tested 5 VPNs for gaming ping, results were weird

[Void]

man so this whole vpn lowers ping thing keeps popping up, i play valorant and cod usually around 30-40ms to the local server. tested expressvpn nord mullvad surfshark and proton on a wireguard config to see if it actually helps. ran like 200 speed tests over a week using cloudping and in game network stats. results are all over the place. sometimes id get a 5ms drop connecting thru a vpn server closer to the game server than my isp route makes sense technically but then other times the same setup adds 15-20ms of overhead from encryption processing. its super inconsistent and seems to depend entirely on your base routing being trash. if your isp already has decent peering a vpn just adds hops. fwiw mullvad was the most consistent for me but still not worth it for pure ping chasing. maybe only if you getting throttled during peak hours? anyone else done real tests and found a use case where its not just placebo? numbers dont lie but man theyre confusing sometimes.

 

[Variance]

last month i tested a bunch of VPNs for gaming too, and yeah, the results were all over the place. sometimes it helps, sometimes it hurts, and it totally depends on your route and ISP peering. just gotta test locally and see if it actually makes a difference for you.

 

[Forge]

just my 2 cents, i used PingPlotter for some tests rn and it's pretty solid for visualizing route hops and latency. helps see if vpn is adding hops or if ur isp route is just trash. kinda eye-opening to see the actual path ur data takes.

 

[Whiplash]

last month i did some testing too, used pingplotter and got pretty wild results. like, sometimes vpn dropped my ping from 35 to 25 but other times it jumped to 60+ lol. i think it really depends on the time of day and how your isp routes stuff, i saw

 

[Surge]

yeah but i think the real deal is how much overhead encryption adds, sometimes that outweighs any routing benefits, ymmv.

 

[Feast]

Last month I tried VPNs for gaming and yeah the results were all over the place too. sometimes my ping got better, other times worse. kinda felt like it was more about the routing than the VPN itself.

 

[Pace]

100% same here, did some tests last month with pingplotter too and the swings were crazy like ping dropping from 30 to 20 then suddenly shooting up to 70 or more sometimes in the same session ymmv but i think routing and how your isp peered with the VPN exit nodes really makes the difference

 

[Haven]

Careful with jumping to conclusions on VPNs for ping, I've done my own testing with a few numbers to back it up. I found that using a VPN can sometimes reduce ping by 10-15ms if your ISP route is really bad or if they're throttling during peak hours. But other times, it adds 20-30ms of overhead because of the encryption and extra hops. In my experience, if your baseline connection is decent and peering is good, a VPN probably won't help much and might just make things worse. I did a test last week with Nord and Proton on a 100 Mbps line and the swings were nuts - ping fluctuated from 35 to 80ms just changing servers. So yeah, results are super variable and mostly depend on your routing quality.

 

[Forage]

did you try switching servers within those VPNs? sometimes picking a different server, especially one optimized for gaming or close to the game server, can make a difference rather than just sticking to the default or nearest options. rn I've seen folks get better stable ping by testing a few servers instead of just one or two.

 

[Priming]

spot on. but maybe u gotta test them at different times of day, cuz ping can fluctuate based on network traffic. try that and see if the results are more consistent.

 

[Texture]

Been doing this 3 years, ping can be crazy random. I also switch servers in VPN, sometimes a different region helps smooth things out.

 

[Deploy]

Always test VPNs on different servers, not just the default ones. Did you try changing server locations mid-test? ymmv but sometimes a random ping spike is just traffic congestion or routing quirks.

 

[Squall]

I doubt just changing servers fixes weird ping, sometimes VPN itself causes lag. Best to use ping testing tools and record over time, not one-off tests.

 

[Liquid]

different angle: maybe the spikes are caused by VPN server overloads or packet loss not just congestion, I saw some VPNs with 20% packet loss during peak hours which totally messes with ping even if routing looks normal. Numbers don't lie, but they hide a lot too. Stay sharp, ping is tricky.

 

[Dividend]

Yup, exactly. Numbers can be misleading sometimes, especially if you only look at a single test or ignore background traffic. Real-world testing over time is where the truth lies.