It’s now been a few days since the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics title launched with players around the world having fun and getting washed when they’re not running into matchmaking issues.
One deciding factor for where more competitively-minded players will pick up a fighting game on is dependent on which platform has the lowest input lag, and we’ve now got some more information on that for Marvel fans.
The resident fighting game latency guru Nigel “Noodalls” Woodall shared his findings after performing a myriad of tests on Marvel vs. Capcom 2 across the available systems.
Woodall previously released the findings for his PlayStation 4 on PlayStation 5 input lag experiments, and now he’s done the same for MvC2 on PC, Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch.
Starting out with Nintendo’s hybrid console, it’ll probably come as little surprise that the Switch’s less powerful hardware seems to have the most latency of them all though it’s not as far off from the other console as you may expect.
Using the video interrupt method of testing, the Switch version of the MvC Collection showed an average of 68.75 ms of input lag.
https://t.co/8NsrOa6Q2H
NSW
Marvel vs Capcom 2
Video Interrupt Method
P1 Command History Brook UFB Fusion 68.75ms(105T)
P1 Animation Brook UFB Fusion 68.75ms(105T)
Difference 0.0ms (110T)
Turbo pic.twitter.com/cTZVjrISaL— Nigel Woodall (@noodalls) September 12, 2024
Since there’s 16.67 ms in one frame of a 60 frames per second game like almost all fighters, that equates to 4.12 frames of average latency from when you press a button to when the game registers / displays the input.
Running the PS4 version on PS5 using the same method showed it had an average of 57.74 ms or 3.46 frames, so there’s around a 0.66 frame difference between the main consoles.
The Steam Deck using the same testing method was the fastest of them all so far when connected to an external monitor.
https://t.co/UqvkykKmER
SD
Marvel vs Capcom 2
Video Interrupt Method
P1 Command History Brook UFB Fusion 43.89ms(111T)
P1 Animation Brook UFB Fusion 43.89ms(111T)
Difference 0.0ms (111T)
Turbo pic.twitter.com/IjXrhbyI9t— Nigel Woodall (@noodalls) September 12, 2024
Noodalls’ initial Steam Deck tests showed an average of 43.89 ms or 2.63 frames of lag, so not quite a full frame ahead of PlayStation.
He would go on to state, however, that PC does not play nice with the video interrupt method, so he had to test that version through the “phototransistor” method — which he also used to re-test the PS5 and Steam Deck too.
PC is where you’re going to get the most variance depending on your available hardware, monitor and settings, but it seems like this will offer the best speed when configured correctly.
Woodall’s setup uses an Nvidia 3080 GPU, GSync, Ultra Low Latency Mode, and testing at 240 Hz with all systems using a Sony Inzone M3 monitor.
MvC2 input lag tests for PC. Use the leftmost red figure for comparisons to videointerrupt.
Full data is here. pic.twitter.com/mgGeSbRb9Z
— Nigel Woodall (@noodalls) September 15, 2024
At its lowest point, MvC2 on PC clocked in at just 15.5 ms of lag in borderless window mode and V-Sync off, which is a staggering 0.93 frames.
Initial tests in Fullscreen actually had the figures a big higher at 28.87 ms or 1.73 frames, so borderless windowed mode looks like it’s interestingly the best way to run MvC2 currently.
As for the Steam Deck, using the phototransistor method showed its latency down to an also impressive 20.71 ms or just 1.24 frames with pretty much the same settings as PC.
The PlayStation version didn’t actually fare as well with the second testing method, however, considering it saw an increase on average over the initial run.
Woodall’s phototransistor method produced a consistent 66.52 ms of lag no matter the settings with the PS4 version running on PS5 or 3.99 frames — so around half a frame more compared to the interrupt tests.
We don’t know the technical ins and outs to explain why the results differ between methods and why PS would increase while Steam Deck would decrease under the same parameters, which is something left unexplained by Woodall at the moment too.
You can see the full breakdown document of input lag tests with the phototransistor method Noodalls has put together, showing that MvC2 is around 11 ms / 0.65 frames slower than Street Fighter 6 on PS5.
Ultimately, it looks like PC is the best choice again in terms of latency if you’ve got the hardware to make the difference while the PlayStation provides around the average of what we’ve come to expect from the system.
Keep in mind these tests were only run on Marvel vs. Capcom 2, but every other game in the collection should presumably produce almost the exact same results though we’ll provide updates if they’re not.
We’ve also put together a comparison of the different systems and testing methods for the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection that you can find below.
• PS4 on PS5 – 3.46 frames
• Nintendo Switch – 4.12 frames
• Steam Deck – 2.63 frames
• PC (Borderless Windowed, GSync, V-Sync off) – 0.93 frames
• PC (Fullscreen, GSync, V-Sync off) – 1.73 frames
• Steam Deck (Borderless Windowed, V-Sync off) – 1.24 frames
• PS4 on PS5 – 3.99 frames