How to improve FPS in Valorant (PC)
Valorant is, by far, the best-optimized competitive shooter on the market. Riot Games designed the game explicitly to run on low-end hardware: a GTX 1050 Ti can hit 60+ FPS stably. 95% of optimizations are CPU-side, not GPU. This guide focuses on the settings that actually matter for high framerate play (144-240+ FPS) in competitive.
This is what you'd gain with a NVIDIA RTX 3050
Calculations based on our FPS model combined with the % gain of each setting (measured in public benchmarks). Calculate your exact FPS with your own hardware →
1. Quick wins (no visual loss)
Start here. Each one adds a little, but together they give +47% free FPS.
Multithreaded Rendering
The most impactful setting in Valorant. Enabling Multithreaded Rendering distributes the rendering workload across all CPU cores. On modern CPUs it can double FPS. ALWAYS on.
V-Sync
V-Sync adds unacceptable input latency in a competitive shooter. Always off. If you have screen tearing, use G-Sync or FreeSync on your monitor instead.
Vignette
The screen edge darkening effect adds nothing competitively. Off gives a cleaner view of the screen edges.
Limit FPS (Always)
Limiting FPS to your monitor's refresh rate prevents the GPU from overworking and reduces temperature and power draw. No downside if the cap is slightly above your monitor's Hz.
2. Medium impact settings
Here's where most of the FPS is. Minor visual impact, major performance impact.
Material Quality
Materials at Low have minimal visual impact in Valorant (the game uses stylized art). CPU/GPU cost drops noticeably.
Detail Quality
Map decoration details at Low. Does not affect agents or hitboxes — only decorative environment objects.
UI Quality
UI Quality at Low saves GPU resources with zero visible impact on the competitive HUD.
Anti-Aliasing
For 240+ FPS competitive play, None (no AA) is most common among pro players. MSAA 2x is a good compromise if aliasing bothers you. Avoid MSAA 4x — disproportionate cost.
Texture Quality
Textures at Medium in Valorant are practically indistinguishable from High and use less VRAM and system memory.
3. Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)
The biggest gain in the game. Compatible with almost any modern GPU.
No se recomienda upscaling
+0% FPSUpscaling is not recommended in Valorant. The game is already so lightweight that DLSS/FSR aren't needed. If your hardware can't reach 60 FPS in Valorant, the problem is your CPU or RAM — not the GPU. Upscaling won't help there.
4. Tips by GPU
NVIDIA
- •NVIDIA Reflex: always enable 'On + Boost' in Valorant settings. Significantly reduces input latency with no FPS cost.
- •High Performance power plan in Windows (Control Panel → Power Options). Can give +5-10% FPS on CPUs that throttle in Balanced mode.
- •You don't need DLSS — if you have RTX but low FPS, the problem is your CPU, not the GPU.
AMD
- •Anti-Lag+ (RDNA 3): enable it in Radeon Adrenalin to reduce input latency.
- •SAM (Smart Access Memory): minor benefit in Valorant (~2%), but no cost to enable.
- •Valorant is very light on AMD GPUs — if you're having FPS drops, check the CPU first.
Sistema
- •High Performance power plan in Windows: can give +5-10% FPS in Valorant. Essential for competitive play.
- •Close Vanguard (anti-cheat) and restart your PC before important ranked matches — VGKDRV.sys sometimes consumes extra CPU after booting.
- •The most valuable upgrade for Valorant is a better CPU (especially single-core performance). A new GPU barely changes FPS if the CPU is already the bottleneck.
5. Known game issues
VGKDRV.sys (Vanguard) high CPU usage after updates
The Vanguard anti-cheat driver sometimes stays active consuming unnecessary CPU after an update. Fix: restart your PC before playing ranked matches.
Estado: Recurring with each major Vanguard update
FPS drops during spike plant/defuse animation
There's a slight CPU spike during the spike plant and defuse animation. Known to Riot and slightly improved in 2024 patches.
Estado: Improved in Episode 8
144+ FPS requires strong single-core CPU performance
To reach and maintain 240 FPS stably in Valorant you need a modern CPU (Ryzen 5 5600 / i5-12400 as minimum). An old CPU with a powerful GPU won't hit those rates — Valorant is CPU-bound.
6. Frequently asked questions
How many FPS does an RTX 3050 get in Valorant?▾
What's the most important setting in Valorant?▾
How do I get more FPS in Valorant?▾
Do I need DLSS or FSR in Valorant?▾
Want to know exactly how many FPS YOUR PC will get?
Enter your GPU and CPU in our calculator and measure the real impact of each setting.
Calculations based on consensus of technical sources and our own FPS model. More about our methodology →