Every single millisecond matters in competitive fighting games, where performing an input before your opponent is the difference between winning or losing. Therefore, Input Delay Reduction sounds like it would help with winning in Street Fighter 6, but what exactly is it?
Key Takeaways
- Input Delay Reduction is a setting that reduces Input Delay in Street Fighter 6.
- Input Delay is the time delay between an action being executed by a user on their controller/keyboard/mouse and being registered and shown in the game.
- The setting is disabled by default but can be enabled to gain a competitive edge over other users playing the game.
- However, enabling Input Delay Reduction takes up more system resources and can ironically increase the input delay if your gaming setup is not up to par.
- Input Delay Reduction is dependent upon a variety of factors; while enabling it seems to offer a better competitive gaming experience generally, your mileage may vary.
Enable Input Delay Reduction
Enabling or disabling Input Delay Reduction is a relatively simple task. Here’s how to do it exactly.
- Open the “Multi Menu.”
- Navigate to “Options”
- Navigate to “Graphics”
- Scroll down to “Input Delay Reduction.”
- Select it and turn it either on or off.
Keep reading this guide to find out if you should turn it on or keep it off.
What Is SF6 Input Delay
Whenever you press a button on your controller or keyboard/mouse, for example, the jump button, that would be considered one Input.
Taking that example further, Input lag, also called Input delay, is the time between you pressing the jump button and the character jumping in-game. Input Delay isn’t a problem when playing casual games like Animal Crossing or The Sims.
However, for competitive fighting games such as Street Fighter 6, this delay is of significant concern. There are a lot of combos that need to be chained together in Street Fighter 6, so being frame-perfect matters if you want to win a fight.
Therefore, Input Delay can make it very difficult to excel at combat due to the feeling of lag one can experience, which could completely throw off their mechanical skill.
There are a variety of things that cause Input Delay, some of which are listed below.
- Controller/Keyboard/Mouse
- USB Cable/Wireless Connectivity of the above Input device
- CPU
- GPU
- Motherboard
- TV/Monitor Refresh Rate
- Vertical Synchronization, also called VSync
- Frame-rate
We will not go into further detail on Input Lag as this guide only pertains to the Input Delay Reduction setting in Street Fighter 6. However, if you want to reduce input lag, you can read this article.
What Input Delay Reduction Does
Input Delay Reduction, from the name, we can deduce this setting has something to do with reducing input delay. And that is exactly what it does, it reduces Input delay. You can see in the table below exactly how much Input Delay Reduction reduces the input delay.
| System | Resolution | Refresh Rate | Avg. Delay w/ I.D.R. Off | Avg. Delay w/ I.D.R. On |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS5 | 720p | 60 Hz | 5.29 Frames | 3.67 Frames |
| PS5 | 1080p | 60 Hz | 3.65 Frames | 3.69 Frames |
| PS5 | 1080p | 120 Hz | - | 3.40 Frames |
| PS5 | 1440p | 60 Hz | 5.23 Frames | 3.68 Frames |
| PS5 | 1440p | 120 Hz | - | 4.62 Frames |
| PS5 | 4K | 60 Hz | 5.24 Frames | 3.67 Frames |
As you can see, enabling Input Delay Reduction almost always reduces the input delay except in the case of 1080p at 60 Hz, which is still only a difference of 0.04 frames. However, your mileage may vary, and you could see even less delay at 1080p at 60 Hz. Moreover, if it doesn’t reduce input delay, it at least won’t worsen it. However, there are some concerns with enabling Input Delay Reduction.
- The first concern is performance issues. If your system is old and can’t deliver a constant 60+ FPS, then enabling Input Delay Reduction may introduce a significant amount of lag and stutter in your gameplay. If this is the case, it is better to keep Input Delay Reduction off as it ironically creates more Input Delay.
- The second concern is screen tearing. On some systems like the PlayStation 5, there have been cases of Screen Tearing after enabling Input Delay Reduction. This effect is screen tearing is due to your GPU producing more FPS than can be updated by your monitor or TV, which can appear quite annoying.
If you want to delve deeper into the effects of the Input Delay Reduction setting, it may be helpful to see the tests that kimagre gaming has conducted. The table above was sourced from their research, and they have done a significant amount of testing on other systems/platforms, resolutions, and refresh rates as well. Go check out their Twitter.
Closing Thoughts
We have provided you with all the necessary information needed to decide between turning Input Delay Reduction on or off. Turning it on seems to be the better option if you want to have the best competitive experience as long as your gaming setup can keep up with the extra demand of the setting.
If you enjoyed this guide, be sure to check out our other Street Fighter 6 content so you can get better at the game and dominate your competition.
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An enthusiastic writer who loves art and gaming, you can find Maaz casually spending his day either behind the keyboard or the canvas. Maaz holds a major in Electronics and has over 5 years of experience working as a freelance blog and content writer. He loves to talk about all things gaming and help other gamers through his guides. He’s an expert when it comes to Diablo 4, Elden Ring, Dark Souls, Starfield and Baldur’s Gate 3.
Maaz mostly plays games on PC, you can check out his library on Steam attached below:
