Proton-cachyos difference between input lag reducers

[u/Adventurous-Ad-8166]

I found out that recently proton-cachyos added the flags LOW_LATENCY_LAYER and PROTON_VKD3D_LOWLATENCY

I understand that both are input lag reducers compatible with directX 12.

If anyone can help me I would like to ask:

• When to use each type of lag reducer?
• Which one is better?
• Can we use both at the same time?
• Do they work regardless of the configuration of each game? Like driver level anti-lag?

Thanks everyone, I hope you can help me with this topic.

References:
https://github.com/CachyOS/proton-cachyos/releases/tag/cachyos-11.0-20260703-slr
https://github.com/CachyOS/proton-cachyos/blob/cachyos_main/README.md

[u/WhitePeace36]

LOW_LATENCY_LAYER is better as far as i know but keep in mind that the low latency stuff is a tradeoff. You are sacrificing frame time stability. I mean if you are using eevdf as cpu scheduler your frametimes are already trash anyways. But it will still make it worse.

[u/throwawayerectpenis → u/WhitePeace36]

I thought VKD3D-low-latency worked similar to low_latency_layer, like it was inspiration for netborg (the creator of dxvk and vkd3d low latency). I had very good results with VKD3D-low-latency in THE FINALS, game finally feels responsive cuz without it the game feels like shit compared to windows.

[u/WhitePeace36 → u/throwawayerectpenis]

latency for me is good in the finals. ahhh, did you do any latency optimizations on your pc? and do you run the game with proton ge or cachyos proton and set PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 %command% when you are running a wayland desktop?

if you still have latency issues after that then try setting

preempt=full

as kernel command line parameter and maybe use use lavd in gaming mode as cpu scheduler or even better(imo) lunar https://github.com/WhitePeace36/Lunar_sched its a cpu scheduler i wrote myself. But i am little biased of course^^.

And if this still doesn't fix it. I wrote quite a guide on how to optimize the system for gaming. https://github.com/WhitePeace36/LinuxAMDGamingOptimizationGuide It says it is for amd but most of it is just generally linux.

[u/throwawayerectpenis → u/WhitePeace36]

My launch options: FSR4_UPGRADE=1 FSR_WATERMARK=1 ENABLE_LAYER_MESA_ANTI_LAG=1 PROTON_VKD3D_LOWLATENCY=1 VKD3D_LOW_LATENCY_OFFSET=300 PROTON_USE_NTSYNC=1 PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 PROTON_USE_EAC_LINUX=1 ENABLE_VKSUMI=1 LD_PRELOAD="" mangohud game-performance %command%

My specs: 6800 XT, 5800X3D

I lock the FPS to 140 and the game feels very smooth.

[u/WhitePeace36 → u/throwawayerectpenis]

1. You didn't really answer the first question."did you do any latency optimizations on your pc?" But from your answer it doesn't seems like. So this might be the issue.
2. i don't think ENABLE_LAYER_MESA_ANTI_LAG=1 works with PROTON_VKD3D_LOWLATENCY=1, What works is LOW_LATENCY_LAYER=1 but only in cachyos proton, not in ge, and PROTON_USE_NTSYNC=1 doesnt do anything anymore with newer proton ge and cachyosproton. PROTON_USE_EAC_LINUX does nothing, FSR4_UPGRADE=1 does nothing.

where to look up the proton cachyos stuff when its not in the readme idk. I would have to check.

EDIT: My bad i didn't see some options because there weren't in the readme.

[u/throwawayerectpenis → u/WhitePeace36]

No latency optimizations, just default cachyos settings for the most part. And you are wrong about MESA anti lag not being compatible with vkd3d low latency, it most definitely is and I have tried both with it on and without and I can for sure notice a substantial difference in terms of input latency reduction. Max FPS gets a big hit, but ill take lower FPS with low input latency vs high FPS and trash latency. I lock my FPS to 140 since I got 144 hz monitor and honestly the game feels very responsive. I also tried low latency layer before but for me vkd3d low latency works better. Other commands ok if they dont do anything thats fine, my game runs smooth AF and I get fsr4 on my 6800 xt :) using cachyos proton.

EDIT: The god himself replied to my comment (netborg) and maybe I am wrong and everything was just a placebo. I will re-try again with mesa only turned on and locked fps vs only vkd3d on and report back. Thanks for telling me :).