Why Is Your Ping Rate So High? 6 Tips To Get The Best Ping Rate

Have you ever experienced lags in your games? Have you ever been hit by an obstacle even after moving your car away from it in NFS? That’s because your ping rate is high. A higher ping rate is not only frustrating for you but also an advantage for your opponents.

What is Ping Rate?

Ping rate is the time that your server takes to respond to your movements in the game. When you click a button or move your joystick, your avatar in the game responds accordingly. So, in simple words, the difference between your action and your avatar’s reaction is measured in ping rate.

A ping rate under 50 ms (milliseconds) is ideal for professional gamers. However, when it is higher than that, it becomes a problem. A lag between the player’s movement and the server’s response means you have a higher ping rate and it needs to be corrected for an enhanced gaming experience.

Why is My Ping Rate So High?

A higher ping rate is generally the result of some issues with your hardware, ISP, or internet connection. Some of the possible reasons why your ping rate might be higher are listed below.

• You are seated too far away from your router
• Your Wi-Fi connection has issues
• Your hardware is defective or outdated
• Your ISP is throttling you
• Other processes are taking up your internet bandwidth
• Numerous devices are sucking up your network resources
• Your VPN might be causing the issue
• Your game server is giving a slow response

6 Tips to Improve Your Ping Rate

Now that you know what are the possible reasons for your higher ping rate, let’s see how you can resolve them. The ultimate goal will be to optimize your network connection for a fast internet speed.

1. Check Your Internet Connection

Usually, a bad internet connection is responsible for a higher ping rate. With a slow internet connection, your games are bound to face lags. And hence, we recommend first checking your internet speed using this free internet speed test website.

As per the recommendation of most gaming websites, a download speed of at least 3 Mbps and an upload speed of between 0.5 to 1 Mbps is ideal for gaming without lags. If your internet speed lies somewhere around this range, you can try the other tips to improve your ping.

If not, here are some possible tips to improve your sluggish internet speed.

• Sit and gameplay near your router or modem. The long distance between your router/modem and your device can be the cause of your slow internet connection.
• Remove any large physical objects between your router and your device that might obstruct your connection.
• Ensure that your hardware is connected properly and is working fine. Check all the wired connections and also ensure that your router isn’t outdated.
• Reset your router to clear its cache. This might help your internet speed to get back to normal.
• A wired connection provides a faster internet connection as compared to a wireless connection. Try switching to a wired one, if you are not already using it.
• Your device settings might also be the cause of a slow internet connection. Check them properly to lower your ping.

2. Check Network Resources

If you have strained your network resources, a good speed won’t matter much. If there are other network-hungry processes running on the same network, such as streaming or downloading large files, then your ping will naturally spike because there won’t be many resources available for gaming.

Similarly, too many devices, when connected to the same network, may slow down your speed and increase ping. Hence, you need to ensure that when you are gaming, not many devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi.

If you are not sure how to manage or check your network bandwidth usage, try this tool that can help you with your network analysis. If your network resources are not exhausted and you are still facing increased pings, then move on to the next point.

3. Try Switching Your Game Server

If you are almost sure that nothing is wrong at your end, it’s advisable to switch your game server. Ultimately, a higher ping rate is the result of a miscommunication between your device and the game server’s response.

So if everything is fine at your end, the issue might be with the game server, and switching it might resolve the same.

4. Use a VPN Connection

To limit bandwidth usage, most internet service providers throttle their users’ internet connection. However, if you use a robust VPN, you can easily reduce ping rates by hiding your internet activities from your ISP.

A VPN hides your IP address and provides you with a new one, concealing all your activities from everyone, including your ISP. Thus, your ISP won’t know about your higher bandwidth usage and won’t throttle your connection.

If you already have a VPN and still have a higher ping rate, the issue might be your VPN server. Since it connects you to a remote server (which may be located far away), the communication between your device and the VPN server might get delayed and result in a slower internet connection.

In such a case, it’s best to connect to the nearest VPN server and then try playing again. If the issue persists, try the next tip to resolve it.

5. Avoid Playing During Peak Hours

There are some games whose servers get crowded at specific times of the day. So, it’s best that you play these games when their servers are not too crowded.

Now, it can only be determined by using the trial and error method. Try playing at different times of the day and identify the time when you face minimal or no lags. Now, this is the ideal time for you to play at a good ping rate.

6. Change Your Game Settings

Now, if you have tried all the above things and still face the issue of a higher ping rate, it’s best to play a bit with your game settings. Try tweaking them and then see if that works.

You can lower your graphics settings. Though it might affect your visuals, it will definitely improve lags in your game. Similarly, you can change your audio quality, screen refresh rate, and some other things that do not directly impact your online gaming.

Conclusion

A higher ping rate may spoil your online gaming experience. So if you are facing the issue, try improving your internet connection by making small changes in your system, server, game, or physical settings. Using a VPN is also extremely important for professional gamers to improve their ping rates and enjoy their online gaming sessions.