Wierd Input lag

[Airon]

Hello!

For several years I have struggled with input lag on many different PCs. I have built both expensive PCs and cheap PCs, including all tweaks, bios updates, emi filters, UPS etc. I would say I have tried absolutely everything. I've been playing Counter-Strike since the 1.0 beta and know exactly how things should feel. The other day me and some mates were on Discord together, and one of them was streaming. I opened watching the stream while entering CS;GO and at that moment everything felt normal. I turned off the stream to see if this could be the case, and it was just as bad again right after. I turned the stream back on and let it run in the background and everything felt good again. I have done quite a few network optimizations with no success and I am at a loss as to what could be the cause? I've scoured all of google and forums for tips and I've probably tried everything that could be a possibility. I have tried all kinds of computers with both Intel Processor and AMD processor. Nvidia and AMD graphics cards. wifi and ethernet. All possible ethernet cables different ISP. I have changed absolutely everything. Tried motherboards from all the different manufacturers. I'll soon be tearing out what little hair I have left if I don't get to the bottom of this.

A little story.

in 2017 i owned a computer with intel 3770k processor, 660ti video card, 8gb ddr3 Ballistix ram and a poor 550w bronze psu from corsair. These problems did not exist on this computer! Oh I wonder what this is?? Could it be the sound driver? could it be network error? Did I optimize the bios wrong?

The biggest mystery is when I watch a friend stream on discord and things feel 100 times faster and snappier. I've been trying to monitor what happens when I turn on the stream, but I can't quite see it. I see that the Ethernet consumption goes up, but it does so anyway when I play without the stream and.

The mouse feel varies a lot and I have to turn down the sensitivity up and down in the console all the time as this changes. Everything feels sluggish both on the desktop and in bios. I can sometimes get half an hour where everything is perfect, but it creeps back.

I've tried absolutely everything. CMD commands for everything that exists. I've run through all of Regedit for tweaks and debloated everything I can. I have tried all the different PCs in different places. This may sound crazy, but it is actually a reality and this is NOT a placebo.

Really hope that there is a smart one out there, who is much smarter than me, who can give me an answer to this

My computer currently:

AMD 5800x
Asus b550-E gaming
Nvidia rtx 3080
850w seasonal gold
Trident G Skill Neo 32 GB
500gb m.2 Samsung
BenQ 2540k 240 hz


Oh yes, I've tried changing mice 50 different ones

[assombrosso]

I think you went overkill with trial and error, same as me, but have you tried gas generator + take pc out of house to some clean locations with no houses/electronics equipments around and test? You can rent a gas generator

[Thatweirdinputlag]

I feel your pain brother. You're just way more patient than I am. I've always had hints of bad hitreg in csgo, ever since its launch in 2012, it was not super bad though, it comes and goes, so I always just scrapped it to being network related issues. However, late 2019 is when I upgraded my PC, at that time I was playing a bit of fortnite and a bit of CSGO, the input lag hit me so hard that it almost gave me depression, I gave up playing fortnite like a 2 months after that, since fast building/editing became virtually impossible. I kept playing CSGO, my MM rank dropped from 24/7 Global Elite to barely maintaining Eagle Master, my faceit rank also dropped to average the 1600ish and sometimes even as low as 1400. 4 Months after that I just quit playing csgo and sold my inventory that was worth around $8000 and started playing Valorant. 3 months after that I just quit playing Valorant too since literally the same freaking problems are there! I just decided to stay away from Esports titles all together.

Throughout that journey, I can safely say that I have spent all the money that I earned back from my CSGO inventory + a couple thousands more trying to fix the issue, here I am today, with no solution but a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

Unfortunately if we only needed a "Smart" person to solve this, then the problem would've been solved ages ago, and since we still don't even know where to start looking, I can see this problem carrying on even further until it actually becomes a mainstream issue that attracts a lot of attention. Up to this day, you still have some folks that wander around those forums calling the users "delusional", I don't blame them, the lack of solid quantifiable proof definitely doesn't help our case.

[Airon]

Hi, and thanks for your reply.

I have tried the PCs in several places where there are no other electronics. I have also had electricians here who have monitored the electricity for 7 days without any fault being detected.

[Airon]

Hi, and thanks for your reply!

Sorry to hear that the lag problem is still there for you.

Many claim that this is due to the electrical (emi) etc., but I think this is about something completely different. I have read that many people experience improvements at night, which I also experience at times. I also find that if I pull out the ethernet cable, the mouse changes to the lighter one and when I plug it in, about 15 seconds later, the lag starts again. I think (without saying anything for sure) that this is due to the network in some way. It might have something to do with network packets etc.. logically, as I explain how I experience this with the Discord stream (when I'm watching others) in the background while playing, this puts my focus on networking.

What is also strange is that I have read quite a few forums where I see people going back to their old computer with worse hardware to release this lag. I have also looked at old pictures of my computer that did not have these problems how it was built and have tried to build it exactly as in the picture. The only difference I can notice is that I was sitting on a desk with a thick glass top and metal legs. I have also read quite a bit about static electricity, and something I also notice is that when I lift up the mouse pad, I sometimes get small shocks. Glass has the ability to insulate static electricity, but can it really be that? Perhaps this problem is so difficult to solve because there are several factors interacting with each other.

I'm thinking along the lines of, if it's due to static electricity, both the drivers and the computer will have an error correction that causes the drivers and the mouse to change because there will be interference in one way or another which in turn leads to more problems how the different components work together. I don't know.. One can ponder. It would be great fun to solve this problem once and for all

[Thatweirdinputlag]

Hi, and thanks for your reply!

Sorry to hear that the lag problem is still there for you.

Many claim that this is due to the electrical (emi) etc., but I think this is about something completely different. I have read that many people experience improvements at night, which I also experience at times. I also find that if I pull out the ethernet cable, the mouse changes to the lighter one and when I plug it in, about 15 seconds later, the lag starts again. I think (without saying anything for sure) that this is due to the network in some way. It might have something to do with network packets etc.. logically, as I explain how I experience this with the Discord stream (when I'm watching others) in the background while playing, this puts my focus on networking.

What is also strange is that I have read quite a few forums where I see people going back to their old computer with worse hardware to release this lag. I have also looked at old pictures of my computer that did not have these problems how it was built and have tried to build it exactly as in the picture. The only difference I can notice is that I was sitting on a desk with a thick glass top and metal legs. I have also read quite a bit about static electricity, and something I also notice is that when I lift up the mouse pad, I sometimes get small shocks. Glass has the ability to insulate static electricity, but can it really be that? Perhaps this problem is so difficult to solve because there are several factors interacting with each other.

I'm thinking along the lines of, if it's due to static electricity, both the drivers and the computer will have an error correction that causes the drivers and the mouse to change because there will be interference in one way or another which in turn leads to more problems how the different components work together. I don't know.. One can ponder. It would be great fun to solve this problem once and for all

I have an IKEA bekant desk, its pretty sweet but for some reason the wooden top part cannot be grounded. I already tried grounding the metal frame by hooking an alligator clip onto an exposed mounting screw and the whole frame stopped emitting electrical field "based on an EMF meter". But that's only the frame, for some reason the countertop which is usually made of compressed wood "in my case" somehow is still radiating electrical fields, the only way dissipate that field is literally to pull the plug from the outlet, meaning, turn off everything that is sitting on the table or under it. Maybe i'll just drill a whole from under, use a metal, then hook that alligator clip to the screw. I doubt that will ground the counter top itself, the process is easy.

[cybepine]

Hi, and thanks for your reply.

I have tried the PCs in several places where there are no other electronics. I have also had electricians here who have monitored the electricity for 7 days without any fault being detected.

Do you have all your equipment connected (router also) to same outlet or power strip?

Where do you live and do you know what is your earthing system?

Did the electricians measure neutral to ground differences during peak hours?

"Ground potential differences are commonly determined through
measurements at various locations in the electrical installation
during peak-usage hours. In building and factory automation,
GPDs can range from 2V up to 20V"

So basically I don't suggest using UPS unless really necessary.
You could try AC isolation transformer as you said you have time varying input lag. There is also Ethernet isolators.