[SOLVED] Internet speed and ping are good but when I play a game I have lag spikes. Have tried just about everything

Jun 17, 2021
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I've been having this issue for just over 2 weeks or so and it's really been bothering me lately. Prior to it everything was normal and I could play a game without any disruption but now its more of a nuisance playing a game rather than having fun. My internet provider says everything is normal and should be working just fine, I've updated my graphics driver, my wifi adapter driver, but none of that helped. I thought it was maybe packet loss but there doesn't seem to be any while in game and every time I do a internet speed test it comes back saying my internet is fast and my ping is really low. I think it might be a ping issue because while I'm in game I have relatively higher ping around 70-80 but when I test it it comes back consistently at 11. I feel like I've tried just about everything and nothing is working. Any help is appreciated. Pc specs are 1660ti, Ryzen 5 2400G, MSI Tomahalk B450, 16gb ddr4 2100 ram.
 
Solution
Ping test sites have very little meaning when you compare them to games. The test site and the game server are in different locations so you can't really compare.

I would leave a constant ping run to some ip like 8.8.8.8 in a background cmd windows. You can then check if you are getting ping spikes or packet loss. If it shows nothing to 8.8.8.8 you could change it to the game company server ip. Still even if you were to find something all it really would tell you is the game company ISP has a problem or there is some issue in the path that is different from 8.8.8.8. All those problems are not going to be easy to fix since it can be outside your ISP. If you see issues in 8.8.8.8 you would next check your router IP and...
Ping test sites have very little meaning when you compare them to games. The test site and the game server are in different locations so you can't really compare.

I would leave a constant ping run to some ip like 8.8.8.8 in a background cmd windows. You can then check if you are getting ping spikes or packet loss. If it shows nothing to 8.8.8.8 you could change it to the game company server ip. Still even if you were to find something all it really would tell you is the game company ISP has a problem or there is some issue in the path that is different from 8.8.8.8. All those problems are not going to be easy to fix since it can be outside your ISP. If you see issues in 8.8.8.8 you would next check your router IP and the ISP first IP in the trace.

Pretty much if you do not get packet loss or latency spikes the problem is not a network issue. Many times issues with video settings in the game can cause what looks like network lag.
 
Solution
Jun 17, 2021
3
0
10
Ping test sites have very little meaning when you compare them to games. The test site and the game server are in different locations so you can't really compare.

I would leave a constant ping run to some ip like 8.8.8.8 in a background cmd windows. You can then check if you are getting ping spikes or packet loss. If it shows nothing to 8.8.8.8 you could change it to the game company server ip. Still even if you were to find something all it really would tell you is the game company ISP has a problem or there is some issue in the path that is different from 8.8.8.8. All those problems are not going to be easy to fix since it can be outside your ISP. If you see issues in 8.8.8.8 you would next check your router IP and the ISP first IP in the trace.

Pretty much if you do not get packet loss or latency spikes the problem is not a network issue. Many times issues with video settings in the game can cause what looks like network lag.
I've played on multiple game servers. I live on the east cost of the states and I get around 30 ping to Virginia servers which is the best I get compared to Dallas where I get 60 ping. But even when it says that I have 30-60 ping it should still be easily playable but like I said I rubberband constantly and sometimes freeze entirely. I just tested 8.8.8.8 and it averaged 22ms with no packet loss. I also went into a game in csgo to test the server ip and I got 0% loss but had a average of 101 in a US east server. Double checked just to make sure and said just about the same thing. I should be getting around 30 and in game it says my ping is around 30-40 but I guess cmd says otherwise. Only problem is is that nobody else is having issues. This has been going on for the past couple weeks and I've played multiple games with friends who had perfectly fine ping so I don't really understand how its just me whos struggling to get good connection to the servers. Its also not just one game, I'm having the same issues with every other multiplayer game I own
 
Even with a very high ping time you will not see much lag issues. It is not the actual ping time it is the consistency of the ping times. The game know the latency and uses this to predict where your character will be by the time you get the packet. This doesn't work when the time changes rapidly.

BUT from your testing that does not appear to be what is happening. Be sure to let the ping run while you play the games in the background. Intermittent errors are very hard to find.

When a ping command shows good latency and no loss it has to be something else. Since it is multiple games the most common cause is video drivers. There are so many options in video setting this is very hard to find. Maybe turn every thing to the lowest level and turn off any special feature to see if it get any better.

After that you start looking for issues with the machine, maybe the event viewer will have something if you are getting some kind of failure.