Broadband speed and online gaming
Discussion
Not for me - somebody I know wants to get broadband in a new home specifically for online gaming. The person paying the bill isn't the one playing games.
The game player has said that it needs a download speed of a zillion Mb/s or the games will stutter.
I've said that's not true - that the bandwidth of online games is relatively low, that anything over about 5Mb/s should be plenty, and that I thought RTT (Round Trip Time) was the key factor that made a difference in online games. Plus - even if you had the fastest broadband ever - you're potentially playing with people who don't.
I've also said that the XBox is likely to be using wireless, and that's probably going to be slower than the broadband anyway.
One of the providers they've considered says that 20-30Mb/s is available at that address, but for more money they can provide 60Mb/s. I've said 20 is more than enough, but they are not convinced
Those of you who play online a lot - what's the deal? Is it really the case that faster is better? Is there really going to be an issue with 20-30Mb/s, and will there be any difference noticeable at all at double that?
The game player has said that it needs a download speed of a zillion Mb/s or the games will stutter.
I've said that's not true - that the bandwidth of online games is relatively low, that anything over about 5Mb/s should be plenty, and that I thought RTT (Round Trip Time) was the key factor that made a difference in online games. Plus - even if you had the fastest broadband ever - you're potentially playing with people who don't.
I've also said that the XBox is likely to be using wireless, and that's probably going to be slower than the broadband anyway.
One of the providers they've considered says that 20-30Mb/s is available at that address, but for more money they can provide 60Mb/s. I've said 20 is more than enough, but they are not convinced
Those of you who play online a lot - what's the deal? Is it really the case that faster is better? Is there really going to be an issue with 20-30Mb/s, and will there be any difference noticeable at all at double that?
You'll struggle with online gaming at 5mbps. TBH if it's a family house with multiple people online you might even struggle at 20mbps.
It depends on more than the headline speed obviously but generally the higher that is the better the general connection is.
Do you know who they're thinking of going with? If they have an option for cable or fibre broadband then go for that at a minimum of 20mbps.
It depends on more than the headline speed obviously but generally the higher that is the better the general connection is.
Do you know who they're thinking of going with? If they have an option for cable or fibre broadband then go for that at a minimum of 20mbps.
davek_964 said:
It won't be a shared house - it's a flat, and only the game player will be there.
Research about who to go with is just starting. Talk Talk is the company who were 20-30 Mb/s.
SUggest you price up a boggo Broadband package, i.e. £20/30 and suggest that the game player pays for the difference themselves then.Research about who to go with is just starting. Talk Talk is the company who were 20-30 Mb/s.
I play online, a lot! I've got Fibre which is apparently 37 MB/s. Seems OK with gaming but you do occasionally get lag which really does effect how the game plays. But if you can go wired to the router then it's a lot better. Tell the gamer to get a Netduma router https://netduma.com/ which allows you to configure which servers the xbox connects to so it doesn't put you in lobbies in the deepest darkerst depths of Europe.
But yeah 20/30 mb/s should be OK.
But yeah 20/30 mb/s should be OK.
randlemarcus said:
davek_964 said:
It won't be a shared house - it's a flat, and only the game player will be there.
Research about who to go with is just starting. Talk Talk is the company who were 20-30 Mb/s.
SUggest you price up a boggo Broadband package, i.e. £20/30 and suggest that the game player pays for the difference themselves then.Research about who to go with is just starting. Talk Talk is the company who were 20-30 Mb/s.
davek_964 said:
randlemarcus said:
davek_964 said:
It won't be a shared house - it's a flat, and only the game player will be there.
Research about who to go with is just starting. Talk Talk is the company who were 20-30 Mb/s.
SUggest you price up a boggo Broadband package, i.e. £20/30 and suggest that the game player pays for the difference themselves then.Research about who to go with is just starting. Talk Talk is the company who were 20-30 Mb/s.
The guy gave you a suggestion no need to shoot him down like that.
The big issue is not in playing the game it’s the downloading of the updates. I got a new game today and it had a few GB download as a day one patch.
Hi - don't confuse bandwidth (advertised speed) with latency (the amount of time it takes to respond to a request) Think of pipe carrying water - the larger diameter pipe can in theory carry more water (volume) but if the pressure is low (latency) it won't flow as quick - so if you are wanting to play online a pipe with higher pressure will be more responsive.
I'd say 5mbps is too low not matter what the latency/pressure is - mid range 20-30 mbps is fine as long as the latency/pressure is not too high - but yes a 60-100 mbps as long as latency is low is best.
Plusnet are one of the better ISP's (in my opinion) as well as advertised bandwitdth - they do not throttle/overload the backend with too many concurrnet users.
I'd say 5mbps is too low not matter what the latency/pressure is - mid range 20-30 mbps is fine as long as the latency/pressure is not too high - but yes a 60-100 mbps as long as latency is low is best.
Plusnet are one of the better ISP's (in my opinion) as well as advertised bandwitdth - they do not throttle/overload the backend with too many concurrnet users.
I play CS:GO, World of Tanks, World of Warships and Fornite at home
I have 2.1meg down and 930kbps up
Ping is around 25 normally
It anyone uses the broadband for anything else at all its unusable.
Otherwise its perfect.
The key is ping, but ping falls as broadband capacity falls (well it doesn't- but effective pin for a single application drops- it hs to send more packets to get the data back- the ping time is the same, but you need to transmit more packets to achieve the same outcome)
I have 2.1meg down and 930kbps up
Ping is around 25 normally
It anyone uses the broadband for anything else at all its unusable.
Otherwise its perfect.
The key is ping, but ping falls as broadband capacity falls (well it doesn't- but effective pin for a single application drops- it hs to send more packets to get the data back- the ping time is the same, but you need to transmit more packets to achieve the same outcome)
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