I’m going to show an easy way to measure round-trip latency on Linux.
Have questions about your setup? Ask in our forums!
What is round-trip latency?
Round-trip latency is the time it takes for an audio signal to enter the input of a device, get processed by your PC, and exit the output. I’m going to show an easy way to measure yours using Linux.
Measuring round-trip latency
0. Connect the input to the output of your audio interface.
1. Install Jack 2 and Qjackctl.
sudo apt install jackd2 qjackctl
2. Configure Qjackctl.
![](https://linuxgamecast.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/qjacksetup-1024x906.webp)
3. Start Jack and open the graph.
![](https://linuxgamecast.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/graph.webp)
4. Open a terminal and start jack_iodelay.
![](https://linuxgamecast.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/qjackgraph1-1024x411.webp)
5. Connect the capture and playback ports to jack_iodelay.
![](https://linuxgamecast.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/qjackgraph-1024x411.webp)
6. See how your interface compares to others tested for Interfacing Linux. You can find FireWire and PCIe benchmarks here.
![](https://linuxgamecast.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/meta-chart-1024x683.png)
LATENCY HACK
USB ports connected directly to the CPU (usually) have lower latency. You can find this information in your motherboard manual.
![](https://linuxgamecast.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/chipsets-1024x455.webp)
Add comment