I’m having a tough time with high ping while playing multiplayer games on my Steam Deck. Even though I’ve disabled WiFi power management, the lag is much worse than on my other devices. It feels like I’m connecting without a router. What could be causing this?
4 Answers
Consider enabling ‘throttle downloads while streaming’ if you haven’t done so already. Even if you aren’t recording anything, it could help prioritize your game’s connection and reduce lag. My experience with the Steam Deck has been pretty smooth, so something might be off in your settings or connection.
I thought my connection would be terrible too, but I play with a really weak phone internet (1.5mb down, 0.9mb up) and I haven’t faced issues. Check if you’re downloading anything—could be the culprit!
Make sure you don’t have any downloads running while you’re gaming—this can really eat up your bandwidth. Try pinging Google from the terminal on your Deck to see if the response times are high. If you’re seeing over 100ms, something might be hogging your internet. It could be worth using a smartphone app to check the ping during your lag spikes to confirm if the two are related. Also, if you manage your router, check if traffic prioritization is set up right. If you have a dock with an Ethernet port, plugging in directly might help as well since WiFi can sometimes be unreliable, even on the Deck, but its chip is generally pretty good.
Have you tried adjusting the channels on your router? Sometimes your router might be on a crowded channel, and changing it could significantly improve the connection. There are free channel scanning apps for your phone that can help with this.
That’s solid advice! I’ve noticed that using Ethernet can really cut down on lag. It might help confirm if WiFi is the problem.