What is Nvidia Reflex? The latency reduction technology explained

Nvidia Reflex has been around for just about four years now and it’s continued to develop. In case it still isn’t on your radar, this is our straightforward explanation of the technology.

Nvidia Reflex launched alongside the 30-Series graphics cards. Now, in 2024, we’re right in the middle of the 40-Series Super card launch and Reflex remains a key Nvidia feature.

Reflex is all about reducing latency to provide a better gaming experience. But, how does it work and how do you use it? These are the basics.

What is Nvidia Reflex? 

Nvidia Reflex is a technology that helps to reduce system latency. This means it reduces the time between your computer acknowledging your input – whether that’s aiming your gun or firing at your enemy – and then rendering the action on screen.

Nvidia Reflex aims to reduce system latency and provide a competitive advantage to gamers. System latency is the time between your input and the action being rendered on screen, this is a key period of time in competitive shooter games as every millisecond is key.

System latency is not the same as network latency, or what is common referred to as “lag”, which depends on your internet/Wi-Fi connection.

The technology behind Nvidia Reflex works by enabling game developers to “eliminate the GPU render queue and CPU back pressure in GPU intensive scenes”. In layman’s terms, it allows the game to prioritise the GPU and the CPU working together during gameplay that is graphically intensive.

Nvidia has previously claimed Reflex can see up to a 33% improvement for system latency with mid-range graphics cards. Below, you can see how Reflex performs with the RTX 3060 and RTX 4080 cards.

The drawback to this implementation is that it requires developers to integrate the technology into their games. This means there are only a select number of titles that currently support the technology. Fortunately, Nvidia has worked closely with some of the more popular multiplayer games to ensure compatibility. 

What hampers Nvidia Reflex featuring on every game that it would benefit is that it requires developers to integrate the technology into the games. This takes time and resources. However, while the number of titles are launch were limited, this has continued to expand over the last four years.

It’s important to remember that Nvidia Reflex can only do so much in terms of the PC itself. But, since its original launch, Nvidia worked with peripheral manufacturers to also bring Reflex support to mice and monitors, reducing input lag across the board.

Supported games

So which games actually support Nvidia Reflex? We’ve included a list of all the titles below, and will update in the future once more game support is announced.

• A Plague Tale: Requiem
• Alan Wake 2
• Apex Legends
• ARK: Survival Ascended
• Atomic Heart
• Battlefield 2042
• Bright Memory Infinite
• Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III
• Call of Duty: Vanguard
• Call of Duty: Warzone
• Counter-Strike 2
• CRSED: F.O.A.D
• Cyberpunk 2077
• Cycle Frontier
• Deathloop
• Deathverse: Let It Die
• Deep Rock Galactic
• Deliver Us Mars
• Desordre
• Destiny 2
• Destory All Humans! 2
• Desynced
• Diablo IV
• Dota 2
• Dying Light 2 Stay Human
• Enlisted
• Escape from Tarkov
• F.I.S.T. Forged In Shadow Torch
• F1 23
• Fortnite
• Ghostrunner
• Ghostrunner 2
• God of War
• Hi-Fi Rush
• Hitman 3
• Hogwarts Legacy
• Icarus
• Immortals of Aveum
• iRacing
• Jurassic World Evolution 2
• Jusant
• Justice Path Tracing Demo
• Kovaak 2.0 The Meta
• Leap
• Loopmancer
• Metal: Hellsinger
• Microsoft Flight Simulator
• Midnight Ghost Hunt
• Mordhau
• My Time at Sandrock
• Naraka: Bladepoint
• Need For Speed Unbound
• Nine to Five
• Overwatch
• Overwatch 2
• Party Animals
• Perish
• Portal with RTX
• Portal: Prelude RTX
• Quake: Champions
• Rainbow Six Extraction
• Rainbow Six Siege
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
• Ready or Not
• Red Read Redemption 2
• Redfall
• Remnant 2
• Returnal
• Ripout
• Robocop: Rogue City
• Rust
• Sackboy
• Scathe
• Scum
• Shadow Warrior 3
• Soda Crisis
• Spider-Man Miles Morales
• Spider-Man Remastered
• Splitgate
• Squad
• Starfield
• Super People
• Talos Principle 2
• The Finals
• The First Descendant
• The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
• The Swordsmen X: Survival
• Throne and Liberty
• Valorant
• War Thunder
• Warface
• War Thunder
• Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
• Warhammer: Vermintide 2
• Warhaven
• Warstride Challenges
• Witcher 3
• Witchfire
• World of Warcraft
• WRC Generations

Supported graphics cards

Nvidia Reflex only works with select Nvidia graphics cards. The good news is that there’s a huge range of GeForce graphics cards that support the technology, so it isn’t restricted to the most recent 40-series, or even last generation 30-Series, family. 

Nvidia says that Reflex will work on the GeForce GTX 900 and higher graphics cards, which means the 10-Series, 20-Series and 30-Series will all work. However, more powerful graphics cards will likely see larger performance gains.

Check out our best graphics card list to see the best options available.