6 Ways to Fix Valorant Freezing on a Windows PC

Valorant freezing is a common crashing issue widely reported by players. One player’s Reddit post reported, “Hey, so I got back into Valorant recently, and so far, it’s been great, except Valorant has been freezing up my entire PC from time to time.” Players also report that the game freezes when they utilize the Alt + Tab hotkey. Regular, recurring Valorant freezing can make that game almost unplayable since players must restart their PCs when it happens. This is how you can fix Valorant freezing on a Windows PC.

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Disable Fullscreen Optimization and Run Valorant With Administrator Rights

1. Click the File Explorer shortcut within the Windows 11/10 taskbar and go to this folder location: C:\Riot Games\Valorant\live\ShooterGame\Binaries\Win64.
2. Right-click on the VALORANT-Win64-Shipping file to select Properties.
   
   

   The Properties context menu option

3. Next, select the checkbox for the Disable full-screen optimization setting within the Compatibility tab.
   
   

   The Compatibility tab

4. Select Run this program as an administrator just beneath the full-screen optimization option.
5. To save selected compatibility options, click on the Apply > OK buttons.
6. Restart Windows after changing the compatibility options.

Select a High Performance Option for the Valorant Game

High Performance is a graphical option in Windows to optimize games for performance rather than power saving. If your PC has two graphics cards, this means setting Valorant to run with the higher-performance GPU that has VRAM. You can select the High Performance option like this.

1. Go into the search tool by utilizing its Windows logo button + S key combination.
2. Type in Graphics settings and select the search result that matches the keyword entered.
3. Press the Browse button to view a file selection window.
   
   

   The Browse button

4. Select the VALORANT-Win64-Shipping file in the C:\Riot Games\Valorant\live\ShooterGame\Binaries\Win64 folder and click Add.
5. Click Options for the Valorant game added to bring up Graphics preference settings.
   
   

   The High performance radio button

6. Select the radio button for High performance. Click Save to set the selected graphical preference option.

Select Windowed Fullscreen

Players who’ve needed to fix the Alt + Tab Valorant freezing bug say selecting the Windowed Fullscreen option can resolve that issue. You can select Windowed Fullscreen within Valorant’s graphical options as follows.

1. Start your Valorant game.
2. Select Settings in Valorant.
3. Click the Video tab.
4. Select Windowed Fullscreen on the Display mode drop-down menu.
   
   

   The Display Mode drop-down menu

5. Click Apply to set the selected Windowed Fullscreen option.

Disable Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling

Disabling GPU scheduling is another player-confirmed way to fix Valorant freezing, especially when it occurs by pressing the Alt + Tab hotkey. This is a feature that offloads tasks from the CPU onto the GPU. If you have GPU scheduling enabled, try disabling that feature like this.

1. Open Graphics settings as instructed for the first couple of steps of the second resolution.
2. Toggle off the Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling setting.
   
   

   The Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling

3. Close Settings and restart your desktop or laptop.

Set a Higher Priority for Valorant

Setting Valorant to run with higher priority will allocate more CPU time to the game. Doing this can potentially resolve Valorant freezing issues since the PC will give the game greater CPU priority over other processes. This is how you can select a higher priority setting for Valorant.

1. Start the Valorant game.
2. Return to the Windows desktop without exiting the game by pressing Alt.
3. Right-click the taskbar area to select a Task Manager context menu option.
4. Click Details inside the tab bar for Task Manager.
5. Right-click the Valorant game process to select Set priority.
6. Select either the Above normal or High priority option.
   
   

   The Set priority option

7. Click on Change priority when prompted to confirm.

Set Your PC to Clean Boot

The clean boot troubleshooting method disables third-party startup items (apps and services) when applied. Doing this is a possible solution for Valorant freezing because it prevents apps that don’t mix well with the game from automatically starting. Furthermore, disabling startup items frees up system resources for the game. So, try clean booting your PC before playing Valorant again by following the guidelines on this Microsoft page.

The Services tab

Other Possible Ways to Fix Valorant Freezing on a Windows PC

There are other possible ways to fix Valorant freezing beyond those methods above. Try applying these troubleshooting methods if the game still constantly freezes:

• Update the graphical driver for your graphics card by downloading it from the AMD or NVIDIA page.
• Temporarily turn off antivirus shields before playing Valorant.
• Make sure Discord isn’t running in the background before playing Valorant, and disable its overlay feature.
• Reinstall your Valorant game.

Many players have fixed persistent Valorant freezing on their PCs by applying the potential resolutions above. So, they’re worth a try if your Valorant game keeps freezing regularly. You can also contact the game’s support service from this Riot Games page for further possible fixes for this crashing issue.