How to Increase FPS in Valorant (2026 Guide)

Valorant is a competitive tactical shooter where every frame matters. A 60Hz monitor might feel smooth for casual play, but climbing ranked demands at least 144 FPS—ideally 240+ to match high-refresh displays and minimize input lag. If you're stuck below your monitor's ceiling or seeing stutters in clutch moments, a handful of targeted tweaks can unlock substantial headroom.

This guide covers the settings and system-level changes that deliver the biggest FPS gains in 2026, from in-game graphics sliders to driver configurations and Windows overhead removal. We'll skip gimmicks and focus on what competitive players actually run. If you want a hardware-specific optimization playbook for your exact GPU and CPU, you can generate a free playbook at BetterFPS after working through these fundamentals.

In-Game Settings That Matter Most

Valorant's settings menu is more forgiving than most competitive shooters—the engine scales well even on modest hardware. That said, a few sliders carry disproportionate weight. Start here before touching anything outside the game.

Graphics Quality

Set **Material Quality** and **Detail Quality** to Low. These control texture resolution and geometry complexity. High settings push VRAM and pixel shader work without improving visibility—pro players universally run Low for maximum clarity and frame rate. On modern GPUs like the RTX 5070 or RX 9070 XT, the difference can be 100+ FPS at 1440p. ProSettings.net measured the RTX 5070 at 650 FPS average on 1440p high settings versus 700 FPS on low—those 50 frames are pure overhead with no competitive upside.

**Texture Quality** can stay at High if you have 6GB+ VRAM. Below that threshold, drop it to Medium to avoid stutters when rotating between sites. **UI Quality** has near-zero impact—leave it at High for crisp menus and agent portraits.

Anti-Aliasing and Post-Processing

Disable **Anti-Aliasing** entirely or set it to MSAA 2x if jagged edges bother you. MSAA 4x costs 15–20 FPS for minimal visual improvement in a game with stylized art. **Anisotropic Filtering** at 4x is safe—it sharpens distant textures with negligible performance cost. Turn off **Improve Clarity** and **Bloom**; both add post-process overhead and can obscure enemy silhouettes in backlit scenarios.

NVIDIA Reflex and AMD Anti-Lag+

NVIDIA Reflex is Valorant's single most important latency-reduction feature. It syncs frame rendering with display refresh to cut system latency by 20–40ms—the difference between landing the first shot and trading. Enable **NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency** in Video settings and set it to On or On + Boost. Boost mode keeps your GPU clocks elevated between frames; it costs ~5 FPS but shaves another 2–5ms of latency. Competitive players on RTX GPUs run Boost universally.

AMD Radeon users get **Anti-Lag+** in Adrenalin driver settings. It delivers similar latency reduction by decoupling frame pacing from the CPU queue. Enable it in the driver's Gaming tab under Valorant's profile. Intel Arc B-series GPUs don't have a direct equivalent yet, but the XeSS low-latency mode in supported titles can help—Valorant doesn't support XeSS upscaling, so Arc users rely on raw performance and low in-game settings.

Limit Background FPS and Cap Your Frame Rate

Valorant's **Limit Background FPS** slider keeps frames in check when you're tabbed out or in menus. Set it to 60 FPS or lower—there's no reason to render 300 FPS on the main menu and heat your GPU while you're picking agents. This also reduces coil whine and fan noise during downtime.

Capping your in-game frame rate is more nuanced. If you have a 144Hz monitor, a 288 FPS cap (double your refresh rate) keeps frame pacing consistent and reduces GPU power spikes. Uncapped frames can cause micro-stutters when your GPU bounces between 200 and 400 FPS. Use the in-game **Max FPS** options: 144, 240, or 288 depending on your display. On high-end GPUs that sustain 700+ FPS—like the RTX 5080 or RX 9070 XT at 1080p low (both measured at 780–800 FPS by ProSettings.net)—capping at 288 saves power and thermal headroom with zero perceptible downside.

NVIDIA and AMD Driver Settings

GPU driver control panels offer low-level overrides that stack with in-game settings. For NVIDIA users, open **NVIDIA Control Panel**, navigate to Manage 3D Settings, and set a Valorant-specific profile. Key changes: **Low Latency Mode** to Ultra (syncs with Reflex), **Power Management** to Prefer Maximum Performance (prevents GPU downclocking mid-round), and **Texture Filtering Quality** to High Performance. Disable **Vertical Sync** in the driver—Valorant's in-game V-Sync toggle is sufficient, and driver-level V-Sync adds a frame of input lag.

AMD Radeon users should enable **Radeon Chill** with a minimum FPS equal to your target (e.g., 240 FPS min, 288 max) to stabilize frame pacing. Set **Texture Filtering Quality** to Performance and confirm **Enhanced Sync** is off—it conflicts with Reflex-style low-latency modes. In the Adrenalin Gaming tab, disable **Radeon Image Sharpening** unless you're running below native resolution; sharpening adds a tiny shader load that competitive players skip.

Windows Optimizations and Background Overhead

Windows runs dozens of services that siphon CPU cycles and RAM. For competitive gaming, trimming the fat yields 10–20 FPS on mid-range systems and eliminates background stutter. Start with **Game Mode** in Windows Settings → Gaming. Enable it—despite mixed reputation, Game Mode in 2026 prioritizes game threads and disables Windows Update interruptions during active sessions.

Disable **Xbox Game Bar** (same Settings → Gaming menu). The overlay and DVR background recording cost 5–10 FPS and add latency. If you clip gameplay, use NVIDIA ShadowPlay or AMD ReLive instead—both offload encoding to dedicated GPU silicon. Next, open **Task Manager** (Ctrl+Shift+Esc), switch to the Startup tab, and disable everything except Valorant, your GPU driver tray app, and essential peripherals (mouse/keyboard software). Discord, Spotify, and RGB control apps can all launch manually after boot.

1. Open **Power Options** in Control Panel and set your plan to High Performance or Ultimate Performance (the latter requires a registry edit on some Windows 11 builds—search 'enable Ultimate Performance mode' for the script).
2. In **Advanced system settings** → Performance Options → Visual Effects, select 'Adjust for best performance.' This disables animations and transparency—your desktop looks flat, but Valorant gains 5–8 FPS on CPU-bound systems.
3. Run **Disk Cleanup** (search 'cleanmgr' in Start) and clear temporary files, downloads, and old Windows Update caches. A cluttered SSD can cause frame-time spikes when Valorant streams assets.
4. Disable **Fullscreen Optimizations** for VALORANT-Win64-Shipping.exe: right-click the .exe in your Riot Games install folder → Properties → Compatibility → check 'Disable fullscreen optimizations.' This bypasses Windows' compositor layer and reduces input lag by 1–2ms.

Game Booster Apps: What Works (and What Doesn't)

Third-party 'game booster' apps promise one-click FPS gains by stopping background services and tweaking priority. The reality: most automate the Windows optimizations covered above, and a few add placebo registry tweaks that do nothing. That said, a couple are useful if you don't want to manually configure everything.

**Razer Cortex** and **MSI Afterburner + RivaTuner** are the least harmful. Cortex stops non-essential services during gameplay and restores them when you close Valorant—it's basically a startup-manager script with a UI. RivaTuner provides on-screen FPS and frame-time monitoring without the overhead of Game Bar. Both are free and don't inject shady code into the game client (which can trigger anti-cheat false positives).

Avoid apps that promise 'registry optimizations,' 'RAM clearing,' or 'CPU unparking'—these either do nothing or cause instability. Windows already manages RAM and CPU states better than third-party scripts. If you want hardware-specific optimizations that actually matter, run a free playbook at BetterFPS for your GPU and CPU instead of chasing generic booster downloads.

Valorant is optimized enough that even modest hardware can hit 144+ FPS with the right settings. The gains stack: in-game settings on Low, Reflex enabled, driver power mode maximized, and Windows overhead trimmed can add 100–150 FPS total on a mid-range GPU like an RTX 4060 or RX 7600. If you've worked through these steps and you're still bottlenecked, the next variable is hardware—specifically, whether your CPU or GPU is the limiting factor. You can diagnose that by monitoring per-core CPU usage (not total %) and GPU utilization during gameplay. For a deeper dive into your exact system, generate a free optimization playbook and see which settings give you the biggest return for your hardware.

Frequently asked questions