Many players report Valorant throws up a “Graphics driver crashed” error message when playing that game. One player’s Reddit post said this: “I recently got into Valorant, and I absolutely love this game. However, I’m running into an issue where my game crashes due to “graphics driver crash” every 10 minutes.” Players report this graphics driver crashing error occurs every 10-30 minutes. Some say this issue also arises when trying to start a game. This is how you can fix the “Graphics driver crashed” Valorant error on Windows PCs.
Update Your PC’s Graphics Driver
The “Graphics driver crashed” Valorant error message says, “Make sure your graphics drivers are up to date.” That’s a pretty big hint for a potential fix that could resolve this gaming issue on your PC. This is how you can update a PC’s NVIDIA or AMD graphics driver.
NVIDIA
- You can update an NVIDIA graphics driver with GeForce Experience. If you don’t already have that software, click Download Now on this page and double-click the downloaded setup file for it to install.
- Right-click the NVIDIA system tray icon and select GeForce Experience.
- Log in to GeForce Experience if necessary.
- Click the Drivers tab.
- Press the Download button if there’s a new driver available for your graphics card. Or click Check for updates if GeForce Experience doesn’t show an available driver.
The Drivers tab in GeForce Experience
- Wait for GeForce Experience to update your driver and restart Windows when it’s done.
AMD
Users with AMD graphics cards can update graphical drivers with the AMD Auto-detect and Install utility. That utility will scan your PC, enabling you to download and install the latest available driver for your AMD GPU. This AMD download page for that utility includes step-by-step instructions for how users can update drivers with it.
Set a High-Performance NVIDIA GPU for Valorant
Some players have fixed the “Graphics driver crashed” Valorant error by setting high-performance (dedicated) NVIDIA GPUs for the game. This potential fix is only applicable if your PC includes an integrated Intel and dedicated NVIDIA GPU. If it does, try setting your NVIDIA GPU as the preferred graphics processor for Valorant like this:
- Right-click any part of your Windows desktop area and select NVIDIA Control Panel.
- Click on 3D Settings and Manage 3D settings within the left navigation sidebar.
- Select the Program Settings tab.
- Next, choose Valorant on the Select a program to customize drop-down menu.
- Select the High-performance NVIDIA processor option on the preferred graphics processor for this program drop-down menu.
The Manage 3D Settings options
- Click Apply to save the NVIDIA graphics settings.
- Select Set PhysX Configuration on the left sidebar.
- Click your NVIDIA GPU in the Select a Physx processor drop-down menu.
The Set PhysX configuration
- Press Apply to set the option.
Delete Data Folders for Valorant
- Open Run (use the Windows logo + R hotkey), input %localappdata%, and click OK.
- Next, double-click the Valorant > Saved > Config subfolders to open them.
- Right-click the CrashReportClient subfolder in the Config directory and select Delete.
The CrashReporterClient folder
- Go to the Appdata > Local > Valorant > Saved > webcache folder.
- Select everything in the webcache folder and click Delete.
The webcache folder
- Restart Windows 11/10 and try playing Valorant again.
Disable and Re-Enable Your Graphics Card
Disabling and re-enabling your graphics card will reset its driver. Doing this is a troubleshooting method that will restore your graphics driver to default settings. You can reset a graphics driver like this.
- Right-click on your Windows Start button and select the Device Manager.
- Click Display adapters to view graphics cards.
- Right-click your GPU to select Disable device.
The Disable device option
- Click Yes when asked to confirm.
- Right-click the disabled GPU and select Enable device.
Start Valorant in Windowed Mode
Setting Valorant to windowed mode is another troubleshooting method some players confirm can fix the “Graphics driver crashed” Valorant gaming issue. To apply this potential fix, start Valorant and press Alt + Enter as soon as the game launches.
The Display Mode drop-down menu
If you can access settings in Valorant, try selecting the Windowed Fullscreen display setting. To do that, click the cog button and Settings in Valorant. Select Video and click Windowed Fullscreen on the Display Mode drop-down menu. Click Apply > Confirm to save the option.
Other Possible Ways to Fix the “Graphics Driver Crashed” Valorant Error
The potential solutions above are more widely confirmed fixes for the “Graphics driver crashed” Valorant error, but there are other things you can try. These additional potential resolutions are also worth a try:
- Disable VSync via the NVIDIA Control Panel.
- Close unneeded background apps and processes before playing Valorant.
- Restore default settings in NVIDIA Control Panel or AMD Catalyst.
- Reinstall the Riot Client for Valorant.
- Repair system files by executing the sfc /scannow command as covered in this Microsoft help page.
The potential solutions covered in this guide have fixed the “Graphics driver crashed” Valorant error for many players. So, maybe one of them will get that crashing issue sorted on your Windows PC as well. If this crashing error continues after applying those fixes, consider submitting a support ticket to Valorant’s help service from this Riot Games page.
