Latency. It’s an invisible pain point of gamers around the world. Especially in the last few years, gaming has been all about the lowest latency possible, as marketing gimmicks promising to make you a better gamer are floating around on everything from graphics cards to headsets.
The latest example is the Urbanista Seoul, a pair of true Bluetooth headphones that come with a dedicated gaming mode for phones, rather than the traditional low-latency 2.4GHz connection you find on the best gaming headphones. I wanted to see if the latency actually improves your gaming performance when only milliseconds are on the line. And to my surprise, it is.
Real-world latency testing
Urbanist
I could tell you that low-latency headphones have made a difference in my gaming with some sublime anecdotal experience, but that’s not what I’d call hard evidence. Instead, I’ve come up with a short test that might put some hard numbers on the differences between Bluetooth and low-latency gaming mode.
I played a demo mission of the upcoming rhythm-based first-person shooter Metal: Hellsinger, switching between Bluetooth and a low-latency connection between each boot. I also ran the mission five times with my pair of wired Audioengine A2+ speakers to set a baseline, which is how I normally play games.
Instead of the overall score, which affects things like your hit streak and headshots, I only paid attention to the “hits on beat” metric. I didn’t even use the game’s built-in latency compensation to get as close a comparison as possible.
Headphones and earbuds are a little different and come with differences in latency. Instead of focusing only on the Urbanista Seoul, I tested several different gaming headsets with Bluetooth and low-latency connections:
I’m glad I tested a wide range of headphones because the results are clear: low-latency connections do huge the difference in performance, even if it’s hard to tell when you’re in the heat of battle.
How much of a difference does audio latency make?
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
How much of a difference does audio latency make? About 37% difference based on my testing. With my wired speakers as a baseline, I had a 97% hit rate. With the Urbanista Seoul connected via the default Bluetooth connection, the hit rate dropped to just 60%. What’s shocking is how consistent my results were across the runs.
As mentioned, I turned off Bluetooth and low-latency connections on every run, so these results aren’t just a case of improvements in the game (I think I’m pretty good at the game at this point anyway). A proper low-latency 2.4 GHz connection resulted in the best performance, almost equal to the result I got when using my wired speakers.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
These connections are “delay-free” in the sense that they have no discernible delay. About 15ms to 20ms is what you’ll get from 2.4GHz, which is fast enough that you won’t experience any lag. Compare that to Bluetooth, which has a latency of around 200ms, and can go higher depending on the device you’re using.
The Urbanista Seoul game mode has 70ms latency according to the company, and my results are in line with that. Switching the game mode brought a significant improvement in the number of hits on the beat, but it was not as strong as the full 2.4 GHz connection.
It’s good to see hard numbers, but I could tell the difference just by playing. Every time I switched from a low-latency connection to Bluetooth, it felt like all my actions were being dragged through the mud (not unlike the system latency challenge I encountered a while back).
But, if I didn’t test them side by side, I wouldn’t be able to say. Audio latency is tricky, especially when you consider research that suggests our brains will adjust their processing of stimuli to keep them in sync. If you play exclusively via Bluetooth, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever be able to recognize that it’s causing a delay that affects how you play.
Bluetooth works, but 2.4 GHz is better
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
Lower latency is always better, but there is definitely a limit to the amount of latency that matters. For gaming headsets trying to get as close to a wired experience as possible, getting latency down to under 20ms is critical. But that doesn’t mean that low-latency Bluetooth codecs like Aptx LL and gaming modes like the 70ms option on the Urbanista Seouls don’t improve the experience.
But the device you use is a huge factor here. Although Bluetooth latency has improved significantly on newer Android devices, every phone, laptop, and desktop computer is a little different. Each handset is slightly different, adding complexity to the latency equation.
If you’re a gamer looking for a low-latency Bluetooth headset, options like the Urbanista Seoul will get the job done. But if you want the fastest, most stable audio experience on PC and mobile, it’s best to stick with a proper 2.4GHz connection.
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Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn