only if you use tf2 mouse accel

you probably could just test this and get your answer faster, than posting this and waiting for responses :/

anyway, it depends per game. some handle capping fps like shit and it will cause jitter or lag. don't know about tf2 though

I thought Comanglia mentioned that if you consistently hit the cap then you get input lag of sorts.

Not sure myself though I never liked fps caps.

Can confirm, limit your fps to 60 and try play, you just cant.

wait no this is wrong
fps is a variable used for calculating tf2 accel so you'd want to use a cap to keep fps constant
i misunderstood the question

pretty sure it's just because higher framerate = less input lag, and chances are if you consistently hit your framerate cap you could be getting significantly higher framerate meaning less input lag. I could be wrong though

i think comanglia says in his cfg that if you have good cooling you should leave fps uncapped to prevent latency and if you dont have good cooling you should leave it capped cause its bad for the computer. So i would assume if you have a decent desktop you should not use it and if your on a laptop or something you should use the cap. At least i think it says something like that. You can probably check. I think its near the top of his config

if i cap i get tremendous screen tear, is there any fix for that

it's basically mandatory to have a cap if you're playing on a local server (or even private MGE) with a modern computer though
the timescaling is wack past 999 fps

Have you tried uncapping?

I have my cap at 80 fps, which I normally exceed in MGE and local servers but normally don't reach in pubs or 6's gameplay, and I don't experience any perceivable difference in my input latency.

I do, however, experience significant input issues when my framerate drops below ~35 fps.

Past fps_max 300 I personally don't notice any change in input lag or my performance as a player, but it heats up my room so damn much that I have to lower it to 150 in the summer ._.

Try changing your cap by 2 or 3 fps in the positive or negative direction. If you set your fps_max to certain values, you'll end up with a screen tear in roughly the same spot every frame which is very very distracting and ugly.

uh yeah why would i cap if i get screen tear lol

Is there any specific values or ideas you would have? I personally found the "cap to your refresh rate" or "(refresh rate x2)+1" to not really be adequate or have enough evidence to be confident with them but I ain't a tech so yeah.
Chris in the past mentioned that at minimum the fps cap should be double the tickrate you prefer in favor of hitreg but I am not sure how true or how serious the results would be.

Yeah this is kind of what I mean, though what values past double the cmd rate I do not know which are effective.

I get that the default is 300, so logically that can't be a terrible move but any other values truly worth considering? (for toasters that don't hit 300 but want to benefit from capping for stability as well as temperature control)

Your detective skills are right, that's pretty much bullshit. Even when I only had a 60hz monitor, I could still easily tell a difference between fps_max 150 and fps_max 300.

I use fps_max 150 when it's too hot in my room, but there are no hard and fast "best" values for this cvar really.

Your FPS should just be as high as you can get it. There is no magic number having to do with refresh rate or tickrate. That being said, TF2 does not have any input lag added by capping your fps aside from the input lag that every game experiences by having its fps capped AFAIK

An honest answer at least, thank you for answering mate!

I guess that makes sense.

so TLDR for anyone reading the thread till now:

Screentearing can be fixed minimally with fps_max but there will never be a substitute to a higher refresh monitor par the lag input inducing vsync option.
Fps max should be used only to control heat issues or maintain a more forgivable value for local servers or non intensive ones such as mge or DM. Higher values result in lower amounts of input lag as the engine is running more frames per second.
Vast majority of values suggested by the masses being personal preference since input lag will vary between numbers.
Numbers below the cmd rate (seen some people set this god knows why) will cause hitreg issues in general.