# Internet and Gaming



## BradleyKZN (Mar 5, 2009)

Hey guys, just need a bit of assistance. I am curious to know what amount of bandwidth I would need to play online games such as CS:S and CoD4 a few hours a day, and the odd small download. Anybody have any idea? Thanks


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## alexp999 (Mar 5, 2009)

Most online games perform well with at least 2mbps.
At least that what my experience has been. Thats assuming only one person is online gaming, so if you got two PC's online gaming you'll need 4mbps, etc.


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## RevengE (Mar 5, 2009)

Yeah I play at 2mbps at it's fast no lag, I'm also on wireless as well.


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## BradleyKZN (Mar 5, 2009)

I seem to have made a bad! but thanks, that was something I forgot to ask anyway! I actually meant to ask how many megs they would probably use up in playing all that time.


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## alexp999 (Mar 5, 2009)

Uh, really depends on the game. I have unlimited broadband so its no worry. What are your options?


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## RevengE (Mar 5, 2009)

Yeah same here..is yours capped?


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## BradleyKZN (Mar 5, 2009)

3GB @ 4mbps and that cost a tenth of my salary, something I cant afford, but ill look around for something better.


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## RevengE (Mar 5, 2009)

It's weird how so many ISPs cap their customers..it's really unfair I think,why pay if you can't use as much of it as you like?


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## BradleyKZN (Mar 5, 2009)

Probably because South Africa doesnt have the infrastructure to support it yet


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## BradleyKZN (Mar 5, 2009)

WOW! Uncapped at 4MBPS would cost more than I earn, And I earn a decent salary


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## alexp999 (Mar 5, 2009)

3GB @ 4mbps is okay for normal use, but if you want to game, you probably want twice that.


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## crtecha (Mar 5, 2009)

xRevengEx said:


> It's weird how so many ISPs cap their customers..it's really unfair I think,why pay if you can't use as much of it as you like?



I dont know if my Comcast is capped but I heard that they were gonna do a 250gig cap if they haven't already.


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## JBravo (Mar 5, 2009)

BradleyKZN said:


> Hey guys, just need a bit of assistance. I am curious to know what amount of bandwidth I would need to play online games such as CS:S and CoD4 a few hours a day, and the odd small download. Anybody have any idea? Thanks



Dude, I have no idea what amount you would use, but I can say tho, with regards to speed, you are going to have to stick with the 4mbps.

I can say tho, WoW (don't know if thats your thing) is probably one of the least data intensive, I've tried it using my phone, running it off 3G, and it works fine. thats only 460kbps.
You could game for 2hrs and use about 10mb

Hows about one of those 10GB capped ones running at 384kb/s ? They cost in the region of R700/month


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## BradleyKZN (Mar 5, 2009)

Yeah thats still too expensive for me at R700 a month, BUT, having mentioned WOW, it sounds like a great idea, never tried it but I love Rpgs so I should enjoy it. I reckon 1GB a month sounds like enough for WOW. 10 megs is about R5 on Virgin Mobile, do you think EDGE or GPRS would be fast enough?


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## JBravo (Mar 5, 2009)

BradleyKZN said:


> Yeah thats still too expensive for me at R700 a month, BUT, having mentioned WOW, it sounds like a great idea, never tried it but I love Rpgs so I should enjoy it. I reckon 1GB a month sounds like enough for WOW. 10 megs is about R5 on Virgin Mobile, do you think EDGE or GPRS would be fast enough?



Yeah WOW uses very little, 1GB should be plenty if thats the only thing you are going to use it for.  I would however suggest, get yourself R5 worth and try it out.  The nice thing is if you don't like it, just stop!

GPRS works alright,but it does lagg a bit. Like when you open the inventory of a slain creature, it might take you 3 seconds...You'll have to decide on that.

Also, don't expect to win any real battles with that kinda speed LOL! The other players tend to move very quickly out of sight

Let me know what you think


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## BradleyKZN (Mar 5, 2009)

Well now, something I didnt think of... Subscription Costs! And then I still gotta buy the game as well. You got any idea how much it costs per month in Rands?


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## h3llb3nd4 (Mar 5, 2009)

Bradly, did you use telkom?? they're freaking expensive!!
Man I only have 30kb/s adsl...


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## JBravo (Mar 5, 2009)

BradleyKZN said:


> Well now, something I didnt think of... Subscription Costs! And then I still gotta buy the game as well. You got any idea how much it costs per month in Rands?



Are you talking about subscription costs for the server? Well, last time I checked, mine was free .They do ask for donations, but that it...

So have a look around, and if you want I could send you the name of the one that I use, maybe give that a try?


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## jagass (Mar 5, 2009)

I'm a bit confused...What was it you're trying to say?...


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## BradleyKZN (Mar 5, 2009)

I thought you had to pay subscription costs but maybe they did away with that. Yeah what server do you play on, it would help greatly.

@H3llb3nd4 I have seen Telkom screw up, but that badly, thats really not good at all! I will never personally use Telkom. I currently dont have the internet at home but I will probably use Virgin Mobile to play WOW. Ill be so stoked if there are no subscription costs


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## JBravo (Mar 5, 2009)

BradleyKZN said:


> I thought you had to pay subscription costs but maybe they did away with that. Yeah what server do you play on, it would help greatly.



Try registering here : http://scapegaming.com/

I'm sure they would give you all the other info you would need


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## h3llb3nd4 (Mar 5, 2009)

man wonder when neotel is gonna fix us up with fibre optics?


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## JBravo (Mar 5, 2009)

h3llb3nd4 said:


> man wonder when neotel is gonna fix us up with fibre optics?



I see your in Durban, do you have any coverage yet?  I have a feeling that Neotel is going to follow a similar path to telkom,just join the monopoly and make lotz of money!

BUT, I have heard that people that do use it likes it alot...I'll have to wait and see. Just wait till that Seacom cable lands in July, that, in theory, should make a big difference!


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## h3llb3nd4 (Mar 5, 2009)

JBravo said:


> I see your in Durban, do you have any coverage yet?  I have a feeling that Neotel is going to follow a similar path to telkom,just join the monopoly and make lotz of money!
> 
> BUT, I have heard that people that do use it likes it alot...I'll have to wait and see. Just wait till that Seacom cable lands in July, that, in theory, should make a big difference!



If neotel doesn't hook us up with proper internet, I'm afraid I'm gonna move back to Taiwan...


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## h3llb3nd4 (Mar 5, 2009)

Just a question Bradly...what brand is your RAM??


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## BradleyKZN (Mar 5, 2009)

Just a little secret, Our building has had Neotel Fibre Optics since 2007.

 Downloading a 35MB file takes about 30 seconds, and there are over 1000people in the building using the internet, using a quick calculation (my maths is not that great so correct me if im wrong) but that means its 15 minutes to download a gig.

Just to give you an idea, the amount they quoted was about 8.5 times cheaper than telkom!


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## JBravo (Mar 5, 2009)

BradleyKZN said:


> Just a little secret, Our building has had Neotel Fibre Optics since 2007.
> 
> Downloading a 35MB file takes about 30 seconds, and there are over 1000people in the building using the internet, using a quick calculation (my maths is not that great so correct me if im wrong) but that means its 15 minutes to download a gig.
> 
> Just to give you an idea, the amount they quoted was about 8.5 times cheaper than telkom!



Holy sh*t!  That sounds more like it! But have you seen what neotel did now? R699 or so for 10GB...Thats almost the same as you get from telkom if I'm not mistaken.  I really want them to deliver I really do, I'm just not a believer yet!


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## BradleyKZN (Mar 5, 2009)

My RAM is the same as yours, crappy RAM. Some hynix nonsense.


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## BradleyKZN (Mar 5, 2009)

I know, damn good! But they started in 2007 and its only gonna be fully ready in time for the world cup apparently


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## BradleyKZN (Mar 5, 2009)

I think thats only for there wireless and its only just starting, the price will probably drop once they have more coverage, right now there coverage is rubbish


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## JBravo (Mar 5, 2009)

BradleyKZN said:


> I know, damn good! But they started in 2007 and its only gonna be fully ready in time for the world cup apparently



Thats another Year! damn!

Keep me posted on your WOW status


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## BradleyKZN (Mar 5, 2009)

How many megabits are in a megabyte, just out of interest?


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## BradleyKZN (Mar 5, 2009)

Ok well Neotels fiber optics is rated at 700megabits per second which is 87 megabytes per second! Google is my friend


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## h3llb3nd4 (Mar 5, 2009)

yeah! that rocks!!


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## 3870x2 (Mar 5, 2009)

wtf? if you arent playing an MMORPG a 56k would do fine, although latency would be bad.  Get the least amount you can get if you are only gaming.  The only slow thing would be downloading patches, etc...  Just make sure the latency is good.  An mmorpg doesn't require good latency in most cases, but requires more bandwidth.

Also, 8Mb = 1MB.


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## Fleck (Mar 5, 2009)

I haven't noticed a speed difference between 3mbit dsl and 20mbit fios.  To be honest when I had fios my pings were actually higher than with the 10mbit cable I have now (but I do still plan to get fios back as the difference is small).


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## Slyr7.62 (Mar 6, 2009)

All I play is FPS, mainly Unreal Tournament (2004) & COD2. I haven't noticed much if any difference in my pings from when I started w/ 1.5Mbit DSL last year and currently having 3Mbit or 3.5Mbit depending on which of my houses I am at.

A higher speed, for me, just means my pings stay closer to normal when someone is using bandwidth on my network.


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## niko084 (Mar 6, 2009)

xRevengEx said:


> It's weird how so many ISPs cap their customers..it's really unfair I think,why pay if you can't use as much of it as you like?



It makes perfect sense honestly.. Its either you deal with outages and slow networks do to traffic floods, you pay twice what you currently pay *so they can double their lines* or you deal with a cap 99% of people will never touch *in most area's at least*.

My friend has a 7mb connection capped at 5gb per month, during the winter months he is known to play WOW while listening to streaming music 8+ hours a day and never hits his cap. A little bit of downloading in there also.

Most games play pretty decent if you have between 1-2mb depending on the game, multiple users on the same network, you will want some more.


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## spearman914 (Mar 6, 2009)

It's usually the GPU that matters. I've tried playing Cod 4 with a 128 Kilobytes ps and a 8800 GT, and no problems except a bit of freezes in big maps.


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