Valorant

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS for Valorant at 1080p with High settings using this CPU and GPU combo?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings is 383. This places the system well above the 144 Hz refresh rate commonly targeted by competitive FPS players.

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H compare to its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 5 338H?

A: The Ultra 7 165H has an average benchmark score of 34083, which is 0.3% higher than the Ultra 5 338H's score of 33989. The difference is effectively negligible, meaning the two CPUs deliver nearly identical raw compute performance.

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration and bandwidth?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 features 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. This configuration is sufficient for Valorant's modest VRAM demands at all tested settings.

Q: At which resolution and settings does the system achieve its highest measured average FPS?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 529, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is significantly above the 416 FPS recorded at 4K with Low settings, indicating strong CPU scaling at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested CPU-GPU combinations for Valorant?

A: This system ranks 2210 out of 3708 tested combos, placing it in the middle of the database. The percentile ranking for the CPU is 84, while the GPU sits at percentile 72, suggesting the combined result is weighted by both components.

Q: Does the RTX 5060 outperform the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT in average benchmark score?

A: Yes, but by a slim margin. The RTX 5060's average benchmark score is 26331, which is 1.2% higher than the RX 6750 XT's score of 26011. The RTX 5060 also trails the AMD Radeon 860M by 0.3%, showing it sits in a tight competitive cluster.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a GB206 chip manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It houses 3840 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output units, alongside 30 RT cores and 120 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2280 MHz with a boost clock of 2497 MHz, and its 8 GB of GDDR7 memory runs at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) across a 128-bit bus, yielding 448.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

In Valorant, the GPU's role is somewhat unusual because the game is highly CPU-bound at lower resolutions. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 249, while at 4K Low it jumps to 416. This 167 FPS spread indicates that even at 4K, the GPU is not the primary bottleneck; rather, the game's rendering load scales with settings, but the CPU remains capable of feeding frames well beyond typical display refresh rates. The RTX 5060's pixel rate of 119.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 299.6 GTexel/s are more than adequate for Valorant's relatively simple scenes, even at maximum detail.

The GPU's FP32 throughput of 19.18 TFLOPS is substantial, but Valorant does not heavily utilize compute shaders or ray tracing. The 30 RT cores are essentially idle in this title, as Valorant is a competitive shooter with no ray-traced effects. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is never stressed; at 4K Ultra, the game's memory footprint stays well within this limit, and the 448.0 GB/s bandwidth ensures no texture streaming bottlenecks. Benchmark results indicate that the GPU's performance percentile of 72 versus all GPUs is respectable, but in Valorant, the measured FPS figures suggest the RTX 5060 is rarely the limiting factor.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 achieves a rank of 2210 out of 3708 tested combos in Valorant. This places the system in the 59.6th percentile overall, meaning roughly 40% of tested combos perform better. The CPU alone sits at the 84th percentile against all CPUs, while the GPU is at the 72nd percentile against all GPUs. The discrepancy between the component percentiles and the combo rank suggests that Valorant's performance is more dependent on the CPU than the GPU, and the system's mid-pack rank reflects the CPU's strong but not elite standing.

When compared to the nearest rivals in the database, the CPU's average benchmark score of 34083 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X's 34260, a difference of -0.5%. The GPU's average score of 26331 is 1.2% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT. However, these component-level comparisons don't directly translate to Valorant-specific results. The measured FPS data shows that this combo delivers over 500 FPS at 1080p Low, which is well above what most displays can show. The rank of 2210 indicates that while many combos achieve higher raw FPS, the practical difference for competitive play is minimal once past the 300 FPS threshold.

The combo's position in the database is heavily influenced by the CPU's performance, as Valorant is known to scale with single-thread performance. The Ultra 7 165H's single-core Cinebench R23 score of 1759 is solid, but not top-tier, which explains why the combo doesn't crack the top 25% of tested configurations. The GPU's contribution becomes more apparent at 4K, where the RTX 5060's 249 FPS at Ultra settings still exceeds the refresh rate of most 4K monitors, confirming that the combo's ranking is more about competitive headroom than playability.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest raw performance. Low settings produce an average of 529 FPS, Medium settings yield 402 FPS with minimum and maximum values of 342 and 463, respectively. High settings drop to 383 FPS, and Ultra settings settle at 365 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 164 FPS, indicating that graphical settings have a moderate impact at this resolution, but even the lowest measured average (365 FPS at Ultra) far exceeds the 240 Hz ceiling of most esports monitors.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages decrease but remain exceptionally high. Low settings produce 502 FPS, a reduction of only 27 FPS from 1080p Low. Medium settings average 343 FPS with a range of 292 to 395 FPS. High settings average 327 FPS, and Ultra settings average 311 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 191 FPS, slightly larger than at 1080p, suggesting the GPU is beginning to take on more load as resolution increases, though the CPU still dominates.

At 3840x2160, the impact of resolution becomes more pronounced. Low settings average 416 FPS, which is 113 FPS lower than 1080p Low. Medium settings average 274 FPS with a range of 233 to 315 FPS. High settings average 261 FPS, and Ultra settings average 249 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 167 FPS, similar to the 1080p spread. Notably, the minimum FPS at 4K Medium (233) is still above the refresh rate of most 4K displays, demonstrating that this combo never drops below playable thresholds.

The data reveals a consistent pattern: reducing settings from Ultra to Low yields roughly a 60-70% increase in average FPS across all resolutions. However, the absolute differences shrink as resolution increases. At 1080p, the Ultra-to-Low gap is 164 FPS; at 1440p it is 191 FPS; at 4K it is 167 FPS. This non-linear behavior suggests that at higher resolutions, the GPU's fill rate becomes a more significant factor, but the CPU still provides enough frame throughput to keep averages in the hundreds.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H is a 16-core, 22-thread processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 7 nm process. It features a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with a TDP of 28 W. The cache hierarchy includes 112 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s.

In Valorant, the CPU's role is critical due to the game's engine, which relies heavily on single-thread performance for game logic and physics. The Ultra 7 165H's single-core Cinebench R23 score of 1759 is respectable, and its multi-core score of 14551 indicates strong parallel performance. The benchmark results show that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 529 FPS, which is only 27 FPS higher than at 1440p Low (502 FPS). This small difference suggests that the CPU is the primary limiter at lower resolutions, as the GPU has ample headroom to render frames quickly.

The CPU's 24 MB of L3 cache is particularly beneficial for Valorant, as the game's maps and character models are small enough to reside in cache, reducing memory latency. The 5.00 GHz boost clock ensures that single-threaded tasks are processed as quickly as possible. However, the CPU's position in the 84th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 34083, places it just 0.3% above the Intel Core Ultra 5 338H. This near-tie suggests that the Ultra 7 165H offers no meaningful advantage over cheaper alternatives in CPU-bound scenarios like Valorant at low settings.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s is more than sufficient for Valorant, as the game does not generate large amounts of memory traffic. The 22 threads are not fully utilized by Valorant, which typically uses fewer than eight threads, but the high boost clock and large cache are the key factors driving the high FPS figures. At 4K, the CPU still manages to feed the GPU enough frames to achieve 249 FPS at Ultra settings, indicating that even at higher resolutions, the CPU is not the bottleneck.

Settings Recommendations

For competitive play, the Low preset at 1080p delivers the highest average FPS of 529, which provides the maximum possible headroom for high-refresh-rate monitors. However, the Medium preset at 1080p offers a better balance, with an average of 402 FPS and a minimum of 342 FPS. The 127 FPS difference between Low and Medium is unlikely to be noticeable on most displays, while the visual improvements from Medium settings are significant for target acquisition and environmental clarity.

At 1440p, the Medium preset averages 343 FPS with a minimum of 292 FPS, making it the recommended choice for users with 1440p 240 Hz monitors. The High preset at 1440p drops to 327 FPS, but the visual difference between Medium and High in Valorant is minimal, as the game's art style is relatively simple. The Ultra preset at 1440p averages 311 FPS, which is still above 300 FPS, but the extra graphical features provide little competitive advantage.

For 4K users, the Medium preset is the best choice, averaging 274 FPS with a minimum of 233 FPS. The Low preset at 4K averages 416 FPS, but the visual downgrade is substantial, and the game's readability suffers. The High preset at 4K averages 261 FPS, which is still playable, but the Medium preset offers a better compromise between visual quality and frame rate stability. The Ultra preset at 4K averages 249 FPS, which is the lowest measured value in the dataset, but it remains above the 240 Hz refresh rate of high-end 4K monitors.

The data suggests that Medium settings are the sweet spot across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium provides 402 FPS; at 1440p, 343 FPS; and at 4K, 274 FPS. These figures are consistently above 240 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay on the fastest available displays. The minimum FPS values for Medium settings (342 at 1080p, 292 at 1440p, 233 at 4K) show that frame pacing remains stable even during intense combat scenarios, which is critical for competitive integrity.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights about the system's bottleneck characteristics. At Low settings, the average FPS decreases from 529 at 1080p to 416 at 4K, a reduction of 113 FPS or 21.4%. At Medium settings, the drop is from 402 to 274 FPS, a reduction of 128 FPS or 31.8%. At High settings, the drop is from 383 to 261 FPS, a reduction of 122 FPS or 31.9%. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 365 to 249 FPS, a reduction of 116 FPS or 31.8%.

The near-consistent percentage drop (around 31-32%) for Medium, High, and Ultra settings indicates that the GPU is the scaling factor at these quality levels, as the rendering load increases linearly with pixel count. However, the smaller drop at Low settings (21.4%) suggests that the CPU begins to limit performance at 1080p Low, where the GPU has very little work to do. This is a classic sign of a CPU-bound scenario at low resolutions and low settings, where the frame rate is limited by the CPU's ability to process game logic rather than the GPU's rendering speed.

The absolute FPS values remain extremely high even at 4K. The lowest measured average is 249 FPS at 4K Ultra, which is still more than double the refresh rate of typical 4K displays (60-144 Hz). This indicates that the system is never truly GPU-bound in a way that compromises playability. The CPU's strong single-thread performance allows it to maintain high frame rates even as the GPU's workload increases, and the RTX 5060's 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth ensures that texture and geometry data are delivered without stuttering.

The scaling behavior suggests that for competitive play, lowering resolution from 1080p to 1440p yields a modest FPS penalty (27 FPS at Low settings), while moving to 4K incurs a larger penalty (113 FPS at Low settings). The data indicates that the CPU is the primary limiter at 1080p and 1440p, while the GPU becomes more relevant at 4K. However, even at 4K Ultra, the system delivers 249 FPS, which is far beyond what most players require. The limiting component at 4K is the GPU, but its performance is more than adequate for Valorant's lightweight rendering demands.