Counter-Strike 2 Nvidia Reflex tested: Is it good for CS2?

❘ Published: 2023-09-28T10:06:49

Valve, Nvidia

Looking to get the fastest responses possible in Counter-Strike 2? There’s an Nvidia Reflex CS2 setting, but what does it do, and should you turn it on? We investigate.

Counter-Strike 2 is finally here, and with it comes Valve’s brand-new Source 2 engine, packed with all-new features that hope to make your experience even smoother than before. One of them is Nvidia Reflex, but you might be scratching your head at what it actually does.

We dive deep into Nvidia Reflex, to tell you precisely what the new tool does, and whether you should enable it or not.

What is Nvidia Reflex in CS2?

Nvidia Reflex is an option found in Counter Strike-2’s settings, enabling it will cut down on your PC’s latency. This means that when you make any input, such as a mouse click, the PC will ignore going through parts of the render queue, to send your input information straight to the GPU itself.

You can see the tech in action for yourself in a video Nvidia released below.

Nvidia Reflex can boost your PC’s responsiveness by up to 35%, making it a crucial tool for those looking for a competitive advantage. We’ve tested it for ourselves in other titles such as Overwatch 2, and it’s a genuine game-changer.

Using Nvidia Reflex, we entered a controlled environment that showed how a higher refresh rate monitor, alongside Nvidia Reflex, managed to give us a competitive advantage, where we scored more headshots than ever.

Should you use Nvidia Reflex in Counter-Strike 2?

If you have an Nvidia GPU, there is very little reason why you should not enable it in CS2. In our testing using a PC equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and RTX 4080, we shaved our render latency from 2.1ms to just 1.4ms with the feature enabled.

This means that our PC will react slightly faster than before, but the real magic of Reflex is only truly shown when using a compatible mouse and monitor for it, too. Those using compatible mice and monitors will also see a larger latency cutdown, and you can find all-equipped hardware here.

We did not have a Reflex-compatible monitor on hand to test, but by using one, you will be able to access Nvidia’s Reflex Latency Analyzer, and really show off the prowess of this game-changing tool.

Another thing to note is that to get better render latency, you will have to also have to own an Nvidia GPU. The more powerful the GPU, the lower the latency you’re going to get.

Looking for more CS2 content? We’ve got you covered.