Why is my ping so high?

If you’re wondering why is my ping so high, we’ve covered a few of the common culprits right here.

Nothing ruins an online gaming session quite like a high ping time. You can have all the right components, a powerful GPU, CPU and the best 240Hz gaming monitor but if your ping time is high, your frame rate will still appear laggy and stuttery.

Ping is basically a measure of latency. It represents the time it takes for information sent from your computer or console to be sent to a server and for its response to come back again. This exchange of information is essential for online gaming, as it is what allows plays around the world to see the same thing going on at the same time.

If your ping time is high, you will be slightly behind everyone else playing the game, meaning your player will move at a delayed speed and other plays might suddenly appear or disappear as your device tries to catch up.

In general, a ping time of below 120 ms is good for gaming, with ones below 50 ms best for competitive playing. At around 150 ms you will start to see a noticeable impact on your gameplay and above 250 ms it will become essentially impossible to play the game at all.

Let’s get into some of the common causes of high ping.

Why is my ping so high?

Here are the most common reasons your ping might be high. We’re going to be breaking down each one of these in more detail below.

• Location of your router
• Your internet speed
• Internet connection type
• Location of the servers

Location of your router

If you are using a wireless connection, the further away your console or computer is from your router the higher your ping time will be. If you are able to either move your gaming setup closer to the router or vice versa this should have a positive impact on your ping time.

Your internet speed

Ping time relies on the bandwidth of your internet. As the bandwidth lowers, the ping time will increase. This means that if your internet plan comes with a lower bandwidth this will have a negative effect on the ping time.

Other things that can lower your internet speeds are if lots of people are using the same WiFi at the same time, and are thus clogging up the bandwidth.

Internet connection type

Different internet connections come with different ping times. For example, a 4G connection is slower than a 5G one, which is slower than fibre broadband. Using a wired ethernet connection, rather than a wireless one should also drive ping times down.

Location of the servers

This factor is largely out of your hands. If you happen to live in a place far away from the servers of the game you are playing it might be to get a competitively low ping time. One thing you could try is to see if it’s possible to connect to a different server in the game you are playing.

Frequently asked questions

Is 200 ms a bad ping?

Yes – a 200 ms ping time will result in noticeable lagging or stuttering in your online gameplay.

Can high ping be fixed?

Yes, there are several things you can do to lower your ping such as using an ethernet connection, moving your router closer or connecting to a different game server.