NVIDIA Reflex Latency Analyzer Announced to Help You Measure System and Display Latency

Hot on the heels of the brand new ROG Swift PG259QN that is being released imminently and that we’ve just finished reviewing, Asus have announced a slightly updated version that will be available later in the year around Q4 2020. The PG259QNR will be the same screen offering market leading 360Hz refresh rate support, but will also include NVIDIA’s new ‘Reflex Latency Analyzer’ technology. We won’t go back over the specs and features of the actual display, if you want more info and our full tests and results you can already read the review on the link above. We will instead talk more about the new NVIDIA technology that will be added to the R version of the screen here.

NVIDIA Reflex Latency Analyzer

The Asus press release provides some information about this new technology: “PC performance for competitive gaming is about responsiveness — how quickly the display updates after mouse clicks or movements. The new Reflex Latency Analyzer technology detects clicks coming from the mouse and then measures the time it takes for the resulting pixels (such as a gun muzzle flash) to change on screen. This type of measurement has been virtually impossible for gamers to do before now, requiring over $7000 worth of specialised highspeed cameras and equipment. Reflex Latency Analyzer provides a much more complete and accurate understanding of mouse, PC, and display performance. With Reflex Latency Analyzer, gamers can now start a match with confidence, knowing their system is operating exactly.”

There are some other technologies as part of NVIDIA’s wider “Reflex” technology, but we are mostly interested here in the monitor display latency side of things and what will be integrated in to this new monitor.

NVIDIA Reflex SDK: A new set of APIs for game developers to reduce and measure rendering latency. By integrating directly with the game, Reflex Low Latency Mode aligns game engine work to complete just-in-time for rendering, eliminating the GPU render queue and reducing CPU back pressure in GPU intensive scenes. This delivers latency reductions above and beyond existing driver-only techniques, such as NVIDIA Ultra Low Latency Mode. NVIDIA Reflex will deliver latency improvements in GPU-intensive gaming scenarios on GeForce GTX 900 and higher NVIDIA graphics cards in top competitive games, including Fortnite, Valorant, Apex Legends, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – Warzone, and Destiny 2.

NVIDIA Reflex Latency Analyzer: A revolutionary system latency measurement tool integrated in new 360Hz G-SYNC Esports displays from Acer, ASUS, MSI, and Dell, and supported by top esports peripherals from Asus, Logitech, Razer, and SteelSeries.

Whereas in the past gamers had to guess at their system’s responsiveness based on throughput metrics such as Frames Per Second (FPS), Reflex Latency Analyzer provides a much more complete and accurate understanding of mouse, PC, and display performance. Now with Reflex Latency Analyzer, competitive gamers can start a match with confidence, knowing their system is operating exactly as it should be.

Traditionally, measuring system latency has only been accomplished with expensive and cumbersome high speed cameras, engineering equipment, and a modified mouse and LED to track when the mouse button has been pressed. With a 1000 FPS high speed camera, you can measure a minimum of 1ms of latency. However, a setup like this starts at about $7,000 USD for the bare minimum equipment. Even then, once you have the setup, it takes roughly 3 minutes for each measurement…pretty much a non-starter for 99.9% of gamers.

To access this capability, you simply plug your mouse into the designated Reflex Latency Analyzer USB port on a compatible 360Hz G-SYNC display like the new PG259QNR. The display’s Reflex USB port is a simple pass-through to the PC that watches for mouse clicks without adding any latency. Reflex Latency Analyzer works by detecting the clicks coming from your mouse and measuring the time it takes for a resulting display pixel change (i.e. gun fire) to happen on the screen, providing you with a full System Latency measurement.

GeForce Experience’s new Performance Overlay reports the latency metrics in real-time. To view the latency metrics, navigate to the “Performance Overlay” options, and enable the “Latency Metrics” setting, when released in September. NVIDIA Reflex Latency Analyzer breaks the system latency measurement up into Mouse Latency, PC + Display Latency, and System Latency.

You can use any mouse with Reflex Latency Analyzer to get PC + Display Latency (with the exception of Bluetooth mice). However, with a compatible mouse from ASUS, Logitech, Razer or SteelSeries, you will also be able to measure peripheral latency and get full end-to-end system latency.

Additionally, NVIDIA will also be releasing an open database of average mouse latencies that can be referenced if GeForce Experience recognises your mouse. In the future, the community will be able to add mice to the database. More on this in the future.

At the time of writing, there are four mouse partners that have announced support for NVIDIA Reflex Latency Analyzer: ASUS, Logitech, Razer, and SteelSeries. Keep an eye on their websites and social media pages for announcements about NVIDIA Reflex Latency Analyzer compatibility. Also, starting this Fall, look out for 360Hz G-SYNC displays from ASUS, ACER, Dell, and MSI with built-in NVIDIA Reflex Latency Analyzer technology.

More information is provided on NVIDIA’s website here.

ROG Desk Mount Kit

As a side note, the PG259QNR can also be clamped to the edge of almost any flat work surface via the new ROG Desk Mount Kit. The stock adjustable mounting arm of the monitor drops right into the desk mount, making more room for a keyboard and mouse so gamers can sit closer to the screen.

Availability

The Asus ROG Swift 360 Hz PG259QNR will be available from Q4 2020. It’s unclear how much more this would cost relative to the PG259QN that doesn’t have this added Reflex Latency Analyzer technology.

If you don’t really need or want that added feature, or just want the latest and greatest refresh rate and speed now then the ROG Swift 360Hz PG259QN has started to appear in some regions i

Source: NVIDIA
Source: Asus ROG Swift PG259QNR

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