Gigabit for gaming

[Skurge]

Hi.

me and a bunch of friends want to LAN a few games. Left4Dead, COD4, Crysis, Unreal tournament 3.
I wanted to know if a gigabit desktop switch is really necessary for purely gaming purposes?
There are about 10 of us and we are planing on getting 16port D-Link desktop switch.
a 16port switch is U$55
a 16 gigabit rackmount switch is u$184.

Will ther be any bandwidth issues with non-gigabit switch?

 

[spidey07]

Gaming uses very little bandwidth actually. Around 384kbit per player if not less. You'll see no difference between 100 and 1000. The big difference could come from everybody patching and pulling big files, for that gigE would be very helpful.

 

[Emulex]

paid $15 shipped for a blitzz 8 port gigabit (has a loud fan) tiny gigabit switch. works well.

the fan was the kicker.

so buy two of those.

then you can keep the warez d00dz on another segment while you game.

 

[JackMDS]

In most cases when you buy two switches you lose two ports on the inter-connection.

Hence you end up with 14 ports.

 

[Skurge]

So it is fine if i go with a non gigabit switch for gaming?

 

[McLovin]

Originally posted by: spidey07
Gaming uses very little bandwidth actually. Around 384kbit per player if not less. You'll see no difference between 100 and 1000. The big difference could come from everybody patching and pulling big files, for that gigE would be very helpful.

 

[Arcanedeath]

If all you are doing is gaming yes a 10/100 switch is fine, but if you are doing any type of file transfers over the network you are much much much better off with a Gigabit switch or multiple smaller giabit switches.

 

[Emulex]

yeah you lose two ports but you can also segment the network to reduce overall cable length.

one switch over here, one over there, haul in between. sure there's some latency but you won't have a spaghetti of wiring going all over the room

 

[Red Squirrel]

If you do this often get a 24 port dell or cisco managed switch. While gaming may not use that much bandwidth, some situations in game can cause spikes, like running on a screen with 10 players around. It has to send more data to not only you, but those 10 players as well. 100mbps is probably more then enough but if you are in a budget to get gigabit then why not eh.

 

[seepy83]

Just as a reminder to everyone - most people play these games over the Internet, and pretty much no one has a 100Mbps Internet Connection dedicated to them. And even on the server side, most game servers don't have a 100Mbps connection dedicated to them either.

 

[Paperlantern]

Well yeah, but why have a 4ms ping when you can have 2ms? 0.o

Seriously enough though, the only interface that TRULY would even need gig would be whatever computer your using as a server, its interface to the switch could be gig, everyone else 100 is perfectly fine. Ive had many LAN parties with this type of setup. Nice beefy box with a gig connection to run the server of whatever game we are playing (sometimes 2 or 3 games at once if its a big LAN party) with a 48 port managed switch that has two 1 gigabit connections on it. One goes to the server, the other is reserved for anyone mooching big files (from the server, like if someone shows up doesnt have the game we are playing, jack in to that, nab the copy of the DVD in a few minutes, install, boom up and playing). Everyone else gets 100, never any lag, never any problems. Though even for a oversized 15+ person LAN party, with everyone on the same game to that server, 100Mbps all around WILL still get the job done. A gig to all connections will be WAY overkill for gaming, but of course, will STILL get the job done.

Get whatever you feel is the best deal, because you dont NEED one or the other for a 10 person LAN P.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Originally posted by: seepy83
Just as a reminder to everyone - most people play these games over the Internet, and pretty much no one has a 100Mbps Internet Connection dedicated to them. And even on the server side, most game servers don't have a 100Mbps connection dedicated to them either.

That's true. I run my game server on a 100mbps and I barely even use 10mbps out of it when there are 30+ people on. This is a UO server though, so less bandwidth intensive then a FPS.

 

[pjkenned]

For gaming, the 10/100 is going to be fine. If you do any file transfers, just get the gigabit. If you re-purpose the switch at some point (aside from LAN parties) you will want gigabit most likely. If you are only using it for LAN parties, have the dozen or so friends chip in $5 and buy the better one. If you look around ebay, a lot of times you can pick up decent, in warranty, dell previous-gen gigabit switches cheaply. Not the best, but if you are just using it for a lan party every so often...