How to Reduce My Ping in Valorant
Valorant is a competitive game that gives pro gamers a chance to showcase their gaming and competitive skills.Valorant is more like a cube with three different sides that relate to each other and which makes the game quite interesting. If you are a casual player then you could find it hard to play, slow and at times frustrating, all of which in some way makes playing the game so much fun.
Valorant is among the online games that can be played either by a single person or with friends, but who are good in the tactical first-person shooting. And as interesting as it may sound, there is one bug like problem that can throw you off the hook, and which is high ping. The latter can be caused by a myriad of things, starting from slow internet speeds from your ISP to many bandwidth-intensive devices being connected to your network.
And while it is virtually impossible to experience 0 pings, there are steps that can be taken to improve the high ping that you experience as you play Valorant.
Gaming ping and the transmission quality
Ping Rate |
Transmission Quality |
Overall Assessment |
More than 300ms |
Inconsistent movement, and long delays |
Unplayable |
100ms-300ms |
Common lags and delays |
Poor |
50ms- 300ms |
Occasional laggings depending on the games and settings |
Fair |
20ms-50ms |
Smooth and responsive gameplay |
Good |
Limit the number of devices connected to your network
Wireless settings are the major culprits to device connectivity, with most of the routers enabling connectivity to more than 15 devices. So, unless you have exceptionally high internet speeds, then you will likely experience high ping because of the many devices that are connected to your network. Ideally, therefore, you could reduce the number of devices, and also ensure that the connected devices are not running the bandwidth-intensive applications.
Prioritize the devices that can connect to the internet
Most routers are customizable via the relevant phone application, so all you have to do is ensure that you set Valorant as the priority in the network column, so that the internet can be dedicated to the game. The above will minimize the chances of experiencing high ping.
Upgrade your internet plan
Your internet subscription plan can also encourage high ping, more especially if you wish to multi-stream. Upgrading to a higher bandwidth plan will lead to low ping even as you play valorant. What’s more, is that you can multi-stream and even add more devices to your network without experiencing lag. An upgraded plan can allow other devices in your network to stream the bandwidth-intensive applications such as Netflix or Prime Video and still game but with reduced ping rates.
Get a 5GHz router
5GHz frequencies better penetrates through walls when compared to 2.4GHz, so what happens is that a good number of the home appliances like microwaves and baby monitors among others, use the 2.4GHz frequency. The above then means that there are high chances that the 2.4GHz router is already experiencing high traffic, so by investing in the 5GHz higher frequency router, your will be opening the channel for seamless streaming, given that most of the home appliances cannot connect to this frequency.
A 5GHz router will, therefore, encourage reduced ping and encourage seamless gaming.
Turn off the background applications
If you are used to leaving applications running in the background then you can be sure that it will not only drain your battery but other system resources including your bandwidth, which will then lead to higher ping when gaming. So, to control the applications running in the background, just log into your systems settings application or through the windows registry.
Restrict background downloads
Some common internet sites tend to run in the background of most devices such as YouTube, and Netflix among other downloads and which are both bandwidth-intensive. Ideally, therefore, you should close any application that is running, in the background and restrict the automatic updates and downloads, as they impact the game’s performance by encouraging higher ping.
Conclusion
If you would love to experience a stable connection with reduced ping rates then using an Ethernet cable to connect to the internet happens to be the easiest and surest way. Wi-Fi is known to increase latency, is prone to jitters and packet loss thus unreliable, but by using the Ethernet cable, you can be sure of the lowest possible ping, complete with a reliable connection.
FAQ’s
- Does a wired connection improve Ping?
Yes, wired connectivity greatly reduces ping, because the internet is sourced directly from the router to your PC thus zero interferences
- How much internet speeds are good for Valorant?
Valorant can be played with the recommended standards that are used on other games, which are 3 to 6Mbps, and with regards to ping, you might want it to be below 10ms a thing that is highly unlikely to happen unless you are physically close to the server host.