Valorant

# Valorant with Intel Core Ultra 5 235 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

This combination of Intel's Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4090 delivers exceptional performance in Valorant, with average frame rates ranging from 498 FPS at 4K Ultra settings to 686 FPS at 1080p Low settings, placing this combo at rank 114 out of 2883 tested configurations. The data reveals a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-limited at lower resolutions, yet still maintains triple-digit frame rates even at the most demanding settings, making it a top-tier option for competitive play.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern of diminishing returns as resolution increases, but the absolute frame rates remain extraordinarily high across all tested resolutions. At 1080p High settings, the combo produces 575 FPS average, while 1440p High drops to 546 FPS, and 4K High settles at 506 FPS. This represents a 12% reduction from 1080p to 4K at High settings, which is notably modest compared to what would be expected in visually heavier titles. The low-settings preset shows a similar trend: 686 FPS at 1080p, 650 FPS at 1440p, and 604 FPS at 4K, translating to a 12% drop from the lowest to the highest resolution.

The scaling pattern across resolutions indicates that Valorant's engine is not heavily pixel-bound, even at 4K. The RTX 4090's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory with 1.01 TB/s bandwidth is far more than sufficient for this game, and the 384-bit memory bus ensures that bandwidth constraints never become a limiting factor. The delta between 1440p and 4K at Medium settings is particularly revealing: 555 FPS versus 515 FPS, a difference of only 7.2%. This compression of performance gaps at higher resolutions suggests that the CPU is beginning to play a more significant role in determining frame rates, though the RTX 4090's raw compute power (82.58 TFLOPS FP32) remains the primary driver.

What is most striking is that even at 4K Ultra, the average frame rate of 498 FPS exceeds the refresh rate capabilities of virtually all consumer monitors. The scaling behavior demonstrates that Valorant is a title where this hardware combination will never feel constrained by resolution choices, as the minimum measured frame rate across all configurations is 438 FPS at 4K Medium. The 4K Medium data point, with its min/max range of 438-592 FPS, shows a 26% spread between minimum and maximum, indicating that scene complexity can cause noticeable variance, but even the lowest recorded frame rate would be considered exceptional in most competitive scenarios.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 features 14 cores and 14 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, built on TSMC's 3 nm process with 17,800 million transistors. This Arrow Lake-S architecture processor achieves an average benchmark score of 46062, placing it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs tested.

In Valorant, a game known for its modest CPU demands, the Core Ultra 5 235's single-thread performance is a critical asset. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2085 reflects strong per-core capability, which directly translates to the game's primary thread handling the main simulation and input processing. The multi-core score of 14769 in Cinebench R23 indicates that the 14-core configuration provides substantial headroom for background tasks, streaming, and voice communication applications that competitive players often run concurrently.

The CPU's 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB L2 cache per core contribute to low latency memory access patterns, which is crucial for maintaining consistent frame times in a fast-paced FPS. The L1 cache of 192 KB per core further supports this. The processor's PassMark single-thread score of 4516 places it competitively against rivals like the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (which scores 46030 average, a 0.1% delta) and the Intel Core i9-13900HX (46098 average, -0.1% delta), showing that the Core Ultra 5 235 is essentially tied with these alternatives in overall CPU performance.

The measured FPS data suggests that the CPU is the primary limiter at 1080p Low settings, where 686 FPS represents the ceiling of what this processor can feed to the GPU. The fact that 4K Low (604 FPS) is only 12% lower than 1080p Low indicates that the CPU is already near its maximum throughput for this game, and the GPU has ample headroom to handle the increased pixel workload. The PassMark multi-thread score of 37816 and physics score of 2570 further demonstrate that the CPU is well-equipped to handle the game's simulation demands without introducing bottlenecks, even when paired with one of the fastest consumer GPUs available.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, based on the AD102 chip with Ada Lovelace architecture, is an end-of-life product with a launch MSRP of 1,599 USD. It features 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, with base and boost clocks of 2235 MHz and 2520 MHz respectively. The GPU's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory operates at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) across a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth.

In Valorant, the RTX 4090's performance is so far beyond the game's requirements that it rarely becomes the limiting factor. The measured frame rates at all resolutions and settings exceed 490 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any competitive display. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 38194 places it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60326 average, 0% delta) and AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (61896 average, -2.5% delta), though these comparisons are based on synthetic benchmarks rather than gaming performance.

The RTX 4090's 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 compute capability and 1,290.2 GTexel/s texture rate are massively overprovisioned for a game like Valorant, which uses relatively simple geometry and texture work compared to modern AAA titles. The GPU's 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores are largely idle in this title, as Valorant does not implement ray tracing or DLSS features that would utilize these specialized units. The pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s ensures that even at 4K resolution with 8.3 million pixels per frame, the rasterization pipeline can process frames faster than the CPU can submit them.

The measured FPS pattern across settings at each resolution confirms the GPU's dominance: at 1080p, the delta between Low (686 FPS) and Ultra (566 FPS) is 17.5%, while at 4K, the same comparison shows 604 FPS versus 498 FPS, a 17.5% difference. This consistent percentage across resolutions indicates that the GPU scales predictably with settings changes, and the absolute frame rates are always far above the 144 Hz or 240 Hz refresh rates commonly used by competitive players.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080 resolution, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 686 FPS, while High settings yield 575 FPS. Medium settings show an average of 585 FPS with a minimum of 497 FPS and maximum of 673 FPS, while Ultra settings produce 566 FPS average. The 1080p Medium data point is notable because it is the only configuration at this resolution with recorded min/max values, showing a variance of 176 FPS between the lowest and highest frame rates.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains exceptionally high. Low settings average 650 FPS, High settings average 546 FPS, Medium settings average 555 FPS (with a range of 471-638 FPS), and Ultra settings average 537 FPS. The drop from 1080p Low to 1440p Low is 5.2%, while the drop from 1080p Ultra to 1440p Ultra is 5.1%, showing consistent scaling behavior across settings presets.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates remain competitive with high-refresh-rate gaming. Low settings produce an average of 604 FPS, High settings average 506 FPS, Medium settings average 515 FPS (with a range of 438-592 FPS), and Ultra settings average 498 FPS. The 4K Medium configuration shows the largest variance of any tested setting, with a 154 FPS spread between minimum and maximum. This suggests that certain in-game scenes or effects can cause more significant frame time spikes at this resolution, though the absolute minimum of 438 FPS remains well above any competitive threshold.

Across all resolutions, the ordering of settings by average FPS is consistent: Low always delivers the highest frame rate, followed by Medium, then High, with Ultra being the most demanding. However, the differences between Medium, High, and Ultra are relatively small—at 4K, the gap between Medium (515 FPS) and Ultra (498 FPS) is only 3.3%, indicating that the settings presets have diminishing impact on performance at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination achieves a combo rank of 114 out of 2883 tested configurations in Valorant, placing it in the top 4% of all combinations tested. This ranking reflects the system's ability to maintain extremely high frame rates across all resolutions and settings, even though the RTX 4090 is arguably overkill for a game that runs well on far less powerful hardware.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 89th among all tested CPUs and the GPU's 88th percentile ranking among all GPUs combine to create a system that is well-balanced for this title, though the GPU's performance headroom is substantially underutilized. The combo rank of 114 suggests that there are 113 configurations that achieve even higher frame rates, likely featuring faster CPUs that can push the frame rate ceiling higher in CPU-bound scenarios, particularly at 1080p Low settings where the Core Ultra 5 235's limits become apparent.

The nearest CPU rivals—AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375, Intel Core i9-13900HX, AMD EPYC 4364P, and AMD EPYC 7303—all have average benchmark scores within 0.2% of the Core Ultra 5 235, indicating that the processor is solidly in the mid-high tier of CPU performance. However, the EPYC processors are server-grade parts with different performance characteristics, and their inclusion in the nearest rivals list highlights the fact that raw benchmark scores don't always translate directly to gaming performance. The Core Ultra 5 235's 14-core/14-thread configuration with a 5.00 GHz boost clock is well-suited for Valorant's relatively light threading requirements, and the system's rank reflects this synergy.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this combo?

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 686 FPS at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How much does 4K resolution impact performance compared to 1080p?

A: At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 575 FPS at 1080p to 506 FPS at 4K, representing a 12% reduction. At Low settings, the drop is from 686 FPS to 604 FPS, also a 12% reduction.

Q: Is the RTX 4090 the limiting factor in this system for Valorant?

A: No, the data indicates that the CPU becomes the limiting factor at lower resolutions. The relatively small performance gap between 1080p Low (686 FPS) and 4K Low (604 FPS) suggests the CPU is near its maximum frame output capability.

Q: What is the minimum frame rate recorded across all tested configurations?

A: The minimum frame rate recorded is 438 FPS, which occurred at 3840x2160 resolution with Medium settings.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: This combination ranks 114 out of 2883 tested combos, placing it in the top 4% of all tested configurations for Valorant.

Q: Which settings preset provides the most consistent frame delivery at 4K?

A: Medium settings at 4K have a measured range of 438-592 FPS, while other presets at this resolution do not have recorded min/max values. The variance at Medium settings suggests that High or Ultra presets may provide more consistent frame delivery, though their averages are slightly lower.

Settings Recommendations

For competitive play at 1080p, the Low settings preset delivers the highest average frame rate at 686 FPS, which provides the maximum advantage in terms of input latency and frame pacing. However, the Ultra preset at 566 FPS average still exceeds the capabilities of all consumer displays, so players who prefer visual clarity can choose Ultra settings with a negligible competitive impact. The 1080p Medium preset, with its measured range of 497-673 FPS, offers a balanced approach for players who want improved visuals without sacrificing the highest possible frame rates.

At 1440p, the Low preset again leads at 650 FPS, but the Ultra preset at 537 FPS remains well above 360 Hz refresh rates. Players with 240 Hz or 360 Hz monitors can comfortably select High or Ultra settings, as the average frame rates of 546 FPS and 537 FPS respectively provide sufficient headroom to maintain maximum refresh rates. The Medium preset's range of 471-638 FPS indicates that frame times may be less consistent, though still acceptable for competitive play.

For 4K gaming, the Ultra preset at 498 FPS average is the recommended choice for players with high-refresh-rate 4K displays, as the visual quality improvement over Low settings (604 FPS) comes at only a 17.5% performance cost. The Medium preset's minimum frame rate of 438 FPS suggests that scene complexity can cause noticeable dips, while the Ultra preset's consistent average of 498 FPS makes it a safer choice for maintaining stable frame delivery. Given that all settings at all resolutions produce frame rates above 490 FPS, the choice of preset should be driven by visual preference and display capabilities rather than performance concerns, as this hardware combination never approaches the limits of playability in Valorant.