[Ethernet Onboard-vs-USB-vs-PCIe] I finally found the reason behind my input lag after 6 years

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Bloedboer
Posts: 26
Joined: 14 Nov 2021, 07:43

Re: [Ethernet Onboard-vs-USB-vs-PCIe] I finally found the reason behind my input lag after 6 years

Post by Bloedboer » 30 Dec 2022, 11:18

After struggling for many years like a lot of people with input lag i stumbled on this post. I too have changed builds over the past few years. First a gaming laptop. Second amd 3700x and third and last Intel 12700k. Different GPU’s aswell. Nothing changed. Same goes for mice, kb’s and monitors. Atm i even have 2 isp’s. Vdsl and cable and vdsl is best in my case. Still i felt things were off and a few months back i found out i have the Intel 225 (3).

This week i ordered a nic with the aqc 107 chipset. Got it today and plugged it in. Played some matchmaking and like OP for the first time i could actually strafe jump and bunnyhop. Mouse movement is different and don’t know how i could explain it otherwise.

Overall 1ms decreased vs the onboard nic, 6,3 ms vs 7,3ms tested with pingplotter.

I will test more upcoming week but OP is def on to something!!

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imprecise
Posts: 277
Joined: 16 Nov 2022, 13:47

Re: [Ethernet Onboard-vs-USB-vs-PCIe] I finally found the reason behind my input lag after 6 years

Post by imprecise » 30 Dec 2022, 11:43

Bloedboer wrote:
30 Dec 2022, 11:18
After struggling for many years like a lot of people with input lag i stumbled on this post. I too have changed builds over the past few years. First a gaming laptop. Second amd 3700x and third and last Intel 12700k. Different GPU’s aswell. Nothing changed. Same goes for mice, kb’s and monitors. Atm i even have 2 isp’s. Vdsl and cable and vdsl is best in my case. Still i felt things were off and a few months back i found out i have the Intel 225 (3).

This week i ordered a nic with the aqc 107 chipset. Got it today and plugged it in. Played some matchmaking and like OP for the first time i could actually strafe jump and bunnyhop. Mouse movement is different and don’t know how i could explain it otherwise.

Overall 1ms decreased vs the onboard nic, 6,3 ms vs 7,3ms tested with pingplotter.

I will test more upcoming week but OP is def on to something!!
Would you be willing to test some settings on your onboard NIC and compare?

Bloedboer
Posts: 26
Joined: 14 Nov 2021, 07:43

Re: [Ethernet Onboard-vs-USB-vs-PCIe] I finally found the reason behind my input lag after 6 years

Post by Bloedboer » 30 Dec 2022, 12:15

If you’re talking about offloading etc power management i tried those settings didn’t change anything. I had a lot of e2fexpress warnings aswell in eventviewer.

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imprecise
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Re: [Ethernet Onboard-vs-USB-vs-PCIe] I finally found the reason behind my input lag after 6 years

Post by imprecise » 30 Dec 2022, 12:29

Bloedboer wrote:
30 Dec 2022, 12:15
If you’re talking about offloading etc power management i tried those settings didn’t change anything. I had a lot of e2fexpress warnings aswell in eventviewer.
Thanks for the reply. Those are indeed the settings I'm interested in using for comparison, but it sounds like you already tried them. Eventviewer saying the nic is disconnecting does sound like a power delivery issue, could be defective hardware or power supply issue. Hard to say without further testing, and it does stand to reason that an aftermarket nic would outperform the onboard one.

Bloedboer
Posts: 26
Joined: 14 Nov 2021, 07:43

Re: [Ethernet Onboard-vs-USB-vs-PCIe] I finally found the reason behind my input lag after 6 years

Post by Bloedboer » 30 Dec 2022, 12:53

After a lot of reading i’m convinced the b3 stepping of the Intel i225v is still affected by the hardware fault in the previous steppings. I did everything what you can find on different forums,websites in the past 5 years to fix my input lag. Played with the notorious puma 6 chipset for the first 2 years before i’ve learned about that chipset. Then started with replacing all the components you can think off unluckily ending with the 225.

How can a onboard nic affect mouse and keyboard movement? Or are there simply to much packets lost for playing input lag free?

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imprecise
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Re: [Ethernet Onboard-vs-USB-vs-PCIe] I finally found the reason behind my input lag after 6 years

Post by imprecise » 30 Dec 2022, 13:14

The nic affects your keyboard and mouse feeling because all your input/output data flows through it. If the nic is misbehaving, it causes all kinds of desync and other issues. This is why a troubleshooting step is often to play a game offline to see if the poor behavior remains.

For example, you move your mouse to the right really far... as that happens your nic is updating the server with that flow of information. The smoother the nic performs, the smoother it will feel. This will vary game to game due to differences in netcode.

andrelip
Posts: 160
Joined: 21 Mar 2014, 17:50

Re: [Ethernet Onboard-vs-USB-vs-PCIe] I finally found the reason behind my input lag after 6 years

Post by andrelip » 30 Dec 2022, 22:32

imprecise wrote:
30 Dec 2022, 13:14
The nic affects your keyboard and mouse feeling because all your input/output data flows through it. If the nic is misbehaving, it causes all kinds of desync and other issues. This is why a troubleshooting step is often to play a game offline to see if the poor behavior remains.

For example, you move your mouse to the right really far... as that happens your nic is updating the server with that flow of information. The smoother the nic performs, the smoother it will feel. This will vary game to game due to differences in netcode.
The camera angle movement in a game is usually decoupled from the Internet and does not require a server response. However, the nic can still affect the overall gameplay experience if it is misbehaving. For example, if the nic is not performing well, it may cause delays in other aspects of the game such as character movement, ability casting, or item usage. These delays can affect the overall smoothness of the gameplay.

Additionally, while 1 ms may not cause significant issues on its own, it is possible that a combination of factors such as processing overhead, packet loss, or other network issues can contribute to the poor performance. It is important to troubleshoot and address any potential issues with the nic to ensure the best gameplay experience.

Maybe the mouse feeling is not direct related to networking itself, but it somehow reduces the race conditions for the CPU due to a real hardware offloading.

andrelip
Posts: 160
Joined: 21 Mar 2014, 17:50

Re: [Ethernet Onboard-vs-USB-vs-PCIe] I finally found the reason behind my input lag after 6 years

Post by andrelip » 31 Dec 2022, 12:44

I experienced a slower and less responsive connection when I used an USB-C Ethernet adapter and disabled my onboard intel I219-V Ethernet adapter. My latency also increased, as indicated by a higher 95% value on the bufferbloat tool at waveform.com (from 8 to 20 ms without load). The maximum throughput capacity also decreased from 1000 to 300.

Bloedboer
Posts: 26
Joined: 14 Nov 2021, 07:43

Re: [Ethernet Onboard-vs-USB-vs-PCIe] I finally found the reason behind my input lag after 6 years

Post by Bloedboer » 01 Jan 2023, 10:54

I think if you fully want to benefit from upgrading your nic you should go for one with pcie

andrelip
Posts: 160
Joined: 21 Mar 2014, 17:50

Re: [Ethernet Onboard-vs-USB-vs-PCIe] I finally found the reason behind my input lag after 6 years

Post by andrelip » 01 Jan 2023, 19:27

Bloedboer wrote:
01 Jan 2023, 10:54
I think if you fully want to benefit from upgrading your nic you should go for one with pcie
I disabled the onboard nic and onboard sound to test the extremes. Same feeling. Guess I’m not affected.

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