For gamers, few things are more frustrating than dealing with high ping during an intense match. High ping can cause delays, lag, and unresponsive gameplay, often costing you victory in competitive scenarios. Whether you’re battling it out in a shooter, strategizing in an MMO, or grinding through a dungeon in an RPG, lowering your ping is key to ensuring smooth and enjoyable gameplay.
In this guide, we’ll explore the best fixes for high ping and practical steps to reduce lag while gaming. From optimizing your network setup to tweaking in-game settings, these tips will help you achieve lower ping and gain the edge you need in your favorite games. Let’s dive in and boost your performance!
What is Ping?
Ping is the time it takes for your device to send data to a game server and receive a response, measured in milliseconds (ms).
A lower ping ensures smoother and more responsive gameplay, while high ping can cause delays, making it harder to compete effectively.
Ping plays a critical role in online games, where constant network communication is required. A high ping causes delays in registering commands, leading to lag that impacts every aspect of your gaming experience.
Offline games, however, are unaffected by ping since they don’t rely on an internet connection. For online gaming, reducing lag and achieving a lower ping is essential for a smoother, more responsive, and enjoyable experience.
Why Do I Have High Ping In Games?
Many reasons can cause a high ping, from the game settings to the internet router and the type of connection you use. Here are some of the most common issues that can make your ping spikes:
Router
If you use a wireless connection, one of the most common reasons people experience higher pings is their router. It can go from problems related to the router itself to problems with the connection established. When playing games, it’s always better to use an ethernet cable than a Wi-FI connection. It provides greater stability as physical obstructions or network sharing may impair the Wi-Fi signal. If you run a ping test and you notice that your internet connection presents a high ping, there are chances that your router is the problem. It is common when the router’s firmware is not updated or when it is far from your computer or gaming console.
Your Game’s Settings
Sometimes, the problem is in the game we are playing. Having the wrong gaming setup can make your ping so high that it becomes unplayable sometimes. One of the most common mistakes is selecting the wrong gaming servers located too far from your home. This will drastically affect your internet package loss and many other aspects of the gameplay. Thus, if you live in Europe, choose European servers instead of American or Australian ones.
Your Computer
The lack of maintenance also affects the internet connection speed and the details of it. You must ensure that your machine’s software is up to date and that the components inside of it are clean. This can not only reduce ping but also optimize all operations, like opening apps, for example. Be sure to take care of your hardware.
How Can I Check My Ping Rate?
If you are experiencing problems when playing games but don’t know if your problem is the ping, there are two ways of identifying it.
The first one is by turning on the average ping display in the game settings. This way, you can easily visualize the ping in your game’s server and identify if it is high or not.
The other way is by running an internet speed test. You can do this to make a ping test and determine if this is the problem or if the issue lies in another aspect of your connection, like internet traffic.
How Do I Lower My Ping For All Games?
Now that you know what ping is and the main causes of high ping, we will show you some tricks that can solve the problem and improve the experience for online gamers. Be sure to check every tip to identify what is causing the problem and the best solution for it.
1. Update Your Router
Having firmware up to date and the router close to your PC or gaming console can reduce ping and improve your experience. Moreover, you can also find a gaming router to buy, designed specifically to prioritize gaming traffic and consequently deliver a lower ping to the users.
It is also essential to know that the type of connection is also directly related to the ping and the gaming experience. A wired connection is more stable and provides a lower ping than a wireless one. If you are using a wired connection, choose a quality ethernet cable for it, and also make sure to set it up in your PC or console correctly.
2. Update Your Computer or Console
Along with your router, you also need to update your computer to guarantee a stable connection, whether through wi-fi or ethernet cable. Look for programs, games, and features that can be updated and do it. Keeping things updated is important not just in terms of the performance of your ethernet connection but also in terms of security.
Updated machines can prevent problems like viruses and malware from infecting your system. The same works for the game console. Keep your system constantly updated to avoid ping spikes and prevent system vulnerability. You can easily do this by accessing the settings tab in the menu.
3. Close or Limit Background Applications
Another common mistake that can drastically affect your ping is keeping tons of apps running in the background. They entirely affect the performance of your computer and, consequently, increase the ping when gaming. You can fix it by searching for “background apps” in the windows search bar and disabling all the apps you are not using.
Doing this will immediately increase the performance of your computer and fix high ping if it is a performance issue.
4. Change Your Game Settings
One of the most common mistakes that lead to high ping and poor internet connection is the settings used in the game. To fix this, you must check out your game’s settings and ensure you selected the correct options. The first thing you need to check out is the selected server.
Select the right region for a better and more stable connection. Choosing the right server will guarantee that you use the server with the lowest ping possible and play with other users from your region.
Along with this option, there are other details that you can set up to establish a better connectionand, of course, a better ping. These options may vary depending on the game and chosen platform.
5. Check Your Internet Plan
Your internet speed and stability also has a big responsibility for the high ping and everything that happens when trying to play online games. If you are experiencing ping spikes and slow wi-fi connections, you might need to get in touch with your internet provider and check if everything is alright on their side.
It is also recommended to be careful when sharing the same connection with multiple persons. Having numerous connected devices simultaneously will drastically affect your ping and gaming performance.
6. Try NoPing
NoPing is a service designed to optimize your route to more than 2000 games. Sometimes, the normal path your internet provider uses isn’t the fastest — NoPing reroutes your data through a better, more direct path.
Here’s how to use NoPing to fix lower ping in games:
- Sign-up through the website and download NoPing (you can test it for free).
- Open NoPing and search for your game inside the software
- Once you find your game, click on it and, on the next screen, select “Choose automatic” or “Choose manual” and click “Continue”. We recommend choosing automatic, as NoPing’s technology analyzes all routes on a global scale and automatically selects the best option for you.
- On the next screen, click on “Optimize Game”.
- And that’s it, you can start playing your game with optimized ping!
You can test different servers within NoPing to see which gives you the lowest latency.
What’s a Good Ping for Gaming?
A good ping for gaming typically falls below 50 milliseconds (ms). With a ping in this range, your gameplay will feel smooth and responsive, ensuring commands are registered almost instantaneously. Pings between 50 and 100 ms are generally acceptable for casual gaming, though you might notice slight delays in fast-paced, competitive scenarios.
Once ping rises above 100 ms, lag becomes more noticeable and can interfere with your performance, especially in games that require split-second decisions like shooters or MOBAs. High ping over 150 ms can lead to significant delays, frustrating gameplay, and even disconnections. To reduce lag and improve your experience, aim for the lowest ping possible by optimizing your network setup.
And What’s Considered a Really Bad Ping?
Ping above 150 milliseconds (ms) is generally considered really bad for gaming. At this level, you’ll experience significant delays, frequent lag, and unresponsive gameplay, especially in fast-paced or competitive games.
How Do I Lower Ping on WiFi?
To lower ping on WiFi, start by optimizing your network connection. Position your router in a central location, away from walls or interference from other electronic devices, to ensure a strong signal. Using a 5GHz WiFi band instead of 2.4GHz can also help reduce lag, as it offers faster speeds and less interference.
If possible, connect directly to your router with an Ethernet cable for a more stable connection. Additionally, limit the number of devices connected to your WiFi during gaming, close background applications using bandwidth, and ensure your router firmware is up to date. These steps can significantly reduce high ping and improve your gaming performance.
Although high ping is a deadly enemy for gamers, it is a problem that can be easily solved. After running speed tests and identifying that your ping is higher than it should be, the next step is to understand what is causing the problem.
