How to Fix Lagging Twitch Streams Lag Streams Fixes

All you’re trying to do is watch your favorite streamer survive another heist in Escape from Tarkov, and Sudden Buffering seems determined to ensure you miss every shot. As Twitch has grown in popularity, so has the number of issues it encounters seem to increase, from complete failures loading the stream to lagging, buffering streams that might as well not be watchable. However, there are some workarounds that users have for laggy Twitch streams: Here are some troubleshooting methods.

How to fix lagging Twitch streams

If you try to watch Twitch and are plagued by endless buffering and low resolution, you should start with effective troubleshooting to determine the cause and solution of the problem. Follow these steps in the order presented to resolve the underlying issue.

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1. Make sure this is an end user issue

First, you need to make sure it’s actually a “you” issue and not a stream issue. With more popular streams and more experienced streamers this is easy as you can just read the chat to see if many are having stream rendering issues. Otherwise, the streamer may find out for himself that he has “dropped frames” or other technical problems. If this is the case then there is little that can be done on your end and it is likely an issue between the streamer and the ISP they are using. However, if other chatters seem puzzled by the issue, you can effectively begin troubleshooting.

2. Delete processes on the PC

Right-click the taskbar and bring up Task Manager on Windows. When too many processes are open, your computer automatically tries to reduce the impact of other applications that are not running, based on where the user is clicking. If you’re in full-screen mode in another application while Twitch is running in the background, or on a separate screen, this can be the culprit. Kill processes that are affecting your PC’s performance and see if this improves the quality and latency of the stream. Pressing F5 while Twitch is the active screen will refresh the page, removing any gaps between your current position in the stream and what’s live.

3. Reduce bandwidth requirements

If you live in a household where multiple people are trying to stream content at the same time, you may experience a bandwidth disruption. ISPs offer download and upload fees, and content viewing uses downloads for both audio and video, whether it’s Netflix or Twitch. A single user can experience bandwidth throttling when using multiple services simultaneously: Twitch, Spotify, and a multiplayer game can be a surefire way to experience throttling.

You can mitigate this by clicking the cog in the bottom right of a Twitch stream and clearing the resolution. The twitch bitrate can actually only display 936p at 60 FPS, so dropping it down to 720p60 could completely solve this problem without any drastic loss in quality.