Discover the essential strategies to optimise your online gaming experience. Learn all the effective tips and tricks to experience lag-free gaming.
You're in the middle of an intense game and almost victorious. But suddenly and unexpectedly, your game starts lagging, and you lose the game. You took the winning step, but your game started freezing, so your action happened seconds later instead of instantly.
We can imagine how frustrating it can be. Lagging hinders the online gaming experience for users. Whether you're a casual or experienced gamer, it is annoying to experience game lags frequently.
In this in-depth guide, we'll explore the importance of internet speed in enhancing the gaming experience, why lags occur in the first place, and what actionable steps you can take to prevent lags in gaming and improve your online gaming experience. So without any further ado, let's begin!
The Importance Of Internet Speed In Gaming
Internet speed plays a crucial role in enhancing the online gaming experience for several reasons:
1. Low Latency
Low latency is a necessity for online gaming. Latency is the delay between giving a command and seeing the result on the screen. A high-speed internet connection and low latency ensure that the actions are quickly relayed to the game server, and the response is instantly displayed on the screen.
Low latency is vital for fast-paced games.
2. Multiplayer Gaming
Multiplayer games rely heavily on quick and constant communication between the players and the game server. High internet speed gives a smooth gaming experience with fewer disruptions and minimizes lags or disconnections.
3. Reduced Lag & Buffering
Slow internet speed leads to lagging, and it delays your actions and its effects on the game. Buffering during gameplay, often with a slow internet connection, hinders the online gaming experience. It leads to a less enjoyable gaming experience for gamers.
4. High-Quality Visuals & Graphics
Modern video games have stellar visuals and graphics, creating an enjoyable gaming experience. With fast internet speed, you can quickly load the graphics and visuals, and you can experience the game in high quality as was intended by the developers who created the game.
5. Reduced Packet Loss
Packet loss happens when data packets between your device and the game server get lost or delayed. When your internet has high speed, it is less likely that there will be a packet loss, leading to smoother gameplay.
Internet speed directly impacts the quality of your gaming experience, smooth gameplay, high-quality streaming with no buffering, and an overall seamless gaming experience. Faster internet speed reduces lagging, quick downloads, and high-quality graphics, giving gamers the most enjoyable gaming experience.
What Causes Lags In Gaming?
Here are the following reasons why gamers may experience lagging:
1. If your computer device needs more hardware resources, it causes lags. Games that require a lot of processing power may lag if your CPU cannot keep up with the demands of the game. Running multiple applications can also use up your system's RAM, causing the game to lag if there's insufficient memory.
2. If your hardware components get overheated, they may throttle the CPU or GPU's performance to prevent damage. This results in reduced performance and a laggy gameplay experience.
3. High Ping/Latency, Packet Loss, and Network Congestion, such as using the network during peak usage times, can cause slowdowns and lag in online games.
4. As mentioned, slow internet speed dramatically contributes to a lag in online gaming. High internet speed is essential, mainly if the game requires constant communication with the server.
5. Outdated graphic card drivers can also contribute to this problem. They impact game performance and cause lags. It is essential to keep your graphic card drivers up-to-date to reduce the chances of these issues occurring.
6. Running resource-intensive applications in the background, like streaming software, anti-virus scans, can consume many system resources and lead to game lag.
Tips & Tricks For Lag-Free Gaming
Now that we've realized that lag during gaming adds to users' frustration and annoyance, it's time to implement the tips & tricks that'll help you experience lag-free gaming for good. So let's begin and uncover how you can have a seamless gaming experience without any lags:
1. Fast Internet Connection
Use an Ethernet connection instead of WiFi. It enables a more secure and stable connection. It would help if you also had a fast internet connection that supports sufficient upload and download speed.
Most people recommend having an internet connection that has at least 5Mbps to have seamless streaming and gaming experience.
2. Use a VPN
ISPs (Internet Service Providers) can sometimes throttle specific internet traffic, including online gaming. By connecting to a High-speed VPN, you can bypass ISP throttling since it masks your IP address and encrypts your internet traffic. Masking the gameplay you're engaged in leads to a smooth gaming experience.
3. Meet Hardware Requirements
If you're a frequent gamer, you should have all the Hardware requirements for a seamless gaming experience. It means using a PC or console compatible with online gaming, having a powerful CPU and GPU and sufficient RAM to ensure that all applications run effectively, and investing in a dedicated streaming PC.
4. Streaming Platforms
Opt for a streaming platform with low latency options, such as a low latency mode or streaming protocol. Some streaming platforms offer transcoding options, allowing viewers to adjust their quality to match the user's internet connection.
5. Server Selection
Choose a streaming server closer to your location and your gaming platform. It helps reduce latency and improve streaming quality. Playing on a server in your country or near your country's location also helps decrease your ping.
6. Close Background Applications
Close any unnecessary background applications and processes. Broadband-heavy applications and websites like Netflix, YouTube, and other streaming platforms affect ping rate and latency. Closing background applications frees up system resources for gaming and streaming online.
Reducing the number of devices simultaneously connected to the internet also helps because the more devices connected to WiFi, the more bandwidth is required. A lot of bandwidth contributes to game lags.
Conclusion
Lagging during online gaming can hinder the average gamer who wants to sit back, relax and have an enjoyable gaming experience with his buddies. Once the person has identified why they're experiencing game lagging in the first place, they can take actionable steps towards solving the problem.
This article outlines the most effective tips and tricks you can implement to reduce gaming lag. By using an Ethernet connection, investing in a VPN, using hardware that is more suitable for PC gaming, closing unnecessary background applications, and resolving network issues such as High Ping/Latency, Packet Loss, and Network Congestion, you can experience a seamless gaming experience and lag-free gaming in next to no time.
