Do I need extremely fast internet?

[Mighty-Lu-Bu]

I game online and I stream in HD and sometimes in 4k. I am paying for speeds in the 400Mbs range, is this a little overkill for my roommate and I? Just looking at ways to reduce.

 

[Frick]

Yes it is. 100mbps will do just fine, unless you plan on doing several actual 4K-streams at once while redownloading an entire Steam library and expecting it to be done within the hour.

 

[phanbuey]

You can always throttle your connection at the wifi router for a few days just to test. If it's fine then drop down and save some money.

 

[Ahhzz]

I game online and I stream in HD and sometimes in 4k. I am paying for speeds in the 400Mbs range, is this a little overkill for my roommate and I? Just looking at ways to reduce.

Faster is always better. .

 

[Mighty-Lu-Bu]

Yes it is. 100mbps will do just fine, unless you plan on doing several actual 4K-streams at once while redownloading an entire Steam library and expecting it to be done within the hour.

I honestly rarely do that unless I am doing a brand new build. Typically, I only have a few games installed at any given time anyways.

 

[Ahhzz]

I honestly rarely do that unless I am doing a brand new build. Typically, I only have a few games installed at any given time anyways.

*sigh* joking aside, you're probably good to bump it down a tier or two.

 

[er557]

only you can answer the question "do I really need". Everyone is different. Even if you only sometimes use the whole bandwidth, I wouldn't downgrade. It's counter intuitive. I also don't NEED 72 threads in my machine, yet I wouldn't give it up for the life of me.

 

[qubit]

View attachment 106558

Faster is always better. .

That's from the Windows 95 days, but it never gets old!

 

[Solaris17]

Your trying to answer two fundamentally different problems with one question. The correct answer is you cant have your cake and eat it too.

Speed=/=Response

If you would like fast downloads speed is important. so the faster your network connection the better. Thats because speed just wants as much data as possible at once regardless of transmit times or packet loss.

Gaming however is vastly different. Since online games do not use intense amounts of bandwidth. In fact most communication in online games is sub 5mb/s. This is because online games deal with syncing. Sync data is the correspondence (usually position data like the sights of your scope or your character in the world) between the server and the client. This data is not alot in some cases only kb/s. However the better the "accuracy" read latency the better the information and the better the experience.

The problem is these are not mutually exclusive. You can have a fast connection and have bad latency to your destination. Likewise you can have a slow connection and fantastic latency.

Of course either of these things completly rely on the ORIGIN 400mb/s from speedtest.net at 30ms latency might not equate to a 400mb/s download from youtube if its hosted on a server far away since it needs to travel through multiple ISPs and core routers to get to you.

Likewise a fantastic latency connection might not mean anything if you live in the US and try to play an MMO based in the UK and you need to transverse undersea cables.

 

[johnspack]

Well I only have a 200MB/s connection, and have 2 roomates, one who streams all day and the other one games online all day. I dl gigs of linux distros and other junk at the same time.
At 120can a month, I'm good! And 100MB/s and above should give you low enough latency for any online gaming.

 

[eidairaman1]

Just cut it in half.

 

[king of swag187]

Well, a true answer would be that it's up too you. A half answer would be how often do you use it and how much you pay for it
Me? I'm mostly happy with 100/30 wifi in my room and 300/30 at base station, but it's up to you

 

[Bill_Bright]

If you would like fast downloads speed is important. so the faster your network connection the better.

Not always. So I agree with the others and cut it back and see if what you actually see is a problem.

Remember, when you download and stream, it is NOT all about your network connection as some might think. Your network connection speeds, as provided by your ISP is only that between your gateway device (typically your modem) and the PoP - your ISP's "point of presence". The PoP is where your ISP connects you to the Internet backbone. Beyond that, you are at the mercy of whatever is happening "out there". If Netflix's servers and Internet connections, for example, cannot stream to you faster than 80Mbps (just throwing out numbers), then you are definitely wasting your money going with 400Mbps.

So I agree with Frick and phanbuey. Unless you have several demanding streams happening at once, you are not likely to "see" any difference. So throttle back and see how it goes. If you can live with it, save some money and change your service agreement.

 

[Solaris17]

Remember, when you download and stream, it is NOT all about your network connection as some might think. Your network connection speeds, as provided by your ISP is only that between your gateway device (typically your modem) and the PoP - your ISP's "point of presence". The PoP is where your ISP connects you to the Internet backbone.

I think you need to re-read my post in its entirety or comment on something you understand more about.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I think you need to stop having a cow every time someone adds to what you said.

What I said is perfectly valid. If you are running a 1000Mbps network in your home, that does not mean every networked computer will see 1000Mbps bandwidth through the ISP, all the hops, and distant end network and server. If there is a bottleneck down the line (and there often is), putting a bigger pipe on your end will not speed up delivery. Maybe you should get a better understanding before criticizing others.

"Not always" does NOT mean "not ever".

 

[Brusfantomet]

Yes, its overkill.

I have a 1 Gbit link myself and the only reason for that is because my work pays the bill.

Its nice to be able to download a big game fast, but for streaming 100 Mbit would do, and for gaming you want low ping.

 

[Vya Domus]

Thank God the internet is dirt cheap in my region. I am paying the equivalent of something like 15 bucks for 1 Gbps.

That being said I wouldn't downgrade. You can't have overkill speeds.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Mine's not dirt cheap by any means. But I have to give kudos to Cox. I pay for "up to" 50Mbps download and 5Mbps upload. But clearly they beat that:

 

[Xx Tek Tip xX]

Mine's not dirt cheap by any means. But I have to give kudos to Cox. I pay for "up to" 50Mbps download and 5Mbps upload. But clearly they beat that:

Wish UK isp's done the same - unfortunately that's not the case with virgin media.

That's mine - guess it's not too bad at all.

 

[Crusti]

If you do all these things you need an extremely fast Internet for sure. One thing is when you jut watch some videos - then usual Internet is enough for few people. In your case it's not enough.

 

[Bill_Bright]

extremely fast Internet

"Extremely fast Internet" is a very relative term that constantly changes.

 

[Crusti]

"Extremely fast Internet" is a very relative term that constantly changes.

What do you mean?

 

[BarbaricSoul]

live in the US and try to play an MMO based in the UK and you need to transverse undersea cables.

I used to do that on 56k

 

[Bill_Bright]

"Extremely fast Internet" is a very relative term that constantly changes.

What do you mean?

Two things.

First, in terms of it being relative, I mean to someone used to 10Mbps, 50Mbps might seem "extremely fast". To someone used to 50Mpbs, 100Mbps might seem "extremely fast". And to someone used to 100Mbps, 400Mbps might seem "extremely fast".

And second, by constantly changing, I mean just that. Just 2 months ago, my ISP's top speed for my "plan" was "up to" 50Mbps and we were getting about 60Mbps. But my ISP has changed and improved their service so now my same plan, as seen above, is giving us much faster speeds (over 100Mbps). In the 25+ years since I have had this same "plan" with my ISP, the top speeds have gone from 10Mbps to 20Mpbs to 30Mpbs to 50Mpbs and now over 100Mpbs.

So "extremely fast" depends on what you are used to, and that is likely to change as the Internet itself gets faster and faster.

I used to do that on 56k

Well, I started "networking" at 300 "baud". So when I upgraded to my first 56K modem, I thought that was "extremely fast" So again, it is all relative, and constantly changing.

Remember when 64K of RAM and 20MB of hard disk space was "More than you will ever need!"?

 

[Crusti]

Two things.

First, in terms of it being relative, I mean to someone used to 10Mbps, 50Mbps might seem "extremely fast". To someone used to 50Mpbs, 100Mbps might seem "extremely fast". And to someone used to 100Mbps, 400Mbps might seem "extremely fast".

And second, by constantly changing, I mean just that. Just 2 months ago, my ISP's top speed for my "plan" was "up to" 50Mbps and we were getting about 60Mbps. But my ISP has changed and improved their service so now my same plan, as seen above, is giving us much faster speeds (over 100Mbps). In the 25+ years since I have had this same "plan" with my ISP, the top speeds have gone from 10Mbps to 20Mpbs to 30Mpbs to 50Mpbs and now over 100Mpbs.

So "extremely fast" depends on what you are used to, and that is likely to change as the Internet itself gets faster and faster.
Well, I started "networking" at 300 "baud". So when I upgraded to my first 56K modem, I thought that was "extremely fast" So again, it is all relative, and constantly changing.

Remember when 64K of RAM and 20MB of hard disk space was "More than you will ever need!"?

Okay, I meant the fastest from the available ones in order to let everyone do what they want without hunging up.