How to Reduce Input Lag on PC: The Complete Guide

High FPS means nothing if your mouse click registers 50ms after you pull the trigger. Input lag — the delay between your action and what appears on screen — is caused by a chain of settings across your mouse, monitor, GPU, and Windows. This guide fixes every link in that chain. For the FPS side of the equation, see how to boost FPS in Windows 11 — the two guides complement each other.

What Actually Causes Input Lag

Input lag has several sources:

1. Monitor response time and refresh rate — Higher Hz = shorter frame display time
2. V-Sync and frame buffering — Each queued frame adds latency
3. Mouse polling rate — How often the mouse reports position to Windows
4. USB power management — Windows suspends USB devices to save power, including your mouse
5. GPU driver settings — Pre-rendered frames add pipeline delay
6. Windows timer resolution — Affects how precisely the OS handles input events

Fix all of these, not just one.

Step 1: Mouse Polling Rate

Polling rate is how many times per second your mouse sends position data to Windows. At 125Hz (default for many mice), your mouse updates every 8ms. At 1000Hz, every 1ms. At 4000Hz (modern gaming mice), every 0.25ms.

Set your mouse to its maximum polling rate in its companion software (Razer Synapse, Logitech G Hub, etc.). For competitive play, 1000Hz is the minimum. 4000Hz is measurable with high-refresh monitors.

Important: High polling rates slightly increase CPU usage. On older systems, 1000Hz is the practical limit.

Step 2: Disable V-Sync, Enable G-Sync or FreeSync

V-Sync adds 1–3 frames of buffered latency. Disable it in both the GPU control panel and in-game settings.

Instead, use NVIDIA G-Sync or AMD FreeSync (Adaptive Sync). These sync the monitor refresh rate to your GPU output, eliminating tearing without buffered latency.

In NVIDIA Control Panel: set Vertical sync → Off globally, and configure G-Sync for your monitor under Set up G-Sync.

In AMD Radeon Software: Gaming → Global Settings → Radeon Chill → Off, AMD FreeSync → Enabled.

Step 3: Set Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames to 1

NVIDIA and AMD buffer 1–3 frames before displaying them, which smooths frame pacing but adds latency.

NVIDIA Control Panel → Manage 3D Settings → Max Frame Rate Pre-rendered — set to 1.

AMD Radeon Software → Gaming → Global Graphics → Frame Buffering → Disabled.

Step 4: Disable USB Selective Suspend

Windows powers down USB ports to save energy. This causes your mouse to take 1–10ms to "wake up" on fast movements — creating the sensation of mouse acceleration or lag.

# Disable USB Selective Suspend via power plan
powercfg /setacvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT 2a737441-1930-4402-8d77-b2bebba308a3 48e6b7a6-50f5-4782-a5d4-53bb8f07e226 0
powercfg /setdcvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT 2a737441-1930-4402-8d77-b2bebba308a3 48e6b7a6-50f5-4782-a5d4-53bb8f07e226 0
powercfg /setactive SCHEME_CURRENT

Or: Device Manager → Universal Serial Bus controllers → right-click each USB Root Hub → Properties → Power Management → uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power."

Step 5: Monitor Settings

Refresh Rate: Set your monitor to its maximum in Settings → System → Display → Advanced display → Refresh rate. If it's not showing 144Hz/165Hz/240Hz, you need to use the correct cable (DisplayPort for best results, HDMI 2.1 for newer monitors).

Response Time Overdrive: Most gaming monitors have a response time setting (Medium, Fast, Faster, Extreme). Set to "Fast" — "Extreme" often introduces inverse ghosting, which looks worse than the lag it fixes.

Black Frame Insertion (BFI) / Motion Blur Reduction: Reduces motion blur but cuts brightness. Disable if you value raw input feel over image clarity.

Step 6: Windows Timer Resolution

The Windows multimedia timer defaults to 15.6ms resolution. Games that don't self-configure it run with coarser timing.

bcdedit /set useplatformtick yes
bcdedit /set disabledynamictick yes

Run in an elevated Command Prompt and reboot. This forces 0.5ms timer resolution system-wide.

Step 7: Disable Mouse Acceleration (Enhance Pointer Precision)

"Enhance Pointer Precision" in Windows scales mouse movement based on speed, destroying the 1:1 relationship between physical movement and cursor movement that competitive gaming requires.

Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Mouse → Additional mouse settings → Pointer Options → uncheck "Enhance pointer precision".

Automate Every Setting with SageTweaks

The settings above span five different control panels and require PowerShell access. Miss one and you won't get the full benefit.

SageTweaks applies every input lag optimization — USB power management, timer resolution, GPU pre-rendered frames, pointer precision — automatically, with hardware-specific tuning for your specific mouse and GPU.

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Most users see the biggest improvement from disabling USB Selective Suspend and setting pre-rendered frames to 1. Do those first, then work through the monitor and polling rate settings. Combined, expect 10–30ms reduction in end-to-end input latency. You can also pair these changes with GPU optimization settings for NVIDIA and AMD to reduce the render pipeline delay on top of the input-side improvements.

For the full stack applied automatically: SageTweaks.