Blur Busters Forums

chipotlechicken wrote: ↑

12 Oct 2026, 00:24

If you dont have the latest GPU then you will not be able to play competitive shooters. Why?

Let's take valorant for example. I have a 3090 and I've had mostly 30 series gpus for the past couple of years. Back when I had a shittier GPU in an ALIENWARE PC (3060) I hit imm 3 in valorant, when i was new to the game. I had no gamesense, or past in shooters. I actually just started gaming cause covid was around that time.

At that time I always used nvidia reflex, on and on plus boost. It didnt matter the game was playable.

Some time later the game stopped being as playable, and I kept tweaking things cause i was greedy. I knew that the alienware PC time of my life could've been better, but I didn't appreciate that it was at least playable and I achieved a high rank.

So it went from playable and high rank and then slowly degressed to, completely unplayable and even though im a better player now im stuck in lower elo. (im like hardstuck ascendant)

The game has never felt as good as it did back during the day, and after messing with my 3090 drivers and rolling back to older ones, I saw smoother performance.

But opening valorant told me to update my drivers as it wont work with D3D11. D3D11 is the same engine they used even when the 30 series came out. But why would I need to update to latest drivers?

I'm convinced after messing around that it has to do with drivers, specifically REFLEX.

My theory is every time that a new GPU comes out, 40 series or 50 series, valorant and other competitive shooters optimize their game to feel good on the NEWER gpus.

So basically you can only use Nvidia reflex on the latest gpus. Or else your game will stutter or feel kinda better but still way worse than your competition.

There's a reason why pros always use the latest graphics cards. You can't even play without it

Erling1 wrote: ↑

Yesterday, 14:52

chipotlechicken wrote: ↑

12 Oct 2026, 00:24

If you dont have the latest GPU then you will not be able to play competitive shooters. Why?

Let's take valorant for example. I have a 3090 and I've had mostly 30 series gpus for the past couple of years. Back when I had a shittier GPU in an ALIENWARE PC (3060) I hit imm 3 in valorant, when i was new to the game. I had no gamesense, or past in shooters. I actually just started gaming cause covid was around that time.

At that time I always used nvidia reflex, on and on plus boost. It didnt matter the game was playable.

Some time later the game stopped being as playable, and I kept tweaking things cause i was greedy. I knew that the alienware PC time of my life could've been better, but I didn't appreciate that it was at least playable and I achieved a high rank.

So it went from playable and high rank and then slowly degressed to, completely unplayable and even though im a better player now im stuck in lower elo. (im like hardstuck ascendant)

The game has never felt as good as it did back during the day, and after messing with my 3090 drivers and rolling back to older ones, I saw smoother performance.

But opening valorant told me to update my drivers as it wont work with D3D11. D3D11 is the same engine they used even when the 30 series came out. But why would I need to update to latest drivers?

I'm convinced after messing around that it has to do with drivers, specifically REFLEX.

My theory is every time that a new GPU comes out, 40 series or 50 series, valorant and other competitive shooters optimize their game to feel good on the NEWER gpus.

So basically you can only use Nvidia reflex on the latest gpus. Or else your game will stutter or feel kinda better but still way worse than your competition.

There's a reason why pros always use the latest graphics cards. You can't even play without it

Hello, I don't think the graphics card is the main culprit here.

There are days when everything feels perfect and I maintain a 1.4–1.5 KD across all my matches, but then it suddenly drops to 0.8 KD and bullets feel like they're passing right through opponents. Having played for 20 years and peaking at 500 RR, I am extremely sensitive to these minor details that get in the way at times, even though my mouse control itself feels spot-on.

There's a streamer with an RTX 3060 and a 70 ms ping who reached Radiant, and his game runs super smooth—though he has since moved and now has different specs and latency. I've rewired the electrical system in my house, swapped mice, and ordered an AOC 300Hz monitor to replace my Samsung Odyssey G4 240Hz, which I'm currently waiting on. I'll definitely keep testing other options