Gaming Speed Test
Download speed rarely limits gaming — ping, jitter, and packet loss do. Press GO to test the metrics that actually matter for your connection.
Ping under 30 ms
Competitive-grade latency. Fast-paced shooters and fighting games are fully responsive at this level.
Jitter under 5 ms
Consistent latency is as important as low latency. High jitter causes erratic lag even when average ping looks fine.
0% packet loss
Any packet loss causes missed inputs, rubber-banding, and hit registration failures. Zero is the only acceptable target.
Download: 10 Mbps+
Modern games need very little bandwidth during play — 3–6 Mbps is typical. 10 Mbps ensures headroom for background updates.
What matters for gaming — and what doesn't
Most gaming marketing focuses on download speed, but bandwidth is rarely the bottleneck once you're above 5–10 Mbps. The metrics that actually determine your gaming experience are:
- Ping (latency) — the round-trip time between your device and the game server. Under 30 ms is ideal; above 80 ms becomes perceptible in fast-paced games.
- Jitter — variation in your ping over time. A connection with 30 ms average ping but 20 ms jitter is worse than one with 45 ms average and 2 ms jitter, because jitter causes unpredictable spikes.
- Packet loss — any lost packets mean inputs the server never received. Even 0.5% packet loss is detectable in competitive play.
Gaming ping benchmarks by game type
Competitive shooters (CS2, Valorant, Apex Legends)
These games process player positions and hit detection at tick rates of 64–128 Hz. Every millisecond of latency affects when the server registers your shot. Under 20 ms is competitive; 20–50 ms is good; above 80 ms puts you at a measurable disadvantage.
Battle Royale (Fortnite, PUBG, Warzone)
Larger maps and slightly slower pace make these more forgiving. Under 50 ms is fine; under 30 ms is comfortable for ranked play.
MOBA and RTS (League of Legends, Dota 2, StarCraft)
These games are more tolerant of moderate ping. Under 80 ms is generally fine — the bigger concern is jitter causing ability animations to desync from actual game state.
Why Wi-Fi hurts gaming
Wi-Fi introduces two problems wired connections don't have: added jitter from radio contention, and burst packet loss from interference. Switching to wired Ethernet is the single highest-impact upgrade for gaming. If wired isn't an option, see our Wi-Fi improvement guide →
How to optimise your connection for gaming
- Use wired Ethernet instead of Wi-Fi
- Connect to game servers in the same region
- Enable QoS on your router and prioritise gaming traffic
- Disconnect other devices from heavy bandwidth usage while gaming
- Disable your VPN — VPN routing adds 10–40 ms extra latency
Still lagging? Read our internet troubleshooting guide or compare your ISP's ping performance.