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PS Now Success

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 have another expect at the service. This time, I wanted to examination 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 information technology came down to streaming a game.

Previously, I've written extensively regarding how PS At present feels shockingly responsive. Maybe I had extremely depression expectations going in, only I'm consistently surprised at how well streamed games command over Sony'due south service. If I play for more than a few minutes, I somewhen forget completely almost the crazy technology backside it, and just enjoy the game itself. I wanted to know more than, though. The subjective "experience" test is undoubtedly of import, but I wanted to know how well PS Now on PS3 stacked up to the experience on the PS4, so I began testing.

PS Now Store

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 carte du jour over an ethernet connexion, the latency of a PS At present in-game carte over WiFi, and the latency of the local main menu on each device.

Then, how am I estimating latency here? I don't take access to high-stop capture equipment, but I do have a video camera. I ready the shot with both my TV and controller in-frame, and so I hit "record." From there, I pressed the D-pad x times in a row, and then started the next exam. I then imported the video to my computer, and counted the number of frames between a button press and a visual alter on the screen.

Read: The best free games for the PS4

My camera only shoots at 30 fps, but that's abreast the point. I'm by no means attempting to exercise 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 information in a vacuum. In any case, the exact corporeality of latency would differ drastically depending on the quality of your connection, the altitude from Sony'due south server farm, and your specific network environment. Diving any deeper on this seems similar a huge waste of time since it would only apply to people with my exact setup.

PS Now Chart

Results

Beyond the board, the results were consistent with every test. With my set-upwards, 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 flake 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 fifty-fifty faster-paced games functional. Equally long every bit everything remains consequent, you lot can compensate quite effectively.

PS3 ComparisonOf grade, these results shouldn't exist interpreted as gospel. I take a fiber net connection, my router is only a few feet away from my consoles, I live in a relatively secluded surface area, and I had exclusive use of my domicile network during this examination. If any part of the concatenation is sub-optimal for you, your gaming feel is leap to change on PS At present.

All of that said, I was very pleased to meet the PS3'south operation match up with the PS4's. Even with the 802.11g limitation of the PS3, it worked surprisingly well over WiFi. A wired connexion is manifestly preferable for whatsoever kind of streaming, but it shouldn't brand that much of a difference as long every bit your indicate is strong, and there isn't also much interference in your area. If y'all'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 minor price to pay for top-drawer game streaming.

Now read: How to heave your WiFi speed by choosing the correct channel