How bad is 200 ms ping for gaming?

[burdfishdemon]

Hello all,

I've recently moved into an apartment and have gotten AT&T Uverse internet, 3mb/s. Well I've had it for 6 months now, and the ping is usually around 50 ms. This is of course after getting 8 AT&T technicians to try to fix the poor connection in this old building.

Anyways, when my girlfriend watches Netflix, I've noticed the ping jumps to 200ms. Sometimes 300ms. Of course, sometimes, Netflix or not, there'll be a second of ping up to 800ms. Anyways, is 200 ms passable for online gaming?

Thank you.

[Akis]

You usually start noticing lag at 200+ MS If it's at 300 or even 800 it will be pretty much unplayable. Up to 250 MS should be fine.

[burdfishdemon]

Right, I'll give it a shot. I'm doing some more testing as usual as we speak. The very high numbers such as 800 only happen once every minute or 5 minutes and last for half a second or less.

[class101 [OLED deck]]

200ms is like an american playing on european servers and vice versa, lag noticable at that point, playable but very close to the limit of playability

Btw if you are using Wifi an alternative is to try an ethernet cable because it is a faster and stabler access point for gaming

[burdfishdemon]

I am actually using a direct connection with an ethernet cord. I am almost certain the unstable and somewhat poor connectivity in times past has been because of the building I live in. It is almost 100 years old and not well-maintained. In addition, they informed me when I moved in that "it's a Comcast building." AT&T was only first allowed in here a few years ago. Perhaps Comcast gets better wiring or something.

For the first few months I had 5 technicians out here in total, as my internet would disconnect about 20 times a day. After MANY calls and many months, I have a mostly stable connection at 45ms or so. However, girlfriend on Netflix raises it to around 200ms.

Unfortunately I'm in a contract for another 6 months with AT&T. However, even if Comcast is better, they have insane pricing. It's basically pay half Comcast's price for garbage internet or pay Comcast's price (almost double what I'm paying now) (I'm paying 45 a month for 3mb DL speeds TOPS) and get service many times better.

Ah, monopolies.

[Coconut Cream]

anything below 150 should be fine

[JaredX7]

200ms isn't that bad, and it's what Australians like myself have to live with if we're playing against people from most of the world.

Originally posted by burdfishdemon:

garbage internet...45 a month for 3mb DL speeds

Try $79.90AUD a month for 2mb DL, and I have seen worse. What you say here isn't as garbage as you think.

[burdfishdemon]

Originally posted by NoVa™:

200ms isn't that bad, and it's what Australians like myself have to live with if we're playing against people from most of the world.

Originally posted by burdfishdemon:

garbage internet...45 a month for 3mb DL speeds

Try $79.90AUD a month for 2mb DL, and I have seen worse. What you say here isn't as garbage as you think.

Ha, well I suppose I'm fortunate then. It's just that most of my friends download things about 30 to 50 times faster than me, even for small downloads. That's rough though for ya.

[Yoshiro]

200ms isn't that bad indeed.

[burdfishdemon]

It seems after testing on my PC, my ping goes from 45 ms to around 250-300 ms for a few minutes while having Netflix open and running on my PC. However, after a few minutes, it generally stays from 40 to 130 ms. I'm guessing this is so because it buffers enough ahead of time.

I wonder if I had an ethernet cord running to my girlfriend's Xbox so she could watch Netflix, would i see a similar ping drop (it shouldn't be higher running thorugh Xbox, should it?).

Thanks for all the help by the way everyone. I'm just trying to figure out my living situation and reconcile it with being a semi-active online gamer. :P

[FuZZoX]

se n'est pas la meilleur chose qui soi mes se n'ai pas la pire disons le comme ceci !

[Faolchu]

Yes as you are still using the bandwith on the same connection. The only way you'll get a stable ping of 45ms is if you forbid your girl to watch netflix while you game or bump up your download rates.

[burdfishdemon]

Originally posted by FurrySnuffles:

Yes as you are still using the bandwith on the same connection. The only way you'll get a stable ping of 45ms is if you forbid your girl to watch netflix while you game or bump up your download rates.

Oh no, I don't want to do anything like that. I don't think I explained the situation well. I want to accomodate her desire to watch Netflix (building's free wifi is bad for it) and so I'm testing to see first if my connection can handle Netflix in terms of ping. Around 200 to 300 is where it tends to go, and so I was weighing my options.

[Faolchu]

Originally posted by burdfishdemon:

Originally posted by FurrySnuffles:

Yes as you are still using the bandwith on the same connection. The only way you'll get a stable ping of 45ms is if you forbid your girl to watch netflix while you game or bump up your download rates.

Oh no, I don't want to do anything like that. I don't think I explained the situation well. I want to accomodate her desire to watch Netflix (building's free wifi is bad for it) and so I'm testing to see first if my connection can handle Netflix in terms of ping. Around 200 to 300 is where it tends to go, and so I was weighing my options.

I know
But you asked if hooking up your xbox with an ethernet cord would make a difference. You would still get a ping spike while netflix is buffering. She might get better buffering though and her viewing experience might get better, if that loads faster you will get less spikes aswell.

[burdfishdemon]

Originally posted by FurrySnuffles:

Originally posted by burdfishdemon:

Oh no, I don't want to do anything like that. I don't think I explained the situation well. I want to accomodate her desire to watch Netflix (building's free wifi is bad for it) and so I'm testing to see first if my connection can handle Netflix in terms of ping. Around 200 to 300 is where it tends to go, and so I was weighing my options.

I know :spazdreaming:
But you asked if hooking up your xbox with an ethernet cord would make a difference. You would still get a ping drop while netflix is buffering. She might get better buffering though and her viewing experience might get better, if that loads faster you will get less spikes aswell.

Ah, apologies for the miscommunication on my end. I suppose I was merely wondering if the Xbox Netflix would result in greater levels of ping drop than my PC Netflix, my preliminary testing method. :P

I'll have to see how bad 250ms is!

[Faolchu]

Originally posted by burdfishdemon:

Originally posted by FurrySnuffles:

I know
But you asked if hooking up your xbox with an ethernet cord would make a difference. You would still get a ping drop while netflix is buffering. She might get better buffering though and her viewing experience might get better, if that loads faster you will get less spikes aswell.

Ah, apologies for the miscommunication on my end. I suppose I was merely wondering if the Xbox Netflix would result in greater levels of ping drop than my PC Netflix, my preliminary testing method. :P

I'll have to see how bad 250ms is!

I have no idea how good netflix streaming on an xbox is but i would assume it's the same or less then on a pc with the same kind of connection. But there's no harm in trying it out.