How to Fix Lag While Gaming (Without Upgrading Your Plan)
Most people blame their download speed for game lag, but a 50 Mbps connection is plenty for almost any game. Lag is almost always a latency problem, not a bandwidth one.
What actually causes lag
Three things: high ping (slow round-trips to the game server), high jitter (ping that jumps around), and bufferbloat (latency that spikes when something else uses the connection). Run our test and check all three.
Fix 1: Go wired
An Ethernet cable removes WiFi interference and dramatically lowers jitter. This single change fixes most lag complaints.
Fix 2: Tackle bufferbloat
If your bufferbloat grade is C or worse, enable SQM/QoS on your router and set it to about 90% of your measured speed. This stops downloads and updates from spiking your ping mid-game.
Fix 3: Reduce contention
Pause big downloads, cloud backups and 4K streams on other devices while gaming, or prioritise your console/PC in the router's QoS settings.
Fix 4: Pick a closer server
In-game, choose the region nearest you. A server across the world adds unavoidable physical latency no plan can fix.
Re-run our test after each change to see your ping and bufferbloat improve.
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