Fixed – High Ping and Latency Issues While Playing Online Games

Isn’t seeing glitches and lags while playing your favorite online games irritating? Indeed, it is, but do you know what causes it? 

High ping and network latency are common reasons that cause uninvited flickering and glitches in the game. Sometimes, these are so impactful that you face difficulty finding your game avatar. Usually, these issues appear when you do not have a stable internet connection, which is understandable. However, if you have a network with a decent upload and download speed and you still face high ping and latency issues, something else is the reason behind the problem. 

High ping in games can ruin the whole experience, and network lags make it worse for a user. If you are affected by these two factors and wondering why my ping is so high, this post is definitely for you. 

In this one, we explain a few working ways to help you minimize latency and ping errors while playing games. But before we begin with them, let us look at what exactly these issues are about!

What is High Ping and Network Latency?

Have you ever encountered a situation while playing a game where you saw your enemy firing at you and hid behind a rock but still got shot? Or you know you had jumped off the plane about to blast, but when it did, you died with the same?  Those are some examples of high ping causing delays and glitches in the game. 

Latency is the real cause behind all of this happening. For anyone looking for a definition, latency is the time a data packet sends over a network takes to reach the destination. It is as PING, and the ping unit is in milliseconds (ms). The lower this number is, the better your internet connection is, and the higher the ping gets, the poorer these lags get.  

All in all, the ping decides the smoothness of the game. It usually depends on 3 things – 

1. The device’s connectivity,
2. The internet speed and
3. The server you use

If all three fall in line, you may not encounter any lags while playing the game.

Why is My Ping So High?

Now that you know what Ping is and the role of latency in your games, you may be thinking, why is my ping high? The question gets even trickier when you have decent internet speed across the internet but can still not play a particular game seamlessly. Well, there are reasons behind it. These reasons are – 

1. Issues with wireless connectivity
2. Game server issues
3. ISP throttling is causing a lack of bandwidth
4. Too many network-based processes running in the background
5. Other minor connection glitches

All these factors contribute to high ping, causing lags in your gameplay. High latency is a problem that one must resolve to experience online games smoothly. But how? Well, check out the next section, where we have curated a list of fixes relating to these issues! 

How to Fix High Ping & Internet Latency? 5 Fixes

Fix 1 – Close Other Network Hogging Applications

While playing an online game, it is important that all your bandwidth is available to the game. The more applications you run on the network, the higher ping you may experience.

Step 1 – Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open the Task Manager on your PC. 

Step 2 – In the Task Manager, click on the Network tab to sort the applications running based on their network usage.

Step 3 – Select the applications that are taking up a majority of your bandwidth and close them by clicking on End Task.

Repeat the steps until all the background network applications are closed. Try opening the game and check if the ping is reduced.  

Fix 2 – Check Your Internet Connection

To ensure that you have the minimum lags and ping while playing, there are some checks that you should implement. These include – 

Check 1 – Use an internet speed tester to determine if the available speed and ping are at par with what is required. 

Check 2 – Ensure that your router and connectors are working properly. 

Check 3 – If you use a wireless connection, ensure you are in range to get a healthy connection.

Check 4 – If wireless connectivity is poor, try switching to a wired LAN connection.

Check 5 – Try and check if too many devices are connected to the same network, causing lower bandwidth availability for your games. 

After making these checks, if you find anything out of place, fix it immediately and see the difference for yourself. High ping issues revolve around internet connectivity and how the connection is used. Hence, these checks can help you resolve the issue to a large extent. 

Fix 3 – Try Switching to a Better Server

If you are playing a server-based game or on a platform like Discord, you can switch between multiple servers. These servers are often called game rooms, created by the players to support a game. There is a high chance that you are using a high-latency server. 

To reduce your ping, check if other servers are available to connect and play the game. It can make a difference in your overall gameplay. 

Fix 4 – Change Your Game Settings

In case you are playing a high-resolution game, most of your internet is used to run those graphics properly. This means a simple tweak in-game settings and resolution may help you smoothen things to a great extent. 

Changing your game options to optimal settings instead of full-fledged can help you reduce internet usage and remove the effect of high latency. Things that you can tweak to experience the changes are – 

1. Change your resolution from the best available to optimal or lower if possible.
2. Tweak audio settings by keeping the online mic off to reduce bandwidth usage.
3. Choose a regular screen refresh rate (40-60 Hz.) instead of a higher 120 or 144 Hz.

These compromises in the gameplay surely impact the experience; however, that will enhance your online presence, making the game seamless. Now, if you are using an internet connection with high latency, these are sacrifices you might have to make.

Read Also: How To Optimize PC For Gaming

Fix 5 – Try Using a Premium VPN

If you are facing issues with bandwidth and ISP throttling, using a VPN is the best option. A VPN allows you to change your IP address and connect to a new realm of internet connectivity, where you decide your country of origin and the server you want to access. 

If the issue appears when you are using a VPN, try switching your VPN to a premium client like Systweak VPN. It is one of the most premium and reliable VPN services available. All you have to do is –

Step 1 – Download the VPN client using the link below.

Step 2 – Sign up or Sign in using your credentials.

Step 3 – Connect by clicking the server you want to access.

Using a VPN may allow you to overcome ping issues quite easily. Please ensure you use a high-quality VPN similar to the Systweak VPN client. There are a few VPN tools (mostly the free ones) that can worsen the situation for you. 

High Ping Issues – NOT ANYMORE!

With the help of these 5 fixes, you can make a difference in the overall quality of connection and ping you receive from the internet. High ping and internet latency are basic yet frustrating issues that users encounter; hence, keeping things optimal is the key to resolving these problems.

Hope you find these methods helpful. That’ll be all for this post. Thanks for reading, good luck!

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