The Best Graphic Settings For VALORANT (For Fastest Performance And Reduced Input Lag)

Battlestation Setups is reader-supported. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small commission.
Written By: Lorenzo • Updated: 02/11/2021

Let’s face it; whenever you adjust the graphic settings of any given game, you don’t really know what’s going on.

There are too many settings to choose from, and really, you just want to go ahead and play without having choppy, low FPS graphics.

For FPS games such as VALORANT, your graphics settings can have a significant impact on your gameplay.

Luckily we have tested the best graphic settings for VALORANT, so you don’t have to.

And in this guide, we will show you precisely what graphic settings are best to minimize input lag and have your PC running the game in the most efficient way possible.

Let’s dive in!

TL;DR: The Best VALORANT Graphics Settings

The best way to maximize your FPS and reduce input lag is to:

  • Recommended For Everyone: Set all of your graphics to their lowest settings and turn “Improve Clarity” On. These settings will give you the highest performance. (See the complete list here)
  • Recommended For Mid - High-End PC’s: Set your “Material Quality,” “Texture Quality,” and “Detail Quality” on Medium and turn “Improve Clarity” On. (See the complete list here)
  • Recommended For Everyone: Set “Enemy Highlight Color” to Yellow (any of the two settings).
  • Recommended For Everyone: Set an FPS cap, depending on the following: (You can find the full explanation here).
    • 60Hz - 144Hz Monitors: 200 FPS Cap
    • 240Hz Monitors: 300 - 400 FPS Cap

There are two ways to set your graphic settings that we’ve tested, these are:

1. The Best Graphics Video Settings To Reduce Input Lag (Recommended)

Photo of graphic quality settings in VALORANT. Best graphic settings for VALORANT.

  • Multithreaded Rendering: On
  • Material Quality: Low
  • Texture Quality: Low
  • Detail Quality: Low
  • UI Quality: Low
  • Vignette: Off
  • VSync: Off
  • Anti-Aliasing: None
  • Anisotropic Filtering: 1x
  • Improve Clarity: On
  • Experimental Sharpening: Off
  • Bloom: Off
  • Cast Shadows: Off

We recommend these settings if you value the highest performance and the lowest input lag.

These are the settings that most pros play on.

These settings are crucial if you have a low-end machine.

2. The Best Balanced Graphics Video Settings For Performance And Clarity (For Higher-End PC’s)

medium settings

  • Multithreaded Rendering: On
  • Material Quality: Medium
  • Texture Quality: Medium
  • Detail Quality: Medium
  • UI Quality: Low
  • Vignette: Off
  • VSync: Off
  • Anti-Aliasing: None
  • Anisotropic Filtering: 1x
  • Improve Clarity: On
  • Experimental Sharpening: Off
  • Bloom: Off
  • Cast Shadows: Off

We recommend these settings if you want to admire the aesthetics of the game.

Setting the quality to Medium will barely affect your FPS and are best for mid to high-end machines.

Some pros prefer Medium settings over Low settings as it allows for slightly better clarity.

Set Your “Enemy Highlight Color” To Yellow

enemy highlight yellow

Setting the enemy color to yellow allows you to see enemies clearer than ever.

Just look at the differences in clarity between the two:

enemy highlight color differences

 

Turn Up Your Digital Vibrance To 80%+

One nifty trick I found that should work in most monitors is to turn up the Digital Vibrance.

For AMD GPU users, “Digital Vibrance” is known as “Saturation.”

You will want to set your Digital Vibrance to 80% or above.

I have it set to 80%, but you can play around with the range.

If you haven’t messed around with this setting before, you will find that there will be a significant difference in colors.

Here is how it looks like:

digital vibrance differences

NVIDIA Users: How To Change Digital Vibrance

  1. Right-click on your desktop and select “NVIDIA Control Panel.”
  2. On the left-hand side menu, under “Display,” select “Adjust desktop color settings.”
  3. Under “Digital vibrance,” set it to 80% or above. Feel free to find what you feel looks best.

nvidia digital vibrance

AMD Users: How To Change Saturation

  1. Right-click on your desktop and select “AMD Radeon Settings.”
  2. On the top menu, select “Display.”
  3. Select Saturation and move it up to 80 or above. Feel free to find what you feel looks best.

amd digital vibrance

Why Setting An FPS Cap For VALORANT Will Help Reduce Input Lag

When it comes to in-game performance when gaming, you should know that higher FPS = less input lag.

Which is true.

But it may lead you to think that “uncapping” your FPS would allow you to play on the highest FPS.

However, when in terms of reducing input lag, this is not the case.

Playing on uncapped FPS subjects your CPU to bottleneck, causing more latency which means your bullets will register slower.

In other words, playing on uncapped FPS introduces input lag.

So instead, here’s what you should do:

Step 1: Show Your FPS In-Game

Head to Settings → Video → Stats, and under Client, FPS select “Text Only.”

RELATED: How To Show FPS In VALORANT (And Tips On How Make Your Game Responsive)

Step 2: Uncap Your FPS To Test Out What You’re Running Consistently

In your in-game settings, head to Video → General, and under “Limit FPS Always,” select the “Off” option.

Step 3: Test Your FPS In-Game

Have fun. If you want to get it over and done with, head to the range and spawn the bots, that way, it mimics what you would see in competition.

Note down or make a mental note of what FPS your game is currently running on consistently.

Step 4: Cap Your FPS Using Your Data, While Adding An FPS Buffer

You will want to cap your FPS higher than your monitor’s refresh rate but lower than what your CPU and GPU are capable of doing.

The best way to determine this is by taking your consistent FPS value to use as a cushion.

And depending on your refresh rate, you will want to ensure it’s higher than your monitor’s refresh rate.

Here are some examples:

If your consistent FPS is 150 and your monitor’s refresh rate is 144Hz, you will want to cap my FPS at 200.

If you find that your FPS is high, but you only game on a 60Hz monitor, I would recommend upgrading your monitor to complement your high FPS.

If you find that your FPS is low but your monitor’s refresh rate is high, it means that your GPU is not strong enough, and it would be good to upgrade your GPU.

But if you find that your FPS is at a consistent range, you ensure that your PC is running VALORANT as smoothly and efficiently as possible, cutting down on input lag as much as you can.

The Bottom Line

By now, you should know what the best graphic settings for VALORANT are and how to maximize your PC’s efficiency so you can reduce input lag as much as you can.

The FPS cap strategy is not well-known, but you should feel that you are slightly more responsive if you implement it.

Overall, optimizing your game to produce a high, consistent FPS is key to having an enjoyable gaming experience in VALO and also ensures you have a competitive advantage.

But it won’t automatically make you better.

When it comes to improving in VALORANT, you will want to improve your game sense and your aim.

If you are serious about ranking up, you can check out our guides on how to rank up fast in VALORANT and on creating the perfect aim training routine.

Happy gaming!

Article written by Lorenzo
Since the age of 6, Lorenzo has enjoyed gaming on computers. Having grown up in the digital age, the technology revolves around him. He enjoyed growing up gaming throughout his high school years and is now a young adult who does most of his work on his computer. Lorenzo's mission is to make buying products and building PC's an easy and fun experience for all.

Related Posts

crossmenu