Internet Speed: What Do You Really Need For Gaming?

Internet Speed: What Do You Really Need For Gaming?
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When it comes to online gaming, you usually want to avoid slow connections and your game getting stuck or lagging. Having the right internet connection is about more than just the speed – it also depends on the type of internet you have, how strong your connection is, and how many other people are using it with you.

Once you understand what all these things mean, you’ll be able to better decide what your needs are and what kind of connection would be the best for you. Keep reading to learn more about connection types, what latency and ping mean, and what internet speed would be right for you.

What is Mbps?

Mbps means “megabytes per second” and indicates the amount of data your internet connection can carry per second. A lot of different internet providers have different names for it, like MB, p/s, or even Mbits, but the ultimate meaning is the same.

When you’re thinking about your internet needs, it might be a great idea to only get the speed you need. This is because you have to consider how much your internet connection is going to cost, and it might not be worth it for you to pay hundreds of dollars for the fastest connection out there, especially if you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between that one and a 20mbps connection.

Internet Speed

A lot of times, gamers like to use VPN services like the one that AlwaysVPN recommends or other tricks to boost their ping and improve game speed. It’s okay to use VPN in-game for other purposes like access to certain servers (as long as the game allows it), but it is also important that you have the right internet speed.

Occasional Gaming

If you’re an occasional gamer or just play for fun, speeds of up to 10mbps are just fine. This will allow you to not lag and will give you enough speed to have worry-free gaming, downloading, and leave enough room for you to surf the internet and do other normal gaming-related stuff.

Competitive Gaming or Heavy Use

More serious gamers have a lot more riding on their internet speeds than casual gamers do, and speeds of around 15mbps or even 25mbps aren’t out of the ordinary. The same goes for any household where a lot of different devices are using the internet at once – if you want to play games while your siblings or parents are streaming movies, you might need to invest in faster than normal internet.

Online Streaming

Now, these are users making their internet do some real heavy lifting – in between making sure their internet never fails them at a crucial moment and delivering the best possible video quality to their viewers, they might need internet speeds of more than 30mbps!

Speeds like this are ideal when coupled with the right kind of internet connection, and when you know how to avoid the internet connection getting weak by the time it gets to you.

What is Ping or Latency?

There are certain gaming terms that you need to know to be able to judge if your current internet speed is adequate or if you need anything more, and one of those terms is Ping. This means the number of milliseconds your internet connection is taking to respond to your commands. In other words, it’s the time it will take for your gaming device to register when you press a button.

It then goes without saying that your ping is supposed to be as low as possible, and a ping under 30 is considered great, and you may need a faster internet connection if your ping is higher than 65 or 70.

Latency or Internet Speed – What’s More Important?

This is kind of a moot point since one is useless without the other. Ping or latency measures how fast you can react to things, and your internet speed dictates how fast you can see what you want to react to. But when you’re thinking about your own setup, you need to focus more on improving your ping than you need to focus on the internet speed.

This can be done not just with the help of a faster connection but gaming equipment that reduces human reaction time and hardware that can handle the speeds at which you want to be playing.

Internet Connection Types

There are two common types of internet connections – let’s talk about them.

Fiber Optics

Fiber-optic connections are a great option if you want fast internet – this technology is actually the fastest out there. A fiber-optic connection has the capability of providing internet speeds of up to 1000mbps, but they come at a cost, literally. This type of connection is not cheap and is often not suited for someone who just wants to play video games.

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)

This type of internet connection utilizes classic copper cables to connect you with the internet, and the fastest connection they can give you is up to 100mbps – but even this much is hardly ever needed by pro gamers, so this much cheaper option might work just fine for you.

Wired or Wireless?

Wifi is great and convenient, but not if you want to speed more than ease of movement and connectivity. The wireless signals can lag and the quality seriously deteriorates if the signals have to travel through walls before getting to your devices and if there are other devices connected to the wifi device as well.

This is why a lot of gamers prefer wired internet connections with their devices, but that can be hard for you if the wifi device is in an awkward corner, or even if you don’t have a dedicated gaming space.

Once again, your gaming setup and choice of the internet come down to how seriously you play, how much you’re willing to spend, and how much speed you need. If you feel like getting a stable connection that never lags is absolutely essential, then you might want to opt for a wired connection, or at least a dedicated wifi connection that no one uses but you.

Thank you for reading!