BQM - HOW TO READ LATENCY SPIKES

Hi,

I was just wondering which part of the BQM Graph I need to look at in regards to affecting gaming lag.

would it be the blue section spikes that i would see gaming Lag or the yellow section

Both.

Ideally you have no yellow or blue, but a nice flat green line.

The green is the minimum latency seen with a 100 second period.
The blue is the average latency seen in a 100 second period.
The yellow is the highest latency within that same 100 second sample.

The odd yellow blip could mean a single ping packet was delayed and is of no real concern.

Long periods with a large increase in blue means most packets are being delayed which will affect latency critical tasks like gaming.

If it's a Virgin connection then a little yellow/blue will always be present, every minute of the day.
It's just the nature of DOCSIS.
With some congested Virgin areas this can take up half the height of the graph, making gaming practically impossible.

Generally FTTC (both VDSL and G.Fast) and full fibre have consistent, flat green lines with any blue/yellow being down to the ISP and backhaul network chosen by you.

I'm with Virgin and my BQM is showing high yellow spikes sometimes going up to 160ms and sections of blue spikes between 40ms-60ms at peak times.

what would be better for gaming in regards to latency ? i have been looking at Sky, BT and Vodafone. I would have this as a second provider just for gaming and keep virgin for other activities

You will no doubt get much better latency on the OpenReach network.

BT and Sky should be be reasonable but I would personally advise against Vodafone.

There are a few smaller niche ISP's who for a little (or a lot) more a month might give a better service. Some even do monthly rolling contracts.

Unlike over the VM network you have plenty of choice.