Hey folks! My girlfriend and I really enjoy playing online games together, but I've been running into a frustrating problem with my internet speeds. When I'm not in a game, I usually get about 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload. However, when I start gaming, my download speed can plummet to only around 5 Mbps.
Here are my specs: I'm using a Windows 11 desktop with an Intel Core i9-14900K, 32 GB of RAM, and an RTX 4070 Super. My WiFi card is the Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 (160 MHz). I'm just puzzled about what's causing these sudden drops in speed, and I'd appreciate any help or ideas you might have!
3 Answers
Sounds like it could be a setting in your motherboard software. Check if there's any "gaming mode" or "network optimizer" feature enabled. Sometimes these can mess with your connection by prioritizing certain types of traffic, which might not be in your favor when gaming.
Just to clarify, when you say your internet slows down to 5 Mbps, is that during gameplay only, or are you also running background downloads? If you're downloading something in the background while gaming, that could explain the drop. Make sure to test speeds while gaming without anything else running.
I checked with the Google Speed Test and speedtest.net while in-game, and that’s when I saw the drop to 5 Mbps. Out of the game, it goes back up to 100 Mbps.
Before diving deeper, have you checked your WiFi signal strength? Being too far from the router can definitely impact speeds, especially when playing games that require more bandwidth. Try moving closer to the router or using a wired connection to see if that makes a difference.
Thanks for the tip! I have an MSI B760M GAMING PLUS motherboard. Do you think the tool specific to that might be causing issues?