragging the overall ranking down despite the CPU’s strength.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data set is as follows. At 1920x1080, Low settings produce an average of 318 FPS. Medium settings at 1080p yield 209 FPS average, with a minimum of 178 FPS and a maximum of 241 FPS. High settings at 1080p produce 199 FPS average, and Ultra settings produce 190 FPS average. No min or max values are provided for Low, High, or Ultra at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, Low settings give 271 FPS average. Medium settings give 179 FPS average, with a minimum of 152 FPS and a maximum of 205 FPS. High settings give 170 FPS average, and Ultra settings give 162 FPS average. Again, min/max are only available for Medium.

At 3840x2160, Low settings give 217 FPS average. Medium settings give 143 FPS average, with a minimum of 121 FPS and a maximum of 164 FPS. High settings give 136 FPS average, and Ultra settings give 130 FPS average. The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data at any resolution.

The Medium preset’s min/max values show a consistent spread: at 1080p, the range is 178-241 (63 FPS span); at 1440p, it is 152-205 (53 FPS span); and at 4K, it is 121-164 (43 FPS span). The narrowing range at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU’s workload becomes more consistent as the CPU bottleneck diminishes. The average FPS for Medium drops from 209 to 179 to 143 across the three resolutions, while the minimum FPS drops from 178 to 152 to 121. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium (121) is still above 120, which is a common high-refresh-rate target.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-12700K + AMD Radeon RX 580 combination holds a rank of 3363 out of 3708 tested combos in Valorant. This places it in the bottom 9.3% of all tested systems for this game. Given that the CPU is in the 84th percentile of all CPUs and the GPU is in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs, the low combo ranking is directly attributable to the GPU’s mid-tier status. The rank of 3363 means there are 3362 other combinations that deliver higher average FPS in Valorant, which is expected given that the RX 580 is an end-of-life product released in 2017.

The CPU’s nearest rivals all have nearly identical average benchmark scores (within 0.4%), so the combo ranking is unlikely to change much if the i7-12700K were swapped for an i5-13600T or i7-12700KF. The GPU’s nearest rivals include the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (0.1% faster), GTX 1660 SUPER (0.4% faster), Radeon 740M (0.5% slower), and FirePro W5100 (0.6% slower). Upgrading to a GTX 1660 SUPER would theoretically improve the combo ranking slightly, but the measured FPS data suggests that the CPU limitation is so strong that even a 0.4% GPU improvement would have minimal impact on Valorant’s frame rates.

The gap between this combo’s rank (3363) and the top of the list is substantial, but the actual FPS numbers are not poor — 318 FPS at 1080p Low is excellent by any standard. The low rank reflects the fact that the database includes many combos with newer, faster GPUs. The combo rank in-game is the only rank provided, and it does not include a percentile or delta relative to adjacent combos. The data shows that this system is capable of high frame rates, but it sits near the bottom of the database because most other tested combinations include GPUs that are significantly faster than the RX 580 in aggregate benchmarks. The 84th percentile CPU ranking cannot compensate for the 53rd percentile GPU ranking in a game where the CPU is already delivering near its maximum frame rate.