[solved] lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

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[solved] lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by deleted_user »

Internet speeds: 35 ms ping, 40 mbps download, 20 mbps upload

Computer specs: intel i5, GTX 970, 680 W PSU, Asus Z97 motherboard, 250 MB SSD, etc. I can run fallout 4 max graphics.

I have a good rig, and good internet. However, every game I play lately eventually lags severely, whether 1v1 or team. The beginning of games of always alright, but once action starts happening, it freezes for long periods of time. It's ruining games and I'm not sure how to fix it.

Troubleshooting:

Reset modem/router
Uninstall/Reinstall game
lowered graphics to minimum
turn computer off then on again

Brainstorming:
I'm pretty much at max memory on my 250 MB SSD, could this be affecting performance? I have a terabyte HD I need to install, perhaps that will fix it.

EDIT: FIXED - hotkey issue (too many conflicts)
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by momuuu »

Are you sure it's on your end? Could be bad luck with the opponents aswell I suppose.
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by Mimsy for President »

I had a similar problem but it only used to occur in battle. Resetting my hotkeys fixed the problem. I know it sounds absurd but I found out that it was due to the Attack Move hotkey.
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by deleted_user »

Mimsy for President wrote:I had a similar problem but it only used to occur in battle. Resetting my hotkeys fixed the problem. I know it sounds absurd but I found out that it was due to the Attack Move hotkey.


can you elaborate?
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by deleted_user »

Jerom wrote:Are you sure it's on your end? Could be bad luck with the opponents aswell I suppose.


I've played enough games that I'm confident saying yeah, it's me.
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by Garja »

I played with you and ye it is actually really strange because it freezes without really drop frame. Your specs are kinda OP so I don't see how is that possible.
Did you assembly the pc yourself? Are you sure it doesn't over heat in battles and cpu/gpu throttle down?
Do you have power saving options enabled or something like that? Is your net actually clean or is there other people sharing it?

It's hard to hypotize a reason without some diagnostic. First of all I would download a graphical ping tool and see the pattern running it for couple minutes (on very short interval).
Then would probably check pc temps and working set on cpu/gpu.
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by Rikikipu »

Just in order to analyze what's wrong between your hardware or your connection, have you tried to play offline against computer and see if it freezing or not ?
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by deleted_user »

Garja wrote:I played with you and ye it is actually really strange because it freezes without really drop frame. Your specs are kinda OP so I don't see how is that possible.
Did you assembly the pc yourself? Are you sure it doesn't over heat in battles and cpu/gpu throttle down?
Do you have power saving options enabled or something like that? Is your net actually clean or is there other people sharing it?

It's hard to hypotize a reason without some diagnostic. First of all I would download a graphical ping tool and see the pattern running it for couple minutes (on very short interval).
Then would probably check pc temps and working set on cpu/gpu.


I did assemble it myself. My first build, but I made sure to do adequate preparation beforehand. I followed a YT tutorial which actually used the same case I did. I discharged static electricity. Everything booted up perfectly the first time I tried it. Don't think this is the issue but of course, it could be.

My power saving setting is balanced (recommended). It is not on power saver mode, which says it reduces performance to save power.

I just went online and did a "lag test" with a random guy. Cheats enabled, the game had zero lag until I fought ~40 musk v 40 skirms. Then the game froze a few times for a few seconds each. No frames dropped. During this I alt-tabbed and quickly snapped photos of my cpu and gpu stats (temp, %, fan speed, etc). I re-alt-tabbed and did this again a few times during the lab spike. I got them from windows 8 gadgets. Everything normal, CPU usage @ 27%, GPU @ 31 degrees C. Fan speed @ 33%. These are all just slightly above idle stats. Not sure if alt-tabbing is the best way to track this but idk how to have it overlay my game and my windowed mode doesnt work right.

I did a similar "lag test" vs an AI (still on ESO though) and flooded a battle with hundreds of units and experienced zero lag, zero dropped frames, and zero freezing. Again, I alt tabbed several times and took photos of my GPU and CPU. Virtually identical results as the human lag test.

I can upload the pics if you want, they also have a running graphical line which i assume represents usage across time. This is what I have.
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by deleted_user »

Rikikipu wrote:Just in order to analyze what's wrong between your hardware or your connection, have you tried to play offline against computer and see if it freezing or not ?


I detailed this in my response to Garja, I played against 1 AI (still on ESO though) and flooded a battle with hundreds of units and experienced no lag. Seems to only be against other human players then.
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by Rikikipu »

Oh, sorry, i didn't notice.

So the issue comes from your connection only.
Where are you from ?
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by deleted_user »

Rikikipu wrote:Oh, sorry, i didn't notice.

So the issue comes from your connection only.
Where are you from ?


Nebraska, USA. I used this same connection this summer when I played, where I never experienced this and almost always played everyone with zero lag. It is a shared connection between me and my 4 roommates, but that has never been an issue, and I'm the only one plugged directly in via Ethernet cable.

I brought this up in a stream chat and there was some speculation that it might be my ISP's fault (Cox) but again I've used this connection before without issue. I stopped playing the game for several months and when I come back I experience this lag.
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by Rikikipu »

You should try to ping someone whi who you lag, and see the delay between your comps in order to see if it's relevant or not.
Also, in summer, maybe people close to your home in your town are on holidays/don't work and don't use a lot your IT network.
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by Garja »

Ye if in single player you experience zero lag then it is obvisouly net lag. It is strange that only happens in big battles tho. I guess the bitrate is higher in those situations. However your net is very good so unless someone is torrenting the shit out of that you should be totally fine.
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by deleted_user »

Literally none of my roommates torrent, or know what it is. I'm not saying I torrent, but if I did, I'd probably make sure that my client was never running in the background or doing anything, unless I wanted to actively be download something, which I don't of course. But if I did.. you know.

So the mystery remains. I guess Cox is a POS I can blame all my problems on. But even during a lag spike I'll alt tab and get good internet speeds. It just sucks because in a competitive game, no one wants lag. Especially during battles. I don't want to be known as that guy who lags.
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by gibson »

Yea I've played with him several times and it literally only lags during large engagements. But its not even lag really, it's more like the games just frozen and moves like 1 sec every 20 secs or so
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by Garja »

deleted_user wrote:Literally none of my roommates torrent, or know what it is. I'm not saying I torrent, but if I did, I'd probably make sure that my client was never running in the background or doing anything, unless I wanted to actively be download something, which I don't of course. But if I did.. you know.

So the mystery remains. I guess Cox is a POS I can blame all my problems on. But even during a lag spike I'll alt tab and get good internet speeds. It just sucks because in a competitive game, no one wants lag. Especially during battles. I don't want to be known as that guy who lags.


Best thing to be sure that it isn't your net actually is to just ran a graphical ping in the background to some reliable server (and close to where your opponent lives).
But even then you should have something like big chunks of frame dropping (like >5%) and still doesn't explain why it only lags in big battles.
Actually I think that the real reason is just that the game doesn't use your pc resources at all. Do you run the game on high graphics? You should be able to run it on max everything np if it is run with the GPU. Maybe check if it is ran with the CPU instead. I can see it lagging that way in that case.
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by deleted_user »

Thanks for your time and the suggestions! I'll look into it.
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by aenna »

deleted_user wrote:Internet speeds: 35 ms ping, 40 mbps download, 20 mbps upload

Computer specs: intel i5, GTX 970, 680 W PSU, Asus Z97 motherboard, 250 MB SSD, etc. I can run fallout 4 max graphics.

I have a good rig, and good internet. However, every game I play lately eventually lags severely, whether 1v1 or team. The beginning of games of always alright, but once action starts happening, it freezes for long periods of time. It's ruining games and I'm not sure how to fix it.

Troubleshooting:

Reset modem/router
Uninstall/Reinstall game
lowered graphics to minimum
turn computer off then on again

Brainstorming:
I'm pretty much at max memory on my 250 MB SSD, could this be affecting performance? I have a terabyte HD I need to install, perhaps that will fix it.


I've experienced the same problem. Disabling Interrupt Moderation on my network adapter fixed it.
I'm assuming it would fix it for you too, google it to get started.

Considering that you didn't have this issue before: There's a good chance you upgraded your Operating system in the last few months.
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by deleted_user »

Thanks! ^
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by Jaeger »

deleted_user wrote:Thanks! ^

YAY lagless callen incoming!!!
last time i cryed was because i stood on Lego
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by Jaeger »

Rikikipu wrote:Just in order to analyze what's wrong between your hardware or your connection, have you tried to play offline against computer and see if it freezing or not ?

I love ur avatar
last time i cryed was because i stood on Lego
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by deleted_user »

ovi12 wrote:
deleted_user wrote:Thanks! ^

YAY lagless callen incoming!!!


Oh no how am i going to win games now? I'm going to have to micro? Shit.
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by deleted_user »

I've experienced the same problem. Disabling Interrupt Moderation on my network adapter fixed it.
I'm assuming it would fix it for you too, google it to get started.

Considering that you didn't have this issue before: There's a good chance you upgraded your Operating system in the last few months.


I just did this and tested it. Game literally froze :(

I haven't upgraded, still on windows 8.1. Maybe I should upgrade and thatll fix it who fucking knows.
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by Mimsy for President »

deleted_user wrote:
Mimsy for President wrote:I had a similar problem but it only used to occur in battle. Resetting my hotkeys fixed the problem. I know it sounds absurd but I found out that it was due to the Attack Move hotkey.


can you elaborate?
Back up your hotkey file that is located in Documents\My Games\Age of Empires 3\Users3 (no idea for Mac) and reset your hotkeys in-game. Play 2-3 games without hotkeys to ensure that your problem is fixed.
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Re: lagging in games despite good internet speeds/specs

Post by noissance »

Test your coaxial cable for signal strength. Additionally, if you have a splitter (if you got bundled) remove and make a direct connection to check if you are getting better signal. Additionally, age of empires is poorly optimized for high end hardware and tends to drop frames sometimes to where it seems like lag. Another possibility is a local jitter event occuring on your network. Check the status of your router/modem.
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