What Is Considered Good Download Upload Speed Ps4

How Much Speed Do I Need for Online Gaming?

Mar eighteen, 2022 Share
Brand Guides, Gaming, Internet Speed Guides

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

Simply keep in heed that no amount of speed is going to cease your game from lagging if your latency ranges into hundreds of milliseconds. There'south a lot more to having a expert gaming experience online than signing up for the fastest net plan on the planet.

We've boiled down the most important points of internet speed for gaming online, so you know exactly what kind of connectedness you need to get the most out of your online gameplay.

Looking for the all-time internet provider for gaming?

Verizon Fios has the everyman latency in our tests. If it's non in your area, see if one of our other best internet providers for gaming is.

Download speed and upload speed

Playing games like Halo Infinite and Fortnite online doesn't crave a lot of bandwidth. Unlike an online video—which is streamed over the internet to your device—the graphics chip in your computer, game console, or mobile device renders (draws) the virtual earth locally and displays it on your screen. In fact, very little data passes between the gaming server and the gamer. Both sides substitution the following data:

Keyboard input
Mouse input
Controller input
Thespian location (you and everyone else)
The current world land
Role player advice
Server notifications (similar in-game announcements)

Out of the items on the higher up list, player location can introduce slowdowns, specially in massively multiplayer online (MMO) games. These games can accept more existent on-screen players than the typical online gaming scenario, causing frame rate drops and "teleporting" players.

Overall, many modern games with high-definition graphics demand a download speed of at to the lowest degree three Mbps to play online.^ane,two,3

Upload speed plays an important office too

Since games are interactive, yous also take to consider the speed at which information from your reckoner or console travels to a remote server. Fifty-fifty a poor connexion can usually meet the necessary speeds, which is why upload speed often takes a backseat to more than important factors.

The typical game with high-definition graphics needs an upload speed of at to the lowest degree 1–2 Mbps.^1,two,3

Exercise you demand a connection with better upload speeds?

Nosotros prefer fiber over other internet connections because it has symmetrical speeds. Enter your zippo lawmaking to notice out which options are bachelor to you.

Minimum speed requirements across game platforms

* Based on suggestions made by Bungie for Destiny 2 on PC. ^ten

As long as your internet connexion meets these requirements, you tin play games online. However, if you want to have a consequent online experience, we suggest having a slightly better connexion.

Our speed recommendations for playing games online

Since the actual speed requirements are so low, games and game systems often don't give specific recommendations. Instead, they simply crave a "broadband net connexion."

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) defines a broadband connection every bit 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.^five

If yous're non sure you accept a broadband connectedness, you can take a speed test to make certain. Unfortunately, speed requirements don't touch on the disquisitional question for playing games online: latency.

Loftier latency is your worst enemy

Latency is the corporeality of time a data parcel uses to make its trip to a remote server and back. Picture a racquetball bouncing off a wall—how long does that ball take to come back to yous?

The ping utility answers this question by throwing a brawl of information at a specific destination and recording the unabridged trip's duration—in other words, it pings the server. Latency is also referred to as "ping charge per unit."

So, if your latency gets too high when you're playing a game online, you start to feel lag.

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

Factors that affect latency

In that location are a number of factors that impact latency. These include the following:

The physical altitude between y'all and the server

Games that back up co-op and multiplayer use regional servers because geolocation does thing, even if a server is simply a few states abroad.

Why? Because y our signal moves through multiple "hops" as information technology travels between you and the server. The more than hops your signal must traverse, the longer its journey takes—which translates to a college latency. Traffic congestion betwixt you lot and the remote server tin as well cause a slowdown, too, delaying your controller input.

Your net connection type

Sure types of net connections inherently take more latency than others.

For example, satellite internet has the highest latency because it's a wireless transmission that travels int o space and back to reach a remote server. Insulated cablevision connections take 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 back and forth is different from your download speed or bandwidth. A movie will download at a slower rate over a 5 Mbps DSL connectedness than information technology will over a fifty Mbps satellite connection.

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

The best net connections for gaming online

A fiber-to-the-home (or building) internet plan from a provider like AT&T, Google Cobweb, or Verizon Fios is the best connectedness for playing games online. Cable internet comes in at a close 2nd, with some 5G networks as well providing stable connections with low latency. Other wired connections more often than not introduce more latency but are still better for gaming than wireless connections.

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

Although 5G is still an emerging wireless technology —especially its gigabit millimeter-wave connections— it promises to have lower latency than any other wireless connexion . 4G and 4G LTE connections mostly take 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 loftier enough that you're starting to experience lag when playing games online , you can take a few steps to help reduce your latency and keep your game running smoothly.

Don't apply Wi-Fi if you can

Wireless connections, even fast ones, will add a bit more filibuster to your connexion. Wi-Fi is user-friendly, but it adds an boosted translation step between your gaming devices and your net connection. Plus, you'll see a filibuster if in that location are more wireless devices connected to your router than it tin can handle at once.

To bypass this filibuster, connect your gaming device to your router using an Ethernet cable. 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 use Wi-Fi, connect your wireless device to the 5 GHz ring. Information technology has a shorter range than a 2.4 GHz connexion only is faster and less congested, resulting in reduced latency. Stay close to your Wi-Fi router, also—within 50 feet or and then, depending on the router—and keep a clear line of sight to the router with as few obstructions as possible for a better connection.

With the Nintendo Switch, nosotros 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.

You can employ 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 can sometimes improve their performance. Since very small differences in latency tin make a big bear on on the amount of lag you lot experience in a game, it's worth restarting your equipment.

To power cycle, unplug your modem or wireless gateway, look 30 seconds, and plug information technology back in. Exercise the same with a standalone router when your modem comes back online.

Update drivers and firmware

Hardware manufacturers release updates to meliorate device functioning. Updates typically include security fixes, code optimizations, improved device compatibility, and increased stability. You should always go along your firmware and drivers current to foreclose bug that can slam the brakes on your internet connection. Exist sure to do the following:

Update your computer's drivers and operating system, especially the graphics drivers
Update your console'due south operating system
Update the firmware for all controllers and peripherals
Update your router's firmware

Plough off unnecessary applications and devices

If your connexion still struggles while playing games online, try to reduce the amount of traffic on your habitation network. Make sure that someone isn't streaming 4K video in some other room when you're about to start a new match.

You tin besides preclude other devices from bogging down the network by turning off smart devices and pausing software and Os updates while you lot play—just think to reactivate everything when you lot're done.

Apply the closest server

Distance is i of the biggest factors in latency. Even if every device on your connection is running at peak efficiency, it nevertheless takes time for a indicate to travel to a remote location and back.

Games nigh always connect you to the nearest server, but if yous're experiencing unexplained latency issues, double-check that you're non connecting to the European server when you lot're playing in Northward America. You may need to switch servers if the electric current one is experiencing problems.

Use port forwarding

Online gaming networks like 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 time, a static address never changes.

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

To create a static IP accost and open ports to that address, you must brand the changes in your router or wireless gateway. Port forwarding works with any device—non but gaming consoles.

Use Quality of Service (QoS) controls if available

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

On some routers, you can only establish ane specific bandwidth amount and list the devices that can use that bandwidth. There are no ways to prioritize specific traffic, like gaming or streaming.

Avert summit hours

You may meet a slowdown during peak hours when everyone in your dwelling house accesses the internet at the same time. Plus, a router is limited to how many wireless devices information technology tin can handle simultaneously before slowdowns occur. This heavy load is why we always suggest using a router with four or more than streams to better handle busy homes.

Top hours are also associated with cablevision cyberspace, but information technology's no longer the case now that providers like Spectrum and Xfinity utilise fiber equally their network backbone. Rural areas that are still 100% cablevision may still experience peak hour slowdowns, however.

Nosotros suggest that you play games after in the evening, or upgrade your router if information technology has less than four streams.

Check your connections

A bad Ethernet cablevision tin atomic number 82 to gaming lag woes, whether it's the cable connecting your router to your modem or cobweb ONT, or the one tethering your computer to the network. As well, check your modem's net connexion, as a loose cable will crusade lag-inducing instability.

Upgrade your internet

If you lot've tried all these steps and are all the same experiencing more lag than you lot tin can tolerate, you may demand to upgrade to a better cyberspace connection.

Desire to run into what providers are bachelor in your area? Enter your zero code below.

Downloads can also strain your connection

Playing your games online will push the limits of your internet connexion more any other online activity, but it's non the only way that games can put a strain on your connectedness.

Many mod games take up a lot of storage space on your computer or panel . This ways that downloading games from an online distributor similar Steam or the Microsoft Store can take a long time. Information technology can besides eat through monthly data caps in no time flat.

Updates can exist data hogs too. For example, Bethesda'due south Steel Reign update for Fallout 76 weighs a hefty fifteen.9 GB when downloaded from the Microsoft Store, and 7.one GB when downloaded from Steam. ⁸ Bethesda's long-awaited Doom Eternal Update 6 patch adding ray tracing to the visuals is around four GB on Steam.

Latency should however be your number-one priority in choosing an cyberspace plan for playing games online , but choosing a program with unlimited information will relieve you a lot of headaches. Fast download speeds also help out with those large new games. After all, having extremely long download times on Day One isn't much fun.

Livestreaming

Your net needs go a fleck more complicated if y'all stream your games on Twitch or YouTube. Streaming has all the normal requirements for a depression-latency connection for playing games online, plus the additional upload speed y'all demand to go along a steady bitrate on your livestream.

For more information on what to await for in an internet connexion for livestreaming, check out our guide to internet speed for alive video game streaming. We as well provide a guide on how to stream on Twitch that offers all the data you 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, panel, or mobile device, you lot stream them from the cloud. This eliminates whatsoever hardware bottlenecks that could prevent a game from running at its highest quality on your device.

That said, you don't need a $four,000 desktop or the latest console to play these games. Instead, you just need a browser or an app, depending on the platform. For instance, yous tin stream Stadia on a low-end Chromebook or a Chromecast—Google's servers do all the heavy rendering, not your devices.

The downside to game streaming is that games are rendered on the server and then streamed across the internet in Total Hard disk or 4K resolutions. And because these experiences are interactive and not passive (like Netflix and Hulu), input latency tin can be an upshot.

To play these services without whatever major problems, you need a good net 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 to the lowest degree 4.5 Mbps for Xbox Remote Play. An upload speed of nine Mbps or more than is ideal.^ix

What nearly Steam Remote Play?

Valve Software suggests speeds just in regards to Steam Remote Play Together. This service allows 1 Steam gamer to run a purchased multiplayer game locally on a PC and and so invite four or more Steam friends to play remotely. Information technology's optimized to stream games to four other players at 1080p and 60 frames per second, so Valve suggests using a connection of 10–thirty Mbps at the to the lowest degree.

This speed suggestion probably also applies to Remote Play Together+Anywhere, which still streams the multiplayer game from a PC, but now the game owner is streaming remotely also. Meanwhile, Remote Play Anywhere streams to one client just, and then the necessary internet speeds shouldn't demand to go beyond ten Mbps.

Online games vs. playing games online

We spend a lot of fourth dimension discussing games you can play online, which are games that target the single-actor experience first and include multiplayer components. Games that autumn nether the "play games online" umbrella would include Doom Eternal , Pokemon Sword and Shield , Destiny 2 , and Halo Infinite . They tin can feel latency when played in co-op and multiplayer modes, especially when more than a few players are moving on the screen.

Online games, however, can be highly susceptible to latency. These include The Elder Scrolls Online , World of Warcraft , and similar MMOs. The thespian count is typically high, which means both the server and the client (your game) must keep rails of every player. This can be a huge processing load fifty-fifty if yous have the best connection available. Your frame rate may drop and your input may feel slow.

The bottom line: keep your latency low

If gaming online is your primary business when choosing an internet program, option the one that gives you lot the lowest latency, similar Verizon Fios. Just keep in mind 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 Tedious Download and Upload Speeds," Accessed December 3, 2020.
Xbox Support, "Troubleshoot your network connection speed," Accessed Dec iv, 2020.
PlayStation Help & Support, "PS4 Error Code NP-37667-ix," Accessed December iv, 2020.
PlayStation Assist & Support, "PS4 Error Code NP-38497-1," Accessed December iv, 2020.
Federal Communications Commission, "2015 Broadband Progress Study," 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-one," May 20, 2011, Accessed Dec 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 December 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 advice from the Academy of Utah and has been working in tech for over 15 years as 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 internet for HighSpeedInternet.com for five years. She graduated with a BA in English language and a minor in editing from Brigham Immature University. When she's not editing, she makes tech attainable through her freelance writing for brands like Pluralsight. She believes no one should feel lost in internet land and that a good net connexion significantly extends your life span.

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