Does 3G work well with gaming?

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Mr.CookieMonster

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Hi,

I currently have a 5GB + 1GB (soon to be 5GB) ADSL Accounts on a 384kbps ADSL Line.

I get a ping of 150 - 160ms on local and 350 - 400ms on International. I play online games more now and obviously this ping is not good for me.

Im considering getting an 8ta sim card and loading airtime and then converting it to a data bundle. Does 8ta provide really good gaming performance? I have a Huawei E220 modem so modems wont be a problem.

Thanks.
 
You get 150-160ms on local using ADSL?

That does not sound right for ADSL, you should be getting sub 100...

With regards to the wireless, I would avoid it for FPS games but everything else should be fine.
 
Scooby_Doo said:
You get 150-160ms on local using ADSL?

That does not sound right for ADSL, you should be getting sub 100...

With regards to the wireless, I would avoid it for FPS games but everything else should be fine.
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It highly depends on where he connects to locally. 100-150ms sounds perfect if he's connecting from Telkom to IS gaming servers (and lives in Cape Town)

wireless is never good for gaming

It's unreliable and laggy. Sure, you'll experience good days, but you'll experience bad days as well. And it's more frustrating trying to game while you're lagging or have an inconsistent connection every time than you would gaming on an ADSL line.

I would *NEVER* go wireless and expect to be able to game. EVER.

FYI, I've had dialup, ISDN, Sentech, iBurst, MTN 3G, Vodacom 3G and ADSL. I'm sticking with ADSL.
 
AcidRaZor said:
It highly depends on where he connects to locally. 100-150ms sounds perfect if he's connecting from Telkom to IS gaming servers (and lives in Cape Town)

wireless is never good for gaming

It's unreliable and laggy. Sure, you'll experience good days, but you'll experience bad days as well. And it's more frustrating trying to game while you're lagging or have an inconsistent connection every time than you would gaming on an ADSL line.

I would *NEVER* go wireless and expect to be able to game. EVER.

FYI, I've had dialup, ISDN, Sentech, iBurst, MTN 3G, Vodacom 3G and ADSL. I'm sticking with ADSL.
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This is a very deterministic and elitist view.

I game with 3G. It is affordable, convinient and reliable. I do not experience the serious flactuations in connection quality as AcidRaZor is implying. Often, I meet people online who hold this view particularly when the game doesn't go their way. Then it is always because I am on a 3G connection.

There are however, some people who play with ADSL and never complain about the fact that the opponent is on 3G. Those are usually the really good guys. Guys who know the game well.

You will see that when you connect locally, no matter your signal strength, the connection quality is always green. That means a very good connection. I get pings of about 70 to 90ms on both 8ta and MTN and my signal strength ranges from 20 to 99% but the quality of the connection is always green and with the pings I mentioned.

Here is my test:
1875675012.png


Judge for yourself.
 
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K first, Do you live in an area where thunderstorms occur often? Yes? Don't get 3g.

Do you want to play RTS,MOBA,MMORGs ? Yes? 3g will be fine

But first try to sort out your ADSL imo, I get 60-70ms on local servers/IS from CPT and even better on mweb,wage


EDIT: Played with 3g online for a few years before I got adsl, had no problem at all except for the data caps :(
In my case, my 3G was at times more stable than some adsl users' connections
 
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I only play racing games over the internet (Need For Speed The Run as well as Blur and Split Second). I play COD4 once in a long while.

This was my speedtest for local today. it has improved a bit
1876397713.png


My International speed test (washington dc). This is what im worried about, the high ping.
1876404930.png


Would 3G be suited for online racing?
 
With CellC I get pings of about 60 to a 100ms locally and games like Mass Effect 3 multiplayer work well. The biggest problem I find with using 3G for online gaming is that there are days when the connection is just terrible. Other times it works well.

But yes I too had horrible pings with adsl that Telkom had no interest in fixing so I'm very happy with my 3G gaming experience.
 
I play rFactor online every week with Vodacom 3G in a very bad signal area, but if I position it just right, I can go for hours without interruption.

Yes, it has bad days, but I wouldn't straight say no to it. My ping is around 120ms to 160ms most of the time.
 
Uhhh.... 100 ms is terrible pings for ADSL. Get telkom to reset your ports and upgrade your line speed to max. It only takes 20ms for the hops between CT and Joburg. You should be getting pings between 5 and 30ms for servers in your city area.

Ping both www.tourismcapetown.co.za (it is hosted in CT) and news.is.co.za (Hosted at Diadata campus, between Sandton and Midrand) and post your results here.
 
The actual gameplay is fine but when your connection drops and your kicked off the server in the middle of a good round you will quickly realise why people say 3G is not for gaming.
 
doobyscoo said:
The actual gameplay is fine but when your connection drops and your kicked off the server in the middle of a good round you will quickly realise why people say 3G is not for gaming.
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That has never happened to me. However it is a possibility.
 
doobyscoo said:
The actual gameplay is fine but when your connection drops and your kicked off the server in the middle of a good round you will quickly realise why people say 3G is not for gaming.
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However, it is not as if you get disconnected every second game.

In the 8 months or so that I have been playing online with my 3G connection, I have been disconnected about 8 times only. And I do about 80 hours of gaming a month. Or 20 hours a week.

In at least two of those 8 times, everyone I spoke to (3G or ADSL) was saying it was the servers that were acting up on those days.
 
Yes,you can even play multiplayer games with your 3G mobile broadband connection;you can also get to play your friends too.You will need a Cradlepoint,Nexiara or WIFI Ranger router,which allows you to provide connectivity to multiple devices and optimize your connection for gaming.One of the biggest concerns for gamers is latency,which is the communication from home to the server or host you are joining.
It also depends on your provider and connection.I suggest you to try it once and get the experience of fun.Thanks for sharing.
 
agentrfr said:
Uhhh.... 100 ms is terrible pings for ADSL. Get telkom to reset your ports and upgrade your line speed to max. It only takes 20ms for the hops between CT and Joburg. You should be getting pings between 5 and 30ms for servers in your city area.

Ping both www.tourismcapetown.co.za (it is hosted in CT) and news.is.co.za (Hosted at Diadata campus, between Sandton and Midrand) and post your results here.
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Here is my results from pinging those two sites:
pingresults.PNG


Do I just phone Telkom and ask them to reset my ports?
 
You'll end up with no hair ... the result of pulling it out strand by strand with a pliers waiting for your game to stop lagging.
 
AcidRaZor said:
I would *NEVER* go wireless and expect to be able to game. EVER.
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Never say never. Once LTE become mainstream (which is inevitable) it will become much more feasible. Real life performances of LTE networks already deployed in Europe, US show consistent latency of 20-30ms, hardly ever spiking above 50ms. More than useful for online gaming. Just hope the SA networks do a proper job with implementation.
 
It does it is not that bad really I am capable of playing Crysis 2 and Dirt 2 well with HSDPA connection I I dont experience any problems.

Cause were I live there is no Land Line I cant get ADSL:mad::mad:
 
RedWill said:
Never say never. Once LTE become mainstream (which is inevitable) it will become much more feasible. Real life performances of LTE networks already deployed in Europe, US show consistent latency of 20-30ms, hardly ever spiking above 50ms. More than useful for online gaming. Just hope the SA networks do a proper job with implementation.
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True! Something to look forward to in 2016... :p
 
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