Valorant

Settings Recommendations

The measured frame rates for Valorant on this platform reveal a clear hierarchy across the four quality presets. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 659.9 FPS average, which is the highest recorded figure for this configuration. Medium follows at 559.3 FPS, High at 550.4 FPS, and Ultra trails at 539.6 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 120.3 FPS, representing a substantial performance swing. At 1440p, the same pattern holds: Low achieves 622.6 FPS, while Ultra drops to 511.9 FPS. The 4K results show Low at 582.5 FPS versus Ultra at 478.3 FPS.

For competitive play, the Low preset is the optimal choice because it maximizes frame throughput at every resolution. The data shows that Low is 19.4% faster than Medium at 1080p (659.9 vs 559.3 FPS), and this advantage persists at higher resolutions. However, the Medium preset offers a compromise: it is only 1.6% slower than High at 1080p (559.3 vs 550.4 FPS), suggesting diminishing returns between those two tiers. Ultra provides the smallest performance benefit over High at 1440p, with just a 1.9% reduction (511.9 vs 521.8 FPS). Given that Valorant is a competitive FPS, the measured data supports prioritizing Low for maximum frame rates, although the absolute differences between presets are relatively small compared to typical GPU-bound titles.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a 16-core, 24-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. Its multi-threaded performance is strong: Cinebench R23 multi-core scores 39000, while single-core reaches 5505. Geekbench results show 17731 multi-core and 2850 single-core. The processor sits at the 93rd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 47282. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-13700KF, scores 47334, a negligible 0.1% difference. The AMD EPYC 4364P trails by 0.3%, and the Intel Core i9-12900F is 0.4% behind.

In Valorant, the CPU's role is pronounced because the game's engine is highly sensitive to single-thread performance. The 3dmark single-thread score of 1136 and Passmark single-thread score of 4333 indicate strong per-core capability, which directly correlates with the high frame rates observed. The 24 threads allow for smooth background processing, but the game's primary workload appears to favor the 5.40 GHz boost clock. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (659.9 FPS) suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck at lower resolutions, as the frame rate scales with resolution changes. The 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache likely help maintain consistent frame delivery in complex scenes. The processor's 125 W TDP indicates it can sustain high clocks under load, which is critical for maintaining the near-660 FPS ceiling at 1080p.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process, featuring 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 896.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its boost clock is 2452 MHz, with a base clock of 2295 MHz. The GPU has 8960 shading units, 280 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output pipelines. Its FP32 compute is 43.94 TFLOPS, and it achieves a Passmark G3D score of 32974, placing it at the 87th percentile among all GPUs. The average benchmark score is 52086, essentially tied with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 at 52085 (0% delta). The AMD Radeon RX 7700S is 0.8% faster, while the RTX A1000 is 2.5% slower.

Despite the GPU's substantial compute resources, Valorant's workload does not heavily stress it. The measured FPS across all presets and resolutions exceeds 478 FPS, indicating that the RTX 5070 Ti is far from being saturated. The 16 GB VRAM is ample for this title, and the 28 Gbps effective memory speed ensures texture streaming is not a limiting factor. The GPU's 87th percentile ranking reflects its overall capability, but in Valorant specifically, the data suggests the CPU is the primary driver of frame rates. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 104.2 FPS (582.5 vs 478.3), which is a smaller relative drop than at 1080p, suggesting the GPU begins to play a slightly larger role at higher resolutions, though still not to the point of bottlenecking.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combo?

A: The maximum recorded average FPS is 659.9, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low preset.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rival?

A: The Intel Core i7-13700K scores 47282 on average, which is 0.1% lower than the Intel Core i7-13700KF at 47334, making them effectively equal performers.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor in Valorant?

A: The CPU appears to be the primary limiter, as FPS drops by 77.4 FPS from 1080p Low (659.9) to 4K Low (582.5), a relatively small decline that indicates the GPU is not heavily taxed.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low averages 622.6 FPS while Ultra averages 511.9 FPS, a difference of 110.7 FPS or 21.6% in favor of Low.

Q: How does the GPU rank against all other GPUs?

A: The RTX 5070 Ti is at the 87th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 52086.

Q: What is the frame rate at 4K Ultra?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 478.3, which is still exceptionally high for a competitive title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows how the system scales from 1080p to 4K, revealing the balance between CPU and GPU load. At Low settings, the progression is 659.9 FPS at 1080p, 622.6 FPS at 1440p, and 582.5 FPS at 4K. This represents a total drop of 77.4 FPS (11.7%) from 1080p to 4K. The relatively modest decline indicates that the CPU is the dominant factor, as a GPU-bound scenario would show a much steeper falloff. At Ultra settings, the numbers are 539.6 FPS (1080p), 511.9 FPS (1440p), and 478.3 FPS (4K), a drop of 61.3 FPS (11.4%). The similarity in percentage drops between Low and Ultra suggests that the GPU's additional workload at Ultra does not significantly alter the scaling behavior.

This pattern points to the CPU's single-thread performance as the bottleneck. The 5.40 GHz boost clock on the i7-13700K is likely the reason why frame rates remain above 478 FPS even at 4K Ultra. The GPU's 896.0 GB/s bandwidth and 16 GB VRAM are more than sufficient for Valorant's relatively simple geometry and textures. The data shows that even at 4K, the RTX 5070 Ti is not the limiting component; the CPU's thread scheduling and cache hierarchy determine the ceiling. For users seeking the highest possible frame rates, the 1080p Low configuration delivers 659.9 FPS, but the 4K Ultra setting still provides 478.3 FPS, which is well above the refresh rate of most high-end monitors. The scaling curve is remarkably flat, with only an 11.7% penalty from the lowest to highest resolution at Low settings, confirming that Valorant is not a demanding GPU workload for this hardware combination.