How Do You Lower Your Ping? 10 Easy Tips To Improve Gaming Performance
Online gaming is easily one of the coolest things about living in this era of technology – that is, until a sudden lag spike or a sky-high ping rate sends everything spiraling into chaos. One moment, you’re enjoying a fun evening with your friends and rivals; the next, your voice chats are out of sync, enemies are teleporting across the screen like they’ve discovered a secret power-up, and your carefully aimed shots never seem to land
Or worse, there’s friendly fire, and you hit your teammates.
Well, the good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way.
With a few tweaks to your setup and Private Internet Access helping to stabilize the parts of your connection outside of your control, you can lower your ping to make your online games a lot more fun.
Read on to learn exactly what causes high ping and how you can fix it, so you can get back to enjoying your favorite online games without the headache of lag..
What Is Ping and Why Is It So Important for Gaming?
Alright, for the beginners out there or those who haven’t been paying much attention to their network speeds, here’s what you need to know: ping is the amount of time it takes for a signal to travel from your gaming device (PC, console, or phone) to the game servers you’re playing on. The higher your ping, the worse your lag will be, resulting in actions taking longer to register in the game.
Conversely, lower ping means faster data exchange and smoother gameplay. You’ll hit your shots more frequently in shooters, have more time to react to enemies, and experience fewer issues when your game and the server try to reconcile what’s happening at each end. In short, every millisecond counts – especially in fast-paced, competitive games.
Why Is My Ping So High?
Here are some of the most common factors that contribute to high ping:
- Distance from your router: if you’re on Wi-Fi, the further you are from the router, the weaker your signal. Every wall, door, and bit of furniture in the way is an obstacle your Wi-Fi signal must get through on its way to your computer and back.
- Server location: the further away the game server is from you, the higher your ping will be. This is just physics, and there’s not a lot you can do about it unless you move or find a server that’s closer to you.
- External networking issues: these include overcrowded networks on the route between your gaming device and the game server, bad signal routing caused by a misconfigured server somewhere in the chain, and plain old bad luck. No worries, there IS something you can do about this. Read on to find out more.
- Too many apps running: yep, if you overwork your CPU, that can slow down the processing of your game’s internet traffic, and cause higher ping.
- Your home network is overloaded: if you have a bunch of downloads going on in the background, or three other people streaming their favorite shows on their own devices, you’ll get slower gaming performance.
- ISP throttling: To preserve bandwidth, some ISPs intentionally throttle (slow down) internet traffic to specific games, or all the games they can think of. And some of them will do it if you just happen to use the internet a lot.
Fortunately, most of the issues mentioned above can be resolved using the advice below. Let’s get started.
10 Ways to Lower Your Ping and Improve Gaming Performance
1. Use PIA VPN
Want a faster, smoother gaming experience? PIA VPN helps you overcome network congestion, bad signal routing, and ISP throttling – all common culprits behind high ping and lag.
By routing your gaming traffic through PIA’s high-speed VPN servers, you can often find a faster, more stable connection to your game’s servers, lowering your ping. PIA is designed to automatically search for the fastest route between your device and the VPN server you chose. Connecting to a PIA VPN server close to the game server can reduce ping by bypassing inefficient routes set by your ISP.
PIA VPN’s strong encryption will also allow you to get around ISP throttling. Your ISP can see that your data is encrypted but can’t see what sites you’re visiting or what apps you’re using. This makes it darned difficult to selectively throttle game traffic, giving you consistent speeds and a smoother gaming experience. However, depending on their setup, they might still be able to throttle your whole connection for heavy usage, so keep that in mind.
On top of all that, these features make it harder for people to steal your data — especially on public Wi-Fi – and add a layer of anonymity to your online activities. They can also get you around blocks on your favorite games if you’re trying to play on work or school networks. All reasons that make PIA a great VPN for gaming.
2. Use a wired connection
Wi-Fi has gotten very good lately, but it still has the problem that it’s always had: wireless signals just aren’t as stable or fast as what you can get with a cable. You’ll be amazed at the performance upgrade you get if you connect your PC or console to your modem/router via an ethernet cable.
If you game on your smartphone, stay close to the router. The signal will be better.
3. Make sure all drivers and software are up to date
Outdated software can have bugs and incompatibilities that slow down your internet connection. So yes, updating your operating system, drivers, and the firmware on your modem or router can all improve your gaming performance. This goes for consoles and your smartphone as well, of course. Keep them up to date!
4. Restart your devices
The longer any given computing device is on and operating, the more temporary files and random bits of data pile up on top of each other. This can eventually cause problems, including higher ping, but they are removed when you reboot the device.
This is why the phrase “turn it off then on again” has become a meme – because it often works. Remember to restart both your gaming device and your modem/router just to be sure.
5. Make sure your internet isn’t overloaded
Pause those totally legitimate Linux ISO torrent downloads, check that Steam isn’t updating a different game in the background, and see if anyone else in your house is streaming videos from YouTube, Netflix, and Prime Video all at once. Make them stop, if you can. The more you can clear up your internet connection, the better your ping will be.
6. Choose the right game servers
Usually, that’s the server closest to you. It’s less of a distance for your data to travel, and all. But, given the vagaries of signal routing, you may want to try switching to different servers to see if your ping is lower.
7. Flush your DNS cache
Your device tends to collect all the addresses of the servers you contact, to save time later. That data can become outdated or corrupted, causing problems. Clear it out.
If you’re on PC (Windows or Linux) or a Mac, look up a quick tutorial on how to do it. You’ll usually need to do it via the command line. On consoles, just turn it off, leave it unplugged for about three minutes, and then turn it back on. On a smartphone, you can try using the built-in temporary file cleaners.
8. Upgrade your router/modem
This won’t be possible for everyone, and you might need to ask your ISP for help, but an old and outdated modem can cause lag issues and high ping. If you’ve had yours for a long time, consider upgrading to a modern model that can handle the latest Wi-Fi standards and comes with updated firmware that can optimize performance and reduce ping.
9. Upgrade your internet
Again, this won’t be possible for everyone, but if your overall speeds are very low, you might be able to upgrade to a faster internet plan, which can help to lower your ping.
10. Upgrade your gaming hardware
This one’s last because, well, it’s not cheap. But remember how overtaxing your CPU can cause lag and high ping? Eventually, there comes a point where your hardware is so old, that it doesn’t matter how many background apps you close. You need to upgrade.
What’s a Good Ping Rate for Gaming?
The general consensus is as follows:
- Less than 20 milliseconds is the dream. And we do mean “dream” as in, it’s hard to make it a reality.
- 20ms to 40ms is amazing, and you’ll have an advantage over lots of other players in reflex-dependent games.
- 40ms to 60ms is perfectly playable, and you won’t feel any real problems.
- 60ms to 80ms is still playable, but you’ll start to feel the disadvantages when you’re up against players with lower ping.
- Beyond 80ms is less than desirable for games where speed matters, and you’ll really feel the lag beyond 100ms. Turn-based games should be fine, though.
How to Do a Ping Test
There are a few easy ways to handle this. Firstly, many online games offer a way to show the ping as you play. This is the most accurate way to get your moment-to-moment ping, and it’s the one that I’d usually recommend. Failing that, if your game offers a server browser, or a simple way to change regions, it might show you the ping for each server/region before you start playing, and that can help.
Secondly, you can Google the server locations for the game in question, and run a ping test yourself. Mind you, this only works on a PC/Mac, or a phone with a terminal app if you have one. On Windows, open up the CMD prompt, or the Terminal app if you installed that. Mac users, you’re looking for the Terminal. Linux users, you know what to do.
Then just run “ping [IP address]” in the command line, and press “Enter.” The “[IP address]” bit should be replaced with the actual IP address numbers you found online. It will look a bit like this demonstration, where I pinged a popular DNS server:
Lastly, if you don’t have a Terminal available to you, you could try checking out a website called Game Server Ping. It gives you an easy way to check your ping against the servers of several popular online games, but obviously doesn’t account for all of the games you might want to test. Still, it’s easy and fast.
Lastly, if you don’t have a Terminal available to you, you could try checking out a website called Game Server Ping. It gives you an easy way to check your ping against the servers of several popular online games, but obviously doesn’t account for all of the games you might want to test. Still, it’s easy and fast.
What Makes PIA the Best VPN for Gaming?
PIA is a fantastic gaming VPN because it covers all your bases. To help you get those low pings, it offers crazy fast servers in 91 countries, so you can always get an optimized connection wherever you need it. On top of that, powerful encryption helps to keep your data safe, and the ability to hide your IP address helps you to avoid DDoS attacks.
All PIA’s servers come with DDoS mitigation to keep your connection stable and smooth, minimizing the risk of lag or disruptions. If there are problems of any kind, you can contact the 24/7 support team via live chat or email. Best of all, it works on every gaming device: PCs, mobile devices, and even on consoles via VPN-enabled routers.
All of this and more comes at a fantastic price, and if you want to be extra sure before you commit, PIA offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Try it out risk-free, and make sure PIA is right for you.
FAQ
For several reasons, but the big one is speed. A VPN can stabilize your connection to reduce lag spikes, and even lower your ping in the right circumstances. On top of that, it hides your IP address and encrypts all traffic between you and the VPN server. These features help to mitigate DDoS attacks, protect your data, and add a layer of anonymity to your connection.
Unless you have very low speeds, the bandwidth of your internet connection doesn’t have much of an effect on the time it takes a signal to go from you to the game server and back. A dozen other factors – including the distance between you and the game server, the Wi-Fi in your home, external signal routing, and more – can all affect your ping.
Nope. Even if your PC or console were in the same room as the game server, connected to it directly, it still takes some time to process the data going back and forth. That would sure feel like 0 ping, though. Assuming you don’t have that option, you can use a gaming VPN to help reduce your ping over longer distances. It’s a lot easier than moving.
First, make sure you’re using a wired connection when you’re playing Fortnite. Then connect to the Fortnite data centers closest to your location. Google that information, if necessary. Use a VPN to bypass external networking issues, and make sure that your gaming devices are up to date, with current drivers. Try restarting all devices, including your modem.
Well, you can start with the usual advice: wired connections are your friend, make sure your home internet isn’t overloaded with big downloads or streaming, make sure your devices are up to date, etc. But as for choosing which Roblox servers to play on, that’s harder. Roblox intentionally makes that information harder to track, so you’ll need to experiment.
Yes, under the right conditions. Lag and high ping can be caused by several different factors, including overcrowded external networks, bad signal routing, and other issues. PIA VPN bypasses these problems by automatically finding the fastest route between you and the VPN server you choose. Choose one close to the game server, and you’re all set.
Yes and no. If you’re on a DSL connection or a cheap, slow internet package, then your low bandwidth might affect your ping, especially if you’re trying to stream video in the background, for example. If you’re on modern internet – e.g., a fiber network – your bandwidth shouldn’t have much of an effect on ping. Still, you might try calling your ISP to see if they can help.
There are a couple of different ways. The best is to use your game’s built-in ping display, if it has one. Games with server browsers will also often show the ping for that server before you join. Failing that, you could Google the game server/data center locations for your game, and run “ping [IP address]” in the CMD prompt or Terminal apps on your OS.
Spikes denote a lack of network stability, and can also be caused by surges in traffic on intervening networks. The two main ways to stabilize your connection are to, firstly, connect to your modem or router with a cable. It’s always more stable than Wi-Fi. Secondly, use a fast VPN to find the best route between you and the game server.