Started benchmarking when the problem was acting up. Not sure if there’s a connection here but the results are interesting nonetheless.
At one point after adjusting settings, the input lag spikes went away and the game seemed reasonably playable. I thought maybe I finally solved it.
But then while playing, the input issue acted up again and this time it felt especially brutal. I was struggling like hell to keep my crosshair on the enemy tank as Zarya. I had moments when I could barely even walk properly. I don’t give a damn if you’re an OWL MVP… No living person could have controlled the reticle on my system.
Unfortunately, this seemingly disproved the theory that the input lag spikes and the aim issue had any connection – until I decided to run some more benchmarks just in case. I found that the input lag spikes had returned in that very match where the mouse problem returned. The spikes come and go but can last for hours. Again though, there’s no way to say for certain if the two issues are connected. But input lag variations would explain why so many people describe the issue as feeling like acceleration/smoothing.