Valorant

Valorant is a competitive FPS that rewards high and consistent frame rates, and the measured data for the Intel Core i9-14900K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER shows a system that is overwhelmingly capable across all tested settings and resolutions. The benchmark results indicate that this combination is rarely the limiting factor, with even the most demanding preset at 4K producing an average well above the refresh rates of most monitors. The data suggests a configuration that prioritizes raw CPU throughput, which is a critical asset for this particular game, while the GPU handles the visual load with ample headroom.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data across the four presets—Low, Medium, High, and Ultra—reveals a clear hierarchy in performance, but also highlights a point of diminishing returns where the visual upgrade from High to Ultra is not justified by the frame rate cost. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 596 FPS, while Medium drops to 392 FPS, High to 374 FPS, and Ultra to 356 FPS. The difference between Medium and High is a modest 18 FPS, whereas the jump from Low to Medium is a significant 204 FPS. This indicates that the Low preset is in a performance tier of its own, likely limited by other system components rather than the GPU or CPU.

For players seeking the highest possible frame rates for competitive play, the Low preset is the clear choice, delivering an average that exceeds 500 FPS at both 1080p and 1440p. However, the data shows that the Medium preset provides a much more balanced experience. At 1080p, Medium offers 392 FPS, which is still exceptionally high and only 36 FPS lower than High. The trade-off between visual fidelity and performance is most favorable at Medium, as it captures a substantial portion of the performance available at Low while providing a noticeably better visual experience. The High preset offers a marginal improvement over Medium but at a greater performance cost, while Ultra provides the best visuals but with the lowest frame rates.

The frame time consistency, as indicated by the min and max FPS values for the Medium preset, is also a factor. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset shows a minimum of 285 FPS and a maximum of 385 FPS, which is a tighter range than the 1080p Medium results (334-451 FPS). This suggests that at higher resolutions the GPU is more consistently loaded, which can result in smoother frame pacing. Given that even the Ultra preset at 4K averages 243 FPS, the recommendation is to use the Medium preset as the baseline for a high-refresh-rate experience, and only consider High or Ultra if the display's refresh rate is lower and the user prioritizes image quality over raw FPS headroom.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific combination of the Intel Core i9-14900K and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER holds a rank of 2215 out of 3708 tested combos for Valorant. This placement indicates that while this system is very capable, there are a significant number of other hardware combinations that achieve higher average frame rates in this specific title. The rank suggests that the pairing is not at the very top of the leaderboard, which is often dominated by the latest flagship GPUs, but it is still in the upper half of all tested systems, which is a strong result for a GPU from the previous generation.

The rank is influenced by the balance between the CPU and GPU. The i9-14900K is a top-tier processor with a percentile rank of 95 among all CPUs, meaning it outperforms the vast majority of other processors in general benchmarks. In contrast, the RTX 2060 SUPER has a percentile rank of 62 among all GPUs, indicating it is a mid-range performer. The data implies that the CPU is capable of feeding frames much faster than the GPU can render them at high settings, which is why the rank, while respectable, is not higher. If this CPU were paired with a more powerful GPU, the combo's rank in Valorant would likely improve dramatically, as the CPU's potential is not being fully utilized in this configuration.

Looking at the CPU's nearest rivals, the Intel Core i9-14900KF performs almost identically with a deltaPct of -0.3%, meaning the KF variant is slightly faster in average benchmark score. The AMD EPYC 7413 is 1.2% faster, while the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 is 1.7% slower. These small deltas confirm that the i9-14900K is at the peak of general processing performance. The GPU's rivals show a similar pattern of close competition, with the RTX 3060 Mobile being 0.4% slower and the Intel Arc A770M being 1.6% slower. This data suggests that the combo's rank is not due to a weak CPU or GPU, but rather the specific performance characteristics of Valorant, which may favor other architectures or memory configurations.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture and features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. Its base clock is 1470 MHz, which boosts to 1650 MHz. These specs place it in the mid-range tier, and its benchmark data, such as a Passmark G3D score of 16462, confirms its position. In Valorant, the GPU's role is to render the game's relatively simple visual scenes, and the data shows it does so with significant headroom. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra (243 FPS) is more than three times higher than the 60 FPS standard for most games, which underscores that the GPU is not being heavily stressed.

The VRAM capacity of 8 GB is another indicator that this GPU is not the bottleneck in Valorant. The game's textures and effects are not demanding enough to come close to filling this buffer, even at 4K resolution. The memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s is also more than sufficient for the data throughput required by Valorant at any settings. The performance difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p is 240 FPS (596 vs 356), which shows that the GPU's workload does increase with settings, but it never becomes a limiting factor. The GPU's frame rates at 4K Low (406 FPS) are still higher than the 1080p Ultra results for many other systems, indicating the sheer capability of this pairing.

The GPU's clock speeds play a role in this performance, but the data suggests that the architecture's efficiency is more important. The boost clock of 1650 MHz is not exceptionally high, yet the card delivers outstanding results in this title. The benchmark results also show that the RTX 2060 SUPER is competitive with other GPUs in its class, such as the RTX 3060 Mobile, which is only 0.4% slower in average benchmark score. This indicates that the GPU is performing as expected, and the high FPS in Valorant reflects the game's optimization for a wide range of hardware rather than any unique capability of this specific card.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive look at performance across various settings and resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields an average of 596 FPS, which is the highest score recorded for this combo. The Medium preset averages 392 FPS, with a minimum of 334 FPS and a maximum of 451 FPS. The High preset averages 374 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 356 FPS. These numbers show a clear trend: the performance cost of each settings tier is not linear, with the largest drop occurring between Low and Medium.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset still achieves a very high average of 508 FPS. The Medium preset averages 335 FPS, with a minimum of 285 FPS and a maximum of 385 FPS. The High preset averages 319 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 304 FPS. The difference between Medium and High at 1440p is only 16 FPS, which is even less than at 1080p. This suggests that as resolution increases, the GPU becomes slightly more involved, but the CPU still holds dominance in determining the frame rate.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 406 FPS, which is a remarkable result for 4K gaming. The Medium preset averages 268 FPS, with a minimum of 227 FPS and a maximum of 308 FPS. The High preset averages 255 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 243 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K shows a more substantial drop in FPS, indicating the GPU is starting to carry more of the load. However, even at 4K Ultra, the average FPS is well above 144 Hz, which is the target for most high-refresh-rate monitors.

Resolution Scaling

The data on resolution scaling offers insight into the system's bottleneck. From 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS for the Low preset drops from 596 to 508, a decrease of 14.8%. For the Medium preset, the drop is from 392 to 335, a 14.5% decrease. For High, it drops from 374 to 319, a 14.7% decrease, and for Ultra, from 356 to 304, a 14.6% decrease. This consistent percentage drop across all settings suggests that the scaling is uniform and primarily driven by the increased pixel count.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K is more pronounced. The Low preset drops from 508 to 406, a decrease of 20.1%. The Medium preset drops from 335 to 268, a 20.0% decrease. High drops from 319 to 255, a 20.1% decrease, and Ultra drops from 304 to 243, a 20.1% decrease. This larger percentage drop indicates that the GPU is becoming a more significant limiting factor at 4K. The fact that the percentage drop is nearly identical across all settings at each resolution step is telling. It implies that the bottleneck is not the settings level, but rather the resolution itself, which is a characteristic of GPU-bound performance.

The transition from 1080p to 1440p shows a smaller penalty than the transition to 4K, which suggests that the CPU is still the primary driver at 1080p and 1440p. The i9-14900K's massive processing power can feed frames faster than the GPU can render them, so the FPS is limited by the GPU's rendering speed. When moving to 4K, the GPU's workload increases significantly, and it begins to approach its limit, resulting in steeper FPS drops. This analysis points to a system that is CPU-bound at lower resolutions and transitions to a more balanced state at 4K, though it never becomes fully GPU-bound.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core processor with 32 threads, based on the Raptor Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz. Its cache structure includes 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 2 MB of L2 cache per core, and a shared 36 MB of L3 cache. This configuration provides exceptional single-threaded and multi-threaded performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 scores of 2262.5 (single-core) and 39399.5 (multi-core). In Valorant, which is known to be highly dependent on single-core performance, this CPU is a dominant force.

The benchmark data shows that the CPU's performance is far ahead of what the RTX 2060 SUPER needs to maintain high frame rates. The i9-14900K's Passmark single-thread score of 4697 is a strong indicator of its ability to handle the game's primary game logic and rendering thread. The CPU's percentile rank of 95 among all CPUs confirms that it is at the very top of the performance hierarchy. This means that in this pairing, the CPU is almost never the bottleneck, which is why the FPS numbers are so high even at lower resolutions where the GPU has less work to do.

The relationship between the CPU and GPU is clear from the data. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 596 FPS, but this number is likely limited by the GPU's ability to process draw calls and render frames, not the CPU's ability to calculate game state. The i9-14900K could potentially push even higher frame rates if paired with a more powerful GPU. The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the i9-14900KF, show a negligible 0.3% performance difference, which confirms that this CPU is at the apex of its generation. Its large L3 cache and high clock speeds are precisely the traits that allow it to excel in a game like Valorant, where consistent and high frame rates are paramount for competitive play.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS for this combo at 1080p with the High preset?

A: The measured average FPS is 374 at 1920x1080 with the High settings preset.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to the Ultra preset at 1440p?

A: The Low preset averages 508 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 304 FPS, making the Low preset 204 FPS faster at 2560x1440.

Q: Does the system maintain high frame rates at 4K resolution?

A: Yes, even at 3840x2160 with the Ultra preset, the average FPS is 243, which is above the refresh rate of most high-end monitors.

Q: Which component is more likely to be the bottleneck in this system for Valorant?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the FPS drop from 1440p to 4K is more significant than the drop from 1080p to 1440p, while the CPU has a percentile rank of 95.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The lowest average FPS is 243, which occurs at 3840x2160 with the Ultra settings preset.

Q: How does the i9-14900K compare to its closest rival in overall CPU benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i9-14900KF is its closest rival, with a deltaPct of -0.3%, meaning the i9-14900K is slightly slower in average benchmark score.