Like most competitive first-person shooters, VALORANT is a game of inches. From the mouse they choose to external supplements like caffeine, players looking to be at the top of their game will use any advantage they can find. And in VALORANT Patch 3.07, Riot Games introduced yet another way for players to get that extra inch against their opponents.
Riot explained Raw Input Buffer is a way for players to improve the “performance of input device processing,” but what does this setting actually do? Here’s everything you need to know.
What is Raw Input Buffer?
The Raw Input setting allows mice to send inputs directly to the game rather than through your operating system, and VALORANT has had it enabled for all players since launch. Raw Input Buffer is essentially an improvement to that setting, adjusting which APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are used for processing the raw inputs from your mouse. This decreases the input delay between your mouse and movements in-game.
By enabling Raw Input Buffer, you should see an increase in the “snappiness” of your mouse movements. The effectiveness of this setting will depend on the polling rate of your mouse, however. Most mice have a polling rate of 1000 Hz, and these mice will only see a minor improvement. But if you happen to be using a mouse with an 8000 Hz polling rate, the setting should decrease a greater amount of input lag and you should see a more impactful improvement in performance.
Keep in mind that if your PC can’t run VALORANT at over 60 frames per second consistently, you may see a decrease in mouse performance as opposed to the increase Raw Input Buffer is intended to provide.
Make sure to follow us on YouTube for more esports news and analysis.