Valorant

Valorant is a competitive FPS with relatively modest graphical demands, and the measured data for the Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9060 reflects that reality. The benchmark results show extremely high frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings, placing the combination in the 1361st position out of 2883 tested combos. This page analyzes the measured FPS data, the roles of the CPU and GPU, and how the hardware behaves specifically in this title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable trend as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo delivers 609 FPS average. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 559 FPS, a reduction of 50 FPS. At 4K Low, the average falls further to 447 FPS. This scaling pattern indicates that even at the highest resolution tested, the system maintains an incredibly high frame rate, suggesting the game engine is not heavily taxing the GPU at lower settings.

When examining the High settings preset, the scaling is similar but with lower absolute values. The 1080p High result is 411 FPS, 1440p High is 351 FPS, and 4K High is 280 FPS. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings is approximately 32%, which is a moderate reduction. For a game like Valorant, which is designed to be highly accessible on a wide range of hardware, this level of scaling indicates that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor at 4K, but the baseline performance is so high that it remains far beyond the refresh rates of most displays.

The Medium settings data provides additional insight. At 1080p Medium, the average is 432 FPS with a minimum of 367 FPS and a maximum of 496 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average is 368 FPS with a minimum of 313 FPS and a maximum of 423 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 294 FPS with a minimum of 250 FPS and a maximum of 338 FPS. The minimum FPS values are particularly relevant for competitive play, as they represent the worst-case frame pacing. The delta between average and minimum FPS grows slightly with resolution, from 65 FPS at 1080p to 44 FPS at 4K, indicating that frame time consistency remains stable.

The scaling from Medium to Ultra at each resolution is also worth noting. At 1080p, the drop from Medium to Ultra is 41 FPS (432 to 391). At 1440p, the drop is 34 FPS (368 to 334). At 4K, the drop is 27 FPS (294 to 267). This narrowing gap at higher resolutions suggests that the CPU is handling the game logic and draw calls efficiently, while the GPU's workload increases with both resolution and settings. The data implies that at 1080p, the system is heavily CPU-bound, as the FPS difference between Low and Ultra is only 218 FPS (609 to 391), which is significant but not as large as one might expect if the GPU were the sole bottleneck.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a 12-core, 20-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. The benchmark data shows strong multi-threaded and single-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 19784 and a single-core score of 1850.5. In Valorant, which typically relies more on single-core performance for game logic and physics, these scores are predictive of high frame rates, and the measured FPS confirms this.

The CPU's 3DMark scores provide further context. The 2-thread score is 2065, the 4-thread score is 4011, and the 8-thread score is 7202. These results indicate that the processor scales well with additional threads, which is beneficial for running the game engine alongside background tasks. The single-thread score of 1043 in 3DMark is a direct measure of the core's capability in lightly threaded workloads, and this is likely a primary driver of the high FPS at 1080p Low, where the GPU is not the bottleneck.

Comparing the i7-12700K to its nearest rivals in the CPU benchmark database, the data shows it is essentially neck-and-neck with the Intel Core i5-13600T (delta of -0.1%), the Intel Core i7-12700KF (delta of -0.2%), and the Intel Core i7-13700T (delta of -0.3%). The Intel Core 5 213PE is also close with a delta of -0.4%. This proximity in average benchmark scores (ranging from 35287 for the i7-12700K to 35428 for the Core 5 213PE) suggests that in CPU-bound scenarios, these processors will perform nearly identically. For Valorant, this means the i7-12700K is not leaving performance on the table compared to these alternatives.

The processor's cache hierarchy, with 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 25 MB of shared L3 cache, contributes to its ability to feed data to the cores quickly. This is crucial in a fast-paced game like Valorant where hit detection and player positions need to be processed with minimal latency. The CPU's percentile ranking of 84 against all CPUs underscores that it is a high-tier part, and its average benchmark score of 35287 places it in the top quartile of all processors tested.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-12700K and AMD Radeon RX 9060 ranks 1361st out of 2883 tested combos for Valorant. This places it in the 47th percentile of all tested hardware combinations, which is a solid mid-tier ranking. While the rank might seem surprising given the absolute FPS numbers, it is important to note that Valorant is a game that can run on very modest hardware, and many lower-end combos can achieve playable frame rates. The ranking reflects the relative performance of this specific CPU-GPU pairing against all others in the database.

The data shows that this combo is neither at the top nor the bottom of the list, indicating a balanced pairing where neither component is drastically holding back the other. The CPU's strong single-threaded performance is complemented by a GPU that, while not top-tier, is capable of pushing high frame rates in this title. In the context of the database, the combo sits in the middle of the pack, suggesting that there are many other combinations that can deliver similar or better performance in Valorant, particularly those with higher-end GPUs that can boost 4K performance further.

Breaking down the rank, the combo's position at 1361 out of 2883 means there are 1522 combos that rank below it and 1360 that rank above it. This distribution indicates that the hardware is well-matched for the game's requirements, but it is not an outlier in terms of performance. The measured FPS data shows that the combo is more than capable of driving high refresh rate monitors at 1080p and 1440p, which is the primary use case for competitive Valorant players.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields an average of 609 FPS, which is the highest recorded average in the entire dataset. The High preset at this resolution drops to 411 FPS, while Medium delivers 432 FPS (with a minimum of 367 FPS and a maximum of 496 FPS), and Ultra rounds out the group at 391 FPS. The delta between the lowest average (Ultra at 391 FPS) and the highest average (Low at 609 FPS) at 1080p is 218 FPS, which is a substantial range that gives players clear options for prioritizing frame rate over visual fidelity.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset still produces an impressive 559 FPS average. The High preset drops to 351 FPS, Medium to 368 FPS (with a minimum of 313 FPS and a maximum of 423 FPS), and Ultra to 334 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings is a reduction of 50 FPS, which is about an 8% drop. At High settings, the drop is 60 FPS, or about 15%. This suggests that the GPU is beginning to take on more work at 1440p, but the CPU is still providing enough headroom to maintain high frame rates.

At 3840x2160, the performance remains exceptionally high for a 4K resolution. The Low preset delivers 447 FPS, which is still far above the refresh rates of almost all monitors. The High preset yields 280 FPS, Medium delivers 294 FPS (with a minimum of 250 FPS and a maximum of 338 FPS), and Ultra produces 267 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at Low settings is a reduction of 112 FPS, or about 20%. At High settings, the drop is 71 FPS, or about 20%. The consistency of the percentage drop across resolutions indicates that the GPU's workload is scaling predictably with pixel count.

The Medium presets provide the only data points with minimum and maximum FPS values. At 1080p, the minimum of 367 FPS and maximum of 496 FPS show a range of 129 FPS. At 1440p, the minimum of 313 FPS and maximum of 423 FPS show a range of 110 FPS. At 4K, the minimum of 250 FPS and maximum of 338 FPS show a range of 88 FPS. The narrowing range at higher resolutions suggests that the frame time variance decreases as the GPU becomes more consistently utilized, which can be beneficial for maintaining a smooth gameplay experience.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 is based on the RDNA 4.0 architecture and features a Navi 44 chip with 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operations pipelines. It has a base clock of 1700 MHz, a game clock of 2400 MHz, and a boost clock of 2990 MHz. The GPU comes with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s. These specifications indicate a mid-range graphics card that is positioned to handle 1080p and 1440p gaming with high settings, and the Valorant data confirms this.

The GPU's benchmark scores show a mixed picture. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 3322, and its Geekbench OpenCL score is 88183. The Passmark G3D score is 17631, with a GPU compute score of 9919. The percentile ranking against all GPUs is 59, placing it in the upper half of all graphics cards tested. The average benchmark score of 16014 is close to its nearest rivals, with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti at 16129 (delta of -0.7%), the AMD Radeon R9 370X at 15862 (delta of 1%), the AMD Radeon RX 7700 at 15852 (delta of 1%), and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 at 15679 (delta of 2.1%). This suggests the RX 9060 performs on par with these cards in general benchmarks.

In Valorant specifically, the GPU's role is less demanding than in other titles. The measured FPS shows that even at 4K Ultra, the combo achieves 267 FPS, which indicates the GPU is not the primary bottleneck at lower resolutions. The data shows that at 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra settings is 218 FPS, which is largely due to the CPU's ability to feed the GPU at lower resolutions. As resolution increases, the GPU's workload increases, and the FPS drops accordingly, but the RX 9060 is still able to deliver playable frame rates at 4K.

The GPU's 8 GB of VRAM is sufficient for Valorant at all tested settings, as the game does not have high memory requirements. The 128-bit memory bus and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for the game's texture and geometry loads, and the boost clock of 2990 MHz ensures that the GPU can execute rendering tasks quickly. The PCIe 5.0 x16 interface provides ample bandwidth for data transfer between the CPU and GPU, minimizing any potential bottleneck in that pathway.

FAQ

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

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 609 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: How does the combo's performance at 4K Low compare to 1080p Low?

A: At 4K Low, the average FPS is 447, which is 162 FPS lower than the 609 FPS average at 1080p Low. This represents a 27% reduction in frame rate when scaling from 1080p to 4K.

Q: What are the minimum FPS values recorded at Medium settings across all resolutions?

A: At 1920x1080 Medium, the minimum FPS is 367. At 2560x1440 Medium, the minimum FPS is 313. At 3840x2160 Medium, the minimum FPS is 250.

Q: How does the i7-12700K compare to the i5-13600T in average benchmark score?

A: The Intel Core i7-12700K has an average benchmark score of 35287, while the Intel Core i5-13600T has a score of 35305. The delta is -0.1%, indicating the i7-12700K is essentially equal in performance.

Q: What is the combo's rank in the database for Valorant?

A: The combo ranks 1361st out of 2883 tested combinations, which places it in the 47th percentile of all tested combos.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking against all GPUs?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9060 has a percentile ranking of 59 against all GPUs, meaning it performs better than 59% of all tested graphics cards.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the player's display refresh rate and preference for visual fidelity. For players with 1080p monitors running at 240 Hz or higher, the Low preset at 609 FPS provides the maximum headroom, ensuring the frame rate never drops below the monitor's refresh rate in most scenarios. The Medium preset at 432 FPS is also viable for 240 Hz displays, and it offers a slight visual improvement over Low while still maintaining a comfortable margin above the refresh rate.

For 1440p displays, the Low preset at 559 FPS is the best choice for players with 360 Hz or higher refresh rate monitors. For those with 240 Hz displays, the Medium preset at 368 FPS (with a minimum of 313 FPS) is a better balance, as it provides higher visual quality while still keeping the frame rate well above the 240 FPS threshold. The High preset at 351 FPS is also acceptable for 240 Hz displays, but the Medium preset offers a slightly higher average FPS.

At 4K resolution, the Low preset at 447 FPS is the only setting that can support 360 Hz monitors, but this is a niche use case. For players with 240 Hz 4K displays, the Medium preset at 294 FPS (with a minimum of 250 FPS) is the recommended choice, as it ensures the frame rate stays above 240 FPS in the vast majority of scenes. The High preset at 280 FPS is also viable, but the Medium preset provides a better safety margin. The Ultra preset at 267 FPS is only recommended for players with 144 Hz displays, as the average FPS is close to the 240 FPS threshold and may dip below it in demanding scenarios.

The data suggests that the Medium preset is the most versatile across all resolutions, offering a good balance between visual quality and frame rate consistency. The minimum FPS values at Medium settings are all above 250 FPS, which is a strong guarantee for smooth gameplay. For competitive play, where frame rate is paramount, the Low preset is the safest choice, as it maximizes the average FPS and minimizes the risk of frame drops. Ultimately, the choice between presets should be guided by the monitor's refresh rate and the player's tolerance for visual quality adjustments.