How to Fix Low Client FPS in Valorant (2026 Guide)

Low client FPS in Valorant is one of the most common performance complaints, and it almost always has a software or settings cause you can fix yourself — no hardware upgrade required. Whether your frame rate is stuck at 60, you're seeing constant stutters, or you hit the dreaded "Low Client FPS" warning in the top-right corner, this guide walks you through every fix in order of impact.

The "Low Client FPS" message specifically means your CPU is struggling to feed frames to the GPU fast enough — different from a GPU bottleneck. Most of the fixes below target exactly that: reducing CPU overhead, freeing memory, and removing Windows features that quietly steal processing time away from Valorant.

Before you start

Make sure Valorant and Windows are both fully up to date before working through these steps. Riot regularly ships performance patches, and a pending Windows update can hold back driver compatibility. These fixes apply to Windows 10 and Windows 11.

How to fix low client FPS in Valorant

1. Step 1: Lower In-Game Graphics Settings

   This is the fastest fix with the biggest impact. Open Valorant, go to Settings → Video → Graphics Quality, and set every option to Low or turn it Off. The most important settings to target are: Material Quality, Texture Quality, Detail Quality, Anti-Aliasing (set to None), and Anisotropic Filtering (set to 1x). Enable Multithreaded Rendering — this lets Valorant use all your CPU cores and is one of the single biggest FPS gains you can make. Turn off Bloom, Distortion, and Cast Shadows as well.

   

2. Step 2: Remove the FPS Cap and Switch to a High Performance Power Plan

   Valorant ships with FPS limits turned on by default. Go to Settings → Video → General and set Max FPS (Always) and Max FPS (Menus) to Off. Leaving these capped at a low value artificially limits your frame rate even if your PC could push far higher. At the same time, open Control Panel → Power Options and select High Performance (or Ultimate Performance on Windows 11). Balanced mode throttles your CPU clock speed to save energy — exactly the wrong behavior when you need every frame.

   

3. Step 3: Close Background Apps and Disable Overlays

   Open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), click the Processes tab, and end anything that's not essential while you play: Discord (if you're not using voice), Chrome tabs, Spotify, streaming software like OBS, and any RGB lighting apps. In particular, disable in-game overlays from Discord, Steam, NVIDIA GeForce Experience, and Xbox Game Bar — each overlay hooks into Valorant's render pipeline and adds CPU overhead that directly reduces client FPS. Disable the Xbox Game Bar entirely in Settings → Gaming → Xbox Game Bar.

   

4. Step 4: Update Your GPU Drivers

   Outdated GPU drivers are a silent FPS killer. NVIDIA and AMD regularly release driver updates that include game-specific optimisations for titles like Valorant. If you have an NVIDIA card, open GeForce Experience and click Drivers → Check for Updates. For AMD, use AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition. Alternatively, download drivers directly from NVIDIA's official site. Always restart your PC after installing a new driver — the change does not take full effect until the system reboots.

   

5. Step 5: Enable Game Mode and Disable Full-Screen Optimizations

   Windows has two settings that together meaningfully improve Valorant's performance. First, turn on Game Mode: go to Settings → Gaming → Game Mode and flip the toggle on. This tells Windows to prioritize Valorant for CPU and memory resources and to defer Windows Update restarts while you're in a match. Second, right-click the VALORANT.exe file in your install folder (usually C:\Riot Games\VALORANT\live\ShooterGame\Binaries\Win64), select Properties → Compatibility, and tick "Disable full-screen optimizations." Also check "Run this program as an administrator." Click Apply, then OK.

   

6. Step 6: Set Valorant's Process Priority to High

   While Valorant is running, open Task Manager → Details tab. Find VALORANT.exe, right-click it, hover over Set priority, and choose High. Do the same for any other VALORANT process entries. This instructs Windows to give Valorant first access to CPU time over other background services. Note that this setting resets every time you restart the game, so you'll need to set it each session — or create a small batch script to handle it automatically at launch. Avoid selecting "Realtime" priority, as that can destabilize Windows.

   

Additional tips to boost Valorant FPS

• Use exclusive full-screen mode. In Settings → Video → General, set Display Mode to "Fullscreen" (not Windowed or Borderless). Exclusive full-screen reduces input lag and CPU overhead.
• Disable NVIDIA G-Sync or AMD FreeSync in Valorant. Variable refresh rate adds a small layer of processing. If you're chasing maximum FPS, turn it off while playing competitive matches.
• Lower your resolution. Dropping from 1920×1080 to 1280×960 (stretched) is a common tactic in competitive play — it reduces GPU load and can recover significant FPS headroom for the CPU.
• Keep Windows and your SSD tidy. A near-full SSD slows down shader compilation and map loads. Keep at least 10–15% of your drive free.
• Check CPU temperatures. Thermal throttling mimics a "Low Client FPS" problem. Use a tool like HWiNFO or Core Temp to monitor your CPU during a game. If it's regularly hitting 95°C+, clean your cooler or reapply thermal paste.

Troubleshooting

The "Low Client FPS" warning keeps appearing even after these fixes

This warning triggers when the client frame rate drops below about 30 FPS. If it persists, check whether your CPU is being throttled due to heat, verify that Multithreaded Rendering is on, and make sure no antivirus software is scanning Valorant's game files in real time — adding an exclusion for the Valorant install folder can help significantly.

FPS drops specifically during team fights or certain maps

Spike in visual effects during fights pushes both CPU and GPU harder. Lower the Detail Quality and Particle settings further, and consider reducing your render resolution in-game. On heavy maps like Breeze or Fracture, this is expected behavior on mid-range hardware.

My FPS was fine yesterday but dropped overnight

A Windows update or a driver update installed in the background is the most common cause of a sudden FPS drop. Check Windows Update history and GPU driver version, then roll back if needed.

Frequently asked questions

What does "Low Client FPS" mean in Valorant?

It means your CPU is not delivering frames to the GPU fast enough — the bottleneck is on the client (your CPU) rather than the server. Common causes include high CPU load from background apps, a capped FPS setting, outdated drivers, or Windows running in a low-power mode.

Does Multithreaded Rendering actually help in Valorant?

Yes — for most players it's the single biggest in-game setting change you can make. It distributes Valorant's draw calls across all CPU cores instead of relying on one. The only exception is very old CPUs with fewer than four cores, where it can occasionally cause instability.

Should I use Fullscreen, Borderless, or Windowed in Valorant?

Use Fullscreen for the best FPS and lowest input lag. Borderless Windowed is convenient for alt-tabbing but adds a compositing layer that costs CPU cycles. Windowed mode is the worst for performance.

Does lowering resolution improve FPS in Valorant?

It primarily helps GPU-bound scenarios, but since Valorant is mostly CPU-limited, the gain may be modest. However, lower resolutions do reduce texture fetch overhead and can free CPU headroom on integrated graphics or very low-end dedicated cards.

Is Valorant FPS affected by RAM speed?

Yes, meaningfully so. Valorant is CPU-intensive and CPUs — especially AMD Ryzen — perform better with faster RAM. If you have DDR4, ensure it's running at its rated XMP/EXPO speed in the BIOS rather than the default 2133 MHz fallback.

Final thoughts

Fixing low client FPS in Valorant is almost always a matter of adjusting software and settings, not buying new hardware. Start with the in-game graphics settings (Step 1), enable Multithreaded Rendering, remove the FPS cap, close overlays, and switch to the High Performance power plan — those five changes alone will recover most lost frames for the majority of players. If you still see the "Low Client FPS" warning after all six steps, the next thing to investigate is thermal throttling or a hardware bottleneck on a CPU older than five years.