I'm running a Ryzen 5 5600X, an RX 6650 XT, and 32 GB of DDR4 memory. In games like Valorant, benchmark videos suggest I should be seeing around 300–400 FPS, but I usually get about 240–300 FPS. Other games are also roughly 50–60 FPS below the numbers shown in benchmarks. Everything feels smooth and works properly, but I'd like to get as much performance as possible, especially since I'm using a 240 Hz monitor. My games are set to low settings, with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering at 2x. I also changed my RAM speed to 3200 MHz in the BIOS, although I'm not sure whether DOCP/XMP, Resizable BAR, or Smart Access Memory is enabled. Is this normal, or is something limiting my system?
4 Answers
Use a monitoring tool such as MSI Afterburner with the on-screen overlay enabled while playing. Watch CPU usage, GPU usage, clock speeds, temperatures, and frame times. If the GPU is near 95–100% usage, it’s the graphics card limiting performance and lowering visual settings may help. If GPU usage is low while one or more CPU cores are heavily loaded, the game is likely CPU-limited or something else is using system resources.
A 50–60 FPS difference from benchmark videos isn’t automatically a sign that anything is wrong. Those tests often use a freshly installed operating system, minimal background processes, and controlled settings. Your normal setup may have Discord, browser tabs, recording software, overlays, or other programs running, and even having a second monitor playing video can affect performance slightly.
Exactly. Benchmark results are usually made under ideal conditions, while everyday systems have background apps and services running. The important thing is whether your frame rate is stable and your hardware is performing consistently.
Valorant at 240–300 FPS on that hardware is already a strong result, and benchmark numbers can vary depending on the exact map, match situation, game version, drivers, and whether the benchmark is using an unusually clean system. Make sure your monitor is set to 240 Hz in Windows, enable the correct memory profile, close unnecessary overlays, and compare using the same in-game settings and test area before worrying about a bottleneck.
Check your BIOS settings to make sure the memory profile is actually enabled, not just manually set to 3200 MHz. On many systems this is called DOCP or XMP. You can also check whether Resizable BAR and Smart Access Memory are enabled. These settings may provide a small improvement, but they probably won’t explain the entire FPS difference by themselves.
For a CPU-limited game like Valorant, total CPU usage may not reach 100% because the game can depend heavily on one or two cores. Check individual core usage and frame-time graphs rather than looking only at the overall CPU percentage.