I have an update to add:
I tested with the integrated microsoft networking drivers from 2006 and did find lower latency, but I also ran into issues where the drivers would just stop working and the internet would act like it was down. After testing a few different drivers, I found the newest drivers to work best even with a slightly higher latency.
I was working on Rocket League again and trying to track down what was causing the desync events, and it really seems to be network related.
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After watching this video, I tested CSTS immediately fixed my major desync lag from default. This works by the client running 1% faster to catch up to the server when it's found to be behind, and constantly tries to adjust back down to normal game speed. If you read the comments on the video, people describe choppy movement when using this, as the game will constantly be changing speed. I did not experience this issue at first, but after playing again at a later time, I could clearly see the slowdown/speedup movement happening nonstop throughout the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WViRlYgkN_s
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Here's the dilemma: default allows the game client to run slower than the rest of the clients. If your network buffer falls behind you're stuck behind the other clients for the rest of the game. In this situation, is the game running at 99%? I suspect it varies between 97-99% since the lag adjustments are always randomly different. Change to one of the other modes, and the client will run at 101% speed to catch up to the server, while still dropping to lower % speed whenever the lag condition happens. Now what you see from the server is more accurate, but the gameplay is constantly changing speed.
Another observation: there are different types of RL servers and you can tell by their naming convention what type of server it is... like USE-name, USE-name-additionalnumbers, USErandomstringofnumbersandletters, and I have noticed the lag buffer acts differently on each of them.
I'm not sure how exactly this relates to other games, but it seems to be the issue that keeps returning. Somewhere in the network between the client and the server, there is a buffer issue that doesn't affect all players evenly. I had a power outage in my building, resetting the building switch, and when it came back on I noticed there was no laggy network buffer to deal with, which is the same condition people report for their networking having no issues late at night but big issues during peak load hours. Resetting network equipment is an easy way to clear out cached data and return to optimal networking performance, but as end users we are not allowed that kind of access to the equipment we are using. What options do we have as end users to troubleshoot and resolve an issue that is being caused by overloaded networking?
Something I've been doing more lately is ipconfig /flushdns, as it fixes my "driver crashed" issue, but this only affects one client-sided buffer and has minimal impact on the overall issue since the buffer problems are being created somewhere on the network between the server and client.
