What good ping and jitter look like
Ping is the round-trip time in online gaming, measured in milliseconds, for data to travel from your personal computer or console to a server and back. A low ping means your actions register sooner and you get smooth gameplay, while high ping shows up as lag, rubber-banding and delayed hits.
Most guides use roughly the same ranges, though the figures are rough and sources disagree at the edges:
- Under 20ms is excellent.
- 20 to 50 ms is good.
- 50 to 100 ms is acceptable.
- Over 100ms feels laggy in real-time play.
Some sources suggest staying under 30 ms for competitive play, while others say about 100 ms is still playable and delays become significant around 150 ms. Competitive games such as Valorant are the most sensitive to ping, because every millisecond counts when you trade shots. MMOs and turn-based games tolerate more.
Jitter, the variation in ping from one moment to the next, matters as much as the average. A stable ping of 60 ms often feels better than one that swings between 20 ms and 120 ms, and wireless connections tend to be worse for it than a cable.
How to reduce ping without a VPN
Start with the fixes that cost nothing. Run a speed test or check your ping before and after each change so you know what worked. Treat this as a short optimization routine rather than a single trick, and you can reduce latency without paying for anything.
Use a wired Ethernet connection
Connect your gaming device to the network with a cable. Wireless adds delay and uneven ping, and the size of the penalty varies by source: one guide puts the local hop at 1 to 3 ms for a wire against 5 to 30 ms for Wi-Fi 6E, while another says wireless adds 5 to 20 ms. Newer standards narrow the gap but still don’t match a cable’s low latency for competitive gaming.
This also works as a diagnostic. If your ping drops by 20 ms or more on a wire, the local wireless network was the latency problem and not your provider.
Choose the closest game server
Data has to travel to the server and back, so distance sets a floor under your ping, and the nearest region usually gives the lowest ping. Many games let you select the region in their settings, such as the matchmaking region in Fortnite. If a game picks a region automatically, check that it chose correctly.
Close bandwidth-heavy apps
Streams, cloud backups, downloads and game launchers updating in the background all compete with your game traffic. Close them during gaming sessions and pause operating system updates. Game booster apps generally work by closing background processes, and you can optimize your setup the same way by hand in your task manager. Other people on the network matter too. If someone else in the house is streaming 4K video, your ping can spike, so try to reduce network load while you play.
Restart your modem and router
Unplug the modem and router for a few seconds, then plug them back in. This clears temporary faults and is a quick way to reduce lag after sudden spikes.
Update drivers and replace old hardware
Update your network adapter drivers and check your network settings. If your router is several years old, it may be a bottleneck, especially on a local area network with many devices connected. An upgrade can improve connection stability and the overall online experience.
A faster DNS provider can speed up name lookups, but it does not change the route to the game, so do not expect it to cut ping.
Check the game and your ISP
Sometimes the problem is on the other end. Check whether the game’s servers are having issues before you spend an hour tweaking settings. If nothing helps and your wired ping is still high, contact your internet provider and ask about known local issues.
Why packet loss causes high ping in online games
If the fixes above don’t work, work out which part of the path is slow.
- Wireless interference. Walls, distance and crowded channels cause packet loss and unstable ping. Moving closer or switching to a cable removes the variable.
- Congestion at home. Many devices connected at once can overload a computer network and hurt network performance, even when your plan has plenty of speed.
- Distance to the server. A player in Australia on US servers has high latency that no home setting can remove.
- Routing. Your traffic may take an indirect path across your provider’s network, adding hops and delay.
- Throttling. Some networks slow certain traffic, such as peer-to-peer connections.
- A busy server. An overcrowded server can lag regardless of your connection.
Packet loss is worth checking separately. If a network packet is dropped and resent, you see rubber-banding even when the average ping looks fine. Wired connections and a router restart are the first things to try.
Keep ping and FPS apart as well. Low frame rate is a hardware and graphics settings issue that hurts gaming performance but is not a network one, and a lower resolution won’t change your ping. Input lag is a separate problem again, caused by your display, controller or settings rather than the network.
How to reduce ping with a VPN
A VPN usually does not lower ping, because it sends your traffic through an extra server and adds a hop, so it helps only when throttling or poor routing is the cause. Comparitech says these services usually increase ping, and Windscribe, a provider of one, estimates an increase of 2 to 20 ms. Surfshark’s own gaming page admits that ping may rise.
It can help in a few specific situations:
- Throttling. If your provider slows gaming or peer-to-peer traffic, encrypting it can stop that throttling.
- Suboptimal routing. If the route to the destination is indirect, the service may send your traffic along a better path.
- Overcrowded servers. Surfshark names this as another edge case.
It can’t fix distance. If the nearest server is far away, the geographic latency stays. Remember too that Surfshark is a vendor, so its claims of benefit are less neutral than the independent view that these services usually add latency.
If you want to try one, keep the penalty small:
- Use a wired connection.
- Pick a server close to you or close to the host.
- Use gaming-optimized servers if your provider offers them.
- Test your ping with it on and off, and keep it only if it helps.
NordVPN and Surfshark are two options worth testing this way. Surfshark lists 4,500+ servers in 100 countries, ports up to 10 Gbps on all servers and a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it and cancel if your ping gets worse. NordVPN is also commonly reported to carry a 30-day money-back guarantee, which gives you the same room to test. Check the current terms on each provider’s site before you buy.
For more gaming-focused guides, see our gaming section.
How to reduce ping FAQs
What is a good ping for gaming?
Under 50 ms is good for most games, and under 20 ms is excellent. Between 50 and 100 ms is acceptable, and above 100 ms usually feels laggy in real-time games. Competitive shooters need the lowest numbers, while MMOs and turn-based games tolerate more.
Does a VPN lower ping?
Usually no, because the extra hop typically raises ping by a few milliseconds. It can help if your provider throttles traffic or routes you poorly, so test with it on and off.
Is Ethernet better than Wi-Fi for ping?
Yes. A cable is more stable and adds less delay than wifi, even with the newest wireless standards. If your ping drops by 20 ms or more after you plug in, your wireless network was the cause.
Why does my ping suddenly spike?
Ping spikes usually come from congestion or interference. Another device may be streaming or downloading, a background update may have started, or your wireless signal may have weakened. A busy server or a problem at your provider can also cause latency spikes.
Can a faster internet plan reduce ping?
Not always. Bandwidth is how much data you can move, while ping is how long a round trip takes. More speed helps only if your network is congested, so fix wireless problems, background apps and server choice first.
Does restarting the router help with ping?
Yes, it can. Unplug both devices for a few seconds, then reconnect them to clear temporary faults. It is a quick first step when high ping appears suddenly.
When should I contact my ISP about high ping?
Contact your provider when your ping is still high on a wired connection with other devices idle and the game’s servers are working normally. Ask whether there are known local issues or routing problems.
