Persistent “behind the server” feeling in games across multiple PCs & OSes – suspected timing / clock / display pipeline

[Rezurrect]

Hi,

I’m looking for help diagnosing a long-standing timing / latency issue that I’ve experienced across many different PCs, laptops, operating systems, GPUs, and ISPs.

This is not traditional lag:

Ping is consistently low (10–15 ms)

No packet loss or jitter

High FPS and stable frametimes

Issue is consistent offline vs bots as well

Yet gameplay feels temporally delayed, as if my client simulation is behind the server or behind reality.

Symptoms:

In games like Rocket League, Fortnite, Roblox, Rivals:

Opponents reach the ball first even when I’m visibly closer

I get demo’d / hit after I’ve already jumped or moved

50/50s feel unwinnable

Issue persists even vs bots (e.g. Nexto in Rocket League)

App cold starts on Windows (Explorer, Chrome, Discord) consistently take 5–10 seconds even on fast NVMe systems

Gameplay never feels “correct” or aligned

Critical observations:

Playing remotely on a friend’s PC (remote control / screen share) feels correct and responsive

Cloud gaming does not fix it

One older HP EliteBook laptop worked perfectly

Fedora Linux improves the issue noticeably (especially with gamescope), but does not fully eliminate it

Proxmox + Windows VM did not fix it

Moving the same SSD:

Works fine in a laptop

Immediately has the issue in my desktop

Works fine again when returned to the laptop

This strongly suggests a platform-level timing issue, not OS corruption.

Hardware / OS scope

My Current PC Specs: I5-12400F, 32GB DDR5 4800, AsRock H610M-HDV/M.2, Corsair RM750e, Samsung 980 NVMe, RX 9060XT 8GB.

Tested across:

CPUs: Intel i5-12400F, i9-12900F multiple laptop CPUs

GPUs: RX 580, RTX 2070 Super, RTX 3080, RX 5700 XT, RX 9060 XT

Motherboards: Gigabyte B550, ASUS B760M, ASRock H610M

RAM: DDR4 & DDR5

Storage: multiple NVMe & SATA SSDs

PSUs: Corsair RM750e, CV550

Monitors: Alienware AW2521HF (240 Hz), BenQ Zowie

Ethernet only, multiple NICs, 8+ ISPs

OS tested:

Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Server 2022, LTSC

Custom / stripped Windows ISOs

Fedora Linux (best so far)

Proxmox (Linux host + Windows guest)

What I’ve already ruled out

ISP / routing issues

IPv6, VPNs

Peripherals

GPU drivers (many versions)

BIOS defaults vs tweaked

C-states, SpeedShift, ASPM, turbo on/off

HPET on/off

Timer tools (ISLC, timer resolution tools)

MSI vs legacy interrupts

DPC latency problems

Current suspicion

This feels like a clock / timing coherence issue, possibly involving:

TSC / QPC instability

Power management affecting clock determinism

Display pipeline buffering (DWM / scanout timing)

Scheduler / compositor behavior

The fact that Fedora + gamescope improves consistency suggests Windows display & timing layers may be amplifying an underlying platform problem.

I’m not looking for generic tweaks or reinstall advice — I’m trying to understand why client timing is consistently late and how to force deterministic timing / scanout.

Any insight from people familiar with:

input lag vs scanout lag

frame pacing vs simulation timing

OS clock behavior

display pipeline latency

would be hugely appreciated.

[dervu]

If you suspect timing issues I would check in CPU-Z timers benchmark. If you get any micro stutter visible on countdown then something is wrong for sure.

[Rezurrect]

Hello,

Thank you for your reply.

I've just ran this, and no micro stutters appeared.

[Rezurrect]

Just a little update I don't think I mentioned in the original post.

An old HP laptop I used to have ran perfectly fine except for the low fps, also I have had 1 pc (Asus 1660ti, ryzen 5 3600x) that worked fine as well. Another one of my older laptops (1050ti, i7 7th gen) would run perfect on first windows installation boot, then playing a game after restarting once it would mess up, and finally another older laptop I had which was a touch screen one was weird, if touch screen was disabled, games ran weird and delayed, but when it was enabled, it ran fine.

I've had 3 PC's more recently and all have the same issue no matter how much I configure the bios. I'm not entirely sure what causes this issue as it feels like a visual delay rather than ping related.

Phones and a Nintendo switch run fine as well. I really hope someone can help, gaming is just impossible cause I am constantly dying super quick, and in CQCB games, I constantly get hit from so far away, but on their screen I'm like right near them, yet having no stuttering, low(er) ping and a fast setup (with ethernet gigabit speeds)

[Master_Tinkerer]

Just a little update I don't think I mentioned in the original post.

An old HP laptop I used to have ran perfectly fine except for the low fps, also I have had 1 pc (Asus 1660ti, ryzen 5 3600x) that worked fine as well. Another one of my older laptops (1050ti, i7 7th gen) would run perfect on first windows installation boot, then playing a game after restarting once it would mess up, and finally another older laptop I had which was a touch screen one was weird, if touch screen was disabled, games ran weird and delayed, but when it was enabled, it ran fine.

I've had 3 PC's more recently and all have the same issue no matter how much I configure the bios. I'm not entirely sure what causes this issue as it feels like a visual delay rather than ping related.

Phones and a Nintendo switch run fine as well. I really hope someone can help, gaming is just impossible cause I am constantly dying super quick, and in CQCB games, I constantly get hit from so far away, but on their screen I'm like right near them, yet having no stuttering, low(er) ping and a fast setup (with ethernet gigabit speeds)

I had the same thing with the game being flawless on a fresh install (on win 10/win11), I think some system drivers might be updating automatically. The only way to combat this (somewhat) is to install windows with the ethernet cable unplugged, and then disable driver installations through gpedit.msc>Computer configuration>system>Device installation>Device installation restrictions>Prevent installation of devices that match of these device IDs>Enabled and paste the ID's from device manager>Details>Hardware IDs (you can use any one of those).
But it's still kinda not perfect

[Rezurrect]

Just a little update I don't think I mentioned in the original post.

An old HP laptop I used to have ran perfectly fine except for the low fps, also I have had 1 pc (Asus 1660ti, ryzen 5 3600x) that worked fine as well. Another one of my older laptops (1050ti, i7 7th gen) would run perfect on first windows installation boot, then playing a game after restarting once it would mess up, and finally another older laptop I had which was a touch screen one was weird, if touch screen was disabled, games ran weird and delayed, but when it was enabled, it ran fine.

I've had 3 PC's more recently and all have the same issue no matter how much I configure the bios. I'm not entirely sure what causes this issue as it feels like a visual delay rather than ping related.

Phones and a Nintendo switch run fine as well. I really hope someone can help, gaming is just impossible cause I am constantly dying super quick, and in CQCB games, I constantly get hit from so far away, but on their screen I'm like right near them, yet having no stuttering, low(er) ping and a fast setup (with ethernet gigabit speeds)

I had the same thing with the game being flawless on a fresh install (on win 10/win11), I think some system drivers might be updating automatically. The only way to combat this (somewhat) is to install windows with the ethernet cable unplugged, and then disable driver installations through gpedit.msc>Computer configuration>system>Device installation>Device installation restrictions>Prevent installation of devices that match of these device IDs>Enabled and paste the ID's from device manager>Details>Hardware IDs (you can use any one of those).
But it's still kinda not perfect

I've tried this with my current PC and PC before it and my girlfriends laptop. This doesn't change anything for me unfortunately. I just don't get why this happens to some but not to all. I've had a canny few friends literally never have this issue and it's so weird.

[Cosmostraveler]

Just a little update I don't think I mentioned in the original post.

An old HP laptop I used to have ran perfectly fine except for the low fps, also I have had 1 pc (Asus 1660ti, ryzen 5 3600x) that worked fine as well. Another one of my older laptops (1050ti, i7 7th gen) would run perfect on first windows installation boot, then playing a game after restarting once it would mess up, and finally another older laptop I had which was a touch screen one was weird, if touch screen was disabled, games ran weird and delayed, but when it was enabled, it ran fine.

I've had 3 PC's more recently and all have the same issue no matter how much I configure the bios. I'm not entirely sure what causes this issue as it feels like a visual delay rather than ping related.

Phones and a Nintendo switch run fine as well. I really hope someone can help, gaming is just impossible cause I am constantly dying super quick, and in CQCB games, I constantly get hit from so far away, but on their screen I'm like right near them, yet having no stuttering, low(er) ping and a fast setup (with ethernet gigabit speeds)

I had the same thing with the game being flawless on a fresh install (on win 10/win11), I think some system drivers might be updating automatically. The only way to combat this (somewhat) is to install windows with the ethernet cable unplugged, and then disable driver installations through gpedit.msc>Computer configuration>system>Device installation>Device installation restrictions>Prevent installation of devices that match of these device IDs>Enabled and paste the ID's from device manager>Details>Hardware IDs (you can use any one of those).
But it's still kinda not perfect

I am currently trying your version, making sure no updates are done and that gpu driver is installed manually (without internet every connecting) and updates disabled permanently. I tried this yesterday too (delaying updates at first) but it still downloaded some security updates as well as Microsoft Removal Tool, and some AMD drivers, again, despite updates being paused. Now, im running all vanilla (no updates at all). Another thing that definitely improved the input lag (which is recreatable) is to put Microsoft Defender Compatibility to Windows 7. There will be 2 .exes, one is msmpeng and another is a core service I believe. Try this out and let me know if you can see the difference. I know installing Bitdefender completely removes these exes mentioned above from running, hence giving the similar feel.

[Sandy]

Hi,

I’m looking for help diagnosing a long-standing timing / latency issue that I’ve experienced across many different PCs, laptops, operating systems, GPUs, and ISPs.

This is not traditional lag:

Ping is consistently low (10–15 ms)

No packet loss or jitter

High FPS and stable frametimes

Issue is consistent offline vs bots as well

Yet gameplay feels temporally delayed, as if my client simulation is behind the server or behind reality.

Symptoms:

In games like Rocket League, Fortnite, Roblox, Rivals:

Opponents reach the ball first even when I’m visibly closer

I get demo’d / hit after I’ve already jumped or moved

50/50s feel unwinnable

Issue persists even vs bots (e.g. Nexto in Rocket League)

App cold starts on Windows (Explorer, Chrome, Discord) consistently take 5–10 seconds even on fast NVMe systems

Gameplay never feels “correct” or aligned

Critical observations:

Playing remotely on a friend’s PC (remote control / screen share) feels correct and responsive

Cloud gaming does not fix it

One older HP EliteBook laptop worked perfectly

Fedora Linux improves the issue noticeably (especially with gamescope), but does not fully eliminate it

Proxmox + Windows VM did not fix it

Moving the same SSD:

Works fine in a laptop

Immediately has the issue in my desktop

Works fine again when returned to the laptop

This strongly suggests a platform-level timing issue, not OS corruption.

Hardware / OS scope

My Current PC Specs: I5-12400F, 32GB DDR5 4800, AsRock H610M-HDV/M.2, Corsair RM750e, Samsung 980 NVMe, RX 9060XT 8GB.

Tested across:

CPUs: Intel i5-12400F, i9-12900F multiple laptop CPUs

GPUs: RX 580, RTX 2070 Super, RTX 3080, RX 5700 XT, RX 9060 XT

Motherboards: Gigabyte B550, ASUS B760M, ASRock H610M

RAM: DDR4 & DDR5

Storage: multiple NVMe & SATA SSDs

PSUs: Corsair RM750e, CV550

Monitors: Alienware AW2521HF (240 Hz), BenQ Zowie

Ethernet only, multiple NICs, 8+ ISPs

OS tested:

Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Server 2022, LTSC

Custom / stripped Windows ISOs

Fedora Linux (best so far)

Proxmox (Linux host + Windows guest)

What I’ve already ruled out

ISP / routing issues

IPv6, VPNs

Peripherals

GPU drivers (many versions)

BIOS defaults vs tweaked

C-states, SpeedShift, ASPM, turbo on/off

HPET on/off

Timer tools (ISLC, timer resolution tools)

MSI vs legacy interrupts

DPC latency problems

Current suspicion

This feels like a clock / timing coherence issue, possibly involving:

TSC / QPC instability

Power management affecting clock determinism

Display pipeline buffering (DWM / scanout timing)

Scheduler / compositor behavior

The fact that Fedora + gamescope improves consistency suggests Windows display & timing layers may be amplifying an underlying platform problem.

I’m not looking for generic tweaks or reinstall advice — I’m trying to understand why client timing is consistently late and how to force deterministic timing / scanout.

Any insight from people familiar with:

input lag vs scanout lag

frame pacing vs simulation timing

OS clock behavior

display pipeline latency

would be hugely appreciated.

All of this is due to the graphics card driver.

[Rezurrect]

Hi,

I’m looking for help diagnosing a long-standing timing / latency issue that I’ve experienced across many different PCs, laptops, operating systems, GPUs, and ISPs.

This is not traditional lag:

Ping is consistently low (10–15 ms)

No packet loss or jitter

High FPS and stable frametimes

Issue is consistent offline vs bots as well

Yet gameplay feels temporally delayed, as if my client simulation is behind the server or behind reality.

Symptoms:

In games like Rocket League, Fortnite, Roblox, Rivals:

Opponents reach the ball first even when I’m visibly closer

I get demo’d / hit after I’ve already jumped or moved

50/50s feel unwinnable

Issue persists even vs bots (e.g. Nexto in Rocket League)

App cold starts on Windows (Explorer, Chrome, Discord) consistently take 5–10 seconds even on fast NVMe systems

Gameplay never feels “correct” or aligned

Critical observations:

Playing remotely on a friend’s PC (remote control / screen share) feels correct and responsive

Cloud gaming does not fix it

One older HP EliteBook laptop worked perfectly

Fedora Linux improves the issue noticeably (especially with gamescope), but does not fully eliminate it

Proxmox + Windows VM did not fix it

Moving the same SSD:

Works fine in a laptop

Immediately has the issue in my desktop

Works fine again when returned to the laptop

This strongly suggests a platform-level timing issue, not OS corruption.

Hardware / OS scope

My Current PC Specs: I5-12400F, 32GB DDR5 4800, AsRock H610M-HDV/M.2, Corsair RM750e, Samsung 980 NVMe, RX 9060XT 8GB.

Tested across:

CPUs: Intel i5-12400F, i9-12900F multiple laptop CPUs

GPUs: RX 580, RTX 2070 Super, RTX 3080, RX 5700 XT, RX 9060 XT

Motherboards: Gigabyte B550, ASUS B760M, ASRock H610M

RAM: DDR4 & DDR5

Storage: multiple NVMe & SATA SSDs

PSUs: Corsair RM750e, CV550

Monitors: Alienware AW2521HF (240 Hz), BenQ Zowie

Ethernet only, multiple NICs, 8+ ISPs

OS tested:

Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Server 2022, LTSC

Custom / stripped Windows ISOs

Fedora Linux (best so far)

Proxmox (Linux host + Windows guest)

What I’ve already ruled out

ISP / routing issues

IPv6, VPNs

Peripherals

GPU drivers (many versions)

BIOS defaults vs tweaked

C-states, SpeedShift, ASPM, turbo on/off

HPET on/off

Timer tools (ISLC, timer resolution tools)

MSI vs legacy interrupts

DPC latency problems

Current suspicion

This feels like a clock / timing coherence issue, possibly involving:

TSC / QPC instability

Power management affecting clock determinism

Display pipeline buffering (DWM / scanout timing)

Scheduler / compositor behavior

The fact that Fedora + gamescope improves consistency suggests Windows display & timing layers may be amplifying an underlying platform problem.

I’m not looking for generic tweaks or reinstall advice — I’m trying to understand why client timing is consistently late and how to force deterministic timing / scanout.

Any insight from people familiar with:

input lag vs scanout lag

frame pacing vs simulation timing

OS clock behavior

display pipeline latency

would be hugely appreciated.

All of this is due to the graphics card driver.

Hello, thank you for your response.

I've tried multiple GPU driver versions, including searching up multiple best stable driver versions for both AMD and Nvidia GPUs when I've had either one, and nothing fixed it.

[Sandy]

Hi,

I’m looking for help diagnosing a long-standing timing / latency issue that I’ve experienced across many different PCs, laptops, operating systems, GPUs, and ISPs.

This is not traditional lag:

Ping is consistently low (10–15 ms)

No packet loss or jitter

High FPS and stable frametimes

Issue is consistent offline vs bots as well

Yet gameplay feels temporally delayed, as if my client simulation is behind the server or behind reality.

Symptoms:

In games like Rocket League, Fortnite, Roblox, Rivals:

Opponents reach the ball first even when I’m visibly closer

I get demo’d / hit after I’ve already jumped or moved

50/50s feel unwinnable

Issue persists even vs bots (e.g. Nexto in Rocket League)

App cold starts on Windows (Explorer, Chrome, Discord) consistently take 5–10 seconds even on fast NVMe systems

Gameplay never feels “correct” or aligned

Critical observations:

Playing remotely on a friend’s PC (remote control / screen share) feels correct and responsive

Cloud gaming does not fix it

One older HP EliteBook laptop worked perfectly

Fedora Linux improves the issue noticeably (especially with gamescope), but does not fully eliminate it

Proxmox + Windows VM did not fix it

Moving the same SSD:

Works fine in a laptop

Immediately has the issue in my desktop

Works fine again when returned to the laptop

This strongly suggests a platform-level timing issue, not OS corruption.

Hardware / OS scope

My Current PC Specs: I5-12400F, 32GB DDR5 4800, AsRock H610M-HDV/M.2, Corsair RM750e, Samsung 980 NVMe, RX 9060XT 8GB.

Tested across:

CPUs: Intel i5-12400F, i9-12900F multiple laptop CPUs

GPUs: RX 580, RTX 2070 Super, RTX 3080, RX 5700 XT, RX 9060 XT

Motherboards: Gigabyte B550, ASUS B760M, ASRock H610M

RAM: DDR4 & DDR5

Storage: multiple NVMe & SATA SSDs

PSUs: Corsair RM750e, CV550

Monitors: Alienware AW2521HF (240 Hz), BenQ Zowie

Ethernet only, multiple NICs, 8+ ISPs

OS tested:

Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Server 2022, LTSC

Custom / stripped Windows ISOs

Fedora Linux (best so far)

Proxmox (Linux host + Windows guest)

What I’ve already ruled out

ISP / routing issues

IPv6, VPNs

Peripherals

GPU drivers (many versions)

BIOS defaults vs tweaked

C-states, SpeedShift, ASPM, turbo on/off

HPET on/off

Timer tools (ISLC, timer resolution tools)

MSI vs legacy interrupts

DPC latency problems

Current suspicion

This feels like a clock / timing coherence issue, possibly involving:

TSC / QPC instability

Power management affecting clock determinism

Display pipeline buffering (DWM / scanout timing)

Scheduler / compositor behavior

The fact that Fedora + gamescope improves consistency suggests Windows display & timing layers may be amplifying an underlying platform problem.

I’m not looking for generic tweaks or reinstall advice — I’m trying to understand why client timing is consistently late and how to force deterministic timing / scanout.

Any insight from people familiar with:

input lag vs scanout lag

frame pacing vs simulation timing

OS clock behavior

display pipeline latency

would be hugely appreciated.

All of this is due to the graphics card driver.

Hello, thank you for your response.

I've tried multiple GPU driver versions, including searching up multiple best stable driver versions for both AMD and Nvidia GPUs when I've had either one, and nothing fixed it.

The origin of all these problems can be traced back to the time Intel released dual-core processors. Since then, operating systems have introduced a new slicing mechanism. Explaining this issue in detail would be too complex.
In short, don't waste your time elsewhere. Try using a 3060 graphics card with driver version 552.22. You can try this combination; some old-school gamers who experience no input lag recommended this perfect graphics card and driver combination to me (it must be a 3060, not a 3060Ti). However, brand new 3060 graphics cards are no longer available; only used ones can be found on the market. The good news is that Nvidia is preparing to restart production of the 3060.