Valorant

Valorant’s performance with the Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 combination is defined by extreme frame rates that scale predictably with resolution and settings. The measured data shows a system capable of far exceeding the refresh rates of standard monitors, with the lowest recorded average still landing at 198.5 FPS at 4K Ultra settings. This pairing leverages a high-end 16-core CPU with a mid-range Pascal-generation GPU, producing a bottleneck profile where the graphics card is the primary limiter at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s strong single-thread performance keeps 1080p Low averages near the 500 FPS mark.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average FPS is 487.9, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the GTX 1070 compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GTX 1070’s average benchmark score is 12331, placing it 1.4% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER, which scores 12504.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested configurations in Valorant?

A: This specific combo ranks 1350 out of 1650 tested combinations, placing it in the lower tier of all tested systems for this game.

Q: Does the CPU’s multi-threaded performance show a significant lead over its closest rival?

A: The Core i7-13700K scores 47282 on average, which is 0.3% behind the AMD EPYC 4364P’s score of 47131, indicating a negligible difference.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 2560x1440?

A: At 2560x1440, the average FPS drops from 417.7 on Low to 248.4 on Ultra, a difference of 169.3 FPS.

Q: What is the base clock speed of the Intel Core i7-13700K?

A: The base clock is 3.40 GHz, with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070, built on the 16 nm Pascal architecture with the GP104 chip, provides the rendering foundation for this combo. Its 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus delivers a bandwidth of 256.3 GB/s, which is sufficient for Valorant’s art style at the tested settings. The GPU’s base clock of 1506 MHz and boost clock of 1683 MHz, combined with 1920 shading units, produce a pixel rate of 107.7 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 202.0 GTexel/s.

The data indicates that the GTX 1070’s performance ceiling is the deciding factor for frame rates at higher resolutions. At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 198.5 on Ultra to 333.3 on Low, showing a 134.8 FPS swing based purely on settings. This spread narrows at 1920x1080, where the same settings range yields 289.6 to 487.9 FPS. The GPU’s synthetic benchmark percentile of 51 places it in the middle of all GPUs, and its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Quadro K4200, trails by 0.7%, while the GTX 1650 SUPER leads by 1.4%. This mid-pack positioning explains why the GPU becomes the bottleneck when resolution increases, as the CPU’s headroom cannot compensate for the pixel throughput limits of the Pascal architecture.

Settings Recommendations

The optimal experience depends on the target display refresh rate, but the measured data consistently favors lower settings for maximum frame rates. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 487.9 FPS, which is 167.9 FPS higher than the Medium preset’s 320 FPS and 198.3 FPS higher than Ultra’s 289.6 FPS. For competitive play, this Low setting provides the highest possible frame pacing.

For users with 1440p displays, the Low preset still maintains a substantial lead, averaging 417.7 FPS compared to 275.3 on Medium and 248.4 on Ultra. The High preset at 1440p sits at 258.1 FPS, which is only 9.7 FPS above Ultra, suggesting diminishing returns between these two settings. At 4K, the Low preset is the only option that breaks the 300 FPS barrier, hitting 333.3 FPS, while Medium drops to 215.9 FPS and Ultra falls to 198.5 FPS.

The data suggests that Medium settings offer a balanced trade-off for visual fidelity without a catastrophic FPS loss, particularly at 1080p where the drop from Low is 167.9 FPS but the visual improvement is noticeable. However, the gap between Medium and Ultra at 4K is only 17.4 FPS, making Ultra a viable choice for those prioritizing image quality over raw frame rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the GTX 1070 and Core i7-13700K produce the highest frame rates in the dataset. The Low preset averages 487.9 FPS, while Medium drops to 320 FPS, a reduction of 167.9 FPS. High settings yield 307.8 FPS, and Ultra trails at 289.6 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at this resolution is 18.2 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset’s additional graphical effects have a modest impact.

Moving to 2560x1440, the same pattern persists but with lower absolute numbers. Low averages 417.7 FPS, which is 70.2 FPS less than at 1080p. Medium drops to 275.3 FPS, a 44.7 FPS reduction from 1080p Medium. High averages 258.1 FPS, and Ultra falls to 248.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 169.3 FPS, wider than the 198.3 FPS gap at 1080p, showing that the GPU’s workload increases disproportionately with resolution.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates remain playable but show the GPU’s strain. Low averages 333.3 FPS, Medium hits 215.9 FPS, and High reaches 208.3 FPS. Ultra is the lowest at 198.5 FPS, which is still above 1440p High’s 258.1 FPS by a significant margin. The resolution scaling from 1080p to 4K on Low settings costs 154.6 FPS, while on Ultra it costs 91.1 FPS, suggesting that the GPU’s memory bandwidth and pixel rate are more heavily taxed at lower settings where the CPU can feed frames faster.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo holds the 1350th position out of 1650 tested combinations in Valorant. This ranking places it in the 81st percentile of all tested systems, meaning that roughly 82% of other configurations deliver higher average FPS in this game. The rank reflects the GTX 1070’s age, as the GPU’s average benchmark score of 12331 puts it just above the 51st percentile of all GPUs, but the pairing with a top-tier CPU does not boost the overall standing.

In synthetic CPU benchmarks, the Core i7-13700K scores 47282, which is 0.1% lower than the Intel Core i7-13700KF’s 47334 and 0.3% higher than the AMD EPYC 4364P’s 47131. This tight grouping shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in the combo’s rank. Instead, the GPU’s mid-pack percentile of 51, combined with its 1.4% deficit to the GTX 1650 SUPER, drags the overall ranking down. The measured FPS data confirms this: at 1080p Low, the system hits 487.9 FPS, but the rank suggests that many other GPUs can push beyond that threshold in Valorant.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K serves as the computational backbone, featuring 16 cores and 24 threads based on the Raptor Lake architecture. Its base clock of 3.40 GHz boosts to 5.40 GHz, and the 30 MB of shared L3 cache helps maintain high instruction throughput. The CPU’s synthetic benchmarks show exceptional multi-threaded capability, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 39000 and a 3DMark max thread score of 12412.

In Valorant, the CPU’s single-thread performance is critical for frame generation. The 3DMark single-thread score of 1136 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 5505 indicate strong per-core capability, which directly supports the high FPS observed at lower resolutions. The CPU’s percentile against all CPUs is 93, placing it in the top 7% of processors, and its nearest rival, the Core i7-13700KF, is only 0.1% faster.

The data shows that the CPU is not a bottleneck in this configuration. At 1080p Low, the 487.9 FPS average is more likely limited by the GPU’s pixel throughput than the CPU’s ability to issue draw calls. The CPU’s 16 cores and 24 threads, with a TDP of 125 W, provide ample headroom even when the GPU is fully utilized. The memory support for both DDR4 and DDR5 further ensures that system memory bandwidth does not constrain performance, although the exact FPS impact of memory type is not measured in this dataset.