does ps4 games use download speed or upload speed

How Much Speed Do I Demand for Online Gaming?

Mar 18, 2022 Share
Brand Guides, Gaming, Net Speed Guides

You don't need a lot of speed to play games online. It's not a bandwidth-intensive action, then all you need is a 5 Mbps connexion or faster.

Only go along in mind that no amount of speed is going to stop your game from lagging if your latency ranges into hundreds of milliseconds. There's a lot more than to having a good gaming experience online than signing upwards for the fastest internet plan on the planet.

Nosotros've boiled downward the near important points of internet speed for gaming online, so you know exactly what kind of connection you demand to get the well-nigh out of your online gameplay.

Looking for the best internet provider for gaming?

Verizon Fios has the everyman latency in our tests. If it's not in your area, see if one of our other best net providers for gaming is.

Download speed and upload speed

Playing games similar Halo Infinite and Fortnite online doesn't require a lot of bandwidth. Different an online video—which is streamed over the net to your device—the graphics fleck in your reckoner, game panel, or mobile device renders (draws) the virtual world locally and displays it on your screen. In fact, very little information passes between the gaming server and the gamer. Both sides exchange the following data:

Keyboard input
Mouse input
Controller input
Thespian location (you lot and everyone else)
The electric current world land
Player communication
Server notifications (similar in-game announcements)

Out of the items on the to a higher place listing, actor location can introduce slowdowns, especially in massively multiplayer online (MMO) games. These games can take more existent on-screen players than the typical online gaming scenario, causing frame rate drops and "teleporting" players.

Overall, many mod games with high-definition graphics need a download speed of at least 3 Mbps to play online.^1,2,3

Upload speed plays an of import role as well

Since games are interactive, you likewise accept to consider the speed at which information from your figurer or panel travels to a remote server. Fifty-fifty a poor connection tin normally meet the necessary speeds, which is why upload speed often takes a backseat to more important factors.

The typical game with high-definition graphics needs an upload speed of at least 1–2 Mbps.^i,2,3

Do you demand a connection with better upload speeds?

We prefer fiber over other internet connections because it has symmetrical speeds. Enter your zip lawmaking to find out which options are available to you.

Minimum speed requirements across game platforms

* Based on suggestions made by Bungie for Destiny two on PC. ¹⁰

As long as your cyberspace connexion meets these requirements, you can play games online. However, if you lot want to have a consistent online feel, nosotros propose having a slightly better connection.

Our speed recommendations for playing games online

Since the actual speed requirements are so low, games and game systems oft don't give specific recommendations. Instead, they simply require a "broadband internet connectedness."

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) defines a broadband connection equally having a download speed of 25 Mbps and an upload speed of 3 Mbps—more than plenty for you to have several consoles playing online simultaneously.⁵

If you lot're not sure yous have a broadband connexion, y'all tin take a speed test to make certain. Unfortunately, speed requirements don't impact the critical question for playing games online: latency.

High latency is your worst enemy

Latency is the amount of fourth dimension a information packet uses to make its trip to a remote server and back. Film a racquetball bouncing off a wall—how long does that ball accept to come dorsum to yous?

The ping utility answers this question by throwing a brawl of data at a specific destination and recording the unabridged trip's duration—in other words, it pings the server. Latency is besides referred to every bit "ping rate."

Then, if your latency gets besides high when you're playing a game online, you start to experience lag.

For instance, you move a mouse and your game reports that movement to a remote server. The server acknowledges the movement and sends a response showing your movements along with all the other player movements. Your game renders the response, but because your latency is high, your movement appears delayed compared to the other players.

Factors that impact latency

There are a number of factors that impact latency. These include the post-obit:

The concrete distance between you and the server

Games that back up co-op and multiplayer utilize regional servers considering geolocation does matter, even if a server is just a few states away.

Why? Because y our bespeak moves through multiple "hops" equally it travels between you and the server. The more hops your signal must traverse, the longer its journey takes—which translates to a higher latency. Traffic congestion between you and the remote server tin also cause a slowdown, too, delaying your controller input.

Your cyberspace connexion type

Certain types of internet connections inherently have more latency than others.

For example, satellite net has the highest latency because it's a wireless manual that travels int o infinite and back to reach a remote server. Insulated cable connections have lower latency than uninsulated phone lines, while fiber optic cables have lower latency than both.

Keep in mind that the speed at which your signals travel dorsum and along is different from your download speed or bandwidth. A movie will download at a slower charge per unit over a 5 Mbps DSL connectedness than it will over a 50 Mbps satellite connection.

When playing games online, even so, the DSL connectedness would be much more responsive than satellite because the gaming data doesn't launch into space and back. The high latency of the satellite connectedness would cause so much lag that most fast-paced games wouldn't even be playable online.

The all-time net connections for gaming online

A fiber-to-the-home (or building) cyberspace program from a provider like AT&T, Google Cobweb, or Verizon Fios is the best connection for playing games online. Cable internet comes in at a shut 2d, with some 5G networks too providing stable connections with depression latency. Other wired connections more often than not introduce more latency merely are still improve for gaming than wireless connections.

Consistent and reliable latency data is difficult to gather. The FCC was a source for some of the most comprehensive studies of cyberspace latency. However, the agency has since stopped including latency in its annual broadband reports, and so newer technologies like 5G and home 4G LTE are not included.

Although 5G is still an emerging wireless engineering science —especially its gigabit millimeter-wave connections— it promises to have lower latency than whatsoever other wireless connexion . 4G and 4G LTE connections generally have much more than lag than wired connections but are capable of reaching our recommended latency of below 100 ms.

How to reduce lag

If your latency is high enough that y'all're starting to experience lag when playing games online , yous tin can have a few steps to help reduce your latency and keep your game running smoothly.

Don't utilize Wi-Fi if y'all can

Wireless connections, even fast ones, volition add a fleck more delay to your connection. Wi-Fi is convenient, merely it adds an additional translation step between your gaming devices and your internet connection. Plus, you'll come across a delay if there are more than wireless devices continued to your router than information technology can handle at one time.

To featherbed this delay, connect your gaming device to your router using an Ethernet cablevision. You won't see the latencies associated with Wi-Fi or the dramatic speed fluctuations, making your connection that much more responsive.

If you must employ Wi-Fi, connect your wireless device to the 5 GHz band. It has a shorter range than a 2.4 GHz connection but is faster and less congested, resulting in reduced latency. Stay close to your Wi-Fi router, as well—inside l feet or so, depending on the router—and proceed a clear line of sight to the router with as few obstructions as possible for a amend connection.

With the Nintendo Switch, we recommend playing it docked and using a USB-based Ethernet adapter to connect it to your network. The Nintendo-approved Dual USB Playstand works with the Switch and Switch Low-cal.

Y'all can apply a similar adapter on a notebook or desktop that doesn't have an Ethernet port.

Ability cycle network devices

Power cycling your router and modem tin can sometimes improve their functioning. Since very pocket-size differences in latency can make a large impact on the amount of lag yous experience in a game, it's worth restarting your equipment.

To ability cycle, unplug your modem or wireless gateway, expect xxx seconds, and plug it back in. Exercise the same with a standalone router when your modem comes back online.

Update drivers and firmware

Hardware manufacturers release updates to ameliorate device performance. Updates typically include security fixes, code optimizations, improved device compatibility, and increased stability. You lot should always keep your firmware and drivers electric current to forbid issues that can slam the brakes on your internet connection. Be certain to do the following:

Update your figurer's drivers and operating system, specially the graphics drivers
Update your panel's operating system
Update the firmware for all controllers and peripherals
Update your router'south firmware

Plough off unnecessary applications and devices

If your connectedness notwithstanding struggles while playing games online, try to reduce the amount of traffic on your dwelling network. Make sure that someone isn't streaming 4K video in another room when you're almost to start a new match.

You lot tin likewise prevent other devices from bogging down the network by turning off smart devices and pausing software and Bone updates while you lot play—but recall to reactivate everything when you lot're done.

Apply the closest server

Distance is one of the biggest factors in latency. Even if every device on your connection is running at peak efficiency, it still takes time for a signal to travel to a remote location and dorsum.

Games almost e'er connect you to the nearest server, just if you lot're experiencing unexplained latency problems, double-bank check that you're not connecting to the European server when you lot're playing in North America. You may need to switch servers if the electric current 1 is experiencing problems.

Use port forwarding

Online gaming networks similar Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network suggest that gamers assign "static" IP addresses to their consoles and route incoming and approachable traffic to those addresses. While routers typically assign dynamic addresses to your devices which change over fourth dimension, a static accost never changes.

When yous assign a static IP address, yous tin can tell the router to forward data to that accost through specific ports. A port is merely a "dock" that handles a specific type of "ship" (data) arriving to and leaving from your router. Gaming networks typically send and receive internet data through specific ports.

To create a static IP address and open ports to that address, you must make the changes in your router or wireless gateway. Port forwarding works with any device—not just gaming consoles.

Utilize Quality of Service (QoS) controls if available

You may be able to classify more bandwidth to your gaming devices past making a few adjustments in your router or wireless gateway. The router will consider this traffic as "disquisitional" and will prioritize your gaming data over other applications, like Netflix and YouTube.

On some routers, you can merely establish one specific bandwidth amount and list the devices that can use that bandwidth. There are no means to prioritize specific traffic, similar gaming or streaming.

Avoid peak hours

You may see a slowdown during pinnacle hours when anybody in your home accesses the net at the aforementioned time. Plus, a router is limited to how many wireless devices it can handle simultaneously before slowdowns occur. This heavy load is why we always suggest using a router with 4 or more streams to improve handle busy homes.

Summit hours are likewise associated with cable internet, but information technology's no longer the case at present that providers like Spectrum and Xfinity utilize cobweb equally their network courage. Rural areas that are notwithstanding 100% cablevision may still experience height hour slowdowns, however.

We suggest that you play games later in the evening, or upgrade your router if it has less than four streams.

Check your connections

A bad Ethernet cable tin can lead to gaming lag woes, whether it'southward the cablevision connecting your router to your modem or fiber ONT, or the i tethering your computer to the network. As well, cheque your modem's internet connexion, as a loose cablevision will crusade lag-inducing instability.

Upgrade your internet

If yous've tried all these steps and are still experiencing more lag than you tin can tolerate, you may demand to upgrade to a improve internet connection.

Want to meet what providers are available in your expanse? Enter your aught code beneath.

Downloads can also strain your connexion

Playing your games online will push the limits of your cyberspace connexion more than any other online activity, but information technology's not the only style that games can put a strain on your connection.

Many modernistic games accept up a lot of storage space on your computer or panel . This ways that downloading games from an online benefactor like Steam or the Microsoft Store can take a long time. It can also eat through monthly data caps in no time flat.

Updates can be information hogs too. For example, Bethesda's Steel Reign update for Fallout 76 weighs a hefty 15.9 GB when downloaded from the Microsoft Store, and vii.1 GB when downloaded from Steam. ⁸ Bethesda's long-awaited Doom Eternal Update vi patch adding ray tracing to the visuals is effectually 4 GB on Steam.

Latency should still exist your number-i priority in choosing an internet plan for playing games online , but choosing a plan with unlimited data will save you a lot of headaches. Fast download speeds also assist out with those big new games. After all, having extremely long download times on Mean solar day One isn't much fun.

Livestreaming

Your cyberspace needs become a fleck more than complicated if yous stream your games on Twitch or YouTube. Streaming has all the normal requirements for a low-latency connection for playing games online, plus the boosted upload speed you lot need to continue a steady bitrate on your livestream.

For more information on what to look for in an cyberspace connection for livestreaming, check out our guide to internet speed for live video game streaming. We also provide a guide on how to stream on Twitch that offers all the information y'all need.

Game streaming

Cloud gaming services like Stadia and PlayStation Now store and run their games in a virtual auto yous stream from their servers. Rather than download and run these games locally on your computer, console, or mobile device, you stream them from the deject. This eliminates any hardware bottlenecks that could foreclose a game from running at its highest quality on your device.

That said, you don't need a $4,000 desktop or the latest panel to play these games. Instead, you but need a browser or an app, depending on the platform. For example, y'all tin can stream Stadia on a low-end Chromebook or a Chromecast—Google'southward servers do all the heavy rendering, not your devices.

The downside to game streaming is that games are rendered on the server and and so streamed across the cyberspace in Full Hard disk or 4K resolutions. And because these experiences are interactive and not passive (similar Netflix and Hulu), input latency can be an result.

To play these services without any major issues, you need a expert internet connection to support game streaming. Here are the internet speed requirements for the four major gaming streaming services:

Note that Microsoft suggests an upload speed of at least 4.v Mbps for Xbox Remote Play. An upload speed of 9 Mbps or more than is ideal.⁹

What nearly Steam Remote Play?

Valve Software suggests speeds only in regards to Steam Remote Play Together. This service allows one Steam gamer to run a purchased multiplayer game locally on a PC and and so invite four or more than Steam friends to play remotely. It'due south optimized to stream games to four other players at 1080p and lx frames per 2nd, so Valve suggests using a connection of 10–30 Mbps at the to the lowest degree.

This speed proposition probably likewise applies to Remote Play Together+Anywhere, which all the same streams the multiplayer game from a PC, but now the game possessor is streaming remotely also. Meanwhile, Remote Play Anywhere streams to ane client only, so the necessary internet speeds shouldn't demand to get beyond 10 Mbps.

Online games vs. playing games online

Nosotros spend a lot of fourth dimension discussing games you can play online, which are games that target the single-player experience offset and include multiplayer components. Games that fall under the "play games online" umbrella would include Doom Eternal , Pokemon Sword and Shield , Destiny 2 , and Halo Space . They can experience latency when played in co-op and multiplayer modes, especially when more a few players are moving on the screen.

Online games, however, can exist highly susceptible to latency. These include The Elder Scrolls Online , World of Warcraft , and similar MMOs. The player count is typically high, which means both the server and the client (your game) must keep track of every player. This tin exist a huge processing load even if you take the all-time connexion available. Your frame charge per unit may drib and your input may feel slow.

The lesser line: go along your latency low

If gaming online is your primary concern when choosing an cyberspace plan, pick the one that gives you the lowest latency, like Verizon Fios. Just keep in heed that other online activities like downloading games, livestreaming, or cloud gaming (not to mention things like watching video, working online, or doing schoolwork) have their own requirements that you lot should consider.

Sources

Nintendo Customer Support, "Troubleshooting Slow Download and Upload Speeds," Accessed December 3, 2020.
Xbox Back up, "Troubleshoot your network connection speed," Accessed December 4, 2020.
PlayStation Help & Support, "PS4 Error Lawmaking NP-37667-ix," Accessed Dec 4, 2020.
PlayStation Help & Back up, "PS4 Mistake Code NP-38497-1," Accessed Dec 4, 2020.
Federal Communications Committee, "2015 Broadband Progress Report," February 4, 2015. Accessed December iv, 2020.
Stadia Help, "Bandwidth, data usage, and stream quality," Accessed December 5, 2020.
Federal Communications Commission, "Seventh Measuring Broadband America Fixed Broadband Report: Appendix F-1," May 20, 2011, Accessed December 16, 2020.
Bethesda, " Fallout 76 Update Notes ," July 7, 2021. Accessed July 13, 2021.
Microsoft, "Understanding Your Remote Play Setup Test Results," Accessed December 22, 2021.
Bungie, "Network Setup: Wifi vs. Wired Connections," Accessed Dec 22, 2021.

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Author - Peter Christiansen

Peter Christiansen writes about satellite internet, rural connectivity, livestreaming, and parental controls for HighSpeedInternet.com. Peter holds a PhD in communication from the University of Utah and has been working in tech for over 15 years every bit a computer programmer, game developer, filmmaker, and writer. His writing has been praised by outlets like Wired, Digital Humanities At present, and the New Statesman.

Editor - Cara Haynes

Cara Haynes has been editing and writing in the digital space for seven years, and she's edited all things cyberspace for HighSpeedInternet.com for five years. She graduated with a BA in English language and a minor in editing from Brigham Young University. When she'south non editing, she makes tech accessible through her freelance writing for brands like Pluralsight. She believes no 1 should experience lost in net land and that a good internet connection significantly extends your life span.

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