Valorant

Valorant is a competitive FPS where frame rate often matters more than absolute visual fidelity, and the measured data for the Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER shows a system that is overwhelmingly capable of delivering elite-level performance. The combination ranks 1789th out of 3708 tested configurations in this title, placing it in the upper half of all possible hardware pairings. Across all resolutions and settings, the average frame rates never dip below 267 FPS, indicating that this setup is designed for high-refresh-rate monitors and esports-level responsiveness. The data reveals a system where the processor’s strong single-thread performance and the GPU’s ample memory bandwidth combine to produce results that are consistently fluid, though the scaling patterns between resolutions and settings provide insight into which component is the primary driver at various points.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear shift in system bottleneck behavior. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves 605 FPS, which is the highest recorded average in the entire dataset. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same Low preset drops the average to 560 FPS, a reduction of 45 FPS or roughly 7.4 percent. Scaling further to 3840x2160 at Low yields 447 FPS, which is a 158 FPS drop from the 1080p figure—a substantial 26.1 percent decrease. This pattern indicates that at lower settings, the CPU is doing most of the heavy lifting, as the GPU has enough headroom to render frames quickly, but the resolution increase still adds enough pixel fill work to reduce output.

For High settings, the trend is similar but with a slightly different magnitude. The 1080p High result is 412 FPS, dropping to 351 FPS at 1440p (a 14.8 percent reduction) and then to 281 FPS at 4K (a 31.8 percent drop from 1080p). The gap between 1440p and 4K at High settings is 70 FPS, which is larger than the 65 FPS gap between 1080p and 1440p, suggesting that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor as resolution climbs. The Ultra preset tells a similar story: 392 FPS at 1080p, 334 FPS at 1440p, and 267 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is 31.9 percent, almost identical to the High preset’s 31.8 percent.

The most telling data point for bottleneck analysis comes from comparing the Low and Ultra presets at each resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low (605 FPS) and Ultra (392 FPS) is 213 FPS, a massive 35.2 percent performance penalty for enabling higher visual quality. At 1440p, the Low-to-Ultra gap narrows to 226 FPS (560 to 334), which is a 40.4 percent drop. At 4K, the gap is 180 FPS (447 to 267), a 40.3 percent reduction. This consistent 35-40 percent penalty across all resolutions indicates that the game’s Ultra settings impose a significant GPU workload that scales with pixel count, but the absolute frame rates remain so high that the CPU is never fully saturated. The fact that 4K Low (447 FPS) still outperforms 1080p Ultra (392 FPS) by 55 FPS proves that the i7-12700KF has vast single-thread headroom, and the RTX 2070 SUPER’s 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is sufficient to keep pixel throughput high even at 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate this system can achieve in Valorant?

A: The best recorded result is 605 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the peak performance metric in the dataset, showcasing the system’s ability to push far beyond standard 144Hz or 240Hz display refresh rates.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: At Low settings, the drop is from 605 FPS to 447 FPS, a reduction of 158 FPS. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 392 FPS to 267 FPS, a reduction of 125 FPS. The relative penalty is larger at 4K, but the absolute frame rates remain exceptionally high.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the primary bottleneck for this pairing?

A: The data indicates the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the CPU is clearly the driver, but the 40 percent performance gap between Low and Ultra at all resolutions suggests that the RTX 2070 SUPER’s shading units and texture units are heavily taxed by the game’s higher-quality presets.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The GPU has an average benchmark score of 20282, placing it 1 percent below the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M, 1.2 percent below the RTX 3070 Mobile, and 1.3 percent below the Intel Arc B570. It sits 1.5 percent behind the Intel Arc A750 in aggregate performance.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for the Medium settings?

A: The Medium preset is the only one with min and max FPS data. At 1080p, the minimum is 367 FPS with a maximum of 497 FPS. At 1440p, the minimum is 313 FPS and the maximum is 424 FPS. At 4K, the minimum is 251 FPS and the maximum is 339 FPS.

Q: Does the system maintain playable frame rates at 4K Ultra?

A: Yes, the average at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 267 FPS. While this is the lowest average in the entire dataset, it still exceeds the refresh rate of virtually all mainstream gaming monitors, making it perfectly viable for competitive play.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is a Turing-architecture GPU built on a 12 nm process at TSMC, featuring 13,600 million transistors on a 545 mm² die. Its memory subsystem includes 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is crucial for feeding the shading units at high resolutions. The GPU’s compute capabilities are defined by 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output units, with a base clock of 1605 MHz and a boost clock of 1770 MHz. Its raw throughput is rated at 9.062 TFLOPS for FP32 operations, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

In Valorant, the GPU’s role becomes more pronounced as settings increase. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p yields a 173 FPS reduction (605 to 432), which is a 28.6 percent penalty. The jump from Medium to High at 1080p is a further 20 FPS drop (432 to 412), while High to Ultra drops another 20 FPS (412 to 392). This stair-step pattern suggests that the Medium preset introduces significant shading and texture work, while High and Ultra add progressively smaller increments of visual effects that still require additional GPU cycles. At 4K, the same pattern holds: Low (447 FPS) to Medium (295 FPS) is a 152 FPS drop, Medium to High is a 14 FPS drop, and High to Ultra is a 14 FPS drop. The consistency of the Medium-to-High and High-to-Ultra deltas at both resolutions points to the GPU’s fixed-function units handling specific rendering features that scale linearly with pixel count.

The GPU’s 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are present but largely irrelevant for Valorant, which does not utilize ray tracing or DLSS in the measured settings. The pixel rate of 113.3 GPixel/s and texture rate of 283.2 GTexel/s are the key metrics here, as they directly influence how fast the GPU can fill and texture the screen. At 4K, the 8.3 million pixels per frame (3840x2160) combined with the complex shaders of the Ultra preset push the RTX 2070 SUPER close to its limits, yet it still manages 267 FPS. The GPU’s 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20282, confirms that it is a mid-to-upper-tier part, but the Valorant data shows it is more than sufficient for this esports title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its strongest performance. Low settings produce an average of 605 FPS, which is the absolute peak for this configuration. Medium settings yield 432 FPS, with a minimum of 367 FPS and a maximum of 497 FPS, indicating stable frame pacing. High settings average 412 FPS, while Ultra settings average 392 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 213 FPS, showing that the CPU is the dominant force here, as the GPU can handle the pixel workload without breaking a sweat.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain exceptionally high. Low settings average 560 FPS, which is still above the 1080p High result. Medium settings average 369 FPS, with a minimum of 313 FPS and a maximum of 424 FPS. High settings drop to 351 FPS, and Ultra settings settle at 334 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread at 1440p is 226 FPS, slightly larger than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is beginning to feel the pressure of additional pixels. The minimum FPS at 1440p Medium (313 FPS) is still higher than the 4K Ultra average, demonstrating the system’s headroom at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the GPU takes a more prominent role. Low settings average 447 FPS, which is a significant drop from 1080p but still incredibly fast. Medium settings average 295 FPS, with a minimum of 251 FPS and a maximum of 339 FPS. High settings average 281 FPS, and Ultra settings average 267 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread at 4K is 180 FPS, which is smaller than at lower resolutions because the GPU is becoming the limiting factor. Even at 4K Ultra, the minimum FPS is not recorded, but the Medium preset’s minimum of 251 FPS suggests that frame dips are unlikely to fall below competitive thresholds.

Settings Recommendations

For competitive play at 1920x1080, the Low preset is the clear choice, delivering 605 FPS and ensuring that the CPU’s single-thread performance is fully utilized. This setting minimizes GPU load and maximizes frame rate, which is ideal for players using 360Hz or higher refresh rate monitors. The Medium preset at 1080p offers 432 FPS, which is still far beyond what most displays can show, and it provides a meaningful visual upgrade for very little performance cost—only a 28.6 percent reduction from Low. For players who prioritize visual clarity over absolute frame rate, Medium at 1080p is the sweet spot, as the minimum FPS of 367 remains well above the 240Hz threshold.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers 560 FPS, which is still suitable for high-refresh-rate gaming. However, the Medium preset at 369 FPS offers a better balance for users with 1440p 240Hz monitors, as the visual improvements are substantial and the frame rate remains high. The High preset at 351 FPS is also viable, but the extra 18 FPS lost from Medium to High is not worth the marginal visual gain for most players. The Ultra preset at 334 FPS is only recommended for those who insist on maximum visual quality and have a display that cannot exceed 300Hz, as the performance is still excellent.

For 4K gaming, the Low preset at 447 FPS is the only setting that truly leverages the CPU’s power, but 4K Low visuals are quite sparse. The Medium preset at 295 FPS is the best compromise, offering a richer visual experience while maintaining a frame rate that exceeds most 4K displays’ refresh rates. The High preset at 281 FPS and Ultra at 267 FPS are both playable, but they represent diminishing returns. Given that the minimum FPS at 4K Medium is 251 FPS, players can be confident that frame drops will not compromise the experience, even in intense firefights.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF is an Alder Lake-S architecture processor with 12 cores and 20 threads, running at a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. It features a hybrid design with performance and efficiency cores, though the exact core configuration is not specified in the data. The CPU has 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core, and 25 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, and its 10 nm process node at Intel allows for high clock speeds that are critical for Valorant’s physics and game logic.

The CPU’s benchmark scores are impressive, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28838 and a single-core score of 4071. The Geekbench results show 14367 multi-core and 2255 single-core, while the 3DMark tests reveal strong scaling: 1043 in single-thread, 2065 in 2-thread, 4011 in 4-thread, 7211 in 8-thread, and 9983 in max-thread. The PassMark single-thread score of 3984 is particularly relevant for Valorant, as the game’s engine is known to rely heavily on a few fast threads. The CPU’s 85th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35365, places it just 0.1 percent below the Core i7-13700T and 0.2 percent above the Core i5-13600T.

The data strongly suggests that the i7-12700KF is not the bottleneck in this system, even at 1080p Low where frame rates reach 605 FPS. The fact that increasing resolution from 1080p to 4K at Low settings only reduces frame rates by 158 FPS (from 605 to 447) while the GPU is doing progressively more work indicates that the CPU has ample headroom. The 5.00 GHz boost clock and 25 MB of L3 cache are likely key factors in maintaining high frame rates during complex scenes with multiple agents and abilities. In comparison to its nearest rival, the Core i7-12700K, which scores 35287 in average benchmarks (0.2 percent lower), the 12700KF performs essentially identically, confirming that the unlocked multiplier does not provide a significant advantage in this workload. The CPU’s 125 W TDP, while not directly measured in gaming, suggests that thermal management is straightforward, allowing the boost clock to be sustained during long gaming sessions.