The Best Valorant Graphics Settings (High FPS and Low Latency!)

While Valorant performs well on many gaming PCs, that doesn’t mean you can mail it in when choosing your Valorant graphics settings. Our guide to the best Valorant graphics settings helps you reach at least 144 FPS on most gaming rights, reduces latency, and gives you eye candy where it matters. Let’s dive in.

Update graphics drivers

Before you’re ready to tinker with your Valorant video settings, updating your graphics drivers is best to ensure they are up to date. Using outdated graphics drivers can occasionally cause problems with FPS and crashes.

Best Valorant graphics settings (low-end gaming PCs)

Our lineup of the best Valorant settings for low-end PCs can run Valorant at competitively high FPS while also reducing latency. This way, you have a competitive advantage in targeting enemies fast without dropping frames.

General

• Display Mode: Fullscreen
• Resolution: Select 1920×1080, select your monitor refresh rate
• Monitor: Select your monitor
• Aspect Ratio Mode: Not applicable since it’s only used when picking a different aspect ratio than your monitor
• Limit FPS on Battery: On
• Max FPS on Battery: 60
• Limit FPS in Menus: On
• Max FPS in Menus: 60
• Limit FPS in Background: On
• Max FPS in Background: 30
• Limit FPS always: Off
• Max FPS always: Not applicable since we’re turning off Limit FPS Always for unlimited FPS
• NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency: On

Graphics quality

• Multithreaded Rendering: Off unless you have 8GB RAM, 2GB VRAM, and a CPU with at least 8 cores.
• Material Quality: Low
• Texture Quality: Low
• Detail Quality: Low
• UI Quality: Low
• Vignette:  Off
• Vsync:  Off
• Anti-Aliasing: MSAA 2x
• Anisotropic Filtering: 4x
• Improve Clarity:  Off
• [BETA] Experimental Sharpening:  Off
• Bloom:  Off
• Distortion:  Off
• Cast Shadows:  Off

Let’s review some of the reasons behind our lineup of Valorant video settings.

1080p is the best resolution for Valorant to maximize FPS. In fact, 75% of pro Valorant players we track settings for select 1080p as the best Valorant resolution for their needs, even though many of their gaming monitors can render high FPS at 2k or 4k resolutions.

It’s important to also set NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency to On to reduce latency in Valorant, which can impact the timing between when a shot is fired and clicking your mouse.

Material Quality, Texture Quality, and Detail Quality are all set to Low to prioritize FPS over visuals.

While other Valorant graphics settings can impact FPS and latency, these core settings are good items to focus on to start.

Best Valorant graphics settings (high-end gaming PCs)

Most mid-range gaming PCs and higher will run Valorant at extremely high FPS. In fact, mid-range gaming PCs released in 2023 can easily run Valorant at 500+ FPS, far higher than most gaming monitor refresh rates. But you need to know the best settings for Valorant to balance securing high FPS with visual quality where it matters most in the game.

General

• Display Mode: Fullscreen
• Resolution: Select 1920×1080 for 1080p or 2560×1440 for 2k, select your monitor refresh rate
• Monitor: Select your monitor
• Aspect Ratio Mode: Not applicable since it’s only used when picking a different aspect ratio than your monitor
• Limit FPS on Battery: On
• Max FPS on Battery: 60
• Limit FPS in Menus: On
• Max FPS in Menus: 60
• Limit FPS in Background: On
• Max FPS in Background: 30
• Limit FPS always: Off
• Max FPS always: Not applicable since we’re turning off Limit FPS Always for unlimited FPS
• NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency: On + Boost

Graphics quality

• Multithreaded Rendering: On
• Material Quality: Med
• Texture Quality: Med
• Detail Quality: Med
• UI Quality: Med
• Vignette:  Off
• Vsync:  Off
• Anti-Aliasing: MSAA 2x
• Anisotropic Filtering: 4x
• Improve Clarity:  Off
• [BETA] Experimental Sharpening:  Off
• Bloom:  Off
• Distortion:  Off
• Cast Shadows:  Off

The main differences between our suggested high-end and low-end Valorant graphics settings are allowing for higher resolution, setting NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency to On + Boost, enabling Multithreaded Rendering, and updating most “Quality” settings to Med.

On a high-end gaming PC, you may still have some CPU and GPU headroom to bump up your Valorant graphics settings while retaining far above 144 FPS.

Valorant system requirements

We’d suggest reviewing Valorant’s system requirements to get a feel for where your gaming PC stands before adjusting your graphics settings. If your PC matches the high-end system requirements you should be able to utilize our high-end settings out of the box to achieve high FPS.

If you have a gaming PC that matches the minimum or recommended specs, we’d suggest starting with our low-end Valorant settings and adjusting the most critical Valorant settings (outlined below) upward from there.

Important Valorant settings

You can change over 25 Valorant video settings to customize your experience. But only a handful pack in a big FPS and latency punch. For players wanting to increase FPS the most and decrease latency, we’d suggest tinkering with the below options to find the best Valorant video settings for you.

Biggest impacts on FPS and latency

• Display mode
• Resolution
• NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency
• Multithreaded rendering
• Material quality
• Texture quality
• Detail quality

What Valorant graphics settings do pros use?

Valorant pros unanimously play on graphics settings that prioritize FPS over better visuals. This can be seen in the data for the pro Valorant settings we track for the most popular streamers and esports athletes.

Within our data set, 75% of Valorant pros play at native 16:9 resolution at 1920×1080, or 1080p. This is interesting since some players use 2k or 4k-capable monitors.

Regarding Material Quality, 71% of pros play on the Low settings. The trends don’t differ when reviewing Texture Quality and Detail Quality settings – 79% of pros set these two Valorant graphics settings to Low to prioritize frames over visuals.

Comparing the quality of our Valorant graphics settings

Valorant isn’t designed with realism in mind. Accordingly, the performance load on many gaming PCs is low since details don’t need to mimic real life. This means that Valorant can render very high FPS. Increasing the visuals is mostly eye candy and doing so doesn’t offer competitive advantages, such as making it easier to click heads faster.

We think it’s best to leave the decision to you about how much eye candy you’d like in Valorant. To help, we’ve included a side-by-side comparison of Valorant scenes below using the best Valorant graphics settings.

Along with our low-end and high-end video settings, we’ve added a third “ultra” option not covered in this guide. Ultra turns all video settings to High and enables other rendering graphics settings, like Bloom and Cast Shadows.

How to test your Valorant video settings

Tinkering to find the best video settings is a good approach, but most Valorant gameplay modes aren’t suitable since you’ll need to focus on the FPS counter and tweaking settings versus clicking heads. Choosing Deathmatch is a good mode to select to see how your video settings hold up in real gameplay.

Deathmatch is a quick free-for-all style that’s good for practicing and adjusting your settings with little risk.

Once in the game, you can hit Esc at any point to access the settings menu and tweak your Valorant video settings.

Jumping into Open Range Practice mode is another option to consider. It’s fast to load up the practice range. But you won’t get the same live gameplay experience that Deathmatch offers. Your FPS can differ between the two game modes.

Valorant graphics settings defined

Understanding each Valorant graphics setting can be helpful for gamers that want to understand each setting at a granular level. If that’s you, we got you. Read on below to get a brief rundown of what each Valorant video setting does so you can decide which setting is best for you.

Display Mode: Set to Fullscreen. Other Display Modes offered are Windowed Fullscreen and Windowed. These alternatives can impact FPS and latency since your CPU and GPU will prioritize the program in Fullscreen mode.

Resolution: Sets your monitor’s resolution and refresh rate, measured in Hz. It’s best to stick to a 16:9 aspect ratio and to choose your monitor’s refresh rate.

Monitor: By default, your primary monitor should be selected. Only change this setting if your preferred gaming monitor isn’t displayed, such as when running a dual-display setup.

Aspect Ratio Mode: This setting is only adjustable when selecting a Resolution setting that doesn’t match your monitor’s aspect ratio. Selecting Letterbox will display the game’s full width on select aspect ratios by adding black bars on the top and bottom.

Limit FPS on Battery: Limits your FPS when your gaming laptop is on battery.

Max FPS on Battery: Works in combination with Limit FPS on Battery if turned On to set the max FPS in these scenarios. This setting is not applicable when Limit FPS on Battery is Off, which will result in unlimited FPS on battery.

Limit FPS in Menus: Limits your FPS in menus. There’s no competitive advantage to having high FPS in menus, which is why we suggest capping.

Max FPS in Menus: Works in combination with Limit FPS in Menus if turned On to set the max FPS when in menus. This setting is not applicable when Limit FPS in Menus is Off, which will result in unlimited FPS in menus.

Limit FPS in Background: Limits your FPS in the background. There’s no competitive advantage to having high FPS in the background, which is why we suggest capping.

Max FPS in Background: Works in combination with Limit FPS in Background if turned On. This setting is not applicable when Limit FPS in Background is Off, which will result in unlimited FPS in the background.

Limit FPS Always: Limits your FPS in the game. This can be an important graphics setting for low-end gaming PCs.

Max FPS always: Works in combination with Limit FPS Always if turned on. This setting is not applicable when Limit FPS Always is Off, which will result in unlimited FPS in the game.

NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency: NVIDIA claims its Reflex Low Latency can reduce gaming latency by up to 80%, which can help fire off shots faster. Since there’s no measured impact on FPS, turn this setting to On or to On + Boost. The better your gaming PC, the more likely you should select On + Boost.

Multithreaded Rendering: An important Valorant graphics setting that should be enabled for mid-range and higher gaming PCs with at least 8GB RAM, 2GB VRAM, and a CPU with at least eight cores. Multithreaded rendering Improves CPU performance and graphics quality.

Material Quality: An important Valorant graphics setting that affects the visual quality of environmental details and shaders in-game and FPS. Buildings and walls will be more reflective the higher the setting, among other effects. Since FPS trumps visual quality, we suggest only increasing the Material Quality setting when hitting high enough FPS already.

Texture Quality: An important Valorant graphics setting that affects the visual quality of textures overlaying objects in the game and FPS. Rocks, bricks, trees, grass, and more will be sharper the higher the setting. We suggest only increasing the Texture Quality setting when hitting high enough FPS already.

Detail Quality: An important Valorant graphics setting that affects the detail of objects in the game and FPS. Rocks, bricks, trees, grass, and more will have more detail the higher the setting. For example, blades of grass can be seen when ratcheting up the Detail Quality to Med or High. We suggest only increasing the Detail Quality setting when hitting high enough FPS already.

UI Quality: Affects the visual quality of Valorant when not in the game. For example, menus and the home screen will be higher quality the higher the setting.

Vignette: Makes Valorantlook more cinematic by adding darker colors to the outside of your screen. Nearly all professional players turn Vignette off.

Vsync:  Enabling Vsync can reduce screen tearing, which happens when your GPU and monitor refresh rate are out of sync. Turning on Vsync reduces your GPU’s capacity, which affects FPS. Nearly all professional players turn Vignette off.

Anti-Aliasing: Adds smoother lines to edges and sharper objects to avoid a jagged, pixelated look. Anti-Aliasing has a small impact on FPS in Valorant.

Anisotropic Filtering: Objects in the distance will be clearer the higher the Anisotropic Filtering setting. While this Valorant graphics setting doesn’t impact FPS much, it also doesn’t improve visuals significantly either.

Improve Clarity:  Increases image sharpness. While this Valorant graphics setting could help to see enemies at a distance clearer, it doesn’t noticeably impact visual quality.

[BETA] Experimental Sharpening:  Reduces blurriness for objects in the game. While this Valorant graphics setting could be helpful in some scenarios, it doesn’t noticeably impact visual quality.

Bloom:  Reproduces a real-life visual experience that cameras produce by adding a glow or light bloom to objects. It offers no competitive advantage in Valorant.

Distortion:  In our tests, we couldn’t spot any visual differences when turning Distortion on. This theme holds true when researching other gamers’ experiences online.

Cast Shadows:  Makes shadows appear on your player and gun. It doesn’t affect other shadows in the game. Turn Cast Shadows off since there is no competitive advantage.