Does higher speeds give you a better ping/latency?

[torresraul555]

I currently am a gamer most of the time, and my ping is usually 25-30. My speeds are usually at 65/25. And a new provider has a way better speed gap which is Spectrum Gig. Provides 965/35 and I was wondering if these speeds will provide me a better ping? For gaming as well in general.

 

[Doctor Rob]

Sometimes.. it depends on who else is using your network.

IF you for example have a lot of data being moved around.. like a few kids playing vids.. then going for a faster one could help with ping rates.. at least keep them more constant.

but overall IF you are the only one there then.. Nope.. unless its a big change from maybe cable internet / DLS to Fiber connection.. 25-30 is actually VERY good! so I would not worrie about it.. you just about cant do any better.

 

[torresraul555]

Sometimes.. it depends on who else is using your network.

IF you for example have a lot of data being moved around.. like a few kids playing vids.. then going for a faster one could help with ping rates.. at least keep them more constant.

but overall IF you are the only one there then.. Nope.. unless its a big change from maybe cable internet / DLS to Fiber connection.. 25-30 is actually VERY good! so I would not worrie about it.. you just about cant do any better.

I see, I understand now. I have a few people I talk to and their internet is really good and when it comes to gaming in general, they’ll have a better advantage like almost as close to speeds that I’ve shown above

 

[nobspls]

Higher speeds and better latency in theory are unrelated. And in certain implementations higher speed actually means more latency. Think about how fast a plane with full load of people operates. The traffic control, security checks, etc. imposes all sort of costs in time so that you can fly from Los Angeles to San Jose for about the same amount of time as you can drive from L.A. to San Jose. And most of the time in that flight is lost to all the non-flying issues, i.e. more latency. Whereas driving, you hop in your car, may lose a little time for fueling up, and you are good to go so very low latency. And it is obvious cars are much slower than planes, but it is much lower latency for short distances.

Networks will do similar things, in order to maximize the utilization on a fiber, they will aggregate data, and then send them at high speeds, but this adds latency to your packets. Of course if you are willing to pay more to get dedicated fiber, path, then you can have both higher speeds and lower latency, but you can bet most service providers are not going to give that away for free.

 

[torresraul555]

Higher speeds and better latency in theory are unrelated. And in certain implementations higher speed actually means more latency. Think about how fast a plane with full load of people operates. The traffic control, security checks, etc. imposes all sort of costs in time so that you can fly from Los Angeles to San Jose for about the same amount of time as you can drive from L.A. to San Jose. And most of the time in that flight is lost to all the non-flying issues, i.e. more latency. Whereas driving, you hop in your car, may lose a little time for fueling up, and you are good to go so very low latency. And it is obvious cars are much slower than planes, but it is much lower latency for short distances.

Networks will do similar things, in order to maximize the utilization on a fiber, they will aggregate data, and then send them at high speeds, but this adds latency to your packets. Of course if you are willing to pay more to get dedicated fiber, path, then you can have both higher speeds and lower latency, but you can bet most service providers are not going to give that away for free.

 

[Karadjgne]

Ping is also dependent on location, physical things like wire length, accuracy of connection, just how far you are from the node, how far is the node from the junction, how many junctions are in the hub etc.

The top speed of any car is only a viable thing in a straight line. Once you start adding multiple curves, hairpin turns, slalom slopes etc top speed is useless. So too with internet.

 

[bill001g]

A game only uses maybe 1mbps, many use far less. Bandwidth only causes extended ping times if you have over usage. It is not likely you have over used your current connection.

It is similar to if you needed to drive some place. If the road is crowded with other cars you may get delays. If there are few cars you are only delayed by the speed limits. Adding more lanes to the highway does not make you go any faster.

Ping times more or less measure distance since the time is based on speed of light and overhead in the network. There is not a lot you can do to reduce ping times due to distance.

 

[failboat]

The ISP's have to pay to hop around networks. Think of it like a regional airline. They hop to what they have access to even though there may be more optimal routes. With internet there are a lot of hops. So it's going to be trial and error to see who has the best ping. If they oversell a line, you will get bad latency for sure.