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Nighthawk router

Martin466
Aspirant

Nighthawk router

Hello! So, I currently do not have a router. I’m looking to get a nighthawk router for gaming, but I have a question before I buy it! Where I live I can’t get great internet because of my location. So, right now my internet speed is 5.0 mbps 😞 its so awful trying to play video games. I was just wondering if anyone knew if a nighthawk router would improve that speed? Or would it not do much because my speed is already so low? I appreciate any responses, thank you!
Message 1 of 7
Netduma_Jack
NetDuma Partner

Re: Nighthawk router

Hi Martin - gaming uses very little bandwidth (less than 0.1mbps) so 5mbps is more than enough. However, the big problem is other devices in your home using all your bandwidth. That's what causes games to lag so much.

 

The Nighthawk I would recommend is the new Nighthawk XR500 Gaming Router. It contains our unique 'QoS' solution, which completely prevents your game from lagging when others are using your bandwidth. This video demonstrates it really well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzPWRTMgZM0

 

The XR500 has many other features for gaming too - much more info here: https://www.netgear.com/npg/xr500/

 

Disclaimer: I work for the software developer on this router so whilst I am giving you honest advice, please do your own research and listen to other opinions too!

 

 

Message 2 of 7
Martin466
Aspirant

Re: Nighthawk router

Thank you and sorry for the late reply! I purchased the xr500 and it has been doing well. However, I do have one more question. We have SO many devices in the household, can they still connect to the modem wifi or do they need to connect to the Nighthawk as well? The other devices are phones, tablets, and laptops. I was just wondering if it would make any difference or not to have them connect to the modem wifi or the nighthawk wifi. I'm not sure if it matters or not! Thank you!!!

Model: XR500| Nighthawk Pro Gaming Router
Message 3 of 7
Netduma-Fraser
NetDuma Partner

Re: Nighthawk router

I would recommend having them all connected to the XR500 otherwise it's QoS cannot run at 100% effectiveness as it wouldn't be able to control all devices on your network if some were connected to the ISP hub WiFi.
Message 4 of 7
P111
Luminary

Re: Nighthawk router

Speed is not important for gaming. It's often miss-sold by manufacturers and ISP's. Your internet is more than fast enough. What really is important is ping. You should be aiming to get your ping to your favourite games down to below 100ms. Even so you will never make pro gamer with that ping but it will at least be very playable. When you consider your monitor takes 16ms to update then all of a sudden 16ms seems not a lot. Certainly the hope would be that you are below 50ms. When I first bought a 1Mbps internet connection I was one of the elite!! And my ping to all the european servers was 8ms!! Now though despite my connection being 40 times faster my ping has collapsed to 40ms. Why? People. So many more people. But anyway, getting back to the point, your speed is not important, your ping is.

The XR500 will not help your ping. However, it does give you management tools to limit for example which servers you connect to. So I would base the decision on the servers you are connecting to. If you need to buy a cheap router first to find out - then do it. Ses if you have a problem before you try to fix it.

 

Message 5 of 7
P111
Luminary

Re: Nighthawk router

Sorry i mean "see" not "ses"

Message 6 of 7
Netduma-Fraser
NetDuma Partner

Re: Nighthawk router

The XR500 eliminates local congestion which prevents your ping rising. The Geo-Filter ensures you get the closest possible server which will usually be low ping compared to wherever the game decides to put you.
Message 7 of 7
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