Valorant

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Valorant?

A: The highest recorded average frame rate is 713 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. The next closest result is 676 FPS at 2560x1440 with Low settings, showing a 37 FPS drop when moving from 1080p to 1440p at the same preset.

Q: Does the Ultra preset ever outperform the High preset?

A: No. Across all three resolutions, High settings consistently deliver higher average FPS than Ultra. At 3840x2160, High averages 527 FPS versus Ultra's 518 FPS. At 2560x1440, High averages 567 FPS versus Ultra's 558 FPS. At 1920x1080, High averages 598 FPS versus Ultra's 588 FPS. The gap is consistent at roughly 9-10 FPS in every resolution.

Q: What is the only preset with measured minimum and maximum FPS data?

A: The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data. At 3840x2160, it shows a minimum of 455 FPS and a maximum of 616 FPS. At 2560x1440, the range is 490 to 663 FPS. At 1920x1080, the range is 517 to 699 FPS. This suggests that variance tracking was only applied to the Medium preset in this benchmark run.

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

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 41st out of 2883 tested combinations. This places it in the top 1.5% of all recorded configurations for this game. The rank percentile of 93 for both the CPU and GPU individually further confirms that both components are in the upper echelon of their respective categories.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and High settings at each resolution?

A: At 1920x1080, Low averages 713 FPS while High averages 598 FPS, a difference of 115 FPS. At 2560x1440, Low averages 676 FPS while High averages 567 FPS, a difference of 109 FPS. At 3840x2160, Low averages 628 FPS while High averages 527 FPS, a difference of 101 FPS. The gap narrows slightly as resolution increases.

Q: Is the RTX 5090's nearest rival in benchmark scores a gaming GPU?

A: No. The nearest rival to the RTX 5090 by average benchmark score is the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB, which is a data center GPU. The RTX 5090 scores 79,842 versus the Tesla's 79,605, a delta of only 0.3%. The other nearby rivals include the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data presents a clear hierarchy across all three resolutions: Low settings always produce the highest average FPS, followed by Medium, then High, and finally Ultra. The full spread from Low to Ultra at each resolution is remarkably consistent. At 1920x1080, the range spans from 713 FPS on Low to 588 FPS on Ultra, a 125 FPS difference. At 2560x1440, the range is 676 to 558 FPS, a 118 FPS gap. At 3840x2160, the range is 628 to 518 FPS, a 110 FPS spread.

For competitive play in Valorant, the data suggests that Low settings at 1920x1080 provide the maximum possible frame rate at 713 FPS. However, the Medium preset at 1080p delivers 608 FPS average with a minimum of 517 FPS, which still far exceeds the refresh rate capabilities of virtually all gaming monitors. The measured minimum of 517 FPS on Medium at 1080p is still higher than the average FPS of the High preset at 4K (527 FPS), indicating that even the "worst case" scenario at 1080p Medium is competitive with the best 4K case.

The question becomes whether the visual fidelity improvements from Low to Medium are worth the 105 FPS average sacrifice at 1080p. Given that the Medium preset at 1440p still delivers 577 FPS average with a 490 FPS minimum, this appears to be the sweet spot for players with 1440p high-refresh displays. The jump from Medium to High costs only 10 FPS at 1080p (from 608 to 598) and 10 FPS at 1440p (from 577 to 567), but the jump from Low to Medium costs 105 FPS at 1080p and 99 FPS at 1440p.

The Ultra preset provides no measurable advantage in frame rate stability based on the available data, consistently scoring 9-10 FPS lower than High across all resolutions. Since the data shows diminishing returns in FPS between Medium, High, and Ultra, but a significant drop from Low to Medium, players seeking maximum performance should stick with Low. Players prioritizing visual quality should consider Medium or High, with the data showing that High costs only about 10 FPS over Medium while providing better visual fidelity.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 with RTX 5090 combination ranks 41st out of 2883 tested combos in Valorant. This top-1.5% placement indicates that this configuration is among the fastest ever tested for this title. The GPU's percentile ranking of 92 among all GPUs and the CPU's percentile ranking of 93 among all CPUs suggest that neither component is a significant bottleneck in this pairing.

The combo's rank is particularly noteworthy given that Valorant is a game with documented sensitivity to CPU performance. The Core Ultra 7 265's average benchmark score of 64,640 places it within 0.7% of the AMD EPYC 7343 and within 0.3% of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F. The RTX 5090's average score of 79,842 is nearly identical to the Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB at 79,605, with a delta of just 0.3%. These tight benchmark margins suggest that the components are well-matched in their respective performance tiers.

What makes this rank even more impressive is that the combo achieves it with a 65W TDP CPU. The Core Ultra 7 265's efficiency does not appear to compromise its gaming performance in Valorant, as the 41st rank out of 2883 demonstrates. The data indicates that this configuration sits at the intersection of high-tier CPU and GPU performance, with both components ranking in the 92nd-93rd percentile of their categories.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results show a consistent progression across settings. Low settings produce 713 FPS average. Medium settings produce 608 FPS average with a minimum of 517 FPS and maximum of 699 FPS. High settings produce 598 FPS average. Ultra settings produce 588 FPS average. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 125 FPS, representing a 17.5% reduction in frame rate when enabling maximum visual fidelity.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts slightly downward. Low settings produce 676 FPS average. Medium settings produce 577 FPS average with a minimum of 490 FPS and maximum of 663 FPS. High settings produce 567 FPS average. Ultra settings produce 558 FPS average. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 118 FPS, a 17.5% reduction from the Low preset.

At 3840x2160, the results continue the trend. Low settings produce 628 FPS average. Medium settings produce 535 FPS average with a minimum of 455 FPS and maximum of 616 FPS. High settings produce 527 FPS average. Ultra settings produce 518 FPS average. The delta between Low and Ultra at 4K is 110 FPS, representing a 17.5% reduction from the Low preset.

The Medium preset's min/max data reveals interesting variance characteristics. At 1080p, the spread between minimum and maximum is 182 FPS (517 to 699). At 1440p, the spread is 173 FPS (490 to 663). At 4K, the spread is 161 FPS (455 to 616). The variance narrows as resolution increases, suggesting that higher resolutions introduce more consistent frame pacing in this configuration.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 brings substantial hardware resources to this pairing. With 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, the memory subsystem delivers 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output processors provide the computational foundation for the frame rates observed. The Blackwell 2.0 architecture runs at a base clock of 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz.

In Valorant specifically, the GPU's role appears to be secondary to CPU performance, given the game's engine characteristics. The RTX 5090's 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is far beyond what a competitive FPS title like Valorant requires, yet the benchmark scores demonstrate that the GPU still contributes to the overall combo ranking. The passmark G3D score of 39,650 and the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18,355 reflect the GPU's general capability, though these synthetic benchmarks do not directly translate to Valorant's specific rendering demands.

The GPU's VRAM capacity of 32 GB is significantly more than necessary for Valorant, which is not a VRAM-intensive title. However, the memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s ensures that texture streaming and frame buffering never become limiting factors at any resolution tested. The data supports this interpretation: the FPS difference between 1080p and 4K at the same settings is relatively modest (713 to 628 FPS on Low, a 12% reduction), suggesting that the GPU has ample headroom at all tested resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 is built on the Arrow Lake architecture with 20 cores and 20 threads. The base clock of 2.40 GHz boosts to 5.30 GHz, and the CPU operates within a 65W TDP. The 30 MB of shared L3 cache, combined with 3 MB L2 cache per core and 192 KB L1 cache per core, provides a substantial cache hierarchy for game logic and physics calculations.

Valorant is known to be CPU-sensitive, particularly at high frame rates. The data supports this characterization: the CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42,216 and single-core score of 5,960 indicate strong single-thread performance, which is critical for games that rely on a primary game thread. The PassMark single-thread score of 4,689 reinforces this capability.

The CPU's 20 cores may be more than Valorant can utilize, but the high single-core performance ensures that the primary game thread has ample processing headroom. The fact that the combo achieves 713 FPS at 1080p Low suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor at these frame rates. The 93rd percentile ranking among all CPUs confirms that this processor sits near the top of the performance hierarchy.

The CPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores include the AMD EPYC 4464P (-0.3% delta) and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F (0.3% delta). These tight margins indicate that the Core Ultra 7 265's performance is well-established within its tier, and in Valorant specifically, this translates to the high frame rates observed in the measured data.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights about the bottleneck characteristics of this configuration. On Low settings, the progression is 713 FPS at 1080p, 676 FPS at 1440p, and 628 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 37 FPS (5.2%), and from 1440p to 4K is 48 FPS (7.1%). The total reduction from 1080p to 4K is 85 FPS (11.9%).

On Medium settings, the progression is 608 FPS at 1080p, 577 FPS at 1440p, and 535 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 31 FPS (5.1%), and from 1440p to 4K is 42 FPS (7.3%). The total reduction from 1080p to 4K is 73 FPS (12.0%).

On High settings, the progression is 598 FPS at 1080p, 567 FPS at 1440p, and 527 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 31 FPS (5.2%), and from 1440p to 4K is 40 FPS (7.1%). The total reduction from 1080p to 4K is 71 FPS (11.9%).

On Ultra settings, the progression is 588 FPS at 1080p, 558 FPS at 1440p, and 518 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 30 FPS (5.1%), and from 1440p to 4K is 40 FPS (7.2%). The total reduction from 1080p to 4K is 70 FPS (11.9%).

The remarkable consistency of these percentage drops across all settings — approximately 5% from 1080p to 1440p and 7% from 1440p to 4K, totaling about 12% from 1080p to 4K — indicates that the scaling behavior is resolution-dependent rather than settings-dependent. This pattern suggests that neither the CPU nor GPU becomes a dominant bottleneck at any resolution tested. The relatively small frame rate reduction at 4K compared to 1080p implies that the RTX 5090 has substantial rendering headroom, and the Core Ultra 7 265's strong single-thread performance keeps the game logic pipeline well-fed across all resolutions.

The fact that even at 4K Ultra the combo maintains 518 FPS average — well above the refresh rate of any current gaming display — underscores that this configuration provides excessive performance for Valorant at any resolution and settings combination. The data implies that players could enable maximum visual quality at 4K without sacrificing competitive frame rates.