Since the days of Atari and the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the gaming world has radically transformed. While there is still a place for individual gameplay on console systems, the modern gaming world has now evolved to multiplayer systems, which bring players worldwide together to play in a virtual world. Therefore, a strong internet connection has become more important than ever.
Whether you enjoy racing games, MMORPGs, or first-person shooters, a fast and reliable internet connection to ensure seamless gameplay becomes a must. If you’re regularly experiencing delays between pressing a button and a character-commanded action lagging, then you are most likely having issues with latency.
What is Latency?
Latency, also known as ping, is the average time data travels from your gaming device to a server and back again. High latency is not ideal as it results in more lag, which makes the overall gaming experience far less enjoyable. On the other hand, low latency ensures smoother gameplay, as the lower your latency, the less lag you will experience.
When it comes to all online gaming platforms, from mobile games to full-scale gaming hubs, to the world of online casinos. Ensuring your latency is low means you can enjoy everything online casinos like TG Casino have to offer, such as a massive variety of games, lightning-fast payouts, higher betting limits, weekly cashback, and provably fair games.
The same goes for Steam and any other gaming hubs – you don’t want to lose a character you’ve been building for months only because your commands are lagging behind your opponent’s gameplay.
To ensure you keep lag to a minimum, you’ll want to test your latency. Aim for your ping speed to sit anywhere between 40 and 60 milliseconds or lower. Try to avoid your latency from ever having a speed over 100 milliseconds; at this speed, you’ll most likely notice some serious lag while you game. Ultimately, you want your latency speed to be as close to 0 milliseconds as possible, as this means your device will respond with a server in little to no time, making your gaming experience fast and responsive. Here are eight ways you can prevent high latency.
- Optimize Your Internet Connection
Your internet connection is a key factor in determining latency. A slow or unstable connection can lead to high ping, delays, and interruptions. Upgrading to a high-speed broadband plan, especially fiber optic, ensures lower latency and smoother gaming. Opting for a wired Ethernet connection over WiFi can provide consistent speeds and eliminate interference. If Wi-Fi is your only option, positioning your router centrally and away from obstructions can improve signal strength and stability.
To optimize your internet speed, consider using a wired Ethernet connection. Directly connecting your gaming device to your router often provides a faster and more reliable signal for your gaming needs. The problem with relying on WiFi is that if multiple people are connecting to the same WiFi, you could be receiving a spotty connection. However, with a wired Ethernet connection, this wouldn’t be an issue; in fact, it can increase your connection speed and reduce lag.
- Limit Excessive Network Traffic
PC gamers should close unnecessary background applications and browser tabs, especially larger applications like music or video software, to reduce internet bandwidth usage and improve game responsiveness. Furthermore, avoid downloading files while you game. Instead, schedule updates or downloads for a time you know you won’t be gaming to keep latency speeds low.
Additionally, you also prevent high latency by enabling the Quality of Service (QoS) setting on your router. This will make your router prioritize gaming traffic and ensure the necessary data is promptly transmitted.
- Use a VPN
Utilizing a VPN is another effective method to keep latency speeds low. VPNs achieve this by rerouting your device’s connection to optimized remote global servers, which reduce the physical distance between you and the game server. This bypasses geophysical restrictions, allowing players to connect to servers that are closer to them, improving speed, performance, and connectivity.
Additionally, VPNs will also mask your IP address, which will protect against DDoS attacks, ensuring your connection is not only fast but secure too. However, it is important to do your due diligence when selecting a VPN. Read reviews and do your research on which VPNs are known for high-speed connections and low ping rates before you subscribe to avoid worsening latency.
- Adjust Your Gaming Settings
Adjusting your game settings, like lowering the graphics quality by reducing its resolution or disabling more demanding features like shadows and anti-aliasing, will place less pressure on your device and lead to a smoother performance.
You can also enable G-Sync or V-Sync, which will sync your monitor’s refresh rate with your frame rate. This will reduce lag and screen tearing.
- Perform Regular Maintenance
To ensure your machine is always firing to the best of its ability, it is essential to regularly clear cache and temporary files, as over time these accumulate and can considerably slow your gaming device.
Furthermore, you should reboot your router relatively frequently, as this periodically refreshes your connection and can resolve potential latency problems. Lastly, make it a habit to scan your device for viruses, spyware, or malware that consume system resources and bandwidth. Doing so won’t only protect you against cyber attacks but also prevent latency issues.
- Keep Your Hardware Up-to-Date
Outdated or underperforming hardware can lead to some serious lag; that’s why it’s important to try and update your network drivers as regularly as possible to ensure that your device is compatible with modern games and systems.
Consider investing in a gaming router with features like beamforming, which reduces latency, optimizes speed, and improves connectivity, which will in turn enhance a game’s overall performance. Updating your gaming peripherals, like your controllers, mice, and keyboards, can also make a game more responsive.
Final Thoughts
In the world of online games, high ping can be incredibly frustrating and greatly influence whether a game will be enjoyable or not. Therefore, it becomes crucial to ensure we have low latency so we can experience an optimal gaming experience. By optimizing our internet connection, keeping tabs on our network traffic, utilizing fast and reliable VPNs, adjusting our game settings, keeping our hardware up-to-date, and performing regular maintenance of our devices we can ensure our gaming experience is always smooth by keeping our latency speed low.
