Disabling Nagle's algorithm for lower lag
Also searched as: disable nagle · nagle algorithm · tcp no delay · nagle gaming · nagle latency
What it does
Registry edits (TcpAckFrequency / TCPNoDelay) that switch off Nagle's algorithm — the thing that batches tiny network packets — to 'reduce lag.'
The honest verdict
Graded placebo. Nagle's algorithm groups small packets together to be efficient, which in theory could add a few milliseconds before your input goes out. But it has nothing to do with FPS — your GPU draws frames locally — and for online lag the tweak almost never matters: most competitive games run on UDP, which Nagle does not touch at all, and the ones on TCP usually turn Nagle off themselves per-connection. …
Compy won't recommend it. If you're curious anyway: change one thing at a time, measure it on your own rig, and revert unless it's clearly better — that loop is exactly what Compy is built around.
The full graded entry
The rest of this write-up — the specifics behind the grade — ships inside the app. The Blackbook publishes its verdicts here — the full write-ups stay in the book, on your rig, next to your own measurements.
The Compy Blackbook holds 191 graded entries like this one, judged against your hardware — and every change it does make is reversible, with the receipt to prove it.
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