Longstanding Floaty Aim Feel Issue Fixed with a Fiber Optic DisplayPort Cable...
Posted: 29 Mar 2025, 15:16
Just wanted to post about my experience in the hope that it may help someone someday who like me was just doing random Google searches every now and again tearing their hair out trying to figure out what was causing their issues.
The Issue: Floaty aim feel kicks in after playing a game for about 10-15 minutes or so and once it starts, will not go away until PC is restarted only for the cycle to repeat again. The floaty aim feel can be described as an almost accelerated sensitivity aim feel where the cursor is not feeling in sync with what I am trying to do with the mouse (clown cursor). Instead of feeling 1:1 it would always feel very slippery and inaccurate.
I tried basically everything and it seemed to even carry across different PC builds and even monitors (OLD build was a i7-8600K, 1080TI, 16GB 4133mhz RAM, CURRENT build is i9-13900KS, 4090, 32GB 7600mhz RAM). Older monitor was a 240hz ASUS PG258Q, current monitor is a 540hz ASUS PG248QP.
I have a triple monitor setup but with a two PC setup. Two monitors to my old rig, which I use for all purposes on the side and my new rig connected to ONLY the 540hz monitor and nothing else. The new rig is used strictly only for gaming for max performance and as to have nothing running in the background. I have always been very picky about going with lowest settings and maximum FPS, hence the 540hz monitor and overkill PC for 1080p gaming. I feel like I am very sensitive to changes in my setups and the floaty aim feel was absolutely killing my experience.
For reference I pretty much exclusively play Overwatch 2, uncapped frames NVIDIA Reflex Boost + On for lowest latency, 600FPS (max allowed on Overwatch) and in game I am usually holding a steady 580-600FPS with no issues at low settings. NVIDIA Control Panel: Ultra Low Latency Mode (gets overridden by Reflex anyways, Fixed Refresh Mode, Prefer Maximum Performance power mode).
So recently I had begun to notice that whenever the floaty aim feel would kick in, if I changed any NVIDIA GPU setting in the control panel, it would temporarily fix the floatiness for about a minute or so but it would immediately come back. I became convinced it was somehow GPU/driver related and tried changing every setting I could. Stuff like GSYNC would help it feel not as bad but you could still tell the floatiness was there a little bit.
Started messing with RivaTuner after I ran out of options in NVIDIA Control Panel to play with and I found that setting a frametime limit also felt a bit better but like GSYNC it didn't feel perfect and I hated the added input latency feel. Tried the scanline sync option and it felt much better than setting a frametime limit but I could still feel a hint of floatiness with that as well. Ended up giving up going down that road and un-installed Rivatuner. Back to square one with no solutions in sight.
Now I've had issues with electricity related interference in the past but won't go down that rabbithole as I don't think you can talk about that stuff here. But I have had excellent results having my entire PC setup running on a Medical Grade Isolation Transformer and implementing Quest VR fiber optic USB-C cables where ever possible. But this seemingly monitor/GPU related floatiness feeling just couldn't be resolved no matter what.
That is when the idea occurred to try a fiber optic DisplayPort cable. I was willing to try anything at this point and these things are relatively inexpensive on Amazon now if you can find one for a good price. Could always return it if it didn't do anything.
Got one in and replaced my regular copper cable immediately noticed a HUGE difference on the first day. Went a FULL day without any issues, great aim feel. On day 2, the floatiness seemed to come back which got me flustered. But then I began to wonder why it did seem like it was fixed for a day. Then I remembered I still have one more copper display cable going into my 540hz monitor that is connected to my old rig (basically sometimes I would use this HDMI connection to run all 3 of my monitors on my old rig). I unplugged that HDMI connection so that my gaming PC is strictly only connected to the 540hz monitor via the fiber optic DisplayPort cable and nothing else. So at this point the only thing connected to my 540hz monitor is the power brick and the fiber cable from my gaming PC. The great feeling from the day before immediately returned and now it stayed.
It has been two whole weeks now and the problem seems to be 100% fixed with certainty. The difference has been day/night and I am easily able to replicate the issue by introducing the copper cables back into my setup.
Totally bizarre and I don't know why it happens, but I am super grateful to finally have a solution to this longstanding problem that has been plaguing me for literally years.
Am not suggesting this will fix issues for other people as their symptoms or problems might be caused by completely different things, but for my situation it fixed the problem 100%. I am still in amazement and bewildered as to the why but I'm not complaining. Just been enjoying the feeling of gaming without dealing with stupid issues that no one else seemingly had to, it was so frustrating.
So yeah, hopefully this would help someone in the future!
From now on, I just use my 540hz monitor solely with my newer gaming PC via fiber optic DisplayPort cable and I use the old rig for my other two monitors.
The Issue: Floaty aim feel kicks in after playing a game for about 10-15 minutes or so and once it starts, will not go away until PC is restarted only for the cycle to repeat again. The floaty aim feel can be described as an almost accelerated sensitivity aim feel where the cursor is not feeling in sync with what I am trying to do with the mouse (clown cursor). Instead of feeling 1:1 it would always feel very slippery and inaccurate.
I tried basically everything and it seemed to even carry across different PC builds and even monitors (OLD build was a i7-8600K, 1080TI, 16GB 4133mhz RAM, CURRENT build is i9-13900KS, 4090, 32GB 7600mhz RAM). Older monitor was a 240hz ASUS PG258Q, current monitor is a 540hz ASUS PG248QP.
I have a triple monitor setup but with a two PC setup. Two monitors to my old rig, which I use for all purposes on the side and my new rig connected to ONLY the 540hz monitor and nothing else. The new rig is used strictly only for gaming for max performance and as to have nothing running in the background. I have always been very picky about going with lowest settings and maximum FPS, hence the 540hz monitor and overkill PC for 1080p gaming. I feel like I am very sensitive to changes in my setups and the floaty aim feel was absolutely killing my experience.
For reference I pretty much exclusively play Overwatch 2, uncapped frames NVIDIA Reflex Boost + On for lowest latency, 600FPS (max allowed on Overwatch) and in game I am usually holding a steady 580-600FPS with no issues at low settings. NVIDIA Control Panel: Ultra Low Latency Mode (gets overridden by Reflex anyways, Fixed Refresh Mode, Prefer Maximum Performance power mode).
So recently I had begun to notice that whenever the floaty aim feel would kick in, if I changed any NVIDIA GPU setting in the control panel, it would temporarily fix the floatiness for about a minute or so but it would immediately come back. I became convinced it was somehow GPU/driver related and tried changing every setting I could. Stuff like GSYNC would help it feel not as bad but you could still tell the floatiness was there a little bit.
Started messing with RivaTuner after I ran out of options in NVIDIA Control Panel to play with and I found that setting a frametime limit also felt a bit better but like GSYNC it didn't feel perfect and I hated the added input latency feel. Tried the scanline sync option and it felt much better than setting a frametime limit but I could still feel a hint of floatiness with that as well. Ended up giving up going down that road and un-installed Rivatuner. Back to square one with no solutions in sight.
Now I've had issues with electricity related interference in the past but won't go down that rabbithole as I don't think you can talk about that stuff here. But I have had excellent results having my entire PC setup running on a Medical Grade Isolation Transformer and implementing Quest VR fiber optic USB-C cables where ever possible. But this seemingly monitor/GPU related floatiness feeling just couldn't be resolved no matter what.
That is when the idea occurred to try a fiber optic DisplayPort cable. I was willing to try anything at this point and these things are relatively inexpensive on Amazon now if you can find one for a good price. Could always return it if it didn't do anything.
Got one in and replaced my regular copper cable immediately noticed a HUGE difference on the first day. Went a FULL day without any issues, great aim feel. On day 2, the floatiness seemed to come back which got me flustered. But then I began to wonder why it did seem like it was fixed for a day. Then I remembered I still have one more copper display cable going into my 540hz monitor that is connected to my old rig (basically sometimes I would use this HDMI connection to run all 3 of my monitors on my old rig). I unplugged that HDMI connection so that my gaming PC is strictly only connected to the 540hz monitor via the fiber optic DisplayPort cable and nothing else. So at this point the only thing connected to my 540hz monitor is the power brick and the fiber cable from my gaming PC. The great feeling from the day before immediately returned and now it stayed.
It has been two whole weeks now and the problem seems to be 100% fixed with certainty. The difference has been day/night and I am easily able to replicate the issue by introducing the copper cables back into my setup.
Totally bizarre and I don't know why it happens, but I am super grateful to finally have a solution to this longstanding problem that has been plaguing me for literally years.
Am not suggesting this will fix issues for other people as their symptoms or problems might be caused by completely different things, but for my situation it fixed the problem 100%. I am still in amazement and bewildered as to the why but I'm not complaining. Just been enjoying the feeling of gaming without dealing with stupid issues that no one else seemingly had to, it was so frustrating.
So yeah, hopefully this would help someone in the future!
From now on, I just use my 540hz monitor solely with my newer gaming PC via fiber optic DisplayPort cable and I use the old rig for my other two monitors.
