How to Eliminate Lag and Improve Game Server Performance

​​Online gaming can be a fantastic thrill, provided everything is operating well, but when it comes to gaming, nothing can ruin it quicker than lag. Whether you are running a game server or just playing a multiplayer game, then reducing lag is important.

 

What Causes Lag in Online Games?

It is known that lag is a widespread issue in online gaming and it’s critical to identify the cause to address it promptly (source: Hathora). Here is a more detailed explanation of the most common causes of lag:

 

Ping or Latency

 

Latency, also referred to as ping, measures how long it takes for your device to transmit a packet of data to the game server and then receive a response from it. The higher the latency the worse the lag and the longer the wait time. High ping can be caused by:

Server Distance: If your physical location is not close to the game server then the distance will result in a long travel time for the data packets causing high latency. 

Internet Bandwidth: An unstable or narrow bandwidth may result in varying ping times which would be detrimental as the gaming experience may be characterised by lag.

 

Network Congestion

 

Network congestion occurs whenever there are more connections than the carrying capacity of the network links. This, in turn, can create transmission lags. Some of the reasons include: 

 

Multiple Devices Streaming or Downloading: When some other terminals on the network are involved in some video streaming, file downloading or any heavy bandwidth usage activities, then that can lead to high congestion of the connection and therefore reduce gaming performance. 

Peak Usage Times: Some specific moments in time, for example, evenings, Saturdays or Sundays, when many people are active lead to network congestion. 

ISP Throttling: As a measure to ensure fairness, a few ISPs might throttle your bandwidth in times of high usage, or when it detects gaming traffic and that causes a noticeable lag.

 

What is Server Overload?

 

When loading a game server, the first thing an average player expects is their requests to be processed in time when they join a game room. However, this is not always the case and when there are more requests than a server can cope with, this leads to late responses. This is the case during:

High Player Count: When too many players connect to the same server at the same time, it may push the server past its limitations.

DDoS Attacks: These kinds of attacks are designed to cause mayhem by bombarding the server with tons of traffic, causing extreme lags for everyone in the game trying to connect to it.

Insufficient Server Resources: A server’s ability to run a game depends on its hardware, such as a CPU and RAM which has to meet a certain game’s demand. Anything lower than this, performance will decline.

Hardware Limitations

 

Your very own hardware can be a significant contributor to lag. If the specifications of your device do not align with the minimum system requirements of the game, it may lead to low framerate and input lags. Major hardware limitations include:

Low RAM: The most common hardware limitation is when there is not enough memory to reserve game processes. When this occurs, it leads to choppiness and long loading times.

Outdated Graphics Card (GPU): Game graphics will be rendered well only with a high GPU, if it is weak or old, fast rendering will be sluggish.

Slow CPU: Different from the graphics performance of the game, the CPU revolves around game logic and user inputs; and in most gaming instances, having a slow processor can bottleneck the performance of especially dual core games.

 

How Can I Make My Game Less Laggy?

 

There are several things that one can do if lag is experienced during gaming. Here’s a more complete list of pointers that will help you out:

 

Use a Wired Connection

 

Ethernet wires are better than Wifi because they provide direct connections to the router and more bandwidth, resulting in less interference and packet loss. This would help lower the ping and make it easier to play games. If you are using Wifi, you can move closer to your router, or use an Ethernet connection if available.

Use a powerline adapter to extend your network if an ethernet cable cannot be used. This device utilises the electrical wiring throughout your house to provide a wired network connection.

Eliminate Background Processes

 

Having several apps up simultaneously can take up bandwidth and CPU, which reduces the amount available to your game, therefore increasing lag and decreasing performance. Some ways to improve this are to quit unnecessary applications and ensure no downloads occur during gaming.

Optimise Network Settings

 

Sometimes, you can easily alter your network’s settings, especially your router to improve gaming performance. In fact, almost every gaming router these days has:

Enable Quality of Service (QoS): This is a feature that allows you to control which traffic gets priority on the network. By giving priority to packets for gaming, you can improve ping and latency while playing online games.

Reduce Network Traffic: All active downloads should be paused, and avoid streaming or making video calls before and during gameplay.

Change DNS Servers: By changing your DNS provider to a faster one such as Google or Cloudflare you may enhance your connection speed a little.

 

Choose The Nearest Game Server

 

Most online games allow their players to select the region of their server. Whenever you select a server to play, always choose the one nearest to you, this will minimise the distance which your data packets have to travel, and as a result, your ping will remain low and your response time faster.

Check Ping Before Joining: It is a common practice for games to provide a latency look-up for each server. Join the one that has the lowest latency.

Avoid Crowded Servers: Because their population is high, these servers often lag more frequently, so try to avoid high-population servers if you can.

Upgrade Your Hardware: If your game console or PC does not meet the minimum game specifications, hardware upgrades can do wonders. 

Add More RAM: More RAM means that your system will not be required to cycle through many tasks which in turn, helps in avoiding lags and stuttering.