what download and upload speed is good for gaming

The download speed you get at any one point in time depends on a number of factors but will mainly vary with the time of day and the number of people using the internet, both in the house and in the country in general at that time.ĭownload and upload speeds are actually not that important for online gaming contrary to popular belief online gaming tends not to use that much data compared to video streaming and even a basic broadband package will provide more than enough bandwidth for gaming. They maximum potential speeds you can get are determined by the package you have from your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and as with most things you get what you pay for.īasic broadband packages will usually give you a maximum download speed around 10-20 megabits per second, with more expensive packages available that can give you maximum download speeds of 50, 80, 100, or even 200 or more megabytes per second.įibre to the Home (FTTH) packages are also available that can give up to 1 Gigabit per second download and upload speeds.īroadband packages are advertised as providing “up to” a certain maximum download speed and in reality you will rarely, if ever, be actually able to get this maximum speed. How are Download and Upload Speeds Determined?ĭownload and upload speeds only determine the maximum potential amount of data a router, and therefore any device connected to it, can download and upload per second. Other factors come into play, which we will go into in this article.

Contrary to popular opinion, just having a “fast” internet package with high download and upload speeds does not automatically guarantee that gamers will be lag free online.

Latency, sometimes referred to as lag or “ping”, is actually far more important for online gaming and is a separate factor from download and upload speeds. While the reply is no doubt true most times, it is not the most relevant thing when it comes to online gaming. “How can I be lagging I’ve got Verizon 200 Mbps download and 20 upload, my internet is fine!” or something similar is usually what comes back when someone gets told they are lagging. When someone gets a hard time on a Playstation or Xbox message thread about lagging in an online gaming session, they usually respond by telling you how good their internet package is so what’s the problem? Are download and upload speeds really that important for online gaming? A lot of people tend to think a they are.

What download and upload speed is good for gaming