Raw Input Buffer in Valorant is a setting in the competitive shooter which still confuses most players. While enabling seems better at the user end, it does hamper performance in some cases where players enable it without understanding its concept.
Having the best performance out of a system is essential when playing competitive games like Valorant and so on. This can help players gain an advantage over others and get increased chances of winning a gunfight.
The Raw Input Buffer is one such option that can improve latency between the mouse and the game. However, this will take a toll on performance as puts more pressure on the processor to decipher the data from the mouse. This guide is created to help players learn more about this feature and whether they should use it.
Valorant Raw Input Buffer feature explained in detail
Added back in Valorant’s 3.07 patch, the Raw Input Buffer was added to the settings to help players get the best performance. This feature uses a custom API from Riot Games that help them process input data in real time, similar to Nvidia’s Reflex API.
When processing input data, the main signal is sent to the computer through the motherboard which is decompiled by the Operating System, like Windows. So when aiming in games, this processed data is further sent to get the output while playing. Thus, requiring two individual steps to process the entire data before users can see the result on the screen.
With Riot Games’ Raw Input Buffer in Valorant, this bridge is eliminated completely to get instantaneous input. This feature processes the raw data from the mouse signal and uses it in the game without letting the Operating System meddle. As a result, giving a minor improvement in terms of input latency.
However, there is a certain disadvantage that arrives with this feature. Since this feature uses the processor and not the graphics card, this feature can backfire for struggling PCs. If a player already gets low FPS (Frames per second) on their current system, it is likely to face even reduced performance.
Should you enable it?
Every mouse had a polling rate, which is the number of signals sent by mice in one second. Usually, this rate is around 1000 Hz for most gaming mice, and lower for standard ones. If you’re using a mouse with a lower polling rate, this feature won’t really do you justice. As Windows as an OS can handle this without any issues and hampering performance.
However, if you’re using a gaming mouse with an 8000 Hz polling rate, Raw Input Buffer must be enabled. It will eliminate the input processing done by the OS and give a more crisp output. For a 1000 Hz polling rate, enabling it would give you a slight improvement if not worse.
While this feature will take some of your frames, it does provide an advantage that truly counts. Also, if you feel that enabling it hinders your performance too much, simply turn it off from settings. In case you need assistance with that, the steps are given below:
- After opening Valorant, go to the setting by clicking on the top-right corner.
- Go to the General tab, you’ll find an option for Raw Input Buffer.
- Use this menu to either enable or disable it.
You can quickly check the difference by getting into a quick match or shooting range and firing a few rounds. While it is technically impossible to notice the difference with bare eyes, however, some might be able to feel it.
With all that said, this is everything you needed to learn about Raw Input Buffer in Valorant. If you liked this article, check out other similar content by clicking here.
