If the highlight of your day is reaching a victory royale in Fornite or seeking fame and fortune on the frontier of Apex Legends, you’ve likely researched internet connection speeds to enhance your online gaming experience.
As technology moves at a breakneck pace and networks of gamers get increasingly advanced, the desire to learn how to set up the perfect gaming experience is steadily growing. That’s why we’ve compiled some of the top questions you might have relating to internet speed and how it affects your ability to play and stay competitive in today’s online gaming world.
One of the common questions gamers have is: “What internet speed do you need for gaming?” To answer this, we’ll need to go over the minimum download speeds and upload speeds most game manufacturers require, which have different effects on the online gaming experience. Both are measured in megabits per second (Mbps), which is a way to show how much data is moved or transferred per second. If you’re unsure of the speeds you’re getting with your current internet setup, there are several free options online to find out this information.
While there is certainly no maximum internet speed needed to make the online gaming experience smoother, there are manufacturer-recommended speeds that are the minimum required to play the game. For most of the current top games, you’ll need an internet service provider (ISP) that offers at least 3 Mbps download speed and .5 to 1 Mbps of upload speed. However, even at these minimum speeds, you’re likely to experience lag time (otherwise known as latency), especially if you play online games such as Fortnite or Overwatch.
Also, keep in mind that these speeds can be affected by other devices in your home that are using the internet at the same time you are gaming. If you run an internet speed test and find that your connectivity isn’t reaching the required numbers, you might need to contact your ISP to determine if they offer a higher tier of internet service.
For the ultimate online gaming experience, especially if multiple other people within your home are using the internet as you play, 300 Mbps or more download speed is your best bet. This is especially true for popular fighting games, such as Mortal Kombat or Tekken.
We mentioned latency, but gamers refer to this same concept as a ping. The easiest way to describe what ping or ping rate is and how it affects the online gaming experience is to look at how it differs from download speeds and upload speeds. Download speeds refer to the rate at which data is collected from the server and upload speeds show how fast data is sent to others (such as your fellow players within an online multiplayer game).
The ping rate, however, is the speed of the response sent back to you from your internet connection when it receives your request. Think of it as the amount of delay between what’s happening in the game and those actions being shown on your screen. This latency has a greater effect on the quality of your gameplay than download and upload speeds do.
If you are interested in even more technology-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.
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