Guilty Gear Strive reportedly has 4 frames of input lag on PlayStation 4 while PC version provides potentially better results

we’ll still have to wait on the PlayStation 5 results however

The FGC has a long history of hunting down the version of a fighting game release with the least amount of input lag, which has become easier to test in recent years thanks to advancements in technology.

Now that Guilty Gear Strive has been in the hands of players for a few weeks, some of the more technically capable members of the community have put the game’s latency to the test between PlayStation 4 and PC.

Nigel ‘Noodalls’ Woodall recently revealed the results of his lag experiments for Strive, which revealed the PS4 version has an average of 4 frames of input lag while PC can have as low as 1 frame depending on the setup.

The latest PS4 test showed Arc System Works’ newest fighting game ranged between 52ms (3.1 frames) and 87ms (5.2 frames) with the final average being 65.65ms (3.9) frames of latency.

In comparison, Noodalls’ Steam version runs had a minimum tested delay of only 10ms (.6 frames) and the highest at 30ms (1.8 frames) and final average of 11.93ms (.71 frames).

Comparison of PC vs PS4 Guilty Gear Strive using Nvidia Reflex Latency Analyser. https://t.co/dcwSzotaqxhttps://t.co/T0U3SkDJJQ pic.twitter.com/UisYgsHk9W

— Nigel Woodall (@noodalls) June 25, 2021

While less than a single frame of lag sounds phenomenal, which it is, there are some caveats to these results that make their applicability a good bit more muddy for general PC players.

As fellow latency tester Loïc ‘WydD” Petit points out, the rig Noodalls used here is among the best consumer PCs you can get right now with an Nvidia 3080 GPU with its Ultra Low Latency mode, an Intel Core i7-10700KF CPU, and potentially a 360Hz monitor, which high refresh-rate screens are shown to reduce lag as well.

So pretty much these numbers are likely the best case scenario and won’t directly apply to players on the more mid-range PCs most people will be playing on though that doesn’t mean we should just discard the findings either.

*Assuming vsync off
*Assuming Nvidia 3080
*Assuming Ultra LLM
(not shown) *Assuming High Refresh Rate (he’s driving a 360Hz display)

That’s why I say “dont ask about PC” because it’s confusing and those settings change the numbers drastically.

— Loïc *WydD* Petit (@WydD) June 25, 2021

For the PS4 version, a delay of around 4 frames is pretty much the standard / average of what we’ve seen fighting games run at on console that uses Unreal Engine 4, which is most big games this generation.

From WydD’s tests in 2018 (seen in the graphics below), that puts it on par with games like Dragon Ball FighterZ and Tekken 7 while Street Fighter 5 and Samurai Shodown reached that point after updates to bring their latency down further. Strive’s is also like half of a frame more than Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 on PS4.

WydD’s 2018 latency tests on PS4 (doesn’t account for SF5 and SamSho’s updates after this point)

The big question now is what that means for the PlayStation 5 version to see if the more powerful hardware can lower that number a bit more than its predecessor.

We currently don’t have that answer, however, as Noodalls’ input recording setup apparently isn’t compatible with the PS5 at this time.

PCs’ latency outperforming its console brethren certainly isn’t anything new, but it’ll be interesting to see if the differences will have a notable influence on where the playerbase is playing the most, especially for the more pro-level and dedicated competitors.

Guilty Gear Strive did seemingly have the second-largest fighting game launch on PC ever, so there’s definitely a bigger market potential now there than what we’ve seen before.

So what does this ultimately mean? Well, if you’re playing on PS4, you may have up to like 3 frames of more delay than your PC brothers and sisters, but that’s pretty much par for the course of what we’ve seen in recent years.

It’s worth remembering too that 3 frames is only around 50ms or .05 seconds, so while a few frames can impact certain reaction scenarios because of the nature of the game, you’re not going to playing in molasses on PS4.

Guilty Gear Strive ultimately appears to be providing a smooth and / or expected experience no matter where you choose to play, and if you’ve got an Nvidia 3000 series GPU in your PC, go nuts.

Now we just eagerly await to see the numbers for PS5 as well.