What Garmins are you to using?
I have an 800, it has a power field and a 3 second power field, they both give me the same thing. Both update every 3 seconds. I called them a year ago when I got the power meter and they told me that's how all their head units behave. A few days ago I had the power field displaying on my watch and it seems to update every second or so, I wasn't counting. So maybe the support guy I talked to was wrong and newer Garmins can do instantaneous power. From the way you're talking it sounds like newer Edges can too?