Latency is the delay between a frame change on the source side until the same frame shows on the screen side, often referred to in computer terms as the total round trip time it takes for a data packet to travel. Latency is generally measured in milliseconds (ms) and is unavoidable due to the  infrastructure and the processing time on the source side and the processing time on the image side. Latency depends on several aspects of all the devices in your setup and can vary if any of them are changed or a device is added/removed.

Why is latency important

Lower latency, also known as ping, is desirable to achieve that smoother gameplay and user experience we all want, without input lag. If latency is >30ms, it is definitely going to interfere with your gaming experience.

Imagine you’re playing a game where you’re piloting a fighter jet, someone fires a rocket at you, and you need to bank away quickly to avoid getting hit. If you have high latency within your system, what you see happening on the screen, lags behind your input. This means when you move the stick right or left to bank away from the rocket, it will take >30ms before your jet moves on the screen. This can be the different between surviving and game over!!!

Games where timing is crucial, like first person shooters and racing games, suffer a greatly diminished experience with high latency. In short, time lag from high latency makes gaming far less enjoyable and highly frustrating.