PC with 11-14th Gen Intel CPU or Intel ARC GPU × VALORANT Crashes/Stuck on Loading Screen

If your 11-14th Gen Intel PC/laptop has Intel Integrated Graphics or Intel ARC GPU and VALORANT crashes or gets stuck on loading screen, it might be due to certain versions of the Intel UMD (Usermode Display Driver) being improperly signed by Intel and as a consequence blocked by Vanguard for being an untrusted image. Attached is a screenshot showing a recent example from August where Windows won't even validate its code signature. Intel has corrected this in a recent update, but this means you may have to update your intel graphics driver to a version that is properly signed to play VALORANT. This can still affect you even if you play with a discrete GPU, because the game engine enumerates all available GPUs on initialization and it results in each GPU loading their respective driver. Link to the latest driver if you have Integrated Intel GPU: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/864990/intel-11th-14th-gen-processor-graphics-windows.html Link to the latest driver if you have Intel ARC GPU: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/785597/intel-arc-iris-xe-graphics-windows.html Here are some examples of CPUs that may be affected by this issue: 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-13650HX (20 CPUs), ~2.6GHz Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-14700HX 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-13620H 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-13420H Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-14700HX Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-14700K 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-11260H i7-13620H (16 CPUs), ~2.4GHz 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-11260H 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-13420H 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-13420H 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-13700K 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-11260H 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-13650HX

Intel

Intel® 11th – 14th Gen Processor Graphics - Windows*

This download installs Intel® Graphics Driver 32.0.101.7076 for 11th-14th Gen Intel® Core™ Processor Graphics.

Intel

Intel® Arc™ Graphics - Windows*

This download installs Intel® Graphics Driver 32.0.101.8135 for Intel® Arc™ B-Series Graphics, Intel® Arc™ A-Series Graphics, and Intel® Core™ Ultra Processors with Intel® Arc™ Graphics.