Broadband for gaming

jakedixon2004

Would there be much of a difference between these two packages from Imagine
for gaming purposes:
1.
Download : 2 Mbps
Upload : 256 Kbps
Contention: 48:1

2.
Download : 3 Mbps
Upload : 384 Kbps
Contention: 24:1

Any help would be great

Creamy Goodness

second one will be much better.

contention means that for one 2mbps line there are 48 people sharing that line, same for the 3mbps package but the amount of people are cut in half to 24. it rearly comes into it that your suffer latency due to contention.

i'd go for the 3mbps as the extra upload will certainly help for a smoother experience.

jakedixon2004

Would The first one work for gaming or would it lag too much

Creamy Goodness

should be fine aswell.

jakedixon2004

for a game such as company of heroes , would it affect the gameplay when it is on the slow connection

ntlbell

it's too hard to tell from the name of a package.

Both of them could be awful or both of them could be great.

It will depend on the routing between the particular ISP and any server you choose to game on.

If you're buying BB with gaming in mind you should try and find an ISP who historically has low latency as this will really be the only thing to affect your gaming experience.

If you're a pc gamer you can control it a little bit by using an ISP that's part of INEX and using Irish gaming server's connected to ISP's that are in INEX for example.

If it's for console gaming where the host is choosing randomly globally etc it won't make much difference as it will be randomly good and randomly sh|t

jakedixon2004

would the first package be very bad for pc gaming or would it cope?
and where would i find a list of Irish gaming server's?

ntlbell

It might be fine but it's too hard to say, it depends on too many factor's.

There's no "list" of Irish gaming server's afaik, but they're Irish server's for most of the big games played online which should be easy to find with the usual tool you search the internet with.

Steffano2002

For gaming, faster Upload & Download is better along with lower contention ratio. Second option is by far better than the first! The first will handle online gaming but you won't be happy between 6PM and 11PM when everybody goes home and starts downloading Heroes from Torrents... :rolleyes:

Gonzo

I dont think much of Imagine Broadband, I was on my cousins connection for 2 days and it constantly has lag spikes on xbox live and even dos pings gave ping spiking to boards and jolt etc. I think BT Ireland or Eircom would give a smoother gaming experience.

po0k

If it's available in your area, consider Smart telecom.
They host a few game servers for Lanparty.ie

jakedixon2004

Trust me i have tried to get Smart but it still is not in my area
I red somewhere that your connection does not have to be great to play on xbox live
Is there any truth to this?