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Best Valorant Settings Guide - Pro Tips & Tricks

  May 19, 2022

Best Valorant Settings Guide - Pro Tips & Tricks
 

The settings in Valorant play a huge part in the performance of both the game and the player. This article will help guide you through the main settings. We’ll also offer some advice on the type of specification you’ll need to become a competitive player in one of the most popular Esports titles in the world.

In this guide:

Esports Growth & Potential

If you are planning on forging a career in Esports, with Valorant specifically, then 2022 might very well be the best year to start.

There are hundreds of tournaments and leagues planned this year. With so many open tournaments, anyone who wants to become a pro gamer now has that opportunity. The entire industry – Esports in particular – is in a constant growth phase.

E-Sports Pro Gamers

The top ten teams playing Valorant in tournaments and events have earned an accumulated total of over $3 million USD, and the total money awarded in competitions such as Valorant Champions, VCT (Valorant Champions Tour), and VRL (Valorant Regional Leagues) is over $12 million USD.

Esports prize pools are getting bigger, and teams are constantly progressing in skill level, with their own academies and coaches to scout, train and enhance the performance of up and coming gaming athletes.

Esports by the numbers

There will be an estimated 29.6 million monthly Esports viewers in the US alone this year, per Insider Intelligence data – an 11.5% growth over 2021. Globally, Esports will generate $2 billion in revenue in 2022 according to experts, and is seeing exponential growth.

A good indicator of this is Formula 1. Viewership of the real-life F1 Grand Prix in 2021 was 70.3m globally, and the 2021 F1 Esports Series presented by Aramco achieved over 23 million views. This is extremely impressive in terms of growth, and records continue to be broken year on year across the entire gamut of Esports genres.

If you want to become a pro Esports gamer, then you have a mountain to climb. Of course, you need to have the skillset to achieve at the higher levels, but there are lots of other qualities you’ll need. Determination, a cool head, dedication and focus are equally as important as speed on your MnK, or how fast you can operate a controller.

There are foundations that must be laid first, and that’s what we’re going to be discussing in this article. We will focus on what is probably the most basic aspect of levelling up – your Valorant game settings.

Why Do I Need The Best Settings In Valorant?

With each new update from Riot Games, Valorant has increased in performance. A lightweight game to start with, it can be played on many older machines, but is absolutely best experienced on a powerful PC.

When it comes to rendering speed, crisp visuals and top-end framerates, there’s no room for error in competitive gaming, which is why no pro gamer is using integrated graphics – even though could run a potato quality version of Valorant on it!

Optimise hardware + optimise Valorant settings

Using a lower specification machine and optimising high-performance graphics are two completely different things, producing polar opposite results. As you can see from the screenshot below, the first thing you’ll notice is that there is a serious issue with ghosting and frame drops when using a lower spec machine with integrated graphics.

Good luck shooting an opponent when you have double vision:

Low specification gameplay screenshot
Screenshot courtesy of Pow Bam Zing (YouTube)

Whereas using a higher specification gaming PC, and tweaking for visual and framerate optimisation, using the best Valorant settings in-game produces the following results:

High performance specification - RTX 3080 and an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, with 32GB RAM
Screenshot courtesy of Jansn Benchmarks (YouTube)

The second image above is from a PC running an RTX 3080 and an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, with 32GB RAM. The specification produces crisp & clear visuals at long distances and framerates of over 300FPS at 1080p/HIGH.

As with most games, there is still plenty of room for improving performance, even if you are running Valorant on an RTX 3060 Ti battlestation. Tweaking and optimising game settings allows you to pinch an advantage over other players, and customising your settings specifically for your hardware and playing style is critical.

In a clutch 1v5 play, you will need all the advantages you can muster, regardless of spec.

Best PC For Valorant

To hit the kind of framerates that will enable you to play competitively in Valorant, you will need a minimum specification as outlined below. There is no need to go overkill with PC spec. You could start seeing diminishing returns once you hit peak framerates, and it won’t matter how much money you throw at it – your settings will not get any better.

1080p 240Hz monitor

Let’s start with the monitor. One of the most popular monitors among pro players (Gambit, KRÜ, Team Secret, 100 Thieves etc.) is the BenQ Zowie XL2546K. This Full HD monitor is capable of delivering 240FPS (240Hz Refresh Rate) and includes an ingenious feature called DyAc+, which is often applauded as being the best blur reduction technology available.

Pro Valorant players use this BenQ Zowie monitor to ensure they see a constantly high framerate with no blur or ghosting during fast-paced movement and combat.

Best PC specification for Valorant

The sweetspot in gaming used to be 60FPS. This was the benchmark before Esports really took off, and now we have moved on. Right now, for competitive play, you need to be aiming for 144FPS at a minimum, but ideally 240FPS to be in line with the professionals.

There are numerous graphics cards that can rock up with 240FPS on tournament day, starting with the RTX 2080 Super, but the sweet spot is found with the RTX 3060 / RTX 3060 Ti.

RTX 3060 – risk of overkill?

To the untrained eye, the RTX 3060 may be considered as overkill when it comes to games like Valorant, but the benefits are numerous when you have this kind of rendering power.

With an RTX 3060, you are able to –

  • …play at maximum and optimised settings at 240FPS
  • …simultaneously stream your gameplay on Twitch/YouTube
  • …record in-game footage
  • …edit high definition footage of your gameplay for upload
  • …simultaneously run other demanding applications

For the above (and many other situations) the RTX 3060 is not overkill, it is necessary.

Multi-tasking = 12th-Gen Alder Lake

There’s no question when you take a look at the Alder Lake processors from Intel, they deliver performance in spades. If you need reliable power and you require near-instantaneous responsivity from a processor in your gaming, the Core i5 and Core i7 12th-Gen CPUs are the way forward.

The Alder Lake processors are designed for the demands of modern gamers and creators, with excellent performance in video editing, streaming and multi-tasking for extended periods. Whether it’s a marathon gaming session on Twitch, or a 4K montage, Alder Lake delivers.

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Best Valorant Settings – General

Once you have a PC specification similar to the above and you’re ready to compete, you need to tweak to get the best Valorant settings and get the most out of your rig.

General settings in Valorant
General Settings (Valorant)

Resolution: Set to Native

It’s always best to play Valorant using the native resolution of your display (1920×1080, 2560×1440 etc.)

Display Mode: Fullscreen

Set to “Full Screen” for the highest FPS in Valorant. Fullscreen enables your PC to prioritize performance over background processes, and this can also be optimised by opening task Manager, right clicking on Valorant, and setting priority to High.

Monitor: Primary

Only worthwile mentioning if you have multiple monitors to choose from. Select your primary monitor.

Aspect Ratio Method: 4:3 or Letterbox

4:3 aspect ration will stretch some textures, which results in textures of your opponents being stretched, ergo easier to get in your crosshairs and shoot.

Letterbox is used mostly by professionals, and recommended by most Valorant players.

Limit FPS on Battery: OFF

Not applicable on PC, but switch off to avoid any FPS drop.

Max FPS on Battery: Above 60 FPS

Applicable if you use a laptop, but irrelevant for desktop PC gaming.

Limited FPS in Menus: Optional

If you are streaming your gameplay in Valorant, it is helpful to have this setting switched On, for when you ALT+TAB out of the game to chat with your viewers, or doing other tasks. If you won’t be switching from your game often, switch Off.

Max FPS in Menu: 30 FPS

A setting that is available to reduce GPU usage during idle time.

Max FPS in Background: 30 FPS

Having 30 FPS maximum framerates ensures you can minimise the game quickly, and reduce the number of frames your GPU is dealing with when you’re not actually playing.

Limited FPS Always: Off

Turn this setting Off and framerates will be uncapped in-game.

Max FPS Always: 60 FPS

Mostly for smoother animation in the main menu

Nvidia Relex Low Latency: On

For Nvidia gamers, this setting helps reduce input lag significantly, and will ensure your actions in-game feel accurate and responsive.

Valorant Graphics Quality Settings

These settings will ensure high framerates and optimal performance when you’re playing, without reducing the visual quality too much. Below you will find the best Valorant settings for competitive play, regardless of spec.

Graphics Quality in Valorant
Graphics Quality (Valorant)

Multi-Threaded Rendering: On

Multi-threaded rendering with a capable processor ensures you are getting the most out of your hardware. This option takes all the CPU rendering work and spreads it across two cores instead of just one. If you are using other applications in the background, you might see worse performance in the visuals, so this is worth noting if you’re streaming or recording footage.

Material Quality: Low to Medium

The Low setting will be more for those with lower powered GPUs, but if you have high performance at your fingertips, then Medium material quality will be best.

Texture Quality: Medium to High

Textures are not a significant performance drain in Valorant, and if you have a mid-range or high end PC, you should opt for Medium.

Detail Quality: Low

Removing vines on walls and assets such as foliage in-game can increase FPS, and means there are less distractions in competitive play.

UI Quality: Medium

Does not affect performance greatly. This setting affects on-screen graphics such as player profile images etc.

Vignette: Off

The general consensus is that Vignette offers no benefits nor drawbacks with performance, and you will rarely see it in use in a competitive game, being mainly used for a “cinematic” feel to the game

VSync: Off

With V-Sync off, you may notice the odd screen tear, so you may have to lower your max framerate settings to compensate, but with a high performance monitor like the BenQ 240Hz we mentioned earlier, you won’t see any issues up in the high hundreds.

Anti-Aliasing: MSAA X2

Anti-aliasing may affect other games, but in Valorant, this aspect has been optimised very well – so there shouldn’t be any problems with MSAA X2 enabled.

Anisotropic Filtering: 2x – 4x or 16x (High-End)

Depending on your specification, this setting will affect the sharpness of textures at angles, but with a powerful PC, 16x will be just fine and not affect any performance criteria.

Improve Clarity: On

Does what it says on the tin.

Bloom: Off

Only for visual effect, and does not impair performance or gameplay by switching off.

Distortion: Off

This is mainly a visual effect (read: distraction), Distortion can be switched off.

Cast Shadows: Off

This setting only affects your character, and could be left switched off.

What’s Next?

In our other articles, we’re looking at how you can start your Esports career in becoming a professional Valorant player, and what you’ll need to hit the higher echelons to join a team. We’ll also be looking at how you can improve your performance with more advanced settings such as crosshairs, Windows tweaks for higher FPS, and the settings used by professionals in-game.

Watch this space…

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