How much bandwidth do online games use?

If I were to get a wireless broadband card for my laptop, and use it to play games like Company of Heroes or WoW online, would I excede the 5GB limit they have with the wireless card?

*Note: I will mainly be playing about an hour 2-3 nights per week, plus about 5-10 hours on weekends.

Hi You will have plenty plenty of bandwith. You could

host a mulitplayer game with that easily. But it also

depends what your upload speed is too. But for joining

a server you have way more than enough. Happy gaming. :D

Generally, gaming online will barely put a ding in your bandwidth (heck, Final Fantasy XI only takes a measly 10 megabytes an hour), but games that stream in new/missing content (like Guild Wars) or games that have a lot of user-made content (Counter-Strike, TeamFortress2, etc) will certainly put a number on your bandwidth usage over time depending on your game and server selection.

For WoW, you'll be fine, though it'd be safe to do any of the major patches on a home network, just to keep your bandwidth usage low. Just don't plan to YouTube much also as that can use a fair amount of bandwidth in a short time.

I'd recommend looking for a software that tracks active applications and network usage and logs it all to get a real idea of your net-usage habits so you know what's using what amount for the duration it's up. AnalogX NetStat (google it) is half-decent, tracking your monthly usage, as well as usage since last reboot.

Generally, gaming online will barely put a ding in your bandwidth (heck, Final Fantasy XI only takes a measly 10 megabytes an hour), but games that stream in new/missing content (like Guild Wars) or games that have a lot of user-made content (Counter-Strike, TeamFortress2, etc) will certainly put a number on your bandwidth usage over time depending on your game and server selection.

For WoW, you'll be fine, though it'd be safe to do any of the major patches on a home network, just to keep your bandwidth usage low. Just don't plan to YouTube much also as that can use a fair amount of bandwidth in a short time.

I'd recommend looking for a software that tracks active applications and network usage and logs it all to get a real idea of your net-usage habits so you know what's using what amount for the duration it's up. AnalogX NetStat (google it) is half-decent, tracking your monthly usage, as well as usage since last reboot.

Genexi2

If I were to get a wireless broadband card for my laptop, and use it to play games like Company of Heroes or WoW online, would I excede the 5GB limit they have with the wireless card?

*Note: I will mainly be playing about an hour 2-3 nights per week, plus about 5-10 hours on weekends.

MrN1ce9uy

[QUOTE="Genexi2"]

Generally, gaming online will barely put a ding in your bandwidth (heck, Final Fantasy XI only takes a measly 10 megabytes an hour), but games that stream in new/missing content (like Guild Wars) or games that have a lot of user-made content (Counter-Strike, TeamFortress2, etc) will certainly put a number on your bandwidth usage over time depending on your game and server selection.

For WoW, you'll be fine, though it'd be safe to do any of the major patches on a home network, just to keep your bandwidth usage low. Just don't plan to YouTube much also as that can use a fair amount of bandwidth in a short time.

I'd recommend looking for a software that tracks active applications and network usage and logs it all to get a real idea of your net-usage habits so you know what's using what amount for the duration it's up. AnalogX NetStat (google it) is half-decent, tracking your monthly usage, as well as usage since last reboot.

MrN1ce9uy

wait wait wait. when you say wireless card are we talking wi-fi or cell phone company provider wirelessbroadband connections? (att, verizon, sprint, etc) im not sure if you are referring to your bandwidth over a wifi connection or if you are referring to a cap on your monthly usage. if its a cap online gaming is going to burn it real quick.

that 5GB cap is how much data you can send/recieve from your laptop per month before they either cut you off, or charge you overages. read your contract very carefully. also the latency even on a high speed network like att 3g UMTS is still going to be very high and cause nearly 300-900ms latency in all online games.

Good note on the up/down bandwidth, forgot some companies classify their caps for both, rather than individually.

Anyhow, I was under the assumption he meant on a cellular plan for broadband given the tiny cap. Regarding ping rates, it shouldn't be a real problem if he's within a town or city, my brother is able to play Team Fortress2 (for example) fine on a ping of 80 on his Rogers' wireless box.

Good note on the up/down bandwidth, forgot some companies classify their caps for both, rather than individually.

Anyhow, I was under the assumption he meant on a cellular plan for broadband given the tiny cap. Regarding ping rates, it shouldn't be a real problem if he's within a town or city, my brother is able to play Team Fortress2 (for example) fine on a ping of 80 on his Rogers' wireless box.

As others stated the amount of data is minimal but the lag is horrible. If you play WoW, FFonline, shooters you will pull your hair out.

Expect to see 800+ms lag at least. Edit: assuming cellular as well.

a handful of games need 56k modems or better whereas generally the consencus is if you lack dsl your all but outside the rest of us.

not alot I say 1gbs at max ur constanly playing 24/7 because the way it works is that u already have all the data on your pc maps,characters,etc etc only thing your sending and reciving is your player names movements and postions and a 5gb limit is a joke and I thought my 60gb was bad

not alot I say 1gbs at max ur constanly playing 24/7 because the way it works is that u already have all the data on your pc maps,characters,etc etc only thing your sending and reciving is your player names movements and postions and a 5gb limit is a joke and I thought my 60gb was bad

kemar7856

i have a 20GB limit per month but the downside is that i pay a little more for it.