The Never-Ending Desync Nightmare – Looking for Possible Guidance
Posted: 02 Apr 2025, 23:31
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.
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.