The Difference Between Computer Lag and Internet Lag

Hello there, it's your friendly neighbourhood Zakary Wilson here, (lol). And I'm writing a post today about lag, because I forever hear cases about people who buy new computers to improve the lag they get on ROBLOX and it turns out that it is actually their internet, the entire time..


 Basically, there are two main types of lag on computers, there is internet lag, which generally is nothing to do with your computer; then there is computer lag, which is usually regarding either over-usage of CPU power or the result of having an integrated graphics card.

Now, this is what computer lag is. Computer lag is something which is caused by your computer, this is generally due to your computer having low-specifications, this would often lead for you to receive computer lag. In ROBLOX, computer lag and internet lag are very easy to tell apart. Computer lag is generally just slow, meaning when you turn your camera using the right-click button, it would jitter to get to the area of which you have designated it to go via the pointer.
            Computer lag can easily be avoided, if you have a desktop computer, it is fairly easy to say 'goodbye' to your old specs, and 'hello' to a fast computer without even changing your motherboard. This is generally solved by updating your CPU to a nice, speedy one. Depending on what Socket your motherboard is, you can either get an AMD CPU or a Intel CPU.
            However sometimes the CPU can be the problem as to why your computer is lagging, often - it's not. Sometimes, this is due to your computer having an out-dated graphics card, or no graphics card at all! Graphics cards are often avoided by pre-made companies for computers because the CPUs which they put in the motherboard are already fitted with an integrated graphics card.
            In general, you can tell what computer-lag is easily, because it will actually be frustrating and very, very slow.

Now I'm going to explain Internet Lag, internet lag is very easily diagnosed in ROBLOX. Basically, you can move your screen, still have the highest setting of graphics on, and yet people including you will lag, but only your character will lag. You could call it 'Server lag', seeing as it lags all the server-side code, which makes your's, and other characters look like they aren't moving when on their computers they are. However this does not lag your computer, it just lags your gameplay.
          A good example of someone lagging your gameplay would be when you are fencing and someone who didn't look like they touched you in-game with their sword actually did. Therefore you thinking that they didn't touch you however your internet was too slow to recognise on your PC that they had touched you.
          This is internet lag, and can be really frustrating sometimes. However in my opinion computer lag is worse. I'd rather think I weren't killed but actually get killed than my computer lagging out over 3D games.

In conclusion, both of these problems can be sorted rather easily, with internet lag, it is usually either a problem with the router or your ISP. Whereas with computer lag it is a lot less hassle to make faster, than it would be to phone up your ISP and get them to answer. (Trust me I've been on the phone to mine listening to the same song they play down the phone for over an hour - and they estimated I'd be spoken to in 5 minutes)

Thanks for reading,

Zakary Wilson
Community Manager,