Arch Linux

ITA84

Member

Registered: 2019-10-02

Posts: 22

Reduce lag spikes with Wi-Fi connection

I've got an Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 adapter which works correctly, but I'm having some issues with occasional, small lag spikes; this isn't a problem when browsing the Web or even watching video streams, but it gives me some issues when I play online games. I've determined the problem is with the Wi-Fi connection because by pinging the IP of my Wi-Fi modem/router I get occasional spikes and packet loss (not at regular intervals, so it's not network scans causing it); I'm talking 1 or 2 lost packets every 100. I know it's not much, but the online game I play gets frequent lag spikes on Wi-Fi, while it gets almost none with Ethernet. I've also tried moving my laptop closer to my router, to little effect.

I've tried setting the various kernel module (iwlwifi, iwlmvm, cfg80211) parameters, but the only one that really improves the situation is 11n_disable=1: with it, online games run about as well as with Ethernet, but of course my Internet speed is capped at 80211g speeds. So far I've been reloading the kernel module with this parameter set whenever I want to play online, but I was wondering if anyone else with the same problem had found a better solution

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 60,951

Re: Reduce lag spikes with Wi-Fi connection

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 3#p1946853 ?

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ITA84

Member

Registered: 2019-10-02

Posts: 22

Re: Reduce lag spikes with Wi-Fi connection

Thanks. I'm not sure which posts you're referring to, but I've already tried using the iw backend (only marginally better, has other small issues), I don't use any MAC address randomization, and I don't really know if this is a regression, since I've only recently started using Wi-Fi instead of Ethernet; I'll still try using previous firmware files if I can

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,940

Re: Reduce lag spikes with Wi-Fi connection

The link seth posted should be a direct link to a specific post/approach that has had an influence on this a while ago as in

sudo ethtool -K wlp2s0 tso off

replace the interface with the name on your actual system.

Last edited by V1del (2021-02-10 17:27:52)

ITA84

Member

Registered: 2019-10-02

Posts: 22

Re: Reduce lag spikes with Wi-Fi connection

Thank you. I've installed ethtool and turned tso off: doesn't seem to make much of a difference, and ping definitely still has some lost packets. On the other hand, even with it on I'm having fewer lag spikes than usual now, so I'll have to keep testing.

EDIT: confirmed that it doesn't seem to make a difference, and today lag spikes in online play are more frequent, with and without this change

Last edited by ITA84 (2021-02-11 17:47:05)