512K - too slow for online gaming?

Vorsim · Post by **Vorsim** » 15 Nov 2006, 22:11

Contemplating getting a 512kbps Ã¢â‚¬ËœbroadbandÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ connection at home.

My question is whether that connection speed would be generally too slow for an acceptable online gaming experience. I intend to try out that little WOW game everyone is talking about and as I understand it 512K should be ok for MMORPGÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s. But I am also fond of twitch shooters, when playing at internet cafes I tend to go for Quake 4, Unreal Tournment, HL2 deatmatch rather than the Battlefield games, COD etc. Would I be getting huge amounts of lag when playing a modern fps online at 512K ?

I also have an Xbox360 and while I could wade through the xbox site to answer the next quesÃ¢â‚¬Â¦. Does anyone know the min connection speed for playing on xbox live ;) IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m assuming that voice chat while playing would be out of the question, be it over xbox live or xfire.

I understand that internet speeds are hugely variable and everyone has a diff perception of what is acceptable performance. Still IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢d be interested in hearing the opinion of anyone who has played online at 512K, 1MB or what they think is a good connection speed for online gaming.

(Note in case it matters I have a pretty good PC; AMD X2 4200, X1900XT, 2GB RAM, 2 x 74GB Raptors in Raid 0).

Microtia · Post by **Microtia** » 15 Nov 2006, 22:14

MMOs would play fairly well with 512k, shooters probably not so.

Xbox Live would probably also be not the smoothest experience either.

Whats the upload?

Post by **skipclarke** » 15 Nov 2006, 22:31

I have a 512K connection (128K upload). I have no real complaints. What will potentially annoy you is if other people are using the same connection and start downloading stuff while you're playing, which will affect twitch games but didn't really do much for the less bandwidth-hungry stuff. Latency/lag isn't an issue, as that has more to do with the latency of the connection rather than the bandwidth.

Really you have nothing to worry about.

emanuel.en · Post by **emanuel.en** » 15 Nov 2006, 22:38

I have a 512K connection too. I have no problems with PC-Gaming with games like bf2, css, fear aso, but with the old XBOX I had sometimes problems with xbox live but it wasn't often.

Living Ghost · Post by **Living Ghost** » 16 Nov 2006, 01:04

Why would it be such a slow connection? Cable or fiber not available in your area?

Post by **skipclarke** » 16 Nov 2006, 07:22

Why would it be such a slow connection? Cable or fiber not available in your area?

You'd be surprised just how crappy broadband plans are in supposedly developed and rich countries (eg. Australia).

Vorsim · Post by **Vorsim** » 17 Nov 2006, 20:35

ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s 512K download, 128K upload and a 40:1 contention ratio.

IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m pretty limited in terms of choices thanks to the house IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m living in having no phoneline and being three stories high.

The 512K service is attractive because itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s cheap (duh), you receive it through a portable indoor antenna / modem, which the provider just posts out to you i.e. no hassle with installation or moving house (my current abode is a bit of a dump) and it has a 6 month contract (you can also return it within a month if you donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t like it).

My only other choice is a 3MB connection with our cable tv provider. A major con for me with this option is that it has a 12 month contract. IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m renting without a contract or set lease so if my landlord decides a friend or relative needs my room thereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s not much I can do about it. IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m also continually looking for another place for the reason stated above. Paying for broadband you canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t access for up to 12 months would just plain suck. I also really dislike taking time off work for a guy to come and do an installation and perhaps that guy ringing back to reschedule (itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s happened to me before, GRRRR)

Anyway just made this thread to see if it was a completely ludicrous notion to expect an enjoyable online gaming experience with 512K. Responses in this thread and other sites seem to indicate it wouldnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t be a total waste of time.

Post by **g00seberry** » 17 Nov 2006, 20:39

512k is fine for gaming.

I started on 512k and have been up to 10mb, and my pings online never shifted.

Because of the slow upload though, you'll want to be making sure you've got nothing else taking up bandwidth while you're playing.

DaFox · Post by **DaFox** » 17 Nov 2006, 21:43

You should be fine but a little question, How are you posting this without interweb?

Personally i found it hard to play with 4Mb :/

Vorsim · Post by **Vorsim** » 21 Nov 2006, 20:23

You should be fine but a little question, How are you posting this without interweb?

Personally i found it hard to play with 4Mb :/

Combination of work and internet cafe, naturally! I'm actually posting this using the 512K connection right now. They posted it out to me in 3 working days (which is pretty good compared to other stuff I've had delivered). The antenna/modem is tiny, around 8 inches high, which is nice.

The internet browsing experience is pretty good, although it's a bit hit and miss, this site is fine but sites with loads of links like ign take around 20 seconds to load fully. Downloading is pretty bad, steady at 15-25 kB/sec (at peak times though).

I'll try gaming later tonight, I'm thinking I'll try Quake 4 first, just the type of no-brainer twitch shooter I like.

Mott · Post by **Mott** » 22 Nov 2006, 10:02

I have an 11MB connection and have no problems what so ever. My friend however lives out of the city and is sitting on a 512k connection and it sucks ass for BF2 and some other games. He can just support himself on CSS, adding another player kills it completely. He is upgrading his "wireless" (I think it is satellite) connection to 1.5MB just to get BF2 running smoothly.

As for online with a console I cannot say as we are hard core PC gamers.

misadlouhy · Post by **misadlouhy** » 22 Nov 2006, 12:06

there is nothing wrong with my 512kb down/ 512kb up connection, i can play BF2142 as any other guy with XXMb connection speed, but, of course, problems would arise if someone else wanted to join the game from my house f.e. on laptop or if my mum was heavilly surfing the internet :twisted: , but... that will never happen, so 512kb is allright, you will not loose any smoothness in game unless something else is being downloaded or uploaded.

JohnnyWakko · Post by **JohnnyWakko** » 22 Nov 2006, 22:33

I have 512/128 and it is fine for twitch gaming. As long as you are one the same continent as the server you won't to use you should be fine.

Post by **skipclarke** » 23 Nov 2006, 13:02

With the various speeds quoted above things should run well - however the ping value will be the dtermining issue. Sattelitte sucks :evil: for just that reason - it has an inherently high ping value - no matter what it's up/down rated speeds are.

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 23 Nov 2006, 15:31

Doug has the right of it - ping is the important factor. Unless you're trying to download stuff in the background, 512k is sufficient. :)

misadlouhy · Post by **misadlouhy** » 23 Nov 2006, 16:19

Start task manager and see for urself how much is your favourite game's demand. Bf 2142 needs cca 150kbps on my computer - constantly

Ascii_Aficionado · Post by **Ascii_Aficionado** » 24 Nov 2006, 03:45

Here's where ISP's trick you and most other people, 512kbps is actually only about 60KBps :(

Notice the "kbps vs KBps"

kbps = kilobits per second
KBps = Kilobytes per second

There are 8 bits to 1 Byte, so basically take whatever your rated for in kbps and devide by 8 and that's what it is in Bytes.

And the same goes for mbps vs MBps

512kbps is sufficient if your not sharing bandwith with other people. and not streaming anything while playing

One of the biggest factors that make latency differences between isp's is the average Packet Loss of that isp, the more they say is acceptable the worse your ping will be

Post by **skipclarke** » 24 Nov 2006, 15:39

RE: "Here's where ISP's trick you and most other people..."

Right on !!

& they further it by having you check your up/down speeds on certain sites that have a HUGE bandwidth - such as never exists on any real world site :evil:

Then say you have adequate speeds accoding to their contractual provisions.

Ascii_Aficionado · Post by **Ascii_Aficionado** » 25 Nov 2006, 04:36

Doug is also right and how they do it is Bandwidth sites tell you your speed in kbps not KBps and so that confuses people. ISP's know exactly what's going on when someone calls and complains about how there not downloading at there max connection when in reality they are .. the customer just simply doesn't know about the conversion. So your ISP will say "try some site such as bandwidth.com and have your connection rated", so then they can legally say "You are running at your maximun speed", it's all about shady companies not expecting you to know.

With most ISP's you can get a 4mbps connection for about $50 a month, that's about 480KBps. And with most companies the price difference from a 500k connection to a 4mb connection is only $7 a month, so for $7 more a month you can jump from 500kbps to 4mbps, so your download speed would increase from about 60 to 480, and I certainly say that's worth $7 more a month.

*Prices quoted from WoWWay, my current ISP*

jsynnott · Post by **jsynnott** » 28 Nov 2006, 22:17

Just to reiterate what everyone has already said - 512k is absolutely perfect for online gaming, and probably always will be. Have you ever looked at how much bandwidth is used when playing a game? VERY little! Whoever said that 512k isnt enough mustn't have a very good ISP!

You wont be able to host servers, mind you, but if you were really serious about hosting, you'd rent a server anyway.

Ping doesn't decrease with higher speeds either. My 512k conn. can (and usually DOES) get lower pings than those on 8mb connections, quite simply because I'm with Nildram, who host a good majority of the large gaming servers for games such as CS and BF.

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