Valorant

Valorant is a competitive FPS where frame rate often matters more than absolute visual fidelity, and the measured results for the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 show a system that is rarely the limiting factor. The data reveals a clear pattern: even at 4K, average frame rates remain far above the refresh rates of most monitors, suggesting that this combination is heavily CPU-bound in this title. The RTX 2060, while a capable card, appears to have plenty of headroom, as the frame rate scales dramatically when resolution drops and settings are lowered.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a relatively modest drop when moving from 1080p to 1440p, followed by a more significant decline at 4K. At High settings, the average frame rate goes from 341 FPS at 1920x1080 to 291 FPS at 2560x1440, a decrease of roughly 15%. Pushing further to 3840x2160 brings the average down to 232 FPS, another 20% reduction from the 1440p figure. This scaling pattern suggests that while the GPU is becoming more involved at higher resolutions, the overall performance is still exceptionally high.

The Low settings row is even more revealing. At 1080p Low, the system produces 543 FPS average. At 1440p Low, it drops to 463 FPS, and at 4K Low, it still manages 370 FPS. The fact that even the 4K Low result exceeds 360 FPS indicates the GPU is not being stressed to its limit. The gap between Low and High settings at the same resolution is substantial; for instance, at 1080p, the difference is over 200 FPS. This large delta shows that the game’s visual settings have a significant impact on the rendering load, but the RTX 2060 handles it without collapsing.

Interpreting the scaling, the limiting component at 1080p is almost certainly the CPU. The 543 FPS Low result at 1080p is an extraordinary figure that points to the Intel Core Ultra 5 245’s strong single-thread performance. As resolution increases, the GPU load grows, but the frame rates remain high enough that the CPU is still likely the primary constraint. The data does not show a point where the GPU becomes the bottleneck, as even the lowest 4K result (221 FPS at Ultra) is well above playable thresholds for competitive gaming. The pattern is consistent with Valorant being a lightweight title for modern graphics hardware. The RTX 2060’s 6 GB of VRAM and 192-bit memory interface appear sufficient for all tested settings, as there are no signs of memory-related stutters or severe frame drops in the recorded averages.

Settings Recommendations

Examining the measured rows, the choice of settings depends heavily on the target refresh rate and resolution. For a 1080p display with a 240 Hz or 360 Hz panel, the Low preset delivers the highest average frame rate at 543 FPS, which provides maximum headroom. However, the Medium preset still achieves 358 FPS, which is more than enough for any current high-refresh monitor. The High preset at 341 FPS is nearly identical to Medium, suggesting that the extra visual features in High do not cost much performance at this resolution.

At 1440p, the story is similar. Low produces 463 FPS, Medium 305 FPS, and High 291 FPS. For a 1440p 240 Hz monitor, Medium is the optimal choice, offering a comfortable margin above the refresh rate while providing better visual quality than Low. The Ultra preset at 277 FPS is also viable, but the difference between Medium and Ultra is only 28 FPS, while the visual improvements may be marginal in a fast-paced shooter. The data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot for 1440p, balancing frame rate and image quality.

For 4K, the frame rates are still high but require more consideration. The Low preset at 370 FPS is excellent, but Medium at 244 FPS and High at 232 FPS are both playable on a 144 Hz 4K display. The Ultra preset at 221 FPS is the lowest average recorded, but it remains above 200 FPS, which is still smooth. Given that the minimum FPS recorded for Medium at 4K is 207 FPS, the 1% lows are unlikely to cause noticeable hitches. For 4K gaming, Medium offers the best trade-off, as it maintains an average above 240 FPS while providing a visual upgrade over Low. The measured data indicates that the RTX 2060 can handle 4K in Valorant, which is impressive for a card that sits in the 58th percentile of all GPUs.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combination?

A: The highest average FPS is 543, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: Does the RTX 2060 bottleneck the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 in Valorant?

A: Based on the data, no. Even at 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 221, which indicates the GPU is not the limiting factor at any tested resolution or setting.

Q: How much performance is gained by switching from High to Low settings at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the average FPS increases from 341 on High to 543 on Low, a gain of 202 FPS or roughly 59% higher frame rate.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded in the entire dataset?

A: The lowest minimum FPS is 207, which was recorded at 3840x2160 resolution with Medium settings.

Q: Is the Ultra preset worth using at 1440p?

A: The Ultra preset at 1440p yields 277 FPS average, which is only 28 FPS lower than Medium (305 FPS). It is a viable option for high-refresh 1440p displays.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested combinations in Valorant?

A: The combination ranks 2070 out of 2883 tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the ranking list for this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset is as follows. At 1920x1080, the Low settings produce an average of 543 FPS. Moving to Medium, the average drops to 358 FPS, with a minimum of 304 FPS and a maximum of 411 FPS recorded. The High preset yields 341 FPS average, and Ultra drops slightly to 324 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a total reduction of 219 FPS, or about 40% of the Low figure.

At 2560x1440, the Low settings average 463 FPS. Medium is next with 305 FPS, and the minimum and maximum for Medium are 259 and 351 FPS, respectively. High settings average 291 FPS, while Ultra averages 277 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 186 FPS. Compared to the 1080p results, each setting at 1440p is roughly 15-20% lower, which is a modest penalty for the increased pixel count.

At 3840x2160, the Low settings produce an average of 370 FPS. Medium averages 244 FPS, with a minimum of 207 and a maximum of 280. High settings average 232 FPS, and Ultra averages 221 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at High settings is from 341 to 232 FPS, a reduction of 109 FPS or about 32%. At Low settings, the drop is from 543 to 370 FPS, a reduction of 173 FPS or about 32% as well. This consistent percentage drop across settings suggests that the GPU load scales uniformly with resolution, while the absolute frame rates remain very high.

The Medium settings are the only rows with recorded minimum and maximum values, and they show that the frame time variance is tight. At 1080p Medium, the range is 304 to 411 FPS, a spread of 107 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the range is 259 to 351 FPS, a spread of 92 FPS. At 4K Medium, the range narrows to 207 to 280 FPS, a spread of 73 FPS. This tightening range at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is becoming more consistently loaded, but the absolute values remain well within the territory of smooth gameplay.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is built on the Turing architecture and features 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs. Its memory configuration consists of 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. The card’s base clock is 1365 MHz, with a boost clock of 1680 MHz. These specifications place the RTX 2060 in the 58th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 15290. Its nearest rivals in benchmark performance are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (deltaPct 0), the AMD Radeon 680M (deltaPct 0.1), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM (deltaPct 0.6), and the AMD Radeon RX 7600 (deltaPct 0.8). This indicates that the RTX 2060 performs on par with these cards in general benchmarks.

In Valorant’s measured results, the RTX 2060 never appears to be the bottleneck. The highest recorded average FPS is 543 at 1080p Low, and even at 4K Ultra, the average is 221 FPS. The GPU’s 6 GB of VRAM is not a concern, as the game’s textures and effects at Ultra settings do not seem to exceed this capacity, given the high frame rates. The 192-bit memory bus and 336 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the game’s rendering demands. The pixel rate of 80.64 GPixel/s and texture rate of 201.6 GTexel/s provide ample fill rate for the resolutions tested.

The card’s FP32 performance of 6.451 TFLOPS is modest by modern standards, but Valorant is not a graphically intensive title. The data shows that the RTX 2060 can push frame rates far beyond what is necessary for competitive play. The GPU’s role in this combination is to provide enough rendering power to avoid limiting the CPU. Given the measured results, it succeeds in this role across all settings and resolutions. The card’s end-of-life production status and 2019 release date do not hinder its performance in this specific game, as the benchmark results confirm.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. The CPU’s cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, with a theoretical bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. The processor is unlocked, but it has a 65 W TDP and is built for the Intel Socket 1851.

In benchmark tests, the Core Ultra 5 245 scores 32924 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 4648 in single-core. Its Passmark single-thread score is 4394, and its multithread score is 38706. The processor’s average benchmark score is 48995, placing it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (deltaPct -0.4), AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (deltaPct -0.5), Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (deltaPct 0.6), and Intel Core i5-14600K (deltaPct 0.8). These rivals have nearly identical average scores, showing that the Core Ultra 5 245 is competitive in general-purpose benchmarks.

In Valorant, the CPU’s single-thread performance is likely the key factor. The game is known for being CPU-bound, and the measured FPS numbers support this. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 543 FPS, which is an extraordinary figure that can only be reached with strong per-core performance. The boost clock of 5.10 GHz and the high single-core Cinebench score of 4648 contribute to this result. The 14 cores and 14 threads are more than sufficient for the game, as Valorant does not typically use many threads. The 24 MB of L3 cache likely helps with game logic and draw calls.

The CPU’s performance relative to its rivals suggests that the Core Ultra 5 245 is a solid choice for a high-refresh gaming system. Its 90th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates that it outperforms the majority of processors on the market. In the context of this combo, the CPU is the star, enabling frame rates that exceed the refresh rates of all common gaming monitors. The data shows that the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is not a bottleneck at any resolution or setting tested, which is the ideal scenario for a competitive FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 ranks 2070 out of 2883 tested combos in Valorant. This places the combo in the lower 28% of all combinations tested. This ranking is surprisingly low given the high frame rates measured, but it reflects the fact that many other combos include more powerful GPUs or CPUs that push even higher numbers. The ranking is relative to all combos in the database, not an absolute measure of playability.

The measured FPS data shows that this combo is capable of producing frame rates that are far beyond what is needed for smooth gameplay. At 1080p High, it averages 341 FPS, which is higher than the refresh rate of any monitor on the market. At 4K Ultra, it still manages 221 FPS. Despite these strong numbers, the combo’s rank of 2070 suggests that there are many other configurations that achieve even higher frame rates, likely due to more powerful GPUs that allow for higher minimum FPS or better scaling at 4K.

The rank of 2070 out of 2883 should not be interpreted as a failure. It simply indicates that in the competitive landscape of tested hardware, this specific pairing is not at the top. The RTX 2060’s age and 6 GB VRAM are factors, but the data shows they do not harm performance in Valorant. The CPU’s 90th percentile ranking is strong, but the GPU’s 58th percentile ranking pulls the combo down in the overall list. For a player using a 1080p or 1440p monitor with a refresh rate of 240 Hz or lower, this combo delivers everything needed. The ranking is a statistical measure, while the actual FPS numbers are what matter for gameplay. The data clearly shows that this combo is more than capable of running Valorant at high frame rates, regardless of its relative rank.