Do you experience constant lag when playing online games? Do bullets from the enemy hit you even when you successfully hide behind the cover?
This happens when the ping is too high, leading to delays between the player's movement and the server's response, causing an irritating slowdown.
Here, we'll explain why ping is always high on your device and how you can get the lowest ping possible to make your gaming experience seamless.
Why Is Your Ping Too High?
There could be several reasons why your ping rate spikes while playing games. Here are some possible causes of high ping:
- You are too far away from your router.
- There is a problem with your Wi-Fi connection.
- Your ISP is throttling your internet speed.
- The router or modem you're using is outdated or has technical problems.
- Other processes are sucking up your network resources.
- Too many devices are on your network, causing it to slow down.
- You're playing a game with a VPN enabled.
- Slow response from the game server.
The question is: how can you figure out what is causing the ping to rise, and how can you reduce it? Getting the best ping possible on your device will require you to optimize your internet connection on top of finding the root cause of the high ping. But no worries, though, as we'll teach you how to reduce it. So, keep reading.
Check How High the Ping Is
If you assume that your games lag and stutter due to high ping, you should measure it to test your hypothesis. While some games show you the ping rate during gameplay, you should measure it directly to get a more accurate reading. On Windows, you can run a command in Command Prompt to check the ping rate. Here's how:
- Type Command Prompt in Windows Search.
- Right-click the Command Prompt app and select Run as administrator.
- Type ping [IP address] and press Enter.
- Make a note of the average ping rate you get.
On macOS, open the Terminal app, type ping [IP address], and press Enter. To stop pinging a server, press CTRL + C.
It's a similar process on most Linux distros, too. Open a Linux terminal, then input ping [IP address]. To stop pinging a server, press CTRL + C.
In all cases, you can swap out the IP address for a domain. For example, ping makeuseof.com.
If the ping rate is high and corresponds to the one you get when playing the game, then you are correct in your assumption. This begs the question: Why is the ping so high?
9 Tips to Get the Lowest Ping Possible
Getting the best ping possible on your device will require you to optimize your internet connection on top of finding the root cause of the high ping. But no worries, though, as we'll teach you how to reduce it.
1. Check Your Internet Connection
Poor internet connection is the leading cause of high ping. If your internet speed is too low, your online games will lag. A bad internet connection could be due to a terrible connection from your ISP or inefficient hardware, such as a modem or router. So, test your connection on any free internet speed test website and see how fast it is.
If the speed is much lower than what your ISP advertises for your plan, check if someone in your neighborhood uses the same ISP. If other users are also experiencing slower internet speeds, it might be time to switch your internet service provider. However, if you're the only one experiencing sluggish internet speed, do the following:
- Ensure your hardware, such as your router or modem, is working correctly.
- Ensure that all physical connections are properly wired and that the router has no hardware issues.
- Remove any physical objects between your device and router.
- Move closer to the router.
- Ensure the issue isn't with your device settings, causing the ping rate to spike. Fix the underlying problem to reduce the ping rate considerably.
- Use a wired connection, such as an Ethernet cable, to access the internet since it is more stable than a wireless connection.
- Reset your router to clear the cache, which can help your internet speed return to normal.
If none of the above steps improve the ping rate, then subscribe to a package that offers faster speeds. If the internet speed is already good, proceed to the next step.
2. Free Up Network Resources
The speed and stability of your internet connection won't matter if its resources are constantly strained. If you're running other network-hungry processes, such as live-streaming gameplay, downloading big files, etc., your ping will spike because fewer resources will be available for game processing.
Therefore, you should close any resource-hungry process currently running on your device. To close network-hungry processes on Windows, open Task Manager and click the Network column to arrange processes consuming the most bandwidth in descending order. Then, right-click on the processes consuming the most resources and click End task.
On macOS, launch Activity Monitor and go to the Network tab, filter out processes that consume the most bandwidth, select each process, click Stop in the top-left corner, and hit Quit.
Likewise, if too many devices are connected to the same internet connection, hogging its resources, you can encounter the same problem. You should also disconnect other devices connected to the same internet connection. However, if no other device on your network is using your internet bandwidth, the problem could be with the DNS cache or the game's server.
3. Switch Your Server
A high ping rate is usually a result of miscommunication between your connection's packet transmission rate and the game's server's response. When you're sure your internet speed is good enough, the culprit could be the game's server you're connected to.
Many games and social platforms, such as Discord, allow users to connect to a different server if they are experiencing connection lag with one server. So, switch to your nearest server to see if it fixes the problem.
If you see that the nearest server is overcrowded, choose a server that's a bit farther but has less traffic.
4. Enable or Disable Your VPN
Most internet service providers throttle the user's internet connection to limit the bandwidth consumption for specific processes. This is known as ISP throttling.
With a VPN, you can successfully hide all your activities from your ISP. If your ISP does not know you're running network resource-hungry processes, it will not throttle your connection.
Hence, you should enable a VPN and run the game again. If the ping rate drops, keep the VPN enabled. If not, revert the change.
Do you already have a VPN enabled while playing the game? If so, you should turn it off. When you use a VPN, traffic is routed through a remote server, prolonging the communication process between the servers. This results in a decrease in speed and a delay in response.
Considering this, you should disable VPN on your device if it is already enabled. If it worsens the ping, you can turn it back on.
5. Flush Your DNS Cache
Clearing the DNS cache clears outdated records and improves network performance by making the network more stable. It may help you establish a stronger connection to the game servers and reduce the ping.
Flushing the DNS cache on Windows and macOS is very straightforward. Therefore, try clearing it and see if it helps resolve the issue.
6. Play the Game Outside the Regular Hours
There are some games whose servers get crowded during specific hours of the day, but this isn't the case with most online games. Therefore, scheduling your gaming hours for a different time during the day may help you attain lower ping.
The best way to determine the best time to play the game is by trial and error. Therefore, you should play the game at different times during the day to determine when the ping is the lowest.
7. Disable Automatic Updates
Enabling the automatic updates makes it super easy to stay on top of the latest game modifications since new updates are automatically installed as soon as they are released. However, if the game begins updating during gameplay, it can drain considerable bandwidth, causing the ping rate to spike.
Therefore, turn off automatic updates to prevent this from happening. If you want to keep them running, schedule them to run when you're not actively gaming.
8. Change the Game Settings
If none of the fixes listed above effectively reduce ping, your last resort should be to tweak the game settings so that the resources are used for the required processes instead of being wasted.
For example, lowering the graphics settings may negatively impact your visuals, but it will reduce perceived lag significantly. Likewise, if your game allows you to control the audio quality, screen refresh rate, and similar settings, be sure to adjust them so that your game runs smoothly.
9. Change Your Internet Plan or ISP
If none of the above fixes lower the ping rate and the issue persists, you should probably switch to a better internet plan, offering higher speed than your current subscription. Therefore, upgrade your internet package to see if the improved speed makes your connection more stable and reduces the ping rate.
If upgrading to a high-speed internet plan does not reduce your ping rate, then your internet service provider could be to blame. To dispel this possibility, your last resort should be to change your internet service provider and see if doing so fixes the problem.
Get the Best Online Gaming Experience
Network lag and high ping can make gaming a real chore. Hopefully, our article has given you a better understanding of the reasons behind the high ping.
Additionally, the tips we listed in the article will help you reduce the ping significantly. If your internet connection is slow and you cannot change your ISP, you should optimize your Wi-Fi settings to ensure smooth gaming.