Valorant

Valorant is a competitive FPS that leans heavily on CPU performance, and this pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus with the Intel Arc B570 produces exceptionally high frame rates across all tested settings. The data shows a system that is overwhelmingly CPU-bound at lower resolutions, with the GPU only beginning to assert itself as the resolution climbs toward 4K. The measured FPS figures indicate that this combo is overkill for standard 1080p competitive play, offering headroom for high-refresh-rate monitors, while still delivering playable, albeit less extreme, performance at 4K Ultra settings. The benchmark results place this combination at rank 2227 out of 2883 tested combos in the database, a mid-pack ranking that reflects the high overall performance of the components rather than any specific synergy for this title.

Resolution Scaling

The most striking trend in the measured data is how little the average frame rate drops when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and then how significant the drop is when jumping to 4K. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 508 at 1920x1080 to 434 at 2560x1440, a reduction of roughly 15%. However, moving from 1440p to 4K at Low settings brings the average down to 347, a much steeper 20% decline. This pattern is consistent across all quality presets, indicating a shift in the bottleneck.

At 1080p and 1440p, the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus, with its 24 cores and boost clock of 5.80 GHz, is clearly the limiting factor. The GPU, which sits at the 65th percentile of all GPUs, is not being fully utilized. The frame rates are so high that the CPU’s single-thread performance, which scores 4823 in PassMark’s single-thread test, becomes the ceiling. This is why the difference between 1080p and 1440p is relatively small; the CPU is doing most of the work, and the GPU can handle the extra pixel count without slowing down.

The jump to 4K tells a different story. The difference between Low (347 FPS) and High (217 FPS) settings at 4K is a massive 130 FPS, or about 60%. At 1080p, the same settings gap is only 189 FPS (508 vs 319), a 59% difference, but the absolute numbers are much higher. The 4K data reveals that the Intel Arc B570’s 10 GB of GDDR6 memory and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth are now the primary constraint. The GPU’s average benchmark score of 20556 places it just 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, and its performance is clearly insufficient to maintain the CPU-bound frame rates at this resolution. The system transitions from being CPU-bound to GPU-bound as resolution increases, which is classic behavior for a high-end CPU paired with a mid-range GPU.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Valorant at 4K with high refresh rates?

A: At 4K High settings, the measured average FPS is 217. This is well above 144 Hz, so it can drive a standard high-refresh-rate 4K monitor. However, if you are targeting 240 Hz or higher at 4K, you would need to lower settings to Low (347 FPS) to get closer to that target, as the Ultra preset drops to 207 FPS.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus or the Intel Arc B570 the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data strongly indicates the CPU is the bottleneck at 1080p. The average FPS at Low settings is 508, which is exceptionally high. The GPU is not the limiting factor here because the frame rate is so high that the CPU’s processing speed, with its 5.80 GHz boost clock and 4823 single-thread PassMark score, is what determines the final output. Lowering the resolution from 1440p to 1080p only yields a modest FPS increase, confirming the CPU is the primary constraint.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: The measured average FPS at 1440p Low is 434, while at 1440p Ultra it is 259. This is a difference of 175 FPS, meaning the Low preset is about 68% faster than Ultra. The Medium preset sits in between at 286 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B570 compare to its closest rivals based on the benchmark data?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score of 20556 puts it essentially on par with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, which is 0.1% ahead. It is also 0.1% behind the Intel Arc A750. The AMD Radeon R9 M390X is 0.5% ahead, and the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M is 0.4% behind. These are negligible differences in overall compute performance.

Q: Does the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus offer a significant performance lead over other CPUs?

A: Its average benchmark score of 84003 places it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs. It is 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K and 1.1% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4584PX. However, it is 1.3% behind the AMD EPYC 7F72. The performance deltas are small, indicating it is at the top of the pack with its direct competitors.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is a 10 GB GDDR6 card with a 160-bit memory bus and a bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s. Its base and boost clocks are both locked at 2500 MHz, and it uses a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface. In Valorant, the GPU’s role is secondary to the CPU at lower resolutions, but it becomes the decisive factor at 4K. The benchmark results show that the GPU is capable of very high frame rates, but it scales poorly with resolution when compared to the CPU’s performance.

The GPU’s 65th percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 20556, which is nearly identical to the RTX 3070 Mobile and Arc A750, contextualize its performance. At 1080p, the GPU is not the limiting factor, as evidenced by the fact that increasing settings from Low to Ultra only drops the average FPS from 508 to 304. This indicates that the GPU has enough headroom to render the game at higher quality without significantly impacting the CPU-bound frame rate. The 10 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for Valorant at any resolution, as the game is not VRAM-intensive.

The situation changes at 4K. The average FPS at 4K Ultra is 207, which is a 32% drop from the 304 FPS seen at 1080p Ultra. This is a much larger performance penalty than the 15-20% drops seen at lower settings. The GPU’s pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s are being pushed to their limits at this resolution. The data shows that the Arc B570 is a solid choice for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can easily keep up with a flagship CPU, but it is the clear bottleneck for 4K gaming, where it cannot maintain the same high frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from a low of 304 at Ultra settings to a high of 508 at Low settings. The Medium preset delivers 335 FPS, while High sits at 319 FPS. The minimum FPS recorded for the Medium preset is 285, with a maximum of 385, showing a stable frame time distribution even in this mid-range setting.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average FPS decreases across the board. Low settings produce 434 FPS, High yields 272 FPS, Medium delivers 286 FPS, and Ultra drops to 259 FPS. The Medium preset again shows a minimum of 243 FPS and a maximum of 329 FPS, indicating that frame pacing remains consistent. The performance gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 175 FPS, which is proportionally similar to the 204 FPS gap at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to show its limitations. The average FPS at Low settings is 347, which is still very high, but the drop to High settings is steep, bringing the average down to 217 FPS. Medium settings yield 228 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 207 FPS. The Medium preset’s minimum of 194 FPS and maximum of 263 FPS show that even at 4K, the frame rate is relatively stable, but the overall performance is significantly lower than at lower resolutions. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 140 FPS, a smaller absolute gap than at lower resolutions, but a larger percentage drop from the Low baseline.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz, with a 36 MB shared L3 cache. Its performance in synthetic benchmarks is exceptional; it scores 51731 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 7303 in single-core, placing it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs. This raw processing power is the primary reason for the extremely high frame rates in Valorant.

In Valorant, the CPU’s single-core performance is the most critical factor, as the game’s engine is not heavily multithreaded. The 5.80 GHz boost clock and a PassMark single-thread score of 4823 are directly responsible for the 508 FPS average at 1080p Low settings. The 24 cores and 24 threads provide ample headroom for background tasks and streaming, but they do not directly contribute to higher frame rates in this title. The data shows that the CPU is the bottleneck at 1080p and 1440p, as the frame rates do not scale linearly with resolution, indicating the GPU is waiting on the CPU to process game logic and draw calls.

The CPU’s closest rivals, based on average benchmark score, are the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (0.2% slower) and the AMD EPYC 4584PX (1.1% slower), while the AMD EPYC 7F72 is 1.3% faster. These are all top-tier desktop and server processors, but the 290K Plus’s high boost clock gives it a slight edge in single-threaded workloads like Valorant. The 125W TDP and unlocked multiplier suggest it is designed for enthusiasts who want to push performance further, though the stock clocks are already more than sufficient for this game.

Settings Recommendations

For competitive play at 1080p, the data shows that even the Ultra preset delivers an average of 304 FPS, which is more than enough for any 240 Hz or 360 Hz monitor. The difference between Low and Ultra is 204 FPS, but the visual quality improvements from Ultra may be worth the performance cost for some players. If maximum frame rates are the priority, the Low preset at 508 FPS is the clear choice, but the Medium preset at 335 FPS offers a better balance of visual fidelity and performance, with a minimum FPS of 285 ensuring no drops below high-refresh-rate thresholds.

At 1440p, the Medium preset is the sweet spot. It delivers 286 FPS average with a minimum of 243 FPS, which is still well above the 240 Hz threshold for most high-refresh-rate monitors. The High preset at 272 FPS is also viable, but Ultra at 259 FPS starts to approach the limit for 240 Hz displays. The Low preset at 434 FPS is only recommended for players who prioritize frame rate above all else and are willing to sacrifice visual quality.

For 4K gaming, the recommendations change significantly. The Ultra preset at 207 FPS is playable on a 144 Hz monitor but will not fully utilize a 240 Hz display. The Medium preset at 228 FPS is a better option, as it provides a higher average and a minimum of 194 FPS. However, the most balanced choice for 4K is the High preset at 217 FPS, which offers a good compromise between visual quality and performance. The Low preset at 347 FPS is the only option that can push past 240 FPS at 4K, but it requires significant visual compromises. Given the data, the Medium preset at any resolution provides the most consistent frame times, as it is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum values, showing it has the most stable performance profile.