Valorant

Valorant is a competitive FPS designed to run on a wide range of hardware, but the combination of the Intel Core i7-14700F and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 produces an extraordinary dataset that reveals much about the game's engine limits and component scaling. The measured frames per second (FPS) across resolutions and settings are exceptionally high, consistently exceeding 460 FPS even at the most demanding 4K Ultra preset. This analysis walks through the measured data to understand how this pairing behaves, what it indicates about the CPU and GPU roles, and where the performance ceiling truly lies.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is remarkably small, which is the first major indicator of where the bottleneck sits in this configuration. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 651.1 at 1920x1080 down to 571.4 at 3840x2160, a reduction of roughly 12%. For most hardware, a jump from 1080p to 4K increases the pixel count by a factor of four, which typically cuts frame rates by half or more. Here, the drop is minimal, suggesting that the rendering workload is not the primary constraint.

At High settings, the scaling is even tighter. The average FPS only falls from 540.6 at 1080p to 515.2 at 1440p, and then to 476.9 at 4K. This represents a decline of just under 12% from 1080p to 4K. The pattern repeats for Medium and Ultra presets. For Medium, the scores are 548.4 at 1080p, 523.2 at 1440p, and 486.9 at 4K. For Ultra, the scores are 530.5 at 1080p, 505 at 1440p, and 466.1 at 4K. In every case, the difference between 1440p and 4K is smaller than the difference between 1080p and 1440p, which indicates diminishing returns on GPU load.

This data suggests that the game is heavily CPU-bound, even at 4K. The RTX 4090 is capable of rendering these frames far faster than the engine can feed it instructions. The fact that raising the resolution from 1080p to 4K only costs about 60-80 FPS, rather than hundreds, shows that the GPU has massive headroom. The limiting component is the processor and the game's single-threaded or lightly-threaded nature, not the graphics card's fill rate or shader throughput.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture. Its base clock is 2.10 GHz, with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. For a game like Valorant, which is known to be sensitive to single-thread performance, the high boost clock is critical. The benchmark data for the CPU shows a single-core score of 5003 in Cinebench R23 and 2711 in Geekbench, placing it in the 94th percentile among all CPUs. This indicates that the processor has exceptional per-core capability, which is exactly what a competitive FPS needs.

The multi-core performance is also strong, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35443, but this is less relevant for Valorant. The game’s engine typically relies on a few primary threads, and the measured FPS numbers reflect this. The average FPS at 1080p Low is 651.1, which is near the practical ceiling for frame generation in many esports titles. The CPU’s cache configuration includes 33 MB of shared L3 cache, which helps with game data locality, but the raw clock speed is the dominant factor here.

Comparing to its nearest rivals, the i7-14700F is 0.6% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X in average benchmark score, and 1.1% behind the Ryzen 9 9900X3D. It is 1.2% ahead of the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 and 1.7% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7313P. These deltas are tiny, suggesting that at the top end of CPU performance, the differences are marginal. However, the i7-14700F’s high boost clock of 5.40 GHz gives it an edge in lightly-threaded workloads, which is reflected in the game’s high average FPS figures.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the i7-14700F and RTX 4090 ranks 101st out of 1650 combos for Valorant. This places it in the top 6% of all tested systems, which is impressive but not the absolute top. The rank suggests that while this is an extremely high-performance setup, there are other combinations that achieve slightly higher frame rates, likely due to CPUs with even higher single-core boost clocks or more aggressive power delivery.

The rank of 101 out of 1650 is a strong indicator of consistency. It shows that the system delivers near-top-tier performance without being the single fastest configuration. The delta between this combo and the very best might be small, perhaps just a few percent, but the ranking reflects that the RTX 4090 is not the limiting factor. The data suggests that the CPU is doing the heavy lifting, and the GPU is along for the ride, providing the raw rasterization power that Valorant barely taps into.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of performance across all twelve combinations of resolution and settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields an average of 651.1 FPS, which is the highest score in the entire dataset. Medium produces 548.4, High produces 540.6, and Ultra produces 530.5. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 120.6 FPS, which is significant but still leaves all presets well above the refresh rates of even the fastest gaming monitors.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 611.9 FPS, followed by Medium at 523.2, High at 515.2, and Ultra at 505. The spread between Low and Ultra narrows to 106.9 FPS. At 3840x2160, Low averages 571.4, Medium averages 486.9, High averages 476.9, and Ultra averages 466.1. The spread here is 105.3 FPS. Notably, the difference between Medium and High at any given resolution is small; for example, at 4K, Medium is 486.9 and High is 476.9, a delta of just 10 FPS.

The data shows that the Low preset is always significantly faster, but the Medium, High, and Ultra presets cluster together. This suggests that the game’s higher settings introduce similar levels of additional GPU work, but the CPU still manages to keep frame rates high. The minimum and maximum FPS are not recorded, so the analysis relies on averages, but the consistency of the numbers implies stable performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a behemoth of a graphics card, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process. It features 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, with a boost clock of 2520 MHz. The memory subsystem is equally impressive: 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. The card’s FP32 performance is 82.58 TFLOPS, and it scores 38,194 in Passmark’s G3D test, placing it in the 91st percentile among all GPUs.

For Valorant, this GPU is massively overqualified. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra is 466.1, which is far below the card’s theoretical capability. The GPU’s pixel rate is 443.5 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 1,290.2 GTexel/s, but the game’s draw calls and geometry are simple enough that the card is barely stressed. The VRAM usage is trivial for this game; 24 GB is far more than needed, but it ensures no memory-related stutters at any resolution.

Comparing the RTX 4090 to its nearest rivals, it is 0.4% behind the NVIDIA Tesla T4, 0.5% ahead of the Tesla P40, 0.9% behind the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56, and 1.3% behind the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 in average benchmark score. These are workstation cards, not gaming GPUs, and the deltas are negligible. The RTX 4090’s role here is to ensure that the GPU is never the bottleneck, which the data confirms.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal experience depends on the user’s priority. For maximum frame rate, the Low preset at 1080p delivers 651.1 FPS, which is the best possible score. This is ideal for competitive play on a 360 Hz or 500 Hz monitor, where every frame counts. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 102.7 FPS, which is a substantial drop, but the visual upgrade might be worth it for some players.

For a balance of visual fidelity and performance, the High preset at 1440p offers 515.2 FPS, which is still exceptionally high and looks noticeably better than Low. The Ultra preset at 1440p yields 505 FPS, only 10.2 FPS less than High, making Ultra the better choice for those who want maximum quality without a meaningful performance penalty. At 4K, the High preset gives 476.9 FPS, while Ultra gives 466.1 FPS. The 10.8 FPS difference is minor, so Ultra at 4K is a reasonable pick.

The data indicates that the Medium preset is rarely the best choice, as it sits close to High in performance but offers less visual polish. For most users, the recommendation is to use the High preset as a baseline, as it provides a strong balance across all resolutions. If the monitor supports 1080p and the user prioritizes raw speed, Low is the clear winner. If the user has a 4K display, High or Ultra will both provide a smooth experience, with the choice coming down to personal preference for the slight frame rate difference. The RTX 4090 ensures that no setting combination will cause a noticeable dip below 460 FPS, making this combo a top-tier choice for Valorant.