# Is 65 ms latency good for gaming and streaming? - Canonical: https://33rdsquare.com/is-65-ms-latency-good/ - Published: 2023-11-12 - Author: Nelson Ayers - Categories: [Basic knowledge & Meaning](https://33rdsquare.com/category/games/meaning/) --- Hey there! As a fellow gaming and streaming enthusiast, you might be wondering – is 65 milliseconds of latency actually good? I totally get it. Lower latency means faster reactions and a smoother experience for competitive online gaming and high-def streaming. But how low do you really need to go? Let‘s dive in and see if 65 ms latency is up to par. ## What Exactly is Latency? Latency refers to the time delay between your computer sending a request and receiving a response. It‘s the reaction time of your internet connection. For example, when you click a link, latency determines how long before the website starts loading. Or in a fast-paced FPS game like Valorant, latency is how quickly your shots register from when you pull the trigger. The lower the latency, the snappier your internet experience. Latency depends primarily on distance and infrastructure capacity. Even through fiber optic cables, data can only travel so fast. And it has to make a round trip, known as ping time. The further the server, the higher the latency. Network congestion and bandwidth limitations also drive up latency. ## Acceptable Latency Recommendations To determine if 65 ms is any good, let‘s first look at the recommended latency thresholds: ![](https://i.imgur.com/5Bu5CqF.png) For high-performance online gaming, you want latency (ping) as low as possible. Here are the general guidelines: - <20 ms: Incredibly low latency for esports and competitive gaming. - 20-40 ms: Optimal for fast-paced FPS, fighting, racing and sports games where timing is everything. - 40-60 ms: Excellent for casual gaming, MMOs and multiplayer matchmaking. Smooth sailing. - 60-100 ms: Very playable but occasional lag in high-intensity games. Still great for streaming. - 100-150 ms: Noticeable lag, especially in reaction-based games. Passable for single player. - 150+ ms: Poor experience with constant rubber banding and freezes. Avoid competitive gaming. Based on this, **65 ms falls well within the ideal range for online gaming and streaming video.** You‘ll enjoy crisp responsiveness in most multiplayer matches. Fast-paced competitive games may see the occasional hiccup but are still very playable. And streaming services like Netflix and Twitch will deliver Maximum HD quality with minimal buffering. So in most cases, 65 ms latency is considered good enough for gaming and streaming media in 2024. But there‘s always room for improvement when chasing the lowest latency possible! ## Tips for Squeezing Out Every Millisecond While 65 ms is definitely acceptable, here are some tricks to shave off even more latency for a super snappy connection: ### Plug In Your Devices WiFi is convenient but adds 2-5 ms over a wired connection. For ultra low latency gaming, use ethernet cables to eliminate wireless lag. Many competitive esports players even attach a long cable to walk around their room untethered! ### Reduce Input Lag Your mouse, keyboard and controller also add a few ms of input lag. High polling rate peripherals, gaming keyswitches and a wired controller cut down on input latency. ### Disable Visual Settings Turn off CPU-intensive visuals like anti-aliasing, shadows and post-processing effects. This reduces GPU rendering time for lower in-game latency. ### Cap Your Frame Rate Set your frame cap slightly below your monitor‘s max refresh rate to minimize buffering. For a 144 Hz display cap frames at 140 FPS. ### Update Your Hardware Newer, faster components all reduce system latency. A cutting-edge CPU and GPU churn through data quicker. More RAM boosts multitasking speeds. And an SSD drive accelerates read/write times. ### Tweak Your Rig Close background apps, disable search indexing, game mode on, ports forwarded, debloat Windows, the works! Optimize your rig‘s software for lighting fast responses. ### Try a VPN Gaming Tunnel A VPN can route your traffic through optimized tunnels to reduce geographical latency. Just be sure to connect to nearby servers. ### Test Different Game Servers Connecting to gaming servers physically closer to you cuts down distance latency. Be prepared to swap regions for the lowest ping. ### Consider a Latency-Focused ISP Compare business internet packages focused on low latency SLAs instead of just high bandwidth. Or try out a new low-orbit satellite provider like Starlink. ### …Or Just Move Closer If all else fails, pack up and move right next to the game servers! Kidding aside, physical proximity is the ultimate solution. With the right tweaks, you can shave precious milliseconds off your latency. But even at 65 ms you‘ll be cruising smoothly in most online games and streaming the highest quality video. ## Breaking Down Total Latency To really optimize, we need to understand all the factors contributing to latency from start to finish: ![](https://i.imgur.com/l9bIk3X.png) ### Input Devices (1 ms) Your mouse, keyboard, controller, headset and other peripherals add a bit of processing delay. Pro esports gamers use specialized peripherals to minimize input lag. ### Local Hardware (5-15 ms) Your PC components like GPU, CPU and RAM process data with a brief delay. Upgrading to top-tier parts ensures near-instant response time. ### Display (1-10 ms) Monitors and TVs also add input and display latency from pixel transitions and frame buffering. High refresh rate monitors offer the fastest response. ### Software Optimization (5-20 ms) Running background tasks and unoptimized settings can easily bog down your rig and increase latency. Streamlining software is crucial. ### Network Transmission (1-30 ms) Even at light speed down fiber optic cables, it takes time to send data back and forth over distances to servers and back. Shorter trips equal lower latency. ### Routing Inefficiencies (5-15 ms) Suboptimal paths and congested intersections on the internet backbone unpredictably add latency spikes. Careful routing avoids this. ### Server Performance (5-15 ms) Game servers have their own network latency plus processing time. Higher-end servers with fewer users provide lower latency. Optimizing each component and connection brings you closer to the holy grail of instantaneous interactivity. Every millisecond matters! ## Measuring and Monitoring Your Latency To know if you‘re getting quality latency, you need to measure it: ### In-game Latency Meters Most online multiplayer games show your ping time in milliseconds during matches. Keep an eye out for any spikes. ### Internet Speed Tests Speed test tools like Fast.com and Speedtest.net run a ping test to check your real-world latency to nearby servers. ### Router Ping Tools Log into your router and use its ping utility to ping devices on your network or internet servers to check latency. ### Latency Monitoring Apps Apps like PingPlotter let you continuously monitor your latency metrics to different regions and track down any lag spikes. ### Kill Ping Use traceroute tools like Kill Ping that map your exact internet path and pinpoint high latency nodes causing lag. Being able to measure your latency is key to identifying issues and making improvements. 65 ms or below at all times means you‘re cruising. ## The Relationship Between Latency and Internet Speed One thing that trips people up is the difference between latency and internet speed: - **Latency** is the reaction time of your connection. Lower latency equals quicker response. - **Internet Speed** refers to bandwidth which determines how much data you can transfer per second. More bandwidth means faster loading. You can have blazing fast 500 Mbps speeds but still get high latency during peak congestion times. The large bandwidth helps load websites quickly but latency delays the initial response. Or you could be on a slower 10 Mbps connection with excellent 5 ms latency since the network is uncongested. Webpages start loading instantly but take longer to fully download. Ideally, you want the best of both worlds – high bandwidth speeds and low latency for fast loading and quick reactions. Think of bandwidth as your top speed, and latency as how quick you take off from the line. Prioritize latency for gaming and real-time apps, and bandwidth for large downloads and backups. Luckily even a moderate modern broadband connection can deliver both sufficient speed and low latency for most home users. ## The Need for Speed and Low Latency Back in the early dial-up modem days, raw internet speed was the name of the game. 56k modems focused on pushing bandwidth limits over latency. But today even standard broadband provides more than enough bandwidth for streaming and downloads. Now that we have sufficient bandwidth, tech innovations are focused on reducing latency for the next generation of real-time interactive experiences. Self-driving cars need millisecond vehicle-to-vehicle communications. Augmented reality demands instant image recognition and response. And cloud gaming requires single-digit latency across the globe. Online gaming is still leading the charge when it comes to demanding the lowest possible latency. Competitive esports players chase every millisecond advantage as prize pools soar into the millions. But all types of applications from video conferencing to IoT networks stand to benefit from the latency arms race. So bring on 5G cellular networks slicing latency down to 1-5 ms from 20-40 ms on 4G. WiFi 7 slashing latency in half again from WiFi 6. LEO satellite networks like Starlink beaming 20 ms latency worldwide. The lower the lag, the more real-time experiences we can enjoy! ## The Future of Latency is Near Exciting cutting edge advancements promise to reduce latency even further: ### 5G and 6G Cellular 5G already lowers latency down to around 20 ms vs 60 ms on 4G LTE networks. The upcoming 6G spec aims to achieve sub 1-millisecond latency to finally beat wired networks! ### LEO Satellite Internet Low earth orbit satellite networks like Starlink can provide less than 20-40 ms latency worldwide thanks to their closer orbital planes. ### Light-Based Processing New photonic computer processors that use photons instead of electrons can theoretically eliminate electronics-based latency for instant light-speed processing. ### Edge Computing Processing data locally on nearby edge servers rather than transmitting to distant centralized clouds will significantly cut networking latency. ### WiFi 7 The next-gen WiFi 7 protocol slashes latency by up to 50% compared to WiFi 6 through wider 320 MHz channels and 4K QAM modulation. ### VR/AR Innovations Virtual and augmented reality devices are pushing specialized low latency connections like WiGig 2 to avoid motion sickness and deliver immersive real-time experiences. We’re nearing the point where network transmission latency is no longer the bottleneck. Local computing and device hardware latency will soon become the next hurdles to conquer. The future can’t get here soon enough! ## The Bottom Line At the end of the day, is 65 ms latency good enough for gaming and streaming? In my experience and testing, the answer is a resounding yes! A latency below 100 ms is widely considered excellent by today’s standards. 65 ms falls squarely within the ideal range for online gaming, allowing fast response times and lag-free matches in everything from NHL to Fortnite. Streaming video also plays smoothly at Maximum HD quality with minimal buffering at that latency. In fact, even 4K streaming can work reasonably well at 65 ms. While hardcore esports pros and competitive types will continue chasing ever lower latency, for most home users 65 ms latency delivers fast speeds with quick reactions for gaming, streaming, video calls, web browsing and more. But we can always dream of the day when 5 ms global latency is a reality! Until then, game on and stream away knowing that 65 ms is definitely good enough. Let me know if you have any other questions! --- Source: [Is 65 ms latency good for gaming and streaming?](https://33rdsquare.com/is-65-ms-latency-good/)