Valorant

Valorant is a competitive FPS where frame rate and consistency matter more than absolute visual fidelity, and the measured data for the Intel Core i7-14700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER reflects that priority. The benchmark results show a system that delivers exceptionally high frame rates across all tested configurations, with the lowest average sitting at 265.7 FPS and the highest reaching 657.3 FPS. The spread between settings at each resolution is significant, indicating that the choice of preset has a tangible impact on performance headroom, making the settings recommendation a crucial decision for players who want to maximize their competitive edge.

Settings Recommendations

The data shows a clear hierarchy in performance based on the preset used, with "Low" settings consistently delivering the highest frame rates across every resolution. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 657.3 FPS, which is a substantial lead over the next fastest option, Medium, which hits 430.4 FPS. This represents a performance gap of roughly 53% between Low and Medium at 1080p, a difference that can be decisive in a fast-paced shooter where reaction time is measured in milliseconds. The High preset trails further behind at 408 FPS, while Ultra is the slowest of the four, producing 394.1 FPS at the same resolution.

The pattern persists at higher resolutions, though the relative gap narrows slightly. At 2560x1440, Low delivers 563.6 FPS, while Medium, High, and Ultra produce 370.1, 350.6, and 334.7 FPS, respectively. Even at 3840x2160, where the GPU becomes more of a factor, Low still leads with 448.5 FPS, compared to Medium's 295.5 FPS, High's 281.2 FPS, and Ultra's 265.7 FPS. The consistency of this ordering suggests that the Low preset offers the best experience for competitive play, as it maximizes the frame rate ceiling and provides the most headroom above the refresh rate of typical high-end monitors. For players using 144Hz or even 240Hz displays, the Low preset ensures the frame rate stays well above the display's capability, minimizing any potential for perceived stutter or input lag.

Ultra, while visually more demanding, offers the lowest performance of any preset, yet it still maintains an average above 265 FPS at 4K. This indicates that even the most demanding settings are playable, but the performance penalty relative to Low is substantial—a drop of over 40% at 1080p and roughly 41% at 4K. Given that Valorant's art style does not heavily rely on high-fidelity textures to convey gameplay information, the trade-off between visual polish and frame rate leans heavily toward the Low preset for any player prioritizing performance. The Medium preset presents a middle ground, but the data suggests that the slight visual upgrade over Low does not justify the significant loss in frame rate, especially at 1080p where the difference is most pronounced.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i7-14700K and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 762nd out of 1650 total combos for Valorant. This places the system squarely in the middle of the pack, which is an interesting result given the individual component strengths. The CPU itself is a high-end part, sitting at the 96th percentile when compared to all CPUs, which suggests it is not the limiting factor in this setup. The GPU, conversely, is rated at the 65th percentile against all GPUs, indicating it is a more mid-range component relative to the current landscape.

The benchmark scores for the components reinforce this dynamic. The CPU's average benchmark score is 70074, placing it nearly identical to the Intel Core i7-14700KF, which scores 70104 with a 0% delta, and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X, which scores 70420 with a -0.5% delta. The GPU's average score is 22206, which is close to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z at 22006 (0.9% delta) and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 at 21670 (2.5% delta). The mid-pack ranking of 762 out of 1650 suggests that while the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU, the GPU's performance ceiling prevents this combo from reaching the top tiers, where more powerful graphics cards would be paired with similarly strong processors to push frame rates even higher.

The ranking implies that in Valorant, the GPU is the primary bottleneck for this combination. The CPU's high percentile ranking and benchmark scores indicate it has ample headroom, but the GPU's lower relative standing means that the overall system performance is capped by its capabilities. This is not to say the system is slow—the measured FPS figures are exceptionally high—but it does mean that in the broader context of all tested combos, there are many configurations that deliver even higher frame rates, likely by pairing a similar CPU with a more powerful GPU.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER plays a pivotal role in determining the frame rates observed in these benchmarks. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The GPU's base clock is 1605 MHz, with a boost clock of 1770 MHz, and it operates on the Turing architecture. These specifications are adequate for running Valorant at high frame rates, as the game is not particularly demanding on memory capacity or bandwidth, but the GPU's raw compute power does set a limit on how fast frames can be rendered.

The measured FPS data shows that the GPU's performance is sufficient to push well beyond the refresh rate of most monitors, even at 4K. However, the scaling of frame rates with resolution and settings indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor when settings are increased. For example, at 1920x1080, the difference between Low and Ultra is 263.2 FPS, a massive gap that is attributable to the increased graphical load on the GPU. This gap narrows at 3840x2160, where the difference between Low and Ultra is 182.8 FPS, but it remains substantial. This pattern suggests that while the GPU is capable of handling the game at any setting, it does not have the raw throughput to maintain the same performance headroom at higher settings and resolutions.

The GPU's benchmark scores, such as a Passmark G3D score of 18169 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1651, place it in a mid-range tier. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA RTX A400, which scores 22307 with a -0.5% delta, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile, which scores 22729 with a -2.3% delta. These comparisons show that the RTX 2070 SUPER is competitive with newer mobile parts but is not at the top of the desktop heap. In the context of Valorant, this means the GPU provides a solid foundation for high frame rates, but it is the component that prevents the system from achieving the absolute highest scores seen in the combo rankings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the resolution most common for competitive play, the system delivers its best performance. The Low preset leads with an average of 657.3 FPS, which is a figure that would saturate any current display. The Medium preset drops to 430.4 FPS, a reduction of 34.5% from Low, while High falls to 408 FPS, and Ultra to 394.1 FPS. These numbers indicate that the CPU is not a bottleneck at this resolution, as even the Ultra preset maintains a frame rate above 390 FPS, leaving the GPU as the primary driver of performance differences.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain extremely high, but the scaling is evident. Low still leads with 563.6 FPS, while Medium, High, and Ultra produce 370.1, 350.6, and 334.7 FPS, respectively. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 14.3% for Low, 14% for Medium, 14.1% for High, and 15.1% for Ultra. This consistent reduction across all settings suggests that the GPU is beginning to feel the load of additional pixels, but the performance is still far beyond what is needed for smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limitations become more apparent. The Low preset still delivers a very playable 448.5 FPS, but the higher settings show a more pronounced impact. Medium produces 295.5 FPS, High drops to 281.2 FPS, and Ultra falls to 265.7 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is steeper, with Low dropping 20.4%, Medium dropping 20.2%, High dropping 19.8%, and Ultra dropping 20.6%. These figures show that while the RTX 2070 SUPER can handle 4K Valorant, it does so with less headroom, making the Low preset the only option that provides a significant margin above 300 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is relatively uniform across all settings, which provides insight into the limiting component. From 1080p Low to 4K Low, the frame rate falls from 657.3 to 448.5, a reduction of 31.8%. For Medium, the drop is from 430.4 to 295.5, a 31.3% decrease. High falls from 408 to 281.2, a 31.1% drop, and Ultra from 394.1 to 265.7, a 32.6% decrease. The fact that the percentage drop is nearly identical across all presets indicates that the scaling is driven by the resolution itself, not by the complexity of the shaders or textures.

This uniform scaling pattern suggests that the GPU is the limiting component, as the CPU's workload does not change significantly with resolution. The Intel Core i7-14700K, with its 20 cores and 28 threads, is more than capable of handling the game's logic at any resolution, as evidenced by the high frame rates even at 4K. The GPU, however, must render more pixels as resolution increases, and its throughput is the factor that determines the final frame rate. The data shows that for each step up in resolution, the frame rate drops by a consistent percentage, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario.

The implications for players are clear: if the goal is to maximize frame rate, the resolution should be set to 1080p, where the system has the most headroom. At higher resolutions, the performance remains excellent, but the margin above the refresh rate of the display shrinks. This is particularly relevant for players with 240Hz or 360Hz monitors, where the Low preset at 1080p is the only configuration that consistently delivers frame rates above the display's maximum refresh rate, ensuring that the monitor's capabilities are fully utilized. The data supports a conclusion that this combo is well-balanced for 1080p competitive play, but the GPU becomes a more significant constraint as resolution scales upward.