HiGame

In September, Sony rolled out the PlayStation Now beta service to the PS3. The public beta has been available on the PS4 for a while now, but this additional release spurred me to take another look at the service. This time, I wanted to test the latency on both the PS3 and PS4. The former is practically ancient technology in 2014, and it’s WiFi configuration tops out at 802.11g. I was curious if that would make a difference when it came down to streaming a game.

Previously, I’ve written extensively regarding how PS Now feels shockingly responsive. Maybe I had extremely low expectations going in, but I’m consistently surprised at how well streamed games control over Sony’s service. If I play for more than a few minutes, I eventually forget completely about the crazy technology behind it, and just enjoy the game itself. I wanted to know more, though. The subjective “feel” test is undoubtedly important, but I wanted to know how well PS Now on PS3 stacked up to the experience on the PS4, so I began testing.



Methodology

To get an idea of how the PS3 and PS4 stand up against each other, I wanted to perform three tests on each platform. So, I decided to test the latency of a PS Now in-game menu over an ethernet connection, the latency of a PS Now in-game menu over WiFi, and the latency of the local main menu on each device.

So, how am I estimating latency here? I don’t have access to high-end capture equipment, but I do have a video camera. I set up the shot with both my TV and controller in-frame, and then I hit “record.” From there, I pressed the D-pad ten times in a row, and then started the next test. I then imported the video to my computer, and counted the number of frames between a button press and a visual change on the screen.

My camera only shoots at 30 fps, but that’s beside the point. I’m by no means attempting to do extremely precise measurements here — all I need are ballpark results. 33 millisecond units of measurement are perfectly fine for this specific test. After all, I’m trying to compare multiple results against each other — not trying to calculate the purest latency data in a vacuum. In any case, the exact amount of latency would differ drastically depending on the quality of your connection, the distance from Sony’s server farm, and your specific network environment. Diving any deeper on this seems like a huge waste of time since it would only apply to people with my exact setup.



Results

Across the board, the results were consistent with every test. With my set-up, it took roughly four frames (~115*milliseconds) for the screen to update on a wired connection on both platforms. Over WiFi, there was a tiny bit more latency at five frames (~150 milliseconds). For the local menu? One frame (0-33 milliseconds). The latency seems very consistent in my experience, and ultimately that makes even faster-paced games functional. As long as everything remains consistent, you can compensate quite effectively.



Of course, these results shouldn’t be interpreted as gospel. I have a fiber internet connection, my router is only a few feet away from my consoles, I live in a relatively secluded area, and I had exclusive use of my home network during this test. If any part of the chain is sub-optimal for you, your gaming experience is bound to change on PS Now.

All of that said, I was very pleased to see the PS3‘s performance match up with the PS4‘s. Even with the 802.11g limitation of the PS3, it worked surprisingly well over WiFi. A wired connection is obviously preferable for any kind of streaming, but it shouldn’t make that much of a difference as long as your signal is strong, and there isn’t too much interference in your area. If you’re packed into a crowded apartment building with dozens of WiFi access points, you’ll want to stick to a wired connection, but that’s a small price to pay for top-drawer game streaming.


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