We all know how terrible it feels when your experience the sudden lag spike in the middle of an intense battle. It does not matter whatever game you’re playing, we all know that sudden lag, even if it occurs just for a few seconds, can ruin the entire game. Unfortunately, it’s inevitable for many, especially if your internet connection isn’t up to the mark and your connection does not have sufficient bandwidth to sustain your game’s requirement.
Whenever there is a delay between a player’s activity and the game server response, the players experience lag like frame drop to input delay or random screen flickering. Because the server won’t respond right away to your inputs, your opponent will have a far better chance of winning if they are playing on a good internet connection and far laser ping.
7 Tips to Reduce Lag When Playing Online Games
Sudden game Lag is among the most annoying things a gamer may encounter, it is absolutely up there with the internet connection dropping off. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to reduce internet lag. In this article, we’ll provide you with some proven and tested tips and tricks that can reduce and even eliminate sudden lag spikes and input delays during your online games. So, let’s begin,
1. Check your current internet plan
To play games smoothly, you don’t need enterprise speed internet, but you do need at least 20-30Mbps. However, you should also consider your bandwidth. The bandwidth may be strained if you or other household members use the internet simultaneously for other purposes such as streaming HD movies, video chatting, or web surfing.
It takes a lot of bandwidth to perform things like streaming videos and downloading files and in fact, it takes a lot more data than playing games. If you don’t have the bandwidth to handle all devices and their activities, your internet and game may significantly slow down. If you encounter this issue, you might want to talk to your internet provider and upgrade your current plan.
2. Restart your modem and router
Just like any other device in your house, your modem and router need to be restarted every once in a while. Over time, they can start to slow down and become bogged down with too much data. By restarting them, you’re essentially resetting them back to factory settings.
To do this, simply unplug your modem/router from the power outlet and wait for about 30 seconds before plugging it back in. Once it’s been plugged back in, give it a few minutes to connect to the internet before trying to use it again. It is recommended to restart your router or modem once every week to get the best performance out of them.
You can also set the auto restart function inside your router or modem to restart them regularly. To do this, you have to check your router or modem settings, look for the auto restart or auto reboot option and set the restart or reboot period.
3. Update your equipment
If you don’t have quality equipment, you will still suffer delays even if your internet plan is fast enough and your internet connection is stable. Make sure the modem and router you choose are considered suitable for online gaming. For routers always go with the dual-band router and make sure it has sufficient bandwidth capacity.
Sometimes it might be possible that the lag and delay you are experiencing might not be caused by your internet connection or modem/ router, but instead, it might be caused by your gaming PC or gaming peripherals. So, if you are facing lag even after faxing your internet connection, we recommend you check your gaming setup.
4. Connect your device via an Ethernet cord
Even if a wireless connection is undoubtedly more convenient, using an Ethernet cable to connect your device to the internet is an excellent way to have a more dependable internet connection.
Because it helps eliminate lagging and buffering during crucial parts of a game, many online players prefer to connect to an Ethernet connection while gaming. So, if you facing frequent gaming lag or delay in your game you might want to invest in a good quality ethernet cable.
5. Temporarily disconnect unused devices to your WiFi
The WiFi in your house can only support a certain number of devices at a time. When too many devices are trying to connect to the internet at once, your connection will be strained and will result in lags.
So, you should disconnect any devices that are not being used from your WiFi. This includes things like streaming devices, old laptops, and even your phone if you’re not using it.
6. Close all background apps
Your ping rate and latency are greatly impacted by bandwidth-heavy websites like Netflix, YouTube, and any type of downloads. So, close any programs running in the background because they might affect how well your gameplay will turn out.
It may also be beneficial to have fewer devices connected to the WiFi as more bandwidth is needed as more devices are connected to and utilizing the WiFi. It’s even better if you can play games while your devices are in Airplane Mode.
7. Check your game requirements
Look at the game’s requirements if you’re playing it for the first time and it lags as the game might require too many resources for your system to handle smoothly. When you encounter this issue, try changing the resolution or the amount of detail in the game’s settings to fix the issue.
You can also consider reducing your frame rates if facing too much input delay or lag. We do not recommend reducing the frame rate but instead try to reduce the screen resolution and graphics settings first and if it does not fix the issue, then only consider reducing the frame rate.
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Conclusion:
Lags are frustrating, especially if you’re playing in ranked mode and you suddenly begin lagging. Fortunately, you can try these tips to reduce lags when playing online games. Now, give these tips a try, and let us know if it fixes your lag issues!
A computer engineer by day, gamer by night. He grew up playing Mario and contra, and just like every other 90s kid, he got passionate about mobile gaming. He had done bachelors in computer science and played fps and MOBA games for years.
