I've just installed DX:HR via Steam, and I've noticed there's really bad mouse/keyboard lag in the game. Framerate seems fine for the most part, but when I move the mouse, there's about a quarter or half-second delay before my aim moves. It's making the game almost unplayable -- I just had to struggle for a second or two to open a vent because I kept overcorrecting.

Does anybody know why this happens? How can I fix it?

I'm using a wireless keyboard and mouse, but they don't have any noticeable lag when typing or moving the cursor. Even the cursor on the in-game menus doesn't have lag.

  • 2
    This happened to me - I turned all the graphics settings to minimum and it worked fine, and then I adjusted upwards the more important things (shadows, vsync) until I had settings I was happy with at a speed that was playable. Then I realised I had SLI turned off on my graphics cards so that helped, too! :P
    – Samthere
    Aug 28 '11 at 12:35
  • where do I get to see my screen refresh rate?
    – user17334
    Dec 29 '11 at 16:17

Turn V-sync off, usually it's the cause.

  • +1, thanks for the great tip. My workstation was fine, but running on my laptop I had to reduce the resolution and lower all settings to the minimum. But... but v-sync was still on. I just turned off v-sync and now I'm able to run at native resolution with some settings above the minimum. Aug 28 '11 at 14:15

I'm seeing similar issues. Vsync doesn't do a lot for me. Seems to me:

Triple buffering can really tax some systems and make input unresponsive. I assume the game honors the setting you choose, but definitely try turning that off.

There's a negative mouse acceleration (I personally dislike the feel- like a neck brace or eye surgery). Normally this is subtle but under load or with vsync issues can be really bad.

I think I'm also seeing performance hits related to some visibility/caching system they're using (load a level and spin in a circle). Maybe some related to audio, as they seem to do some processing there.


Usually (for me, at least), when this happens, it means that the game is too graphics-intensive for your rig. Try lowering resolution/details, that might fix it, though I can't guarantee that's the issue.


This is odd - I only seem to get lag with the mouse. Using an Xbox 360 controller gives no lag at all, so my choices are to either play on a lower setting with a mouse or use a controller and play on the highest setting my PC can handle.


Ok, mouse/kb lag is fixed. Just make sure you have correct refresh rate INGAME, eg if your screen refreshes at 59Hz make sure the game is set to 59 also. My initial setup was defaulted to 24Hz while my LG tv was at 60Hz, hence Fraps was at 24fps. Also turn v-sync off. Hope it helps.

  • Some formatting may improve readability of your answer
    – Aequitas
    Sep 30 '15 at 4:04

To whom hasn't solved the problem yet: Microsoft has released a fix that works perfectly: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2908279

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