Is 1200mbps internet connection good for gaming?

Question

MrOracle · Accepted Answer

With gaming, your download speed (assuming it's 20Mb/s or more) isn't what is going to cause problems - or not - for gaming. The main thing that causes problems with gaming is LATENCY - the time it takes for a piece of data to travel from your computer to another computer over the internet and reply back. The lower the latency the better - with higher latency, there is "lag", which means, you pull the trigger or you swing the racket or turn the wheel, and it takes too long for the game to respond to those inputs.

You are mostly looking for 20ms or less of a "ping" (which is a simplified test of latency). 10ms or less is essentially perfect, more than 20ms, and you're going to start having lag issues that affect gameplay. And increasing your download speed may do absolutely nothing to improve your latency.

For example, there was a router chipset that was super-popular for about 5-6 years, and were used in tons of routers and gateways from a bunch of different manufacturers, including ISP-provided modems and gateways - and it had a bug that caused latency to cycle up and down like crazy, and there was literally nothing you could do to fix it other than to know that this problem existed, and to replace the modem/router/gateway with a different model that wasn't affected. Yet, this wasn't a well-known problem for YEARS!

https://www.badmodems.com/Tools.htm

The point is that download speed beyond a certain point doesn't matter - latency (or "ping") is what matters, and that's what you need to be looking at. Many games have a built-in "ping" meter that will tell you in real time how your in-game latency is, and there are also ways to test your router's raw performance.

TallAnon · Accepted Answer

That's plenty, half of that would be plenty already. Games don't actually use that much bandwidth, movies tend to take more. Make sure that's both download and upload speed, not just download speed. Most games are more about the stability and ping than the speed. (100mbps would be enough in most cases and that would be enough for streaming 4k with a decent bitrate as well)

I'm a gamedeveloper by the way, so I can safely say that I know what I am talking about 😁 I am currently working on a popular multiplayer game and have previously worked with video streaming as well.

SueShe · Accepted Answer

You don't need that kind of speed for online gaming.

300Mbps are plenty by today's standards. Furthermore, you will pay premium price for bandwidth that is "wasted" and that download speed is theoretical only.

A whole number of factors can substantially reduce this speed, which is the theoretical maximum.

1. Are you wired or wireless?
2. Do you have copper lines or glass fiber?
3. Are there many people sharing the same line?

Those plus a number of other factors will determine your real download speed.

dzxrwe345 · Accepted Answer

A 1200Mbps internet connection should be more than sufficient for gaming. It is important to note that the actual speed experienced may be affected by other factors such as the speed of the server you are connecting to and the capabilities of your gaming device. It is always best to check with the game or service provider for recommended internet speeds for optimal performance.

WindAtMyBack · Answer

You don't need anywhere near that much. Except when you are downloading updates or something, you are not sending a huge amount of data with online games. Of course for single player games at home, you don't need Internet at all unless it's a Steam game or something.

It's the ping you should be interested in anyway. That will depend on the server, where it's located, and the route used to get there.

Volk_ · Answer

Are we talking about just gaming or streaming? Because 1Gbps for gaming is a huge overkill. Most games require very little data transfer to work properly. Latency (ping) is far more important to avoid lagging in multiplayer games.

madgoat · Answer

Yep. Check upload and download but that sounds lots. Latency and consistency is often an issue for gaming.

Astarlessnightsky · Answer

Yes, thats extremely fast.  I googled a bit and the german Telekom offers only 300mbps max download speed. So you could probably go down a little bit to save some money.

Soteris · Answer

Not particularly. You want around 10 times that if not 100 if you got multiple users in the same household.

simonqq · Answer

Well yes but it's overkill if only gaming. Mostly the connection is what's important. I'd say 100mbps is very much enough for majority of households.

Not_Average · Answer

It works well for me. I just play WoW every now and then for nostalgia, so it’s not like I’m running very strenuous computing power for me to notice a difference.

TheSpaceGnome · Answer

Ping below 30 = zero latancy while playing. 300mbps is good enough, any higher is overkill for downloading games.

Nik1hil · Answer

Very good for average gaming, but you need to focus on Ping and jitter if you are going for gaming, Ping matters more than the MBPS you are getting

chnapo · Answer

At speeds over 100 mbps you should really care more about the ping than the speed. Because that is what matters the most after having stable and fast enough connection.

oddwaffle · Answer

With 200ms ping and you will suffer regardless of speed. Unless you play offline.

genericname85 · Answer

the speed says nothing about if it's good for gaming or not. a third of that or less would be good. ping is the important factor.

lpoots · Answer

ping is more important than speed when playing games

msc545 · Answer

Try it out but I think it's going to need to be a lot faster than that

ItsTheNephilim · Answer

That's way more than enough.

QuietRunner · Answer

perfect for gaming

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