Many people often look towards changing their DNS settings in order to improve their gaming experience on consoles like PS4, PS5, Xbox or PC. This is quite often due to a misunderstanding of what DNS is, how it works, and the factors that contribute to having a good online gaming experience.
tldr; just tell me what to use
Primary DNS: 1.1.1.1
Secondary DNS: 1.0.0.1
What is DNS and how does it affect gaming?
DNS is short for Domain Name System, and for the most part it actually does not affect your gaming experience at all.
When you visit a website, watch online videos, or connect to gaming servers your computer will behind the scenes automatically convert domain names like www.example.com into an IP address like 192.168.2.1. This is a process known as a DNS lookup. These IP addresses are what computers and network devices use to communicate with each other while providing an easy to remember name for humans to use.
Once an IP address has been resolved, your device will store a cached copy of this address and continue to use it all future communication without needing to perform the DNS lookup again. The DNS lookup itself will typically take around 10 milliseconds to a properly configured DNS server on most standard home internet connections.
Your gaming experience after this initial process is complete no longer relies on DNS and has no impact on your active gaming session.
If DNS does not affect gaming then what does?
Download speeds: Most online games do not require fast download speeds while actually playing as the information coming in about the game world is typically very small and only contains information such as coordinates and state of other players. Download speeds are mostly important when initially downloading the games or installing updates.
Latency (ping): This is the most common issue and is commonly known as "lag". Having a high latency in games is often the result of connecting to servers which are physically located outside of your local area or region, or otherwise impacted by poor network routing making the path from you to the gaming server longer than desired.
It is important when choosing a gaming server to pick one located as close to you physically as possible. Information only having to travel through cables within your local city is going to be much faster than it having to travel through underwater cables on the other side of the world.
Bad Wi-Fi: Having a poor Wi-Fi signal or a connection with lots of interference is a very common cause of a bad gaming experience. If possible, use an Ethernet cable from your router directly to your gaming device for the best change at eliminating local network issues.
Network congestion: While fast download speeds themselves are typically not required for most online games, you do need to ensure that there is enough available capacity on your network as the closer you get to saturating your connection the more the network packets need to compete with each other for priority. While you may be able to control network congestion on your local network, it can also happen on networks higher up like your ISP may under-provision capacity particularly during peak times.
VPN: Many people use VPN services for privacy reasons or to appear as if you are connecting from another country or region. Remember that if you are routing your network traffic overseas then even if you are connecting to a local gaming server then your traffic may be leaving the country just to come back in again which can cause significant issues.
What are the best DNS servers to use?
In the majority of cases, sticking to the tried and tested DNS servers of the world's biggest network providers like Google or Cloudflare is typically going to provide the best results not only for gaming but for your general internet experience.
These network providers control massive parts of the underlying infrastructure of the internet and have many thousands of servers all around the world which provide the best performance, reliability and security for DNS.
Google Public DNS
https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns
Primary DNS: 8.8.8.8
Secondary DNS: 8.8.4.4
Cloudflare 1.1.1.1
https://1.1.1.1/dns/
Primary DNS: 1.1.1.1
Secondary DNS: 1.0.0.1
FAQs
The best DNS servers for gaming in 2024
- Cloudflare.
- Google Public DNS.
- Quad9.
- NextDNS.
- NordVPN.
8.8 DNS server is more popular, according to DNSPerf, Cloudflare's 1.1. 1.1 DNS server is faster. In addition, the 1.1. 1.1 DNS server does not store user data, offering more privacy.
Is 1.1 1.1 still the fastest DNS? ›
Cloudflare's 1.1. 1.1 DNS service has been ranked as the fastest DNS resolver globally by the independent DNS monitor DNSPerf. Cloudflare's network extends to 310 cities worldwide, enabling quick DNS response times for users globally, hence recommended for excellent speed and stability.
Is 1.1.1.1 DNS safe? ›
By contrast, 1.1.1.1 does not mine user data. Logs are kept for 24 hours for debugging purposes, then they are purged. 1.1.1.1 also offers security features not available from many other public DNS services, such as query name minimization.
Does DNS speed up gaming? ›
While the myth persists that using specific DNS servers can dramatically improve gaming performance, the reality is that DNS resolution has limited impact on reducing ping or overall gaming latency.
What DNS is the fastest? ›
Cloudflare
Cloudflare has focused much more on the fundamentals. These start with performance, and independent testing from sites like DNSPerf shows Cloudflare is the fastest public DNS service around for raw worldwide speeds. Privacy is another major highlight.
Can I use 1.1 1.1 and 8.8 8.8 together? ›
1.1 is Cloudflare, not Google. Google is 8.8. 8.8. Still, the answer is the same for both: yes.
Is 1.0 0.1 Cloudflare DNS? ›
Cloudflare supports DNS over TLS (DoT) on 1.1. 1.1 , 1.0. 0.1 , and the corresponding IPv6 addresses ( 2606:4700:4700::1111 and 2606:4700:4700::1001 ) on port 853 . If your DoT client does not support IP addresses, Cloudflare's DoT endpoint can also be reached by hostname on one.
Why is 8.8 8.8 faster? ›
Other factors, like your network connections, could also affect DNS lookup response times. However, generally, the Google domain name system is faster because Google is already so intertwined with the Internet that many of the queries inputted are already in their server.
Does 1.1.1.1 hide your IP? ›
1.1 + WARP replaces your original IP address with one that consistently and accurately represents your approximate location. With hidden IPs , WARP has further closed the gap with other consumer VPN services.
The independent DNS monitor DNSPerf ranks 1.1. 1.1 the fastest DNS service in the world. Since nearly everything you do on the Internet starts with a DNS request, choosing the fastest DNS directory across all your devices will accelerate almost everything you do online.
Why is 1.1.1.1 blocked? ›
1.1 is blocked on many networks and by multiple ISPs because the simplicity of the address means that it was previously often used inappropriately for testing purposes and not legitimate use.
Does 1.1.1.1 affect gaming? ›
Yes, Cloudflare's primary DNS 1.1. 1.1 is the best and fastest DNS server for gaming. It does help improve ping, but there are other factors to incorporate. For starters, a healthy internet signal, a stronger connection, etc.
Is 1.1.1.1 like a VPN? ›
1.1. 1.1 isn't a foolproof VPN product. Your data is somewhat exposed, and hackers can steal it. If you're not completely aware of that fact, you could do things online that may come back to haunt you later.
Does 1.1.1.1 replace VPN? ›
1.1 - like your ISP - can see your DNS queries. 1.1. 1.1, as you say, is a DNS server, not a VPN. It is not like a VPN because DNS only converts domain names to an IP address, a VPN connects you to a remote network, and a VPN service will be a full tunnel VPN which routes all of your internet traffic through the VPN.
Should I use 8.8 8.8 DNS? ›
Though there's no guarantee Google DNS works faster, the answer is likely yes. One user did a speed test and changed their DNS settings. They found that the Google domain name system server set to 8.8.8.8—Google's first DNS server—was 10.3% faster than the default server.
Is 1.1 1.1 DNS good for gaming? ›
What is the fastest DNS server for gaming? The fastest DNS server for gaming right now is Cloudflare 1.1. 1.1, with Quad9 coming in second.
Is 8.8.8.8 safe? ›
In 2009, Google provided two easy-to-remember public DNS servers (8.8. 8.8 and 8.8. 4.4). The company aims to make the Internet and the DNS system faster, safer, more secure, and more reliable for all Internet users.
