How to Lower Ping and Improve Gaming Speeds

Are you addicted to gaming but facing lags and delays while playing online video games? It’s due to the high ping rates contributing to a poor gaming experience. You might be confused about “ping” and how it could affect your gaming. This guide helps you discover the reason for low-performing gaming and how to lower ping and improve gaming speeds. 

So, let’s begin exploring the term “ping” and “latency.” 

What is ping? What is latency?

Ping is the time it takes for a small data set to travel from your device to a server online and back to your device. Milliseconds are used to measure the ping time (ms).

Latency is the time it takes for a data packet to get from one location to another. Latency is a more scientific term for lag, which describes lagging in games regarding response times. High latency is the reason why gaming becomes less enjoyable. 

What is a good ping?

Good ping rates can range from one game to the next; however, the following is a broad explanation of what varied ping rates might imply:

 Under 20 ms: If your ping time is less than 20 ms, you will often get extraordinarily clear, crisp graphics and rapid response times.

20ms–50ms: A ping range of 20ms–50ms is required for fluid and responsive gameplay on local or regional servers.

50–100 ms: Good. This range is commonly occupied by players connecting to international servers. Expect some performance lagging from time to time.

100-300 ms: Not good. Pings in this range can be exceedingly unpleasant, albeit they are not unplayable. Expect pixelated images and lags during gaming.

More than 300ms: Bad. Pings in this range are completely unacceptable by avid gamers. Gamers will experience lag, response time lags, and stuttering graphics.

How to Lower Ping and Improve Gaming Speeds – Quick Tips

Learn simple steps on how to give a boost to your gameplay and improve its speed by following the quick tips mentioned below. 

Connect Through Ethernet Cable

We all prefer using Wifi for a seamless wireless connection for online activities. Still, you must connect to a 5 GHz wifi network if you’re willing to play games using Wifi connections. A wireless connection can affect your connection speed due to the physical distance between your Wifi router and your gaming device. 

 Connecting your gaming PC or any other device with a wired ethernet cable can improve your gaming speed. A wireless connection is undoubtedly the easiest way to connect to the internet, but ethernet cables are more dependable and give you a more stable connection. 

Connect to a VPN

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) elevates your gaming experience by improving the speed, performance, and efficiency of your gaming. A VPN offers complete security and restricts your ISP from spying on your internet whereabouts and search history.

 Furthermore, when you are playing your favorite video games and you’ve reached your data limit, your ISP slows down your internet connection and imposes restrictions on bandwidth & data usage.  

 Luckily, a VPN is a great alternative to overcome bandwidth throttling and preventing your ISP from tracking or monitoring your online activities. In addition, a great VPN offers lower ping and better gaming with unlimited bandwidth and data speed. 

Reset Your Wifi 

As the distance between your router and the gaming device is a major cause of slow internet speed, one of the major causes is the quality of your router device. Like other devices, routers also get outdated and don’t perform as expected. Your daily Wi-fi router isn’t optimized for gaming needs and cannot compete with the top-performing gaming routers.

 Therefore, if you’re looking for an exceptional gaming experience, consider changing your Wifi router with an advanced gaming router. If you’re not willing to switch your router, reset your Wifi router instead by using the 5 GHz Wi-Fi frequency and relocating your router nearer to your gaming device. 

 Routers designed for gaming send powerful signals over your network and can significantly contribute to lowering gaming ping rates. Also, you can research your modem or router model online to determine the best configuration for gaming.

Switch Servers

Server location is a crucial factor in determining how fast your connectivity to your virtual server is. You may encounter lag in gaming if a server is too far away from your device and physical location when you connect to it.

 You can typically connect to a more regional gaming server to enhance your online gaming experience. Finding a server that is close to your current location to avoid low speed and connectivity issues. To test whether switching servers will improve your internet connectivity, test out servers in various regions. 

 Update Software

Make sure the firmware on your router or software is up to date. If you are instructed to update your software or make any additional updates, follow the on-screen instructions. 

 However, if some of your devices are no longer compatible with your activities, you might need to upgrade them. You might need to purchase a new router, for instance. You may even purchase a gaming router to improve your gameplay and lower pings. 

 Remember to change your OS from automatic to manual updates, which can cause a higher ping. It will also assist you in improving the ping when you’re performing activities that require high-bandwidth activities. 

ISP Support

You sometimes have no control over lowering ping. After trying the solutions on this list and still experiencing high ping, contact your ISP to find out what they recommend doing to provide you with a quicker internet connection. If the data limits of your existing internet subscription are insufficient, you might need to renew your subscription with comprehensive data and bandwidth package.  

 There are additional things that could be the root cause of this issue. You can take a few more actions to enhance your gaming experience and reduce ping, such as shifting your game console to a different room or angle in your house to optimize your wireless signal.

 Moreover, using ad blocker/anti-virus software can prevent viruses and malware from slowing you down, leading to fast-running gaming with zero lags or delays. These applications regularly check your device for risks. 

 Also, you can experiment with the game’s settings. You can reduce the amount of data your game needs by lowering unnecessary settings, such as switching from HD to regular graphics. 

Why is Ping High?

Higher ping is the main reason you experience delays and lags in gaming. Many factors contribute to high ping rates, which are discussed below:

Internet connection

Network congestion due to multiple users connected to your network simultaneously can result in a higher ping rate and lower speed. In addition, the time of day you’re using your internet also affects your internet speed. For instance, Midday is typically a time of day with heavier congestion because too many people are simultaneously connected to the same network.

 Your online activities will all suffer if your internet connection is slow. The number of data packets your network can relay depends on your internet speed. A free internet speed test can be used to check internet speeds. A quick, cost-free speed test can determine your latency, download speed, and upload speed.

Equipment

The gaming devices and router models that are outdated cannot process large data packets and aren’t sufficiently compatible to handle the amount of load that internet gaming can generate. The poor quality of your equipment can significantly affect the speed and performance of your gaming. Consider upgrading or optimizing your equipment and software with the latest updates.   

Data Overload

Internet bandwidth or data usage varies depending on the type of online activity. A lot of data will be needed for certain of your online activities, such as streaming movies, chatting with friends, and playing online video games. These activities have a higher likelihood of producing high ping.

Why Use Obscured VPN to Reduce Gaming Ping

From playing online video games to torrenting or streaming your favorite TV shows, all require high bandwidth and fast internet speed. Unfortunately, your ISP throttles your internet speed and imposes restrictions on bandwidth usage as your web traffic passes through an unencrypted tunnel that can make your online whereabouts visible to your ISP.

 But multiplayer gamers are especially troubled by latency problems because one wrong move that is out of sync with the servers could result in a loss. Fortunately, Obscured VPN will reduce your ping.

 Obscured VPN servers work exceptionally well in lowering your ping latency by delivering super-fast server speed. To obtain this, you need to choose a server closest to your location. For instance, if you live in Germany and want to play on a game server from Australia, then you should connect to the Australian server. 

 Once you establish a connection to Obscured VPN server, you can play thousand of video games with lower ping rates and fast gaming speeds. Furthermore, you can install Obscured VPN on your router and connect gaming consoles that aren’t VPN compatible. 

Conclusion

Gaming is really a fun activity that cheers you up, but high ping issues can frustrate you because you’ll face constant delays in your gaming. You need to take some points into consideration that can improve your gaming speed and helps lower your pings. One of the best techniques to reduce ping and fix in-game latency issues is to utilize Obscured VPN ultra-fast server. So, grab your Obscured VPN subscription now to make your gaming experience lag-free and enjoyable!