What Is Good Ping For Online Games
Online gaming has given rise to a new sport. Many people are getting into this sport and, existing players for this sport are getting more and more competitive. We are talking about Esports, and one of the major contributing factors for its popularity is its accessibility. To become a competitive online gamer, all you need to do is have a decent internet connection and a device that runs whatever game you are trying to play.
The world of competitive gaming may be accessible to almost everyone. However, getting to a place where you are considered a great player is quite difficult. Your device of choice may be able to crank out a playable framerate but, your in-game performance would be limited by the maximum framerate you can achieve. The same goes for the internet. You might have a playable internet connection, but your in-game performance would be affected heavily by the value of your ping.
It is for this reason that competitive online gamers are obsessed with their ping. These gamers spend hundreds of dollars in order to get the most optimal ping and get a competitive advantage over their opponents. Let's take a deeper dive into this topic and learn more about what constitutes a good ping.
What is Ping
In almost every discussion related to online video games, ping is a term that pops up regularly. If you are new to the world of online gaming, you might have heard this term from a fellow gamer who is very good at videos games. You also may be wondering what exactly is ping. In simple terms, it is the time that it takes for a packet of digital information to reach the game server from your computer and then back to your computer, measured in milliseconds (ms).
While you are playing an online game, you are constantly sending information to the game server in the form of keystrokes and mouse movements. The higher the ping, the longer it will take this information to reach the game server and, consequently, the longer it will take for the appropriate response from the game server to reach your computer.
What Is Considered a Good Ping
Ok, so we have established what ping is, and we also know that competitive gamers allocate a substantial amount of effort in getting the most optimal ping that will help improve their in-game performance. Well, what actually is optimal ping? The answer to this question is complicated. However, as a general rule of thumb, a lower ping is better than a higher ping.
Exceptionally Low Ping – 20ms: Getting a ping lower than 20ms is not an easy task. You would have to be very close to the game server that you are connected to. You would also need to have one of the fastest internet connections available in your area. There are not a lot of gamers that are able to get a ping as low as 20ms, let alone lower than 20ms. If you are getting a ping lower than 20, you do not have to worry about further lowering it.
Very Good Ping – 20 to 70ms: A ping of anywhere between 20 and 70 is considered a good ping. If you go down from a ping of, let's say, 200ms and get a ping of 65ms, you will clearly see an improvement in your in-game performance.
Good Ping – Below 100ms: It is recommended that online gamers should play on game servers that give them a ping of no more than 100ms. Around the world, gamers usually get an average of 100ms. A ping lower than 100ms or even at 100ms results in a gaming experience that is mostly enjoyable. You will not feel limited in your in-game performance in any way with a ping of 100ms or lower.
Playable – 100 to 150ms: When you start creeping above the 100ms mark, the gaming experience starts becoming less and less enjoyable. However, if your ping is lower than 150ms, the game will still be playable. Going over 150ms, the game will start to become less and less playable. Once you go over 150ms, you will start to notice LAG, which is usually caused by high ping. Lag will seriously limit your in-game performance.
Unplayable Ping – Over 200ms: If your ping is over 200ms, then it is highly likely that something is wrong. You might be facing some easily rectifiable issues that are causing this to happen. For example, you might be connected to a game server that is not closest to you or, you might be downloading a large file in the background while gaming. A ping of over 200ms is simply not playable and, we do not recommend anyone to play a game on this ping. This is because, over 200ms, you will experience a lot of LAG.
How to Get Lower Ping
You could be experiencing high ping for many reasons. As there are many issues that could cause high ping, there are even more fixes that you can try. One of the first things you should do is make sure that you are playing in the correct region. For example, if you live in the UK, you will experience the lowest possible ping on the European servers of the game.
Other fixes to lower ping include switching from a wireless connection to a wired one or getting a gaming router and making sure that nothing is running or downloading in the background while you are gaming.
If you are playing games on a shared internet connection, the other users that are connected might be using up all the bandwidth, leaving little to none for you. Hence, you may benefit from getting a separate or a better internet connection.
Bad Ping and The Problems Associated With It
We have already covered what good ping is. We also know that a poor internet connection will limit a gamer’s in-game performance. However, we have yet to explore what actual problems are associated with bad ping and how exactly does it cause a dip in the in-game performance of a gamer.
Lag and Bad Ping
The main problem that arises due to bad ping is lag. The lag caused due to high ping or any other issue related to the network is called network lag.
We have already discussed what ping is. It is just the measure of the time it takes a packet of data to go from a computer to a game server and then back to the computer.
Imagine that you are playing a competitive first-person shooter. Let's say that you see an enemy in front of you and you decide to kill the enemy by aiming at their head with your mouse and shooting your weapon by pressing the left mouse button. As soon as you press the mouse button, a signal is sent from your computer to the video game server. This signal contains the information that you have pressed the mouse button while having a precise aim on the enemy's head. Once the game server receives the signal, the kill gets registered.
Since the signal takes some time to go from your computer to the game server, there is a bit of a delay between you pressing the mouse button and the kill getting registered. If the ping stays within the acceptable range for gaming then this delay will barely be noticeable. But if the ping starts getting higher and higher, the delay will start getting very noticeable to the point where it can be considered lag.
Why Is Lag So Bad For In-Game Performance
To understand why lag becomes a problem, let's take the example of another scenario in a first-person shooter game. Let's say that you are holding a corner, trying to see if an enemy peeks so you can kill them. However, you see no one on your screen but you die.
What actually happened here is that an enemy peeked the exact corner you were holding. The enemy saw you and killed you. But how did you not see anyone on your screen? This happened due to lag.
As the enemy peeked the corner you were holding, the information of the enemy peeking the corner was sent to the game server from their computer. However, because you had a high ping and lag, the signal that contains the information that an enemy is right in front of you did not reach your computer in time. Before this signal could reach your computer, the signal of the enemy shooting you got sent to the game server, and the kill got registered.
WTFast – The Ultimate Ping Solution
It's not your fault if all these potential fixes feel daunting to you. The worst part is there is no guarantee that these will fix your particular problem. If you are looking for a solution that lowers your ping with a single press of a button, then you should give WTFast a try. WTFast is a Gamer's Private Network and, it not only lowers your ping but also makes it much more stable. Try WTFast today for an enjoyable gaming experience.
