When it comes to PC gaming, system latency has always been an inconvenient part of the interactive experience.
While many folks focus on FPS capability to gauge a PC’s performance, system latency is more critical to gaming. Because nothing is more devastating than lining up a headshot in your favorite shooter, pulling the trigger, only to miss due to circumstances out of your control. So let's break it all down.
Frames per second (FPS) measures a system’s throughput, which is its linear capability to display and move pixels. Latency affects a system’s responsiveness, which is the time it takes from when you make a physical move on your mouse, keyboard, or peripheral, to when it actually occurs on screen.
The Problem with Quantifying and Minimizing Latency
One reason FPS has been used as a yardstick for a PC’s graphics capabilities, is that it’s a handy unit of measure with a binary thesis: More frames per second is always better. Latency is a more nuanced and complicated beast and is harder to quantify and mitigate, but a gamer knows it when they see it, feel it, and ultimately, suffer for it.
NVIDIA’s Solution
With the release of the NVIDIA Reflex Platform, NVIDIA introduced a new SDK that enables developers to minimize system latency in graphics-intensive games.
For competitive games like Fortnite, Valorant, and Apex Legends that support the SDK, toggling on the NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency mode can provide better responsiveness, increase aiming precision, and provide you with a more updated and accurate location of your onscreen friends and enemies. Over 25 games have added NVIDIA Reflex including 12 of the top 15 shooters lowering system latency for a large portion of competitive games.
How it Works
In games, the CPU queues up work in a render queue, so the GPU has a constant stream of data to process. While this helps maximize frame rate, it also increases latency, as frames are virtually ‘waiting in line’ to be read and processed.
The NVIDIA Reflex SDK Low Latency mode shrinks the render queue substantially with better synchronization between the CPU and GPU, which helps minimize data bottlenecks. This mode also reduces the pressure on the CPU, which allows gamers to input commands and expect almost instantaneous response times.
In addition to helping your games and interface to operate faster, the Reflex SDK allows games to display on-screen metrics related to game and render latency in unobtrusive real-time charts. This data can help you monitor system performance; and identify and address any spots where you may encounter a spike in lag.
Addressing Full System Latency
While game and render latency are the go-to scapegoats for gameplay lag, each component in your system supplements a slow-down. Full system latency includes everything from your initial mouse clicks all the way through screen output.
In the past, measuring full system latency required a pricey high-speed camera, a specially modified mouse, and considerable technical expertise. NVIDIA has developed a much more practical and economical way to quantify these crucial inputs.
NVIDIA Reflex Analyzer
Compatible G-SYNC displays come with a new feature, the NVIDIA Reflex Analyzer. This tool enables gamers to measure their system responsiveness; allowing them to better grasp and tweak their PC’s performance before starting a match.
A dedicated Reflex Analyzer USB port on compatible G-SYNC displays allows you to simply plug in your mouse. The display’s Reflex USB port is a direct passthrough to the PC that records mouse clicks without adding any latency.
The Reflex Analyzer works by detecting the clicks coming from your mouse and measuring the time it takes for a resulting display pixel change (i.e. firing a gun) to happen on screen, providing you with a full system latency measurement. The analyzer breaks the system latency measurement up into mouse latency, PC + display latency, and system latency.
You can use any mouse with the Reflex Analyzer to get PC and display latency (except for Bluetooth mice), but with a compatible Reflex mouse, you can also measure peripheral latency and obtain full end-to-end system latency data.
Train Your Aim; Lower Your Latency
In addition to latency measurement tools, NVIDIA has partnered with the developers of KovaaK 2.0, The Meta, to drop a new NVIDIA Experiments mode which can help gamers improve performance by honing their skills.
Enter the NVIDIA Experiments mode from either the sandbox or the trainer and choose an experiment that interests you. NVIDIA Reflex SDK has also been integrated into KovaaK 2.0 to help gamers see and feel the nuances between high and low system latency.
For some extra fun, try the NVIDIA System Latency Challenge
NVIDIA is working with Kovaak’s 2.0 to simulate a challenge on different levels of system latency. For the first time anyone with a GeForce 900 series and above can instantly feel the difference between high and low system latency. NVIDIA will randomly pick winners who can walk away with a number of different prizes. Learn more here.
As a result of NVIDIA’s partnership with The Meta, a new experiments aims to determine the science behind target outline color choice—based on raging debates competitive gamers have about the matter on Valorant community forums.
A Last Word on Latency
System latency is the quantitative measurement of how ‘immediate’ your game’s response time feels and is a key factor that impacts your aiming precision in frenetic FPS matches. NVIDIA Reflex low latency gaming platform enables developers and players to optimize for system latency and provides the ability to easily measure and adjust key parameters.
