Valorant High Ping Fix – How to fix high ping in Valorant
Hing ping in Valorant is actually more common than you think. But, before we start pointing fingers at Riot Games for not upgrading their servers, chances are, it’s your own device and setup that caused your sluggish gameplay.
Perhaps we can provide some answers to your pondering question on why is my ping so high in Valorant, and what to do about it.
Our best Killjoy is on the case
Valorant High Ping Problems
For starters, ping technically refers to internet latency. But really, you want to know what is ping in gaming and how it drastically affect your gaming experience.
In layman’s terms, is the time taken for your device to send a command to the game’s server. To minimize the delay between user and server, Valorant has region-specific servers across the globe to cater for their distributed global playerbase. In most cases most users have access to a server with sub-50ms delay. However, if all the servers in your list have insane delays, the problem might be in your setup.
For instance, if you live in Southeast Asia, the Singapore server is the closest geographically. Hence, ideally, you want to have approximately 5ms ping, but even at 70ms, most players still find the experience viable if everyone has roughly the same delay. Problems arise only when some users has drastically better or worse ping then everyone else on the server. Issues like de-sync and improper movement stop popping up, breaking the game-play and potentially the enjoyment one might have.
Valorant High Ping Fix
Various factors contribute to Valorant high ping issues, such as server location, Internet speed or even your gaming station and internet setup. In order to get a decent playing experience in your matches, try the following fixes.
1. Activate Network Buffering
Network buffering is a feature designed for people with unstable connections and high ping in Valorant. The settings vary between Minimum/Moderate/Maximum, and each setting sets how often your PC “talks” with the Valorant servers, and gets data packets back. The worse your packet loss is, the higher the setting you should go for.
At maximum settings, there will be less packets sent between you and the servers, and the game will attempt to automatically predict the movement of players. As a result you will get very smooth gameplay, but you will face difficulty winning duels against enemies due to the long delay it takes for your PC and Server to communicate.
Valorant developer RiotStealthyJesus explains it well in the following Valorant Reddit thread.
2. Use a LAN cable
It might sound a bit silly, but plenty of users forget that LAN cables are a necessity when gaming. WiFi connections are notorious for their delay and packet loss due to obstacles and the signal traveling through the air instead of a wire. Plugging a LAN cable from your router to your device is another method of obtaining a seamless connection and prioritizes the internet speed for your directly connected device.
Now if you really don’t have access to the router, but still want to play Valorant via wireless connection or even mobile data (we know you people exist), try minimize the number of obstacles between you and the router itself. Look for those bars and signal to be strong before starting your match.
3. Make Valorant a high-priority program in Task Manager, and close all other apps
Our PC often run background applications on start-up, some necessary, but others might just be downloaded apps that you have running in background.
First up, try to close all tasks that are not related to your game. Ideally you should only have the Game Client and Riot Vanguard up. Any additional app might be using internet in the background to self-update and eat up your valuable connection. Additionally, locate the Valorant app, and set it as a high-priority program on the Task Manager. It also goes without saying that you do not want to download mixtapes while playing Valorant. As the resources are distributed between these resource-hungry tasks.
Some apps like Razer Cortex or WTFast are able to achieve the objectives mentioned whenever you launch Valorant or any games.
4. Get a better Internet plan
If there is infrastructure in place, use it. Say you have some cash to splurge, then the easiest solution is to upgrade your internet plan. If you plan to dedicate time to this game, it’s better to spend some money and save your health and nerves from delay and lag causing your losses.
A 100mbps high-speed Internet plan usually cost around $20 and can be decent to achieve low ping. However, that’s provided you aren’t sharing your Wi-Fi with too many household members. The megabits per second get distributed evenly among the number of active connections, so internet speed can dip. Also, consider playing Valorant during non-peak hours.
Bottom Line on Valorant high ping
We hope high ping in Valorant will not be an issue affecting your gaming experience. If you get beat, we hope it’s cause your opponent is better or you really suck.
These are relatively conventional solutions to improve the Valorant high ping if you are experiencing it. Hence, the next time somebody calls out on why is my ping so high in Valorant, you know the three factors to fix. Of course, an important disclaimer to note is, no surreal solutions will be able to improve your Valorant gameplay if the closest Valorant server is not exactly close to your country. Take Australian players, for instance, who had to play in Singapore server when Oceania server didn’t exist.
Remember, playing with high ping sometimes has its advantages. When you get used to anticipating player movement to get winning trades, you will end up being exponentially better when you head over to play in LAN.
