Question Do I have Enough gb on my hotspot for gaming?

[ThatSourMelon]

So, I don’t have very good internet... On good days I can get around 5-10 mbs, And every day or two it will randomly shut down for a min. That’s the highest plan my internet will go, It won’t go any faster. So I have Verizon on my phone, it’s the highest plan so I have unlimited data, and 20gb a month on my hotspot. I would like to connect my hotspot to my computer so I can get better internet, anything would be better than this, and more stable. What I do is kind of acceptable for gaming, but I’m getting into competitive gaming and it’s not going to cut it. On average I think I go around 20-30 hours a week, a rough estimate. 20gb a month isn’t a lot, and I don’t know if it will work. If I’m careful and be selective, If I only use it when I’m gaming, have discord open, and maybe streaming, and I use my internet for downloads and stuff that doesn’t require it to be fast, will I have enough for the month to use it for gaming? If it is, would it viable for streaming if I do it? Any other tips from anyone if I decide to use this path?

 

[Lutfij]

I would say you will be fine until you end up going into multiple gaming sessions and you suck that limit dry, to realize you need more. IMHO, you can start and gauge how much you consume, then you can work out how much more you actually need r don't need. That way you can work with a plan that's fitting for mobility and gaming. Do note, though that you should look into a household connection that has better bandwidth and working off your router.

 

[bill001g]

For games the bandwidth is not the most important number. The vast majority of online games use well under 1mbit/sec up and down. These are designed so people that only have crappy dsl can also pay the company money to play.

What is much more important is consistent latency....ie ping times. Mobile broadband all depends on how strong the signal is and if you are using the newest technology like LTE. You can still get spikes in the ping time and lag in games as the cell tower load changes. All depends where the tower is and how many other people are using it. My experience with games almost appears random. It works great for a while and then is unusable. The cell companuy would force me to a different tower I suspect because the one I got the best signal from which was near the highway got too much load during rush hour.

Generally any local connection is going to be better than a cell connection. Not sure why you have so much issues the ISP should fix it for you.

But as to usage as indicated you can play the game on your normal connection and monitor how much usage. There are a number of programs that monitor but you can get the information form the resource monitor network tab if you work at it

 

[Solandri]

If you're using an Android phone, you can see how much cellular data has been used. Swipe down from the top, tap the gear icon for settings, Network & Internet, Data Usage. Note how many MB you've currently used, game for an hour, and see how much the MB has increased. That's how much data the game uses per hour. When I was using my phone's data plan while waiting for the cable internet installer to arrive at my new house, my online games were only using about 60 MB per hour. But this will vary by game. iPhones probably have a similar function, but you're gonna have to ask an iPhone user where it is.

As stated above, latency is the real killer. My LTE connection added about 100-200 ms of lag, with spikes as high as 600 ms. It's acceptable for slow or turn-based online games, but can be fatal in shooters.