Maybe you’ve heard about Valorant before. The game was released in June 2020, but it’s recently been receiving more attention as the player base is growing at a faster rate than ever before. Players are finding themselves frustrated with lagging out or, even worse, having to deal with ping spikes that completely ruin their experience. While there are many possible causes for these issues, not all of them have easy fixes. Show It’s a common issue in Valorant, that players face high ping spikes or lag which causes the game to be unplayable. An increase in ping is often caused by a bad internet connection from your ISP (internet service provider) or from your computer itself. If you experience this issue with your internet, see if these instructions can help you fix it: To begin with, let us assume that the problem lies on the server-side and not with a client-side problem. If either of them are indeed responsible for this issue, please also read through our other article about how to fix lag in Valorant. First of all, try restarting your modem and/or router. This solves most cases on its own. If the issue still persists, contact your ISP to see if they are experiencing server issues or maintenance. They might not be aware of it. Sometimes, servers are overloaded because too many people are playing Valorant at once, which can cause severe lag and ping spikes for everyone else who wants to play. If everything is fine on their side, consider changing your internet channel. You can do this by changing your wireless channel in the router settings. It is best done with a tool like Wifi Analyzer, but you can also try all available channels, one after another. Make sure that there’s no other network nearby that uses the same channel as you! A common reason why players experience high ping even though their ISP is fine is because of their computer. Sometimes, programs that you or your children downloaded can cause this problem. Since not every user is an expert in programming, they don’t always pick up on malware and viruses very quickly. Additionally, it might be the case that your processor does not support certain features like SSE4, which can make game servers think you are running high-end software even though you aren’t. Luckily, there’s a simple fix for this. First of all, make sure you have all Windows Updates installed. If your computer is running the latest version of the OS and programs, it means that your processor supports SSE4 or whatever feature is required by Valorant. Next up, try limiting your framerate to 60 FPS . This limits how many packets can be sent from your computer to the server every second. As a result, the server will no longer think that your computer is using high-end software even though it isn’t. There are hundreds of guides on how to limit framerate in most games. Occasionally, players complain about being kicked from servers because their speedtest results were too high – faster than 100 Mbps. This is a false positive for the server, since it doesn’t know that you are using a speedtest to check your internet connection. Unfortunately, there’s no known fix for this yet, but the developers will hopefully implement an update in the future to prevent this from happening. Other possible fixes:
One reason why players might experience or latency issues is because they simply don’t have the internet bandwidth to play properly. It can be easy to blame lag on something else, but if your latency is greater than 100 milliseconds then you’re very likely dealing with bandwidth problems or inconsistent wired connections. Bandwidth caps are actually quite common, so make sure that you’ve done everything possible before you start blaming other factors for your issues. Another thing that solved our problems was to use a software called ExitLag. Also read: When Can You Surrender in VALORANT? 2) Keep up-to-date driversIf you’ve ever dealt with driver issues in the past, there’s a good chance that they were causing some sort of problem with one of your computer’s hardware components. If Valorant isn’t working well then it makes sense to check whether or not your drivers are an issue, as this could very well be the problem. You should never have to deal with lag because your drivers are out of date. 3) Turn off Steam’s in-game overlayValorant is a game that was released early on in its development and, as such, it hasn’t been optimized for high-performance yet. One possible reason why you’re experiencing latencies or ping spikes could be because of Steam’s in-game overlay feature; having this turned on has been known to cause problems like these. Luckily enough, turning this feature off is easy and it only takes a few seconds before everything will be running smoothly again. 4) Use an Ethernet cord if possibleSome players might use wireless internet because it’s easier to connect – but that doesn’t mean that you should. Wireless internet simply can’t handle the bandwidth requirements of high-performance games like Valorant, so it is recommended that you use an Ethernet cord instead in order to improve your latency and ping. The vast majority of wireless routers are actually incapable of supporting online gaming without experiencing problems like these. 5) Change your game modeValorant has different game modes for a reason; some players might experience more lag when they’re playing one particular mode over another. This could be because there are too many players or because that particular game mode requires more processing power than another does. Try switching to another game mode in order to improve your latency and ping before you start blaming other factors for your issues. It is recommended that you play in the Solo game mode if this is an issue, as this requires less processing power than both Multiplayer and Battle Royale do. Also read: What Does “NT” Mean in VALORANT? ConclusionLatency and ping spikes can be frustrating problems to deal with, especially when they’re preventing you from enjoying a game that you’ve paid for. Thankfully, there are several potential fixes that you can try in order to improve your experience. We suggest starting with the ones that we’ve listed above; if none of them work then feel free to move on to the next step. Keep in mind that some of these solutions might not work for everyone, so it’s important that you try as many as possible until you find one that does the job. If all else fails, remember that you can always reach out to the developers or other players in order to get help.
Are you experiencing high ping in Valorant even though you have stable internet? Don’t worry! Getting high ping is perhaps not really a big issue and is often solvable by tinkering with some settings. So let’s look at the different ways you can lower high ping in Valorant without further ado. Why Is My Ping So High in ValorantPing is the time it takes for the server to receive information from your device. Hence, the lower the ping, the better your gaming experience. However, different environments come to play, which increases your ping. The most common causes are:
Almost all the problems that cause high ping in Valorant are easy to take care of. So, let’s look at what steps you can take so that you can start gaming without as much lag. Preliminary FixesYou can always opt for the common and generic fixes such as restarting the game, your PC, and the router to omit the minor glitches that may occur during startup. Additionally, you can also check the internet speed on other devices to figure out whether your PC is getting bad internet or your network is not functioning properly. Troubleshooting InternetUsually, getting high ping is the result of unstable network internet, whether it is a poor connection or if you are connected over Wi-Fi and are far from the router. Hence, it is best to connect to LAN as it drastically changes latency in some cases. If LAN is not available, then you can try moving as close as possible to your router. Additionally, you can also disconnect other devices from the network so that your router does not share bandwidth with other devices. It is best to check your speed and ping to ensure that you are getting a decent internet speed as well. Close Background ApplicationsWhen you have background apps running or have an ongoing download, they can take up your bandwidth, which slows your internet. In such cases, it is advisable to stop such downloads, open Task Manager, and kill the apps running in the background, especially the ones that use internet connection.
While you are in the Task Manager, you can also set Valorant to high priority so that your PC gives more attention to Valorant while running it. To do so, you can:
It is best to remember that the priority reverts to default once you close Valorant or restart your PC. Clear DNS CacheOver time, using your internet collects trash files in your PC, known as DNS cache. These files can clutter up and slow down your network to some degree. Although changing DNS settings do not show any visible difference, users worldwide have reported less ping after clearing their DNS.
Change ServersSometimes, your game may connect you to a high-traffic and latency server. To avoid such circumstances, you can change the servers manually within the game and select the one with the lowest ping.
It is advisable to keep in mind that the server’s locations may not be the cause of the latency and could be the traffic in said server. For instance, if the Hongkong server is closer to you physically but is still getting a lot of ping. You can then choose a different location, such as the Tokyo server, that may have comparatively less ping due to less traffic. Get a Faster Internet ConnectionIf everything seems fine and the only problem is your default internet speed, it might be time for you to upgrade your internet. You can contact your internet service providers and discuss what internet speed suits you best. Contact ISPIf you are getting lower internet speed than you should, you can talk to your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and ask them to verify why you are getting low speed. In some cases, if you are only getting high ping in Valorant, you can mention it to your ISP, and they might be able to fix the problem by rerouting your IP. |