Valorant

Valorant is a competitive FPS where frame rates far beyond display refresh rates are the norm, and the combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 delivers exceptional performance across all tested resolutions. The data shows a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at lower settings, but shifts toward a more balanced load as resolution and visual fidelity increase. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS figures to understand how this specific hardware pairing handles Riot’s tactical shooter.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 686 FPS, which drops to 602 FPS at 1440p and further to 481 FPS at 4K. This represents a 30% reduction in frame rate when moving from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that while the RTX 4060 is still the primary driver, the workload is becoming more demanding on the graphics pipeline.

The scaling behavior changes notably when examining the High preset. At 1080p High, the average is 443 FPS, falling to 378 FPS at 1440p and 302 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is 32%, which is slightly steeper than the Low preset’s 30% decline. This suggests that the higher fidelity settings introduce additional pixel shading work that scales more aggressively with resolution, even though the game remains highly playable at all three settings.

Medium settings present the most complete dataset, including minimum and maximum frame rates. The average FPS at 1080p Medium is 465, with a minimum of 395 and maximum of 535. At 1440p, the average drops to 397 FPS, with minimum and maximum values of 337 and 456 respectively. The 4K Medium results show an average of 317 FPS, with a minimum of 270 and maximum of 365. The delta between minimum and maximum frames widens slightly as resolution increases, going from a 140 FPS spread at 1080p to a 95 FPS spread at 4K, indicating that frame pacing becomes somewhat less consistent at higher resolutions.

Ultra settings produce the lowest frame rates of any preset, which is expected given the increased graphical demands. The 1080p Ultra average is 422 FPS, dropping to 360 FPS at 1440p and 288 FPS at 4K. The scaling from 1080p to 4K on Ultra is a 32% reduction, matching the High preset’s behavior. This consistency suggests that the game’s Ultra preset adds a fixed overhead that scales linearly with pixel count, rather than introducing any resolution-specific bottlenecks.

The frame rate deltas between presets also reveal important information about the limiting component. At 1080p, the gap between Low and Ultra is 264 FPS (686 vs 422), which is substantial and indicates that the GPU has significant headroom even at the highest settings. At 4K, this gap narrows to 193 FPS (481 vs 288), showing that the GPU is being pushed harder and has less spare capacity. The data clearly indicates that at 1080p and 1440p, the system is heavily CPU-bound at Low settings, while at 4K, the GPU becomes the more significant constraint across all presets.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 plays a central role in these results, with its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus providing 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The card’s boost clock of 2460 MHz and base clock of 1830 MHz are the driving frequencies behind the measured performance. For a game like Valorant, which is not particularly demanding on memory capacity, the 8 GB allocation is more than sufficient, and the bandwidth proves adequate for the 4K High preset’s 302 FPS average.

The RTX 4060’s 3072 shading units and 48 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s. These specifications translate directly to the frame rates observed, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU can flex its capabilities without being constrained by memory bandwidth. The FP32 performance of 15.11 TFLOPS is a strong indicator of the card’s raw compute capability, which Valorant’s relatively simple shaders can leverage efficiently.

The GPU’s benchmark scores provide context for its performance tier. With a Passmark G3D score of 19545 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2302, the RTX 4060 sits at the 61st percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 17639 places it just 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon HD 7790 and 0.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon 780M, though these rivals are from different eras and market segments. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 95057 and Vulkan score of 48643 further confirm the card’s compute capabilities.

The measured FPS data shows that the RTX 4060 is never the limiting factor for achieving playable frame rates in Valorant. Even at 4K Ultra, the 288 FPS average is far above any competitive display’s refresh rate. The card’s 115 W TDP and dual-slot design make it a modest power consumer, though these figures are provided for context rather than analysis of thermal performance. The GPU’s memory clock of 2125 MHz (17 Gbps effective) provides the bandwidth necessary to sustain the high frame rates observed across all tested configurations.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this system in Valorant?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 686 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the system perform at 4K resolution with the Medium preset?

A: At 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the system delivers an average of 317 FPS, with a minimum of 270 FPS and a maximum of 365 FPS.

Q: Is the RTX 4060 powerful enough for competitive play at 1440p?

A: Yes, the data shows that at 2560x1440 with Ultra settings, the system maintains an average of 360 FPS, which is well above competitive thresholds.

Q: What is the smallest frame rate difference between presets?

A: The smallest difference is between High and Ultra presets at 1080p, where High averages 443 FPS and Ultra averages 422 FPS, a difference of 21 FPS.

Q: What is the combo rank of this CPU and GPU pairing in Valorant?

A: The combination ranks 998th out of 2883 tested combos, placing it in the top 35% of all systems tested for this game.

Q: How does the 4K Low preset compare to the 1080p Ultra preset?

A: The 4K Low preset delivers 481 FPS average, which is 59 FPS higher than the 1080p Ultra preset’s 422 FPS average, showing that resolution scaling is less impactful than preset changes.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for this system in Valorant is as follows:

At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 686 FPS. The Medium preset averages 465 FPS, with minimum and maximum values of 395 and 535 FPS respectively. High settings produce a 443 FPS average, while the Ultra preset delivers 422 FPS. The spread between the lowest and highest presets at this resolution is 264 FPS, demonstrating the GPU’s considerable headroom.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 602 FPS, a 12% reduction from the 1080p result. Medium settings average 397 FPS, with a minimum of 337 FPS and maximum of 456 FPS. High settings produce 378 FPS average, while Ultra delivers 360 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 242 FPS, slightly narrower than at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 481 FPS, representing a 20% drop from the 1440p Low result. Medium settings average 317 FPS, with minimum and maximum values of 270 and 365 FPS respectively. High settings produce 302 FPS average, while Ultra delivers 288 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 193 FPS, indicating that the GPU is being pushed closer to its limits.

The Medium preset is the only configuration with complete min/max data across all resolutions. At 1080p, the minimum of 395 FPS ensures smooth frame delivery even in demanding scenes. At 1440p, the minimum of 337 FPS remains well above typical display refresh rates. At 4K, the minimum of 270 FPS still provides an excellent competitive experience, though it represents a 32% drop from the 1080p minimum.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal preset depends on the user’s display refresh rate and resolution. For 1080p displays, the High preset at 443 FPS average offers the best balance of visual quality and performance headroom. The Ultra preset’s 422 FPS average provides only a 21 FPS improvement in visual fidelity, which is unlikely to be perceptible in a fast-paced game, making High the recommended choice.

At 1440p, the High preset’s 378 FPS average is the recommended starting point, as it maintains a significant margin above even the highest refresh rate displays available. The Medium preset at 397 FPS offers slightly higher frame rates but with reduced visual quality, and the 19 FPS difference does not justify the graphical compromise. For users with 144Hz or 165Hz displays, the Ultra preset at 360 FPS provides maximum visual quality while still delivering more than double the required frame rate.

For 4K displays, the Medium preset at 317 FPS average is the recommended choice, as it provides the best combination of visual quality and performance. The minimum of 270 FPS ensures that frame drops remain above 240Hz display capabilities. The High preset at 302 FPS is also viable, but the 15 FPS average difference is marginal. The Low preset at 481 FPS is unnecessary for competitive play, as the visual compromises are not worth the extra frame rate headroom.

The data suggests that the system is capable of running Valorant at maximum settings across all resolutions with frame rates that exceed competitive requirements. The Ultra preset at 4K still delivers 288 FPS average, which is sufficient for even the most demanding esports displays. However, for users prioritizing maximum frame rates, the Low preset at any resolution provides the highest possible performance, with the 1080p Low configuration reaching 686 FPS average.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 plays a critical role in achieving the extreme frame rates observed in the Low preset tests. With 14 cores and 14 threads, the processor provides ample parallel processing capability for Valorant’s game logic and physics calculations. The boost clock of 5.00 GHz and base clock of 3.40 GHz are particularly important for a game that relies heavily on single-threaded performance, as evidenced by the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2085 and Passmark single-thread score of 4516.

The CPU’s 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache help reduce memory latency, which is crucial for maintaining consistent frame times in competitive scenarios. The 102.4 GB/s memory bandwidth from dual-channel DDR5 support ensures that the CPU can feed data to the GPU without creating a bottleneck. The Passmark multithread score of 37816 and Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14769 demonstrate strong overall processing capability.

The Core Ultra 5 235 ranks at the 89th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 46062. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375, scores 46030, a mere 0.1% difference, while the Intel Core i9-13900HX scores 46098, just 0.1% higher. This places the Core Ultra 5 235 in a highly competitive position, with performance nearly identical to both mobile and desktop processors from previous generations.

In Valorant specifically, the CPU’s influence is most apparent at 1080p Low settings, where the 686 FPS average indicates that the processor can sustain extremely high instruction throughput. As resolution increases, the GPU becomes more of a limiting factor, but the CPU still maintains frame rates well above competitive thresholds. The measured results confirm that this processor provides sufficient single-thread performance and cache capacity to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 4060 in this title, even at the lowest settings where CPU load is typically highest.