Valorant Responsiveness Guide
Precision engineered. Latency defines your ceiling.
Valorant runs on 128-tick servers by default across all modes. Its character mechanics — flashes, one-way smokes, tight angles — compress gunfights into sub-100 ms windows where input lag is the deciding factor. Riot's anti-cheat (Vanguard) also runs at kernel level, making driver and OS settings more impactful here than in most games.
Optimal Settings
Responsiveness Tips
Enable Raw Input Buffer
Valorant's Raw Input Buffer setting (Settings → Mouse → Raw Input Buffer) uses a direct driver read path, reducing Windows HID stack processing by approximately 1–3 ms. Unlike Raw Mouse Input in CS2, this is Valorant-specific and distinct from Windows raw input mode.
Crosshair Placement Beats Reaction Time
In Valorant's 128-tick environment, pre-aiming reduces the latency-sensitivity of duels. Proper crosshair placement means you're clicking on a target rather than tracking one — removing the reaction time component from the equation entirely.
Network Buffering
Valorant's Anti-Cheat processes network packets with a fixed jitter buffer. Wired ethernet with <1 ms jitter keeps packet timing consistent and allows the game's prediction model to stay accurate.
Agent Ability Timing
Ability activation has a cast animation delay of approximately 50–100 ms depending on the agent. This is baked into game design, not latency. Focus input lag optimization on the gunfight layer — ability timing is deterministic.
Responsiveness Score
Your Responsiveness Score measures the end-to-end quality of your input pipeline. Use the Responsiveness Lab to benchmark your system, then match your score to the ranges below.
Responsiveness Score Ranges
Optimize With the Desktop App
Apply all optimizations automatically. InputLag's desktop app manages power plans, GPU settings, and timer resolution persistently — no manual tweaking.