I'm looking to find out if there are possible ways of reducing input lag in the games by means other than just simply disabling VSync, mainly, through NVIDIA's Control Panel + NVIDIA Profile Inspector.
I'm doing this to find out if there are options that help further reduce input latency/lag mainly in competitive video games (CS:GO, Overwatch, Fighting Games, etc.), but in all video games in general.
Now, excluding GSYNC and FREESYNC technologies, and other hardware you have, the only options that I've found so far are the following:
- NVIDIA Reflex / Low Latency Mode - https://i.imgur.com/Eaocppk.png
- Max Frame Rate - https://i.imgur.com/TJBW2Lu.png ¹
- Power Management Mode - https://i.imgur.com/SIwkvrL.png
- Maximum pre-rendered frames (available only in Profile Inspector)
- Windowed Mode ²
- And if the tearing is unbearable one of these VSync options - https://i.imgur.com/ZJbCsCa.png
² - Another thing that I've heard is that if you run the game in a windowed mode (whether borderless or not) instead of exclusive fullscreen, you basically utilize Windows’ native V-Sync implementation, which is triple-buffered. So when running the game in a windowed or borderless windowed mode, Windows handles the vertical synchronization, which may lead to smoother gameplay and lower input lag. Of course, in order for this to work you need to disable in-game's VSync.
Additionally, here are all the settings from NVIDIA's Profile Inspector: https://imgur.com/a/ahNb2i6
I suspect only the second category "2 - Sync and Refresh" may have any effect, but I decided to include others as well, just in case.
Has anyone tried meddling with any of these settings (or some other ones) within the Control Panel, or Profile Inspector to further reduce input latency? If so, how was the result? Which options worked best for you, and which didn't?