Online gaming sometimes is bliss and sometimes you will get a lag experience due to the high ping rate. It is also called a Latency issue which ultimately leads to game freezing issues.
The Latency is measured in ping rate which means the average total time that takes your devices to stream a video or game. The high ping rate or latency will cause lag issues in-game and sometimes there is a chance of total connection loss. Low latency or ping rate is essential for online gaming. If you are an avid gamer, you must maintain low latency for smooth performance in online gaming.
Ideal ping rate: In the world of online gaming, the ideal ping rate is below 100ms. The above 100ms will cause the lag and game freeze experience while playing the game.
Reasons for high ping rate
There are plenty of reasons behind the high ping rate on Windows 10 PC. Usually, the high ping rate is determined by the quality of the Internet connection. Here are a few reasons which are causing the high ping rate on your PC.
Quality of the Internet service
Some ISP’s offer the greatest plans and cheapest prices. As the result, you end up with a mediocre performing Internet experience. They don’t exactly offer the exact same service as they mentioned in brochures. Check the ISP specifications before going to make a subscription.
Wired and Wireless Connection
Wired and Wireless connection for using the Internet makes a lot of difference in ping rate and as well as speed. As per my personal experience, a wired connection gives the exact speed what it gets from the optical fiber.
The Wi-Fi connection speeds fluctuate depending on the device and router distance. As the distance between the device and wifi increases the Internet quality will be poor. Also, if any electronic device is placed near the router, it will weaken the Wi-Fi signal.
Low Bandwidth
Low bandwidth is another reason for the high ping rate. Check you are getting adequate bandwidth or not by using a network speed test. If you are not getting speeds promised by ISP, you can ask them to give the speed according to your data plan.
Geographical Location
This one is another main reason for the high ping rate in games. For example, In PUBG when you select a far geolocation server from the actual location, you will experience high latency. The round trip time (RTT) delay between the router and server must be a nearer one. If the server of the service is located on another continent, you will experience high latency.
How to reduce the high ping rate?
Reducing the ping rate is not a straightforward or single-step process. You have to prepare a to-do list to reduce the ping rate on your Windows 10 PC. Here are the top methods to reduce the ping rate and stabilize the smooth online gaming experience.
1. Use Ethernet wired connection instead of Wifi Router
It is a well known and popular fact that using Ethernet cable instead of WiFi will drastically improve your gaming experience by reducing the ping rate.
If you are using a Wi-Fi router to play online games, now try with Ethernet cable and check the ping rates.
Many laptops and modern desktops come with built-in Wi-Fi adaptors. But a few laptops come with the Ethernet port. If your laptop or desktop is missing the Ethernet port, you can buy an external Ethernet port from the online marketplace.
2. Close Internet hungry programs
Make sure to close all the Internet hungry programs running in the background before starting a game. Some software, browsers continuously utilize your Internet bandwidth resulting high ping rate during the game. Use Task Manager to end all the background running programs.
Simply close all the unnecessary programs running in the background. Also, customize the Startup programs list by accessing the Task Manager. Closing the programs like Torrents, Browsers, and update seeking programs will effectively control the high ping rate.
3. Maintain a minimum number of devices connected to the router
If more devices connected to your router then the ping rate will be high. Make sure to disconnect the unwanted devices connected to your router.
If you are frequently getting this error while playing online games, then you should look at the router settings to check the number of devices connected to the router.
Disconnect all the connected devices to the router except the device you are playing the game to get a better ping rate and smooth gaming performance.
4. Upgrade your router
Upgrading your router with the latest model will solve the high ping rate problem. If you are using an old router then there is a chance of using a low bandwidth capacity model. The latest model router matches with your broadband speed and minimizes the high ping rate.
There are plenty of gaming routers available in the online market to choose from. Gaming routers are mostly Gigabit-supported routers and they usually come in QoS settings that prioritize incoming traffic for your game. Also, these routers come with high wireless standards such as 802.11ac, along with 2.4GHz and 5GHz transmissions. These standards are pretty useful to deliver a quality Internet for the uninterrupted gaming experience.
5. Optimize game graphic settings
Most of us like to play the game in full ultra-high settings. But unfortunately, the high graphics sometimes cause hiccups when you have a mediocre Internet connection. In the end, you will get tired by lagging experience.
It is a bitter truth that the game graphics quality shows its effect on getting a high ping rate. Create an optimized game graphic profile as per your Windows 10 hardware capability.
If you push high-end graphics settings in a mid-range PC, then you will have a higher chance of getting a high ping rate. Try to avoid the high graphics while playing online games and it will help you to reduce ping rate to normal.
6. Try using reduce ping software
There are ping reducing software available online to help you for a smooth gaming experience. This software comes in both free and paid forms. Go for popular names such as Ping, Kill and Haste ping reducing software to solve the high ping rate issue on Windows 10 PCs.
7. Use a VPN to reduce ping
A good VPN can solve the high ping rate issue by spoofing the location. A high ping rate is one of the reasons if the game server is located in a far place from your location. VPN comes in handy when the game player has located a long distance from the game server.
For example, in PUBG, if you are located in India and you have selected Ohio, a US server then you may experience a high ping rate. By using a VPN, you can connect to the US server and it will automatically lower the ping rate.
VPN’s are widely used apps among the gaming community. A good and reliable VPN can improve the lower ping rate which results in a good gaming experience even if you located in a distant place from the game’s actual server location.
The best VPN service for low ping rate is ExpressVPN. It is a reliable VPN service among plenty of VPN services and gives you a faster data transfer rate. It has many servers located around the globe by giving a chance to connect to the nearest game server. Thetechahcker readers have the exclusive ExpressVPN offer. You will get an additional 3 months free on the annual plan along with a 49% discount.
8. Stop other downloads during the game
If you are downloading any file during the game, it will definitely lead to a high ping rate. The downloading will consume the bandwidth of your Internet and the bandwidth allocation to the game will be lower. Let the download complete or pause the download if you want to play the game. Many download managers and torrent clients offer a pause button to temporarily stop downloading the file.
9. Whitelist the Game in Firewall and Antivirus
Sometimes there is a chance of your favorite game is blocked by the Firewall or Antivirus software. There is an option called whitelist the Firewall and Antivirus settings, you have to whitelist the game you want to play in these programs.
10. Keep drivers up to date
Do you know outdated drivers create a lot of problems in PC? Every hardware runs on a special driver created to perform its tasks. Keeping all the drivers up-to-date especially network and graphic drivers will solve the high ping rate issue on your computer.
Softwares like Driver Booster, Driver Genius help you to keep all the drivers up-to-date on your PC. This software runs in the background and check for the latest updates regularly.
11. Pick the nearest server
Selecting the nearest server to your actual location will drastically improve your ping rate. If the distance between you and your server location is long, you will experience ugly ping rates. To fix the issue, find a server that is near to your current location. For example, if you are living in Asia, then connecting to a US or UK server is a bad choice. Connect to any country which is in Asia makes the connection fast and you will receive low ping rates from the server.
Final thoughts
These are the best practices to lower the ping rate in online games. Follow every method listed above to improve the lower ping rate. If you follow all the above methods, you will surely see a satisfying result in the ping speed.
Let us know which method is worked for you, or if you have any better method please submit in the comment section below.