I used to play this game on Windows 7 on my old laptop that has an i3-3337U with GeForce 710M 2GB and 4 GB of DDR3 RAM. Initially I was able to even achieve more than 100 fps with no input latency (not that I was aware of, which means it was insignificant).
After a while, I get back to this game in my new laptop that has an i7-7700HQ with GTX1060 6GB and 16 GB DDR4 RAM. I was expecting of even more input lag less and better latency like never before. Guess what, I was betrayed. I got around 5 to 8 ms with those tiny red boxes depending on the difficulty and beatmap. Long short story, I kept trying to find out the solution and here are some of possible working solutions:
1. Try right clicking on the game shortcut and click properties. There you might want to do the 'Run this program with compatibility to Windows 7 or Windows 8' (your choice). If you try to do the old fashion SHIFT while opening the game, you may just be one of the few who will experience even more problem by ticking that 'Compatibility mode' setting. It doesn't work for me, even until now. Do not do that.
2. Do not use any overlay app. This apparently contributed so much to the input latency and those tiny boxes that will go red when there are too many of them. MSI Afterburner that you use to OverClock or UnderVolt your GPU should not be used while playing this game. Turn off Game DVR through the Windows Setting.
3. Follow some other guidelines in YouTube that has something to do with your Geforce Panel. Right click on the desktop and choose NVIDIA Control Panel. There, go to the 'Manage 3D Settings' and 'Program Settings'. Scroll through to find osu! or if you do not find any, simply click 'Add' next to it and pick osu!. Look at the option below it and find 'Maximum pre-rendered frames' and set it to 1. Turn off 'Shader Cache' and 'Vertical Sync'. At 'Power Management Mode', use the 'Prefer Maximum Performance' option.
4. In the game settings, you may want to not restrict the frame rate. Do 'Unlimited Frame Rate (gameplay)'. More fps simply means lower input latency.
After a while, I get back to this game in my new laptop that has an i7-7700HQ with GTX1060 6GB and 16 GB DDR4 RAM. I was expecting of even more input lag less and better latency like never before. Guess what, I was betrayed. I got around 5 to 8 ms with those tiny red boxes depending on the difficulty and beatmap. Long short story, I kept trying to find out the solution and here are some of possible working solutions:
1. Try right clicking on the game shortcut and click properties. There you might want to do the 'Run this program with compatibility to Windows 7 or Windows 8' (your choice). If you try to do the old fashion SHIFT while opening the game, you may just be one of the few who will experience even more problem by ticking that 'Compatibility mode' setting. It doesn't work for me, even until now. Do not do that.
2. Do not use any overlay app. This apparently contributed so much to the input latency and those tiny boxes that will go red when there are too many of them. MSI Afterburner that you use to OverClock or UnderVolt your GPU should not be used while playing this game. Turn off Game DVR through the Windows Setting.
3. Follow some other guidelines in YouTube that has something to do with your Geforce Panel. Right click on the desktop and choose NVIDIA Control Panel. There, go to the 'Manage 3D Settings' and 'Program Settings'. Scroll through to find osu! or if you do not find any, simply click 'Add' next to it and pick osu!. Look at the option below it and find 'Maximum pre-rendered frames' and set it to 1. Turn off 'Shader Cache' and 'Vertical Sync'. At 'Power Management Mode', use the 'Prefer Maximum Performance' option.
4. In the game settings, you may want to not restrict the frame rate. Do 'Unlimited Frame Rate (gameplay)'. More fps simply means lower input latency.