I built a completely new PC with a Ryzen 5 7600X and Radeon RX 9060 XT, and Valorant is causing extreme stutters. Every few seconds the game freezes for around three seconds, especially when I repeatedly use Omen's Paranoia ability. Sometimes Valorant crashes and triggers the AMD bug-report tool. In the worst cases, the stuttering continues on the desktop and in other games after I close Valorant, and only restarting the computer fixes it. Other games run normally, including demanding titles at high settings, and Valorant can reach over 1,000 FPS when uncapped. I normally limit it to 200 FPS for my 180 Hz monitor. I already reinstalled the latest graphics drivers with DDU and contacted support, but nothing has helped. I also tried disabling AMD Anti-Lag and Fluid Motion, as well as changing RAM settings. Has anyone with a similar Radeon card experienced this? Could Vanguard or an AMD driver issue be causing it, or is there another fix I should try?
3 Answers
It is worth testing with every AMD enhancement disabled, including Anti-Lag and Fluid Motion. If your memory is running with EXPO or another overclock, temporarily return it to standard settings as well. Memory instability can sometimes show up only in one particular game, even when other games appear completely stable.
The high frame rate does not rule out a driver or game-specific problem. Try a clean Valorant and Vanguard removal, reboot, and then reinstall them, while also testing a different FPS cap or fully uncapped mode. If the desktop remains affected until a restart, check whether the AMD driver recovers or resets in Windows Event Viewer. That may help distinguish a Vanguard conflict from a graphics-driver crash.
Since the issue only appears with Valorant, it seems less likely to be a general hardware failure. The fact that the stutter can continue after closing the game suggests that something launched with Valorant may be leaving the graphics driver or system in a bad state. Vanguard is one possible culprit, though that would need to be confirmed through testing or a game update.
That is what I suspect too. I have tried nearly every setting change I could find, but the problem keeps coming back whenever I play Valorant.
I already disabled those features and tested without the memory overclock, but neither made a difference.