Though not yet released, "Counter-Strike 2" (opens in new tab) is already getting an upgrade: Nvidia's anti-latency technology, Reflex, will be integrated into the game when it launches this summer. [As always, Reflex will only be available to owners of Nvidia GPUs, which could give them an advantage over anyone running a low-performance AMD graphics card, let alone a poor one running integrated graphics.

Even if this is a joke, latency is important in serious online gaming, and a small gain here could make a difference; Nvidia claims that Reflex can reduce latency by up to 35% in Counter-Strike 2.

Of course, the slower the graphics card, the more likely Reflex will help. In other words, this is a technology that actually helps gamers with older GPUs more than gamers with megabucks cards.

According to Nvidia's own slides, the latency of the GTX 1060 (open in new tab) board drops from 26ms to 17ms when running at 1440p and maximum settings. This represents a 9ms drop from a fairly high level of latency to a fairly acceptable level. [On the other hand, the RTX 3060 (open in new tab) dropped from 16ms to 11ms. At the top end, Nvidia surprisingly mentions that the RTX 4070 (open in new tab), which has not yet been announced, much less released, will improve from 10ms to just 8ms.

In fact, both numbers are impressive, but it would be hard to feel the difference from 10ms to 8ms.

Nvidia's Reflex technology is something that developers using Nvidia's tools must implement at the game engine level. As a result, a low-latency toggle usually appears in the game's settings menu. Shooters that already support Reflex include Fortnite, Valorant, and Apex Legends.

Overall, this is a rare win for gamers using older, less capable graphics cards.