What NVIDIA Reflex changes

Ever feel like your shots land a beat late? That’s what NVIDIA Reflex is for. It’s a setting in the graphics menu of games that support it. Normally, the CPU finishes work and that work waits in a queue while the GPU is still busy. Reflex holds the CPU until the GPU can take the next frame, so the click inside that frame is a fresher one. Your frame rate is how many pictures the machine finishes in a second. A higher rate shortens the time each picture gets, but Reflex leaves the picture count alone.

I play Zarya in Overwatch on a desktop RTX 5080 + AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2, on a 1080p 240 Hz panel, 1200 DPI, in-game sens 3.5, FOV 103. More on the Zarya guide and the tools page. All latency figures here come from NVIDIA. More guides.

The counter reads that finish rate, including the spikes. It does not time the path from the mouse button to the pixel. A 1% low is the slow tail of the same capture. Neither number is Reflex.

What the menu shows

What the game menu showsNo Reflex lineOnOn + Boost

There is no Reflex line in this game. The driver fallback is Ultra Low Latency, under Manage 3D Settings. It does less than the switch inside a game that lists one.

Read the menu before you open the driver. A game that lists the line is where the setting lives. A game without the line cannot be given the in-game version from a control panel. Overwatch is on NVIDIA’s Reflex-compatible list. Open the video menu and read it.

The parts of Reflex

• The card I actually play on: GeForce RTX 5080. Official: Blackwell, 10,752 CUDA cores, 16 GB GDDR7, Reflex 2 Low Latency Mode, Frame Warp marked Coming Soon. More on my RTX 5080 PC.
• A game that lists the line: Overwatch, on the same supported-products table. World of Warcraft is on that table too. The menu is still the test.
• A measurement display Worth a look: ASUS ROG Swift 360Hz PG27AQN, 27” 1440p 360 Hz, on NVIDIA’s Reflex Analyzer monitor list. The On switch does not ask for that panel.

The short version: set On when the game lists it. Boost is extra power. The Analyzer is a ruler, not the switch.

The queue

NVIDIA’s introduction of Reflex, published with the GeForce RTX 30 series in 2020, describes the backup this way. The CPU prepares frames faster than the GPU can draw them. The queue fills. The picture on screen is an older click. The SDK, which the game has to include, delays that work so it arrives just in time for the GPU.

That wait is render latency. NVIDIA splits the rest of the path into pieces you should not mash together. Peripheral latency is the mouse. Game latency is the CPU simulating the world and submitting a frame. PC latency is game plus render. Display latency is scanout, processing, and the pixel’s own change. System latency, also called click-to-display, is the whole trip. Reflex’s On line works on the render queue and the CPU back-pressure behind it. It is not a new polling rate, and it is not a new Hertz.

When the GPU is the limit, the queue is the long wait. When the CPU is the limit, the GPU is already waiting, so On by itself has less queue to cut. NVIDIA says competitive shooters swing between those two states in one match. An explosion with a lot of particles can fill the queue. A quieter moment can leave the GPU underused. On is for the first case. Boost is NVIDIA’s extra for the second.

FPS is not that wait

NVIDIA’s 2020 post is blunt about the two numbers. FPS is how many pictures the display can be offered in a second. System latency is how long your action takes to show up in one of those pictures. A machine that finishes 1,000 frames a second and still takes a second to show the click would feel late. A machine that shows the click instantly at 5 FPS would feel broken in a different way.

Higher FPS often travels with lower latency, because each frame is allowed less time. The relationship is not one-to-one. NVIDIA Research, cited on that same page, measured aiming-task completion on a 12 ms setup versus a 20 ms setup and printed a 182 ms gap in how long people took to acquire and shoot. That is NVIDIA’s lab, not my Zarya VODs.

Peeker’s advantage is the other place this wait shows up. NVIDIA says the attacker who comes around a corner can see you before you see them, and that system latency adds to the network delay. A lower click-to-display time does not delete ping. It shortens the part of the wait that never left your room.

On, and On + Boost

The menu usually offers Off, On, and On + Boost. On is the just-in-time handoff. Boost is a second behavior.

NVIDIA’s 2020 post says Low Latency Boost overrides the GPU’s power saving so the clocks stay high when the game is limited by the CPU. Longer draws still add latency even then. Holding the clocks can use significantly more power. The post says you can leave Boost off if you do not want that trade. The same article compares the idea to the control-panel choice Prefer maximum performance.

I would set On in Overwatch and play the same moment. I would leave Boost off on the 5080 unless the scene is obviously CPU-bound, the fans are already quiet, and I accept the extra watts. Accuracy is aim and the fight. Reflex is the queue.

A laptop that lists the same line still wants the charger. Boost on battery is more heat on a chassis that cannot open. That is a different computer than the tower.

Which cards, and which games

NVIDIA’s supported-products page says Reflex Low Latency mode runs on GeForce 900 Series GPUs and newer, with a footnote that Rainbow Six Siege needs a GeForce 10 Series or newer. The 2020 post says the SDK goes back to 2014’s GTX 900 cards. The menu is still the test. A card older than that floor has no working line to turn on. A card inside the floor still needs a game that included the SDK.

NVIDIA’s later game posts put the count above 150 titles, with Overwatch, Fortnite, and World of Warcraft on the table I opened. Official product facts only.

If the line is supposed to be there and it is missing, update the Game Ready Driver once. A current driver is the check. A missing line after that stays missing.

The Analyzer is a ruler

The Reflex Latency Analyzer is a different piece. NVIDIA’s 2020 post describes it as a measurement built into certain G-SYNC displays, paired with a compatible mouse, that times a click until the pixels change. You plug the mouse into a marked USB port on the display. The port is a passthrough. NVIDIA says any mouse can report PC + Display latency that way, except Bluetooth. A mouse on the compatible list can add peripheral latency and give the full system number.

I use a Logitech PRO 2 LIGHTSPEED at 1200 DPI for Overwatch. The Reflex Analyzer supports certain mice; the PRO 2 isn’t one of them. I

The On line does not ask for that display or that mouse. The Analyzer reports a number. The line changes the queue. Monitor input lag is the panel’s own wait after the PC has sent a frame. Do not add those waits into one score.

Frame Warp is still a later switch

NVIDIA’s Reflex page still marks Frame Warp as coming soon. The January 2025 Reflex 2 post describes it as a later step on top of Low Latency mode. The CPU samples a newer camera position from the mouse. The frame the GPU just drew is shifted to that camera just before it goes to the display. Holes that the warp opens are filled with a predictive in-paint. That is a change to the frame already rendered.

NVIDIA’s latency figures for that post: original Reflex cut PC latency in top competitive games by an average of 50%. Reflex 2, Low Latency plus Frame Warp, is claimed at up to 75%. In THE FINALS on an RTX 5070 at 4K max, NVIDIA printed 56 ms without the stack, 27 ms with Reflex Low Latency, and 14 ms with Reflex 2. In VALORANT on an RTX 5090 at 800+ FPS, NVIDIA printed under 3 ms with Frame Warp. Those are NVIDIA’s scenes, NVIDIA’s cards, NVIDIA’s numbers. I don’t play those two titles, so I can’t vouch for those numbers in Overwatch.

The same post says Reflex 2 debuts first on GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs, with other GeForce RTX cards later. The 5080 page agrees: Low Latency Mode is listed, Frame Warp is coming soon. Until a game I play shows Frame Warp as its own line, the setting in front of me is On or On + Boost.

Related settings that are not Reflex

VSync holds a finished frame until the monitor starts its next trip. NVIDIA’s latency guide says to turn VSync off if you will accept a tear, because the wait pushes back through the queue. VRR / G-SYNC lets the panel wait for a late frame instead. For G-SYNC users who do not want a tear, that same guide says G-SYNC + VSync + Reflex (or Ultra Low Latency Mode) will cap the frame rate below refresh for you, so VSync does not refill the queue. NVIDIA also says that combo is slightly higher latency than uncapped Reflex with tearing allowed.

A cap you type yourself is still the other line. Use the game’s limit if it has one. Reflex is not a cap unless that G-SYNC recipe is already doing the cap for you. Two extra limiters fight.

NVIDIA also wants exclusive fullscreen. The compositor in borderless windowed mode adds a step. Game Mode in Windows is the OS-side priority they list. Raising the panel to its real Hertz shortens scanout. None of those switches is the Reflex line. Change one thing, then play the same moment.

How to increase FPS is the picture-count page. Lower shadows and turn an upscaler on there if the GPU is the limit. Reflex does not replace that work. NVIDIA’s 2020 post says that with Reflex you can raise settings and resolution without the queue growing by the same amount. Latency then follows the raw GPU draw time. That is NVIDIA’s claim. Watch the counter anyway.

What Reflex is not

It is not a special monitor. The Analyzer is optional measurement.

It is not more frames. If the average moves, it moved as a side effect. Keep the setting for the click.

It is not ping. Network latency is the trip to the server. Rubber-banding and desync are packet problems. NVIDIA separates those on the 2020 page.

It is not a new DPI. NVIDIA’s latency guide says sensitivity does not significantly change mouse latency, and that higher DPI is not lower latency.

It is not Frame Warp until the game prints that name.

It is not a number I measured on Zarya.

What to set

• If the line is there, set it to On and play the same moment.
• Set On + Boost when the CPU is the limit, the charger is in, and you accept the extra power.
• If the line is missing after one driver update, the game does not include it.
• With no line, NVIDIA’s 2020 post says to open the NVIDIA Control Panel, Manage 3D Settings, Low Latency Mode, and choose Ultra. The in-game line takes over when a game has one.
• On a G-SYNC panel, the no-tear recipe is G-SYNC + VSync + Reflex. Uncapped Reflex is the lower-wait recipe if you will take the tear.

The click gets into a later frame when the queue was the wait. The number of frames is still the other setting, changed one at a time, in the same moment. More guides.

Common questions

What is NVIDIA Reflex?

It's a setting in supported games that lowers input lag by keeping the CPU from queuing up frames ahead of the GPU. Each frame then reflects your most recent input. It works on GeForce 900 Series cards and newer.

Should I turn on NVIDIA Reflex?

Yes, set it to On in any game that supports it. On + Boost keeps your GPU clocks high for slightly lower latency, but uses more power and creates more heat, so it's optional.

Does NVIDIA Reflex increase FPS?

No, not really. Reflex is about lowering input lag, not raising frame rate. Your FPS might change slightly, but the main benefit is that your clicks show up on screen sooner.

What if my game doesn't have NVIDIA Reflex?

Update your graphics driver first. If there's still no Reflex option, open the NVIDIA Control Panel, go to Manage 3D Settings, and set Low Latency Mode to Ultra for a similar effect.

Do I need a special monitor for NVIDIA Reflex?

No. Reflex works on any monitor. Only the Reflex Latency Analyzer, which measures your lag, needs a compatible G-SYNC monitor and mouse.

What does NVIDIA Reflex On + Boost do?

It does everything Reflex On does and also keeps your GPU clocks high even when the CPU is the bottleneck. That can shave off a little more latency, but it uses noticeably more power.

Which GPUs support NVIDIA Reflex?

GeForce 900 Series and newer. Some games, like Rainbow Six Siege, need a GeForce 10 Series or newer. The RTX 50 series, like the RTX 5080, also supports Reflex 2.

Can I use NVIDIA Reflex with G-SYNC and VSync?

Yes. With G-SYNC, VSync and Reflex all on, Reflex automatically caps your FPS just below your refresh rate for smooth, tear-free play with low lag. Uncapped Reflex without VSync is slightly faster but allows tearing.

Is NVIDIA Reflex the same as Ultra Low Latency Mode?

No. Ultra Low Latency Mode is a driver setting for games that don't support Reflex. Reflex is built into the game itself and works better. If a game has Reflex, use it instead.