So I've been playing cooperative games like Roblox, Valorant, and Minecraft with a stable ping of around 16 for the past year, using a Cat 5e Ethernet cable directly plugged into my router in my room. But over the last two weeks, my ping has spiked to about 1000 in Valorant, and it's consistently high in other games too—around 300 in Roblox! This is seriously ruining my gaming experience. I've tried everything: resetting my router, moving it, restarting my PC, reinstalling my network drivers, switching Ethernet cables, and changing network settings, but nothing works. Oddly enough, when I connect via Wi-Fi, my ping is more stable—though it still has spikes. Unfortunately, when anyone else is home, the ping skyrockets again (that's why I switched to Ethernet in the first place). Can anyone please help me figure this out?
4 Answers
Two common causes for issues like yours are either a faulty router or some bloatware or malware on your computer. Make sure to check for any unnecessary programs or malware that could slow you down.
First off, have you checked if your ping is high on speed tests, or just in games? If your phone shows a ping of around 20ms and your PC shows 18ms during a test, it might point towards something specific with your gaming setup rather than your overall connection.
I’d suggest trying a different router if you can—maybe pick one up from a store and return it if it doesn’t help. It could be a router issue causing the lag spikes, and if that’s the case, it’s better to know for sure. If you have to spend money on a new one, it might be worth it to avoid future problems.
That’s tricky since my local shops don't allow returns on used items. Do you really think it could solely be the router? I’d rather not waste £40 if it doesn’t fix my problem.
Have you tried using tracert or pathping to see where the latency might be happening? It can help pinpoint where the delays are occurring in your connection.
I ran tracert, and it showed good latency, about 14-36ms with no packet loss. Pathping confirmed the same, so it’s not looking like a network issue on that end.
Yeah, my speed test results are pretty solid, so it’s definitely weird that my games are lagging so much!