10 BIG questions on lowest input lag. driving me crazy!

[cluelessgamer]

Im wondering the lowest input lag completely possible with this current setup. i have an i5 8400 1060 6gb run an alienware 240hz aw2518f. a few questions ive been stuck on for a while now. theres 3 or 4 of them that have been making me go crazy any help appreciated.

id love to really keep it on topic of the questions in any responses. i know its easy to stray away into another topic completely. (cough reddit). ive tried multiple times for help on these questions for answers.

questions:

1. in nvidia control panel do i scale on gpu or display? also do i check the box at the bottom "overide the scaling mode set by apps and programs"? and does the answer change if i run at a non native (1920x1080) res? - this whole question has been driving me nuts!

2. on my alienware aw2518f under ratio in the monitor menu settings i have these options: 16:9, auto resize, 4:3, 1:1. which one of these should i set it to for lowest input latency on the monitor? it seems all of them keep it fullscreen besides the 4:3 option. even if i scaling in every way possible through the nvidiacp. just curious which option i should leave this on in the monitor menu settings. - this one also driving me nuts!

2.5. also the montior has a response time setting of normal, fast, and super fast. would this make input latency better? seems the white trails, coronas or artifacts i think they are called seem to be when i turn it to super fast. just curious if this help latency also.

3. i saw where someone did a test on nvidia low latency mode, (null) where it seemed that even with the setting on "ultra" and not maxing the gpu he was still getting worse input latency than if it was "off" at the same load seen here - https://youtu.be/7CKnJ5ujL_Q?t=499
this is extremely confusing as it seems it works in the case of gpu bound up but is worst if you arent bottlenecked?

my question is if i am not gpu bound at any time shouldnt i just have the low latency mode set to default in nvidia control panel? as it seems you get even more input lag if its set to "ultra" in the same non gpu bound circumstance. another question does this matter in the same regard to the cpu? and another question on this what about low latency mode turn to just "on" which apparently is "maxium pre render frames of 1" does this cause more input latency if non gpu bound just like "ultra" does? seems "off" in the nvcp could be the best option for low input lag if not gpu bound. - another question that also drives me nuts


4. does the dpi scaling method under the game im running,in the compatibility tab, matter for input lag or latency? should i check the box "overide high dpi scaling behavior"? if so which one do i let overide, application, system or system enhanced?

5. is hdmi 2.0 cord or display port cord better for input latency?

6. when using intelligent standby list cleaner (islc) to set the timer resolution to .50, does this effect input latency? ive seen where some pros in a few games use this and they say it does something to decrease input latency but im not totally clear. it also has a polling rate of the program to be sat at any where from 250 to 10000. wonder if this effects it running either? - this whole question would be a good one to know also.

7. ive heard randomly somewhere that underclocking your monitor a couple hz somehow makes it faster or snappier in some cases??? this ones bizarre to me, maybe its already overclocked to begin with at 240 so back to a default value makes it better or something?? i have no clue just thought id throw this one in here. im on the aleinware aw2518f 240hz btw for what its worth.

8. also heard that certain audio drivers cause input latency? in particular the nvidia hd drivers, and having your frequency above a certain number 44100hz i think it was, and 3d audio and audio enhancements in the sound control panel causes input latency?? - this would be a good one to know also

9. read a guide that said to set "smooth mouse curve x and y" in the registry to "all 0" also reduce input lag or snappiness in your mouse? i have no clue about this one either another good one to know.

10. if i dont have gsync but i enable vsync in nvcp but not in game to get rid of tearing and such, and i cap the fps 3 or 4 frames below the refresh rate of my 240 using an in game limiter or rtss which ever is better on said game, assuming i can maintain those frames, then would i get the smoothness of vsync with no input lag or next to none? just like how the gsync would work?

THANK YOU to all of those who can help and answer definitively. ive tried multiple sites no true avail.
factual help is truly appreciated.

figured id try here as i heard this place was the best on these kinds of questions. ive been going crazy and it really bothers my enjoyment of even playing wondering this stuff and dont have the means to test myself or even know how to. thank again in advance for the help!

[Mr1991]

1, if you’re using your native resolution, you want display, no scaling, a non-native resolution kind of depends on ur graphics card, fast graphics cards can potentially scale faster than some monitors, so try both and see, you’ll want full screen scaling for non native.

2, you generally want your monitors native settings for lowest input lag, so 16:9 sounds best, response time... fastest will technically be the “fastest”, doesn’t affect “input lag”, just how quick a pixel can update to a new image.

5, hdmi

6, lower timer means your cpu is updating every 0.5 seconds, instead of the default 15 or w/e urs is set to, I play with it on always, it feels better, also apparently you want it set to 0.5 dead on, not 0.497 or 0.503 etc.

7, don’t believe so, maybe on specific older monitors, but standard 240hz shouldn’t.

8, apparently so yes, I uninstalled the NVIDIA hd audio driver, and all audio drivers for that matter, also check in device manager, and make it so u only have ur headset, or speakers or w/e u use active, then restart. Heard also about the sample rate, I wouldn’t be surprised as audio does seem to affect cursor movement in some way, mine is greyed out so I can’t test this.

9, you’re talking about the acceleration fix? You can try the Marc c fix, make sure to use the right one, and no it doesn’t make it more snappy and responsive, but it definitely makes it feel more stable and accurate, feels like uve lowered ur dpi a tad, but ur overshoot/undershoot should be lowered.

10, can’t answer this for sure, but generally any kind of sync adds a slight input delay.

[cluelessgamer]

thank you for taking your time out to answer these questions, all of them at that. much appreciated! they were all a mind easer for me personally. appreciated!

[Chief Blur Buster]

1, if you’re using your native resolution, you want display, no scaling, a non-native resolution kind of depends on ur graphics card, fast graphics cards can potentially scale faster than some monitors, so try both and see, you’ll want full screen scaling for non native.

This is the general Blur Busters recommendation nowadays: Use GPU scaling whenever unsure.

GPU scaling is very fast nowadays on the latest GPUs, so you'll have more guaranteed consistent results with GPU scaling. Monitor scaling is hit-and-miss (sometimes laggy, sometimes lagless), while GPU scaling is virtually lagless nowadays (<1ms) --

As an example, in Direct3D programming, my 1080 Ti has the memory bandwidth to scale a 1440p 24-bit frame buffer in under 1/10,000th of a second. Even if Direct3D was used for scaling, that's less than 0.1 millisecond -- almost not measurable with most equipment -- far less laggy in new GPUs than the laggier monitor scalers. Some lower resolution full screen frame buffers scale by Direct3D API in under 0.01 millisecond (Direct3D performance profiling test)! Line buffer scaling is theoretically even faster, but the difference is even almost nil compared to full frame buffer scaling now. It's unknown which GPUs does the full framebuffer scaling or line-buffer scaling when outputting of the GPU output, but the performance is now quite similar when full framebuffer is done practically instantaneously at today's memory bandwidths.

The old advice to try to always use a monitor scaler was true nearly 20 years ago when GPU scaling was much slower -- However, today, it's just mostly obsolete advice.

If worried about lag, test both ways. But for consistency, use the GPU scaler -- it has the same ultra-microscopic penalty (darn near lagless) no matter what monitor you connect.

Even room temperature differences (18C versus 20C) produces bigger latency differences than GPU scaling overhead (by colder temperature = slower LCD pixel response). Or even gamma adjustment differences (since brighter colors versus darker colors have different pixel response speeds). At the sub-millisecond scales, there's lots of latency noise far bigger than the now-microscopic GPU scaling penalty.

[cluelessgamer]

thanks for your words in on this topic also chief. thats extremely helpful knowledge. you guys are making people game worries easier with this stuff its much appreciated.

on the same topic of the scaling, the other couple of wonders that really bug me is the box under "adjust desktop size and posistion" in nvidia cp, should i be checking that box at the bottom that says "override the scaling mode of apps and programs"? does that box make any difference in latency. at native or non native or either for that matter.

about the color thing you mention would latency be lower at a lower brightness or gamma or a higher one? thats an interesting topic.

ive also heard of the box "overide dpi scaling behavior" in the "compatibilty" tab under the games i play. wondering if i should check that box also, i think the options if you choose to override are. application, system, and system (enhanced). i dont know whether to check that box or not either. or if i did which one would be the best option for lowest latency.

my final question to solve all my issues would be the scaling setting on my aleinware 2518hf 240hz. it allows me to set the "aspect option" in the monitor settings to either. wide16:9 (came default like this), auto resize, 4:3, and 1:1. the only one that seems to change the actual picture inside the monitor is 4:3, the other three options on the monito run at fullscreen regardless of how i attemtp to scale it through nvidiacp, which is fine but, which one of those would be the best to set it on for lowest input latency. i heard 1:1 then ive heard native is, but i have no clue. any repsonse is appreciated!

sorry to be so nitpicky sounding. i got bad ocd when it comes to this stuff. i almost wish i wouldnt know about any of it and would just enjoy playing lol. thanks again.

[Stitch7]

Monitor 16:9 only use gpu scaler

[Raion969]

Heyy

Do you really think hdmi 2.0 is better for this monitor than dp port?

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

What about the scaling mode? Aspect Ratio, Full Screen, No Scaling. What's best when using 'scaling is performed on the GPU'?


EDIT: nm, re-read the first reply

[Brainlet]

Even room temperature differences (18C versus 20C) produces bigger latency differences than GPU scaling overhead (by colder temperature = slower LCD pixel response).

Would this significantly impact monitor reviews? (eg. testing in winter vs. summer)

[Chief Blur Buster]

Even room temperature differences (18C versus 20C) produces bigger latency differences than GPU scaling overhead (by colder temperature = slower LCD pixel response).

Would this significantly impact monitor reviews? (eg. testing in winter vs. summer)

Yes it does somewhat.

However, good reviewers break in their panel for at least a few days -- RTINGS and HardwareUnboxed does.