Fix guide
Wired vs Wi-Fi for gaming: when the cable is worth it, and when it is not
Wi-Fi is not automatically bad for gaming, and Ethernet is not automatically better in every situation. What differs is retransmission behaviour, and that is why the same connection can feel perfect in one game and unusable in another.
What a cable changes
- No retransmissions caused by interference, so far fewer lost or delayed packets.
- Lower and far more stable latency under load, especially on the uplink.
- No dependency on how many neighbours are using the same channels.
What a cable does not change
Distance to the server, the route your ISP takes, congestion in the evening, and anything happening on the game's servers. If your ping is steady and high, a cable will not lower it — it will just make the number steadier, which may be exactly the diagnosis you needed.
How to test it properly
Run the same test twice: once on Wi-Fi, once on a cable, at the same time of day. Compare the spread of the numbers, not the averages. If the wired test is steadier, your Wi-Fi was the problem and the free fix is a cable. If both look equally unstable, the issue is further out.