How to improve your Need for Speed Unbound car control with Nvidia Reflex

Need for Speed Unbound, the newest title in the iconic arcade racing franchise, has finally been released on 29 November, 2022. The series has returned after a considerably long hiatus of more than three consecutive years without any mainline Need for Speed title.

Once a behemoth of the racing genre, the Need for Speed series was somewhat sidelined by other modern racing games from the likes of Forza, Gran Turismo, and Assetto Corsa.

However, the series has been making major strides to gain its mainstream position back with some really excellent recent games. 2019's Need for Speed Heat was arguably one of the best arcade racing games of the last decade. The highly anticipated Need for Speed Unbound does not disappoint either.

One of the key aspects of any racing experience is delivering a consistent and smooth performance without compromising the graphical fidelity. Need for Speed Unbound being a current-generation console exclusive does deliver some really breathtaking visuals, at a steady framerate. However, on PC, the game's performance can vary depending on the user's system.

To tackle any latency-related issues that players might experience while playing Need for Speed Unbound on PC, developer Criterion Games has implemented Nvidia Reflex in the game. Here's how players can take advantage of Nvidia's latency reduction tech in Need for Speed Unbound to improve the handling of the cars and eliminate any possible lag spikes during gameplay.

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Nvidia Reflex allows players to control and eliminate latency-related issues that might crop up during high-speed gameplay of Need for Speed Unbound

Nvidia Reflex is basically a tool exclusive to Nvidia's hardware, i.e., graphics chips that allow users to compensate for latency issues. This is done using Nvidia's software and driver optimizations to synchronize frames with the I/O, to better reflect player actions in games.

Latency, especially input latency, is a common issue in most modern games, which can severely impact gameplay. Games that require fast inputs, such as competitive first-person shooters, RTS titles, and even racing games with online elements, massively benefit from latency compensation tech. These games require precise and fast inputs that should reflect equally as fast on display.

First released as an experimental feature, Nvidia Reflex has lately been a mainstay in almost every major PC release, from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered, the spin-off title Marvel's Spider-Man Miles Morales to even Need for Speed Unbound.

Nvidia Reflex in Need for Speed Unbound is turned on by default, and we highly recommend players keep it that way. The default option uses Nvidia's driver optimization to synchronize framerate with player inputs. This does not have any major performance impact as it barely stresses the CPU or even the GPU.

While players might not notice the difference immediately upon starting the game, it does significantly improve the handling of cars in the game. The improvement in input latency will be especially noticeable for players that play the game with wireless controllers.

We tested the game out with a DualShock 4 controller hooked up wirelessly to the PC, with and without Nvidia Reflex, and the results were night and day. There was a massive decrease in input latency while driving cars of performance tier A and above. Having Nvidia Reflex on also made it easier to take those tight corners that are littered across many track layouts in Lakeshore city.

While the results might vary depending on the hardware used, we did see a significant difference with and without Nvidia Reflex enabled in Need for Speed Unbound.