What is NVIDIA Low Latency Mode & How to enable it?

The NVIDIA low latency mode is a new feature presented by NVIDIA’s graphics driver, intended for competitive gamers and anyone else who wants the fastest input answer in their games. The NVIDIA low latency mode feature would be open for all NVIDIA GeForce GPUs in the NVIDIA Control Panel.

The Graphic engines queue frames to be rendered by the GPU, the GPU renders them, and then they are presented on your system. Also, NVIDIA has complained that the NVIDIA low latency mode builds on the Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames feature found in the NVIDIA Control Panel for over several years. So, the NVIDIA Control Panel low latency mode enables you to keep the number of frames in the render queue down.

With the NVIDIA low latency mode, frames are submitted into the render queue just before the GPU needs them. Besides, NVIDIA says that it will further reduce latency by up to 33% over only using the Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames option.

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What Is NVIDIA Low Latency Mode?

Graphics engines queue frames to be rendered by the GPU, the GPU renders them, and then they’re presented on your PC. As NVIDIA reveals, this feature builds on the Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames feature that’s been found in the NVIDIA Control Panel for over a decade. That enabled you to keep the number of frames in the render queue down.

With the Ultra-Low Latency mode, frames are submitted into the render queue just before the GPU needs them. This is just in time frame scheduling, as NVIDIA terms it. NVIDIA says it will “further [reduce] latency by up to 33%” over just utilizing the Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames option.

This works with all GPUs. However, it only runs with DirectX 9 and DirectX 11 games. In DirectX 12 and Vulkan games, “the game decides when to queue the frame,” and the NVIDIA graphics drivers have no control over this.

Here’s when NVIDIA states you might want to use this setting:

“Low Latency modes have the most impact when your game is GPU bound, and framerates are between 60 and 100 FPS, allowing you to get the responsiveness of high-frame-rate gaming without having to decrease graphical fidelity. “

In other terms, if a game is CPU bound (limited by your CPU resources instead of your GPU) or you have very high or very low FPS, this won’t help too much. If you have input latency in games—mouse lag, for example—that’s often only a result of low frames per second (FPS), this setting won’t solve that problem.

Warning: This will potentially reduce your FPS. This mode is off by default, which NVIDIA states lead to maximum render throughput. For most people, most of the time, that’s a great option. But, for competitive multiplayer gaming, you’ll want all the little edges you can get—and that includes lower latency.

How to Enable Ultra-Low Latency Mode

You’ll require version 436.02 or newer of the NVIDIA graphics driver to take advantage of this. You can update your graphics driver through the GeForce Experience application or download the latest graphics driver direct from NVIDIA’s website.

Once you have, launch the NVIDIA Control Panel. To do so, right-click your Windows desktop and choose NVIDIA Control Panel.

• Hit on Manage 3D Settings under 3D Settings in the left sidebar.
• Choose how you want to enable Ultra-Low Latency Mode. To enable it for all games on your system, select “Global Settings.” To enable it for one or more specific games, like “Program Settings,” and choose the game you want to allow it for.
• Find Low Latency Mode in the record of settings. Click the setting box to the right of the environment and select “Ultra” in the list.
• With the default settings off, the game’s engine will queue one to three frames at a point. The On setting will force the game to only queue a single frame, which is equal to setting Max_Prerendered_Frames to 1 in older NVIDIA drivers. The Ultra setting submits the frame just in point for the GPU to choose it up—there will be no frame sitting in the queue and waiting.
• Click the “Apply” button to save your settings. You can now close the NVIDIA Control Panel.
• Remember, as we pointed out above, this option can hurt performance in many situations! We recommend enabling it only for specific games and testing your settings to see how well it works.
• If you need to undo your changes and use the NVIDIA graphics driver’s default settings, return here and click the “Restore” button.

NVIDIA Low Latency Mode not showing up

If you’re faced with this issue, you can try the suggestions outlined below and see if that helps resolve the issue.

1. Check your hardware
2. Update NVIDIA graphics driver
3. Rollback NVIDIA graphics driver
4. Use NVIDIA Inspector

Let’s take a look at the description of the method involved concerning each of the listed solutions.

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