Tweak Ideas

// tier 1 - most important, tier 2 - mid, tier 3 - low



MAIN: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TBH

HW:

SW:

	OS:
- disable virtual mechanics, crazy amount of lag! PortableWinCDEmu is best program, which can uninstall its driver, after it is not used!
- try to find a way to completely disable DWM on windows 10, 3rd post from top: https://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=7443
- HAGS should be on nowadays (i used to have problems with this when it came out, but it should be fixed) not sure if on some older computers it is good idea tho
- reduce amount of tracking/spyware, problem is something may not work later, or it break windows update

	Drivers:
- Experiment with these drivers installed/uninstalled https://www.tenforums.com/attachments/gaming/322487d1615661814-share-gaming-tweaks-chec-my-comprehensive-list-will-blow-your-mind-3-contained-drivers.png

I read disabling smbus may reduce lag, but than temp sensor doesn't have to work/or maybe show incorrect values, I choose only to not install that driver (since I installed windows offline so it doesn't come bloated)

Whereas not installing xeon pci-e controller gave me input lag!

Other I did not test!


	BIOS:
		Crazy idea:
- since BIOS is major source of input lag, It would be nice to measure input lag having certain features on/off, problem is there is no input lag measuring device which can capture under 1 ms, you would need like 8000 fps camera and multiple changes at once, if the effect accumulates, which I doubt anyone will want to do, since there are so many permutations...

low DPC latency is secondary to having good BIOS, which affects input lag much more, problem is there is no test no way to determine which BIOS is better for input lag!
- disable UEFI (I think it cannot be even disabled on newest mobos)
- disable secure boot (it isn't bulletproof but helps a little) depends on user preference security/perfomance
- VRM spread spectrum cause tremendous lag
- resizable bar should be on on 10th gen+ and RTX 3000+ then IOAPIC 24-119 entries should be also on (if I remember correctly). Without resizeable bar it seems it causes input lag!
- potential tweak, it is not in my BIOS so dunno: Legacy IO Low Latency



--------------------------------------------------------Ideas for your program: -------------------------------------------------------

Philosophy:
- I don't like programs which make changes without explaining what they exactly do and their context, or do multiple changes at once, unless they are supposed to be used together. That is problem when creating all-in-one solutions, some tweaks need to be tested one by one, otherwise it is impossible to know if it helped, or did more harm than good! So tweaking is inherently laborious, also sometimes you need to restart PC... You can't automate everything unfortunately and because many things differ from system to system greatly!

Tier 1:
- disable startup of useless services or manual according to this site blackviper.com, otherwise this is not safe to do at all!!! Could be tested running in virtual machines like on a server for weeks/months, if disabling some of these services cause some errors in event viewer, which isn't perfect way to know if it is safe to disable and it might not be in the future, as services change...
- make sure to add this: in google disk search for "Honor-UserFullScreenSettings.REG" this will make sure when you check disable fullscreen optimizations in compatibility tab of an .exe it will work, it can be verified that no popout window is showing when you change sound on keyboard, note: hid service must be running for it to work. NOTE: THIS WORKS ONLY UNTIL DX11 !!!
- disable cleartype when a game is launched and also smoothing of edges of fonts - check ClearTypeSwitch.exe in software folder, or tweaks old

NOTE: On DX12/Vulkan users can use windowed fullscreen mode in games and new nvidia overlay, forgot how it calls will activate, it has super low input lag! Only problem DX12 is really shitty... It should activate automatically since some nvidia driver like 462, or something... EDIT: AH it was this: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/game-ready-drivers/13/440865/mpo-multiplane-overlay-is-causing-graphical-corrup/

Tier 2:
- disable useless scheduled tasks https://www.tenforums.com/customization/180514-project-scheduled-tasks-can-disabled-without-drastic-impact.html This guy has high IQ so it should be without problems... Didn't try these exact tasks however since I wasn't able to google all what they are about...


Tier 3:
- close programs running on background before game and restore after (game optimizers do this, but they are little bit snake oil, they usually introduce input lag themselves at the same time)
- user set dynamictick rate per program (in windows max 15.6 and in game 1/0.5ms) this actually wastes megawatts https://randomascii.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/windows-timer-resolution-megawatts-wasted/ And using dynamictick in Windows is problematic as it causes acceleration and cause stutter.
- windows classic theme, I was always using classic in windows 7, even with all possible effects disabled, it is possible it can cause lag, DWM is so garbage: https://www.howtogeek.com/133405/how-to-get-classic-style-themes-back-on-windows-8/#:~:text=Right%2Dclick%20the%20desktop%20and,copied%20it%20to%20the%20folder.

Not sure if it is there already:
- disable transparent taskbar

Some criticism:
- you have option [6] to spread interrupts to multiple cpu cores, if this means one device to multiple CPU cores, it is bad thing to do, because cache miss! Maximally devices can be given different CPU cores so interrupts are not all on one CPU core, but this has very small effect in best, or even mouse feels weird after that!

EDIT:
- I don't like changing interrupt affinity, even if I put device to only one CPU core, to spread them out. This seems to be useless, as CPU have high freq. today and they are fast at handling interrupts, it doesn't reduce input lag/nor DPC latency execution times (spreading them out). But it makes mouse feel weird! I always go back to having default interrupt affinity every on core 0.

Also interesting is unchecking core 0 for games makes my mouse feel weird, no matter what!

I wonder: it is recommended to uncheck first CPU core where are handled most of system processes from a game to get better performance and lower input lag! If interrupts are handled on core 0 (I care mainly about USB interrupts in this case) what does that mean for a mouselag. Since if interrupts are handled on core 0, but game has core 0 unchecked. Games track every mouse input in a thread. So after system handles interrupt, it has to sent it to the game, which will be on other core, I have no idea if this could introduce some problems, or input lag... You could put your usb interrupts to core 1 and then trying to uncheck core 0 in games. ALSO

ALSO NEVER CHANGE INTERRUPT AFFINITY FOR DISKS: IT CAN DESTROY THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- tweak [5] you could add turn on msi for audio too, but if turn this for nvidia high definition audio system won't boot! And usb if they are not in msi, but they should nowadays be by default!



----------Just came to my mind - random stuff (maybe I already included them in my guide): --------------------------------------------

- heard having fan RPM set to like 80, or 100% decreases input lag cannot deny nor confirm :D
- killing task explorer.exe decreases input lag a lot, but makes mouse feel weird on newer windows, if you want to try figure out why :D have no idea, same happens when you decrease priority of the process
- there was some problem with tearing if you have 1 fps less than your monitor freq. https://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=8776
- is in the game rendering the thing when you have only half fps like 143.5, it gets dropped off? Because it could be rendered in time? As it works in video playback, I don't even know now...

If you want to do some exploring:
- ProcessMonitor from sysinternals, tracking registry keys etc. when you change something in control panels
- doing bootrace, it is interesting what loads into system etc.
- windows ADK performance analyzer (perhaps some more useful info could be gathered here) similarly NVIDIA has some tool for tracing graphical stuff - it is very advanced
- AIDA 64 shows a lots of stuff
- can check this (powertool tool for system analysis): https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/devtest/dtrace

Random ideas for further research:
- Kernel responsiveness


Tips for users:
- having least amount of disks is better, even if they are not used seems like plugging more disks increases input lag!
- dual boot, have one clean OS for gaming only (e.g. windows 7, or there was some stripped windows 10 with dx11 only which is less secure)
- don't use AV - some lag! E.g. windows defender! AV can be abused to get control of system, if you don't download unsafe files, it is safe and you can install from time to time to check.
- disable windows firewall if you are behind decent FW like Pfsense


	Unresolved Questions:
- what would be better for DPC latency SSD, or NVME?


Super obvious:
- disable fast startup

Super Advanced:
- custom memory allocators, but devs told me it doesn't work well if at all for games
- disabling text input app without any DCOM errors (not recommended tweak, may affect security) https://superuser.com/questions/1615738/windows-10-how-to-prevent-microsoft-text-input-application-from-starting/1617037?noredirect=1#comment2564765_1617037

	Super Advanced Tweakers:
https://forums.guru3d.com/members/mbk1969.247876/




-----Things worth into looking from my tweak guide (I will re-write here main, in case you missed something): -------------------------


- default color profile is huge source of input lag, sRGB is much better! Best experience I had with disabling any color profile by checking box "Use my settings for this device" in Device tab and leaving it empty. Also some monitors come with their color profiles, but they aren't better than sRGB/no color profile at least didn't see any better! Here https://www.color.org/profiles.xalter you can also download many color profiles! Each user has to try what feels best to them as this differs from monitor to monitor!

Now I would be interested if designing custom color profile for lowest input lag wouldn't be possible! Not sure if having no color profile adds any input lag, or if use of custom color profiles couldn't drive it lower. I didn't find anything about this, best place to ask would be color.org

- obviously disabling boot of useless system drivers, autoruns doesn't show everything! https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/find-replace-outdated-windows-drivers/#:~:text=Press%20Windows%20key%20%2B%20X%20and,can%20also%20type%20driverquery%20%3E%20driver. I have currently disabled these, but I didn't bother with all, no problems since: https://imgur.com/a/4PFZSXT (this is on Intel on AMD they can differ) I disabled some of them by user X7007: https://www.overclock.net/threads/gaming-and-mouse-response-bios-optimization-guide-for-modern-pc-hardware.1433882/page-216 (he also has list for AMD)

put into cmd (since autoruns doesn't show all): driverquery /v >C:\drivers.txt
OR sc query type= driver

- disable anti-aliasing for fonts! https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_wintp-insider_personal-insiderplat_pc/how-to-disable-anti-aliasing-in-windows-10/9e1370e9-9eaa-4840-97ed-0fee855e6e88 Because even disabling "clear type" and "enable smooth edges for screen fonts" in adjust appearance and windows performance doesn't fully get rid of font anti-aliasing. Note: this method also doesn't fully work and can break letter W I think, or / don't remember. E.g. in control panels fonts are still aliased, but it works for fonts elsewhere. You could try to figure out how to disable completely anti-aliased fonts. You can also disable anti-aliasing globally in NVCP, but not sure if it helps and mouse felt weird after doing that!

Physical (only user can do this):
- I wonder if you could stream audio from main pc to another (where you have connected headphones) so you can disable sound card in BIOS: which is tremendous source of input lag. I got this idea from streamers, as they use 2nd pc to capture video.