Submitted by Pure-Fold-5717 t3_yim5oo in gaming
Does having an Ethernet cable coming from a router make any real difference to latency or not?
I currently have my console right by my router with the Ethernet cable plugged and my connection is always great. I get around 100mbps download speed as well. I’m thinking of moving my gaming set up to the back room upstairs, which isn’t really that far away from the router, but still unsure as to whether it could ruin my online experience.
On a console it won't matter, since your tv has higher latency and so does your controller
Unless you're running it a few 100m no, there's no latency.
Probably not for you it needs to be hundreds of feet long to matter what makes a difference is the cat number
Yes.
If you have a 29,900 meter long cable, it will increase your latency by 1ms.
It’s a cat 5e
I’m screwed then. Looks like I’m staying downstairs.
That’s fine those are good for a thousand megabytes of speed I recommend a cat 6 but youre good
And if you don't want to have a long ethernet cable snaking through your house, look into ethernet-over-power balens or powerline adapters- they start at ~$60 for a pair.
Though, really if you're going from one side of the house to another why not just go wireless? Unless its an older console that isn't wireless, even then get an ethernet to wireless adapter/access pt. I assert that unless you are god-tier ranked globally your play is not going to be significantly impacted by a few extra ms of latency from a wireless setup.
if you dont wnna worry sbout it just run a cat 8 cable u can run up to 328 feet with no signal loss up to 10gb speed
no those are trash
use the max spec available
it doesnt cost more
this is terrible advice network latency is completely different
theres no reason not to run a cable. wifi can get all kinda interference and is less reliable
Gets me consistent 1000mbps on 100ft cable to me series x
Technically yes, but you'll never notice the difference.
Speed of light is (roughly) 1 ns per foot. Your problem won't be latency, but signal degredation. Standard Ethernet uses twisted pair copper wire, most of the time good quality cables can only go about 100m before having signal issues. cheap cables will degrade over shorter runs.
So get some decent Cat 5e or Cat6 cable for this, even if your run is only a few 10s of meters.
You'll get way faster speeds with a hard line, and if you're going across the house just run it under the floor or behind a wall.
It's not just about your ping in gaming, you can also enjoy much better download speeds with a hard line. I went from 20mbps download over wifi to ~115mbps with a cable. The biggest games take maybe 40 minutes to download compared to well over an hour or two.
Thats...not how latency works, on the last mile.
EDIT:
im talking about cat 5e btw.
cat 6 is fine, still no reason not to get the highest lol
Yes but no, technically it can but not at lengths you can buy from a store
xvszero t1_iujbite wrote
Depends on the length. Generally speaking, no, but if you're running a super long cable it might. Cat5/6 is supposed to be good for up to 300 feet or so.