1. Eliminating the GPU Render Queue With Reflex & Anti-Lag 2
When a graphics card hits 97% to 99% utilization in an uncapped shooter, the CPU prepares 2 to 3 frames ahead in the DirectX render queue waiting for the GPU to finish. That queue adds 10ms to 25ms of click-to-photon input delay. Enable NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency ("On + Boost" keeps GPU clocks pinned at boost frequencies during CPU-bound smokes) or AMD Radeon Anti-Lag 2 in-game to synchronize CPU frame submission just-in-time with GPU execution.
2. Expanding NVIDIA Shader Cache Size to 10GB / 100GB
By default, the NVIDIA driver allocates a conservative 4GB disk quota for compiled DirectX and Vulkan shaders. If you rotate between three or four modern games (such as Valorant, CS2, Warzone, and Helldivers 2), older compiled shaders get evicted and must recompile mid-match, causing sudden 80ms micro-stutters. Open NVIDIA Control Panel -> Manage 3D Settings -> Shader Cache Size and change it from "Driver Default" to "10 GB" (or "100 GB" on a 1TB+ NVMe SSD).
3. Mouse Polling Rate (1000Hz vs 4000Hz) & Raw Input Buffer
Always enable "Raw Input Buffer" inside Valorant and Counter-Strike 2 so the game reads mouse hardware interrupts directly via RawInput without passing through Windows pointer ballistics. While 4000Hz and 8000Hz wireless mice shave ~0.6ms off motion latency, they generate 4x to 8x more USB interrupts per second on CPU Core 0—if your CPU has fewer than 8 physical cores, stick to a rock-solid 1000Hz or 2000Hz polling rate to protect 0.1% low frame times.