Wii U: Display latency of GamePad is less compared to HDTVs

Nintendo’s next-gen system

Wii U gamepad is very efficient according to Rayman Legends creator Michel Ancel. He has revealed that the latency is just 1/60 of a second. This has to be a great achievement by Nintendo considering how much they have been glorifying the system’s gamepad.

“It’s crazy because the game is running in full HD [on the television], we are streaming another picture on the GamePad screen, and it’s still 60 frames per second. And the latency on the controller is just 1/60 of a second, so it’s one frame late. It’s crazy, it’s so fast,” he said.

“It’s almost instant. That’s why it responds so well. So it can be used as a real game-design thing.

“This is where Nintendo is really out in front of things. The technology inside the controller is quite a bit more advanced than what people might think. It’s really responsive. The response time is crazy, in fact, and I think the competitors will need some time to [get their solutions] this responsive.”

Digital Foundry chimed in and said that it’s a lot less laggy than HDTVs as well.

“Cheap PC monitors are pretty decent these days: they lag by one or two frames, but HDTVs are still using a lot of post-processing technologies, meaning lag is greater,” Richard Leadbetter from Digital Foundry revealed.

Good news for Nintendo and people interested in the Wii U!

Thanks, Nintendo Everything; Eurogamer.