# Is 47 ms of Latency Actually Bad for Gaming and Streaming? - Canonical: https://33rdsquare.com/is-47-ms-latency-bad/ - Published: 2023-11-17 - Author: Nelson Ayers - Categories: [Basic knowledge & Meaning](https://33rdsquare.com/category/games/meaning/) --- Hey there friend! As a fellow gaming and streaming enthusiast, I know how frustrating lag can be. You‘re deep into a match of Valorant or Apex Legends, leading your squad to victory, when suddenly – disaster strikes! Your character starts teleporting around, shots don‘t register, and you inevitably perish thanks to ridiculous ping. We‘ve all been there! It‘s enough to make you want to fling your mouse across the room. But before you Hulk out on your setup, let‘s take a closer look at what‘s actually going on. ## Understanding Latency and Ping Latency refers to the time it takes for data to make a round trip between your device and the server you‘re connected to. This delay is measured in milliseconds (ms) and is often called your "ping." The lower your latency, the better. When you press a key or click your mouse, that input gets sent to the game server for processing. The server then calculates the result and sends back the updated game state to render on your screen. Higher latency means more delay between your input and seeing the outcome. At 500ms, you could literally press a button and go make a sandwich before seeing anything happen in-game – unacceptable! Anything below 100ms is generally considered decent by normal standards. But as a hardcore gamer, you shouldn‘t settle for average! Competitive play demands lightning quick reflexes where every millisecond matters. Let‘s break down the latency brackets: - 0-30ms: Excellent - 30-60ms: Very good - 60-100ms: Okay - 100-150ms: Noticeable lag - 150ms+: Unplayable So where does 47ms land? Right in the middle of the "very good" range. Not amazing, but far from poor either. For casual gaming and streaming video, this level of ping is just fine. But for fast-paced competitive gaming, you‘d ideally want it closer to 30ms if possible. ## Why Ping Varies Between Games You might be wondering why your pings vary so much depending on the game. A key factor is the location of the game servers you‘re connecting to. For example: - League of Legends servers are centralized in Chicago, resulting in <60ms for most US-based players. - Overwatch servers are more spread out, giving higher average pings of 70-90ms. - Playing on European servers from the US can mean 100ms+ latency due to the huge distance. The table below compares average latencies I‘ve seen across popular multiplayer games: | Game | Servers | Avg Ping (US) | Avg Ping (EU) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Fortnite | Worldwide | 20-60ms | <100ms | | Valorant | US-centralized | 30-70ms | 90-130ms | | Apex Legends | US-East/US-West | 50-80ms | 150-200ms+ | As you can see, the server location makes a huge impact! Other factors like network congestion and the number of "hops" your data has to make along the route to the server also play a role. ## Reducing Latency – Tips and Tricks Alright, enough background – you came here to make your game run smoother! Here are my top tips for lowering your ping, based on extensive testing and troubleshooting of my own setup over the years: ### Upgrade Your Internet Plan Faster download AND upload speeds enable lower latency. Cable internet plans with 10-50 Mbps upload will get you under 30ms pings. Going up to fiber optic (500 Mbps up/down) drops ping to 10-15ms! ### Use Ethernet Over WiFi When Possible Gaming over WiFi usually adds 5-15ms extra latency versus using a direct wired Ethernet connection to your router. For competitive play, plug in don‘t rely on wireless! ### Get a Gaming Router Optimized gaming routers like the Netduma and ASUS ROG series minimize ping spikes by dynamically routing your traffic. Quality of Service features help prioritize gaming traffic. ### Test Different DNS Servers Switching from your ISP‘s default DNS to public servers like Google (8.8.8.8) or Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) can shave a few precious ms off your ping in some cases. ### Limit Bandwidth-Hogging Apps Torrents, streaming video, and other high-bandwidth tasks will congest your network and spike latency. Firewall gaming traffic if needed. ### Check for Interference Nearby appliances on the 2.4Ghz WiFi band like microwaves, baby monitors can cause interference leading to lag. Switch to 5Ghz for better results. ### Consider a VPN (with Caution) Gaming VPNs like ExitLag and WTFast can potentially route your traffic better and reduce latency to game servers. But many VPNs add ping, so test thoroughly! As you can see, there are plenty of tweaks you can make to shave off milliseconds of ping and get the edge over your competitors. But at the end of the day, having stable, consistent latency in the 30-50ms range matters more than chasing the lowest possible ping. ## My Experience Optimizing Latency I learned many of these tips the hard way! When I first started gaming, I was playing on WiFi across my house from the router and getting pings of 80-130ms. It was playable, but I could feel the lag holding me back. Upgrading to a mesh system helped, but pings were still too varied. Once I bit the bullet and ran Ethernet to my room, bam – latency dropped to 40-50ms for good. Happy with the improvement, I got complacent until I started competing more seriously. That‘s when I realized I had to keep tweaking my setup. Dialing in my network with a new gaming router, upgrading to fiber internet, and manually routing traffic shaved another 5-10ms off my ping. Now I get 25-35ms in most games – right where you need to be for competitive esports! The improvement in responsiveness was obvious. No more blaming lag when I missed shots. The game just feels crisper now, and those milliseconds add up over the course of a match. ## The Future of Latency Improvements Gaming companies and networks are making huge investments to reduce latency globally. For example, Riot Games centralized their servers for Valorant to improve pings across North America. Epic Games built an AWS cloud infrastructure to offer <20ms pings in Fortnite. 5G and new high-speed cabling are driving lower latencies too. Fiber connections are nearing the theoretical minimum ping possible based on laws of physics! SpaceX‘s Starlink satellite internet also promises extremely low orbit satellites for lag-free broadband worldwide. These efforts will hopefully mean gamers everywhere can enjoy pings of less than 30ms in the near future. According to an Accenture study, 77% of players say latency below 50ms is needed for a good experience. Gaming networks are racing to make that possible as esports continue growing. ## The Bottom Line So back to your original question – is 47ms actually bad? The short answer is no, for most gaming scenarios that ping is just fine. While it‘s not lightning fast, it‘s still very playable for casual and average skill-level gaming. But for truly competitive play where every millisecond matters, getting latency down as close to 30ms as possible will give you an edge. Hopefully these tips help explain what latency is and how you can optimize your home network setup to reduce ping. Feel free to hit me up if you have any other questions! I‘m always tweaking and benchmarking my rig to crush lag and get the lowest ping possible. Let‘s get your latency down and game like a pro! --- Source: [Is 47 ms of Latency Actually Bad for Gaming and Streaming?](https://33rdsquare.com/is-47-ms-latency-bad/)