If you want to build a PC to play Valorant or you want to upgrade your PC to get better frames you need to know what components are the most important. You don’t want to upgrade one of your PC components only to find out it makes a minimal difference in performance.
In this post we will be answering the question “Is Valorant CPU or GPU Intensive” in-depth so you can make the right decisions for your PC. Stick around to the end of the article to see our recommendations for CPUs and GPUs for Valorant. Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
Is Valorant CPU Or GPU Intensive?
Valorant is considered a CPU intensive game which means the game uses more CPU resources than GPU resources. However, the game, in general, is very easy to run and well optimized so almost any CPU will be able to run the game.
Valorant was designed so it could be played on virtually any computer or laptop so if you are struggling to get good performance in-game you probably have a very out-of-date CPU. The CPU will almost always be the bottleneck holding your PC back from achieving consistently high frame rates in Valorant.
If you are considering upgrading your current PC or building a new PC to play Valorant make sure you invest in a powerful CPU.
How Many CPU Cores Does Valorant Use?
If we look at the recommended system requirements from Riot Games, the developer of Valorant, we can see that Valorant uses anywhere from 2 to 6 cores depending on the CPU you have. The amount of cores Valorant needs to run at 144+ FPS according to Riot is 6 and the amount of cores needed to run the game at 30 FPS is 2.
The amount of cores is not the only thing you should be looking at when searching for a CPU though. The quality and speed of the processor in general are going to be more important than the number of cores it has.
Can You Play Valorant Without A Dedicated Graphics Card?
Yes, you can play Valorant without a dedicated graphics card. Valorant was built to have as many people play the game as possible so even computers without graphics cards can run it. If you want to run the game well at high FPS you will need a graphics card though.
If you are planning to build a PC for valorant you should still budget for a graphics card even if it’s a cheap one. Almost all games are GPU intensive and if you want to play other games besides Valorant you will need one. Your computer’s performance in Valorant and any other game is going to be worse without a dedicated GPU.
If you are on an extreme budget you can get a Ryzen APU that has integrated graphics so you don’t have to accommodate for a GPU in your build. We recommend the Ryzen 5 3400G APU if you want to go that route. Then you have the option to upgrade to a dedicated graphics card in the future.
Is Valorant RAM Intensive?
No, Valorant is not very Ram Intensive at all. Valorant requires a minimum of 4GB of RAM and a recommended RAM amount of 8GB. 4GB to run a game is quite low these days with most games needing about 8GB of RAM to perform well.
Even though you can run Valorant on 4GB of RAM we would recommend you get at least 8GB so you can have programs open in the background or something on your second monitor. If you play Valorant on 4GB of RAM you will need to close all of your programs in the background to get a good FPS.
Reccomended CPUs For Valorant
Here are the CPUs we recommend for playing Valorant at all resolutions:
- 1600×900 – AMD Athlon 3000G
- 1920×1080 (1080p) – AMD Ryzen 3 3100
- 2560×1440 (1440p) – Intel Core i5-10400
- 3840×2160 (4k) – Intel Core i5-11400F or Intel Core i5-11400
If you want to run the game with integrated graphics without a dedicated GPU we recommend either the Ryzen 3 3200G or the Ryzen 5 3400G
All of the CPUs recommended above will get you 60+ FPS on high settings in Valorant for their respective resolutions. If you want to get a higher FPS you can turn down your settings or scale down your resolution.
Reccomended GPUs For Valorant
Here are the GPUs for Valorant we recommend:
All of the GPUs listed above will run Valorant at 60+ FPS on high settings. Even the RX 550 for Valorant is a bit overkill due to how easy the game is to run from a GPU perspective. However, if you want to play any other games you will be happy you have it.
Conclusion
There you have it that is everything you need to about whether Valorant is CPU or GPU intensive. Valorant is an extremely easy game to run and is almost entirely CPU-dependent. If you are building a new PC for the game you can even run the game on integrated graphics as long as your CPU or APU is strong enough. Our recommendations for CPUs and GPUs should head you in the right direction.
If you have a question about something we mentioned in the article or want to let us know your opinion please do by leaving a comment.
