Does DNS affect Gaming Performance in 2021? Read Everything You Need to Know!

When maximizing your gaming experience, there are many aspects you may want to learn about and understand. 

A common question a lot of players wonder about is whether DNS can affect gaming.

This technology allows a browser, for instance, to translate domain names into IP addresses for the machine to understand. 

While it can be good for gaming in certain aspects, we do not think that DNS has any crucial role in making your gameplay an enjoyable one.

If you want to understand how exactly DNS can and cannot affect gaming, there are some things you should know. 

Without further ado, let us dive in!

Does DNS affect Game Ping?

DNS itself stands for Domain Name System, which essentially connects URLs with their IP addresses. 

This means you just need to type words instead of random numbers into a browser when searching for a website.

In layman term, DNS is a form of telephone directory that contains public IP addresses and domain names that can be identified with one another. 

You may be wondering whether any of these affect your gaming experience.

Well, this is related to game ping, or network latency between either the player’s computer and another player’s computer or the server. 

It is the signal sent from one computer network to another, which will send its own signal back.

So, does DNS affect game ping? The quick answer is it probably does not.

Game ping depends on IP addresses to make its measurements. 

Even if you provide a domain name, it will still use a DNS lookup to find the IP address before starting the actual ping.

Even if you change your DNS server, there is no evidence showing that this will improve ping for online gaming. 

Again, this is because all DNS does is provide a name resolution service and nothing more.

Is DNS Good for Gaming?

Although DNS may not improve game pink or network latency, there are still several benefits that using DNS can offer when it comes to gaming. 

For instance, it can interpret domain names into IP addresses that can be recognized by machines.

DNS could be useful for gaming as it lets you avoid restrictions, including certain censorships of specific webpages. 

This is usually done by blocking access through your ISP’s DNS, which is why changing it could gain you access to that site.

In addition, DNS can also improve your internet security, which is especially important these days. 

Organizations such as a gaming community can have extra protection against external attacks because all queries are guaranteed to go through a particular DNS server.

That is not all; DNS can even block harmful websites and improve your gaming experience. 

This means your computer will manage these sites separately to speed and smoothen your gameplay. 

At the end of the day, it really does depend on which DNS server you have chosen. 

You might want to know that some of them can boost your browsing and gaming experience for enhanced security, less lagging, and smoother gaming experience.

Will Changing My DNS Affect Anything?

The ultimate question lies in whether changing your DNS would affect anything. 

The fact is it probably would not have any significant impact whatsoever.

While changing your DNS server means changing your access to various domains, it will not change how you access the Internet as you usually use IP addresses for website access. 

This is because your browser will convert any domain name into its IP address.

Latency and bandwidth are separate things, with latency or ping being more crucial in gaming. 

Unfortunately, if you aim to reduce lag or improve latency, it will not help to change your DNS settings.

However, changing your DNS can give you better download and upload speeds. 

And yes, you can thus download games or stream movies at a much faster speed without buffering, that takes way too long.

Some people have claimed that changing their DNS enhanced their ping, but as of now there are no valid sources that have tested and proved this. 

If improving game ping is your ultimate goal, we suggest using Ethernet connection, optimizing your game settings, and closing any background programs when playing – among other things that you can try!

Please read our guide on how to make your laptop faster for gaming here!

All in all, there are certain aspects where DNS can affect your gaming and other elements where it does not. 

While it cannot improve game ping, it can enhance your internet security and gameplay smoothness by blocking harmful websites.

Furthermore, it may not be as useful as one would think to change their DNS as it does not affect anything significant. 

What we can say is that changing your DNS server could help with increasing your bandwidth, so you can download and upload files at a much faster rate.

There you have it!

Do we miss something about this technology called DNS?

Does it affect your gaming performance?

If in your experience, DNS does affect your gaming performance, let us know down below!

Maybe you know somethings that we do not know about it.

About the Author
Hi, I'm Steve. I'm a proud gamer. I have been active within the gaming sphere for 30+ years. As gaming is something I enjoy very much, I want other people to enjoy it also. That is exactly why I started this blog.

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