WiFi vs Ethernet Gaming - THE REAL TRUTH

Wi-Fi vs ethernet gaming. Does it really make any difference? What you need to know if using Wi-Fi for online gaming. The real reason that you may want to use ethernet on PS5, Xbox Series X, or PC for gaming. How fast is fast enough and should I even care about download speed for gaming?

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[Hemestal]

My GF stared at me in disbelief when I bought a bunch of ethernet cable and an additional router to split the connection. I literally drilled my way from my office from where the modem was installed to our gaming room.

She thought I was tripping because we could play "just fine" but she quickly realized that some of her sporadic DCs were due to dropped packets. Some games are very forgiving with this, especially if they have good netcode, but some games are notorious for being very sensitive to packet loss and will make your gameplay a jankfest or will flat out DC you.

If your modem is far from your gaming devices it might seem like a hassle to pass wire through walls as this is more laborious than expensive, but it will depend on how much you game if the increased quality of life is worth the extra work for you. For me, it totally was.

[KaranBhawnaniSini]

I don’t believe in wireless gaming when it comes to choosing wifi or lan. My system is 2 rooms apart. Its slightly inconvenient but i bought a 20 mtr long ethernet cable and got across the two rooms into my room via the window and I dont really pay attention to that cable anymore. The 20mtr cable is very cheap. Hardly 15-20 $

[mazenhassan]

I have just tried out my extender tp link wifi as an AP system and I was blown away by how faster and reliable not only to my laptop but all other devices and the extender is right next to my laptop so I tested the ping and it was constant 1ms no problem 🔥🔥

[thut]

wifi is bad for gaming coz its never full duplex. ever wifi7 no full duplex, meaning you cant send and revise data at the same time, and that is very important in online games

[mikemoggerson]

I used to be wired and connection was perfect, but I had to move my stuff to a different area of the house and it’s impossible for me to use Ethernet now. The connection is notably worse..and in particular unstable. I tried using our mesh wifi nodes, with one next to my pc. I tried both plugging lan in to it and connecting to it via wifi, and the instability was still there (obviously the node itself is still connecting to the other node wirelessly, explaining why it’s no better). I still have the base ISP router…would getting a better one make the experience significantly better?

[yummythend]

Latencies hits the roof on my computer wifi, but it's less obvious on my phones

[trendkill]

The wifi signal deteriorates so badly depending on how many walls it has to go through. I have 950mbps download speed on a wired connection next to the router and on wifi it’s about 500-700 next to the router. When I go to my Xbox in my room which is only about 10 metres in total distance through the walls from the router the download speed is only about 50-100 on my phone and Xbox on wifi because it has to go through multiple layers of walls to get here. Definitely looking at running a cable to my room from the box

[maestroLYT]

Thanks for information, I had ethernet on and without it, I got like 500-1000 ms in Minecraft PvP legacy server and with ethernet on, ping is stable and I got 289-305 ms only .

[dbs]

To put things in perspective though.. most people don't realise 1ms is a 1000th of a second. Even high end gaming displays typically aren't any more than 165hz (approx. 6ms.) I know peoples reactions are pretty sharp when it comes to online gaming but...

[AlexGtheOG]

Been using wifi on my pc since I built it. Finally ram ethernet cable from 2 floors above my router . Just waiting on more cable to be able to reach my pc. I hope it’s worth the switch.

[JopTooFTW]

Thank you for making this video, it was exactly what I was looking for. I have Wi-Fi ax in my house but notice that SteamLink was kind of sucky. I'm hoping that using ethernet at both my computer and on the TV will increase the performance.

[notsnho]

Does it really matter what type you have? I just ordered a “RJ45 Cat-6” for Xbox one is that any good?

[WellingtonSantos-pxvy]

Would a high end wifi 6 make the connection better? I never did those tests, but using wifi as a standard now at home for everything, I don't feel games to be sluggish.

[ghidfg]

wondering why wifi is such a popular feature on desktop motherboards

[zokuva]

500 packets sent, 0% packet loss,
approximate times: Minimum 1ms, Maximum 4 ms, Average 2ms

My PC is right next to the router but there's a single wall in between.
Good enough for me to not bother drilling a hole or running a cable through my apartment.

[iguanagoat]

You really should caveat this entire test with the fact you're using an 11 year old wifi SOC with a Wifi 5 standard. So - a pretty 'worst case' scenario really. Assuming your PC and router are Wifi 6 or later - you won't have any of the latency issues you're talking about.

[riderofthewhitehorse]

You explained everything I wanted to understand very smoothly and in a controlled tone and pace. Thanks. (My interests were in setting up a file server with VPN access.)

[super_dude]

Hey I’ve got a question, my mind is made up and I’m gonna get an Ethernet cable since my PC is too far away from my router and I (unsurprisingly) experience terrible latency, but I’m unsure of what cable I should get
Money isn’t a problem, I just need something that is strong & would provide a stable connection in games, and for the record I’ve got a fantastic ISP, so that shouldn’t cause any issues, also I live in Saudi Arabia, in case that has any significance

[aaronraufman]

Nice technique for gauging network performance! I would suggest that, before making a blanket statement, maybe see if your own Wi-Fi is optimal? I used your technique for testing my Wi-Fi connection and capped out at a maximum latency of 4ms, with the vast majority at 1ms. When considering a conservative 50ms as tolerable latency, this is an extremely moderate 2% threshold for which I would be hard pressed to find an observable difference between hardwired or not. Taking it further, console gaming raises the threshold to 100ms or more... Just sayin, maybe it's worth more than a 3 min video on YouTube to come to any conclusions.

[dark_soulsolivo]

I have a problem with my ethernet when im using youtube and watching a short video like 3 - 4 minutes it stops every second and i found thats weird bc is ethernet not wifi someone has the same problem ?