Ethernet or Wi-Fi for gaming: what a cable changes

What a cable changes

Your game traffic crosses two stretches: a few meters from your device to the router, then the long way from the router to the game server. Wi-Fi covers only the first stretch, so a cable cannot shorten the second one. Riot Games says that on a working connection, your physical distance from its servers is the largest factor in latency.

The radio link adds variation. KRAFTON's connectivity guide for PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS recommends a wired connection because wireless links pick up interference from their surroundings, which can raise ping and cause packet loss. Riot calls wireless connections hard to troubleshoot for the same reason and recommends a wired Ethernet connection whenever you can use one.

How Wi-Fi trouble shows in the test

The test sends 10 requests to each region and reports two figures per region: the median, the middle time, and the spread, the width of the middle half of the times. Distance moves the median. A weak radio link moves the spread and the number of lost requests, and it does that on every region at once, because every request crosses the same Wi-Fi first.

• A spread over 20 ms, or 2 or more of 10 requests lost, marks a region as unstable. On a near region the verdict reads Close but unstable.
• A wide spread or lost requests on every region at once point at something near you: the Wi-Fi or the home line. One region jumping while the others stay steady points at the route to that region instead.
• A high median with a small spread is distance or routing. A cable will not fix that; the guide on the route covers what will.

Test it in two runs

1. Run the test on Wi-Fi where you usually play. Note the spread and any lost requests on the region you play on.
2. Connect the same device to the router with an Ethernet cable and turn its Wi-Fi off, so the browser cannot fall back to it. Run the test again.
3. Compare the same region. If the spread drops to 20 ms or less and the lost requests stop, the radio link was the problem. If the median stays within a few milliseconds of the first run, the figure you see is mostly distance.

Run each setup two or three times. One run covers about 10 seconds, and a short burst of traffic on your network can make a single run look worse than the line usually is.

When a cable is not possible

• Move closer to the router, or move the router. Microsoft's Wi-Fi guide suggests a central, raised spot away from corners, desks and metal furniture, with as few walls as possible between the router and your device.
• Use the 5 GHz band when you play within its range. The 5 GHz or 2.4 GHz guide shows how to check which band you are on.
• Pause downloads and video on the other devices of the house while you play. The background downloads guide lists the usual culprits.

What publishers advise