I currently have 1 Gbps fiber internet which is used mainly for working from home, streaming 4K content, and other general internet use (no gaming or big downloads or uploads). Would I notice if I were to switch to 250 Mbps? It would save me $13/mo.
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Is it just you in the household? Then I'd say you'd absolutely not notice a thing.
The thing to keep in mind is that it's "bandwidth" not overall speed. And if you're not filling the bandwidth anyway latency matters more for the overall speed. The content you're pulling down in most cases probably doesn't even saturate or at least need to saturate your bandwidth.
I can tell you that 4K Netflix tops at 25Mbps for example. So with 250 you could roughly run 10 4K streams at once
The thing to keep in mind is that it's "bandwidth" not overall speed. And if you're not filling the bandwidth anyway latency matters more for the overall speed. The content you're pulling down in most cases probably doesn't even saturate or at least need to saturate your bandwidth.
I can tell you that 4K Netflix tops at 25Mbps for example. So with 250 you could roughly run 10 4K streams at once
Addendum. I have 100Mbps down myself; The only thing I've ever saturated it with is downloading games from Steam
Thanks for your insight.
We actually rent out our basement to a couple, but they’re both at work all day and stream 4K shows and movies in the evening at around the same time we do. We all have iPhones and iPads, but mainly just social media and web browsing stuff.
I just feel like 1 Gbps may me overkill for us, and we could stand to save $156/yr.
We actually rent out our basement to a couple, but they’re both at work all day and stream 4K shows and movies in the evening at around the same time we do. We all have iPhones and iPads, but mainly just social media and web browsing stuff.
I just feel like 1 Gbps may me overkill for us, and we could stand to save $156/yr.
Yeah. I mean as I said, you can do about 10 Netflix 4K streams simultaneously with 250mbps without a hitch. So yeah I think you can safely "downgrade" and not notice anything at all
I should add as well; I said I have 100mbps and don't really saturate it. - I'm in a household of 3 and we had the same connection when we were 4 people living here and nobody complained
I think you would be fine saving the $13 a month. You shouldn't notice any real difference in real usage.
You need about 25 Mbps for streaming on the top end. 250 Mbps is more than fine for 8 or more 4K streams. And your likely on WiFi and not one device in your home has ever been able to use the 1 Gbps connection on its own nor as a pack. I had to shove ethernet ports around my house before I got 1 Gbps to be a thing and on WiFi I get about 600 Mbps at best. Over the week I see a peak usage of under 100 Mbps over 22 devices. The times that 1 Gbps really comes into play is when downloading a big game, but even then the server is a limit. I am keeping m connection only because otherwise I get significantly slower upload which I really need for work and backups.
Are you giving up significant upload speed with that package drop? If s does anyone depend on pushing up videos and photo or any other backup?
Are you giving up significant upload speed with that package drop? If s does anyone depend on pushing up videos and photo or any other backup?
Generally as stated it should be fine. Couple of places where it might make a difference:
1. Do you have symmetric 1 Gb? If you are doing on-line backups it can make a significant difference. I have 1Gb but uploads are limited to 40 mbs which means some of my on-line backups (~45 TB) can take months to complete, even if the provider isn't limiting upload speed.
2. There are only a few sites where I have seen the 1Gb maxed out. One of those is Apple. Downloading new OS versions can max out the connection.
Locality matters. Which CDN you connect to and how close you are to the server and such. Where I'm from Apple's servers have never saturated my 100Mbps. At most I've seen from Apple's side I think is about 70-ish. Steam downloads on the other hand settle at just above 100Mbps; 102-ish. And that's the only thing I think I've ever saturated it with
Upload matters a bit to me, running a web server out of my home network. It's not quite symmetric, no but it's good enough. And my ISP allows you to upgrade up and down streams individually anyway, so if you only need 30Mbps down you can still buy extra upload speed
Is this the same provider? I'd make sure you aren't going to be hit with a data cap if you downgrade.
There’s a 10 TB cap for all of my ISP’s plans. I downgraded to the 250 Mbps fiber and I’ve been happy. I haven’t noticed a difference. Here’s to $156 back in my wallet every year.
I was paying $50 to XMission (ISP) and $30 to UTOPIA (fiber lease) for 1 Gbps up/down. Now I’m paying $37 to my ISP for 250 Mbps (lease stayed the same).
Wow you guys got it cheap I pay $90 for 1Gbps. At least it’s unlimited data. It would cost more if I didn’t bundle TV.
Yeah that is expensive.
I have unlimited data too but I know there has to be a soft cap of some kind.
We have 100 mbps. But it is Comcast and neighborhood shared so it can slow down but this doesn't happen that often. 100 mbps is enough. We could get by with full 50 mbps but 100 mbps is $50/month. If there is one thing that I would like, it would be to have a backup service for reliability as ISPs go down or they have system problems. It may be rare but you may need service when an outage may be very inconvenient. Unfortunately, our only other option is DSL. So we use cellular for backup right now - but only in a pinch. Driving to Starbucks is also an option.
Yeah 100 Mbps is mostly all you need!
Unless your all downloading at the same time! Still that is rare.
We time shift if someone needs large stuff like operating system installation kits. You can downsample on YouTube as well.
Bandwidth is dirt-cheap with WFH given commuting cost savings.
For most people 100-250mbps is more than enough and 1gpbs+ is completely unnecessary.
I reality most servers you’ll be downloading from are well below 100mbps. IIRC standard frame rate 1080p video streams at 5-8mbps. 4K however is 25mbps.
A lot of wired network equipment can’t even operate above 1gbps.
I am a partner in a residential mental health program. Our patient network is 1gbps service, which in reality is closer to 800-900 as it is not a dedicated connection. We have around 25 patients, each usually with at least a cell phone and computer… so at 1gbps/25 = 40mbps per client, and we have zero issues in terms of speed.
The ISP’s will try and claim you need ridiculous amounts of bandwidth, but it’s really mostly marketing nonsense.
I reality most servers you’ll be downloading from are well below 100mbps. IIRC standard frame rate 1080p video streams at 5-8mbps. 4K however is 25mbps.
A lot of wired network equipment can’t even operate above 1gbps.
I am a partner in a residential mental health program. Our patient network is 1gbps service, which in reality is closer to 800-900 as it is not a dedicated connection. We have around 25 patients, each usually with at least a cell phone and computer… so at 1gbps/25 = 40mbps per client, and we have zero issues in terms of speed.
The ISP’s will try and claim you need ridiculous amounts of bandwidth, but it’s really mostly marketing nonsense.