I've been exclusively gaming on consoles for the past couple of years, diving into competitive titles like Battlefield where I felt I had decent skills. Recently, I played DayZ on both my PS5 and Xbox for about a year without noticing any input lag. However, I decided to turn off V-Sync to check the effects, and I was amazed at how much sharper my input became—it's now so fast and feels great! The issue now is that I'm seeing significant input lag in other shooter games because consoles tend to have V-Sync forced on, which I can't turn off in competitive games. My skill in those games has really taken a hit. I'm using a Full HD 60Hz monitor that doesn't support VRR. If I upgrade to a 180Hz 2K monitor with HDMI 2.0 that does support VRR, will that help reduce my input lag? Will it be significantly lower, like by a factor of three, just because of the higher refresh rate? How does this all work?
2 Answers
You're right to notice the difference after turning off V-Sync! If you manage to get to 120fps+ on PC, you'd really see a step up. Now, about that 180Hz 2K monitor: VRR can help, but keep in mind the PS5 doesn't typically support VRR on most HDMI 2.0 monitors. That said, jumping from 60fps to 180fps could indeed reduce latency related to frame timing down to a third, but don't forget there are other lag sources involved. Also, consoles are pretty limited and a lot of titles won't even hit 180fps, so it might not be as drastic as you’re hoping for.
It’s true, the PS5 caps out at 60fps for a lot of games, so you're right there. If you're comfortable playing at 60fps, that’s perfectly fine since most console games are optimized for that. Just remember that V-Sync does link closely with your monitor's refresh rate. If you can disable it on PC though, you'll have way better input responsiveness, but that’s just not an option on consoles.
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