Valorant‘s beloved healer Sage has been found to cause a significant decrease in frames per second (FPS). Straight out of the gate, one of the great things about Riot’s shooter has been the game’s well-optimized framework. Developers claimed systems with hardware 10 years old would have the capability to run Valorant.
Since the beta’s release, there’s been little feedback from players with lower-end builds. Of course, players who are used to having less-than-stellar FPS may not notice decreased performance issues, but for those at the other end of the spectrum, it’s easily recognizable. However, players at all ends of the spectrum are reporting increased frame drops since the latest patch, 0.49.
Sage, bullet holes, and weapons found to tank FPS
Users report frame drops from all aspects of the game, and players are desperately looking for an explanation. Reddit user thefreshyyx shared a video illustrating how bad the situation has gotten. The user explained how the majority of his issues stem from shooting and the appearance of impact marks. Additionally, he noted a massive frame drop as he casts Sage’s abilities. At the start of the video, he achieved an average FPS of 420-430; however, at the end of his video, he was squeezing out just over 170 FPS.
MAJOR FPS DROPS are caused by shooting, bullet holes, and Sage abilities from VALORANT
His findings are alarming, considering he produced his recording in an empty server with only one character. Frame drops could be worse in the middle of a game where there are nine other players in the server — and potentially two Sages.
Players can expect a patch soon
Other users chimed in saying they’ve experienced a noticeable change in FPS. In response, Riot developer Kevin “Koalifier” O’Brien said the team is fully aware of performance issues after the last patch, and they are addressing the game’s performance as a top priority, actively investigating a fix.
Koalifier confirmed the poster’s statements about bullet holes impacting game performance are true, but it curiously occurs “not in the way that you might think.” He concluded by saying the next patch focuses on performance optimizations that should take care of the FPS issues.
