Latency in gaming—the delay between a player’s input and the game’s response—has long been known as a key factor that impacts performance. But precisely how much latency is too much? At what point does lag legitimately become the reason you’re stuck in the lower ranks despite your best efforts?
To answer these questions, a unique experiment was conducted featuring a spectrum of skilled gamers, from casual players to highly competitive pros including TypicalGamer, BBNO$, and Khanada. Sponsored by ASUS and using their cutting-edge ROG gaming peripherals and OLED monitors, this study measured how incremental additions of input latency affect gaming accuracy, reaction times, and overall performance.
Understanding Latency and Its Measurement
Input latency, often measured in milliseconds (ms), is the total time from when a player performs an action (like clicking the mouse) to when the result appears on the screen. This “click-to-photon” latency encompasses mouse and keyboard delays, computer processing, and finally, display response time.
In this experiment, a system was designed to add latency in controllable 1 ms increments from 0 to 100 ms total delay, layered on top of a baseline latency of about 12.5 ms inherent to the ASUS ROG hardware and setup.
Key Findings: How Latency Affects Gaming Performance
The participants completed multiple sets of tests in Aim Labs, a popular aim training software, under varying levels of added latency. The results revealed several important insights:
- Small delays matter more than you think: Adding just 10 ms of latency led to an average 7% drop in performance metrics such as reaction and aiming accuracy.
- Performance degrades progressively: By the time 50 ms of added latency was reached, players suffered more than a 25% performance decline on average, a significant drop especially for competitive gamers.
- Highly skilled players are more sensitive: Top-tier gamers experienced measurable impact even at very low added latency (as little as 3 ms), indicating elite gamers rely heavily on minimal delay for peak performance.
- Latency impacts perception and timing: Players reported feeling a “jiggly” or disconnected sensation as latency crossed about 35 to 50 ms, which affected their confidence and precision in aiming and movement.
- Not all delays are equally detrimental: The location of added delay (input device, PC processing, display) matters, but display lag often represents the largest portion of total latency. Using the right display mode and hardware can drastically reduce this.
The Role of Gaming Hardware in Latency
The ASUS ROG setup used in the tests included specialized peripherals and a tandem OLED monitor capable of switching between ultra-high refresh rates and resolutions without relying on display stream compression, which can introduce additional lag.
Monitors, particularly their response times and refresh modes, are paramount in minimizing perceived input lag. Gaming-grade monitors typically aim for sub-10 ms display lag, while common TVs or office monitors can add excessive delay, sometimes over 100 ms if running in non-gaming modes.
Similarly, wired gaming mice tend to have extremely low latency—often below 1 ms—while wireless or Bluetooth devices can add more delay, penalizing fast-paced players.
What This Means for Gamers at Every Level
Latency thresholds for negative impact differ depending on skill level and game type:
- Casual gamers: May not notice performance degradation until latency exceeds 50–60 ms; comfort and motion smoothness typically take precedence.
- Serious ranked players: Gains are noticeable when latency is kept below 35 ms; an increase of 10 ms can reduce consistency and the outcome of tight engagements.
- Pro and elite competitors: Aim to minimize total latency to sub-30 ms levels, utilizing gaming-grade monitors, peripherals, and even software optimizations (e.g., NVIDIA Reflex) to squeeze out every millisecond advantage.
Conclusion: Latency Is a Critical but Often Underestimated Factor
This controlled latency experiment proves that even modest delays, invisible to subjective feeling, can measurably degrade gaming performance, especially at higher skill tiers. While good gamers rely on honing their skills, hardware choices and system latency optimizations play a vital role in enabling those skills to manifest in-game.
Therefore, if you’re striving to climb competitive ladders like in Fortnite or aim-intensive FPS games, focusing on reducing input-to-display latency through quality peripherals, high-refresh monitors, and proper system configuration is as important as practice.
Ultimately, latency is not just a technical specification—it’s a tangible barrier between you and your peak gaming performance.
