Ping Spikes and Latency Issues

Question

I have used Virgin Media for a long time and have been satisfied with the speeds they provide but I just feel like I have constant issues with latency and ping spikes.

To give a bit of background, I am a streamer and content creator while also playing competitively in a few FPS titles. This means that latency and internet speeds are crucial to allowing me to do this. There is not other provider in this area that can get close to the speeds that VM provide me and I am really happy with them, but latency issues and high ping spikes and really bugging me.

I came across something called "bufferbloat" which can cause problems with these things and after researching, I found that buying a 3rd party router with SQM or QoS could solve this. I have an Netgear Nighthawk XR1000 which cost a decent amount and has some great tools which would definitely help this.

After more trial and error I thought I had fixed the issue but suddenly again in the last week my Download Latency spikes and when performing a Bufferbloat Test on sites like dslreports.com and waveform.net I am getting results of +200ms (and over) of bufferbloat.

I am wondering if anyone can help me and recommend any fixes and what may be causing this. I was thinking about upgrading my speed to VMs 1gig plan but I am unsure if this can be solved by changing package or something I can remedy myself without that.

I appreciate any help and advice!

Paul_DN · Answer

Hi Gallacher96,
Thank you for reaching out to us and welcome, sorry to see you have been facing high latency and ping spikes with your 3rd party Router all of a sudden, we do not support 3rd party equipment however one of our community will come along and may be able to help.
Regards
Paul.

legacy1 · Answer

You can set your limits to say 900Mb download and 99Mb upload but you are subject to VM QoS when you download this means if lots of people in the area download and you download max by VM QoS between the bandwidth VM can supply at that time you will buffer by them depending on their QoS like HFQ. But if you download under this then there is no bufferbloat.

This is why you can have a better service on a lower package with your own router doing QoS if upstream is not impacted.

Gallacher96 · Answer

This definitely makes sense but I’ve now done more investigating and found out that it’s literally only one device in my house that has this issue. I have a PC I use for gaming and one I use for streaming. My gaming PC spikes to 400+ download latency on any Speedtest at any time of the day where as every other device has reasonable to decent results with like 30-50 download latency.

So confused by this, even a fresh install of windows is producing the same issue only one my gaming PC.

legacy1 · Answer

And that by direct wire to your router?What NIC is it?

Gallacher96 · Answer

Cat 8 Ethernet cable directly into the router and NIC is onboard a ROG Strix B450-f GAMING II motherboard.

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Ping Spikes and Latency Issues

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