Wii U GamePad display latency is less than many HDTVs

The Wii U can wirelessly stream data to the touchscreen GamePad controller with just a 1/60th of a second latency.

That's according to Rayman creator Michel Ancel, who is developing 2D platformer Rayaman Legends for the console.

Such a small amount of lag logically means that a game running in 60fps will lag by just one frame per second. It is a "crazy" achievement, Ancel said.

"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," Ancel told Nintendo Power magazine (via Nintendo Everything). "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," he continued. "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 previously investigated the Wii U GamePad's latency and found it (while wired to the console at a demonstration event) to be seven frames faster than the attached HDTV.

"Most HDTVs come with a lot of lag as standard," DF chief Richard Leadbetter explained. "Seven frames is absolutely obscene, three or four is more common.

"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."

Digital Foundry will be validating these claims once and for all in a detailed hardware review around the console's launch.