How much does a wifi booster affect my ping

Any WiFi link will introduce delay, it cannot be avoided. Whether that delay will be sufficient to affect your gaming you can only find out by trying it.

Wifi repeaters do not boost the Wifi, they just extend the range.  Each hop on an extender will add latency and reduce the WIfi speed.  If you are serious about your PS5, you really need to use a cable, preferably Cat 6, or Cat 5E, anything else is a waste of money for a 1Gb connection.

Hi Raptert, 

As you are using the Hub5X i am assuming you are a XGSPON customer with Full Fibre.

The XGSPON network you are using is not quite there yet, there is still parts of the VirginMedia network that still require some attention, you can generally see this by running a traceroute to 8.8.8.8, there you will see each hop as it passes through Virgin's network.

I am also a XGSPON customer like you, i have quite a techy setup but im wired directly into the router on a Gig2 package. When i run a traceroute command to 8.8.8.8 there are hops in the Virgin Media network that are higher than most other providers. I can see response times of 1ms - 2ms until i hit the core network which then jumps to 5ms - 7ms depending on the route.

The routing is still a bit 'odd' and as mentioned above Virgin are working on making their network better, the decommissioning of their HFC coax network was the first step, and it should slowly start to get better as they upgrade and improve their network. - So this is expected over the likes of Openreach FTTC/P.

To answer your question fully, your best bet would be to use WiFi (before everybody screams; hear me out). - I would invest in a reputable good WiFi 6 router, WiFi6 is supported on your PS5 and any third party WiFi 6 router will be better than the WiFi 6 on the default router by a fair margin in signal strength, speed and quality.

There are other options, such as powerline adapters but they use plug socket ring main circuit to provide a signal from one end to the other, and these aren't normally great for gaming especially for older houses that have a split RCD fuseboard and upstairs and downstairs sockets sometimes tend to be on completely seperate circuits, thus introducing excessive latency.

To conclude; i would invest in a WiFi 6 router, you can plug this into your Hub5X and use that for your PS5 instead, as you will get a much better quality connection. The Hub5X is a WiFi 6 router, but again a dedicated WiFi 6 router should perform a lot better than the 5X which is also known for having Wifi range issues (Hence why VM offer the free boosters when you sign up if you experience signal issues).

Hope that info helps.

I have the Gig 1 service and Hub 5x but use my own WiFi 6E mesh system with hardwired backhaul. Here's how to do it and avoid NAT problems. 

Set the mesh router's WAN to DHCP and connect to a LAN port on the Hub 5x. Copy the IP address your router has received. 

Enter the Hub 5x settings and set the IP address your router has been given as a DMZ.

Disable the WiFi on the Hub 5x.