NVIDIA settings for Valorant, plus AMD and your monitor

The short answer

Five settings matter most on the graphics card and monitor side. Each one carries its level in the text, so you know what you risk before you click. The game's own options live on the graphics settings page; here you set the driver, the card's control panel, the screen and the mouse.

• Essential: update your graphics card driver.
• Essential: set your monitor's refresh rate in Windows.
• Essential: keep a single low latency mode, Reflex.
• Worth testing: G-SYNC with V-Sync on (FreeSync not detailed).
• Advanced (experienced players): overclocking or undervolting the graphics card.

Resizable BAR and the mouse polling rate also sit under "Worth testing". The page follows that order, from safest to riskiest.

Essential: no risk, apply these first

These three settings go through Windows, the driver and the game. Apply them in order.

Update the driver. Riot explains that the driver shipped with a graphics card is usually out of date by the time it reaches you. To identify your card, type dxdiag in the dialog box, then open the Display tab. AMD, NVIDIA and Intel each offer a tool that scans the PC and updates drivers automatically. This is Riot's own support page, the most direct source for this game.

Set the monitor's refresh rate. Open Start > Settings > System > Display > Advanced display, then pick a rate under "Choose a refresh rate". Take the highest one your screen lists. For competitive play, Cybertek recommends a 144 Hz or 240 Hz monitor. That is a supporting site, not a Riot or Microsoft page. Microsoft adds a useful caveat: if your display supports variable refresh rate (VRR), the change may be unnecessary for gaming.

Keep one low latency mode. When Reflex and the NVIDIA driver's Ultra Low Latency mode are both on, Reflex overrides it. Stacking them is pointless. Reflex works on GeForce cards back to the GTX 900 series. Turn it on in the game: the steps are on the graphics settings page.

Worth testing: reversible, effect varies

A setting at this level changes in a menu, and nobody can promise its effect on your PC. Change one thing, replay the same situation, then keep it or cancel it.

G-SYNC with V-Sync (FreeSync not detailed). On a G-SYNC display, NVIDIA writes that keeping V-Sync on with Reflex automatically caps the frame rate below the refresh rate and eliminates tearing. The price is stated too: latency is slightly higher than with Reflex and no cap. Cybertek links G-Sync, FreeSync or Adaptive Sync to less screen tearing, without the latency penalty of classic V-Sync. NVIDIA's text is about G-SYNC, and none of the sources cited here details the FreeSync case. V-Sync can be set in the NVIDIA control panel (Manage 3D settings > Vertical sync) or in AMD Radeon Software (Wait for vertical refresh). Without V-Sync, Riot flags possible visual artifacts. The in-game V-Sync is covered on the graphics settings page.

Resizable BAR. NVIDIA quotes a few percent, up to 12%, depending on the game, and says some games lose performance. The feature is turned on through validated game profiles, and Valorant is not on the list of 17 games published on March 30, 2021. So Valorant is absent from the 2021 list, with no reliable measurement published. That is not proof of no gain, only the state of a list that is several years old.

Mouse polling rate. Corsair says a higher rate costs processor time: at 8000 Hz, the processor works harder. The maker asks for at least an Intel 9th generation i5 or a Ryzen 5 2nd generation at 4000 Hz, and an Intel 9th generation i7 or a Ryzen 7 2nd generation at 8000 Hz. These are a mouse maker's thresholds, not Riot's. Check your processor before you try.

How to judge the effect. Refresh rate and polling rate also go through your browser: the reaction test can reflect a change in them, because your monitor and mouse add their own delay to the result. For G-SYNC, FreeSync or Resizable BAR, the test sees nothing: judge in game. If neither the test nor your feel moves, go back to the old value.

Advanced (experienced players)

One setting lives here: overclocking or undervolting the graphics card. No source cited here describes the risk for graphics cards; write down the original clock speeds and voltages so you can go back.

GPU overclock and undervolt

• What it does: you run the card outside the specifications its maker publishes, with higher clock speeds (overclock) or a lower voltage (undervolt), through a maker's tool or a third-party one.
• Measured gain: no reliable measurement published for Valorant. No source cited here puts a number on a gain, and this page promises none.
• Risks: none of the sources cited here describes the risks specific to graphics cards. As a reference point, AMD writes that overclocking or undervolting its processors and their memory outside specifications voids the product warranty, and that users assume all risks, up to failure or data loss. That notice covers processors and memory, not graphics cards: read your card maker's terms before touching it.
• How to undo: put the factory clock speeds back in the tool you used, then restart.

Nothing forces you to go there. The setting is listed so you know what is not documented, not because it is recommended.

Measure before and after

The rule fits in one sentence: keep the hardware constant, same monitor, same mouse, same browser, and change one setting at a time. The reaction time test runs 5 trials. The wait before the green signal is random, from 1 to 4 seconds, so you cannot guess when it comes.

Your monitor, mouse and browser add their own delay to the result. Compare your tests on the same device. That is exactly what you change on this page: swap the screen or the mouse and your new series no longer lines up with the old one. The test runs in the browser, so it is a feel marker, and it cannot see Valorant's internal settings.

Stay in the same browser for the mouse series too. Chrome and Edge read raw mouse movement, without Windows acceleration. If you want your sensitivity back after a mouse swap, or in another game, the converter covers 6 games, no account needed. It starts from a fixed rule: Valorant applies 0.07° of rotation per mouse count and per sensitivity point.

To check that your aim keeps up, replay a benchmark scenario: its scenarios are played in KovaaK's.

On the Road2Radiant side, the site is free, and only the Sensitivity Finder uses tokens. An account receives 25 tokens.

What these settings do not change

A current driver and a good screen remove brakes, they do not replace an hour of practice. None of these settings picks your target, fixes your crosshair placement or promises a rank. If your machine is already well tuned, the effect will be thin, and that is a normal result.

To get started:

1. Update the driver, set the refresh rate in Windows and keep Reflex as your only low latency mode.
2. Change one "Worth testing" setting, judge it by how the game feels, and run a reaction test series on the same device to follow your reaction over time.
3. Touch overclocking only if you know how to return to factory values, and read your maker's terms first.

Next, open the whole section or check what your PC needs on the PC requirements page. To follow your aim over time, create your account: it is free.