Shaving a bit could improve your gaming performance.
Shaving a bit could improve your gaming performance.
I’m focusing on FFXIV lately and considering ways to fine-tune my setup. Right now I’m running on an i7-6700K with 980Ti, playing in a windowed mode at around 1440p and 60fps with close to 144Hz VSync. I notice some lag in my gameplay, which makes me think adjustments could help. I’m thinking about switching to a 144Hz 1080p monitor I bought for testing. I wasn’t sure it would make a difference before, but I’ll try it out. I might need to lower some graphics settings to keep up at 144Hz. My monitor doesn’t support adaptive sync, so changing to 144Hz would cut the refresh cycle from about 16.7ms down to under 7ms—potentially a 10ms boost. The new screen should also react faster. I’ve read about tweaks for quicker response times without blur, but haven’t tried it yet. Regarding the keyboard, I’m using a mechanical Logitech model with a rubber membrane; it feels comfortable for typing. I’m curious if a faster mechanical could improve things, though the Corsair description suggests only a small improvement. My usual network latency is around 45ms, so moving closer to the data center isn’t really an option right now.
On an mmo game? No that's probably your ISP. You can quickly test by lowering the settings. Your ISP seems to be nice but remember that lag might not come only from your side but the server itself might not be fast enough or having some other sort of sync issues. Overall I would never trust an MMO to measure my latency try something like CS:GO and see if you notice the same input lag there instead that's far better suited to diagnose such things.
I'll attempt the 144 Hz monitor still, as I already own it. The latency is checked outside of the game, making it a sensible metric. I don't play CS:GO; I'm really bad at that genre and can die before even starting. Oh, I must have misread the keyboard. I was thinking about Cherry MX Speed switches, which reduce actuation distance by about 1mm compared to standard switches. I don't understand how that affects timing.
In deeper studies, keyboards may vary in polling rates from a typical 125Hz to 1000Hz on certain gaming models. This could reduce maximum latency from 8ms to 1ms, ignoring mechanical differences. I don’t know the specs of my current gaming keyboard, but it seems unlikely to be among the top options since there are no available choices.
FFXIV player here who's from Europe on US server. I game mostly on 4700HQ and 850m, my gf on R9 280 with 4460, both on 60 Hz displays. Since we're from Europe, we have slightly higher latency which can be seen when for instance when we use NIN mudras. Anyone from US can do them noticeably faster. We mostly game on a 10Mb connection via ethernet with 33 ms ping on Speetest, but we don't get hit by weird stuff 90% of the time. Naturally it happens, but it happens even to US players. Same thing when we game on 25 Mb connection with 6ms. The only things that happen more often are 90k but you know, more connection points. Pretty much the same scenario for our rl friends on the same server. No issues whatsoever. What I can suggest is trying a program like WTFast and see if anything will improve, and testing your connection in general. I know I know, many will say it's snake oil (and it is in most cases), but I have seen it help people, like our raid PLD who was from Philippines at the time. It was the only way for him to play. Literally. Don't expect much, just as a general way to test a part of your connection. So will swapping to 144Hz help? I highly doubt it. To me from experience it looks like latency issue. What server are you on? And I hope you play via cable.
I'm on Phoenix so one of the EU ones. My connection is 75 down, not a lot up, connected over ethernet (not wifi). I'm queueing for a dungeon right now. If I use Resource Monitor I'm seeing variations between 30 to 70ms. If I use ping I see low 30's only. Not sure about the difference there, unless it is something to do with protocol priority? Not heard of WTFast before, but as they offer a trial I have little to lose in trying it, other than some time to set up. The 144Hz thing, again I've got nothing to lose apart from a little setup time. I have the monitor already but not using it for gaming (yet).
It's a tool that identifies the best path for your shipments, similar to pingzapper. It offers a 30-day test period, which is why I suggested it. For setup, you simply check all servers and choose the one with the lowest latency. It's actually strange to see those hitboxes pop up. Of course, you're wondering about the context behind it.