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

Nvidia offers a low latency feature intended for competitive gamers and those who want the fastest input response times in their games.

In competitive games, every delay makes a difference, and a few milliseconds of lag difference can lead you to defeat. Nvidia’s low latency helps you as a user by squeezing out the best performance with the lowest system latency. But the mode is off by default, which confused users. Should they use the Nvidia low latency mode?

However, the low latency mode feature was intended to offer players faster game input response. 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 claimed that the NVIDIA low latency feature has been built on the Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames feature found in the NVIDIA Control Panel for over several years. But low latency mode further reduces the latency by up to 33% over only using the Maximum pre-rendered frames option. Lets discuss how to enable this mode.

What Is NVIDIA Low Latency Mode?

Graphics engines queue frames to be given 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: Keep in mind that low latency will potentially reduce your FPS in competitive multiplayer game.

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.

Related Post: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 vs 3080

Other Ways to Optimize Game Latency

If you really want to reduce lag as much as possible, then there are some other steps you can take to optimize latency. The main thing is to target each part of the system latency, includes optimizing:

1) Optimize Peripheral Latency

Peripheral latency concerns to optimizing peripherals such as mouse and keyboard. Various aspects influence the processing time of these devices like click detection, device polling rate etc. here are the steps to optimize your mouse & keyboard:

• Make the most of your device’s polling rate.

• The rate will decide how often your PC asks the peripheral for information. The higher the polling rate, the faster the devices can carry out the clicks to your PC.

So always use lower-latency peripheral devices. Hence, these peripherals range from one to 20 milliseconds of latency. Though, keep in mind that latency shouldn’t be the deciding aspect for Purchasing Gaming Mouse. You must also consider the weight, wireless support, a style that suits you and the maximum polling rate.

2) Optimize PC latency

PC latency most probably contributes to the overall system latency. As such, it’s significant for a smooth game operation. Nvidia low latency mode is used to optimize just this latency. But allowing the low latency mode isn’t the key step to help with game lagging. You can also apply the following ways:

·         Turn off V-Sync

However, turning off V-sync is the oldest way of optimizing latency. Vsync causes frame queuing and enhance latency. But this mode also avoids screen tearing, so keep remember when selecting your gaming priorities.

·         Turn On Windows Game Mode

You can enable windows game mode; it will help PC prioritize processes linked with your game. Therefore, the CPU will stay focused on replicate the game & collecting your inputs, thus decreasing latency. Here is how to enable windows game mode.

• First, hit the windows Start button, and then choose settings.
• Second, select gaming> Game mode.
• Toggle on Game mode.

·         Turn on NVIDIA Reflex Mode

This is another feature of Nvidia that is more advanced and fixes the delay in a game. While playing competitive multiplayer games, users face system delay, which is the delay between mouse or keyboard actions. Nvidia Reflex Mode will improve your gaming experience & lower system latency by up to 80% in the game.

If you want more responsive gameplay, then you must enable it. The reflex purpose is to give you the edge in competitive multiplayer FPS games like Fortnite, call of duty, and Volarant.

However, Nvidia Reflex decreases the delay in a game with mid-range GPU cards; one can expect up to 33% improvements. And if you use a high-end GPU and a gaming monitor with a refresh rate of up to 360 Hz, Users can anticipate up to 80% latency. Hence, it is proven to be the better & best option for competitive games.

3) Optimize Display Latency

A display lag can relentlessly disrupt your gaming. Fortunately, these problems can be avoided by optimizing your display latency. Here’s how you can do it.

·         Allows the Maximum Refresh Rate

The higher the refresh rate, the lesser the risk of a display scans out lag. Consider investing in a new monitor if your current display doesn’t hold a high refresh rate.

·         Use a Fair Amount of Overdrive

Using some overdrive will help you in improving the pixel response time. You must start at the first level, the default setting for most monitors. Be cautious about increasing this amount since too much overdrive can make highly distracting effects on your display

What To Do: NVIDIA Low Latency Mode Not Showing Up

If you are struggling in finding the Nvidia low latency mode you can try the suggestions given below and see if that helps resolve the issue. [If you are facing issues in NVIDIA control panel, Read How to Fix Nvidia Control Panel Missing Issues on Windows]

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.

Feature of NVIDIA: The Reflex Mode

This is another feature of Nvidia that is more advanced and fixes the delay in a game by up to 80%. While playing competitive multiplayer games, users face system delay, which is the delay between mouse or keyboard actions. Nvidia Reflex decreases the delay in a game with mid-range GPU cards; one can expect up to 33% improvements. And if you use a high-end GPU and a gaming monitor with a refresh rate of up to 360 Hz, Users can anticipate up to 80% latency. 

Top 20 – NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency Games

Now, there are CS: GO-shaped holes in the roster, but with the new additions being Deathloop, Call of Duty, and others. So let’s move to the list of Nividia low latency games.

NVIDIA Reflex Supported Graphics Cards

The green teams low latency tech made its debut next to the RTX 3000 series back in September 2020. But its also well-matched with Nividia;s legacy lineup. Thus, Nvidia reflex functions with a range of various GPUs, such as GTX 900 series graphic cards.

1. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 900 Series
2. Then, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1000 Series
3. Next, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1600 Series
4. And, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 2000 Series
5. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 3000 Series

FAQs

Conclusion

NVIDIA is the GPU inventor, which creates interactive and amazing graphics on your workstations, devices, laptops, and more. Another side, the low latency mode is the new feature of NVIDIA’s graphic driver that is utilize by competitive gamers. Who wants the fastest processor for gaming. I hope the above guidelines will be helpful for you. Because they describe what NVIDIA’s low latency is. And how to enable ultra-low latency mode, which is necessary to know before your gaming system conversion.