Valorant issues always come back

[fa1kk]

Hey, guys I don't know, but my game feels like absolute garbage sometimes.
A bit off topic: I'm a high elo player, and I want to go pro, but this issue literally makes me crazy. I used to play 15+ games a day, but now I can't handle even 5, because of the issue. Because instead of playing, I'm searching for answers.

-So what is wrong?

- The game feels like 60hz, even though I have a 360 hz monitor. It's not smooth and I would say a little jittery, delayed, laggy, literally I can't react to enemies. It's hard to describe, but the game is becoming choppy for no reason, unless I change something within my PC, e.g. the nvidia driver or set it to another core and so on.

And how do I realize that the problem always comes back? ( and it always does after a couple of hours or days, or sometimes after a reboot).
So, when I begin to move my mouse really fast from left to right, I start to feel dizzy, due to a completely blurry or laggy feeling on the screen, and usually I immediately quit the game to find a temporary solution to this issue.

It either the game network problem, which makes the game unplayable and I can't fix that, because it's related to the Riot servers, or my PC, but I have tried different custom isos, different drivers, different tweaks and at this point I think almost everything I could possibly think of. And there is no way it's unfixable, due to the fact that after finding a temporary solution the game starts to work smoothly.



And the G-sync + V-sync and cap fps doesn't help.

My specs:

Processor: i9-9900k
RAM: Patriot Viper Steel : 16 GB 3800 (16-16-16-36)
Monitor: DELL Alienware 2521h
DATA: SSD ADATA XPG SX8100 512GB M.2 NVMe
Power Supply: 750W CHIEFTEC Power Smart GPS-750C
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1080 ti
And I'm using : G-wolves HTS Plus 4000 polling rate mouse ( playing on 4k)
right now using custom windows Windows 10 22H2

In-game settings:
Everything is low, native 1920x1080.

Nvidia settings:
https://imgur.com/gallery/G1L95ML - old
https://imgur.com/gallery/y6utCYk - new

And sometimes which is ridiculous but the game works pretty fine after a couple of tweaks. But what is not fun is after changing those settings my game runs smoothly straight up for a couple of days or hours and then the problem comes back.

So what I have tried already:

1) Tried Fullscreen Exclusive:
disable-fse-and-allow-gamebar
enable-fse-and-disable-gamebar
And both disabled- is better for me.

2) Win32PrioritySeparation ( default was 26 hex, I figured out that and 2a hex is better and I have lower latency and faster responsiveness) Currently using only '2a'.

3) Changing the video driver: I have tried a lot of them. 512.95, 522.25, 537.34 and 546.01 were the most stable lately. But I'm still trying to find the best one, because fps and smoothness vary a lot depending on the driver like 9k and 3k 0.005%low fps in lava-triangle.
(NVCleanstall+DDU)
- Ansel disabled
- Driver telemetry disabled
- HDCP also Disabled
- Change resolution: using NVIDIA color settings
- Adjust Desktop Color settings : only digital vibrance on 58%
- Adjust desktop size and position : Full screen mode, Perform scaling on : Display
- G-sync : off
- Adjust video color and settings : with Nvidia settings to full
- adjust video image settings: using NVIDIA settings and unchecking Deinterlacing.

+Disabled Dynamic state 1
+Disabled CUDA - Force P2 State

Locked GPU clock and memory clock: https://imgur.com/gallery/AU2xmPH
https://imgur.com/gallery/nMdzIZa


4) Tried HAGS and without it the game feels better.

5) Tried disabling HPET. Didn't do anything.

6) Game mode and Game DVR both off.

7) Affinity tool. I have Tried many things, and it's really making a huge difference, and right now I have only USB and Video card on last core.

8) Msi mode: https://imgur.com/gallery/pZSctyr

9) Network: My ping in the game is 35-50 depending on the servers.
Receive buffers: 256 and Transmit buffers: 512.
Flow control: Disabled
Interrupt moderation Rate: off
Packet Priorirt and VLAN: Enabled both
RSS: enabled

TCP Checksum Offload (IPv4)
Enabled
TCP Checksum Offload (IPv6)
Enabled
UDP Checksum Offload (IPv4)
Enabled
UDP Checksum Offload (IPv6)
Enabled
Large Send Offload V2 (IPv4)
Disabled
Large Send Offload V2 (IPv6)
Disabled

all wake up on and Idle power savers are off as well.

While playing I have no packet loss. And ping is stable +-1ms.

Tried Vpn ( didn't help at all) and warp as well.

Tried Clumsy, to be fair, having higher ping gives advantage at some point,so I didn't use it for most of the time( 2 times I have used it) , but it was worth trying. Thanks to 13n47.

10) Tried the Nvidia Inspector and custom settings from CatGamerOP: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... YW7HP_aEAc

11) Used tcp optimizer here’s the settings:https://imgur.com/gallery/wlDX2NZ

12) Tried using low and high dpi and - no difference.

13) While Playing, I rarely use Discord and maybe Obs to record the gameplay, so there is nothing in the background 99% of the time, not even chrome.

14) Tried to use PowerSettingsExplorer.exe To change Processor performance time check interval to 5000ms and Processor idle Disabled: https://imgur.com/gallery/iiDbSwY

15) Tried PolicyPlusLatest.exe : https://imgur.com/gallery/ZhGACb8

16) Tried different configs. Tried deleting game config through AppData .

17) I have disabled the Disable Hyper-threading / Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) in UEFI
Disable power saving features like C states, Virtualization and so on.

18) Overclocked my CPU to stable 4800 core clock and 4400 ring clock: https://imgur.com/gallery/KWNn7ni

19) Triad SCEWIN and disabled a lot of power saving using this guide from Des1de & CatGamerOP: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KIW ... aBD4E/edit

20) And the ram. Lately, I tried to tighten all the timings and here is the result: https://imgur.com/gallery/j6mpJNH.
I saw a post from GUIDE by KoT that tWR/tRTP can affect smoothness and I increased my 12 tWR/6 tRTP to 20 tWR/10 tRTP - again couple of days of stable smooth work and then the problem came back again.


I genuinely have no idea how to fix the issue, because it always comes back in less than a couple hours or days. It's one of the most annoying things to have when you have a butter smooth game and then it disappears like nothing happened.

[InputLagger]

Hey, guys I don't know, but my game feels like absolute garbage sometimes.
A bit off topic: I'm a high elo player, and I want to go pro, but this issue literally makes me crazy. I used to play 15+ games a day, but now I can't handle even 5, because of the issue. Because instead of playing, I'm searching for answers.

-So what is wrong?

- The game feels like 60hz, even though I have a 360 hz monitor. It's not smooth and I would say a little jittery, delayed, laggy, literally I can't react to enemies. It's hard to describe, but the game is becoming choppy for no reason, unless I change something within my PC, e.g. the nvidia driver or set it to another core and so on.

And how do I realize that the problem always comes back? ( and it always does after a couple of hours or days, or sometimes after a reboot).
So, when I begin to move my mouse really fast from left to right, I start to feel dizzy, due to a completely blurry or laggy feeling on the screen, and usually I immediately quit the game to find a temporary solution to this issue.

It either the game network problem, which makes the game unplayable and I can't fix that, because it's related to the Riot servers, or my PC, but I have tried different custom isos, different drivers, different tweaks and at this point I think almost everything I could possibly think of. And there is no way it's unfixable, due to the fact that after finding a temporary solution the game starts to work smoothly.



And the G-sync + V-sync and cap fps doesn't help.

My specs:

Processor: i9-9900k
RAM: Patriot Viper Steel : 16 GB 3800 (16-16-16-36)
Monitor: DELL Alienware 2521h
DATA: SSD ADATA XPG SX8100 512GB M.2 NVMe
Power Supply: 750W CHIEFTEC Power Smart GPS-750C
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1080 ti
And I'm using : G-wolves HTS Plus 4000 polling rate mouse ( playing on 4k)
right now using custom windows Windows 10 22H2

In-game settings:
Everything is low, native 1920x1080.

Nvidia settings:
https://imgur.com/gallery/G1L95ML - old
https://imgur.com/gallery/y6utCYk - new

And sometimes which is ridiculous but the game works pretty fine after a couple of tweaks. But what is not fun is after changing those settings my game runs smoothly straight up for a couple of days or hours and then the problem comes back.

I genuinely have no idea how to fix the issue, because it always comes back in less than a couple hours or days. It's one of the most annoying things to have when you have a butter smooth game and then it disappears like nothing happened.

Found a fix?

[fa1kk]

Hey, guys I don't know, but my game feels like absolute garbage sometimes.
A bit off topic: I'm a high elo player, and I want to go pro, but this issue literally makes me crazy. I used to play 15+ games a day, but now I can't handle even 5, because of the issue. Because instead of playing, I'm searching for answers.

-So what is wrong?

- The game feels like 60hz, even though I have a 360 hz monitor. It's not smooth and I would say a little jittery, delayed, laggy, literally I can't react to enemies. It's hard to describe, but the game is becoming choppy for no reason, unless I change something within my PC, e.g. the nvidia driver or set it to another core and so on.

And how do I realize that the problem always comes back? ( and it always does after a couple of hours or days, or sometimes after a reboot).
So, when I begin to move my mouse really fast from left to right, I start to feel dizzy, due to a completely blurry or laggy feeling on the screen, and usually I immediately quit the game to find a temporary solution to this issue.

It either the game network problem, which makes the game unplayable and I can't fix that, because it's related to the Riot servers, or my PC, but I have tried different custom isos, different drivers, different tweaks and at this point I think almost everything I could possibly think of. And there is no way it's unfixable, due to the fact that after finding a temporary solution the game starts to work smoothly.



And the G-sync + V-sync and cap fps doesn't help.

My specs:

Processor: i9-9900k
RAM: Patriot Viper Steel : 16 GB 3800 (16-16-16-36)
Monitor: DELL Alienware 2521h
DATA: SSD ADATA XPG SX8100 512GB M.2 NVMe
Power Supply: 750W CHIEFTEC Power Smart GPS-750C
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1080 ti
And I'm using : G-wolves HTS Plus 4000 polling rate mouse ( playing on 4k)
right now using custom windows Windows 10 22H2

In-game settings:
Everything is low, native 1920x1080.

Nvidia settings:
https://imgur.com/gallery/G1L95ML - old
https://imgur.com/gallery/y6utCYk - new

And sometimes which is ridiculous but the game works pretty fine after a couple of tweaks. But what is not fun is after changing those settings my game runs smoothly straight up for a couple of days or hours and then the problem comes back.

I genuinely have no idea how to fix the issue, because it always comes back in less than a couple hours or days. It's one of the most annoying things to have when you have a butter smooth game and then it disappears like nothing happened.

Found a fix?

No, I haven't found the solution yet.

[AyayronPlays]

Valorant really doesn’t work very well with basically any tweaking at all, it’s really bizarre why but the game always felt terrible whenever i’ve tried any OS tweaks.

I’d fresh install and don’t make any tweaks to windows, set bios defaults after making note of your ram timings and re-enter them after you’ve reset bios.

[fa1kk]

Valorant really doesn’t work very well with basically any tweaking at all, it’s really bizarre why but the game always felt terrible whenever i’ve tried any OS tweaks.

I’d fresh install and don’t make any tweaks to windows, set bios defaults after making note of your ram timings and re-enter them after you’ve reset bios.

I have already tried installing different OS without any tweaks, and it felt much much worse. And I have tried to reset the Bios settings as well, same result, it's better to get tweaked before you start playing the game, otherwise you will experience massive input lag and delay in every aspect of the game, but if you have once experienced butter smooth game, with almost instant hit registration and smooth agents moving, you will understand that it’s literally 2 different games.


And in my case, after some of the so-called tweaks the game became AT LEAST playable for some period of time, the massive one was lowering the RAM timing and setting up tertiaries, along with finding the suitable driver for my video card.

[imprecise]

Hey, guys I don't know, but my game feels like absolute garbage sometimes.
A bit off topic: I'm a high elo player, and I want to go pro, but this issue literally makes me crazy. I used to play 15+ games a day, but now I can't handle even 5, because of the issue. Because instead of playing, I'm searching for answers.

-So what is wrong?

- The game feels like 60hz, even though I have a 360 hz monitor. It's not smooth and I would say a little jittery, delayed, laggy, literally I can't react to enemies. It's hard to describe, but the game is becoming choppy for no reason, unless I change something within my PC, e.g. the nvidia driver or set it to another core and so on.

And how do I realize that the problem always comes back? ( and it always does after a couple of hours or days, or sometimes after a reboot).
So, when I begin to move my mouse really fast from left to right, I start to feel dizzy, due to a completely blurry or laggy feeling on the screen, and usually I immediately quit the game to find a temporary solution to this issue.

I have a few ideas... Since you have AW monitor, AWCC will auto-install during updates, and cause your power profile to switch to balanced instead of high. I would check this first.

The description of laggy 60hz feeling could be g-sync being on even if it's off in NVCP. Try toggling on/off.

There may be an issue with AW in general, but I haven't done testing on it. I've had 2 different AW 240hz displays and with AWCC disabled this one seems to work well, but I do still have issues with gameplay falling behind real-time. I'm almost certain I've narrowed it down to internet issues but I haven't eliminated the possibility of the monitor falling behind.

If it's not those issues, I would guess 90% or higher that it's an internet issue. I have noticed lately that my internet only works well for 1-2 games before returning to a complete mess. This is partially because the internet routes are overloaded and I don't have tier 1 priority at the ISP hubs. Another reason is there are a ton of hackers out there completely lagging everyone in the games they're in, so your network might have to be reset after encountering a lagged game. Make sure your IP is private/hidden from other players (it's a setting in steam, don't know about valorant) I think the DNS cache gets overfilled (this might also just be a general problem and not related to cheaters) so you can try ipconfig /flushdns. Other things to try are change dns server, or disable, enable your adapter, connect to a different DNS server, change VPN location. Unfortunately, this is such a widespread problem you might not be able to do much about it beyond paying for VPN and/or dedicated internet and keeping track of your routing for issues.

Oh and there has been a lot of solar flare activity, which could cause intermittent internet issues and damage the internet in general, which may or may not be repaired eventually. I think ISP recent emphasis on prioritization is a bigger issue than the solar flare activity, though. ISPs are selling gigabit to 40 people and then only connecting it to a 10gig connection and using software to fill in the difference. People still get gig speeds mostly but there is a sharing process that slows all the connections down.

I saw you have flow control disabled. Enabling flow control may or may not help... you can test the difference here: https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat
Just lowering the bufferbloat on client may not solve the issue though because most of the problem occurs later on in the route, in my experience. This setting will likely just feel different with new advantages/disadvantages.

[fa1kk]

Hey, guys I don't know, but my game feels like absolute garbage sometimes.
A bit off topic: I'm a high elo player, and I want to go pro, but this issue literally makes me crazy. I used to play 15+ games a day, but now I can't handle even 5, because of the issue. Because instead of playing, I'm searching for answers.


-So what is wrong?


- The game feels like 60hz, even though I have a 360 hz monitor. It's not smooth and I would say a little jittery, delayed, laggy, literally I can't react to enemies. It's hard to describe, but the game is becoming choppy for no reason, unless I change something within my PC, e.g. the nvidia driver or set it to another core and so on.


And how do I realize that the problem always comes back? ( and it always does after a couple of hours or days, or sometimes after a reboot).
So, when I begin to move my mouse really fast from left to right, I start to feel dizzy, due to a completely blurry or laggy feeling on the screen, and usually I immediately quit the game to find a temporary solution to this issue.

I have a few ideas... Since you have AW monitor, AWCC will auto-install during updates, and cause your power profile to switch to balanced instead of high. I would check this first.


The description of laggy 60hz feeling could be g-sync being on even if it's off in NVCP. Try toggling on/off.


There may be an issue with AW in general, but I haven't done testing on it. I've had 2 different AW 240hz displays and with AWCC disabled this one seems to work well, but I do still have issues with gameplay falling behind real-time. I'm almost certain I've narrowed it down to internet issues but I haven't eliminated the possibility of the monitor falling behind.


If it's not those issues, I would guess 90% or higher that it's an internet issue. I have noticed lately that my internet only works well for 1-2 games before returning to a complete mess. This is partially because the internet routes are overloaded and I don't have tier 1 priority at the ISP hubs. Another reason is there are a ton of hackers out there completely lagging everyone in the games they're in, so your network might have to be reset after encountering a lagged game. Make sure your IP is private/hidden from other players (it's a setting in steam, don't know about valorant) I think the DNS cache gets overfilled (this might also just be a general problem and not related to cheaters) so you can try ipconfig /flushdns. Other things to try are change dns server, or disable, enable your adapter, connect to a different DNS server, change VPN location. Unfortunately, this is such a widespread problem you might not be able to do much about it beyond paying for VPN and/or dedicated internet and keeping track of your routing for issues.


Oh and there has been a lot of solar flare activity, which could cause intermittent internet issues and damage the internet in general, which may or may not be repaired eventually. I think ISP recent emphasis on prioritization is a bigger issue than the solar flare activity, though. ISPs are selling gigabit to 40 people and then only connecting it to a 10gig connection and using software to fill in the difference. People still get gig speeds mostly but there is a sharing process that slows all the connections down.


I saw you have flow control disabled. Enabling flow control may or may not help... you can test the difference here: https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat
Just lowering the bufferbloat on client may not solve the issue though because most of the problem occurs later on in the route, in my experience. This setting will likely just feel different with new advantages/disadvantages.

Thanks for your time and reply! I do appreciate that!


1. About the monitor: I'm using the custom windows and there is no such thing as auto-update. It's always on a custom power plan, since I have removed the rest of the power plans from the list. And I’m using the program called PowerSettingsExplorer after installing the ISO, just to make sure everything is set up properly.

2. I have G-sync disabled in the NVIDIA profile inspector. https://imgur.com/gallery/DdZYJkC
I was using the CapFrameX to notice if there is an fps issue, but I just don't think it's related to the fps, due to the fact that even if I had a 200 fps it was smooth, but for now even 500 feels terrible.
Here's some of the data that I did collect: https://imgur.com/gallery/yKLSEuU (Also, I made some changes to improve the game after, so I might need to record new ones.)

3. Internet issues are definitely a thing, since I live in Ukralne and here's the war going on, so that might be a problem at some point. And I have no control over it. But I’m trying to do everything I can from my side.

I was using different programs, like WinMTR and PingPlotter to notice if there is a packet loss or anything weird going on with my routing. And the interesting thing is I didn’t notice anything that can be drastically impactful on the game. There were no packet losses at the very least.

I used to change the DNS servers pretty often using the program called DNSBench to check which DNS is better at the, but I had a realization that it depends on the time and the amount of users in my area, so I have decided to leave it to dynamic and auto-selected.

I have tried to change all of the network settings including flow control, and in my case I prefer disabled it.

Besides, I have tried to use different LAN drivers for my I219-V and the older ones (25.1 and 23.5) just feel better than the new ones (28.2.1).

But at the end of the day, it can be the Riot network Issue, not on my side, and that's what I can't fix.

And by the way, ferrari peeks are so noticeable when you have anyone in the game with 10+ ping from yours. Or is it just me noticing that everyone with higher ping is having a crazy advantage as a peeker, even though they are much lower ranks ( While playing dms ).

4. Bufferbloat. I do really check it almost every time before I play, so if it goes lower than A, usually I just reboot all the network stuff,
and unfortunately, it's an unstable thing to check. Here’s the screen of the test I just did: https://imgur.com/gallery/Wizslzw ( usually it's lower, but just got a perfect timing.)

5. But is Solar flare activity affecting the fiber optic cables without copper sheaths? To be fair, this is an interesting topic, I have never heard of it before, I might investigate it to get a better understanding of how it works.

[widow13]

Same issue my man, I literally read your topic and checked to see if it was me that posted it.
Wanted to go pro as well but I've quited valorant multiple times because of the exact issue.
High elo player too and if the issue kicks in you can put me against bots and I'll still lose.

It's insanely blurry and stuttery when you move your mouse it's literally unplayable.
It always comes back after a certain time window which I don't understand tho.

I believe it could be the riot network servers but wouldn't famous streamers and other people have it too? No clue honestly.

[fa1kk]

Same issue my man, I literally read your topic and checked to see if it was me that posted it.
Wanted to go pro as well but I've quited valorant multiple times because of the exact issue.
High elo player too and if the issue kicks in you can put me against bots and I'll still lose.

It's insanely blurry and stuttery when you move your mouse it's literally unplayable.
It always comes back after a certain time window which I don't understand tho.

I believe it could be the riot network servers but wouldn't famous streamers and other people have it too? No clue honestly.

The funny thing is, I'm pretty sure we can fix that, by tuning the ram timings or finding the proper driver for your video card, and who knows what else, the list is huge.


You you can be moving to another country to get closer to the server to have a lower ping, get a better Internet provider, following the guides on how to build a PC, how to avoid daisy-chaining power cables, how to tape the end of loose power cables to reduce the risk of short-circuiting components, how to clean the pins and connectors of components, how to buy a better components, how to set up a better cooling, how to configure the USB port layout, to get zero input lag, and so on.


The issue here is while you are looking for a core problem, you will probably either give up, because you don't have time to play the game itself, or the deeper you go, the more you will get to know which is good, but is that information the reason you have started playing the game?


But on the other hand you are wasting time, since you are not doing ‘the thing’, which is playing the game and getting better, while you can literally just spend money to get a tweaking service from a professional, who has already tweaked hundreds of PCs. There are so many of them, and in my opinion, nowadays, you can find all the information you need, but at a GIGANTIC cost of your time. So it’s a hard pill to swallow, but sometimes you have to except the fact that if your knowledge is not enough you either learn all the stuff about the pc, or you pay someone, who have already done that, I’m dumb and that’s why I’m looking for a magic fix, and the more I look, the more I realize it’s a time waste.


Also, I haven't seen anyone talking about this, which makes me think that those people probably spent their money to get a tweaking service to get their PC completely responsive and smooth at the same time. Otherwise, they just feel completely resilient towards any ‘lags’.

[widow13]

Same issue my man, I literally read your topic and checked to see if it was me that posted it.
Wanted to go pro as well but I've quited valorant multiple times because of the exact issue.
High elo player too and if the issue kicks in you can put me against bots and I'll still lose.

It's insanely blurry and stuttery when you move your mouse it's literally unplayable.
It always comes back after a certain time window which I don't understand tho.

I believe it could be the riot network servers but wouldn't famous streamers and other people have it too? No clue honestly.

The funny thing is, I'm pretty sure we can fix that, by tuning the ram timings or finding the proper driver for your video card, and who knows what else, the list is huge.


You you can be moving to another country to get closer to the server to have a lower ping, get a better Internet provider, following the guides on how to build a PC, how to avoid daisy-chaining power cables, how to tape the end of loose power cables to reduce the risk of short-circuiting components, how to clean the pins and connectors of components, how to buy a better components, how to set up a better cooling, how to configure the USB port layout, to get zero input lag, and so on.


The issue here is while you are looking for a core problem, you will probably either give up, because you don't have time to play the game itself, or the deeper you go, the more you will get to know which is good, but is that information the reason you have started playing the game?


But on the other hand you are wasting time, since you are not doing ‘the thing’, which is playing the game and getting better, while you can literally just spend money to get a tweaking service from a professional, who has already tweaked hundreds of PCs. There are so many of them, and in my opinion, nowadays, you can find all the information you need, but at a GIGANTIC cost of your time. So it’s a hard pill to swallow, but sometimes you have to except the fact that if your knowledge is not enough you either learn all the stuff about the pc, or you pay someone, who have already done that, I’m dumb and that’s why I’m looking for a magic fix, and the more I look, the more I realize it’s a time waste.


Also, I haven't seen anyone talking about this, which makes me think that those people probably spent their money to get a tweaking service to get their PC completely responsive and smooth at the same time. Otherwise, they just feel completely resilient towards any ‘lags’.

It is actually true and I believe it is something to do with the bios and more importantly the ram because changing the ram timings usually makes the game run better even if it is for a little bit.
Guess I need to experiment with voltages and try to get them perfect and consistent.

I've actually bought optimize service before on a previous setup I had and I ended up having the same issues again as they didn't really pay attention to bios details so I guess they didn't really try helping.

I really want to fix it but I've had this issue for 2+ years now and I don't really know how much more I can handle.