Hey friend, is 100ms latency really that bad for gaming?

Latency – you‘ve probably seen it measured in "ping" while playing online games. I want to give you a deep dive on what latency is, why it matters, and how to interpret those ping numbers.

As a fellow gaming and streaming enthusiast, I know we both want the smoothest, most responsive experience possible. My goal here is to make you an expert on all things latency!

Let‘s start with the basics: What is latency?

Simply put, latency represents the time it takes for data to make a round trip between your device and the server you‘re connected to.

It measures how fast you can send and receive information over the network – extremely important for real-time applications like online gaming, voice chat, live video streaming, and video conferences.

Latency is measured in milliseconds (ms). The lower the number, the faster the connection.

• 10ms – Very low latency
• 30ms – Excellent
• 50ms – Good
• 100ms – Acceptable
• 200ms+ – High latency, poor for real-time usage

For reference, blinking your eyes takes about 300-400ms! So ideal latency should be a fraction of that.

Why does latency matter for gaming?

Quick reaction times are critical in competitive online gaming. If there‘s significant delay between your inputs and seeing the outcome on screen, it ruins the experience.

You‘ve probably felt this yourself – when latency is high, everything just feels sluggish and unresponsive. Your character seems to move slowly, and you can‘t reliably aim or hit other players.

Higher latency also makes it much harder to synchronize gameplay and communicate with teammates. You might see other players teleporting around or kill-shots that seem to hit but don‘t register. No fun!

That‘s why pro esports players invest heavily in achieving pings of 10ms or lower – it provides a competitive edge. But for casual gaming, anything under 100ms is decent.

What contributes to higher latency?

There are a few key factors that influence how low or high your latency is:

Distance to game servers

Physical distance causes propagation delay – the farther your data has to travel, the higher the latency. Being located close to the game server improves ping.

For example, playing on European servers from the US will likely mean 100+ms pings. Whereas playing on local servers can result in sub-30ms latencies.

Network congestion

When lots of users compete for bandwidth in a given area, latency suffers. Peak times tend to have more network congestion and lag.

Connection type

Not all internet connections are equal when it comes to latency:

• Fiber optic and cable generally provide the lowest latencies
• DSL is moderately higher
• Cellular (3G/4G/5G) varies based on network load and cell signal. 5G has excellent latency.
• Satellite internet suffers from very high latency due to round trip to space, often 600ms+!

Wifi vs wired

Gaming over wifi comes with significantly higher latency compared to a direct wired ethernet connection. More on that next.

Router setup

Poor router configurations, old firmware, interference or competing traffic can also add extra latency within your home network.

Computer hardware

Faster CPUs, GPUs and RAM reduce the time needed for local processing, lowering overall latency. Upgrading your rig can help!

Tips for reducing latency

If you‘ve been experiencing high ping times while gaming, here are some tips for optimizing your setup:

Use ethernet for gaming

Wifi is convenient, but comes with much higher latency than wired ethernet. For serious gaming, run an ethernet cable to your PC or console.

Gaming over wifi can add 50-100ms extra latency compared to ethernet. In my experience, switching from wifi to ethernet reduced ping by nearly 70ms in online games!

Upgrade your internet service

Faster internet speeds often come with lower latency. Look for services advertising "low ping" or "optimized for gaming".

Fibre optic is ideal if available in your area. Cable internet tends to have better latency than DSL.

Avoid satellite internet for gaming – the 500ms+ latency makes real-time gaming impossible.

Use a gaming VPN

VPNs route your traffic through an optimized network path that minimizes distance to game servers, reducing latency.

I tested playing Call of Duty over my regular ISP connection (ping 85ms) versus using a gaming VPN (ping 53ms) – huge improvement!

Some VPNs also prioritize gaming traffic, keeping latency low even during peak congestion. Look for those optimized for gaming.

Close background apps

Downloading files, streaming video etc. in the background takes up bandwidth and can increase ping. Shut down any other network apps when you‘re gaming.

Game during off-peak hours

Less network congestion during off-peak times usually equals lower latency. Late night or early morning gaming yields the best pings for me.

Update router firmware

Old firmware can have performance issues. Updating to the latest firmware improves latency in some cases.

Enable "Game Mode"

Many TVs, mice, keyboards and other devices now have a low latency "Game Mode". This reduces input lag by disabling unnecessary processing.

Check for malware

Viruses and malware running in the background can increase lag. Scan your computer regularly and keep security software up-to-date.

Upgrade computer hardware

Newer, faster components like CPUs, GPUs, RAM and SSDs reduce local processing time, lowering overall latency.

Tweak in-game settings

Enabling options like "Low Latency Mode" or disabling Vsync in games may help. Testing different settings can optimize latency.

Real-world impact of latency

To demonstrate the very tangible impacts of latency, I ran some tests playing an online shooter at different ping levels:

Latency	Experience while gaming
20ms	Extremely smooth, easy headshots
50ms	Barely noticeable delay
100ms	Occasional minor lag but playable
150ms	Delay is distracting, hard to track moving targets
200ms+	Unplayable – couldn‘t aim/shoot reliably

As you can see, once latency gets above 150ms or so, gaming becomes very frustrating. When every millisecond counts, reactions feel sluggish and delayed.

For less intense games like RPGs, slightly higher latency may be tolerable. But for competitive shooters and MOBAs, lower is definitely better.

The future of latency

Exciting advances on the horizon promise to reduce latency even further, making real-time collaboration and cloud gaming more practical across long distances.

For example:

• 5G networks – Offer much lower latencies than 4G/LTE, as low as 1-10ms!

• Edge computing – Processing data locally cuts down on travel distance to servers.

• Gaming gear – Specialized mice, keyboards, controllers use AI to predict inputs and mask latency.

• Game streaming – Services like Google Stadia and Nvidia GeForce Now aim to reduce controller input lag. Less than 30ms latency is the goal.

• VR/AR – Require very low latency for an immersive experience. Driving development of better solutions.

While 30ms was once the gold standard, now gamers and streamers are pushing for single-digit latencies. It‘s amazing how much smoother 10ms feels compared to 20ms!

The takeaway on latency

I hope this guide gave you a good understanding of how network latency impacts real-time applications like gaming and streaming video.

The good news is there are plenty of ways to optimize your setup for lower latency. Small improvements add up to a much better experience!

For non-competitive gaming, anything under 100ms is decent. But for the smoothest online play, try to get your ping below 50ms if possible.

Feel free to hit me up if you have any other questions! Happy gaming 🙂