How To Fix Valorant Lag & Network Issues
Valorant has received a lot of praise in the gaming community for its unique gameplay mechanics. It game is an FPS title with a twist. Not only does it have gun combat, but Valorant also provides a roster of different playable characters, each with its own set of unique abilities that players can use during battle. All of this makes Valorant a lot more than your generic, everyday FPS shooter. It’s a lot more than that.
However, since its release, a lot of players have been complaining about a rising issue. We are talking about the notorious issue, commonly known as Valorant lag. So, today, to help the community out, we are going to be showing you some tips and tricks through which you can easily avoid this menace and play the game lag-free.
The Effects of Valorant Lag
Valorant is a game that requires quick thinking and cat-like reaction times to win games. Plus, with every character having their own abilities, it is crucial to know at what point you need to activate the abilities to give you a significant advantage over your opponent. As a result, having a delay of a single second can be the difference between the life or death of your character. Plus, in some drastic cases, you might even get disconnected due to an unstable network connection.
This is why it is really important to stay away from Valorant lag. However, how can one do just that? Well, there are a number of things that factor in when talking about lag in online games. From a steady frame rate to a stable internet connection, all of these can cause instances that can be considered as lag.
Network and Valorant Lag
As we have already mentioned, network-related issues also cause lag. Some of the most common network-related issues almost always have to deal with ping. To get a better understanding of how ping can cause you to experience lag while playing Valorant, let's first take a deep dive into what ping actually is.
What Is Ping?
As data travels through a network, it takes some time for it to reach its destination. It is just like cars traveling on a highway. If a car needs to cover a distance of 100km traveling at a speed of 100km per hour, then it will take the car about 1 hour to cover the distance. The time that takes data to leave your computer, then reach a particular server, and then back to your computer is called ping and is measured in milliseconds (ms).
Ping and Valorant Lag
Just like cars traveling on a freeway, it is impossible for data to cover a certain distance instantaneously. This means that ping will always be present no matter what you do or how great of an internet connection you have.
If the ping is something that no one can escape, then why is it a problem. Basically, if the ping is low, in other words, the time for data to travel from your computer to the game server then back to your computer is small, then you will not notice any delay. However, when the ping becomes larger and larger, you will start to notice a delay. As explained, this delay is called lag. This delay can be up to 2 to 3 seconds in some cases. The other issue with ping is its stability. When the ping gets unstable and starts jumping up and down, it can cause some frustrating issues like rubberbanding.
High Ping in Valorant
Imagine that you are playing Valorant and it's your turn to attack. Your team has planted the spike and now you are holding the flank with an Operator (AWP). You are watching clearly through your scope but all of a sudden, you die. You did not see an enemy peek or take a shot at you but you still died. This happened because of high ping.
What does high ping have to do with the above-mentioned example and how did you die? Actually, there was an enemy who peeked at you. You did not see him because he did not appear on your screen. When the enemy peaked on their computer, the data that contained the information of them peeking left their computer and reached the game server. Now the game server has to send that data to your computer so the enemy's character can appear on your screen. Because your ping is too high, the data did not reach your computer in time, and before it could reach your computer and you got a chance to react, the enemy had shot you, and that information already reached the game server.
Ping Spikes and Rubberbanding in Valorant
Right after high ping, the next most frustrating issue related to ping is ping spikes. Ping spikes are caused due to the instability of your internet connection. Ping spikes almost always cause jittery gameplay, however, in severe cases, it also causes rubberbanding.
Rubberbanding is one of the most frustrating experiences that gamers have to deal. In most cases, rubberbanding makes the game completely unplayable. Think of rubberbanding as trying to move your in-game character forward, while every two steps the character takes, it moves one step back. This will get you nowhere, and you can see how it will cause the game to be unplayable.
How To Fix Valorant Lag
Now that you have an idea of what Valorant lag is and how it can affect your gaming, let’s move on to the various fixes that are available to you. We say available to you cause there is a chance you might have to have a conversation with your ISP regarding your internet connection if all else fails.
So without any further ado, let's get on with the 5 tips and tricks we have for you through which you can easily fix lag in Valorant.
Wired Up
The first thing that every serious gamer should do is get a wired connection. However, in this world of clouds and wi-fi, most people opt for wireless connections due to their ease of installation but when it comes to having a stable online experience, a wireless connection can be the death of that.
A wired connection greatly reduces your ping as it is the prioritized connection through your router and will provide a faster data transfer as compared to wi-fi. As you get a faster connection the response time from your computer to the game server becomes considerably less and in turn, you do not experience Valorant lag.
Furthermore, with wireless connections, distance matters a lot too. If your computer is quite far away from your wi-fi router, we would advise you to somehow reduce the gap between them. But we only recommend you do this if you cant get a wired connection. A wi-fi booster can also help in some scenarios.
No Leeches
In many cases, a lot of people don’t realize that when they’re playing, they might have background apps running on the PC which may have automatic updates turned on. In this case, a large chunk of your download speed is used up by that certain app. To avoid this, it is good practice to make sure that apps and software that have frequent updates have automatic updates set to off. Doing them manually can help you avoid such instances from happening in the first place.
Another thing to make sure of before starting the game is to check to make sure you don't have files being downloaded. In most cases, people forget that they had put a huge file on download last night and when they fire up the PC, if the app is set to open on startup, it will automatically start downloading in the background. To avoid this, you can remove the app from your startup programs or make sure you pause all the downloads before you start playing the game to avoid Valorant lag.
FPS Drops In Valorant
A lot of people don’t realize that in many cases a lag problem might not originate from just the internet connection but can also stem from the fact that the game is outrunning your PC. This isn't exactly what you call lag but the effects of frame rates dropping while playing are the same as having high ping. Both result in glitchy gameplay.
So, to see if it is frame rates that causing you to experience Valorant lag, we would advise you to enable the game’s built-in frame rate counter. After doing so, run a game and see if you have a stable frame rate of over 60. If it’s anything less than 60, you might notice instances of lag. You can try lowering your resolution or your graphical settings to try and achieve a score higher than 60.
Check out the recommended system requirements for Valorant down below:
Valorant Recommended Requirements
CPU: Core i5-4460
CPU SPEED:
RAM: 4 GB
OS: Windows 7/8/10 64-bit
VIDEO CARD: GTX 1050 Ti
PIXEL SHADER: 5.1
VERTEX SHADER: 5.1
DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 4096 MB
In some cases, restarting your game can also reduce your lag but it’s sort of a fluke because it sometimes does and most of the time does not work. You can also try restarting your PC so the extra processes that are running in the background can be closed and your RAM can work on the game with full dedication.
A few sources recommend reinstalling the game but this is an unproven workaround. Hence, we do not recommend it as you’ll just end up downloading the whole thing again to no avail.
ISP Issues
In most cases when someone is facing constant lag while playing the game, it is a possibility that it’s a connectivity issue on your internet service provider’s end. For this, you can talk to your internet service provider and ask for a more stable connection.
In the case your Valorant lag still doesn’t get fixed, you can try changing your internet service provider but since that is a pretty lengthy process, here are a few more things you can try before you do that. You can ask your ISP for upgrade plans or a static IP which in some cases, helps in getting a better ping in video games. Or better yet, check out our next tip.
How To Put Stop To Valorant Lag With A Single Press Of A Button
If you have tried every last thing possible that we have mentioned, and still you are coming across lag. Don't lose hope because we saved the best solution for last regarding Valorant lag. WTFast is a GPN (Gamers Private Network) that provides a stable connection to its users who are serious gamers and want to experience the lowest amount of Ping.
How It Works
WTFast is designed to optimize your game connection data with different tools available in the software. It makes it easy for you to monitor your internet activity while gaming as it provides you with real-time analytics. WTFast uses machine learning to select an optimized traffic route for your connection minimizing the time that your internet utilizes to send data to the game server and back.
In the case that you are comfortable with your current server route WTFast also supports custom settings to allow the user the freedom of the way, they want their internet traffic to be routed.
How Can WTFast Help Players With Valorant Lag?
Since Valorant servers are limited to certain regions, many users that are not in those regions experience a higher ping than they are used to.
For Valorant players, using the WTFast client is the best option as it reduces the number of hops between your system and the game server. As the hops are reduced, the data is sent and received faster giving the player the lowest Ping possible.
Try WTFast today and feel a considerable reduction in Valorant lag.
