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While frame rate and visual quality often dominate PC gaming conversations, latency is just as important when it comes to fast-paced shooters like Battlefield 6. In this article, we’re breaking down what latency actually is, why it matters in competitive play, and how NVIDIA Reflex can improve responsiveness without forcing you to sacrifice image quality or performance, particularly when using upscaling. 

Battlefield 6 supports the latest NVIDIA DLSS for improved FPS performance and image quality, and also Multi-Frame Generation (MFG) for even greater leaps. One of the few downsides of your system interpolating and inserting these AI-generated frames, however, is that it creates additional system latency. Fortunately, NVIDIA Reflex does a great job of combating this, meaning serious competitive players get to enjoy the benefits of these features without them noticeably affecting their performance. Enabling Reflex will improve your system latency even if you don’t use DLSS or MFG, though the difference might be less stark. There’s also Reflex + Boost mode, which can help to squeeze out some additional performance.

Latency: what is it and why does it matter in competitive shooters? 

High latency when gaming means sluggish responses, delayed aiming, and a feeling that the game isn’t quite keeping up with you. Low latency, on the other hand, makes everything feel immediate and precise. The most obvious situations where this matters are those clutch, one-on-one gunfights where you pop around a corner, see an enemy player, and have a split second to line up your headshots before they do the same. Vehicular control also benefits from lower latency: tanks, helicopters, and the other vehicles you can pilot in BF6 demand constant camera movement and rapid adjustments. Turret rotation, aiming, and tracking targets is smoother and more predictable with lower latency, making it easier to react to threats and line up shots. High latency can make vehicle controls feel heavy or unresponsive, especially during intense combat. 

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There are various types and sub-types of latency (also known as ‘lag’), but the main two broad categorisations are ‘network latency’ and ‘hardware/system latency’. 

‘Network latency’, commonly referred to as ‘ping’ in online gaming, is governed chiefly by your internet connection and, to a lesser extent, your router, and measures the time between your input and the response of the server. High ping can result in issues like rubber-banding or poor hit registration – particularly noticeable when you get above 100ms. Generally speaking, 40-60ms is considered to be acceptable network latency for most competitive shooters, with anything below 40ms being good, and sub-20ms being truly excellent. 

‘Hardware/System latency’ (aka ‘input lag’) is a factor whether you are playing offline or online, and is a reflection of the computer hardware you are playing on and how it interacts. It’s the delay between pressing a button on your mouse or keyboard and seeing the result of that input on screen, and is determined chiefly by your CPU, GPU, monitor, mouse and keyboard, and how they all work together. ‘Good’ hardware latency for gaming is commonly regarded as somewhere between 20ms-40ms, but true competitors will be aiming for sub-20ms. It is hardware latency which NVIDIA Reflex helps to minimise. 

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NVIDIA Reflex explained – how does it work? 

NVIDIA Reflex is designed to minimise system latency by optimising how the processor and graphics card work together. Often, the CPU can get ahead of the GPU when preparing frames of a game to be rendered, resulting in a queue forming that backs up the whole process, with the net result being increased system lag. Reflex tackles this problem by synchronising workloads of both components, slowing the CPU down by the optimal amount based on information from the GPU driver, resulting in a ‘just-in-time’ delivery that makes the visual output you see on your monitor that much snappier. NVIDIA works with the creators of games like Battlefield 6 during the development process in order to integrate support for this within the game’s code.

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What is NVIDIA Reflex + Boost? 

Reflex + Boost performs similar benefits to Reflex as explained above, but additionally prevents the GPU from idling down in moments it normally would (during simpler, easier to render scenes for instance). This forces the GPU to maintain higher clock speeds and higher power draw at all times, thereby increasing its overall render speeds, though at the expense of increased temperatures and energy costs over time.

This feature is primarily of benefit to those using older-gen GPUs, which are more prone to bottlenecking performance. On the newer, more powerful NVIDIA 50 series GPUs, it doesn’t really make a great deal of practical difference at present, although it’s still a great feature to have for future years where you might want to squeeze a bit more out of your setup. 

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Putting Reflex to the test in Battlefield 6 

Our testing rig comes packing with the mighty RTX 5070 graphics card, which has all the benefits of the latest version of DLSS (4.5 at the time of writing) plus up to 4x Multi-Frame Generation (with 6x Dynamic Multi-Frame Generation due this Spring). We booted up Battlefield 6 and tested the game on various graphical presets with Reflex disabled, enabled, and with Reflex Boost to see what difference it made. Two of these presets – ‘Ultra’ and ‘Overkill’ – we tested with DLSS Quality and 4x MFG enabled in the settings. Note that when Multi-Frame Generation is enabled, Reflex On is enabled automatically, with the option to change the setting greyed out.

There are two hardware latency figures listed in the table below, which we record – with Render Latency measuring the time taken for the CPU and GPU to produce each frame, and Average PC Latency including this along with the lag produced by the mouse/keyboard, monitor, and other components within the PC. 

Looking at the results, Reflex On typically reduced latency by just over a third in those presets that didn’t have DLSS/MFG enabled. As expected, where it most impressed is when these features were enabled; however, with an FPS increase of over three times (!) only resulting in a Render Latency increase of 2-3ms. In fact, with Reflex On plus DLSS and 4x MFG enabled, latency was still lower than with Reflex Off and only using conventional (hardware-only) raster-based performance. 

Reflex On + Boost didn’t make a great deal of difference for this setup, but as explained, it’s primarily meant for older generation graphics cards, and the benefit on an RTX 50-series card like the one we tested on will typically be negligible. Still, we saw a very slight improvement in the ms overall, accompanied by a subtle uptick in the power draw. 

Battlefield 6 benchmark results (PC specs: NVIDIA RTX 5070, Ryzen 9800X3D, 64GB DDR5 6600MT/s)

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Final thoughts: who benefits most from NVIDIA Reflex? 

NVIDIA Reflex is primarily beneficial for those who want to maximise the FPS performance benefits of DLSS and Multi-Frame Generation while keeping latency in check.Even with the enormous FPS increases these features bring, with Reflex enabled, you won’t notice a difference when it comes to lag. If you haven’t got DLSS or MFG enabled, the benefits of Reflex are more modest, but every additional ms counts when it comes to those clutch 1v1 situations at the highest levels of play, so it’s still well worth enabling.

Reflex + Boost is primarily a benefit to those with older-generation NVIDIA cards, helping to push the hardware further by reducing bottlenecking. Ultimately, though, if you can snap up one of the latest 50-series graphics cards to fully utilise DLSS 4.5 and the upcoming Dynamic Multi-Frame Generation tech, then you can enjoy the best combination of these features with Reflex to enhance your competitive play.

About the Author

Charlie Noon

Charlie is the Affiliate manager for PC Guide. He has a vast understanding of most PC hardware and consumer essentials, using his knowledge to provide the best products and the biggest deals.