The Never-Ending Desync Nightmare – Looking for Possible Guidance

[kartierrr]

Hello Everyone!

Before I dive in, I know this is a long post, but part of me just needs to vent to people who might understand, and part of me is hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

I’ve been playing Warzone since 2020, originally on mouse and keyboard. I had good and bad days, but on the bad ones, something always felt off. At first, I blamed my setup and went on a gear hunt—mice, keyboards, monitors—but eventually just figured I was bad. It didn’t help that it’s a cross play game and there was this huge discussion that controller gameplay was so overpowered and eliminated the need to aim train and track; The game did it for you (sorry CS and Val players. I know this hurts to hear and I’m not trying to start a war; I’m going somewhere with this because I think it helps with placebo).

Fast forward to June 2023: I switched to controller to remove the pressure of trying to out-aim what felt like aim assist aimbots. At first, it didn’t feel great, but then—one day—I logged in, and it was magic. Perfect hit reg, crisp tracking, 20+ kill games, teammates hyping me up, and enemies calling me sweaty. I thought I had finally cracked the code by adjusting my sensitivity settings.

Then, the next day… everything fell apart.
• Aim assist still existed but felt like it was lagging behind hitboxes.
• Recoil control and tracking felt heavier. Even general movement on the controller felt heavy.
• Something felt off—like a magnetic force pulling me away from targets.

To this day I think all of that is due to desync but I’m not sure if it’s usb polling or what- but it’s kind of clear that the hitboxes are slightly behind player models.

This is when the nightmare began.

At first, I tweaked in-game settings. Then I bought new controllers, then new monitors, then started diving into Windows settings—registry edits, bcdedit tweaks, HPET, BIOS changes, RAM tuning, you name it. No real progress.

Every few months, when I was ready to give up, I’d get a magic reboot—where hit reg was suddenly perfect again. This convinced me something was changing between boot cycles. So I went even deeper:
• Switched between AMD and Intel.
• Built multiple PCs (yes, three. The latest was a prebuilt).
• Tweaked everything from power settings to network optimizations (Realtek RSS settings, USB & PCIe Ethernet adapters, etc.).
• Moved twice.
• Switched ISPs to Google Fiber.
• Even bought one of those fiber DP cables people were discussing in the other thread.

After my last magic reboot, I vowed to never restart my PC again. I had two weeks of insane gameplay (30+ kill games). But over the weekend, a storm knocked my power out, and now I’m back to square one.

So here’s where I’m hoping for guidance:
1. What changes between boot cycles that could cause this? Why are “good boots” happening only every 4-6 months?
2. Should I move on to EMI? I’ve moved twice, tried a UPS, and still have issues.
3. For my CS players: Have you noticed similar inconsistencies? I know we talk about “heavy mouse” issues—could something similar affect controllers?

I’ve skipped some details (MSI Utility, multiple fresh Windows installs—10, 11, LTSC, Home, Pro, different RAM kits, etc.), but at this point, I feel like I’m chasing a ghost. I think what doesn’t makes sense to me is that my friends and streamers I watch seemingly do not have to deal with this at all.

Current Specs:
• Motherboard: MSI X670E Gaming Plus WiFi
• CPU: Ryzen 9 7900X3D
• GPU: RTX 4080 Super
• RAM: 64GB DDR5 @ 6000MHz Expo Profile

If nothing else, thanks for reading—I feel like I’m losing my mind, and everyone in my personal circle already thinks I have.

[drosku]

Hello Everyone!

Before I dive in, I know this is a long post, but part of me just needs to vent to people who might understand, and part of me is hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

I’ve been playing Warzone since 2020, originally on mouse and keyboard. I had good and bad days, but on the bad ones, something always felt off. At first, I blamed my setup and went on a gear hunt—mice, keyboards, monitors—but eventually just figured I was bad. It didn’t help that it’s a cross play game and there was this huge discussion that controller gameplay was so overpowered and eliminated the need to aim train and track; The game did it for you (sorry CS and Val players. I know this hurts to hear and I’m not trying to start a war; I’m going somewhere with this because I think it helps with placebo).

Fast forward to June 2023: I switched to controller to remove the pressure of trying to out-aim what felt like aim assist aimbots. At first, it didn’t feel great, but then—one day—I logged in, and it was magic. Perfect hit reg, crisp tracking, 20+ kill games, teammates hyping me up, and enemies calling me sweaty. I thought I had finally cracked the code by adjusting my sensitivity settings.

Then, the next day… everything fell apart.
• Aim assist still existed but felt like it was lagging behind hitboxes.
• Recoil control and tracking felt heavier. Even general movement on the controller felt heavy.
• Something felt off—like a magnetic force pulling me away from targets.

To this day I think all of that is due to desync but I’m not sure if it’s usb polling or what- but it’s kind of clear that the hitboxes are slightly behind player models.

This is when the nightmare began.

At first, I tweaked in-game settings. Then I bought new controllers, then new monitors, then started diving into Windows settings—registry edits, bcdedit tweaks, HPET, BIOS changes, RAM tuning, you name it. No real progress.

Every few months, when I was ready to give up, I’d get a magic reboot—where hit reg was suddenly perfect again. This convinced me something was changing between boot cycles. So I went even deeper:
• Switched between AMD and Intel.
• Built multiple PCs (yes, three. The latest was a prebuilt).
• Tweaked everything from power settings to network optimizations (Realtek RSS settings, USB & PCIe Ethernet adapters, etc.).
• Moved twice.
• Switched ISPs to Google Fiber.
• Even bought one of those fiber DP cables people were discussing in the other thread.

After my last magic reboot, I vowed to never restart my PC again. I had two weeks of insane gameplay (30+ kill games). But over the weekend, a storm knocked my power out, and now I’m back to square one.

So here’s where I’m hoping for guidance:
1. What changes between boot cycles that could cause this? Why are “good boots” happening only every 4-6 months?
2. Should I move on to EMI? I’ve moved twice, tried a UPS, and still have issues.
3. For my CS players: Have you noticed similar inconsistencies? I know we talk about “heavy mouse” issues—could something similar affect controllers?

I’ve skipped some details (MSI Utility, multiple fresh Windows installs—10, 11, LTSC, Home, Pro, different RAM kits, etc.), but at this point, I feel like I’m chasing a ghost. I think what doesn’t makes sense to me is that my friends and streamers I watch seemingly do not have to deal with this at all.

Current Specs:
• Motherboard: MSI X670E Gaming Plus WiFi
• CPU: Ryzen 9 7900X3D
• GPU: RTX 4080 Super
• RAM: 64GB DDR5 @ 6000MHz Expo Profile

If nothing else, thanks for reading—I feel like I’m losing my mind, and everyone in my personal circle already thinks I have.

if you tried everything and replaced every cable checked temps everything i suggest doing a medicat usb if u want further troubleshooting sounds like an isp problem in terms of routing but mainly your node near you area that your internet is asigned to and many isp have nodes close to eachother, they dont disclose the information at first lol.
in terms of moving and trying isps you could somehow get a good node that is less congested based on which part of the city u moved to
Get wireshark,ping plotter and do a full day of analysis to provide to your isp of choice
-ITS GONNA TAKE A LOT OF TALKING!
they are just gonna dodge everything, generally they should fix everything on their end but a node “reconstruction” is gonna take them a LOT of money you might get lucky, ive moved out 4 years ago same isp same configuration same everything no EMI nothing but some time back i solved by doing this so there is hope!

[Fpsgamer]

I was playing Valorant perfectly for like 5 months straight, untill it started freezing due to CPU WAIT GPU TIME.
This made me quit, I never got to fix it.

[drosku]

I was playing Valorant perfectly for like 5 months straight, untill it started freezing due to CPU WAIT GPU TIME.
This made me quit, I never got to fix it.

are you on AMD gpu by any chance?
this is caused by gpu all the time downclocking and clocking higher speeds try to lock your freq.

[Fpsgamer]

I was playing Valorant perfectly for like 5 months straight, untill it started freezing due to CPU WAIT GPU TIME.
This made me quit, I never got to fix it.

are you on AMD gpu by any chance?
this is caused by gpu all the time downclocking and clocking higher speeds try to lock your freq.

No that's the weird part. I'm on rtx 4060.
I changed the whole pc and even tried bunch of gpu's and can't get it fixed.
Really weird.

Tried playing with clocks but no difference unfortunately.

What's weird is, why did it happen randomly with nothing changing?
No windows update,no driver update or anything at all.
Other games seem to be fine too.
Top

[kyube]

So here’s where I’m hoping for guidance:
1. What changes between boot cycles that could cause this? Why are “good boots” happening only every 4-6 months?

Considering you're running 64GB @ "EXPO" timings, you could have severely unstable RAM and/or incorrect a BIOS setting set.
I would troubleshoot that first, send a ZenTiming screenshot if possible.
This of course assumes it's entirely a hardware fault, there are external issues as well whether it is electronic-based (networking, conducted interference from neighbours etc.) or physiology-based

So here’s where I’m hoping for guidance:
2. Should I move on to EMI? I’ve moved twice, tried a UPS, and still have issues.

I'd avoid troubleshooting EMI for now, as that requires significant funds if you wanna do it correctly.

3. For my CS players: Have you noticed similar inconsistencies? I know we talk about “heavy mouse” issues—could something similar affect controllers?

Be advised that people here like to propose red herrings without any concrete data when asked about it.
The CS community is notorious for this, as can be seen with the numerious threads with mention of the game in this subforum.

[kartierrr]

if you tried everything and replaced every cable checked temps everything i suggest doing a medicat usb if u want further troubleshooting sounds like an isp problem in terms of routing but mainly your node near you area that your internet is asigned to and many isp have nodes close to eachother, they dont disclose the information at first lol.
in terms of moving and trying isps you could somehow get a good node that is less congested based on which part of the city u moved to
Get wireshark,ping plotter and do a full day of analysis to provide to your isp of choice
-ITS GONNA TAKE A LOT OF TALKING!
they are just gonna dodge everything, generally they should fix everything on their end but a node “reconstruction” is gonna take them a LOT of money you might get lucky, ive moved out 4 years ago same isp same configuration same everything no EMI nothing but some time back i solved by doing this so there is hope!

Medicat is new to me and it looks like an interesting tool. I'll look into it tonight. The possible ISP issue is worth looking into because I do live in a major us city.

So here’s where I’m hoping for guidance:
1. What changes between boot cycles that could cause this? Why are “good boots” happening only every 4-6 months?

Considering you're running 64GB @ "EXPO" timings, you could have severely unstable RAM and/or incorrect a BIOS setting set.
I would troubleshoot that first, send a ZenTiming screenshot if possible.
This of course assumes it's entirely a hardware fault, there are external issues as well whether it is electronic-based (networking, conducted interference from neighbours etc.) or physiology-based

I'm leaning more towards a RAM issue. I've had success using this profile over that two week period in my original message- but I feel something is happening during memory training. There's also a 5600 profile with similar issues. ZenTimings are attached below. Also I'm not if this is a problem or not but the tRDWR are different between both sticks.

So here’s where I’m hoping for guidance:
2. Should I move on to EMI? I’ve moved twice, tried a UPS, and still have issues.

I'd avoid troubleshooting EMI for now, as that requires significant funds if you wanna do it correctly.

3. For my CS players: Have you noticed similar inconsistencies? I know we talk about “heavy mouse” issues—could something similar affect controllers?

Be advised that people here like to propose red herrings without any concrete data when asked about it.
The CS community is notorious for this, as can be seen with the numerious threads with mention of the game in this subforum.

Understood- thanks for the heads up.

[drosku]

So here’s where I’m hoping for guidance:
1. What changes between boot cycles that could cause this? Why are “good boots” happening only every 4-6 months?

Considering you're running 64GB @ "EXPO" timings, you could have severely unstable RAM and/or incorrect a BIOS setting set.
I would troubleshoot that first, send a ZenTiming screenshot if possible.
This of course assumes it's entirely a hardware fault, there are external issues as well whether it is electronic-based (networking, conducted interference from neighbours etc.) or physiology-based

So here’s where I’m hoping for guidance:
2. Should I move on to EMI? I’ve moved twice, tried a UPS, and still have issues.

I'd avoid troubleshooting EMI for now, as that requires significant funds if you wanna do it correctly.

3. For my CS players: Have you noticed similar inconsistencies? I know we talk about “heavy mouse” issues—could something similar affect controllers?

Be advised that people here like to propose red herrings without any concrete data when asked about it.
The CS community is notorious for this, as can be seen with the numerious threads with mention of the game in this subforum.

99.9 % of people who suffer from this and fixate on tweaks and placebos and literally its in their head if you just run stock windows and just default things like xmp on and having a decent configuration everything new at the same time u eliminated most of the causes
isp NODES and routing most of the culprits but god forbid they do a spectrum,wireshark,pingplotter analysis in a full day to fix their problem its not a fix input delay rn .bat file
so few people have electricity problems its so rare everyone mentioning buidling 10x pcs and just throwing money on every thing that makes the hope go up
even if u feel like shit playing just go with optimized defaults setting in bios/xmp do ram testings as the guy above mentioned and just stick to it and do proper network troubleshooting

[Master_Tinkerer]

Most important stuff for me (after 7 years of testing):
1. Try a usb ethernet dongle instead of your onboard NIC
2. Try actually allowing windows update install the gpu driver for you. Yeah, I know that the general consensus is to wipe through DDU and then manually install, but I swear to god it's worse for me every single time, on many different motherboards, intel/amd, different GPUs, you name it.
3. Right-click game.exe --> Disable FS optimizations & scaling by application helps sometimes too.


if this doesn't help, you can try
4. different nic/audio driver versions

I have 5k faceit games at around 2k elo, yeah I know it's not that much but I've finally been able to make the game actually playable after all these years (the first 3 points that I've mentioned is what I've come to, I don't bother tweaking MSIutil/TCP optimizer and just leave everything on default beucase I think it should just be default in the first place).

[RamenRider]

https://community.amd.com/t5/gaming-dis ... d-p/754905