Wired vs Wifi for Gaming

[Supreme-frost]

Hi guys, I just wanted to know which internet is better for gaming. Wired or non-wired. I currently use a little entry level (i got it for like £3) USB dongle which picks up my wifi hotspot which I then connect to, however, i noticed some weird stuff happening during online play in GTA 5, I would randomly disconnect during a heist and the other players would be puzzled and ask why I left the heist causing the whole mission to be failed. I've also noticed lag playing online in dead by daylight, which is annoying and gets my character killed a lot. do you recommend I get an ethernet cable or should I get a faster dongle that will enable me to get a faster wireless connection, if there is such a thing?

[Lurick]

Wired is ALWAYS better compared to wifi, you're not susceptible to connection drops, random ping spikes, etc. when on wired.

[Jurrunio]

Use a cable. WiFi can only be as fast as cable at best, and that's with expensive dongles/connectors.

[VinZie]

I personally use wired cause I have to get connection through two walls and 1 brick wall. I would be getting pings over 120 at points in CS:GO. I recommend getting a cat6 cable and just going hard wired cause honestly, best decision I made.

[Princess Luna]

Frankly I have been using WiFi, a 300mbps PCI card from TP-LINK for almost a year now, and it has NEVER being any issue what so ever while playing CS:GO, my ping is on 20's all the time and I never ever disconnected from the router.

 

I really don't understand what is it with all these people saying cables are a must, my user experience was unchanged going to WiFi lucky enough since now the router is on the living room and my PC on the bedroom and I wouldn't be able to have wires any ways.

[aithos]

5 minutes ago, Supreme-frost said:

Hi guys, I just wanted to know which internet is better for gaming. Wired or non-wired. I currently use a little entry level (i got it for like £3) USB dongle which picks up my wifi hotspot which I then connect to, however, i noticed some weird stuff happening during online play in GTA 5, I would randomly disconnect during a heist and the other players would be puzzled and ask why I left the heist causing the whole mission to be failed. I've also noticed lag playing online in dead by daylight, which is annoying and gets my character killed a lot. do you recommend I get an ethernet cable or should I get a faster dongle that will enable me to get a faster wireless connection, if there is such a thing?

There is literally no scenario when it comes to performance where wireless is better for gaming.  Even if you have rock solid wireless and have no issue with lag caused by the connection itself you can still get signal issues (too weak, too strong, too much interference, etc) and still drop your connection.  Forget getting a better wireless dongle or card, get yourself a good cat6 ethernet cable and run a connection right to your router.  If you absolutely can't do that (or relocate the router/modem) then look into one of the alternative solutions like ethernet over power or coax as a last option, it's not nearly as good as running an ethernet cable but far better than wireless in most situations.

 

Just now, Princess Cadence said:

Frankly I have been using WiFi, a 300mbps PCI card from TP-LINK for almost a year now, and it has NEVER being any issue what so ever while playing CS:GO, my ping is on 20's all the time and I never ever disconnected from the router.

 

I really don't understand what is it with all these people saying cables are a must, my user experience was unchanged going to WiFi lucky enough since now the router is on the living room and my PC on the bedroom and I wouldn't be able to have wires any ways.

You may be fortunate to live in a space where you have no issue with interference from other people near you, and no issues with signal strength, and you may be lucky to get no random resets or dropped connections... but that doesn't mean everyone will have similar experiences.  My fiance uses a wireless card on her PC because we had it in a room that would have been stupid in our old apt to run a wire and even though it's less than 40 feet down the hallway with nothing in the way it would still occasionally reset because of other people in the complex.  It didn't matter which channel I ran it on, which band (2.4 or 5k) it still sometimes got random lag and disconnects. 

 

She's using a nice TP-Link card and I have a Nighthawk router with my own modem and a rock solid signal... so it wasn't the components.

[VinZie]

1 minute ago, Princess Cadence said:

Frankly I have been using WiFi, a 300mbps PCI card from TP-LINK for almost a year now, and it has NEVER being any issue what so ever while playing CS:GO, my ping is on 20's all the time and I never ever disconnected from the router.

 

I really don't understand what is it with all these people saying cables are a must, my user experience was unchanged going to WiFi lucky enough since now the router is on the living room and my PC on the bedroom and I wouldn't be able to have wires any ways.

Well you have to factor in. How many walls is between the computer and the router. You could be right next to the router and get amazing connection. He could have 4 walls until data reaches his router.

[TVwazhere]

I would do wired if you can, its the best and most stable solution. 

That said, if you have a wireless setup like mine (Asus RT-AC68U router and PCE-AC68u wifi card) it can be a good experience, especially since I've only got 25Down / 1Up internet speed. [edit, i'm using the 5ghz band which is faster but is weaker in range, and I still gets 850-1300mbps average connection]

Wireless isnt "better" than wired, but in some cases it can get pretty close to "as good" without the wire hassle

[ProjectBox153]

Using wired will not have things such as interference from nearby devices (although this has gotten better over time) causing issues with your network connection. Using a wire is always better and more reliable.

[TVwazhere]

3 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

the router is on the living room and my PC on the bedroom and I wouldn't be able to have wires any ways.

This is my exact setup, except the router and bed room are also on entirely different floors!

 

[Princess Luna]

3 minutes ago, VinZie said:

Well you have to factor in. How many is between the computer and the router. You could be right next to the router and get amazing connection. He could have 4 walls until data reaches his router.

I'm just describing my personal experience, sure the router is considerably close to the PC and the connection signal is always strong, I have like another notebook and 2 smartphones sharing the WiFi along with it.

 

For my personal case it works flawlessly so I can not just say Wired is all that superior like some will say because for my use it was the exact same, though it'll depend from case to case and yes Wired is the safest bet... my point was that it just isn't the Only bet [:

[Arika]

if you can use wired go for it. if you cant wireless will be fine. however because you're experiencing issues there might be too much interference between you and the router.look at something like a Powerline to possible fix the issue

[TVwazhere]

-duplicate post-

[war4sure]

Same for me. On wi-fi ping can sometimes hit around 200 - 300. Still playable but you're going to be frustrated a lot. Since the distance between my room and the router is considerably far, I just went ahead and got my a powerline adapter. Best $63 I ever spent.

[ProjectBox153]

Just now, war4sure said:

Same for me. On wi-fi ping can sometimes hit around 200 - 300. Still playable but you're going to be frustrated a lot. Since the distance between my room and the router is considerably far, I just went ahead and got my a powerline adapter. Best $63 I ever spent.

Powerline is a good choice. Sadly my adapters stopped working yesterday.

[aithos]

7 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

I'm just describing my personal experience, sure the router is considerably close to the PC and the connection signal is always strong, I have like another notebook and 2 smartphones sharing the WiFi along with it.

 

For my personal case it works flawlessly so I can not just say Wired is all that superior some will say because for my use it was the exact same, though it'll depend from case to case and yes Wired is the safest bet... my point was that it just isn't the Only bet [:

You must not be doing things like network backups or media sharing then, because I can tell you right now that if you were backing up several TB of data to a NAS you wouldn't have the same experience with your wireless connection as what I'm hard-wiring in my house If he's already having issues with disconnects and lag then he could try tweaking the router settings a bit to boost the stability, but I wouldn't recommend a new dongle because the dongle is almost never the issue.

 

To the people talking about bedrooms... if you own or live somewhere that you can make modifications it's relatively easy to drill a few holes and install a couple wall jacks with a patch panel and inexpensive switch.  It can be tedious and you have to be comfortable cutting holes in your walls and pulling wire, but it isn't hard work.  I am in the process of wiring my house and I have a Ubiquity in-wall AP for phones/tablets and have my computer plugged in to the jack while my router/modem is in my utility room where the cable comes into the house for the best possible signal strength...

[Supreme-frost]

what is a powerline adapter? what does it do?

 

[aithos]

Just now, Supreme-frost said:

what is a powerline adapter? what does it do?

 

It is a device that plugs into your wall outlet in two places and uses the power cables in the walls to transfer data from one place to another.  It's decent, but there are certain cases where it won't work... such as when a building has different circuits and there isn't a direct path from each outlet.  You plug one in near the router/modem and one near your computer and can then run ethernet to each device, it's extremely simple.  You won't get blazing speeds but it will be more stable.

[Princess Luna]

1 minute ago, aithos said:

.

I'm old school, I do physical back ups (a few 64gb USB 3.0 pen drives) using a secondary rig as Data Storage with 2x2tb and 3x1tb Seagate HDDS.

 

But the OP sounds like just looking to have a functional gaming rig... again I'm not saying WiFi is better in any sort of way, I'm just saying that depending his case it can be the good enough solution he's looking for.

 

Cheers!

[aithos]

6 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

I'm old school, I do physical back ups (a few 64gb USB 3.0 pen drives) using a secondary rig as Data Storage with 2x2tb and 3x1tb Seagate HDDS.

 

But the OP sounds like just looking to have a functional gaming rig... again I'm not saying WiFi is better in any sort of way, I'm just saying that depending his case it can be the good enough solution he's looking for.

 

Cheers!

I'm not saying what you're doing is bad either, if it works for you that's totally fine.  However, the OP is here because they are having disconnects and lag using an existing wireless connection... so suggesting that wireless can be good enough is probably not a good recommendation in this case.  Could he/she get a better router or card?  Yeah, and it might fix the problem.  Or there could be other factors about the situation where it wouldn't help at all and would be a waste of time/money.

 

Which is why I recommended wired or an alternative wired solution, because there is no real guess-work... its going to be a more stable connection than the current setup and the cost is less as well.

[Supreme-frost]

22 minutes ago, aithos said:

There is literally no scenario when it comes to performance where wireless is better for gaming.  Even if you have rock solid wireless and have no issue with lag caused by the connection itself you can still get signal issues (too weak, too strong, too much interference, etc) and still drop your connection.  Forget getting a better wireless dongle or card, get yourself a good cat6 ethernet cable and run a connection right to your router.  If you absolutely can't do that (or relocate the router/modem) then look into one of the alternative solutions like ethernet over power or coax as a last option, it's not nearly as good as running an ethernet cable but far better than wireless in most situations.

 

You may be fortunate to live in a space where you have no issue with interference from other people near you, and no issues with signal strength, and you may be lucky to get no random resets or dropped connections... but that doesn't mean everyone will have similar experiences.  My fiance uses a wireless card on her PC because we had it in a room that would have been stupid in our old apt to run a wire and even though it's less than 40 feet down the hallway with nothing in the way it would still occasionally reset because of other people in the complex.  It didn't matter which channel I ran it on, which band (2.4 or 5k) it still sometimes got random lag and disconnects. 

 

She's using a nice TP-Link card and I have a Nighthawk router with my own modem and a rock solid signal... so it wasn't the components.

does the cable have to be Cat 6?

[aithos]

5 minutes ago, Supreme-frost said:

does the cable have to be Cat 6?

I would recommend it, it's the best value/money.  Cat5e would work but for longer runs has a cap of 100MB/s where Cat6 is 1GB/s (in short distances they are 1GB/s and 10GB/s respectively).  Cat7 is also out there but is considerably more expensive and not at all worth the cost at this point.  How far away is your router from where your computer is located?

[Supreme-frost]

2 minutes ago, aithos said:

I would recommend it, it's the best value/money.  Cat5e would work but for longer runs has a cap of 100MB/s where Cat6 is 1GB/s (in short distances they are 1GB/s and 10GB/s respectively).  Cat7 is also out there but is considerably more expensive and not at all worth the cost at this point.  How far away is your router from where your computer is located?

It is a floor below me, My room is on the top floor: attic. I would have to run the cable down the side of my stairs.

[AshleyAshes]

I think the take away is that on a wired connection there is less potential for problems so if wired is an option for you, you should go for it.

[Supreme-frost]

Thanks Guys, I'm going for a 10m cat 6 cable :), should be long enough.