Will A New Router and Modem Lower My Ping In Games?

[Isack]

I am stuck with a bad router/modem all-in-one at the moment. I am soon getting a 16 channel modem along with a nighthawk gaming router. Will these upgrades lower my ping in games? What differences will I notice? Thanks and any help is much appreciated.

 

[Tukk]

At the risk of over-simplifying things, I'm gonna guess that the ping you're seeing has more to do with your service provider or the internet in general than with your modem/router, though they could be hurting your ping if they're truly horrible.

 

[USAFRet]

Ping is the round trip time from your device, to whatever you are pinging.
Once the signal leaves your house (and router), you have zero influence over how long it takes.

With the exact same equipment...if I ping my neighbor (on the same ISP), it will be significantly faster than if I were to ping a server on the other side of the planet.

 

[alexandergc]

The Nighthawk is an awesome piece of consumer hardware.
However, it may or may not improve your gaming experience due to the fact that latency is a somewhat complicated thing.

Simplifying things for you, your latency in a game is determined by two things:
1) The ping from your device to your router (should be in the 1-2ms range even with crappy stuff, so a hardware upgrade won't necessarily do anything).

2) The ping from your router to the internet (which your ISP/line quality determines. If you live in an area with old copper lines, or just have a bullcrap ISP...I feel sorry for you because it's happened to me before.)

 

[Demoncious]

Not really,

An ethernet cable or A Fiber Optic connection will greatly reduce ping in Online Multiplayer games