[SOLVED] How can I achieve low ping?

[russwiz]

So for starters, I’m a competitive Fortnite player, and I know Fortnite receives a lot of hate, but I am 16 and I’ve made some money from it and I only have one complaint at the moment. I can’t seem to get low ping. To mostly everyone, low ping is anything under 50, but to me, I can’t function on anything higher than 40. You can really feel the difference between 10 and 50 ping. Right now, I get 30-40 ping, and it’s a problem. This sounds dumb but for me it’s important. I live pretty close to the NA east server, and friends of mine who live right near me average 0 to 10 ping. My PC is what I consider a mid to high end computer, with an i7-9700k and GTX 1060 6gb (pretty big bottleneck), and ROG STRIX Z370-E motherboard. I use an Ethernet cable and get about 50-60mb download speed, while my ISP says it is 200mb. I’ve read that download and upload speed contribute to ping, so do I need to upgrade? What can I do in my computer to get lower ping? I’ll take any little tips, anything I can get. Thanks

 

[Sgt_Anarchy]

Trying to get anything lower than 30 ping is pretty difficult even when living near the server, but have you asked your friend what internet speeds he is getting? He could just have a better internet package than you do.

 

[russwiz]

Trying to get anything lower than 30 ping is pretty difficult even when living near the server, but have you asked your friend what internet speeds he is getting? He could just have a better internet package than you do.

I’m thinking it’s the internet package too or something with my location. 2 years ago I lived about 30 miles north of where I live now and I averaged 15-20 ping. The server is South of me, though, so I’ve ruled out distance. Also, I’ve always used the same ISP, Armstrong, and, like I said, had really good ping with them. My friends each use Armstrong also so maybe I need to upgrade the package. I’m not aware what package they have but I’ll ask. Thanks

 

[bill001g]

First you are just imagining things when you think tiny differences in latency give some advantage in a game. Don't believe the so called hard core gamers "feelings" most have no professional training or work experience to back up what they post.

What most games including fornite do is introduce artificial delays into the system so the guy with a fast connection does not get information from the server faster than a guy with a slower connection. This of course has a limit you can't expect it to fix 200ms of difference but it does well with say 100ms and a human can't even detect small amounts like 20ms.

Still it all does not matter. Games use almost no bandwidth so 1gbit connection will have the same ping times as a 100mbit connection. Buy a faster internet package will not reduce the ping times. The only time you would see a increase in ping time is if your game data has to wait for other data. This would only happen if you where say downloading large files on your connection. If you have not used all your bandwidth the data will not be queued and will not be delayed.

Pretty much ping time is distance but its not like you have a fiber optic cable running from your house to the server. There is all kinds of equipment in between and every time you convert from say dsl or cable to fiber or even from fiber to Ethernet it adds small delays.

The largest delays though tend to be the interconnection between the ISP. It is not like every ISP has direct fiber to every other city. In addition they only interconnect in certain locations they do not connect in every city. As a example lets say you ISP1 and your friend across the street is running a server on ISP2 and you both live say in chicago. Your ISP to save money only connects to ISP2 in austrilia. So to get across the street your traffic must go all the way to austriliia and back to go across the street. So instead of getting 1-2ms you get 350ms.

There is absolutely nothing you can do about this. You have 1 option you send you data on the cable that runs to your house. You have no ability to affect the path it takes. Now maybe you could try a different ISP if that is a option maybe there is a better path. Even within a ISP there is inefficient pathing maybe because years ago they acquired a different ISP and have not changed the interconnections.

 

[Wacabletech06]

Bill is right blinking an eye takes longer.
from wikipedia (i know)
The duration of a blink is on average 100–150 milliseconds according to UCL researcher[3] and between 100–400 ms according to the Harvard Database of Useful Biological Numbers

Packet loss is the bigger problem with online gaming. A 1000ms ping is a different story but after that its usually considered a lost packet. You may believe you are a mutant in the marvel cinematic universe and that 50 ms is an issue, but no, 50 ms is not an issue. I used to play over 300ms on dial up.

As to reducing latency the best you can do is eliminate the extra stuff in you local network and computer. Latency is the amount of time it takes to send a packet from your computer across the entire network system to the server computer, and then have it get a response, and go back across the entire network to your computer and be processed by your computer. So anything slowing the computer down, by taking up time slices, is a culprit.

Things like having pointless software can rob you of cpu cycles which increases latency, multiple virus scanners is one such idiocy that can, if one is not good enough get rid of it and replace it, don't have 2 fighting among each other. Software firewall with stringent rules can also cause this as well as software that just does not need to run. I don't care if you need a java update, I will tell you when you can update.

Using wireless when you can go wired can also increase latency, as well as having extra active devices in the path such as old switches, additional routers, etc.

The problem is most people are limited in what they can optimize inside the home as the connection is not just yours and quite often neither is the computer.

alot of times turning down game effects will improve latency too - less processing time and all. But with the modern use of dedicated processors like a GPU, etc. this is not really a big gain anymore. However, if you must.

 

[Fortnite_mom]

Unfortunately I don't have an answer, but I do have a suggestion to see if it will help the experts on here.

Have you tried plugging in your Ethernet cable directly into your modem? Try that and post back what your ping is. If you get low ping plugging directly into your modem, my guess is the problem lies somewhere in your router settings. Also run a speedtest while you're plugged into the modem and make sure you're getting the 200mbps you're supposed to be getting. I assume you know this, but just in case... don't stay plugged directly into your modem for too long because you won't have any firewall protection.

Another tip regarding the modem - make sure yours does not have the Intel Puma 6 Chipset. A lawsuit was filed a few years ago for known latency issues. Our modem was on the list. Our cable company upgraded our modem for free when I told them which one I wanted and why. Here is a link: https://approvedmodemlist.com/intel-puma-6-modem-list-chipset-defects/

I also wonder if your friends who have the 0-10 ping play competitively? Are their reflexes as fast as yours? My husband speculates that Epic Games might be throttling back on good, fast players... but of course we have no proof.

I have two boys that play Fortnite. My 14-year-old is good enough to play competitively. He is connected to the router via Ethernet. We are on our fifth router now, and after many phone calls to customer service reps, I've seen what an impact the different settings have on the ping within Fortnite. With some router settings, he can play 5 or 6 games with his ping ranging from 15-29. Then, always, his ping shoots up to the 60s. Some router settings cause his ping to be 60 right away. When he plugs directly into the modem, his ping is phenomenal and stays under 25.

My 9-year-old also plays. He connects via WiFi. Some router settings he gets great ping - like under 30 consistently. However, when I start tweaking the settings for the Ethernet PC, the WiFi PC suffers and his ping shoots up. My husband guesses it's Epic Games because when the ping is low for the WiFI PC, it stays low until I mess with the router settings. It doesn't spike up like the Ethernet PC does, when my 14-year-old, who is lightning fast plays.

I'm searching for answers too, but maybe this will start you in the right direction to getting answers.