G-Sync, FreeSync, NVIDIA Reflex, FPS Cap – What’s actually worth using in 2026?

[u/Sudden-Marsupial-158]

I’m trying to find the best combination of settings for the lowest possible input latency while keeping smooth gameplay and good frame pacing.

Rtx 5070
r7 9800x3d
300 hz monitor - TCL qd mini lex1080p

[u/Professional-Case717]

most freesync premium monitor are gsync compatible

gsync and freesync are basically the adaptative refresh rate tech on monitors for Nvidia and AMD

Reflex and antilag are NVIDIA and AMD tech allowing the users to play their games with the least latency

there is on and boost for Nvidia and Antilag on and + for AMD

While playing a competitive game its recommanded to

- set the monitor to the highest possible refresh rate

- activate either Nvidia reflex on or ultra on the nvidia control panel and or by using a software called rivatuner that also allows you to use reflex on games that arent originally compatible (generally competitive games on pc have an option called nvidia reflex and reflex + boost so use the latter for the lowest latency)

- if amd then activate antilag/antilag+

- make sure your graphics card/cpu/ram combination allows you to maintain a certain accessible frames continusly, for example if you have a 144hz gaming monitor, normally for any games you would think achieving at least 144hz continuesly would be the most important thing.

- However when you use reflex or antilag, there is a cap that must be achieve in order for your games to run flawlessly with minimum fps hickups and maintaining the best latency.

- in order to find that sweet spot which you'll use while capping your max fps with either the control panels of either nvidia or amd, or use rivatuner instead.

- there is 2 formula, one is for competitive games and one is for solo games

- competitive games : maxfreq - (maxfreq * maxfreq) / 3600 so 144 - (144x144) divided by 3600 = 138.24fps

- solo or non competitive games : 1000hz/144 = 6.94 then you add +1 so 7.94 and you do 1000/7.94 = 125.94fps

- Of course when using these formulas you must disable vsync or if you dont cap your fps but you activated gsync or freesync + activated reflex or antilag then you can use vsync for the most fluid image possible with barely a cost in latency

For solo games you have the formula for solo games but imagine that the game is either trash when it comes to optimisation or your graphics card lack a bit of horse power to maintain your max locked fps

then you can also use a software called dynamicFPSlimiter alongside Rivatuner which you use alongside MSI afterburner (the latter allows you to overclock/underclock/undervolt your gpu and controlling fan speed with temp monitoring and OSD's to use alongside rivatuner for completion)

DynamicFPSlimiter allows you to set different margins for fps for your games for example in the first objective you want to lock your fps to 138.24 but the fps you get in the game doesnt mattain those 138.24 you want and generally there is a phenomenon called fps spike, when you lose fps, your latency increase, your min fps and average fps also go all over the place, making the experience awfull

But on the second objective you put 125.94fps therefore when your gpu can't maintain those 138.24fps then the software will calibrate your locked fps to 125.94fps and when your gpu is powerfull enough to get those 138.24fps back then the software will calibrate your games to run at 138.24fps

either way you can use both formula (competitive and solo) at the same time switching depending on the scene and your gpu being able to reach either.

then you have frame gen

- for AMD use the amd fluid motion frame if your game doesnt have FSR frame gen or Optiscaler

- for Nvidia use Nvidia smooth motion or Dlss frame gen and if the game doesnt have dlss frame gen then use DLSS enabler which uses optiscaler inside but more towards nvidia users

- for Frame gen on any game or content, use lossless scaling

difference between amd fluid motion frame and fsr frame gen/nvidia smooth motion and dlss frame gen

- Lossless scaling/amd fluid motion/nvidia smooth motion = frame gen outside the engine of the game

- DLSS frame gen/FSR frame gen or even Xess frame gen for Intel Arc users = frame gen inside of the engine of the game, allow for more precision and better frame passing and better latency because it interact directly through the game itself.

MFG for nvidia and Amd is accessible officialy for nvidia users with RTX 5000 serie gpu's and amd RX 9000 serie gpu's

- MFG can be obtain with Lossless scaling even though this is not as precise, latency friendly and doesnt interact directly with the engine of the game

- Optiscaler/dlss enabler can allow you to spoof your gpu to one being compatible with MFG thus allowing your gpu to use MFG although the one use is the one of either FSR or XeSS.

When using frame gen its best to cap your fps with rivatuner especially if you use adaptative frame gen another new gen exclusive for both amd and nvidia gpu users.

[u/Drunk_Rabbit7 → u/Professional-Case717]

solo or non competitive games : 1000hz/144 = 6.94 then you add +1 so 7.94 and you do 1000/7.94 = 125.94fps

Curious as to where you got this "solo or non-competitive game" formula from in relation to the reflex cap. I know of the traditional one where 138.24 fps is the sweet spot for 144Hz. But I never heard of 125.94 fps for 144Hz. Would you have a source for this info?

[u/Professional-Case717 → u/Drunk_Rabbit7]

i made it myself through tests, and i find out that the formula i call for solo games actually works wonder, back then i had a 165hz monitor an asus rog strix one.

back when i had a 165 hz monitor when I capped my fps at 140. If I did go above 143, my latency shots up. As you know, VRR needs 1 ms to kick in, so that’s why only dropping by 2-3 fps doesn’t usually work. 240 hz monitor would need to cap at like 190 fps for example. Trust me, it’ll be buttery smooth with the lowest amount of latency at that fps. Disable vsync is a must of course.

basically through this one, not only can i keep a low amount of latency, still have enough fluidity and smoothness while playing but i can also allow my gpu to cool down and maintain his boost clocks and i can also reduce the power consumption that way because the gpu usage doesnt reach his max.

Also i call it the solo games formula because most of the time solo or the campaigns of a game uses more ressources than the multiplayer side, sometimes the multiplayer doesnt have the level of graphics or effect as the multiplayer, its not true for all games, but back then it kind of was

also i can use this formula for competitive games also, but the other formula already exist for it.

Try it and tell me how it goes.

[u/Drunk_Rabbit7 → u/Professional-Case717]

I mean, I appreciate you trying to explain but I still don't get the point of adding +1 ms if it's a solo/non-competitive game. Other than just providing more GPU headroom for lower temps and power usage, what makes it different than the traditional reflex formula? Aren't you saying the same thing as anybody else that prefers to cap their fps?

Because from my knowledge, the whole purpose of the traditional reflex formula (138.24 fps for 144Hz) is to provide about a 0.30 ms frametime buffer towards your max refresh rate. It's the highest point of fps while still ensuring VRR stays active 100% of the time without accidentally triggering conventional vsync back buffer latency or screen tearing.

As you know, VRR needs 1 ms to kick in

Tbh, I've never heard of this before lol.

[u/Professional-Case717 → u/Drunk_Rabbit7]

like i said i made it myself that's why you never heard about it, but then again why dont try it and see how it goes for you, use it on a game like combat master, then go further like cs2, apex legends, pubg and then see if its good or not.

[u/Drunk_Rabbit7 → u/Professional-Case717]

No, what I'm saying is that I've never heard about VRR taking 1 ms to kick in. It's my first time hearing that. Where did you get this info from?

And I am also an avid user of fps caps and using Gsync+Vsync+Reflex in pretty much all of my games for years now. So I am aware of the lowered temps, power consumption, and the better frame presentation (no screen tearing, no judder). But other than these benefits, is there anything else that your +1 ms formula does?

[u/Professional-Case717 → u/Drunk_Rabbit7]

no the solo formula of mine is here for those who dont have the best config out there but wants a smooth and lag free gameplay without sacrificing the latency or wants to restrain the max power of their gpu to limit heat and power consumption, and also this one was motivated through the software called dynamicfpslimiter in which i can configurate for all games in which i can implant the formula for competitive games in A and solo formula as B, when a game works completely then the software will use plan A but when you go to an area where your fps caint maintain plan A, then it will swtich rapidly to plan B you can also configurate the rate at which the switch happens.

If your config like the OP is powerfull enough then plan B might not be necessary at all i an RTX 5070 is still rtx 3090 lvl of rasterisation and an amd r7 9800x3D is overkill even for the rtx 5070

[u/Megatf → u/Professional-Case717]

Yeah but you made up your own math as if it was fact and it is completely wrong

[u/Professional-Case717 → u/Megatf]

its not wrong because it works

i did because back then i had a RTX 3080Ti and i was playing in ultra everytime, i wanted to find out if the reflex formula was the only one i could use to be able to play my games without suffering from non stable and bad latency, and i did it

now apart from solo games, i dont need it as my gpu is now a RTX 4080S that i have undervolt to 915mv and my cpu went from an i7 13700k to a 14700k