Valorant is a free game famous for its unique set of agents and their abilities. Exceptional skills like throwing fire and making ice walls for shields, going through walls, and obscuring enemies’ vision make gamers crazy.
Valorant is intense and knotty. It always pushes you to do your best and become a supreme player. This game is so much hyped among first-person shooter game lovers. Speaking of FPS, many Valorant players are having a problem with Frame Rate while playing the game on Windows 10 or 11.
There might be several reasons behind the frame rate dropping issue in Valorant. Find out all the causes behind it and 100% proven fixes.
Let’s get started!
Why Does Windows 11 Cause FPS Drop in Valorant?
You may face FPS drops or low FPS on Windows 11 for outdated graphics card drivers, overloaded running background processes, higher in-game graphical settings, etc. Reasons like lack of Windows updates, power saver mode on, or Game DVR feature of Windows might also cause frame drop in Valorant.
Valorant is published by the famous League of Legends game developer Riot Games. It’s a fact that Valorant is Riot’s best crack Counter-Strike. Though it’s a first-person shooter game, the gameplay experience is top-level.
Although Valorant does not require many system resources, gamers are facing problems while playing Valorant in Windows 11.
It is important to make sure your specifications meet Valorant system requirements to be able to play it smoothly. Most games are satisfactory to play at 30 FPS and even better at 60 FPS. For a fast-paced competitive shooter like Valorant, 120 FPS or higher is ideal.
Even if the requirements are met, you may face sudden FPS drops while playing Valorant. You may notice that suddenly Valorant FPS drops to 0, or 1, or a low figure.
Several reasons can induce low FPS and FPS drops. If you didn’t update your Graphics driver for a long time, you might face lower FPS in the game. Graphics drivers must be updated from time to time to get maxed-out performance from the GPU.
The game mode is a great feature in Windows 10 & 11. It is a prebuilt feature in these Windows versions and comes turned on by default. If you have a low-end system and turn off the Game Mode, there is a chance you might get a lower frame transmission speed.
Playing games with a power saver mode on! Well, your processing power is compromised for power-saving purposes. Gaming needs a great amount of processing power both from the CPU and GPU. So, playing with power saver mode will cause lower FPS.
Other factors like high graphics configuration won’t give you higher FPS. Sometimes, Windows Gaming DVR features might cause this issue too.
So, before fixing low FPS in the Valorant game, find out which one is the main culprit for your Valorant FPS drop issue. Dig it up and follow the method below.
Check out our separate post on how to fix Valorant freezing and crashing.
How To Fix Valorant FPS Drops in Windows 11
There are several reasons for sudden FPS drops on Windows 11 in Valorant. I have faced this issue while playing this game on my Windows 11-based system. I know how tedious playing a game and getting a constant low FPS is. So, I have figured out some methods to solve this.
Let me assist you in fixing the FPS stutter in Valorant on your Windows 11 and improving the gaming experience. Read each step carefully because you are just a minute away from fixing FPS drops.
Here are the methods to fix Valorant’s Lower Frame rate in Win 11:
Fix 1. Update Graphics Driver
You will need to update the graphics driver if you haven’t updated it for a long time. Backdated Graphics Driver can give you FPS stuttering issues while gaming. To improve the frames per second in Valorant, updating the Graphics Driver is crucial.
Here are the steps to update your Graphics Driver:
- Press Windows key + R to open the RUN dialogue box.
- Type in devmgmt.msc to open Device Manager.
- Click on the Display Adapters and right-click on the Graphics Card.
- Select Update driver and click on Search automatically for drivers.
- Restart the PC after installing the drivers.
It will automatically update the driver for you. Hence, you can go to the manufacturer’s website to download the graphics’ latest driver. For integrated graphics drivers, go to Intel or AMD’s website. Additionally, go to the dedicated graphics card manufacturer’s website for the latest driver.
After updating, check if your FPS issue is resolved by it or not. If not, move on to the later fixes.
Here’s a complete guide on how to Fix: Secure Boot Enabled But Windows 11 Says It’s Not.
Fix 2. Install Windows Updates
Windows 11 and 10 provide frequent updates, including the latest bug fixes and improvements.
You might get lower FPS due to not installing updates for Windows. So, installing the latest updates can fix your gaming issue.
Note: Some updates may cause you problems, but they can be fixed by the next update.
Here are the steps to install Windows updates:
- Go to Settings by right-clicking on the Windows start icon.
- Click on the Windows Update, which is located at last.
- Click on Check for updates.
After this, if there is the option to update, Windows will start downloading it automatically. Then, restart your PC after installing all the updates. Windows updates will take effect to fix bugs and improve your experience after a restart. If the lack of updates holds down the FPS, it will be solved immediately. Restart your computer and see if the problem still exists or not.
Read more on how to Backup and Restore in Windows 11.
Fix 3. Turn on Game Mode
Game Mode is a great Microsoft feature and is only available in Win 10 and 11. If you have low-end gaming hardware, you can improve your playing experience by turning it on.
You might be experiencing FPS drops if you have turned off the Game Mode in Windows 11. So, to improve Valorant’s FPS, you need to turn it on.
Here are the steps to turn on Game Mode in Win 11:
- Go to Settings by right-clicking on the Windows start button.
- Select the Gaming option and then click on Game Mode.
- Turn on Game Mode by clicking on the switch.
Now, you will see your Valorant’s FPS has increased. Microsoft is still optimizing the Game Mode. Though you may not get a high amount of FPS while gaming, your frame drop problem will be gone.
Fix 4. Swap to the Best Performance Mode Option
Gaming with power saver mode on, your system can deliver poor performance while gaming. Power saver mode will limit processor and GPU power to save power when you are in battery mode on your laptop.
You must turn on the best performance power plan to get higher FPS while playing Valorant in your Windows 11-based system.
Here are the steps to switch best performance power plan mode in Win 11:
- Go to the Windows Settings option and click on the System option.
- Select the Power & battery option.
- Click the drop-down menu of the Power mode option.
- Select the Best performance option.
Now your power option is unlocked, and you can use your system’s full potential. It will increase the FPS while playing games as it will not hold any power for power-saving mode.
Fix 5. Close All Unwanted Background Programs
Sometimes, unwanted background programs hold your processing power. That’s why you won’t be able to get the highest performance while gaming from your system. Closing all unnecessary programs can free up processing power and RAM.
Here are the steps to close redundant background programs:
- Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open the Task Manager.
- Go to the Processes tab and right-click on the program you don’t want to run in the background.
- Select the End task option.
Repeat this process for all the unwanted programs. It will improve your gaming performance by freeing up all the gaming resources you need like CPU, RAM, GPU, etc.
Check out the easiest way to Fix Wi-Fi Option Not Showing on Windows 11.
Fix 6. Lower Valorant’s In-Game Graphics Settings
Gaming with high Graphics settings will give you a lower FPS if you don’t have a high-end system. Settings the Valorant’s graphics settings to lower or mid will increase the FPS.
Here are the steps to lower Valran’t in-game Graphics settings:
- Run Valorant and go to the Video tab.
- Select the Graphics Quality option and ensure the multithreaded feature is turned ON.
- Set Material, Detail, UI Quality, and Texture settings to Low.
- Turn Off the Clarity, Boom, Distortions, and Shadows option.
- Turn Off the Vsync and set Anisotropic Filtering to 1x and None for Anti-Aliasing.
After lowering all the graphics settings in Valorant, see if the FPS has improved during gameplay. You will see and also feel a significantly higher and improved FPS in Valorant.
Fix 7. Turn Off Game DVR
Game Bar or DVR is a feature in Windows 11, and it is for the XBOX app. This option helps to record and take screenshots during gameplay.
However, some gamers reported that this feature creates lower FPS issues in Valorant. So, turning off Game DVR will fix the problem for you.
Here are the steps to disable Game DVR in Win 11:
- Go to the Windows Search option and type in Regedit.
- Right-click on the Registry Editor and select Run as administrator.
- Go to this path in the Registry Editor Window: Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System\GameConfigStore
- Double click the DWORD named GameDRV_Enabled and change the value to 0. Click OK to save it.
- Double-click the GameDRV_FSEBehaviourMode DWORD file again and change the value data to 0.
- Do the same process again by going to the following path and setting the Value data to 0.
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsfoft\PolicyManger\default\ApplicationManagement\AllowGameDVR 
- Restart the computer.
After disabling Game DVR and restarting your computer, check if this process has fixed the Valorant FPS drops issue that you were having.
Fix 8. Lower the Mouse Polling Rate
If you are using a gaming mouse, you may get this FPS drop-down issue for setting the polling rate too high. Reducing the polling rate to improve FPS is a fix that you can apply. To solve low FPS in Valorant, you need to go to the settings of the mouse software and reduce the polling rate to 500Hz.
Reducing the mouse polling rate will increase your gaming FPS for sure. Try this to solve the issue.
You may also like Windows 11 Not Showing Up In Windows Update.
Bottom Line
Windows 11 is a new OS by Microsoft. Gaming on this will be problematic sometimes. Though you can run Valorant smoothly in Win 11, sometimes you will face stuttering issues. You might face frame-dropping haphazardly while playing Valorant in Windows 11.
But you can easily fix Windows 11 Valorant FPS drops by applying all those methods. Just follow those steps to bring back high FPS in Valorant.
Let me know if you face any problems while applying those steps.
Happy Gaming!
