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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 at present, simply this additional release spurred me to accept another look at the service. This time, I wanted to test the latency on both the PS3 and PS4. The quondam is practically ancient technology in 2014, and it's WiFi configuration tops out at 802.11g. I was curious if that would brand a divergence when it came downwards 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'thou consistently surprised at how well streamed games command over Sony's service. If I play for more than a few minutes, I eventually forget completely about the crazy applied science behind it, and but bask the game itself. I wanted to know more than, though. The subjective "experience" examination is undoubtedly important, simply I wanted to know how well PS Now on PS3 stacked upward 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 upwardly against each other, I wanted to perform iii tests on each platform. So, I decided to exam the latency of a PS Now in-game menu over an ethernet connection, the latency of a PS Now in-game bill of fare over WiFi, and the latency of the local primary menu on each device.

So, how am I estimating latency here? I don't accept access to high-end capture equipment, just I do have a video camera. I ready up the shot with both my TV and controller in-frame, and then I hit "record." From at that place, I pressed the D-pad x times in a row, and then started the adjacent examination. I then imported the video to my estimator, and counted the number of frames betwixt a button press and a visual modify on the screen.

Read: The best free games for the PS4

My camera only shoots at 30 fps, but that's beside the signal. I'k 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. Later on 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 verbal amount of latency would differ drastically depending on the quality of your connection, the altitude from Sony's server farm, and your specific network environment. Diving any deeper on this seems like a huge waste material of time since it would simply apply to people with my exact setup.

PS Now Chart

Results

Across the board, the results were consistent with every test. With my set-upwards, information technology took roughly four frames (~115 milliseconds) for the screen to update on a wired connection on both platforms. Over WiFi, there was a tiny fleck more latency at five frames (~150 milliseconds). For the local bill of fare? 1 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, y'all can compensate quite effectively.

PS3 ComparisonOf form, these results shouldn't be interpreted as gospel. I have a fiber internet connexion, my router is only a few feet away from my consoles, I alive 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 yous, your gaming experience is jump to change on PS Now.

All of that said, I was very pleased to see the PS3's performance match upwardly with the PS4's. Even with the 802.11g limitation of the PS3, it worked surprisingly well over WiFi. A wired connection is patently preferable for any kind of streaming, but it shouldn't make that much of a deviation as long as your betoken is potent, and there isn't too much interference in your surface area. If yous're packed into a crowded apartment building with dozens of WiFi admission points, you lot'll want to stick to a wired connexion, but that's a pocket-size toll to pay for height-drawer game streaming.

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