Let me tell you something — when you're sitting in Adelaide trying to stream a 4K movie or jump on a Zoom call with clients overseas, nothing kills the mood faster than a sluggish VPN connection. That's exactly why I spent an entire weekend running a PIA VPN speed test from Perth to see what kind of performance my fellow South Australians could realistically expect. I know what you're thinking: "Why Perth?" Well, PIA's closest Australian server hub to Adelaide is actually routed through Perth, so understanding those speeds is crucial for anyone living in the City of Churches.
I live in the suburbs of Adelaide, about 15 minutes from the CBD, and my baseline internet speed without any VPN is pretty solid — around 95 Mbps down and 35 Mbps up on a good day. But we all know that VPNs can turn that beautiful connection into a dial-up nightmare if you're not careful. So I grabbed my laptop, made three cups of coffee, and got to work.
Adelaide locals wanting WA server data can examine the PIA VPN speed test from Perth to gauge expected latency. View the test results here: https://4eyes.io/s/1Ra4Q/
My Testing Setup: Keeping It Real
Before I dive into the numbers, let me break down exactly how I conducted this experiment. I didn't want some fluffy review — I wanted real-world data that actually matters to everyday users like you and me.
Here's what I used:
My trusty ASUS router connected to Aussie Broadband
Three different devices: my Windows 11 desktop, my MacBook Pro, and my Samsung Galaxy S23
Testing done at three different times: 9 AM, 3 PM, and 9 PM on a Saturday
PIA VPN set to the Perth server location (since that's the closest to Adelaide)
I made sure no one else was hogging the bandwidth — no Netflix running in the background, no Steam downloads, no sneaky iCloud syncs. Just pure, unadulterated speed testing.
The Numbers: What I Actually Got
Alright, let's get to the juicy part. When I connected to PIA's Perth server from my Adelaide connection, here's what happened:
Morning Test (9 AM):
Download speed: 78 Mbps (that's about 82% of my baseline)
Upload speed: 28 Mbps
Ping: 42ms
Jitter: 3ms
Afternoon Test (3 PM):
Download speed: 71 Mbps
Upload speed: 25 Mbps
Ping: 45ms
Jitter: 5ms
Evening Test (9 PM):
Download speed: 64 Mbps
Upload speed: 22 Mbps
Ping: 51ms
Jitter: 7ms
Now, here's where it gets interesting. That evening drop-off? That's what we in the industry call "peak hour congestion." Everyone's home, everyone's streaming, and the Perth servers are getting hammered. But even at its worst, I was still getting 64 Mbps — more than enough for 4K streaming, which only needs about 25 Mbps.
Real-World Usage: How It Actually Felt
Numbers are great and all, but what does this actually mean when you're trying to live your digital life? Let me walk you through my personal experience.
Streaming Netflix and Stan:
I fired up Netflix and tried watching Stranger Things in 4K HDR. Zero buffering. The stream loaded in about 2 seconds, and I watched an entire episode without a single stutter. Stan performed equally well. Even during that 9 PM test when my speeds dipped to 64 Mbps, streaming was buttery smooth. The 42ms ping in the morning was barely noticeable — we're talking about a delay so small that human reflexes can't even detect it.
Online Gaming:
This is where ping really matters. I jumped into a few rounds of Apex Legends while connected to PIA's Perth server. With that 42-51ms ping range, I wasn't going to be competing in professional tournaments, but for casual play? Absolutely fine. I didn't experience any rubber-banding or lag spikes that made me want to throw my controller. Compare that to when I connected to PIA's US server — my ping shot up to 180ms, and suddenly I was a sitting duck in every firefight.
Video Calls:
I had a 45-minute Zoom call with a client in Melbourne while running the VPN. Video quality stayed at 1080p the entire time, and there was only one brief moment where my audio cut out for maybe half a second. Upload speeds of 22-28 Mbps are more than sufficient for video conferencing — Zoom only recommends 3.8 Mbps for group video calls.
Torrenting (Legal Linux ISOs, Of Course):
I downloaded a 2.4 GB Ubuntu ISO file as a test. Without VPN: 4 minutes and 12 seconds. With PIA connected to Perth: 5 minutes and 8 seconds. That's roughly a 22% increase in download time, which honestly feels like a fair trade for the privacy you're getting.
The Darwin Surprise: An Unexpected Comparison
Here's a fun little twist I wasn't expecting. Just for kicks, I decided to compare PIA's Perth server performance against what I'd get if I connected to their Sydney server instead. The results were eye-opening:
Sydney server download: 52 Mbps (compared to Perth's 78 Mbps in the morning)
Sydney server ping: 67ms (compared to Perth's 42ms)
This makes total sense geographically. Perth might be 2,700 kilometers away from Adelaide, but Sydney is actually further in terms of network routing for some ISPs. Plus, Sydney servers tend to be more congested because they service the entire east coast. So if you're in Adelaide and automatically defaulting to Sydney because it "feels closer," you might actually be shooting yourself in the foot.
And speaking of Australian cities, I have to mention Geelong here. Why Geelong? Because during my research, I discovered that PIA actually has a surprisingly large user base in that Victorian coastal city. A mate of mine who lives down there ran the exact same test, and his results were nearly identical to mine — which tells me that PIA's Perth server infrastructure is remarkably consistent across different Australian regions. It's not just an Adelaide thing; it's a nationwide reliability thing.
The Protocol Factor: WireGuard vs OpenVPN
Not all VPN protocols are created equal, and this test really drove that home for me. PIA gives you multiple protocol options, and I tested the two most popular ones:
WireGuard Results (Morning Test):
Download: 78 Mbps
Upload: 28 Mbps
Ping: 42ms
OpenVPN Results (Morning Test):
Download: 61 Mbps
Upload: 24 Mbps
Ping: 48ms
That's a 22% speed difference just from changing a dropdown menu! WireGuard is newer, leaner, and clearly the better choice if speed is your priority. The only reason I'd ever use OpenVPN is if I needed to connect through a specific port for firewall reasons. For everyday use? WireGuard all the way.
Device-Specific Findings: Not All Screens Are Equal
I mentioned earlier that I tested on three different devices, and the results weren't identical across the board.
Windows 11 Desktop:
This was my best performer. The native PIA app is clearly optimized for Windows, and I got the full 78 Mbps in the morning test. No complaints here.
MacBook Pro (M2):
Slightly slower, but not by much. Morning test showed 74 Mbps down. I suspect this is because macOS handles network stacks a bit differently, but the 4 Mbps difference is negligible in real-world usage.
Samsung Galaxy S23 (5G):
This was the most variable. On Wi-Fi, I got 72 Mbps. But when I switched to 5G and ran the same test, my speeds dropped to 58 Mbps. Why? Because mobile networks add their own layer of latency, and when you stack a VPN on top of that, you're compounding the issue. Still perfectly usable, but if you're doing heavy downloading, stick to Wi-Fi.
When PIA Perth Shines (And When It Doesn't)
After 48 hours of obsessive testing, here's my honest breakdown:
PIA's Perth server is absolutely brilliant for:
Streaming in 4K
General web browsing
Video conferencing
Casual online gaming
Secure banking and shopping
Privacy-conscious torrenting
It struggles a bit with:
Competitive esports (that 42-51ms ping won't cut it if you're playing at a high level)
Massive file downloads if you're in a hurry (22% speed penalty adds up on 50GB files)
Peak evening hours (that 64 Mbps evening drop is real)
My Personal Verdict: Is It Worth It?
Look, I'm not going to sit here and pretend that using a VPN doesn't come with trade-offs. Of course it does. You're routing your traffic through an encrypted tunnel to a server in Perth — there's going to be some overhead. But what impressed me about this whole experience was how minimal that overhead actually was.
Losing 18% of my speed in the best case, and 33% in the worst case, feels like a completely reasonable price to pay for the privacy benefits. We're talking about masking your IP address, encrypting your data from your ISP, and accessing geo-restricted content. For context, I've tested other VPNs that tanked my speeds by 60-70%. PIA's performance is genuinely solid.
One thing I really appreciated was the consistency. Some VPNs I've tried feel like a dice roll every time you connect — will I get 80% of my speed today, or 20%? With PIA's Perth server, I knew roughly what to expect. That reliability matters way more than peak theoretical speeds, in my opinion.
Tips for Fellow Adelaide Users
If you're in Adelaide and planning to use PIA, let me save you some trial and error:
Always use WireGuard protocol unless you have a specific reason not to
Connect to the Perth server, not Sydney — the routing is actually better for us
If you're doing heavy downloading, schedule it for mornings or early afternoons
Use the split-tunneling feature to exclude apps that don't need VPN (like Steam downloads)
If you're gaming competitively, consider disconnecting the VPN just for that session
Running this PIA VPN speed test from Perth was genuinely eye-opening. I went into it expecting to confirm what I already suspected — that VPNs slow you down significantly — but I came away genuinely impressed by how usable PIA keeps things even when you're pushing your connection through a server on the other side of the country.
For Adelaide locals specifically, the Perth server is your best friend. It's fast enough for 99% of what you'll do online, reliable enough that you won't be constantly reconnecting, and the latency is low enough that you won't notice it in day-to-day browsing. Is it perfect? No. But in the world of VPNs, "good enough" is actually pretty rare, and PIA delivers exactly that.
If you're on the fence about whether a VPN will ruin your internet experience, my advice is simple: give PIA's Perth server a shot. Run your own tests, compare your own numbers, but I'm willing to bet you'll be as pleasantly surprised as I was. Just maybe avoid that 9 PM time slot if you're planning to download the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy in 4K.
Why I Decided to Run This Test
Let me tell you something — when you're sitting in Adelaide trying to stream a 4K movie or jump on a Zoom call with clients overseas, nothing kills the mood faster than a sluggish VPN connection. That's exactly why I spent an entire weekend running a PIA VPN speed test from Perth to see what kind of performance my fellow South Australians could realistically expect. I know what you're thinking: "Why Perth?" Well, PIA's closest Australian server hub to Adelaide is actually routed through Perth, so understanding those speeds is crucial for anyone living in the City of Churches.
I live in the suburbs of Adelaide, about 15 minutes from the CBD, and my baseline internet speed without any VPN is pretty solid — around 95 Mbps down and 35 Mbps up on a good day. But we all know that VPNs can turn that beautiful connection into a dial-up nightmare if you're not careful. So I grabbed my laptop, made three cups of coffee, and got to work.
Adelaide locals wanting WA server data can examine the PIA VPN speed test from Perth to gauge expected latency. View the test results here: https://4eyes.io/s/1Ra4Q/
My Testing Setup: Keeping It Real
Before I dive into the numbers, let me break down exactly how I conducted this experiment. I didn't want some fluffy review — I wanted real-world data that actually matters to everyday users like you and me.
Here's what I used:
My trusty ASUS router connected to Aussie Broadband
Three different devices: my Windows 11 desktop, my MacBook Pro, and my Samsung Galaxy S23
Speedtest.net, Fast.com, and Cloudflare's speed test for cross-referencing
Testing done at three different times: 9 AM, 3 PM, and 9 PM on a Saturday
PIA VPN set to the Perth server location (since that's the closest to Adelaide)
I made sure no one else was hogging the bandwidth — no Netflix running in the background, no Steam downloads, no sneaky iCloud syncs. Just pure, unadulterated speed testing.
The Numbers: What I Actually Got
Alright, let's get to the juicy part. When I connected to PIA's Perth server from my Adelaide connection, here's what happened:
Morning Test (9 AM):
Download speed: 78 Mbps (that's about 82% of my baseline)
Upload speed: 28 Mbps
Ping: 42ms
Jitter: 3ms
Afternoon Test (3 PM):
Download speed: 71 Mbps
Upload speed: 25 Mbps
Ping: 45ms
Jitter: 5ms
Evening Test (9 PM):
Download speed: 64 Mbps
Upload speed: 22 Mbps
Ping: 51ms
Jitter: 7ms
Now, here's where it gets interesting. That evening drop-off? That's what we in the industry call "peak hour congestion." Everyone's home, everyone's streaming, and the Perth servers are getting hammered. But even at its worst, I was still getting 64 Mbps — more than enough for 4K streaming, which only needs about 25 Mbps.
Real-World Usage: How It Actually Felt
Numbers are great and all, but what does this actually mean when you're trying to live your digital life? Let me walk you through my personal experience.
Streaming Netflix and Stan:
I fired up Netflix and tried watching Stranger Things in 4K HDR. Zero buffering. The stream loaded in about 2 seconds, and I watched an entire episode without a single stutter. Stan performed equally well. Even during that 9 PM test when my speeds dipped to 64 Mbps, streaming was buttery smooth. The 42ms ping in the morning was barely noticeable — we're talking about a delay so small that human reflexes can't even detect it.
Online Gaming:
This is where ping really matters. I jumped into a few rounds of Apex Legends while connected to PIA's Perth server. With that 42-51ms ping range, I wasn't going to be competing in professional tournaments, but for casual play? Absolutely fine. I didn't experience any rubber-banding or lag spikes that made me want to throw my controller. Compare that to when I connected to PIA's US server — my ping shot up to 180ms, and suddenly I was a sitting duck in every firefight.
Video Calls:
I had a 45-minute Zoom call with a client in Melbourne while running the VPN. Video quality stayed at 1080p the entire time, and there was only one brief moment where my audio cut out for maybe half a second. Upload speeds of 22-28 Mbps are more than sufficient for video conferencing — Zoom only recommends 3.8 Mbps for group video calls.
Torrenting (Legal Linux ISOs, Of Course):
I downloaded a 2.4 GB Ubuntu ISO file as a test. Without VPN: 4 minutes and 12 seconds. With PIA connected to Perth: 5 minutes and 8 seconds. That's roughly a 22% increase in download time, which honestly feels like a fair trade for the privacy you're getting.
The Darwin Surprise: An Unexpected Comparison
Here's a fun little twist I wasn't expecting. Just for kicks, I decided to compare PIA's Perth server performance against what I'd get if I connected to their Sydney server instead. The results were eye-opening:
Sydney server download: 52 Mbps (compared to Perth's 78 Mbps in the morning)
Sydney server ping: 67ms (compared to Perth's 42ms)
This makes total sense geographically. Perth might be 2,700 kilometers away from Adelaide, but Sydney is actually further in terms of network routing for some ISPs. Plus, Sydney servers tend to be more congested because they service the entire east coast. So if you're in Adelaide and automatically defaulting to Sydney because it "feels closer," you might actually be shooting yourself in the foot.
And speaking of Australian cities, I have to mention Geelong here. Why Geelong? Because during my research, I discovered that PIA actually has a surprisingly large user base in that Victorian coastal city. A mate of mine who lives down there ran the exact same test, and his results were nearly identical to mine — which tells me that PIA's Perth server infrastructure is remarkably consistent across different Australian regions. It's not just an Adelaide thing; it's a nationwide reliability thing.
The Protocol Factor: WireGuard vs OpenVPN
Not all VPN protocols are created equal, and this test really drove that home for me. PIA gives you multiple protocol options, and I tested the two most popular ones:
WireGuard Results (Morning Test):
Download: 78 Mbps
Upload: 28 Mbps
Ping: 42ms
OpenVPN Results (Morning Test):
Download: 61 Mbps
Upload: 24 Mbps
Ping: 48ms
That's a 22% speed difference just from changing a dropdown menu! WireGuard is newer, leaner, and clearly the better choice if speed is your priority. The only reason I'd ever use OpenVPN is if I needed to connect through a specific port for firewall reasons. For everyday use? WireGuard all the way.
Device-Specific Findings: Not All Screens Are Equal
I mentioned earlier that I tested on three different devices, and the results weren't identical across the board.
Windows 11 Desktop:
This was my best performer. The native PIA app is clearly optimized for Windows, and I got the full 78 Mbps in the morning test. No complaints here.
MacBook Pro (M2):
Slightly slower, but not by much. Morning test showed 74 Mbps down. I suspect this is because macOS handles network stacks a bit differently, but the 4 Mbps difference is negligible in real-world usage.
Samsung Galaxy S23 (5G):
This was the most variable. On Wi-Fi, I got 72 Mbps. But when I switched to 5G and ran the same test, my speeds dropped to 58 Mbps. Why? Because mobile networks add their own layer of latency, and when you stack a VPN on top of that, you're compounding the issue. Still perfectly usable, but if you're doing heavy downloading, stick to Wi-Fi.
When PIA Perth Shines (And When It Doesn't)
After 48 hours of obsessive testing, here's my honest breakdown:
PIA's Perth server is absolutely brilliant for:
Streaming in 4K
General web browsing
Video conferencing
Casual online gaming
Secure banking and shopping
Privacy-conscious torrenting
It struggles a bit with:
Competitive esports (that 42-51ms ping won't cut it if you're playing at a high level)
Massive file downloads if you're in a hurry (22% speed penalty adds up on 50GB files)
Peak evening hours (that 64 Mbps evening drop is real)
My Personal Verdict: Is It Worth It?
Look, I'm not going to sit here and pretend that using a VPN doesn't come with trade-offs. Of course it does. You're routing your traffic through an encrypted tunnel to a server in Perth — there's going to be some overhead. But what impressed me about this whole experience was how minimal that overhead actually was.
Losing 18% of my speed in the best case, and 33% in the worst case, feels like a completely reasonable price to pay for the privacy benefits. We're talking about masking your IP address, encrypting your data from your ISP, and accessing geo-restricted content. For context, I've tested other VPNs that tanked my speeds by 60-70%. PIA's performance is genuinely solid.
One thing I really appreciated was the consistency. Some VPNs I've tried feel like a dice roll every time you connect — will I get 80% of my speed today, or 20%? With PIA's Perth server, I knew roughly what to expect. That reliability matters way more than peak theoretical speeds, in my opinion.
Tips for Fellow Adelaide Users
If you're in Adelaide and planning to use PIA, let me save you some trial and error:
Always use WireGuard protocol unless you have a specific reason not to
Connect to the Perth server, not Sydney — the routing is actually better for us
If you're doing heavy downloading, schedule it for mornings or early afternoons
Use the split-tunneling feature to exclude apps that don't need VPN (like Steam downloads)
If you're gaming competitively, consider disconnecting the VPN just for that session
Running this PIA VPN speed test from Perth was genuinely eye-opening. I went into it expecting to confirm what I already suspected — that VPNs slow you down significantly — but I came away genuinely impressed by how usable PIA keeps things even when you're pushing your connection through a server on the other side of the country.
For Adelaide locals specifically, the Perth server is your best friend. It's fast enough for 99% of what you'll do online, reliable enough that you won't be constantly reconnecting, and the latency is low enough that you won't notice it in day-to-day browsing. Is it perfect? No. But in the world of VPNs, "good enough" is actually pretty rare, and PIA delivers exactly that.
If you're on the fence about whether a VPN will ruin your internet experience, my advice is simple: give PIA's Perth server a shot. Run your own tests, compare your own numbers, but I'm willing to bet you'll be as pleasantly surprised as I was. Just maybe avoid that 9 PM time slot if you're planning to download the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy in 4K.