Why does my ping spike? The 7 usual causes of lag spikes
UPDATED
Your ping is fine and then jumps to 300ms for a second. The usual causes of lag spikes, how to find yours, and how to fix it.
Your ping is 30ms, then suddenly 300ms for a second, then back. Lag spikes are worse than a constantly high ping, because the game cannot adapt to them. Here are the usual causes, from most to least common.
The 7 usual causes
- Wi-Fi interference. Neighbors' networks, walls, microwaves, Bluetooth. The single most common cause. Test on a cable to rule it out.
- Another device starts using the line. A phone backing up photos, a console downloading an update, a 4K stream. That is bufferbloat.
- Updates on your own PC. Windows Update, game launchers and cloud sync clients download in the background, often while you play.
- Wi-Fi scanning. Some laptops and network drivers scan for other networks every few minutes, which causes a short spike each time. Disabling the adapter's power saving or using a cable fixes it.
- An overloaded or overheating router. Restart it; if the spikes come back after days of uptime, the router is the problem.
- ISP congestion. Spikes mostly in the evening, when everyone is online, point at your ISP.
- Satellite and mobile internet spike by design: see Starlink for gaming.
How to find your cause
Spikes are easy to miss in a short test. Use the Long mode on Rekt-al Net: 60 pings over a minute, with every spike counted and drawn on a graph. Then change one thing (cable, other devices off, Wi-Fi off on your phone) and run it again. The comparison tells you which change mattered.