The NVIDIA Reflex Advantage

To recap, Reflex is NVIDIA’s way of tackling latency. Not the latency you get when playing online games — or ping, as it is known among gamers — but local latency. That is to say the amount of time it takes for your actions (a mouse click, pressing space, etc.) to register on screen (a bullet leaving your gun, your character jumping).

Reflex is something that has to be coded into the game, but is already in eight of the 10 most popular competitive shooters, says Seth Schneider, Senior Product Manager at NVIDIA.

“I’d say ‘worst case Reflex integration’ is like a 20 to 25% reduction in latency,” Schneider tells Den of Geek. “Really, really good ones that we see are even above 50%, they’ll be 60 to even 65% latency reduction, which is phenomenal.”

The benefits of Reflex in a fast-paced game like Fortnite should be immediately obvious: with faster reactions, you’re quicker on the draw, more responsive with your aim, and able to lay down shots a bit faster than your opponents. Unless they’re also using NVIDIA Reflex, of course, in which case you’ll have to rely on your natural gaming talents.

My favorite Reflex-aided kill in Fortnite came really early on in a round, when I stumbled across two people fighting in a building. I ducked in, and with Reflex helping me respond quickly, was able to take down my opponent before they could even turn around and take aim. But with another player rattling around on the floor above, there was no time to lose: I grabbed my dead teammate’s discarded shotgun and closed myself in a room, lying in wait. Sure enough, the other player opened the door, and I was able to instantly respond with a one-shot shotgun blast before they knew what hit them.

My experience playing Fortnite has been full of fine-margin wins like that, and I find myself silently saluting the technology helping me live to fight another day. Like when you’ve got someone in your sights with the sniper rifle and they’re making your life extra difficult by jumping around like no soldier ever has in real life. Timing is everything, and with Reflex, I’m pleased to say that I’ve pulled off more than my fair share of unlikely headshots. This may have left them under the false impression that I’m some kind of elite hacker rather than just a below-average gamer with magical hardware at his fingertips.