High ping? If you are an online gamer, it is the most annoying thing you must have faced. High ping means high latency or lag during gameplay. Ping is the amount of time for a request to reach the server and give a response. A gamer can also lose a match due to a high ping rate. What if he misses the shot? Or unable to move when fired by an enemy? Due to the lag.
Generally, you can lower the ping rate by reducing the number of users on your network, closing the unused background apps, using an ethernet cable, changing the game settings, choosing a nearby server, updating the router firmware, and contacting your Internet Service Provider.
You are here to lower the ping rate to optimize your game performance, right? Welcome to the right stuff. Here, you can find all the possible causes of the high ping rate, with many solutions.
Causes of High Ping Rate
Before jumping into the solutions, you might be wondering about the causes of a high ping rate. Following are some of the possible reasons for it.
Internet Speed
Internet speed refers to the amount of data the network can transfer per second. Measure in Mbps. You can test your internet speed by an online test through this website.
This is one of the most popular websites for an internet speed check. After performing the test, you will get the ping rate, upload speed, and download speed.
Internet speed is the most vital factor that affects the ping rate. If the internet speed is the problem, none of the other solutions can fix the problem. The desired ping rate for online gaming lies between 20-and 70 ms. The lower, the better.
Number of Users on the Network
More users on the network mean more congestion and high traffic that indirectly affects your network speed because all the devices carry their data on the network, resulting in a high ping rate.
Number of Background Apps Running
More background apps can slow down the internet speed and the ping rate as they fight for the internet bandwidth.
Game Settings
If the game graphics settings such as Frame Rate are too high, it will result in more lag.
Distance to the Server
Common Sense, the greater the distance between the device that originates the rest and the server, the longer it takes for the response to reach back.
Outdated Router Firmware
A possible reason could be your router firmware is outdated and is not compatible with what you are trying to do right now.
Lower your Ping Rate on PC
After reading the possible scenarios of high ping rates, you can apply countermeasures to these issues.
Method #1: Lower the Number of Users on your Network
If any of the users on your network is doing a high bandwidth activity, simply remove him. It could be your friend downloading his favourite movie or uploading TikTok videos while you were frustrated about the lag.
You can remove the users from your network by opening your router settings after the login and finding the option known as Wireless MAC filtering. You can Allow or Deny specific devices by their MAC Address to connect to your network.
Different brands of routers have slightly different methods to do so. You have to do a google search to find the exact steps to perform MAC Filtering in your router.
Method #2: Close Unused Background Apps
Close all the unused apps on your PC that take the internet bandwidth required for your gameplay. Any priority task can automatically take more bandwidth than the task you want to perform at the moment.
You can simply close the apps from the Task Manager by pressing the ctrl+alt+del and selecting the Task Manager in Windows 10. From there, you can see many processes. Close the ones that are not required to run.
Method #3: Use an Ethernet Cable
Instead of a Wi-Fi connection, it is preferred to use an ethernet cable for the internet connection as a Wi-Fi connection faces more delay and packet loss and is more prone to be affected by the signals from other devices. Therefore it is recommended to use the ethernet cable because it is directly connected to the internet and offers good bandwidth and a reliable connection.
Method #4: Change the Game Settings
A term is known as FPS (not the First-person shooter here but refers to Frames Per Second). FPS means the number of frames (images) your graphics card can process each second or your monitor displays each second. A higher FPS will give you better graphics on the screen. But also take a bit more time to render the graphics.
To lower the lag in your game, try to reduce the frame rate in your game. Apply the optimal settings of the game graphics from the settings menu.
Method #5: Connect to a Nearby Server
If the game you are playing gives you the option to choose a server, connect to the nearest one. The lower the distance between the server and your device, the lower the ping rate.
Method #6: Update the Router Firmware
Make sure your router firmware is up to date. Maybe after the update, you get a higher ping rate. Different brands of the router have slightly different methods for updating the firmware. You can do a Google search to get the exact steps required to update your router’s firmware.
Method #7: Contact Your ISP
If none of the above methods worked for you, a possible reason could be your low bandwidth internet plan or the poor quality of connections and faulty cables of your Internet Service Provider. You can contact them to resolve your issue or if it does not work, simply change your ISP.
Summary
Although a high ping rate is an issue that produces lag in online video games and other activities, resolving this issue is not as hard as it seems. It is recommended to apply many combinations of the solutions provided.
