The ping cloud gaming needs

Cloud gaming is unusual among internet services: it needs very little bandwidth and is ruined by very small delays. A connection that streams 4K video perfectly can be unplayable, because video buffers ahead and a game cannot.

Three numbers, and only one is bandwidth

Round-trip time is the delay between pressing a button and seeing the result. On top of it sits the time the service needs to render and encode the frame, and the time your screen needs to show it, so the network figure is only part of what you feel. Under about 30 milliseconds to the data centre, play feels immediate; between 30 and 60 it is fine for most games and noticeable in shooters; beyond about 80 almost everything feels heavy.

Jitter is the variation in that delay, and it matters more than the average. A steady 50 milliseconds plays better than a connection that swings between 20 and 90, because the client cannot predict when the next frame arrives and either stutters or adds a buffer that makes controls sluggish.

Packet loss is the third. Even a fraction of a percent produces visible artefacts, since a lost frame cannot be requested again in time; the picture simply breaks up until the next complete frame.

Bandwidth is the easy part

Services ask for roughly 10 to 15 Mbps for 1080p and 30 to 45 for 4K, and they want that continuously rather than in bursts. Most connections clear the bar comfortably, which is why "my speed test is fine" is such a common and unhelpful observation when the session is stuttering.

How to get the numbers down

Use a cable. Wi-Fi adds delay and jitter of its own, and that alone is the difference between playable and not in many households. If a cable is impossible, use the 5 GHz or 6 GHz band, stay in line of sight of the access point, and keep large downloads off the network while playing.

Distance to the data centre sets the floor, and nothing you own can change it: the round trip to a site a thousand kilometres away costs about ten milliseconds in fibre, regardless of what you pay for. Pick the nearest region the service offers, and check whether your provider peers directly with it — two connections at the same speed in the same street can differ by 30 milliseconds because their traffic takes different routes.

Finally, turn on the smart queue management in the router if it has it. It costs a little peak throughput and removes the latency spikes that appear whenever anything else in the house starts using the line.