NVIDIA’s latency-reducing tech comes to ‘Overwatch’

If you play Overwatch on PC frequently, there’s a good chance you’ve disabled settings like v-sync and triple buffering to reduce system input lag as much as possible. And if you still feel like you’re missing shots, additional help is on the way. Starting today, NVIDIA’s latency-reducing Reflex technology is available on Overwatch’s PTR, allowing those with relatively recent NVIDIA GPUs to check out the feature before it makes its way to the game’s official release.

Reflex works by limiting the number of frames your GPU queues up in select scenes, thereby reducing the work your CPU needs to do. With the feature enabled, NVIDIA claims you’ll see as much as a 50 percent reduction in system latency, which should help make the game feel more responsive. As you can see from the graph below, the effect is most noticeable on older and more affordable GPUs like the GTX 1660 Super. However, even NVIDIA’s latest flagship gets a bump, though whether you’ll be able to perceive the difference between 26ms and 16ms in latency is a separate question.

Provided you own a GTX 900 series GPU or later, you can try out Reflex in Overwatch by downloading the latest GeForce Game Ready Driver from NVIDIA, switching over to the PTR client and enabling the feature in the game’s display settings.