What controller do people prefer?

[Elvar27]

Mostly just curious what controllers people prefer.
It's all personal preference I'm aware of that.
Personally can't decide whether I'd like to use the ps4 or ps5 controller.

What controllers do you use?

[darnee]

I use a ps5 because its bigger and smoother. I feel like everyone just uses super basic controllers like all the xbox types and ps4/ps5. Just whatever fits your hands most comfortably.

[oj46461]

but I found when I switched to a ps5 controller I could NOT use an Xbox one controller anymore, tried my brothers and it's got a NOTICEABLE amount of delay.

PS5 controller is goated IMO.

[motokid499]

I use a PS5 controller since I've always just preferred the joystick layout of PlayStation.

The input latency argument can also come into play here. The PS5 controller wired into your PC has a native polling rate of 250hz (I think) but can be overclocked to 1000hz (1ms input lag) Some people overclock up to 8000hz, but you must understand that you're only overclocking the USB port and a PS5 controller is only capable of outputting 1000hz itself. A standard Xbox controller plugged into PC is 125hz (8ms input lag) and I'm unsure if they can be overclocked.

It's such a small difference in the real world though, and a lot of top pros are getting good results in rF with standard Xbox controllers at 125hz.

Input lag will just change how "floaty" the inputs feel, with less latency feeling more "connected". With practice and muscle memory built into visual feedback, you'll just adjust the timings of your inputs to match the latency of your input lag. So your thumbs will just be reacting to visual queues on screen 7ms sooner than on a PS5 controller.

The games physics run at 128hz though, and I find on my PS5 controller set to 1000hz I get incorrect inputs sometimes. I'll press my brake and sometimes it just won't register, and I fly over a berm or rut. I'll have to double press the button for it to register. Or sometimes my gearshifts will mess up and downshift becomes upshift and upshift becomes downshift. I don't know if this is polling rate specific, but I know it doesn't happen on Xbox controllers and happens all the time on my PS5 controller set to 1000hz.

I'm the type of person who strives for lowest latency possible, but this has problems of its own. Pushing higher polling rates will introduce more latency jitter, making input latency consistency worse. On an Xbox controller you'll be at 8ms consistently, with that input lag never changing. This makes inputs from visual feedback extremely repeatable even if you have less of a connected feeling. This is why some esports pros still use 500hz on their mouse instead of 1000hz or higher, the consistency of the 500hz provides less jitter. The better hardware gets, the less of a problem this becomes, but there's still benefits to both setups as of today.

My personal take is to prioritize latency stability over best possible latency. So don't overclock controllers, just stick with stock polling rates. I say this running the lowest possible latency on my controller, but it's because I'm addicted to it. Once you have a setup that's lowest latency possible, you can't go back. 500hz feels like crap for me, 250hz even worse, 125hz is unplayable. It's just because my muscle memory is tied to 1000hz. I'm ruined from low input lag and now I have to deal with controller misinputs and jitter and crap I wouldn't have to deal with if I just stuck to native polling rates.

If you still want to experience lowest input lag possible, good news for Xbox players because the lowest latency controller in the world (Razer Wolverine v3 8K) is Xbox layout at 8000hz fitted with high precision low latency TMR thumbsticks (same durability as hall sensors, less power, higher accuracy, less latency) it's arguably the best esports controller in the world right now. And with the 8000hz polling rate ceiling, I bet its capable of running 1000-2000hz with next to zero jitter.

For us PlayStation guys, there's really no option to compete with this if you want best of the best. If you're impartial to either controller layouts, the Razer Wolverine V3 8K tournament edition (wired) is the absolute best controller you can buy for MXS right now, and it's cheap. If I wasn't so stuck on PS5 layout I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

[Wahlamt]

XBox 360, mine still going strong since 2012. Got another one new in box just in case it breaks.

[Andy_Hack]

Woah that's quite interesting, i didn't know that overclocking controllers was even a thing.
Great recommendation for the Razer Controller too, i always thought non-genuine xbox or playstation controllers were junk, but that Razer seems to be an even better option.