Street Fighter 6 won't actually let you play matches at 120 frames per second but here's how to reduce input lag in the new beta
One of the most interesting additions announced for Street Fighter 6's incoming Closed Beta Test 2 was the inclusion of an input lag reduction feature and 120Hz display support — it wasn't exactly clear what that meant.
Capcom's somewhat vague language made some fans wonder if they'd actually be able to play SF6 matches at 120 frames per second, but now that we our hands on the updated beta client for the game, we can see that's not really the case. What is there should be pretty useful to the right players at least, however.
Technically, Street Fighter 6 does support 120 fps in the game.
When you go to the SF6's refresh rate options, however, the game tells you that online battles, Fighting Ground and the Game Center are always locked at 60 frames per second no matter the setting.
That pretty much means the only times you'll be able to see SF6 running at up to 120 fps is avatar creation and walking around the Battle Hub. It doesn't say World Tour isn't included though we'll see about that in the future.
This isn't a very surprising revelation ultimately because attempting to build a "next generation" battle engine that has to read its in-game clock / counter at 2 completely different speeds while making them compatible with each other over rollback netcode seems... a bit complicated to say the least.
Actual game speed isn't the focus here for Street Fighter 6's implementation of the higher refresh rate feature, however, since it's latency reduction that ends up being the main benefit.
Even when running a game at 60 fps, a couple of studies from within the fighting game community show that using a higher refresh rate monitor can drastically reduce input lag experienced by players — in some cases by half or more.
And it's now a benefit that potentially all players can enjoy with the SF6 feature since it's available on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S though that obviously excludes the PlayStation 4.
You do need to have the right hardware to set it up, so let's talk a little more about how to get this running the best it can.
What is needed?
Console
• A PlayStation 5 / Xbox Series X / Xbox Series S
• Monitor with 120Hz refresh rate or higher (2.1 HDMI support needed for 4K)
• HDMI cable
PC
• Gaming PC
• Monitor with 90Hz refresh rate or higher
• HDMI or other display cable capable of 90Hz or higher
Input Delay Reduction
This is the main feature itself that Capcom claims will reduce latency during Street Fighter 6's gameplay.
Input Delay Reduction is turned off by default, but it can easily be switched on in a few seconds.
Inside of SF6's Options menu, head over to the Graphics tab and then Basic Graphic Settings.
The bottom option should be Input Delay Reduction, which can be moved to on, and then save the changes.
There's some more steps required for console and PC users, but we'll cover those in their own section below.
Just how much the feature will reduce and impact input delay will likely vary depending on the setup used, and it's going to take some testing to even really ballpark the numbers.
Turning Input Lag Reduction on with only a 60Hz monitor could still provide some benefits, but since we don't really know how the feature works in the game yet, that too is going to require some experimentation from the community.
PlayStation 5
On the PS5 specifically, 120Hz refresh rates can be enabled by heading into settings and selecting Screen and Video.
Under the Video Output settings, there should be an option for Enable 120Hz Output, which can be turned on or set to Automatic.
Note: You'll need a monitor with HDMI 2.1 support in order to display games at 4K 120Hz, but HDMI 2.0 120Hz monitors can still be used at 1080p.
Xbox Series X|S
On your system, head to Profile & System on you console and head to Settings and then General options.
Under the TV & Display Options section, there should be the option to change your refresh rate up to 120Hz.
PC
For PC users, Capcom set up a few different steps than the consoles in order to achieve the same effect.
In the same menu as the Input Delay Reduction, you need to change your refresh rate setting to 120Hz (or 90Hz), and Capcom recommends turning V-Sync off.
While it may be a while before we know how much this latency reducing feature truly benefits players, it is nice to see Capcom provide players more options as to how they want to run their game plus acknowledge how important input lag is to the hardcore community.
Capcom are not the first ones of course to put 120Hz support in their fighting game, but hopefully the lag reduction is a good success here and is an indication of the types of new features and ideas coming out of the next generation of the genre.
