I get intermittent lag and packet loss in online games, especially Path of Exile. I previously used tracing tools and suspected my ISP or the route to the game server, and I've replaced several home-network components to rule out local equipment. Recently, I had Path of Exile running alongside an MMO, and both games began lagging badly at the same time. Could my PC be struggling with multiple streams of network traffic? What should I check locally, such as CPU or RAM usage, network adapter settings, or network card drivers?
2 Answers
Running two games usually won’t overwhelm a modern network adapter by itself. A more likely cause is bandwidth saturation or bufferbloat, especially if another process is uploading or downloading in the background. Check your connection with a bufferbloat test and review your router’s QoS or SQM settings. Also compare the results with another device. If every device experiences lag, investigate the modem, signal quality, router, or ISP; if only this PC is affected, update or reinstall the Ethernet adapter driver and check its advanced power-management settings.
Since you’re using wired Ethernet, check Task Manager while the problem is happening. Look at CPU, memory, disk, and network usage, and also check whether either game is actually maxing out your connection. If the PC looks normal, test another device during the same lag spike to see whether the problem affects the whole network or only this computer.
It is a wired connection, and I don’t think CPU or RAM usage is that high, but I’ll monitor them while both games are running.
A connection can look fast in a speed test and still spike badly when the upload or download queue fills up. Testing during the actual lag is more useful than testing when the network is idle.