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RetroArch > Guides > Xenon's Guides
44 ratings
Reduce/Eliminate Input Lag
By Xenon
How to eliminate input lag using retroarch's Run-Ahead setting
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Created by
Xenon
Online
Category: Modding or Configuration
Languages: English
Tags: Input lag, Latency
Posted
Updated
13 Nov, 2021 @ 12:42am
13 Nov, 2021 @ 12:43am
1,478 Unique Visitors
53 Current Favorites
Guide Index
Overview
How to do it 
Comments
How to do it
It's a pretty easy and straight forward process:
  • Open a game, any game will do but it should preferably be something with well telegraphed animations, I'm using Super Mario Bros. 3 with QuickNES core
  • Stand somewhere safe then press 'P' on your keyboard to pause the game
  • Next, while the game is still paused press and hold the jump button, or any other action if you're playing something else.
  • While still holding the action button click the 'Frameadvance' button, 'K' by default
  • Count how many clicks you make till the character starts moving
  • In my case it's 2 clicks.
  • Open the Quick Menu and go down to the Latency setting

  • Turn on the 'Run-Ahead to Reduce Latency' setting
  • Change the 'Number of Frames to Run-Ahead' to the amount of clicks you counted - 1, so in my case that's 2 clicks - 1 = 1

  • Resume playing your game.
  • ?????
  • Profit
9 Comments
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Tempest 25 Nov, 2024 @ 7:43pm 
There is a new, "preemptive frames" function that is supposedly better:
https://youtu.be/NDYqRoyOKI4?si=TIpegOB_2Gkash8P
2MuchRice 5 Nov, 2023 @ 9:31pm 
@Radiant poor guy doesn't know how to use an emulator, someone show him
Radiant 10 Jun, 2023 @ 3:22pm 
You been scammed by RetroArch. This app doesn't allow you to play retro games.
Lunch 2 Jun, 2023 @ 3:23pm 
holy hell this worked, I thought I was having a tough time with the inputs in something like pokemon, like I thought it was an intentional delay, this helped! Thanks.
tcassat 2 Aug, 2022 @ 9:11am 
It's insane, using this I got such a low input lag that I finally feel, after about 20 years, that I am playing with the same delay (or even less) than a CRT. The SNES by the way has a natural input delay that I believe this "run ahead" function helps mitigate, so it's probably even better than playing on a CRT, as long as you have a "gamer" monitor with extremely fast response time.

I use the Nintendo Switch on this same monitor and the input lag I encounter in games like Mario Maker 2 is so big compared to what I get using "run ahead" from retroarch that it will be hard to go back to that game.
Crash 29 Jul, 2022 @ 6:07am 
nice!
Xenon  [author] 15 Nov, 2021 @ 11:25am 
this won't improve FPS or remove stutter, it only affects the duration between you pressing a button and the action appearing on screen
Skywalker 15 Nov, 2021 @ 9:23am 
So basically this is supposed to make the game run better right?
PrismaNeon 13 Nov, 2021 @ 9:21am 
You've Forgot To Mention That The Retroarch Input Config Is Already Settled For Late Default Input In The Config System, If You Switch The Config To Normal, You Can Reduce The Input Lag Even More :steamthumbsup::cocochan2: