Latency (ping) in games in Windows vs OS X

Question

Latency (ping) in games in Windows vs OS X

I have just successfully installed Windows XP on a Boot Camp partition, installed Apple's drivers, and updated Windows with SP3 and all security updates, etc.

My main purpose for installing Windows was to see if I could get better frame rates in World of Warcraft under Windows than in OS X. Comments on Blizzard's own support forums, from other users, indicates that frame rates are usually a bit better under Windows on the same hardware than under OS X, due, supposedly, to better driver optimization. I have yet to see if Windows does indeed allow better frame rates, as the problem really only occurs in specific situations that I have not yet encountered since installing Windows, and WoW on it.

However, I have noticed a difference of another sort while playing WoW under Windows, and it is not a favorable one. The game provides a latency, or ping, meter. Under OS X, it was usually around 140-150 ms. Under Windows, it has been steadily nearly 300 ms.

I know Windows is not as efficient at networking as OS X, and recall reading in years past, before I switched to Macintosh, that there were various settings one could adjust in the registry that would improve networking performance in Windows. I'm hoping some of you can tell me more about that, or at the very least, link me to some good information elsewhere.

MacBook Pro 15.4" 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Oct 3, 2009 2:49 AM

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Answer 1

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Oct 3, 2009 9:16 AM in response to Justin J. Rebbert

I beg to differ. But you need to install better drivers for video and networking than what Apple's Boot Camp offers. Some have had success with the latency. For me, Intel had improved network chipset drivers.

Graphics drivers for Windows are also much better optimized.

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Answer 2

Oct 3, 2009 10:21 PM in response to The hatter

You beg to differ...can you be more specific? As in, what part of what I said do you have a different opinion about?

I am aware that video card drivers for Windows are better optimized than the Macintosh driver for the same card or chip. In fact, I said so in my post: "Comments on Blizzard's own support forums, from other users, indicates that frame rates are usually a bit better under Windows on the same hardware than under OS X, due, supposedly, to better driver optimization."

Now. Where can I get these better drivers you're talking about?

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Answer 3

Oct 4, 2009 6:52 PM in response to Justin J. Rebbert

Are you playing via wireless? WZC (Windows Zero Configuration) utility scans all available networks every few minutes causing lag spikes. Generally, depending upon the driver, it can vary from a a 75-100ms to (on some badly written drivers/cards) the 900-1000ms. Range. Below is a typical result of a Boot Camp MacBook Pro:

C:\>ping -t 192.168.1.1

Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=92ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=74ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

There are only a few solutions:

1) Use an ethernet connection
2) Connect to a wireless network, and then manually disable WZC service
3) Under Vista, you can use "Vista Anti-Lag" or "WLAN Optimizer" utility. Unfortunately these tools do not exist for Windows XP.

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Answer 4

Oct 4, 2009 7:08 PM in response to Christopher Carlton-Bishop

Yes, I'm using wireless. However, the latency is constant, not a spike every few minutes. To reiterate, in OS X, in-game latency is consistently and steadily 140-150 ms. In Windows XP on the same computer in the same spot to the same router, latency is consistently and steadily 290-300 ms.

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Answer 5

Oct 4, 2009 7:33 PM in response to Justin J. Rebbert

I play WoW as well, and ended up using the Macintosh side instead of the Windows side. The way WoW calculates ping is an average, thus if you have spikes that go up ever minute or so when WZC scans WoW simply averages it out into your latency via it's display frame.

Do you have an FPS games? You can much more easily see Windows wireless lag spikes when gaming on these, as they are updated in realtime. If you have any Source Engine games use the console with the command net_graph 3 to get a visual representation of your ping.

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