Best Resolution Settings For Valorant [Top 7]

Resolutions are a crucial yet often overlooked mechanic in Valorant to help boost your performance and aim. These simple display settings change your aiming angles and precision in the game for better or worse. But to ensure that it’s only for the better, there are tons of distinct resolution options in Valorant that can aid your competitive journey to reach Radiant.

Which Valorant Resolution Setting Is Best?

Before we start, it’s important to understand the difference and impact between resolution and aspect ratio. The resolution mainly affects your game’s zoom, blur, and performance level for a more magnified and smooth experience. On the other hand, an aspect ratio determines how much your game is stretched. And compared to resolutions, there are much fewer options for Aspect Ratios to choose from.

So, we need to find the perfect blend between the game’s resolution and aspect ratio to get a balanced improvement to our FPS and aim during a competitive match in Valorant. As always, your feelings towards a certain resolution or screen proportion may differ from other players, so always test out all your options.

1. Native Resolution (16:9/21:9)

Of course, our top recommendation would be the resolution you and your monitor are most familiar with.

• Native Resolution varies from monitor to monitor, and it could be either 720p, 1080p, 1440p, or even 4K.
• And since it’s the sharpest and best-looking resolution for your PC, it’s definitely the first option you should try.
• Most games and programs you run on your computer will likely be on your monitor’s default resolution.
• With a 16:9 or 21:9 aspect ratio that’s also on most devices, you’ll be familiar with how it fits on your screen.
• It ensures the crispiest possible experience without any irregularities like black borders, disproportionate text, or discoloration.
• This is also the maximum possible resolution for your PC, and as such, it’s the best one in terms of visuals.
• Native Resolution comes in extremely handy when you’re in long-range engagements.
• Your enemies don’t look pixelated or blurry at a distance, thus letting you see their weapons and be precise for headshots.

• • Furthermore, this is the only resolution that you can use in Windowed Fullscreen mode.
  • That is another benefit of this resolution since you can switch between tabs seamlessly without delay, unlike Fullscreen, which takes a few seconds to adjust your monitor when switching between the game and another tab.

• • Most pro players like TenZ and ShaZam prefer to keep their default resolution and advise people not to change it.
  • Even casual players and content creators don’t tamper with the resolution settings since it hinders their sense of familiarity and visual quality.
  • Apart from that, if you’re new to competitive games, then you’ll also need some time to adjust to other resolutions and their aspect ratios.

Major Differences Between 16:9 and other in-game Aspect Ratios

Apart from your native display, there are three other aspect ratios in Valorant to choose from – 4:3, 5:4, and 16:10. Compared to a standard 16:9, these aspect ratios are much wider and tend to stretch your display vertically. This comes with a few pros and cons itself.

• The first benefit you’ll notice when playing Valorant with one of these screen proportions is that enemies might feel easier to hit since they’re now stretched out.
• Valorant feels more “centered,” focusing most of your display at the center of the screen rather than corners.
• One noticeable drawback, however, is that these ratios stretch out your crosshair, and it might often feel too big and cause you to miss a few headshots.
• As such, you might need to get into the settings menu and tweak your crosshair settings to get more stable and reliable shots.

• • Apart from that, if you have a native 16:9 display, then these aspect ratios will cause several UI glitches.
  • These glitches include massive black borders in menus and loading screens, as well as text cutoff and in-game UI overlapping.
  • These text cutoffs are especially annoying during gameplay, as most of the time, you can’t view certain stats or figures because they’re blocked by other in-game text.
  • But the most frustrating glitch is your monitor sometimes staying in the same ratio when you switch tabs and your entire desktop screen falling apart.
  • However, it’s important to highlight that you can alleviate most of these issues by simply playing the game in Windowed mode instead of Fullscreen. 

2. 1024 × 768 (4:3)

If the native resolution isn’t giving you the aim you want in Valorant, then this is the best alternative resolution for it. 1024 x 768 (also known as 768p) is a 4:3 stretched resolution that is primarily focused on providing you with the best settings for high FPS in the game.

• • With a major sacrifice to its image fidelity, 768p lets you gain anywhere between a 30 – 125% increase in your average FPS compared to your native resolution.
  • It’s worth noting that the exact increase in your FPS depends on which resolution you were using previously.
  • If you were previously using 1080p, one of the most popular resolutions, then you can expect a 55% FPS boost. And if you were using a higher resolution, then you’ll see an even bigger change!
  • These performance upgrades do come at a cost.
  • Along with the added zoom and wider targets with the 4:3 aspect ratio, Your game will look significantly more pixelated and blurry, and you’ll notice certain UI glitches too.
  • And if you’re recently coming to 768p, then it’ll likely take you some time to adjust to the massive changes it brings.

• • The added blurriness from 768p can also cause several tactical problems too.
  • Small enemy equipment like Killjoy’s Sentry or Sova’s Recon Bolt can become difficult to spot and take out at a distance.

• • You could try other 4:3 resolutions for improving graphics, but generally, 768p is considered the best blend between FPS and visuals.
  • Overall, if you want to reach incredibly high FPS at the cost of visuals with a more magnified experience for a precise aim, then this is the best resolution the game has to offer.
  • It’s the most popular 4:3 resolution, and some of the best Valorant players use 768p as their main resolution for competitive play.

3. 1600 × 900 (16:9)

1600 x 900 (also known as 900p) is another popular 16:9 resolution whose image quality and dimensions will be familiar to most players. It’s coupled with the same aspect ratio as most modern native resolutions, so if you’re coming from 1920×1080, 1440×2560, or 3840×2160, then you won’t competitively feel much of a difference with your aim in the game. 

• • Players who are usually dissatisfied with their FPS and want some performance gain usually turn to this resolution.
  • The difference in visual quality between 900p and 1080p is usually unnoticeable, and you probably won’t see a difference unless you’re making a side-by-side comparison.
  • This might even make Valorant look better since you can now toggle all your Graphics Options to High.

• • Playing on the High graphics preset at 900p will still give you better performance than playing at 1080p on the Low graphics preset.
  • And since this is still a 16:9 ratio, you likely won’t see any visual glitches or weird stretches.
  • Furthermore, you can seamlessly switch between 900p and your native resolution during gameplay without any display hiccups.
  • Like other non-native resolutions, you can only use 900p in either Fullscreen or Windowed mode.

All in all, if you want to keep that familiar aspect ratio and are willing to sacrifice some visual fidelity for a few more FPS, you should choose this option.

4. 1680 × 1050 (16:10)

If you prefer a wider display that’s not as extreme as 4:3, then you should choose this 1050p semi-widescreen option. It has roughly the same pixels as our previous 900p resolution, but the unique aspect ratio makes it fairly distinct. It’s also the closest resolution to your standard 1080p among the list in terms of pixel count. So unlike the other options on this list, this one will look the sharpest aside from your native resolution.

• • At first glance, 1050p doesn’t look too different from 1080p or 900p.
  • You can usually only notice its 16:10 aspect ratio on the crosshair, which feels slightly wider.
  • This, like the 4:3 ratio, makes the enemy hitboxes feel more extensive and your crosshair more concentrated.
  • It also doesn’t come with the same visual caveats as 4:3, despite being a narrower resolution.
  • You’ll see minor black borders during loading screens but no text cutoffs during and after a match.
  • You’ll also experience your desktop remaining 16:10 when you switch tabs, jumbling up your desktop and icons.

Overall, suppose you want to retain the sharpness with some extra FPS and a slight horizontal adjustment for your aim in competitive games. In that case, 1050p is your priority resolution in the game. It also gives you a decent performance boost over the standard 1080p without sacrificing significant image quality. So, with all things considered, it’s a fair trade and a resolution you should try for yourself.

5. 1280 × 960 (4:3)

If you want to have the best possible 4:3 resolution, then 1280 x 960 is your best option in the game.

• Compared to the previous 768p and the alternative 864p 4:3 resolution, this one has significantly lower blurriness and better image quality.
• As such, you should go for this resolution if you want 4:3 as well as keep the in-game sharpness.

• • However, besides the usual text cutoffs and black borders, this is one of the least popular resolutions on this list.
  • This is because players who switch to 4:3 don’t focus on visual fidelity, thus choosing 768p most of the time.
  • Regardless, it’s still a matter of preference, and you can choose this 960p resolution just for the aspect ratio.

6. 1280 × 1024 (5:4)

1280 x 1024, also called 1024p, is the only resolution option with a 5:4 ratio in the game. And not only that, it has the widest aspect ratio in the game, with nearly 150% length-to-width ratio compared to 1080p.

• As the widest aspect ratio, 1024p has the thickest black borders in Valorant.
• It’s basically a more extreme version of the aforementioned 4:3 ratio, meaning wider crosshairs and more stretch to focus on the center.

• • The resolution itself is on the low end, which is why you may expect some problems with clarity, but that’s compensated with overwhelming performance gains.
  • If you were previously on 1080p, you could easily expect a 35- 40% increase in average FPS.
  • This percentage will, of course, be much higher if you were on a higher resolution before, like 1200p or 1440p.

• • Of course, the issues mentioned with other stretched resolutions are more prominent here.
  • Your crosshair will sometimes feel too big and block your FOV.
  • And when you switch to another tab on your computer, your monitor will stay at 5:4.
  • However, you can still fix most of these issues by playing Valorant in Windowed mode, although it’s not the preferred display mode to play at.

All in all, if you want to push your screen proportion to the extreme with the widest ratio possible, 5:4 is the ideal choice. 

7. 1440 × 900 (16:10)

This stretched 900p alternative is another underrated resolution setting you can try in the game for boosting FPS. It’s stayed under the radar and rarely used in competitive matches, but a few users on Reddit with their recent finds suggest that this could be one of the best resolutions out there.

• • One major appeal of this resolution is players find it extremely fluid during gameplay, even when coming down from 1080p.
  • They’ve reported the fewest average stutters as well as less input lag out of any resolution settings during matches.
  • This characteristic alone puts players at a huge competitive advantage, hence the recent attention towards this resolution.
  • Since this is a 16:10 aspect ratio, it’ll be more vertically squeezed compared to its 16:9 900p counterpart.
  • It will, however, give you a better performance boost as it has slightly fewer pixels than 1600 x 900.
  • The difference in image quality itself is fortunately barely visible, so you’re extra performance without sacrificing too much clarity.

• • Despite all that, this is still on the lower spectrum of our recommendations simply because it doesn’t have any outstanding qualities. 
  • Many pro players have also not extensively tested this version of 900p, so the claims of more fluidity are not yet concrete.
  • It’s coupled with a decent aspect ratio but a worse pixel count compared to its more familiar widescreen alternative, 1050p.

Regardless, you can still check it out and see if you share the same sentiment as the community praising it.

How To Change Your Resolution In Valorant

• To change your resolution in Valorant, you first need to head to the Settings menu by either clicking the cogwheel icon at the top right corner of the main menu screen or simply pressing the Esc key in-game.

• • Now, go to the Video tab, and under the General options, you’ll see your Resolution and Display Mode toggles.
  • The resolution settings here will be initially locked to your native resolution if you’re playing in Windowed Fullscreen mode.
  • So you need to ensure that your Display Mode is either on Fullscreen or Windowed mode before any changes. 

• • Once that’s done and the resolution settings are unlocked, you can now easily choose a different resolution from the drop-down menu.
  • After picking your new resolution and aspect ratio settings, click on Apply and wait for a few moments.
  • To adjust your display, the screen will momentarily go black, and apply your new settings once it comes back on.
  • You’ll also receive a prompt right after to confirm the new settings.

It’s worth mentioning that you can also change these resolution settings during a match on the go. This’ll let you test several different resolutions and aspect ratios in a single game, making your testing period much smoother. Just follow the same procedure above to switch between resolutions in-game.

Final Remarks

That wraps up our the best possible resolution settings in Valorant for improving your FPS, aim, and precision. As always, the best competitive resolution settings for you will likely come down to personal preference. Each resolution, along with its aspect ratio, has its own set of pros and cons. So be sure to try as many as you can and see which one suits you the most.

There are multiple ways that you can find out and learn so that you can get better at Valorant. You can also make your grinding journey easier by checking out the Fastest Ways to get XP in Valorant. Additionally, you can also try out different pro players’ setups, like mimicking ScreaM’s Settings.

Next:

• Valorant Character Tier List
• Hiko Valorant Settings
• Aceu Valorant Settings