Is bluetooth audio latency usually noticeable for single player games?

[jpringle1 0]

Got a question for anyone who knows anything about gaming with Bluetooth headphones

I'm aware that there is an unavoidable noticeable latency with all Bluetooth headphones when gaming. However, most of what I've read on the subject claims that it should be fine for single player games. I only play single player games, and yet i find the latency unbearable. From what i understand, there are one of two possible causes:

1 - There is a separate issue causing more latency than usually expected
2 - There is exactly as much latency as usual, but I just happen to me more sensitive to it.

I don't think it's the second since i don't play any competitive games so my senses shouldn't be faster than the average gamer, but I'm not finding any information that suggests there's a different issue. I just want someone to educate me a bit on which is most likely

[Aemony 142]

Modern Bluetooth headsets supports two different modes: a low-latency one and a “normal” one that has latency.

The low-latency mode is fine for gaming, but ends up causing the headset battery to drain much faster. The normal power-saving mode is useless for *any* real-time media such as games, movies, etc where audio needs to be synced.

[jpringle1 0]

3 hours ago, Aemony said:

Modern Bluetooth headsets supports two different modes: a low-latency one and a “normal” one that has latency.

The low-latency mode is fine for gaming, but ends up causing the headset battery to drain much faster. The normal power-saving mode is useless for *any* real-time media such as games, movies, etc where audio needs to be synced.

Am i right in thinking the low-latency mode is what is activated during phone calls and stuff?

[Aemony 142]

On 8/22/2023 at 8:28 PM, jpringle1 said:

Am i right in thinking the low-latency mode is what is activated during phone calls and stuff?

No idea on that. All that I remember atm is that receiving a phone call typically reduces audio quality by a ton for some reason.

[Fagirton 0]

Actually, the amount of latency in headphones depends not only on Bluetooth in headphones but also on BT driver in PC and BT module you are using.
Usually, Windows drivers don't do anything to compensate the latency and BT module should be modern enough to take advantage of low-latency modes.

ALSO note that latency could be compensated if you have predictable content (like movies, videos, visual novels etc.), but in games computers can't look into the future yet and provide your headphones with sound output earlier to make it in sync. There's probably nothing you could do with these, it's just better to use wired headphones for games.

My best experience in gaming with wireless headphones was with PS Vita which has some adjustments for latency in some games and Fire Emblem Three Houses on Switch which doesn't have too much action (it's Tactical RPG) and the latency wasn't noticeable.