Does running compute shaders at the same time as graphics actually help in Valorant or is it just a tech demo thing?

[Sophie Adams]

Hey guys, I’ve been reading up on how modern engines handle async compute and I keep seeing claims that dispatching particle/compute work in a separate low-priority queue lets the GPU fill idle cycles while the graphics pipeline stalls on vertex/rasterization. I ran into this specifically with Valorant’s smoke and debris particles — the engine apparently runs a compute shader to simulate them each frame while the main render is happening.

My question is whether this actually makes a noticeable difference in real gameplay or if it’s just benchmark theatre. I care a lot about consistent frametimes more than raw FPS because in a competitive shooter a single stutter can get me killed. Has anyone actually tested this or dug into how the scheduler handles the two workloads on hardware like an RTX 4090? Curious if the 22% frame-time variance reduction people cite is real.

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