Valorant is designed to run well on modest PCs, so sudden drops usually point to a specific setting, driver issue, Vanguard behavior, overlay conflict, power mode, or heat problem.
These steps apply to Valorant on Windows PC.
Does this affect you?
Use this if Valorant runs fast most of the time but drops during fights, ability effects, smokes, or busy moments.
Adjust the settings most linked to sudden drops
These graphics options can spike load when the screen gets busy.
- Open Settings > Video > Graphics Quality.
- Set Material Quality to Low.
- Set Texture Quality to Low.
- Turn off Bloom.
- Turn off Distortion.
- Turn off VSync.
- Set Anti-Aliasing to MSAA 1x or off.
- Open Video > General and set a frame limit your PC can hold consistently.
A locked 144 FPS usually feels smoother than swinging between a much higher peak and a sudden drop.
Update your driver and check Vanguard
Vanguard and graphics drivers can both be involved in sudden drops.
- Update your GPU driver through NVIDIA or AMD software.
- Restart the PC.
- Open Task Manager while playing and watch vgc.exe.
- If Vanguard CPU spikes match your FPS drops, note that timing.
- Install pending Windows updates.
- Keep BIOS or UEFI reasonably current, especially on systems using Secure Boot and TPM.
- Disable overlays such as NVIDIA overlay, Discord, and OBS one at a time.
Do not disable everything at once if you can avoid it. Testing one overlay at a time tells you which one caused the dip.
Power and heat checks
On Windows, open Settings > System > Power & battery and choose Best performance, especially on laptops.
If drops get worse during long sessions, monitor CPU and GPU temperatures with a tool such as HWMonitor. Temperatures near 90 degrees C on a laptop CPU can cause throttling and sudden dips.
If severe drops continue after settings, drivers, power, and heat checks, Riot Support can use a DxDiag report and match ID to investigate patch-specific performance problems.
Sources
- Riot Games Support – Valorant Performance and FPS Troubleshooting (2025)
- Riot Games – Vanguard Anti-Cheat Support (2025)
- NVIDIA – Recommended Settings for Competitive Shooters (2025)