Recently moved to faster internet and getting almost double my previous download speed (originally had 60mbps, now getting 110mbps). I figured my in-game ping would improve, but it seems to continue to be hovering around 60ms, just like before.
I went from ADSL to Fibre and hoo boy I have a difference of 120ms to 40ms ping so it should improve, but I guess maybe if you have a difference in speeds like I did.
See that’s the weird thing, my speed essentially is doubled but my ping hasn’t changed, that’s why I’m kinda confused.
Not necessarily. In simple terms, your connection speed is just how much data your network can transfer in a given amount of time. Your ping is how long it takes for your network to communicate with the server. Not directly related, though typically higher speeds come with better providers, which tend to have more servers and therefore lower pings… but not always
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This game doesn’t require much throughput/bandwidth, you can get by on a very small amount of bandwidth. If you move and stay in the same area or close to it, it will generally take the same route to the server, which determines your latency.
Ping doesnt really related to the internet speed, its more related to distance, and not distance itself but amount of commuting points the signal has to pass, which tends to increase with distance hence relation to distance.
The only real-world possible way to decrease ping is to move closer to regional ISP (Thus avoid lot of points) and use of optic fibre connection (Avoid even more points as optic fibre works well even on very long distances)
From Korea to USA and Europe would be more or less same distance physically, but ping to US server is somewhere between 100-180ms, EU servers are never less than 300ms due to the way the network organized.
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Bandiwdth represents the amount of data that can be moved at once, whereas ping is how quickly it can be moved.
Imagine for example you’re a construction worker and you’re moving rocks. You get a wheelbarrow which lets you move like 100 rocks at a time (high bandwidth), but if you just need to move one rock, the biggets wheelbarrow in the world isn’t going to move it any faster.
Ping is primarily related to a combination of distance, routing path (which path does each network packet take to get to and from the server - is it very roundabout, very straight forward, etc?), and the technology behind your connection. Something like an old DSL connection will almost certainly have worse ping than an up to date fiber network just because the technology is better (optics + faster hardware for processing).
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think of it as a limit. if ur speed is already over the limit it isnt going to get better.
its where the server is at which affects ping too. like if u play on a EU server. your ping is always going to be around 150.
so it just depends on where u live and if ur east coast or west coast.
east coast is like illinois i think or somewhere around there.
west coast is cali.
I like the mail analogy. Ping is how long it takes for the package to arrive. Download/Upload speed is how dense can you pack that package or how big that package can be.
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That’s a good one. I just came up with something off the top of my head. Not sure why rocks and a wheelbarrow was my first thought.
So what you guys are saying is that short of physically moving closer to the Overwatch servers or switching to a service with shorter routes I’m basically stuck with the ping I’ve got? There isn’t anything besides that I can do to improve the ping? ![:slightly_frowning_face:](https://d74zh8edaijub.cloudfront.net/en/overwatch/images/emoji/twitter/slightly_frowning_face.png?v=6" ":slightly_frowning_face:")
Switching providers could help, but it just depends where you are and who is available
Pretty much.
Like Puffy said, you can always switch providers. But I don’t think that will help much.
Think of net traffic like water in a pipe.
Ping is how fast the water moves in the pipe.
Bandwidth, or speed, is how much water moves in the pipe over a given time.
So you can have a tiny pipe with very fast moving water, and have good ping, and not great bandwidth.
You can also have a big, wide pipe with tons of water but still takes a bit longer for the water to travel from point A to point B, the flow is just big.
They usually go hand in hand but not always.
So what you guys are saying is that short of physically moving closer to the Overwatch servers or switching to a service with shorter routes I’m basically stuck with the ping I’ve got? There isn’t anything besides that I can do to improve the ping?
Financial trader sharks use radio towers as wireless signal is very fast (Speed of light in atmosphere) and they dont need big bandwidthes.
It will cost hundreds of million in USD, but theoretically is possible too…
Silly jokes aside, thats why Overwatch has this shooter favor system. The one who shoots first (Regardless of ping) wins. So just make sure youre the first one to place headshot.
Well are you wired or not? (LAN or not)
Where is your general location (e.g. South Africa, Asia etc?)
As an average, typical user… the best that (may) help you is changing your DNS server from your ISP’s provided one to a potentially faster one. It’s possible that your ISP’s DNS isn’t providing the most efficient route for you.
IE: I had 60mb/s internet. I upgraded to 400mb/s internet… my ping was still 50s-60s for some stupid reason. I researched DNS providers, discovered that Optimum/Altice’s DNS is actually hot garbage. I researched and discovered CloudFlare is about 3x faster for sending and receiving requests.
Go into your router config utility, change the DNS Primary to 1.1.1.1 and redundancy secondary to 1.0.0.1 and then see if you notice a difference. My ping drops around 14ms on average now.