WiFI vs wired for gaming. Short test

WIth my new board and it's WiFI module (802.11 ac), I decided to test for myself, what's the difference between wired and wireless for gaming. I've placed my router just near the module, so there would be no interference, signal blocking and such. After like 20 runs of speedtest. The ping on wireless was between 108 and 150ms. Then I just plugged the cable to my onboard lan. Ping was between 22 and 28 ms all the time.

Seems that even 802.11ac standard is not good enough for gaming, and lag will be an issue for wired gaming - tested in FFXIV, that there is noticeable difference between 28 and 108 ping, as mobs aoe are much harder to avoid.

There are A LOT of things that can cause ping times to fluctuate like that, including the wireless routing device itself. I've gamed on Wi-Fi for years and never had a problem, nor did I notice a ping difference. With that said, wireless is bad for a multitude of reasons if you don't absolutely need it, but ping times usually are going to be negligible. The only time it matters on the consumer end is going from the device to the router and in all my years of testing that can be 1ms or less for wired vs 1-3ms wireless up to 13ms give or take. If your Wi-Fi is adding a consistent 10ms+ from the device > default gateway, then I would say you have a problem.

Yeah, WiFi would be about the same as wired unless there's interference. I play on both with identical pings on my network.

First thing I'd check is the wireless adapter drivers in your case and make sure they are up to date.

What router do you have?

Wired, but it all depends on your environment. For gaming I will always use wired, it has a lot less hassles than wireless. Of course I live in building with at least 40 other WiFi networks that cause constant interference for me!

Do not put the router beside the wireless device, you need some distance i found at least.

Wireless works in bursts, thats the issue so most games lag as the bursts occur to send / receive data, wireless doesn't really "stream" so to speak like wired does.

MrGuvernment said:

Do not put the router beside the wireless device, you need some distance i found at least.

Wireless works in bursts, thats the issue so most games lag as the bursts occur to send / receive data, wireless doesn't really "stream" so to speak like wired does.

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It all depends on the equipment used and the amount of interference. I am connected to my office via three point to point WiFi links (Ubiquity Rocket M5) and my average latency to our gateway is only 12ms. We are a wireless ISP, and gaming is no different than a wired connection if the customer is properly installed.

Dawizman said:

It all depends on the equipment used and the amount of interference. I am connected to my office via three point to point WiFi links (Ubiquity Rocket M5) and my average latency to our gateway is only 12ms. We are a wireless ISP, and gaming is no different than a wired connection if the customer is properly installed.

Click to expand...

Yep, same deal here. We have a few 3 hop links and a few 5 hop links. Latency is less than 15ms to the gateway.