How to lower your ping for gaming (step by step)

Lag has three ingredients: ping (delay), jitter (delay that varies) and packet loss (data that never arrives). What counts as “good” is covered in what is a good ping for gaming? — this guide is the fix-it list, in the order that gets results.

Measure first: run the ping & latency checker, note the numbers, and re-test after each change. Otherwise you’re guessing.

1. Go wired — the single biggest win

Wi-Fi adds delay and, worse, variable delay. An Ethernet cable from router to PC or console removes the noisiest link in the chain:

1. Any Cat5e or better cable is fine — gaming traffic is tiny; you don’t need anything exotic.
2. If the router is in another room, a flat Ethernet cable under carpet or along skirting is the cheap, boring fix that works.
3. Can’t cable at all? See the Wi-Fi steps below — and wired vs Wi-Fi for how much the difference really is in your home.

2. Kill the bufferbloat (ping spikes when the line is busy)

If ping is fine until someone streams 4K or a download starts, your router is queueing traffic badly — bufferbloat. Confirm it: start a big download, run the ping test at the same time, and watch the ping climb.

The fix is Smart Queue Management — settings called SQM, QoS, Smart Queue, or “anti-bufferbloat” in your router’s app or admin page:

1. Turn the feature on and set your line’s real speeds — the figures from a speed test, checked here, not the advertised ones.
2. Prefer modes named cake / fq_codel / adaptive QoS where offered.
3. Re-run the under-load ping test — a good result is ping that barely moves when the line is saturated.

More router tweaks: best router settings.

3. Stop the background traffic

• Pause cloud backups and photo syncs (they hammer the upload, which hurts ping most).
• Set game and OS updates to run overnight, not while playing.
• Check for other household spikes — smart cameras uploading, torrents seeding, TVs preloading.

4. If you must use Wi-Fi, make it good Wi-Fi

1. Use 5 GHz (or 6 GHz where available) — see 2.4 GHz vs 5 GHz.
2. Get line of sight or short range to the router or nearest mesh node — walls are the enemy of steady latency.
3. Reduce contention: fewer active devices on the same band while you play.
4. If a distant room is the permanent gaming spot, fix coverage properly — better Wi-Fi in every room.

5. Pick closer servers

Distance is physics: a UK-to-UK or UK-to-EU server will always beat a US one by tens of milliseconds. In-game, choose region manually where possible, and prefer servers that show the lowest ping in the game’s own browser. If a specific game routes badly while everything else is fine, that’s the game’s network, not your line.

6. When it’s the line itself

• Slow evenings only → peak-time congestion; see why is my internet slow at night?.
• High ping at all times, even wired and idle → work through why is my internet so slow?; on older connection types, an upgrade to full fibre typically lowers baseline latency and steadies it.
• Random loss and disconnects → possible line fault; if it persists after the basics, run the is my broadband down? checks and report it — persistent faults can trigger automatic compensation.

→ Use the ping & latency checker