Wifi or ethernet for gaming pc?

[benzo7]

I know the knee-jerk answer most people will give is ethernet, but here's my situation.

I live alone in a small-ish one bedroom apt so I'm the only one on my network unless people are over. I have a 100mbps down/up connection that I currently run through an airport express n router. I've always just gamed on my laptop and never really had a problem with the wifi performance, but I'm building a new pc so I'm starting to think about ethernet as an option. For reference, my real world speeds on wifi are about 65-70mbps down and 55-60mpbs up.

My desk where I game is through a wall from the router, but only a couple feet away.

I don't really want to run an ethernet cable to the router so it would take getting the other cable jack on in the bedroom (where I game) turned on which apparently is kind of a hassle, but doable.

My question is, could I expect to get a noticeable performance different in gaming from using ethernet over my current wifi connection?

 

[photonboy]

Wi-fi bandwidth is never the problem unless you are STREAMING the video portion.

I assume the issue might be LATENCY meaning adding time from when you press a button to when that button press information is sent out of your house (and return data which should be more intensive such as the data for 15 other players if this is processed client side on your PC and not on a server).

*The data must be sent out from your wireless adapter then received from your Router thus their are two components there:
a) Wi-fi adapter, and
b) Router

(I'm not sure which is more significant)

I've seen several articles about networking comparing Intel Ethernet to "Killer" Ethernet cards saying it made little to no difference. I'm not sure about wireless.

*Without doing further research, I suspect using a half decent router and wi-fi adapter might be perfectly fine if you aren't a "twitch" gaming MMO player but if you Google this a bit you might find more information.

Use pcpartpicker to look for network cards perhaps. Some of the PCIe cards with three antennae and good reviews might be ideal. They aren't usually too expensive. I'll post a link if I get a chance.

 

[Saberus]

Hardline almost always has less latency and lower pings, and generally less lag. It's also largely immune to interference, just in case you end up with a neighbor that puts in his own wifi on the same frequency.

Your speeds are excellent for one person for even the most demanding multiplayer games, but we don't know what your ping and latency are with this setup, which can often be much more important while gaming.

 

[photonboy]

Wi-fi adapter examples (USA):

1) "n" adapter (most common)-> http://pcpartpicker.com/part/tp-link-wireless-network-card-tlwdn4800

2) "ac" adapter (newer, backwards compatible, but faster with good "ac" router)-> http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-wireless-network-card-gcwb867di

I haven't done any further research on these to determine relative speed, quality etc but the obvious pro/con is the antennae. The Gigabyte does support up to "ac" but also has an external antennae.

*I'd also investigate Windows 10 compatibility which likely is backwards compatible with 8 and/or 7 but just confirm.

 

[USAFRet]

For reference, my real world speeds on wifi are about 65-70mbps down and 55-60mpbs up.

What do you pay the ISP for?

 

[benzo7]

This is all great info!

According to Speedtest, my ping is 3ms, which I think is pretty good. I pay for 100mpbs up and down ($60/month), which is the cheaper of the two packages my ISP has. I could pay $80 for 1gbps, but that's just overkill for my needs. Not sure what I'll be playing in the future, but I mostly just play co-op games online right now--Borderlands, etc. so bleeding edge responsiveness isn't at the top of my list. Not trying to save milliseconds in CS:GO or anything...

As far as I know, I can't necessarily get the advertised speeds on n wireless, which is what my router is. I've thought about getting in touch with my ISP to ask about the slower speeds I'm getting, but it hasn't been worth it since even 55mbps up and down is plenty fast.

I actually have a wireless n usb adapter from a build I had a couple years ago:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704045

Newegg still sells it and it continues to get pretty reasonable reviews. I haven't tested it on my current network, but it seems to be a decent, if cost effective, piece of kit. It's only single antenna though so maybe popping for slightly better one with multiple antennas would be worth it. I'll probably just test this one first once I get my new rig put together. I see an ac upgrade in my future at some point, but I'd obviously need a router to go with it. Maybe when Apple updates the Airport Express to include it. I know, I know, I'm sure there are other good ac routers out there right now, but I've always had good experiences with Apples models. My laptop is a MBP.