A new patch for VALORANT was released on wednesday after a global maintenance. The patch implemented several fixes to the game and brought some nerfs to Raze and Sage. However, ever since the update was released, several players reported to have encountered major FPS drops and performance issues in Riot’s new title.
Some users also reported network problems like packet losses and stuttering instead.
VALORANT is a first-person competitive shooter, where every frame is crucial. A sudden drop in FPS can easily determine a round, if not the entire game. It’s not surprising to see the community speak up about a major issue like this. More and more posts began to surface on Reddit addressing this issue and how it was making the game “unplayable”. People with seemingly decent rigs also reported encountering performance issues.
Surprisingly, the update which Riot had issued didn’t contain any changes that might have an impact on the performance whatsoever. So, this kind of performance issues were strange and uncalled for. Fans wanted to hear something from Riot themselves, and Riot didn’t disappoint its fans.
In a reply to a thread, Riot_Milkcow – one of the members of Riot’s team – said that they “take performance seriously” and that they’re actively “investigating” on the subject. He further said that, “(we) think we’ve found what is causing this issue for some players but need test and validate it before pushing it to the live build. This may take a bit of time but we’re on it.”
When another user asked them about the “way higher ping times than League” and occasional packet losses in Florida, RiotStealthyJesus – technical engineering lead for VALORANT – assured him that “This is being actively worked on.”
It’s really nice to see the developers constantly communicating with fans of the franchise rather than just shipping occasional updates to fix the issues. These kinds of open communication between the players and the devs will certainly go a long way to cement the future of VALORANT as an esports title.
