Thus latency may show you the round-trip speed average over a few seconds and RPM provides a total number of data round-trips performed one after another over a minute. Measuring RPM requires a longer test than that typically used for latency.

RPM is another way to think about latency, as it’s the sequential number of operations that can be performed per minute. Closer to 100 ms and responsiveness becomes low and video calls or gameplay may stutter or become herky-jerky. Latency of a few to a few tens of milliseconds (ms) is ideal for interactive communications and games. Latency tracks how long in seconds it takes for a data packet sent by a tool to be received by a service on the other end, a response generated, and then received back by the tool. RPM stands for “round-trips per minute,” a measure closely related to latency. Such tools include Speedtest and the macOS Monterey command-line tool networkQuality. However, to measure how much throughput you have to and from the internet-the actual real performance of your connection-you have to use a testing tool that interacts with a server somewhere else and then reports on the speed of those interactions. Some routers and broadband modems let you log in and view throughput data or run different network tests. You can also pick up some information about your network connection in the system Wi-Fi menu. Peak Hour has the unique ability to also sample bandwidth data from routers and broadband modems that broadcast the information (more on that in a bit). This includes macOS’s Activity Monitor (in Applications > Utilities), Peak Hour, and iStat Menus. This includes all data traveling within your local network and that being sent to and received from the internet. Many network tools measure (a single snapshot) or monitor (ongoing samples) data going in and out of a single computer.

Wifi network speed tester