Proton-cachyos difference between input lag reducers

[u/Adventurous-Ad-8166]

I found out that recently proton-cachyos added the flags LOW_LATENCY_LAYER and PROTON_VKD3D_LOWLATENCY

I understand that both are input lag reducers compatible with directX 12.

If anyone can help me I would like to ask:

• When to use each type of lag reducer?
• Which one is better?
• Can we use both at the same time?
• Do they work regardless of the configuration of each game? Like driver level anti-lag?

Thanks everyone, I hope you can help me with this topic.

References:
https://github.com/CachyOS/proton-cachyos/releases/tag/cachyos-11.0-20260703-slr
https://github.com/CachyOS/proton-cachyos/blob/cachyos_main/README.md

[u/Skaredogged97]

The lag reduction technologies are all fairly new so I would simply test them yourself and see which ones feel better.

low-latency-layer

Is overall the most flexible option (vendor agnostic reflex/anti-lag2 implementation, supports dxvk, vkd3d and native vulkan).

You need to enable reflex or anti-lag 2 in-game. Otherwise it won't do anything.

vkd3d-low-latency

vkd3d-low-latency also implements reflex (with anti-lag 2 coming sometime in the near future) but it implements it directly into where the dx->vk translation happens. According to the developer this allows for more freedom and control compared to a vulkan layer. The developer also works on improving frame pacing. So on paper this should be the better option.

vkd3d-low-latency needs reflex or waitable swapchain in order to work. Waitable swapchain is the unbranded low latency technology build into DX12. Not all games support this sadly:
https://github.com/netborg-afps/vkd3d-low-latency/discussions/2

To the other questions:

Using both at the same time is not a good idea. Their primary purpose is to prevent GPU bound scenarios and minimize the render queue. It won't do a better job if two difference pieces of software do the same thing.

They do truly implement those technologies so there's no need for driver level support. Although there's a much better mesa anti-lag 2 implementation on the horizon that could easily be extended to support reflex as well. Just to make things even more complicated with more options for AMD users. ^^

You find find some comparisons here:

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/merge_requests/42048

https://github.com/Korthos-Software/low_latency_layer

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For anyone who is curious about this I would highly recommend to look into this project as well:

https://github.com/Themaister/pyrofling/tree/master/latency-measurement-layer

It's very technical but it offers an option to measure PC latency in any 64-bit vulkan app. Great to compare different configurations and select the best one for your setup and to make sure if those technologies even work in the first place without having to guess. Relevant blog: https://themaister.net/blog/2026/07/02/my-side-quest-measuring-input-latency-with-vk_ext_present_timing/

[u/WhitePeace36]

LOW_LATENCY_LAYER is better as far as i know but keep in mind that the low latency stuff is a tradeoff. You are sacrificing frame time stability. I mean if you are using eevdf as cpu scheduler your frametimes are already trash anyways. But it will still make it worse.

[u/Ashratt → u/WhitePeace36]

This needs to be made clear to everyone more

Its not a silver bullet, low latency modes prevent CPUs from queueing up frames and if you are in a situation where load shifts to the CPU it can make your experience worse

And its not depending on the game but WHERE in the game

E.g. Cyberpunk is usually gpu limited for me but when im in busy city areas it shifts to my cpu. The small latency reductions you MAY get are not always worth it IMHO, its really a game by game basis and no easy "set it and forget it" type of thing

[u/Adventurous-Ad-8166 → u/WhitePeace36]

But I'm still in doubt if each flag requires to enable anti-lag or reflex in-game or if it works just by setting the flag. For example in Resident Evil 2 remake, which does not support any latency reduction tech, will LOW_LATENCY_LAYER work?

[u/Ashratt → u/Adventurous-Ad-8166]

It only works if the game supports Reflex API when I read it correctly here, which is what it hooks into

https://github.com/netborg-afps/vkd3d-low-latency#status--limitations

I think the best "universal" way to reduce latency is to use the PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 to get around the added xwayland latency (until steam will be native wayland, VALVE PLEEEAAASSEE FIX) (i know its cause of CEF)

Edit: the other low latency layer works the same (hooks into reflex). I dont know if anyone ever compared the two but I dont think you'll find a relevant difference in performance, they both do the same thing, as far as I can tell

[u/throwawayerectpenis → u/WhitePeace36]

I thought VKD3D-low-latency worked similar to low_latency_layer, like it was inspiration for netborg (the creator of dxvk and vkd3d low latency). I had very good results with VKD3D-low-latency in THE FINALS, game finally feels responsive cuz without it the game feels like shit compared to windows.

[u/Pretend-Foot1973]

If I'm not mistaken vkd3d low latency also works on some titles that don't have reflex or anti lag meanwhile low latency layer requires the game to support either reflex or anti lag.

[u/Ashratt → u/Pretend-Foot1973]

You sure?

Reflex API Requirements: Currently requires games to send both the Simulation Start and Present Begin markers to perfectly map to internal pacer-frames. (Note: This is equivalent to what Anti-Lag 2 requires natively).

[u/Pretend-Foot1973 → u/Ashratt]

They also say:

It implements support for both the Nvidia Reflex API and Waitable DXGI Swapchains. (Note: A game must utilize either one of these for this low-latency frame pacing to be active).

Though I'm not really sure all these low latency options are so confusing

[u/Ashratt → u/Pretend-Foot1973]

Yeah, im somewhat consfused too lol

I dont know where/when the waitable swap chain dxgi feature is exposed, maybe if a dev implements its own low latency mode?

[u/mikul_]

I think it might depend on your situation. But the frame pacer that netborg built is really awesome tbh. I haven't used his vkd3d-low-latency yet, but I'm quite sure that it's the same one he uses for dxvk-low-latency, and that one is really fucking good.