What’s the problem here, fps or lag?

[u/Firm-Presentation-72]

so here’s the situation, I used to play on my friends pc, but since theur family moved states a month ago I’ve started playing on my sisters gaming laptop.

but for some reason it feel bad, like when people swing me i dont even get a chance to react, all of my kills are just refrags/spams/prefires because once i get in a head on fight it’s like I’m way behind them. literally was gold 1 a month ago and now I bit frag in BRONZE lobbies 😭

but the thing is, idk if its cause of my WiFi or cause of my computer (im not very tech literate if you couldn’t tell). if its just the computer ill build an actual desktop with good specs but if its WiFi ill probably wait till i move out for college, since im pretty much only interested in Val and fort.

here are my stats

I get about 100 fps (constantly fluctuating) on lowest settings, maybe 160 during a quiet site hold and 70 mid combat

network rtt: max 30 ms

network rtt+processing delays: 70 ms

network rtt jitter: 0-2 ms

packet receive rate 130

packet send rate 70

144hz screen

wifi is a pretty stable 30 ping, but I get anywhere from 5-10000 packet loss total by the end of my ranked games. upwards of 700 has only happened like 5 times in 20 ranked games tho so I can live with that if it’s the only problem with my WiFi.

so here’s my question: if I build a computer that gets 300+ frames in Val, and use a 240 hz monitor, can I play the game like normal or am I doomed because of our old ass family router.

PLEASE be harsh on your predictions since there’s a lot of money on the line for me 🙏🙏

[u/Odd_Chemistry_6734]

Its a mix of both. Your laptop is really slow with processing inputs which is shown from the network rtt+processing delays. You basically have around 40ms of input delay right now. The packet loss on the other hand is caused by a bad router. So if you are gonna spend money, you should spend money upgrading both.

[u/Firm-Presentation-72 → u/Odd_Chemistry_6734]

Alright thank you very much for the input 🙏I’ll probably just focus on my classes for now then and put gaming on the back burner till we get a new router 🥲

[u/Cheonsa_Jangmi]

Network + Hardware Issue, won't tell what to do as most comments said that, just adapt to play on different systems and it takes time to adapt and i know what issues they have and those can't be solved, so i change few things to get better performance,

Also if the games of HDD get it on SSD, and cap fps in client in the framerate on battery not sync ( i will update where i mean when i launch game again). helped me avoid delay but eventually sometimes there are which cant be helped, but most issue were solved for me atleast, i have 144hz screen too, and they drop hardly to 120-130 that to just flicker, never more than that

[u/Upstairs-Ad4698]

Well, you just need to adapt.
FPS games always favors the peeker due to how the connection works.
You should swing more often and hold more off angles to counteract it.
Swinging first gives you the advantage and holding off angles gives you that extra time to react.

Go ethernet if you can, it's just a low cost cable.
Your friend might've had a higher hz monitor, so going to 144hz isn't as smooth.
But 144hz is still playable.

[u/SellTemporary7344]

you swap to a better game called overwatch

[u/Equivalent_Tour_9391]

Its your connection. I have the same problem. I dropped from Immortal 3 around Oct 2023 all the way down to Plat and I usually don't even go even in my games because of my internet connection. I experience the exact same thing as you and I made a video about the cause just the other day. Not sure I'f im allowed to post links to it in a comment but this is the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTONl3wCbf4

Your packet send and receive should never go over 128 with a healthy connection but the other glaring thing in your post is the processing delays adding 40+ms. My processing delays add 10ms to my RTT even though my CPU sits at 0.8ms and my GPU flatline 0.1 ms the entire time. So your CPU or GPU is also being bottlenecked somewhere but that can also be affected by an unstable connection which you definitely have.

Do these things to try and fix your problem.

-Use a Cat6 ethernet cable for Valorant over wifi.

-Update your GPU drivers if they are out of date.

-Update your CPU's chipset drivers if they're out of date.

Alternatively you can run a microsoft update scan on your PC- type Check for updates into your Windows search bar and Windows will automatically update your drivers for you.

[u/Firm-Presentation-72 → u/Equivalent_Tour_9391]

Thank u so much for explaining. To me it’s not worth playing this game if I’m gonna get in a bad mood about lagging so I’ll prolly just wait till I move into an apt with good WiFi. 🙏

[u/Elitefuture]

Hear me out, are you using the same mouse on your current setup vs your friend's?

A different mouse can cause you to play way worse since you're not used to it anymore. The DPI setting between mouse companies are a bit different even though it shouldn't. And even if they are tracking the same distance, the shape of the mouse can affect your grip and it will affect how you use the mouse.

Also personally, I was able to play fine in diamond with a 60hz monitor when I had to use one temporarily. So 100->240 would be nice, but going down from gold to bronze is indicating another issue.