How to measure the report interval
- Connect the DualSense, DualSense Edge or DualShock 4 with a USB data cable, click Connect for more tests, and pick it in the browser’s list.
- Click Measure for 5 seconds. You don’t need to touch anything: these controllers send reports continuously, because every report carries the motion sensor readings.
- Disconnect, pair the controller over Bluetooth, connect again and repeat, then compare.
What the numbers mean
- Controller clock is the report rate measured with the timestamp the controller writes into each report. It shows how often the controller actually sends, free of any delay on the way.
- Interval is the median gap between those reports, in milliseconds, and clock jitter how much it varies.
- Arrival rate and arrival jitter come from the time each report reached this page. The gap between the two sets of figures is what the connection and the computer add.
- Late arrivals counts gaps more than three times the usual interval: dropped or delayed reports, typical of a congested Bluetooth link.
What this doesn’t measure
This is the report interval, not end-to-end input lag. A button press also waits inside the controller until the next report, then in the operating system and the game, and then for the screen to show the next frame. Those parts are usually much larger than the report interval and can only be measured from outside, with a high-speed camera filming the button and the screen together. Treat a short, steady interval as a good sign, not as your total input lag.
The timestamps are decoded from published formats (the Linux hid-playstation driver and SDL); not yet tested on a real controller. Over Bluetooth, deep mode switches the controller to its full report format until it reconnects, and it asks before doing so: if another app or game stops seeing the controller afterwards, turn the controller off and on. For other controllers, the polling rate test measures what the browser’s standard gamepad connection delivers, and the reaction time test measures you.