Hello
I have an offer from BT to increase my internet speed from 150 to 500, I wondered how much of a change this would make to FS2020? Obviously it is in relation to scenery. Currently I think the photogrammetry looks ok, there are still areas of milyen buildings, etc, but I am quite happy. However if an increase in speed would resolve those areas I would like to know.
Keith
Are you running on wifi or ethernet wired? Also what are your PC specs.
I can only speak for 2024 these days, but my 100MBit connection is never even close to being maxed out by the sim - given the readouts the whole pc system provides. And no, network connection itself is not limiting.
So I would risk to say: if you cannot clearly put your finger on some measurement that tells you that your ISP speed is a bottleneck, then you shouldn’t notice any difference at all.
Those advertised speeds can be misleading. They may have equipment that can deliver those speeds, but actually getting them is a whole different story. You have to have the equipment to receive it that fast - that’s everything from the modem to the NIC in your PC. But even if you have the latest and greatest hardware at home, any download is only as fast as the slowest node between the source and the destination. Even if the source is in the same country, you could be looking at anywhere from ten to twenty (or more) connections.
On 2024 I have seen up to 250 Mb/s about 30 MB/s downloading steadily during Challenge League Challenge of the week
Career mode has 5 second spikes of 100 Mb/s but usually runs at less than 5 Mb/s.
Won’t make a difference. Don’t waste your money if its for MSFS alone.
ok thanks. To be honest, all we use the internet for is casual browsing, FS and email. No film downloads or music streaming, so the increase was merely to see how much of a difference it would make to FS.
I recently got a free upgrade to 150 (I’m actually getting 159.9). Previously, I had FTTC but the cabinet is right outside my kitchen window. I got around 60 Mbps and the sim ran fine.
The only noticeable difference in MSFS has been download speeds; the sim doesn’t run any better, but updates are much quicker.
Yeah, I don’t think it benefits the sim hugely, but you’ll be prying my 1Gbps symmetrical connection from my cold dead hands. Things like graphics drivers download in seconds, not minutes. Do I need the bandwidth? No. Do I like it? Yes. Yes I do.
Don’t know if OP has any alt-nets in their area, but I would avoid anything that’s OpenReach under the hood like the plague. Asymmetric connection speeds make zero sense on fibre, they’re a relic of ADSL and are just a way for them to cheap out on infrastructure costs, and their networks are so saturated generally that performance is a dice roll on any given day. Here (SE London) I went with Community Fibre and it’s night and day better than anything BT could offer.
I’m not sure about that. I’ve seen spikes in my download speed of upward of 500mbps at times. I’ve often wondered about those people who’ve had terrible scenery load in (or not load in) because the data just couldn’t be streamed fast enough into the rendering pipeline.
I’m with you here… just had my fiber internet speed increased to 2gig up/down and ended up getting ~2.35gig both ways. Got a ridiculously low monthly price ($35) and just couldn’t pass it up. The tech who upgraded me said he had to put me on a new node whatever that means but it feels like I’m the only one on the internet with the low latency I’m getting. Never going back to a slower speed!
The biggest difference I’ve seen in Internet performance has been with Ring security cameras. I live in an old neighborhood that only had Spectrum cable Internet until this April. I could easily get 400 to 500 Mbps download, but the upload was a measly 10 to 13 Mbps. Our single 4K Ring Video Doorbell would like an upload speed of about 15 Mbps and got throttled every time it was triggered (the camera automatically adjusts resolution and frame rate for available upload speed). Our 9 other 1080p cameras were similarly limited if they were all firing at once. With AT&T Fiber 1 Gbps up and down, all cameras can happily record away to the Internet to their full capacity. With Spectrum, I was lucky if I got a 20 ms ping response. With AT&T Fiber, it’s more like 6 ms.
It all depends if you are on Ethernet or wifi
If Ethernet it will stay pretty solid, but if you are on wifi various factors come into play ie: where is your pc in relation to your router , is it 5ghz or 2.4ghz, what is your wireless adapter settings are they optimized.
i have a 900mbps connection and fibte to the premises set up but unless you are on ethernet you will not get those speeds to your pc.
In my instance my router is downstairs and my rig is upstairs, if i run a massive ethernet cable i get a pretty solid near 900mbps but on wifi Ii get around 270mbps , that is a massive drop , game still runs fine though , so if you only have 100 at the moment and your on wifi how is it as you wont get anywhere near those speeds unless on ethernet.
Other things to consider on bandwidth , who else is using the wifi in your house, phones, TV’s other items and lastly microwaves and other items will affect a wifi signal.
Run a speedtest on your pc to see what you are getting.
As to your original question yes of course 500mbps would be better , do you get messages about low banwidth in the sim and it goes offline and comes back on.
if the offer is good , go for it but these advertised speeds are not what you will get unless using ethernet, something to bear in mind
Lastly do you have FTTC ,that is vastly superior to fibre to the cabinet as it has to go through copper wires from the cabinet to your house which could be in the next street , slowing down your internet further.
Do a speedtest on your pc and your router , thatwill show upload figures, download and ping and see if running ethernet is possible , I personally would increase to 500 myself , I have to run 900mbps as I have two kids and a wife all sharing that bandwidth , also that is with FTTP which is vastly superior to FTTC however your mileage may vary depending on your personal circumstances.
If you have fibre to the premises thats the best speed that you will receive and your router is provably getting the full 100mbps, but probably not your pc.
Source: BT openreach engineer family member