Valorant

Valorant is a competitive FPS where frame rates far above display refresh rates matter, and the combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers extreme performance. The data shows this pairing achieves a minimum of 384 FPS at 4K Ultra settings and scales up to 529 FPS at 1080p Low, placing it in the 71st percentile of all tested combos with a rank of 834 out of 2883. The benchmark results indicate that this system is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at lower resolutions, while the CPU's 14 cores and 18 threads provide ample headroom to feed the RTX 4090's massive rendering throughput.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core Ultra 5 135H is a mobile processor with 14 cores and 18 threads, built on Intel's Meteor Lake architecture using a 7 nm process node. Its base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.60 GHz are critical for Valorant, a game that heavily relies on single-thread performance for game logic and input responsiveness. The processor's PassMark single-thread score of 3521 places it in the 81st percentile among all CPUs, indicating strong per-core performance that directly translates to high minimum frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios.

The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 112 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. This substantial cache allocation helps reduce memory latency, which is essential for maintaining consistent frame times in fast-paced shooters. The processor's average benchmark score of 29093 puts it within 0.1% of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (29123) and 0.5% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT (28940), demonstrating that its multi-threaded capabilities are competitive with desktop-class parts from previous generations.

In Valorant's measured results, the CPU's influence becomes evident when examining the frame rate scaling across resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the system delivers 384 FPS average, while at 1080p High it reaches 444 FPS. The relatively modest increase from 4K to 1080p (about 15%) suggests that at lower resolutions, the CPU begins to limit the frame rate, as the GPU has more headroom than the processor can feed. The processor's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11875.5 further confirms its ability to handle the game's background tasks, though Valorant itself typically uses fewer than 8 threads.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a flagship desktop GPU with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock of 2235 MHz and boost clock of 2520 MHz, combined with 16384 shading units, provide the raw compute power needed to push extremely high frame rates in Valorant. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 38194 places it in the 88th percentile among all GPUs, though its average benchmark score of 60347 is nearly tied with the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60326) and only 2.5% behind the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (61896).

In Valorant, the RTX 4090's 24 GB VRAM is far more than the game requires, as Valorant's textures and geometry are modest by modern standards. The GPU's memory clock of 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) ensures that memory bandwidth is never a bottleneck, even at 4K resolution. The measured FPS data confirms this: at 4K Ultra, the system still manages 384 FPS, which is only 12% lower than the 437 FPS at 1080p Ultra. This indicates that the GPU has sufficient headroom to maintain high frame rates across all tested resolutions.

The GPU's 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores are irrelevant for Valorant, as the game does not use ray tracing or DLSS. However, the sheer compute throughput of 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 ensures that even the most demanding frame rendering scenarios are handled with ease. The GPU's 450 W TDP and triple-slot cooler design indicate that it is not constrained by thermal throttling in typical desktop configurations, allowing it to sustain boost clocks during extended gaming sessions.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Valorant, and at what settings?

A: The highest average FPS is 529, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the peak performance point across all tested configurations.

Q: How does the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings?

A: At 1920x1080 Ultra, the average FPS is 437, while at 3840x2160 Ultra it drops to 384 FPS. This represents a 12.1% decrease when moving from 1080p to 4K, indicating that the GPU remains highly capable even at the highest resolution.

Q: What are the minimum FPS values recorded for this combo?

A: The only minimum FPS values provided are for Medium settings: 384 FPS at 1920x1080, 364 FPS at 2560x1440, and 338 FPS at 3840x2160. These minimums show that even the lowest recorded frame rates stay well above 300 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations in Valorant?

A: The combo ranks 834th out of 2883 tested combos, placing it in the top 29% (71st percentile) of all systems tested for this game.

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

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings deliver 502 FPS average, while Ultra settings deliver 414 FPS. The difference is 88 FPS, or 17.5% lower performance when enabling maximum graphical settings.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU become the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the CPU becomes the primary limiter at 1080p. While the GPU's performance scales well from 4K to 1080p (384 to 529 FPS on Low), the frame rate increase from 1440p to 1080p is smaller (502 to 529 FPS on Low, a 5.4% gain), indicating that the CPU's single-thread performance of 3521 in PassMark begins to cap the frame rate.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The Intel Core Ultra 5 135H combined with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 achieves a rank of 834 out of 2883 tested combinations in Valorant, placing it in the 71st percentile. This ranking is noteworthy because it shows that despite having a top-tier GPU, the mobile CPU prevents this combo from breaking into the top quartile. The CPU's average benchmark score of 29093 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (29123, delta -0.1%), yet the RTX 4090's average score of 60347 is only 0.3% behind the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (60140) and 2.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO V710 (58657).

The rank of 834 suggests that many combos with desktop-class CPUs achieve higher frame rates in Valorant, as the game's engine tends to favor higher single-thread performance over multi-core capabilities. The CPU's PassMark single-thread score of 3521, while strong for a mobile part, may not match the top desktop processors that can push frame rates beyond 600 FPS in this game. However, the RTX 4090's 88th percentile GPU ranking ensures that this combo remains in the upper echelon of performance.

It is important to note that the combo's percentile (71%) is lower than both the CPU's individual percentile (81%) and the GPU's individual percentile (88%). This discrepancy indicates that Valorant's performance is not simply the sum of its parts; the CPU's 14-core/18-thread configuration, while excellent for productivity, may introduce scheduling overhead that slightly hampers frame rates in a game that primarily uses 1-2 cores. The data supports this interpretation, as the combo ranks lower than either component's individual standing would suggest.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of diminishing returns as resolution increases, which provides insight into the system's bottleneck characteristics. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at Low settings, the average FPS drops from 529 to 502, a decline of 5.1%. At Ultra settings, the same resolution change results in a drop from 437 to 414 FPS, a 5.3% decrease. However, the drop from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 is more pronounced: at Low settings, FPS falls from 502 to 466 (7.2% decrease), and at Ultra settings from 414 to 384 (7.2% decrease).

This scaling pattern indicates that the system is primarily CPU-limited at 1080p and 1440p, with the GPU only beginning to exert more influence at 4K. The relatively small FPS differences between 1080p and 1440p (about 5%) suggest that the CPU's single-thread performance, as measured by its PassMark score of 3521, is the constraining factor. If the GPU were the primary bottleneck, we would expect to see a more linear relationship between resolution and frame rate, with larger drops at higher resolutions.

At 4K, the GPU's role becomes more significant, as evidenced by the larger FPS drop from 1440p. The RTX 4090's 24 GB VRAM and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth are more than sufficient for Valorant's modest VRAM requirements, so the limiting factor at 4K is likely the GPU's pixel fill rate (443.5 GPixel/s) and texture rate (1,290.2 GTexel/s). The fact that the system still achieves 384 FPS at 4K Ultra demonstrates that even the most demanding settings remain well beyond the threshold for competitive play.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings levels. At 1920x1080, the system delivers 529 FPS average on Low, 451 FPS on Medium (with a minimum of 384 FPS and maximum of 519 FPS), 444 FPS on High, and 437 FPS on Ultra. The spread from Low to Ultra is 92 FPS, representing a 17.4% performance penalty for enabling maximum settings. This relatively small penalty indicates that Valorant's graphical options have limited impact on the GPU's workload, further confirming the CPU-bound nature of the system at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS values are 502 on Low, 428 on Medium (minimum 364, maximum 492), 421 on High, and 414 on Ultra. The difference between Low and Ultra is 88 FPS, or 17.5%. The medium settings at 1440p show a minimum FPS of 364, which is only slightly below the 4K Ultra average of 384 FPS, suggesting that frame time consistency remains strong even under load.

At 3840x2160, the system achieves 466 FPS on Low, 397 FPS on Medium (minimum 338, maximum 457), 391 FPS on High, and 384 FPS on Ultra. The performance gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 82 FPS, or 17.6%. The minimum FPS of 338 at 4K Medium represents the lowest recorded value across all tests, yet it still exceeds 300 FPS, which is well above the refresh rate of even the fastest gaming monitors.

Across all configurations, the data shows a consistent pattern: Low settings provide approximately 17-18% higher frame rates than Ultra settings, regardless of resolution. This consistency indicates that the performance scaling is driven more by the CPU's frame generation capabilities than by GPU rendering load. The RTX 4090's massive compute resources (82.58 TFLOPS FP32) mean that even at 4K Ultra, the GPU is not fully saturated, allowing the CPU's 14 cores and 18 threads to remain the primary determinant of final frame rates.