I wanted to share my experience using a Dell G16 gaming laptop with a 600 Mbps connection for MSFS 2024. I know the rule of thumb is to play online games via a wired connection, but I thought that for MSFS 2024, ping wouldn’t matter as much. After all, it’s not a FPS game, and I believed there was some kind of pre-cache system that made the use of either a cable or a wireless connection negligible.
Boy, was I wrong!
Up until recently, I was using 5G wireless, and I could play on high-end settings without any issues with my Dell G16. However, no matter the settings, I always experienced noticeable stuttering from time to time. Out of pure curiosity, I plugged in an Ethernet cable, and wow… what a difference!
Not only does the game load faster, including the missions, but during gameplay, it feels like there’s much less stuttering.
Hopefully, this information helps someone who might have been under the same misconception as I was.
One can only wonder at how many end user problems would be solved by hardwiring, omitting WiFi and Bluetooth connections wherever possible; it boggles the mind!
I did the same thing as you. Thought that it didn’t matter wired or wireless. I have AT&T fiber optic at 1Ghz. I’m getting a cable tonight! Thanks for the eye opener!
I’ve a 1gig wired connection and I still have issues on 24.
Long loading times, world map glitches and terrible topography and textures.
Even at small airports in basic aircraft, the airport will look empty until you hit the taxiway and suddenly airplanes will appear in front of you, but they disappear after about 20 meters behind.
Unless you have really slow and/or unstable Wifi, I don’t see why this should make any difference at all…? Maybe it was just coincidence, have you done multiple instances of A/B testing?
I’m not surprised that MSFS works better for you over a LAN cable than Wi-Fi. I’ve been saying for a long time that we should always play using a LAN cable directly connected to the router, not via Wi-Fi.
Additionally, you’d likely notice even more improvement if you upgraded from the Dell G16 gaming laptop to a good high-end PC. It would provide more power and stability for demanding games like MSFS.
In theory wired will always win over wireless. And I will always choose and recommend ethernet over wifi.
That said, I’d like to add this:
Due to a personal technical issue (*) I’m running msfs2024 on my XboxX through ~500mbps wifi and 175mbps vdsl internet connection with very good results (which surprises me a bit).
((*) Due to a defect wire in my cat8 ethernet cable it only connects clients at 100mbps, which didnt matter as long as I had a 50mbps internet connection. After upgrading 50->175mbps this fall, I switched the XboxX temporarily over to wifi to avoid the cable bottlenecking the XboxX.)
Wouldn’t make any difference to me. My Wifi is faster than the 500mbit line I have. So it tops out at about 520mbit, ethernet is no different in that situation, maybe marginally more stable. But not to an extent where it would affect streamed assets that load in at nowhere near the max speed of 520mbit anyway.
And since most people have slower internet (on avg), it should make even less difference as long as you have a good 5ghz router and receiver that are close to each other.
I have no issues in wireless, but I’m on wifi6, on a gigabit network, and I get like 6ms on wireless - there’s wireless and then there’s proper wireless
Yeah, and after seeing so many posts over the past years, there are folks out there who struggle with internet access and there are very likely folks out there who would benefit from hardwiring and don’t yet realize it. Those with killer connections know who they are. It’s those in the middle who may want to think about ditching their WiFi connection and simply plugging in!
Makes sense. Now milliseconds are calculated by a protocol that is not re-transmitting at all and has a rather long timeout so you could have excellent rtt but a rather meh experience.
A common issue with wireless is the amount of retransmissions due to various environmental factors etc.
Idk about all that. I really don’t have WiFi issues, both with FS or in general other usages over the past 20 years. On an off I tried Ethernet but every time is no performance benefit, for me, I know everyone’s setup and geography is different. But for me, I prefer less clutter and flexibility of WiFi vs going old school like in the 90s plugging internet in. We’re past that.
Sure and you are absolutely right to think so, I fully agree.
However there are some limitations that are physical and dependent on that you may want to deploy an indoor mesh etc to cope in order to get a “proper wireless”
One of tbe key issues with wifi that impacts performance is that the various wifi bands can get saturated much more easily with multiple users/devices than a wired network. So while a wifi network may work fine with just one user it will be very different with the wife and/or kids in the next room streaming a netflix movie or downloading a new game. Distance from the wifi router/access point is also important in getting a fast, stable connection.
The challenge with my wifi is that there are so many different devices connected (pc’s, tablets, phones, security cameras etc) you don’t even realize how congested it is.