Realtek Gaming 2.5gbe Family Controller Network Lag/Delay

[amc]

I came across this topic by accident. I also have a built-in realtek 2.5, and I also see a delay in CS2. I bought a 1 GB realtek usb and it has the lowest input latency with Windows 11 drivers. I don't understand why this is so, the usb card lacks settings such as interrupt moderation and flow control, as well as receive and transmit buffers - 16 and 18. Can anyone explain why this is so? Why is the delay minimal on the usb network card? And it is on windows 11 stock drivers. If you install the latest realtek drivers, then flow control appears and the receive and transmit buffer is already getting 37, CS2 is starting to get worse. So the best option for me at the moment is a usb 1gb realtek on windows 11 stock drivers.

WOOOOWWWW!!! OH MY GOD! THANK YOU!!!
I bought a TP-Link UE300 USB ethernet dongle and it's really important to use the oldest drivers possible that get automatically detected at first (before any updates are applied and newer versions are added). I think I finally fixed my input lag after all of these years, I can finally hold angles on faceit. Thank you so much <3

I think it's better to leave the TCP/IP settings on default, for some reason it's worse for me when I disable all of the offloads.

What version of TP-Link UE300 USB do you have?

[syedali687]

Hey guys,
I've been suffering from this issue for years and was unable to find a fix for it until today. I'm so happy to report this resolution. I don't understand how it works since I don't understand how resource sharing works within Windows but it has something to do with IRQs. To test this for yourself, download the MSI Utility v3 usually used to set the GPU to high priority and to engage MSI Mode. So my Network card was in MSI mode priority set to high and it had a series of IRQ values along with it, around 14 values in a row. I'm not sure why that would cause an issue but it was causing the same issue you mentioned. To fix it, I removed it from MSI mode, bringing the IRQ to just one value. I've not experimented with setting it back to high or to MSI mode again but I'M JUST SUPER HAPPY that it works now as is.
I hope this is going to help someone

[dsavovic25]

Very interesting topic here. I've always had a feeling that Realtek was degrading my gaming experience.. I have a Realtek RTL8111G controller and I will just do a recap of what you guys suggested here in case someone finds this topic as well, as I did. So crucial steps are:
1. Downgrade to 2015 Realtek driver
2. Disabled RSS and Task offloading via CMD.
3. Set NIC driver to IRQ line via MSI Utility v3. (couldn't tell a difference between high and undefined priority)
4. Changed transmit and receive buffer values to 64/64. (I will come back to this later)

I have a few question after tweaking all of this.. I have tested all of the combinations with receive and transmit buffers but also couldn't really tell a difference.. 128/128, 64/64 or even 32/32.. Which one should be theoretically the best? Also I have no idea if switching RSS and task offloading was the driver thing or a windows thing cause it was labeled as TCP general parameters. And are there any more tweaks that are really important or this would be the maximum that Realtek controller can provide? Thanks!

[Misha1337]

I came across this topic by accident. I also have a built-in realtek 2.5, and I also see a delay in CS2. I bought a 1 GB realtek usb and it has the lowest input latency with Windows 11 drivers. I don't understand why this is so, the usb card lacks settings such as interrupt moderation and flow control, as well as receive and transmit buffers - 16 and 18. Can anyone explain why this is so? Why is the delay minimal on the usb network card? And it is on windows 11 stock drivers. If you install the latest realtek drivers, then flow control appears and the receive and transmit buffer is already getting 37, CS2 is starting to get worse. So the best option for me at the moment is a usb 1gb realtek on windows 11 stock drivers.

WOOOOWWWW!!! OH MY GOD! THANK YOU!!!
I bought a TP-Link UE300 USB ethernet dongle and it's really important to use the oldest drivers possible that get automatically detected at first (before any updates are applied and newer versions are added). I think I finally fixed my input lag after all of these years, I can finally hold angles on faceit. Thank you so much <3

I think it's better to leave the TCP/IP settings on default, for some reason it's worse for me when I disable all of the offloads.

What version of TP-Link UE300 USB do you have?

Don't buy the 5.2 version because it's using ASIX chipset not realtek

[hazzahodgson]

Very interesting topic here. I've always had a feeling that Realtek was degrading my gaming experience.. I have a Realtek RTL8111G controller and I will just do a recap of what you guys suggested here in case someone finds this topic as well, as I did. So crucial steps are:
1. Downgrade to 2015 Realtek driver
2. Disabled RSS and Task offloading via CMD.
3. Set NIC driver to IRQ line via MSI Utility v3. (couldn't tell a difference between high and undefined priority)
4. Changed transmit and receive buffer values to 64/64. (I will come back to this later)

I have a few question after tweaking all of this.. I have tested all of the combinations with receive and transmit buffers but also couldn't really tell a difference.. 128/128, 64/64 or even 32/32.. Which one should be theoretically the best? Also I have no idea if switching RSS and task offloading was the driver thing or a windows thing cause it was labeled as TCP general parameters. And are there any more tweaks that are really important or this would be the maximum that Realtek controller can provide? Thanks!

buffers only get used if needed i think? the best config for me was just ressetting network settings and not tweaking anything apart from disabling power saving stuff and interupt moderation on medium. in my experience at the end of the day, we cant take advantage of faster packet processing because of the added load.coontention and what not so it evens out in the end but with the added floaty mouse problem lol

[dsavovic25]

Very interesting topic here. I've always had a feeling that Realtek was degrading my gaming experience.. I have a Realtek RTL8111G controller and I will just do a recap of what you guys suggested here in case someone finds this topic as well, as I did. So crucial steps are:
1. Downgrade to 2015 Realtek driver
2. Disabled RSS and Task offloading via CMD.
3. Set NIC driver to IRQ line via MSI Utility v3. (couldn't tell a difference between high and undefined priority)
4. Changed transmit and receive buffer values to 64/64. (I will come back to this later)

I have a few question after tweaking all of this.. I have tested all of the combinations with receive and transmit buffers but also couldn't really tell a difference.. 128/128, 64/64 or even 32/32.. Which one should be theoretically the best? Also I have no idea if switching RSS and task offloading was the driver thing or a windows thing cause it was labeled as TCP general parameters. And are there any more tweaks that are really important or this would be the maximum that Realtek controller can provide? Thanks!

buffers only get used if needed i think? the best config for me was just ressetting network settings and not tweaking anything apart from disabling power saving stuff and interupt moderation on medium. in my experience at the end of the day, we cant take advantage of faster packet processing because of the added load.coontention and what not so it evens out in the end but with the added floaty mouse problem lol

You might be right, but for some odd reason default buffers for 8111G were maxed out at 128/512, which is really a weird combo.. Might be a hardware limitation? I've also thought that lower buffers give less latency, but I'm not sure if that is how it works.. Also, I've seen some guides that recommend transmit buffer twice the size of the receive. Is that correct?

[skazska]

I came across this topic by accident. I also have a built-in realtek 2.5, and I also see a delay in CS2. I bought a 1 GB realtek usb and it has the lowest input latency with Windows 11 drivers. I don't understand why this is so, the usb card lacks settings such as interrupt moderation and flow control, as well as receive and transmit buffers - 16 and 18. Can anyone explain why this is so? Why is the delay minimal on the usb network card? And it is on windows 11 stock drivers. If you install the latest realtek drivers, then flow control appears and the receive and transmit buffer is already getting 37, CS2 is starting to get worse. So the best option for me at the moment is a usb 1gb realtek on windows 11 stock drivers.

WOOOOWWWW!!! OH MY GOD! THANK YOU!!!
I bought a TP-Link UE300 USB ethernet dongle and it's really important to use the oldest drivers possible that get automatically detected at first (before any updates are applied and newer versions are added). I think I finally fixed my input lag after all of these years, I can finally hold angles on faceit. Thank you so much <3

I think it's better to leave the TCP/IP settings on default, for some reason it's worse for me when I disable all of the offloads.

What version of TP-Link UE300 USB do you have?

Don't buy the 5.2 version because it's using ASIX chipset not realtek

Guys I've bought the TP LINK UE300 USB Ethernet adapter but it is actually a ASIX AX88179 chipset, what the difference between them? why u saying do not buy the ASIX version? I've connected this adapter into USB 3.0 port and already see the difference in hit registration and also mouse feeling ( btw floaty mouse is still not fixed 100%) my specs are below:



CPU: 13700KF
MB: Asrock Z790 PG Riptide
RAM: DDR-5 DIMM 32 GB 6000 MHz Team Group T-Force Delta RGB, 2x 16 GB Kit, Black, BOX (XMP activated 6000 Mhz)
PSU: 1000W MSI MPG A1000G (NO PCIE5)

[Brutek_Vladimir]

Yes MSI mode is recommended widely as best option for a stack of devices. But it depends on hardware and software implementation of said device.
For Realtek NICs strangely i feel i had better online gaming experience with linebased mode (classic IRQ). Testing back and forth for years. Could be placebo though as various online web tests show ZERO difference between MSI on/off.
1Gb and 2.5Gb chipsets.
So i guess it could be hardware problem not a driver problem.

For old or last realtek driver i cant say i witnessed a difference. If you want to use last driver, i recommend using driver from your mainboard support site, not last from realtek.com, reason already mentioned here.
Although its funny how recent realtek drivers defaults to 32 limit while it cant keep up with such number.


About buffers value..
I cant say i saw difference between various numbers. I would say leave it at default, unless you have measured it somehow and particular
value works for you.

Intel NIC is different beast and i think had better experience with MSI mode on with it.

[NotaBotY2k]

I'm playing CoD/Warzone, CoD MP is p2p and Warzone is supposedly dedicated. Both have been reputed to have awful netcode over the years. I found RSS on/2 quo's may have still been causing latency. RSS Off/ Offloads disabled seems to work fine on my realtek. I have been playing a few days with RSS off and haven't had any severe issues but it's an awful game to use as an example. Latency had been in several seconds playing but I haven't noticed any problems with RSS Off now.

As far as buffers I believe if they're too low you may experience pop in on some scripted events in games at least. Regular internet use shouldn't really be affected.

Wifi AX again seems little to no latency and doesn't seem to have any of these RSS issues.

[ablemor]

tp link usb eth worth it?