Tick rate
Tick rate is how many times per second a game server updates the state of the game — measured in hertz (Hz). A 64-tick server processes the game 64 times every second; a 128-tick server processes it 128 times. The higher the tick rate, the more often the server reads player inputs, moves projectiles, and resolves hits, so the game feels more responsive and fair.
Tick rate is a server-side value. It is not the same as frame rate (FPS), which is how many images your own machine draws per second. You can run at 240 FPS on screen and still be on a 30-tick server: the visuals look smooth, but the server only registers what is actually happening 30 times a second.
Tick rate vs. frame rate
| Tick rate | Frame rate (FPS) | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | The game server | Your local machine / GPU |
| What it measures | Game-state updates per second | Images rendered per second |
| Unit | Hertz (Hz, or “ticks”) | Frames per second (FPS) |
| What it affects | Hit registration, fairness, responsiveness | Visual smoothness |
Both matter, but in competitive multiplayer the tick rate is what decides whether the shot you saw land actually counts.
Common tick rates
- 20–30 Hz — survival, sandbox, and PvE games, where split-second accuracy matters less.
- 60–64 Hz — the baseline for most competitive shooters; enough to keep movement and hit detection consistent.
- 128 Hz — high-end competitive play, where the smallest timing differences decide a duel. Valorant, for example, runs 128-tick servers.
Some modern shooters, such as Counter-Strike 2, use a “sub-tick” model that timestamps inputs between ticks to get sub-tick-level precision without a fixed high-frequency loop.
Why tick rate matters
A low tick rate introduces a small but real delay between something happening and the server registering it. At 20 Hz the server only looks at the world every 50 milliseconds; at 128 Hz, roughly every 7.8 milliseconds. In a firefight, that gap is the difference between a clean hit and a “how did that miss?”
The symptoms of too low a tick rate are familiar: shots that don’t register, players appearing to teleport, and dying after you have already rounded a corner. These are often blamed on latency or lag when the real culprit is how often the server updates — and inconsistent tick rate is a common cause of desync between what players see.
Higher tick rate isn’t free
Every tick is CPU work. Doubling the tick rate from 64 to 128 roughly doubles the per-server compute cost, and it demands hardware that can sustain that rate consistently — not just in short bursts. A server that drifts from 128 Hz down to 90 Hz under a full lobby produces inconsistent, hard-to-reproduce gameplay bugs tied to whichever machine the match happened to land on.
That is why hardware quality matters as much as the tick-rate setting itself. Holding a competitive tick rate reliably depends on high-clock, consistent cores under load — how a server is hosted directly affects whether your chosen tick rate actually holds when the action peaks.
How to choose a tick rate
- Match it to your genre. Twitch shooters need 64 Hz or higher; slower co-op and PvE games are fine at 20–30 Hz.
- Budget for it. Higher tick rates cost more compute per session — weigh the trade-off against the experience you want.
- Test under load. A tick rate that holds in an empty server but sags in a full one is worse than a lower, stable one.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good tick rate? For competitive shooters, 64 Hz is the practical minimum and 128 Hz is the high-end standard. For survival, sandbox, or PvE games, 20–30 Hz is usually enough.
Is tick rate the same as FPS? No. Tick rate is how often the server updates the game state; FPS (frame rate) is how many images your own device renders. High FPS on a low-tick server still feels unresponsive in fights.
Does a higher tick rate reduce lag? It reduces one source of delay — the time between an event happening and the server registering it. It does not fix the network latency between you and the server; the two combine to determine how responsive a game feels.
What tick rate do professional shooters use? Most run at 64 or 128 Hz. Valorant uses 128-tick servers, while Counter-Strike 2 uses a sub-tick system that captures input timing between ticks.